Making The Case for Earth Repair Work – Part III
DVDs/Books, Economics, Food Shortages, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton — by Rhamis Kent August 19, 2010
In addition to my last two posts (here and here), here are a couple of additional information sources to help make the case for major investment to be made into global earth repair/ecosystem restoration work.
The United Nations Environment Programme recently published a report titled "Dead Planet, Living Planet – Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration for Sustainable Development: A Rapid Response Assessment" (15mb PDF). What makes this document so useful and important is that it presents compelling arguments for performing this work that speak to the concerns of business & economics just as much as it does of those concerned about the state of our global ecology and environment. Doing so will prove to be invaluable in helping to attract funding in amounts befitting the vital importance of this work.
Below, I’ve excerpted portions of the report’s summary that are of particular interest:
Comments (4)Overlander TV’s 60-Minute Organic Farming Program
DVDs/Books, General — by Craig Mackintosh August 11, 2010
The video covers such diverse farming enterprises as organic cattle, sheep, poultry, pigs, grain, wine, fruit and vegetables. – overlander.tv
Click play. At the end of each segment, it’ll automatically move to the next.
60 minutes in total.
Home Cheese-Making DVD Hits the Road!
Animal Processing, DVDs/Books, Fermenting, Livestock, News, Processing & Food Preservation — by Ecofilms July 8, 2010
Okay, it’s taken a while and we were expecting to release this title last year. We even had a few people ask for it for last year’s Christmas, but the truth is we took too long to finish it. So now it’s here, ready to go! Elisabeth Fekonia’s Home Cheesemaking and All Things Dairy DVD has finally been released!
Comments (13)New Book and Edible School Garden for Mary Valley State College at Imbil, Queensland
Community Projects, DVDs/Books — by Patrick Blampied July 5, 2010
Teachers at Mary Valley State College will be struggling to keep their students in the classroom thanks to a new Permaculture school garden program starting on the 23rd of this month. Leonie Shanahan of Edible School Gardens has now set up 15 schools garden projects on the Sunshine Coast and the kids say it’s a winner.
One boy said after hugging his teacher “I’m not clever in the classroom but I’m really good in the garden, I love gardening.”
On day one of the 12 month program the students will learn all about permaculture design, looking at other examples throughout Australia for inspiration in designing their own Edible School Garden.
Comments (2)Permaculture Takes Off in Tanzania!
Aid Projects, Community Projects, DVDs/Books, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres — by Global Resource Alliance July 2, 2010
Editor’s Note: It’s with pleasure I introduce you to a fantastic and fast-spreading permaculture movement in Tanzania, kicked off by Geoff Lawton’s PDC in 2007 (see Geoff’s articles on his experiences and observations there here and here), and organised by our partner the Global Resource Alliance. Below is a trailer for an upcoming documentary, and some background on it.
From the Mara Soil – Film Trailer
 GRA’s office plot in Musoma, Tanzania |
GRA was introduced to permaculture in 2006 at a workshop with Geoff Lawton, one of the world’s leading experts and promoters of permaculture. Permaculture offered a path to connect and expand GRA’s current programs in organic gardening and tree planting, and GRA’s future plans for sustainable building, rainwater harvesting and alternative energy.
Comments (3)Documentary Screening, July 6 2010 – The Garden at the End of the World
Aid Projects, DVDs/Books, Presentations/Demonstrations, Social Gatherings — by Mahboba Rawi July 1, 2010
Another free screening of Gary Caganoff’s film featuring Mahboba’s Promise, ‘The Garden at the End of the World‘, will be held at the International Peace Research Association Conference at Sydney University on July 6th, 2010.
As part of the conference’s fringe events the film will be at the Footbridge Theatre* at 6pm. Gary, permaculturalist Rosemary Morrow, and Emtissal Little representing Mahboba’s Promise, will speak afterwards. Members of the public are inviteded to attend the screening.
Entry is free and Afghan refreshments will be provided.
Watch documentary trailer here:
Please circulate to your friends.
Mahboba’s Promise newsletter downloadable here as well.
*The Footbridge Theatre is part of Sydney University, at the southern end of the footbridge spanning Parramatta Road, just west of Glebe Point Road.
