Local Currencies – Make sure they’re Cornish!

Here is a rambling article I wrote taken from my blog the Cornish Democrat and reproduced here on Cornwall 24: http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/module-pnForum-viewtopic-topic-3072.htm

It starts with Cornish culture and moves on to local food, but I think the most interesting part is the local currency idea and the need to make any such money distinctly Cornish.

The Old Cornwall society is a true veteran of the Cornish movement and perhaps the focal point around which many other Cornish groups came into existence. I’ve never really browsed their website before and I was pleasantly surprised.

“Cuntelleugh an brewyon us gesys na vo kellys travyth” (Gather up the fragments that are left that nothing be lost.) is their motto and their mission is to preserve the cultural heritage of Cornwall and the Cornish so that future generation can profit from them and build the new Cornwall. No doubt this cultural heritage is language, dialect, sports, festivals and customs, but it is also food. So, it is with our traditional recipes and local produce in mind that I would like to draw your attention to the Slow Food movement and in particular Slow Food Cornwall

What is Slow Food?: http://www.slowfoodcornwall.com/

Quote:
The Slow Food movement began in 1986 after Carlo Petrini, an Italian journalist, saw a new branch of McDonalds at the foot of the Spanish Steps in Rome. He thought it essential to set up a ‘slow food’ movement to counter the global takeover of ‘fast food’, and to protect regional and/or traditional food and drink.

Since the 1980s, Slow Food has become an international organisation with 83,000 members worldwide, which not only promotes food and wine culture, but also defends food and agricultural biodiversity worldwide.

The network of Slow Food members is organized into local grassroot groups—Condotte in Italy and Convivia elsewhere in the world—which organize campaigns, courses, dinners, tastings, visits, education etc.

Slow Food Cornwall works to promote the objectives of Slow Food within Cornwall and within the close-knit network of the movement.

Seems like a worthwhile project and what better than to pay for Cornish food with a Cornish currency?

It’s sad to say but the folk of Devonshire have beaten us to it yet again. In Totnes a local currency, the Totnes Pound has been up and running for some time now and seems to be a success. The aim is to promote local services and produce and it seems to work so why not a Cornish dinar in all our towns? Why not a Cornish dinar released as a joint effort between the Cornish Stannary Parliament and the towns from Transition Kernow ?

Anyway have a look at this thread on C24 for a debate on the idea: http://www.cornwall24.co.uk/module-pnForum-viewtopic-topic-3072.htm

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The Cornish Republican
The Breton Connection