February 2011
23 posts
Flying Blind with Four Photos and an Outdated...
Nick Huggins shares his experience in designing permaculture systems:
It can be hard making the leap from studying Permaculture to actually working it so I thought I’d share my first experience on making that leap.
Hop in my shoes – I was asked to consult and work on a property in inland New South Wales, with some of the worst drought conditions in Australia, after some of the world’s...
The Need for Sustainable Agriculture – It’s So...
Quite some time ago, I shared the big 400-scientist-strong IAASTD worldwide study that concluded that small scale, localised, ecological agriculture was an imperative we cannot afford to ignore any more.
The great need to stop burning out our soils, wasting precious water, and polluting both, is no longer open to dispute. A rapid transition to sustainable methods of agriculture simply needs...
Vandana Shiva: The Future of Food
Vandana Shiva shares a lucid discussion on Monsanto’s inexplicable view of nature as the enemy of mankind, and their determination to sell us ‘liberation’ from it. Aside from being an impossible battle, it’s also a wholly misguided one, based on a self-interested, short-term-thinking profit mentality, rather than the much needed acceptance of, and cooperation with, biological realities we...
Holistic Management: Herbivores, Hats and Hope
Image by Granny Buttons
Grazing animals bad, undisturbed grass good. That’s how we personally thought regeneration worked, five years ago. And we were not alone. You could be forgiven for thinking that any and all grazing animals (particularly of the introduced kind) have no role whatsoever to play in regenerating pastures, soils and land, simply because we know how much damage...
Permaculture Design for Horses, People and Habitat
by Nick Huggins
Click for larger view
Introduction
I want to share with you a few things about a permaculture design project I finished in late October 2010. Details of the design, some details of working with clients on design projects, basic costing and what to be aware of when doing so. I also outline how I put the project together and what it included.
Equine (Horse) Industry
By...
The Food Nightmare Beneath Our Feet - We are...
It’s good to see someone from the American press shine a light on what is arguably the most pressing ecological issue facing us. It effects any and all aspects of environmental health and stability. Without significant efforts made to address the massive amounts of topsoil lost each year, all of our “environmentalism” rings rather hollow, I’m afraid.
The following article is highly...
Genetically Modified Soy Linked to Sterility,...
The use of genetically modified food in the United States has reached majority proportions in food Americans are buying from supermarkets and restaurants and through lobbying the American public are kept in the dark by preventing the food from having to be labelled as containing GMO based ingredients. The corporations (Monsanto, Bayer, et al) are already well underway executing similar...
Forests of Genetically Engineered Trees Devoid of...
A Silent Forest
The video production embedded above addresses an alarming trend – that of the genetic modification of trees. Many might tend to ignore this trend, as we don’t, directly, eat trees, but as the geneticist David Suzuki explains, along with the documentary’s other contributors, the implications run a lot deeper than just that….
I highly recommend you watch and circulate this...
The Edible Urban Garden
When I lived in the city, I always loved the idea of a microfarm. In my head, a microfarm was a plot of land with a footprint the size of a city terrace which was simultaneously blooming with flowers and vegetables, honking with geese, clucking with chickens and covered in trailing greenery and mulch, with someone driving a wheelbarrow through the plot, delivering hay to some minature cows...
Things That Can Not Go On Forever - Things That...
Properly defining and orienting permaculture is of prime importance in its being appropriately applied. I’ve found it to be a very useful personal exercise. Doing so prevents me from straying too far from its practical origins and helps to keep it from being transformed into some kind of Utopian, escapist ideal.
First referencing Bill Mollison’s definition (taken from the book...
The Story of Bottled Water - The Stupidity of...
Free Range Studios have been doing an outstanding job of boiling important topics down into user-friendly sound bites that encourage the viral spread of thought-provoking information. We’ve seen The Story of Stuff, The Story of Cap and Trade, and now I introduce you to the latest in the series – The Story of Bottled Water:
This might be hard for the average world citizen to understand,...
A Permaculture Primer
I love reading how others come to learn about and get completely involved in Permaculture. The following is a primer given by Adrian Buckley
Permaculture is a shortened form of permanent culture. While it evades any single definition, permaculture can be defined as a system of design – assembling conceptual, material and strategic components into a pattern which functions to benefit life in...