More details via press release below:
Comments (1)Intro to Permaculture Design DVD Now Available with Spanish Subtitles
DVDs/Books — by Ecofilms June 24, 2010
Geoff Lawton’s Introduction to Permaculture Design DVD has already gone into a second edition, but, thanks to a number of keen Spanish speaking translators out there, we’ve now also added a Spanish subtitle option to this DVD!
The hardest part of editing subtitles into something like this is getting people to co-ordinate their transcriptions. Jane Gapinski at Eco Films sat down and made the English subtitles first with timecode embedded in the text document which meant translators fluent in both English and Spanish were able to replace the English text in their preferred language and email the new document back to Jane.
This way all the timecode was preserved, allowing the Spanish text to easily cut in on cue with the action.
This process made the whole task a lot easier to embed text into the new DVD. Many thanks to the many helpers who helped spread Permaculture around the globe. PRI and Eco Films would like to thank:
El Efecto Borde from Argentina, Enrique J. Triñane from Uruguay, Gianna Bonis Profumo from Spain and Robert Parks from the USA.
It’s a great example of team co-operation amongst the international permaculture community.
Comments (0)Permaculture Soils DVD Trailer
Compost, DVDs/Books, Fungi, Rehabilitation, Salination, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Structure — by Craig Mackintosh June 9, 2010
It’s a wonderful thing to behold when permaculture passion and top-notch multimedia skills intersect in world-changing ways. Frank and Jane Gapinski of Ecofilms have spent countless hours working up highly educational and highly watchable productions for the PRI for a few years now. It all began with the initial Greening the Desert clip that took the world by storm; then followed the Water Harvesting DVD, the Food Forest DVD, and very recently the Introduction to Permaculture Design DVD. The incredible uptake of these films is living, encouraging proof that there is a new generation emerging who understand what needs to be done, and want to know how to do it!
But wait, there’s more! We’re now awaiting the soon-to-be-released Permaculture Soils DVD! This DVD gets to the very heart of what’s needed for a permanent culture, examining that magical muck that is the foundation of all the aforementioned productions. This work shares insights from Geoff Lawton’s two and a half decade’s worth of worldwide experience in soil creation – an experience gained in some of the world’s most inhospitable environments – helping to make the impossibly complex come to life in wondrously understandable ways. I personally think that holistic studies in soil science should be compulsory, foundational elements for every school syllabus – and that if they had been we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in today – and we hope this DVD will go some distance in making up for this major shortfall in mainstream education.
Check out the trailer, and then stay tuned for future updates on release.
Comments (11)The soil is the great connector of our lives, the source and destination of all. – Wendell Berry, The Unsettling of America, 1977
Book Review: Resilience Thinking – Sustaining Ecosystems and People in a Changing World
DVDs/Books — by Owen Hablutzel June 4, 2010
Book by Brian Walker and David Salt
Island Press – 2006
174 pages
Reviewed by Owen Hablutzel
When is the last time you were surprised? It might have been a brand new volunteer plant in the garden, bizarre and beautiful fungi in the pasture, an incredible storm on the horizon, or a blessed windfall on the balance sheets! Given the inherent unpredictable nature of wholes – complex adaptive systems from cells, to bodies, to farms, societies and all of nature – we can be sure that surprise and unexpected change will happen quite frequently. If this is true at the home, farm or business scale it is all the more so at the regional, national, and global scales in today’s always changing and increasingly interconnected world.
Comments (0)Carbon Trading Under Scrutiny
Alternatives to Political Systems, DVDs/Books, Economics, Ethical Investment, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh June 1, 2010
People for or against carbon trading would do well to download and read these two excellent new publications
There are a great many Joe Publics out there naively hand-wringing and even taking to the streets to protest over their government’s inability to implement carbon trading. But I’d propose they take a good look at the documents featured here, and consider the old proverb: "Be careful what you wish for, because you may get it."
I’ve personally been watching the carbon trading shenanigans for several years now, and from the earliest days it was clearly a case of obfuscation, delays and trying to get out of a mess using the same thinking that got us there in the first place. Rather than the systemic economic rethink we require, carbon trading is an attempt to patch the gaping holes in neo-liberal capitalism, to keep it afloat a little longer, whilst allowing those causing the greatest destruction to continue reaping the greatest rewards. Carbon offsetting concepts are based on the assumption that perpetual growth, consumer-based capitalism is our only option and must be preserved at any cost. It’s an attempt to bypass reality.
