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Crystel Vultier: From PDC Student to Local Food Purveyor (Alberta, Canada)
Community Projects, Markets & Outlets, Village Development — by Rob Avis January 28, 2013
by Rob Avis
Crystel Vultier is a true local food purveyor for her home town of Canmore, AB. Over the past several years she has been instrumental in creating the Canmore Community Garden which now provides plots for over 100 gardeners in the city and area. She has also created a project called Farm Box which sources local and organic food directly from farmers in Alberta and BC, and distributes it to 130 families in a weekly CSA program, as well as making the abundance of healthy produce available to the whole city through a booth at the local farmers’ market. Watch how one person’s potential to create positive change is realized through hard work and permaculture tools, and see how quickly the ripples have spread to effect her entire community.
Comments (0)The Biggest Climate Rally in U.S. History
Global Warming/Climate Change — by Steve Kretzmann
Editor’s Note: Australia’s Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, has just said that the entire country of Australia is being "challenged by nature". I think it’s a sad way of looking at what we’re facing — it’s as if we’re the innocent victims. Rather, I think nature is being challenged by us. Nature is having a hard time ‘keeping it together’ in the face of all we’re throwing at it. We are entering an age of potential runaway feedback loops that can render all our good work redundant, and yet at the just-ended World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the key focus was still, predictably, about stimulating more economic growth. I don’t for a minute expect corporate-bought political systems to react appropriately, but I think a massive turn-out for a rally like the one below can at least give some hope for discussion on the issues that matter — an opportunity for systemic solutions to get their day in the sun.
On Monday during the inauguration, President Obama opened his term with a clarion call for action on climate change. Our response?
Time to organize.
President Obama said, “We will respond to the threat of climate change, knowing that the failure to do so would betray our children and future generations.”
These are great words, in a big speech. But pardon us if we’re not sitting on our hands basking in the glow of a job well done. We’ve seen good talk before, and the President’s talk – while very good in this case – is not the same as action.
Comments (1)Food from Perennial(ising) Plants in Temperate Climate Australia, for December 2012
Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Recipes — by Susan Kwong January 25, 2013
Ripe Solanum muricatum (Pepino, Pepino Dulce, Melon Pear)
This is the first monthly post for Summer in the ongoing research project about perennial plants and perennialising annual plants that provide food in temperate climate Australia. The original article introducing this project, stating its aims, and providing participant instructions, can be found here. Growers are sending me information on a month-by-month basis, then this information is collated and published the following month. The first monthly posts can be found by clicking on my author name (Susan Kwong), just under the post title above.
Comments (0)Shauna Teare Puts Permaculture to Work in the Slocan Valley (British Columbia, Canada)
Demonstration Sites — by Rob Avis
by Rob Avis
Nestled deep in the forested mountains of the Slocan Valley in British Columbia, ex-urbanite Shawna Teare and her family have applied skills from their former lives in business and carpentry, along with gifted and innovative craftmanship to create a leading edge permaculture homestead complete with chickens, rabbits, interns and more! See how they have up-cycled materials en masse, created a diverse and plentiful organic garden, put their on-site resources to productive use, and networked within their community to create a truly resilient, sustainable, and enjoyable lifestyle.
Comments (5)Dr. Vandana Shiva on Just Food
Biodiversity, Deforestation, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease — by Gerald Anderson
This is a good summary of what Vandana Shiva talks about lately. Even if you think you’ve heard it all before, I think this is a excellent one to watch and share.
Forbes Magazine called Vandana Shiva one of the seven most influential women in the world. A noted philosopher, scientist and author, Dr. Shiva addressed a full house at Coady International Institute at StFX University on the theme of food justice. — YouTube
Further watching:
Comments (3)More Yard Waste to Raised Beds
Urban Projects — by Mark Feineigle
Shed Bed
Continuing from my last post, after cleaning up our yard and several neighbors’ yards from another unusually strong storm here in south western Pennsylvania, I had a cache of branches to utilize in my garden construction. Our summers here have been getting hotter and drier so I wanted to take advantage of wood’s ability to help retain moisture, coupled of course with a blanket of straw to further retard evaporation.
Integrating Livestock in the Food Forest
Animal Forage, Bird Life, Breeds, Food Forests, Insects, Livestock, Plant Systems, Working Animals — by Eric Toensmeier January 24, 2013
Cattle grazing under alder in silvopasture system
at Las Canadas, Huatusco, Mexico
Integrating livestock seems to be the best way to have a larger-scale food forest (anything over one hectare or a couple of acres). If done properly, livestock integration can greatly reduce labor and fossil fuel needs. It can create the conditions for happy and healthy livestock. Done poorly, it can ruin soils and destroy crops. Here are a few things that I’ve been learning as I travel around and view this aspect of permaculture in action (plus some important tidbits from reading).
