Today I met Karin at a business networking breakfast at an upscale local hotel. Because everyone had to introduce themselves, she learned what I do for a living - working with the environment and land management, and working for secure local communities through Permaculture and Transition.

In talking later she asked an interesting question. She and her friends, being so appalled at the way things are going in the world - climate change, food security, Monsanto's genetically engineered seeds - those are a few of the worries. She told me how her friends feel possibly the only way to survive it all is to go off to a remote rural place and homestead. She asked me what I thought about that.

What I think about that is - it is most definitely not the answer for most people!

If you already have the skills to raise and preserve all your own food, build an eco-friendly house, provide all of your own fuel for heat and energy to run your electric equipment, make your own clothes, home school your children, and all the other necessities, while earning some cash as well so that you can buy insurance, pay taxes and buy things you cannot make, then by all means, "go back to the land".

Most people in these times do not know how to do even the most basic of life-support tasks and the idea of suddenly doing it all would be out of the question. Most back-to-the-landers of previous times, say the 1960's, failed and returned to cities after grueling experiments in self-sufficiency.

Rather than following that path, there is a better way for those not-yet schooled in these rural skills. Living in sub-urban or urban centers provide a great deal of opportunity for those wishing to live more sustainably in resilient communities, leaving a small carbon footprint and eating mostly organic food.

Permaculture principles are being applied to city neighborhoods. People are forming well-organized groups to transition to resilient communities. In fact, transition has become international through the Transition Town Movement. This movement began in the UK, founded by Rob Hopkins,using the principles of Permaculture applied beyond the homestead, and has spread throughout the world. TT is now a recognized system for groups of people to address their own needs while waiting for their governments to finally acknowledge the severity of the problems the world is facing. But there is no time to wait so we are taking matters into our own hands.

All over, people are clamoring to learn how to become self-sufficient - if not completely independent on their own, then together with their neighbors. After all, as my Permaculture teacher, Andrew Faust, said, there is no point being self-sufficient if all around you people are struggling to survive. (I am paraphrasing). People are starting to struggle and will struggle more as time passes because of economics and the environment.

This is an opportunity for us all to learn how to rebuild our own local economies, food production systems and other systems we need to get back to healthy, meaningful lives.

To find out more about the Transition Town Movement, go on line to their website and navigate through to find the wonderful 45 minute long movie which will inspire you to start small in your own communities, with your neighbors, and build the lives we all crave so much.

In Connecticut, a Transition Town training will be held at the end of March in New Haven. This training will help learn the proven methods of community organizing the TT way and how to start and develop a movement in your own community. Trainings are being scheduled all over the country as well.