Final Straw Panel Discussion – Edinburgh, Scotland

Food, Art, Nature, and Sustainability

26 November 2013
Evolution House, 78 W Port
Edinburgh College of Art

5pm
Panel Discussion: Sustainability and Cultivating a Connection with Nature

• Dr. Emily Brady (Edinburgh University, Professor of Environmental Philosophy)
• Mike Small (Director of Fife Diet, Europe’s largest local food project)
• Ben Twist (Director of, Creative Carbon Scotland)

Chaired by Chris Fremantle

7pm
Private Gallery Viewing: Final Straw documentary, work in progress
Final Straw Directors, Patrick M. Lydon and Suhee Kang

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There is no admission charge, however seating at the venue is limited:

please RSVP to patrick@finalstraw.org to reserve your space.

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The Panel Discussion

A diverse panel discussion featuring Dr. Emily Brady (Edinburgh University), Mike Small (The Fife Diet), and Ben Twist (Creative Carbon Scotland), three of Scotland’s leading doers and thinkers in three specific areas of environment and sustainability.

Panellists will respond to the notion of a holistic view of nature and humanity, one which asks for a closer relationship between people and environment. Can such an idea fit within our current socio-economic system? In the end, how can individuals and institutions be compelled to alter their habits to live and act sustainably?

Dr. Emily Brady
Professor of Environment and Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, and author of The Sublime in Modern Philosophy: Aesthetics, Ethics and Nature (Cambridge University Press).

Mike Small
Founder of Fife Diet, Europe’s largest local food project, and author of Scotland’s Local Food Revolution (Argyll Books)

Ben Twist
Director of Creative Carbon Scotland, an organization which brings together arts and environmental sectors in an effort to help create a sustainable Scotland

Chris Fremantle, Panel Chair

The Gallery Exhibition

The Final Straw exhibition in Edinburgh features a selection of in-progress works that socio-ecological artists Patrick M. Lydon (USA) and Suhee Kang (Korea) have amassed during their past three years of research and filming. The research is part of a documentary film currently in production, which centres on an idea that:

The cultivation of humanity’s connection with the natural world offers a key to repairing our very deepest issues, both socially, and ecologically.

Final Straw is an active documentary project, where explorations, interactions, and public interventions – such as the panel discussion – go hand in hand with the act of creating the film. To date, the project has explored natural farms and created related events in Japan, Korea, the United States, and plans to continue this work in the United Kingdom as they ready for the film’s premiere in Spring of 2014.