Jail Time for Planting Front Yard Garden?
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Land, News, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 17, 2011
This is by-law madness, and it’ll have to change…. I rather blatantly encourage everyone to disregard dumb rules like this which would stop you from increasing your resiliency and demonstrating better use of your lawn space. The more of us who rebel against absurdity, the easier it becomes to legalise sustainability. I just hope you’ll be smart enough to ensure that your lawn-liberation is done whilst keeping aesthetic standards high as well (i.e. don’t give people justifiable reason to complain!). Julie Bass’ nice tidy veggie planters, which you’ll see in the videos below, are a good example, and only reflect all the more poorly on the neighbours who have complained and the local government who are obviously wholly ignorant of where we presently stand in history….
Vegetables are most definitely suitable!
Comments (23)Quail Springs – a Season of Growth
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Land, Village Development — by Warren Brush
The most frequently asked question of me lately has been about this past October’s flood and its long-term impact on Quail Springs’ work to demonstrate sustainable living practices. Looking to Nature for insight, my response uses the metaphor of a snake losing its skin. At first, the snake may be shocked and confused by such a drastic change beyond its control, but eventually realizes the skin underneath is vibrant, healthy and a better fit for its growing body. Similarly, we now see this flood was a gift in numerous ways and a source of rebirth.
Comments (0)Letter to Mr. Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.
Building, Society, Village Development — by Hillel Schocken July 12, 2011
Originally published on Biourbanism.org
Apple’s planned new donut-shaped campus….
Dear Mr Jobs,
Due to the wonders of the iPad, I came across your June 7th presentation to the Cupertino council of the plans for the new Apple campus. My excitement at the start of your presentation — expecting Apple’s cutting edge tradition to appear in the Architecture and Planning — soon turned to a profound disappointment. You were absolutely right to state that the intended capacity of 12,000 people in a single building is “rather odd”. It is certainly not unique. Each of the destroyed WTC “twin towers” had a larger capacity. However, the idea of a single circular building in the park and, indeed, a “campus” is odd in more than one aspect.
Comments (8)Positive Examples of Agricultural and Community Transformation in Kenya
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Dams, Demonstration Sites, Earth Banks, Education Centres, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Irrigation, Land, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Swales, Terraces, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 7, 2011
I’m adding the following clips as a positive supplement to the preceding post. I think it’s important to see that positive work is happening, and that GMOs are not only not needed, but they are a definite threat to these excellent efforts. Permaculturists working, or intending to work, in Kenya could potentially find ways to network with organisations like these, and to offer extra design tools to further strengthen their efforts.
The first video is from the Grow Biointensive Agricultural Center of Kenya (G-BIACK), who look to be doing some great on-the-ground work to educate and transform Kenyan communities and help them return to more resilient, affordable and healthy agricultural and community systems.
This second clip, from The Haller Foundation, will be especially appreciated by permaculturists — it’s a fantastic video show-casing some excellent permaculture action, also in Kenya:
Comments (4)Kenyans Demand a Stop to GMO Food Imports
GMOs, Health & Disease, Village Development — by African Biodiversity Network
A press release from the African Biodiversity Network
We demand the recognition of organic agriculture and other agro-ecological farming practices in Kenya’s agriculture policies and practices.
The developers of GMOs have exerted great pressure to ensure that our recently enacted Biosafety Act of 2009 serves the interests of foreign agribusiness, rather than farmers and consumers. The introduction of patented seeds and related chemicals into our farming systems threatens our agricultural practices, our livelihoods, the environment, and undermines our seed sovereignty. We believe that we can feed our communities and this country with organic and agroecological farming practices that do not destroy, pollute and contaminate food, land and seeds. Our ability to feed Africa through agro-ecological practices is recognised and supported by UN reports [see also], the IAASTD report and many research findings. We call upon the government to support small scale farmers in having access to water and capacity building in agro-ecology and for this to be enshrined in our Kenyan policies.
