[Pil-pc-oceania] THE NEWS
RussGrayson
info at pacific-edge.info
Thu Oct 11 22:54:21 EST 2007
An occasional newsletter from Pacific-Edge - www.pacific-edge.info
Find more on permaculture and sustainability at www.pacific-edge.info
NEWS
Planting Material Network online
Fiona Campbell writes...
Hi,
The Solomon Islands Planting Material Network is a farmer¹s seed saving
organisation set up in the Solomon Islands in 2006 by the Kastom Gaden
Association (then the Kastom Garden Project of Sydney NGO, APACE).
Since 1994, permaculture-trained people Tony Jansen, Russ Grayson and myself
have worked with Kastom Gaden and the Planting Material Network as project
staff. We are now with the TerraCircle concultancy operating in the South
West Pacific, Australia and other places http://www.terracircle.org.au
Currently, I am redesigning the TerraCircle website and adding new content.
I've just finished pulling together a website for the Planting Material
Network that some of you may be interested in:
http://www.terracircle.org.au/pmn/
You will find their latest pdf downloadable Planting Material Network
newsletter that focuses on keeping kokorako :
http://www.terracircle.org.au/pmn/newsletters/index.html
The new, pdf, downloadable, kokorako keeping information sheet is found
at: http://www.terracircle.org.au/pmn/Information_sheets/index.html
A pdf file of the Community Seed Saving manual is found at:
http://www.terracircle.org.au/pmn/publications/publications.html
Website urgrade for Kastom Gaden Association
I have just uploaded pdf files of the training manuals that TerraCircle
consultants
(www.terracircle.org.au) has produced for Kastom Gaden Association:
http://www.terracircle.org.au/kga/publications/t_manuals/index.html
These are the manuals uploaded:
- Improved Household Gardening Skills
- Integrated Pest Management
- Kai Kokorako - keeping koorako for subsistence and income in the Solomon
Islands.
These publications have also been placed on the Kastom Gaden Association
website as pdf files:
- Rapid Assessment of Agriculture and Food Security - Western and
Choiseul Province Earthquake and Tsunami Disaster, April 2007
- Blue Seas and Bush Gardens - Russ Grayson¹s (from TerraCircle, earlier
project manager with APACE) book evaluating the Kastom Garden Project.
http://www.terracircle.org.au/kga/publications/index.html
...Fiona
..............................
Want to move a community garden?
Mark Hall writes...
Dear All,
On the weekend of 13/14 October 2007 the Macquarie University Community
Garden will be relocating. It is moving from its present location off
Culloden Road to a new site about 100 meters down the road.
If anyone would like to assist then please feel welcome to come. This
would be a good opportunity to get in and join a community organic garden
that will be starting afresh on a large, flat site with good sun exposure.
There is a fair bit of physical work involved in the relocation. Plants and
fruit trees need to be moved, together with a range of materials, sheds, a
200kg worm farm, fencing, etc.
If anyone has a backhoe/tipper/bobcat/excavator or similar ( to be use for
ground clearing/ picking up materials ) that could be made available then
this would be greatly appreciated.
We have most tools, but a few mattocks /picks could be useful.There will
be some digging required.
Bring some water, a hat, some seeds and some veges to plant.
Please contact : Mark Hall - markhall1 at bigpond.com : tel : 02 9868
7086- 0408 869 863 Neil Hom - neilholm at mcis.edu.au : tel : 02 9850
6132
Thanks
Mark Hall
..............................
New food coop for Illawarra
Can't afford to buy organic food regularly? Help us start an organic food
co-op in the northern Illawarra.
Aims:
. provide quality, low-cost organic dry goods and grocery items
through a registered co-operative
· support Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Highlands organic growers
and producers
· minimise food miles and uncessary packaging
Why a registered co-op?
· by the members, for the members
· one member, one vote
· all welcome
· secure, audited legal structure
Contacts: Kerrie O'Connor 0431 438 143; Alison McDonald: 0401 177 573.
..............................
Information request: food coop for Penrith area
Karen McCavana writes...
Hello All,
I am working on a project to establish a food co-operative in a
school in the Penrith area. If anyone has information about existing school
food co-operatives in Australia I would be interested to hear from you.
Regards, