Crop Swap Aotearoa / New Zealand inspires the World at CCC19

My Dear Crop Swapping Friends!

Let's get together $5000 to initiate Crop Swap Planet Earth!!!

WHERE ARE WE?

With great pleasure I announce that our beautiful Crop Swap Aotearoa / New Zealand Baby will turn six years old this coming October. And, my oh my, has she grown! She is spreading all over our country, bringing fresh local food, joy and connection to the people and their communities. And why does she thrive so magically? Because of YOU feeding and caring for her so well. With every bunch of parsley, tiny seedling, crooked carrot, with every friendly look, warm invitation and cup of hot tea, we are nurturing an atmosphere of kindness and generosity within our communities and collectively uplift our whole country. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

WHERE ARE WE GOING?

Crop Swap Aotearoa / New Zealand has proven to be a pretty powerful grass root movement when it comes to enhancing connections within neighbourhoods and communities with many environmentally and socially beneficial side effects. For that reason we have been invited to present our movement at the Climate Change and Consciousness Conference 2019 at the Findhorn Community in Scotland in April next year. This is a wonderful opportunity to not only share the Crop Swap concept with an international audience, but to also represent Aotearoa as a nation that is facing and shaping change with innovative ideas and unconventional actions.

WHAT IS THE PLAN?

I am very happy to give my time, energy and love to plan, prepare and participate in the conference. As Crop Swap Aotearoa is all of us I would like to collect our experiences and learnings around Crop Swap and show the richness and potential of our movement to the world.

HOW DO WE MAKE IT HAPPEN?

So far Crop Swap Aotearoa has been run entirely on a volunteer basis by me and many other awesome human beings. Being a money free movement gives us a beautiful freedom that we definitely want to keep.

Travelling to Scotland as a representative of Crop Swap Aotearoa however will cost money. For me alone it's a big amount but if I have the financial support of the Crop Swap Community it will be easy. The cost will be about $5000 in total, which is $2500 for travelling, about $2000 for the six day conference participation and around $500 for materials/ business cards/website update/collective artwork etc.

WHAT IS IN FOR US?

Joy, and lots of it!!! We are excited to be part of a movement where every little step leads to the wellbeing of all. We acknowledge New Zealand's potential as an incubation nation for new proactive solutions and happily share our gifts with the world community. We will also be inspired by other awesome humans, initiatives and world views from around the globe (because I will share, share, share everything I learn with you!!!)

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR YOUR FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS, as tiny or as big as is right for you. You can donate as individuals or collect donations at your next Crop Swap gathering. Whatever you are happy to give helps to make a big difference!!!

WHAT IS CROP SWAP?

Lemon trees full of fruit? Parsley plants everywhere? Empty jam jars? Passionate

muffin baker and not enough eaters? What are we doing with the abundance in our

life? How are we making the most of Mother Nature’s gifts? How can we share them

and all have a good life?

About five years ago these questions led to our very first Crop Swap gathering in Merrilands, New Pymouth. The table was full of locally grown fruit and vegetables, baking, seeds and other treasures from our gardens and kitchens, surrounded by people from the neighbourhood.

We talked, we laughed, we admired, we tasted, we shared and we all went home with a warm glow in our hearts. This was the birth of Crop Swap Merrilands, which grew into Crop Swap Taranaki, which grew into Crop Swap Aotearoa / New Zealand and which keeps growing even

further from here.

We now have over 30 Crop Swap Hubs all over New Zealand where people from all

walks of life come together on a regular basis to experience the joy of sharing.

WHAT IS CCC19?

Climate Change & Consciousness: Our Legacy for the Earth, April 20-26 2019, will be a collaborative and participatory investigation into how we can steward a sustainable future on what has already become a radically changed planet Earth. We have travelled to this ‘new’ planet on a burst of carbon dioxide. A new planet requires new ways of living.

The conference will bring together eminent scientists, wisdom keepers, business people, activists, artists, entrepreneurs, young people and others, to envision and begin to inhabit our joint future. It will be an international, inter-generational and multi-disciplinary gathering. This is the principle of ‘the big tent‘, borrowed from party politics, whereby diverse viewpoints, backgrounds and interests (the ‘voices in the room’) are brought together to engage and dialogue.