Australia’s National Food Plan – Heard about it?
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Markets & Outlets, Processing & Food Preservation, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Genevieve Hopkins August 15, 2011
Have you heard about the Australian Government’s proposed National Food Plan? Nope? Neither had we until we read an article in the most recent newsletter from Green Pages stating that Senator Joe Ludwig has extended the deadline for submissions until September 2. Don’t get us wrong, we’re supportive of extending the deadline but we are very concerned that this is the first time we’ve heard anything about the government’s efforts to develop a national plan for our food production, supply and consumption.
Comments (5)A Small Update on Blog Comments (and a Change to How They Work)
People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 12, 2011
An important post for all who comment on this site
When you get a lot of strong-minded individuals together, sometimes conversations can get heated…. Permaculturists, not being your everyday, run-of-the-mill ’sheeple’, are often strong-minded individuals….
When you’re dealing with important, world-changing topics of discussion — and differing ideals in connection with them — then sometimes people can go to great lengths to push their views… sometimes even resorting to unethical methods to do so….
And, when some are trying to do something sincerely constructive, even if imperfect, based on their own particular, subjective experience and understanding, others may start throwing bricks at them, or slandering them, in a bid to see them sidelined and/or ridiculed….
Comments (31)Consensus, Community and Addiction
Alternatives to Political Systems, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Theron Beaudreau August 11, 2011
A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus. — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Our ability to cultivate the reality we seek is determined by our ability to communicate constructively. Community is the result of a conversation and, by the very nature of this conversation, community is inherently multi-dimensional. We all have different stories to tell and we all see reality through a different set of lenses. The variety of these perspectives is both the greatest challenge and the greatest opportunity for the cultivation of CommUnity. In this way, ‘Community’ can be seen as the ‘Communicational Unity’, otherwise known as consensus.
Peace for Somalia & Its People
Deforestation, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Rhamis Kent August 9, 2011
A comprehensive, lasting security is created through giving people a viable means to provide for themselves.
The ultimate goal should be to enable the country of Somalia and its people to create a self-sustaining economy of their own. Only then will there be a meaningful, lasting peace.
Comments (0)Naomi Klein on Geoengineering and the Western Lifestyle (Podcast)
Consumerism, Global Dimming, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor August 6, 2011
Naomi Klein, author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine, gives an insightful talk in the podcast below on the madness of our western lifestyles and the geoengineering it’s giving birth to.
For more reading on geoengineering click here, and to understand global dimming, click here.
Click play below to hear Naomi’s talk:
Naomi Klein on Geoengineering and the Western Lifestyle Comments (2)How the Billionaires Broke the System
Alternatives to Political Systems, Economics, Society — by George Monbiot August 2, 2011
The US deficit reduction plan makes no sense – until you remember who’s behind the Tea Party movement.
by George Monbiot: journalist, author, academic and environmental and political activist, United Kingdom.
There are two ways of cutting a deficit: raising taxes or reducing spending. Raising taxes means taking money from the rich. Cutting spending means taking money from the poor. Not in all cases of course: some taxation is regressive; some state spending takes money from ordinary citizens and gives it to banks, arms companies, oil barons and farmers. But in most cases the state transfers wealth from rich to poor, while tax cuts shift it from poor to rich.
Comments (17)Letters from Slovakia – Contemplating the Roma and Other Minorities in a Post-Peak Oil World
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, People Systems, Population, Society, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 28, 2011
In a world of decreasing energy excess, will ancient hostilities get reignited or defused? What will peak oil and economic collapse mean for our human relationships if we fail to prepare for the stress ahead?
“It was a dark and misty night…”
So begins many a dramatic work of fiction. I am not going to begin a novel in this way – rather, just a short description of my first major contact with a Roma (known as ‘Gypsy’ to many in the North, but this word is regarded as derogatory by many Roma).
It was only my second visit to this region, in December 1993, and on this very cold and bleak night I almost got into a physical scuffle with a rather large and inebriated Roma man, due to some very inappropriate attentions he was giving my wife – and every other attractive female, one by one, on the train we were travelling on. We were travelling from Prague to central Slovakia – a seven-hour journey through the night to our stop – and, being the eve of Christmas eve, the train was absolutely jam-packed with people trying to return to their families, many from working in Prague or Germany. After coming to the aid of my wife, I was quickly surrounded by several of his Roma friends. In such circumstances, one has visions of being thrown off the train into the snow, or worse. Through translation they learned the ‘woman’ was my wife, and one man subsequently apologised for his friend. The Mexican standoff was seemingly defused.
Comments (5)Rob Hopkins: Transition to a World Without Oil
Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 27, 2011
Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition movement, gives a great TED Talk.
Comments (0)
Sustainable Agriculture and Off-Grid Renewable Energy
Biodiversity, Biofuels, Community Projects, Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, Energy Systems, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Land, Markets & Outlets, People Systems, Society, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling — by I-SIS July 20, 2011
Small integrated farms with off-grid renewable energy may be the perfect solution to the food and financial crisis while mitigating and adapting to climate change
Note: A fully referenced and illustrated version of this report is posted on ISIS members’ website and also available for download here.
A Sarvodaya villager sells a diverse range of organic produce roadside
– with more than 95% of it grown behind the stall, and by her own family
Photo © copyright Craig Mackintosh
In a Nutshell
An emerging scientific consensus that a shift to small scale sustainable agriculture and localized food systems will address most, if not all the underlying causes of deteriorating agricultural productivity as well as the conservation of natural soil and water resources while saving the climate.
Comments (1)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)Taken for a Ride – How General Motors Swindled a Nation
Consumerism, Economics, Energy Systems, Society, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
This 1-hour documentary shares the history of how General Motors deliberately swindled the U.S. public out of a superior, healthier public transport system — so as to replace the then-popular electric street cars with their own products: cars, buses and trucks. This deceit and selfishness has landed the American public in its current ultra-vulnerable position, where they: despite having only 4% of the world’s population are consuming 25% of the world’s oil; must endure hours of each day in oft-gridlocked traffic; and must even see their sons shot to pieces fighting far-flung wars over resources. Thanks GM.
Comments (3)
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)Autotrophic Infrastructure & How Real Work Gets Done: A Historical Dilemma
Biodiversity, Consumerism, Deforestation, Economics, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss, peak oil — by Rhamis Kent July 9, 2011
All photographs © Craig Mackintosh
I’d like to revisit a few points I brought up in a piece that appeared here at the PRI Australia website in April last year; “Things That Can’t Last Forever, and Things That Can: A Few Thoughts”.
I’d like to begin with the following premise:
Economics is a continuation of energy by different means.
Classical physics defines energy as the ability to do work. Money represents the ability to do work. Fossil fuels furnish the ability to do work — quite a great deal of it — and, for the moment, relatively cheaply when one accounts for the finite nature of its supply in relation to what it facilitates.
Comments (6)Irony
Comedy Break, Society — by Marc Roberts
Click for larger view
Courtesy: Marc Roberts
This is a retread, prompted by this.
Comments (2)Edgevertizing – the Story of the Itinerant Japanese Knife-Sharpener
Consumerism, Eco-Villages, Economics, Society, Village Development — by Cecilia Macaulay July 7, 2011
Knife shaperner photo by Cecilia
Marginal overheads
This itinerant knife sharpener does the rounds every few months in my neighbourhood in Tokyo.
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