Advanced Solar and Independence at Zaytuna Farm
Zaytuna Farm, home of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, sets up an advanced solar electric system to demonstrate the best example of stand-alone solar electric power we can find. — Geoff Lawton
Here at Zaytuna Farm we have endeavored to demonstrate the efficiency and advantage of a stand alone power system. This is especially relevant now in times when large areas of...
Compost and Soil Fertility - A Shitty Topic
Humanity’s number one environmental issue is poor soil and soil loss. It unpins all else and is therefore bigger than deforestation and pollution. But how is that, I hear you asking? Well, every living thing needs food and soil happens to be the food that feeds everything above it so before you can grow vegetables and fatten up beef to feed yourself and before you can plant a tree to clean...
Rockets That Do Not Fly - Worlds Most Efficient...
by Rob Avis
Living in Canada makes staying warm in winter an interesting challenge. In such a cold climate I have long wondered how to continue to keep humans warm (care of people) without bringing down forests or using fossil fuels (care of earth). Even the most energy efficient home with passive solar design will require some sort of external heat input during our winter.
Biomass is...
The Big Genetically-Modified Food Cover-Up
by Jeffrey M. Smith
Something doesn’t quite add up about genetically modified (GM) foods.
It looks the same—the bread, pies, sodas, even corn on the cob. So much of what we eat every day looks just like it did 20 years ago. But something profoundly different has happened without our knowledge or consent. And according to leading doctors, what we don’t know may already be hurting us big...
Rude Awakening To Widespread GMOs in Food
by Jeffrey M. Smith
A wise customer wanted to find out if the corn nuts she was eating were from genetically modified (GM) corn. She emailed the company and got a shocking reply. It began:
“Thank you for your contact. We are not aware of any GMO free corn in the U.S. We feel it is a ridiculous concern based on very poor science.”
The email, reproduced at the blog of Kelly the Kitchen Kop,...
The Forgotten Energy of Mankind
For millennia man had to work by the sweat of his brow. A thing didn’t get done unless he got up and did it. Work – physical labour – was as inescapable as the need to eat, drink and have shelter.
That sun that pours its rays down onto our world, and passes its energy into the food we, in turn, take into our bodies, has always been our ’solar power’, enabling us to actively perform our...
How Our Relationships With Plants and Animals...
by Kyle Chamberlain, The Human Habitat Project
Our bonds with other species are as vital, to survival, as our bonds with other people. If we don’t choose our company carefully, disaster is likely to ensue.
As a species, we should be shopping for the best relationships. There’s a lot a stake, and we don’t want to be abused or neglected. When searching for a good fit, we should keep in mind...
Closing the Loop - The West's Wasted Waste
By Lindsay Dailey
In a world where less than 1% of the planet’s fresh water is available for human consumption, it is curious to notice how people in overdeveloped countries choose to utilize precious water resources.
I often wonder what our grandchildren’s children will think of industrialized cultures; it is hope that inspires me to imagine them laughing. “Can you believe it?” they’ll...
Pig "Tractors"
by Marty Miller-Crispe
Pigs in Vietnam Photos © Craig Mackintosh unless otherwise indicated
I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. — Sir Winston Churchill, British politician (1874 – 1965)
Like Winston Churchill, I also like pigs. They are intelligent, highly social, are fun to watch, and make awesome tractors!
The use of animals to clear and...
The Private Life of Chickens
by Kelly Pagliaro
Have you ever wondered what goes on in a chicken’s head? Maybe you’ve pondered why humans have chosen chickens as the domestic farm bird of choice. You might think the chicken is a rather “bird-brained” animal, but in reality they are much more complex than we give them credit for. In a BBC documentary titled “The Private Life of Chickens” we follow Jim Doherty as he...
Australia's First Legal Attack on Monsanto for GM...
Photo credit: Marie Nirme
Over the Christmas and New Year, whilst people on the east and south of Australia were suffering floods and their consequences, one farmer, much further west, discovered a far more insidious flood was occurring on his property. He is also reeling from the consequences.
Steve Marsh is the farmer of an organic certified property near Kojonup, south-east of Perth in...