Edgevertizing – the Story of the Itinerant Japanese Knife-Sharpener
Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, Society, Village Development — by Cecilia Macaulay
Knife shaperner photo by Cecilia
Marginal overheads
This itinerant knife sharpener does the rounds every few months in my neighbourhood in Tokyo.
Comments (6)Atro-City
Building, Consumerism, Economics, Population, Society, Village Development — by George Monbiot July 1, 2011
As Sydney residents are being paid to leave the city, the case for compact, high-density settlement becomes clearer than ever.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
For at least a century, governments have tried to urbanise their nations. Communist states sought to drag people out of what Marx and Engels called their “rural idiocy”. Capitalist governments – Mahatir Mohammed’s administration in Malaysia is a good example – tried to persuade and bully indigenous people into leaving the land (which then became available for exploitation) and move to the cities to join the consumer economy. Urbanisation was equated with progress and modernity.
Comments (6)Bad News, and Good News, for Greece
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Economics, Education Centres, Financial Management, Food Shortages, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor June 29, 2011
Warning — graphic protest content
The bad news:
Police have fired tear gas in running battles with stone-throwing youths in Athens, where a 48-hour general strike is being held against a parliamentary vote on tough austerity measures.
Thousands of protesters have gathered outside parliament in the capital where public transport has ground to a halt.
PM George Papandreou has said that only his 28bn-euro (£25bn) austerity plan would get Greece back on its feet.
If the package is not approved, Greece could run out of money within weeks. — BBC
I can certainly appreciate why the people are protesting. The situation is similar to what we’re seeing in Spain at the moment — which is yet another country on the brink of implosion. Here’s what protesters there had to say recently:
Comments (15)A Lesson for Our Future – the Cuban Experience
Alternatives to Political Systems, Community Projects, Food Shortages, People Systems, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
Part I
Hemp for Victory?
Biological Cleaning, Food Plants - Annual, Plant Systems, Seeds, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor June 23, 2011
I figure this video will stimulate some potentially useful discussion. It features portions of an interesting WWII-era production, titled Hemp for Victory, made by the U.S. government to encourage U.S. farmers into the cultivation of hemp to fill the escalating demand for industrial fibre during the war. This was not too long after the U.S. had introduced, during the height of the Great Depression, the 1937 Marihuana tax, which had had the opposite effect. (It goes to show the power that government policies can wield in rapidly influencing social priorities.)
Some of you will know, and some of you will not, that hemp has been used since ancient times. Sails were made of it, ropes were made of it, clothes were made of it. People ate it (seed), wrote on it (paper), lit their homes with it (oil), and fed their animals with it (what was left!). Indeed, some say there’s very little you can’t make from it. As the video shows, Henry Ford even made cars and car parts out of it. Not only were they stronger and lighter than metal parts, but they were biodegradable too!
Comments (10)When to Not Use Money – and Why
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Financial Management, People Systems, Society — by Thomas Fischbacher June 22, 2011
Let us imagine a fictitious mountain village — or, for that matter, any other close-knit community — that has a high degree of economic independence at the community rather than individual level. Within this community, there is an on-going active exchange of favours, including goods and services. Naturally, there will be some sort of accounting mechanism that ensures everybody is providing roughly as much to the village as he is drawing from the village economy. Keeping a purely mental record of the entire history of such exchanges in mind may be too challenging, so let’s assume our villagers write little notes to keep track of exchanged favours. There is no intrinsic reason why some such approach should not work quite well.
Let us now assume that our villagers change their strategy, and decide to use legal tender money for this ‘bookkeeping of favours’ instead. In that case, they first have to obtain some of that money. But how? Evidently, one or more people from the village would have to climb down the mountain, visit the national bank, and take up credit. How does this work? Credit contracts come in many different flavours, but the basic rule of the game is that the credit taker has to promise to the bank to return a certain economic value to the bank in the future, plus added interest.
