Two Towns in Transition

When author and environmentalist Bill McKibben visited Hardwick, Vermont in October 2008, he offered the following comments:

"After spending a day in Hardwick, I feel a great burst of pleasure and possibility. Deep and transformative things are happening here. Hardwick has all the pieces of a healthy food system connected and ready to fall into place, and is as far ahead in sustainable agriculture as any place in the country."

I just visited there in October 2011….and I agree. Hardwick is a town in transition. And, much like Hardwick, Mount Shasta, CA is also a town in transition.

The Transition Town movement is currently one of the strongest antidotes to an otherwise collapsing social structure. While the old paradigm is unraveling, the Transition Town movement is building a strong, sturdy footbridge to sustainable futures. The Transition Movement is comprised of grassroots community initiatives that seek to build community resilience. The Transition Town Movement seeks to by engage their communities in home-grown, citizen-led education, action, and multi-stakeholder planning to increase local self reliance and resilience.

Transition methodology revolves around capitalizing on local assets, innovating, networking, collaborating, replicating proven strategies, and respecting the deep patterns of nature and diverse cultures. It all starts off when a small collection of motivated individuals within a community come together with a shared concern: How can our community respond to the challenges and opportunities of peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis? This small team of people begin by forming an initiating group and then adopt the Transition Model. In Hardwick, the model organized as the Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE). In Mount Shasta, the model organized as Shasta Commons.

The Transition movement represents one of the most promising ways of engaging communities to take the far-reaching actions that are required to mitigate the effects of peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis. Furthermore, relocalization is designed to result in a life that is more fulfilling, more socially connected and more equitable than the one we have today.

Each Transition Town is unique. While always rooted in a set of crucial principles, every initiative reflects the specific needs and qualities of an individual place. It’s rather like giving a great cake recipe to a dozen different cooks and watching how their particular ingredients, techniques and creative ideas produce subtly different results. No two Transition communities will ever look quite the same twice – and in that flexibility lies the strength of this movement.

Only a decade ago, Hardwick, Vermont was down-at-the-heels. Unemployment was rampant, people were discouraged and there wasn’t much reason to expect things to change. Then, however, came Transition! Through the efforts of the Transition community, Hardwick became home to the Center for an Agricultural Economy (CAE) whose mission is to bring together community resources and programs needed to develop a locally based food system that supports the desire of rural communities to rebuild their economic and ecological health. Through community involvement, integrated and responsible agriculture, and a commitment to economic, ecologic and nutritional health, the Center for an Agricultural Economy has built a vibrant regional food system.

The same decade ago, Mount Shasta was a town that was dependent upon tourism. But, with the recent economic downturn, tourism declined. Like Hardwick, though, Mount Shasta is also in Transition! Now, through the efforts of Shasta Commons, Mount Shasta is building a strong, resilient local economy where the majority of its basic needs are supplied locally. Shasta Commons is a resource network that assists in the organization and promotion of local, sustainable goods and services through education, existing and planned community projects and the shastacommons.org website. Projects include cooperative organic gardening and distribution, a garden-share program, seed saving efforts, beekeeping initiatives, workshops and a neighborhood fruit harvest project. Both Hardwick and Mount Shasta are in Transition. East Coast and West Coast. Both towns are getting new direction, focus and energy from the movement. But, each town is gearing their Transition efforts in ways that are distinctively their own. Each is uniquely different.

Hardwick is using a decidedly more institutional, top-down approach; Mount Shasta is implementing a grass-roots, bottom-up methodology. It strikes me that perhaps Mount Shasta’s approach is going to be more resilient and sustainable as resources continue to dry up and the global economy gets increasingly volatile. While Hardwick remains dependent upon existing socio-political structures, Mount Shasta is building totally new avenues of social equity. While Vermont is resilience in action, Mount Shasta's uniqueness is its understanding of gift culture, community networking, and spirituality.