Comments (30)Laikipia Permaculture Centre – a New Centre for Kenya
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres — by Joseph Lentenyoi
PRI Kenya starts the Laikipia Permaculture Centre, with the theme: Permaculture for Food Security and Environmental Sustainability in Kenya.
School children using most of their time fetching firewood from great distances
Location: Laikipia County, North of the Great Rift Valley, Kenya
By putting up a permaculture training centre, this would translate into direct education on food growing, indigenous tree propagation leading to return of forest cover, water harvesting and conservation strategies, henceforth leading to a healthy community, self reliance and a self sustaining life that we desperately need in the developing world.
Comments (3)Australian Regulators Urged to Check Poison Threat from GM Food
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Safe Food Foundation January 23, 2013
 Cauliflower Mosaic Virus |
Australian food regulators are being urged to investigate alarming reports from Europe that GM crops worldwide may contain a gene that is potentially poisonous to humans.
A study by the EU’s official food watchdog – the European Food Safety Authority – has revealed that the international approval process for GM crops failed to identify the gene when these food crops were being assessed for safety.
The discovery is the work of independent experts, the EFSA’s Nancy Podevin and Patrick du Jardin of the University of Liege in Belgium.
The findings will come as an embarrassment to pro-GM interests during their current PR blitz in Australia and overseas.
Comments (0)Food For Thought – Permaculture in Schools (South Africa)
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education, Education Centres, Urban Projects — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
Watch the video above, and be inspired. I suspect that if many of our schools had been incorporating this kind of permaculture education over the last few decades, the world would today be in a far better situation, as many of the adults and young adults of the present generation would now already be eco-literate doers and changers. But, let’s not talk about what could have been, but instead do what we can to get permaculture education into a school near you….
Comments (4)Regulators Discover a Hidden Viral Gene in Commercial GMO Crops
GMOs, Health & Disease — by Jonathan Latham
by Jonathan Latham and Allison Wilson. Originally published on Independent Science News.
Cauliflower Mosaic Virus |
How should a regulatory agency announce they have discovered something potentially very important about the safety of products they have been approving for over twenty years?
In the course of analysis to identify potential allergens in GMO crops, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has belatedly discovered that the most common genetic regulatory sequence in commercial GMOs also encodes a significant fragment of a viral gene (Podevin and du Jardin 2012). This finding has serious ramifications for crop biotechnology and its regulation, but possibly even greater ones for consumers and farmers. This is because there are clear indications that this viral gene (called Gene VI) might not be safe for human consumption. It also may disturb the normal functioning of crops, including their natural pest resistance.
Comments (6)Children Raised on Farms Develop Better Immune Systems
Health & Disease — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor
It turns out that living a natural life on the land with regular contact with other living beings is healthier than living in a disinfected urban bubble. Who’da thunk it?
See also.
Comments (3)Manual for Creating a Community Food Forest on Public Land
Community Projects, Food Forests — by Andy Cambeis
Community — Food Forest — Public Land — Cluster model , by Andy Cambeis and Alexa Forbes
Creating a Food Forest on public land in New Zealand (or probably anywhere) is quite possible and I have documented my experiences of creating a food forest at Hawea Flat in Otago to help anyone else who’d like to give it a go. The manual is now freely available and I hope people will add to it and build on the information that’s there so that we can see soon food forests on public land throughout New Zealand. The manual shows how to go about getting permission to use public land, figuring out funding and charitable models, communicating with the local community as well as the ‘gardening’ side of working out what to plant and how to overcome site issues.
Eaglemont Project Matures (Australia)
Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Trees, Urban Projects — by Dan Palmer
During the Christmas break VEG’s Dan & family paid a social call to customers-become-friends Julian & Linda in Eaglemont, Victoria, Australia. We documented the large-scale design and implementation project we completed for Julian & Linda last year (see the design and during photos here and some shots of where it was all at about 10 months ago here).
The place is maturing beautifully and we took a few happy snaps of the back and front yards.
The topshelf VEG bed with flowers and grapes growing up over
the trellised pergola is looking particularly lovely
Water Not Fit to Drink
Conservation, Global Warming/Climate Change, Potable Water, Regional Water Cycle, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by I-SIS January 22, 2013
From pathogens, biological drugs, illicit drugs to arsenic, by Prof Joe Cummins
A fully referenced version of this article is posted on ISIS members website and is otherwise available for download here.
An intact forest ecosystem protects and supplies the watershed
Photo © Craig Mackintosh
Unpolluted healthy drinking water is a right not a privilege. That right must be protected and restored to those suffering from shortages of drinking water or forced to consume polluted water. Water suppliers must fully and truthfully report findings of water pollutants even at levels deemed to be safe for human consumption by regulatory bureaucracies.
An estimated one billion people lack access to safe, reliable water supplies, and two billion people lack adequate sanitation. In the face of growing populations, climate change, and increasing transboundary water issues, conflict and even warfare over water have been widely predicted [1]. Our goal must be to provide water security for all, especially for the poor everywhere.
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