Comments (11)A New Permatecture Toolbox! (From Nikos A. Salingaros)
Building, DVDs/Books, Eco-Villages, Society, Village Development — by Oyvind Holmstad June 19, 2011
The goal of permaculture is to reunite man with nature and man with man through design systems, and here patterns play an important role. Still, patterns can only reunite humans with natural systems and with each other, not with the geometry of the universe. Surely in what I like to call permatecture, better known as biophilic architecture, biotecture or neurotecture, patterns are crucial. But for the creation of wholeness and life we need a whole range of tools.
Comments (5)When “A Pattern Language” was first published in 1977, architects immediately assumed that it was a design manual, and used it to generate some very interesting buildings. Those buildings, despite their positive human qualities, lack an overall coherence, and people did not understand why this was happening. The reason is that the Patterns provide essential and necessary constraints, and not a design method in itself. The actual design algorithm was developed by Alexander, but only many years later. – Twelve Lectures on Architecture, by Nikos A. Salingaros, page 106
The Timeless Way of Building
Building, Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Eco-Villages, Land, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Oyvind Holmstad June 17, 2011
This timeless book from Christopher Alexander was released back in the seventies, and it’s just as much a book on philosophy as on architecture. Still, the main purpose of the book is as an introduction to A Pattern Language.
Alexander’s architectural writings at the same time develop a philosophy of nature and life. He proposes a more profound connection between nature and the human mind than is presently allowed either in science, or in architecture. Alexander sees the universe as a coherent whole, encompassing feelings as well as inanimate matter. This strongly Taoist viewpoint was first developed in his book The Timeless Way of Building (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979).
To some readers, this is a book on architecture written in a philosophical style; to many others, it is a book on philosophy with architectural examples. A large number of people have embraced the philosophy of the Timeless Way of Building, finding in it universal truths on how man interacts with the world. Towards the end of his life, the philosopher and teacher J. Krishnamurti enjoyed having sections from the Timeless Way read to him each evening. – Nikos A. Salingaros
For this reason another name on the book could just as well have been The Timeless Way of Living.
Comments (6)National Permaculture Day at Three Worlds on the Gold Coast, Australia
Courses/Workshops, Social Gatherings, Village Development — by Permaculture Gold Coast June 14, 2011
National Permaculture Day Workshop Presentation at
Three Worlds Community Garden, Mermaid Beach, Gold Coast
National Permaculture Day, on May 1, saw an amazing turnout of over 230 people, a restaurant serving organic food and non-stop presentations on everything from food creation to soil creation at the Three Worlds Community Garden at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast. It was a hugely successful community event.
Comments (1)An Answer to the Meaning of Life
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, People Systems, Society — by George Monbiot June 9, 2011
The well-intentioned dolts putting a price on nature are delivering it into the hands of business.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom
Love, economists have discovered, is depreciating rapidly. On current trends, it is expected to fall by £1.78 per passion-hour between now and 2030. The opportunity cost of a kiss foregone has declined by £0.36 since 1988. By 2050 the net present value of a night under the stars could be as little as £56.13. This reduction in the true value of love, they warn, could inflict serious economic damage.
None of that is true, but it’s not far off. Love is one of the few natural blessings which has yet to be fully costed and commodified. They’re probably working on it now.
Under the last government, the Department for Transport announced that it had discovered “the real value of time”. Here’s the surreal sentence in which this bombshell was dropped: “Forecast growth in the real value of time is shown in Table 3.”(1) Last week the Department for Environment announced the results of its National Ecosystem Assessment, a massive exercise involving 500 experts. The assessment, it tells us, establishes “the true value of nature … for the very first time.”(2) If you thought the true value of nature was the wonder and delight it invoked, you’re wrong. It turns out that it’s a figure with a pound sign on the front. All that remains is for the Cabinet Office to tell us the true value of love and the price of society, and we’ll have a single figure for the meaning of life.
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