ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the case study which addresses examples of a Transition Town, and a more successful town nearby that took an alternative approach. It examines the way that messages about sustainable food systems can have distinct cultural audiences. Transition Town initiatives stemmed from accelerated concerns about the twin effects of climate change and peak oil. The chapter describes sustainable food initiatives within historical and cultural contexts, and considers the relative uptake of ideas, designs, and pathways for more sustainable food, according to locally appropriate narratives and projects for change. The circulation of food commodities to support growing urban populations in early modern globalization created a rift between urban industrial economies, their geographical location, and the food commodity system that sustained them. The case study gives a context for how the Transition Town movement emerged in many parts of the United Kingdom beginning in 2006. The United Kingdom’s industrial society could be possible on the back of an agricultural revolution.