Comments (1)FRESH Movie Screening: Sydney May 28th
Community Projects, Consumerism, DVDs/Books, News, Social Gatherings, Society, Village Development — by Milkwood Permaculture May 13, 2010
Milkwood is hosting a screening of new documentary FRESH at 7pm on Friday, May 28th, at Alexandria Park Community Center in Sydney. The screening is free and everyone’s welcome. Directions to the venue are here.
Comments (0)
Regeneration – an Earth Saving Evolution
Compost, Conservation, DVDs/Books, Food Shortages, Fungi, Irrigation, Regional Water Cycle, Rehabilitation, Salination, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Structure, Water Contaminaton, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh May 8, 2010
 Regeneration – an Earth Saving Evolution How biological farming builds healthier soils, healthier plants, healthier animals and certain hope in an uncertain world. |
In a kind of army style ‘about-face’, society is increasingly turning away from the reductionist, extractive agriculture that rushed onto the world after WWII. Today people are, thankfully, realising that you cannot convert biodiverse natural systems into monocultures – into a factory floor environment – and expect success. With the soils that support all life on this planet getting rapidly eroded and diminished in critical organic matter, people are realising that farming is far more about biology than it is about chemistry, more about feeding the soil than feeding the plant, and are realising that our futures, our very survival, depends on our coming to grips with biological processes and learning to harness them.
I’ve just uploaded the new Regeneration – an Earth Saving Revolution DVD to our online store. This DVD examines the thoughts and work of some of the many individuals who are now leading the way forward in farming techniques that are simultaneously highly productive and entirely sustainable. It’s an inspiration-packed DVD that’s worth circulating to all.
Our survival now truly depends on how fast this kind of information can be made to pervade society at all levels, and how rapidly we can rebuild society to accommodate, integrate and harmonise with it.
Trailer to follow:
Comments (7)
Permaculture Design Certificate Course DVD Collection
Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books, For Sale, News — by Tagari April 28, 2010
with Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton
Join Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton for an entire PDC lecture series in the comfort of your own home.
Refresh your experiences from the course or use this collection as an exceptional resource tool for any future projects you may have.
Be one of the first to own this incredible power house of information.
The DVD collection is suitable for use with NTSC systems and is region free. Some MacIntosh computers may have trouble playing these discs but suitable software upgrades may assist with this issue.
“Can you imagine a Design Course in every home?” Lisa Mollison, 2010
Click here for more info and to purchase.
Comments (25)The Calgary Permaculture Community Group Presents, An Evening of Permaculture with Geoff Lawton
Community Projects, Conferences, Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books, Social Gatherings — by Rob Avis April 14, 2010
The newly formed Calgary Permaculture Community group is proud to be screening Geoff Lawton’s Introduction to Permaculture DVD followed by a Q&A session with Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. The event will be held on April 17th at 6:00pm at the John Dutton Theatre. After the screening of Introduction to Permaculture, Geoff Lawton will be skyping in from Australia to answer all of your permaculture related questions.
Click here to open a 390kb PDF of details.
For more information please contact calgarypermaculture (at) gmail.com
Permaculture Calgary website: www.permaculturecalgary.org
Comments (0)Tagari Photo Competiton for New Intro to Permaculture Book Cover
DVDs/Books — by Tagari April 13, 2010
Tagari Publications are presenting an outstanding opportunity to see you and/or your permaculture project on either the front or back cover of Introduction to Permaculture. We are reprinting this very popular book and would love to incorporate photos you have taken of permaculture in practice. We will be selecting several images from different locations around the world to create a photomontage and yours could be a part of it.
Photos must be images that you have taken and in digital format that are suitable for high quality print reproduction – JPG, TIF and PDF formats are preferable (maximum file size 4mb). We also require that each person in the image must sign a “talent release” form (PDF) which transfers ownership of the image to Tagari Publications and allows us to reproduce it.
We are seeking several images and whoever gets chosen will receive one copy of the newly printed book and a $100 gift certificate to use at our online store.
Be quick as we would like to reprint the book as soon as we can so this offer ends Wednesday, April 29, 2010.
Please send images and signed talent release form to: production [at] tagari.com. We look forward to seeing your photos and good luck.
Comments (0)
