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    Dave Darby bio

    Dave Darby founded Lowimpact.org in 2001, spent 3 years on the board of the Ecological Land Co-op and is a founder member of NonCorporate.org and the Open Credit Network.

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    Dave Darby

    More details of the ujamaa collective village system in Tanzania (from first-hand experience)

    Dave Darby 17-Aug-2015

    This is an account of my visit to two ujamaa villages in Tanzania in the early 1990s, plus a lot more background information on the system itself. The ujamaa system has since been dismantled after pressure from the World Bank, but at its height, 20 million people out of a total population of 24 million… Continue reading More details of the ujamaa collective village system in Tanzania (from first-hand experience) Read more

    10 reasons we need a non-corporate system as well as a sustainable one (and there are many more)

    Dave Darby 15-Aug-2015

    Like all environmental / social change organisations, we’d like humans to live in a sustainable system. But unlike many other organisations, we clearly state that we’d like that system to be non-corporate. What do we mean? Read more

    10 reasons our yurt holiday on a farm in Wales was the best ever

    Dave Darby 11-Aug-2015

    We got back from a holiday in a yurt at Old Chapel Farm in Powys last night. We were bowled over, and this article is a little advert for yurt holidays on farms and smallholdings in the UK, although several of the points below are specific to Old Chapel. Read more

    Low-impact & the city 2: what are urban gardens for?

    Dave Darby 01-Aug-2015

    I Iive with my partner in a terraced house in London, and we have a garden. So we have to work out what we want the garden for. Do we want to use it to impress people, to give it a ‘make-over’, to make it orderly and tidy, or to produce food? We’ve decided that… Continue reading Low-impact & the city 2: what are urban gardens for? Read more

    How to answer the question: ‘if you don’t like this system, what do you want to replace it with?’ – aka a review of The Democracy Project by David Graeber

    Dave Darby 30-Jul-2015

    Graeber was a leading light in the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the book begins with a fascinating insider’s view of the goings-on in and around Zucotti Park in 2011. The most important point in the book for me though was the reminder that people always want a blueprint for a new society Read more

    If you’re not exactly ‘time-rich’, here’s how you can change society with your money as well as your actions

    Dave Darby 24-Jul-2015

    Since Lowimpact began as LILI in 2001, we’ve offered a constantly increasing bank of information, courses, products, services, books, magazines, links, videos and advice for people wanting to change their lives – to live in a more sustainable and less corporate way. Read more

    Why land, on which to build a home and grow food, is our ultimate security

    Dave Darby 18-Jul-2015

    There’s a general feeling – and a growing one I think – that we’re headed for disaster, and that no-one is in control or able to steer us away from the precipice. Here are four categories of reasons that people give for pessimism about the near future: Read more

    Greece v the Empire; how to understand what’s being done to the Greeks

    Dave Darby 16-Jul-2015

    I’ve been thinking about how to write articles about the fact that we live in a corporate empire – trying to work out a way to present the idea, thinking that it would sound rather silly or extreme to many ears. Then a former World Bank economist (Peter Koenig) says: Read more

    Thoughts about the Breaking the Frame gathering and an idea for a potential spin-off

    Dave Darby 14-Jul-2015

    I’ve just returned from the Breaking the Frame gathering – a long weekend at Unstone Grange in Derbyshire. My head is still spinning from the workshops, talks and panels featuring specialists on technology around GM, the military, nuclear power, surveillance, synthetic biology, health, energy, toxics annd climate, plus TTIP, emerging and alternative technologies. Read more

    Help set up eco-settlements by moving your money and getting a better return than from a bank savings account

    Dave Darby 08-Jul-2015

    If we want to: help set up organic smallholdings; allow people to build natural homes on their land; preserve rural skills and livelihoods; and develop a sustainable, non-corporate food supply, we have to do more than just talk about it. Read more

    Good luck to Greece, and why you won’t find the real reasons for their crisis in the mainstream media

    Dave Darby 06-Jul-2015

    It’s so ironic that the biggest lesson in how to destroy democracy is being delivered to the world in the birthplace of democracy. Read more

    Why I’d like to bring together radical academics and people building a sustainable, non-corporate system on the ground

    Dave Darby 05-Jul-2015

    I’m going to the Breaking the Frame gathering on Thursday, representing Lowimpact.org. The event has been organised by Corporate Watch, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Rising Tide and Luddites200. Dave King of Luddites200 contacted a couple of years ago and I’ve been going along to his ‘politics of technology’ reading group one evening a month since. Read more

    Goodbye to WWOOF and to Redfield Community: the dawn of a new era for Lowimpact.org

    Dave Darby 01-Jul-2015

    Today we part company with both WWOOF and Redfield Community. Here’s a bit of history, including why we’re splitting, plus an advert for both WWOOF and Redfield. Read more

    What I learnt about US Middle East policy and the international oil market in a kebab shop in Tooting

    Dave Darby 28-Jun-2015

    I learnt something about US foreign policy (or more accurately, corporate foreign policy – this has nothing to do with the American people) in a kebab shop in Tooting – or rather, I didn’t so much learn about the foreign policy as how events that are largely unknown to most British people are common currency for… Continue reading What I learnt about US Middle East policy and the international oil market in a kebab shop in Tooting Read more

    Low-impact & the city 1: introduction – how possible is it to live in a sustainable, non-corporate way in a city?

    Dave Darby 24-Jun-2015

    I lived at Redfield Community for 13 years – it’s where Lowimpact.org was born – but now I live in London, and so I’m assessing my options for living as low-impact a life as I can. Read more

    I’ve joined the board of the Ecological Land Co-operative because I want to change the way land is owned and farmed

    Dave Darby 19-Jun-2015

    On Wednesday evening I attended the AGM of the Ecological Land Co-op at Freightliners City Farm in London. I was standing for election to the board after being invited to apply by Shaun Chamberlin of Dark Optimism Read more

    Why Panorama’s GM propaganda was false, there is no food shortage and we don’t need GM to feed the world

    Dave Darby 11-Jun-2015

    Did you see the BBC’s Panorama on monday, promoting the GM (genetic modification) industry? Here are four reasons their message is just pure propaganda on behalf of the corporate sector. Read more

    City bans fracking; legislators overturn it and receive $25k each from oil and gas industry. Is this democracy?

    Dave Darby 03-Jun-2015

    A city in Texas voted to ban fracking within its city limits. The ban in Denton passed with around 60% of the vote. Read more

    How would you rank these in order of importance: truth, happiness, justice, freedom?

    Dave Darby 01-Jun-2015

    It’s the next readers’ question in Philosophy Now magazine (much recommended, by the way), and when I saw it yesterday, I had a very strong reaction to it that has big implications for Lowimpact’s position on sustainability and democracy Read more

    Do you understand the term ‘exponential function’ and how dangerous it is? We think everyone should

    Dave Darby 26-May-2015

    The exponential function is a very surprising (and potentially dangerous) thing. An exponential growth curve looks like this: Read more

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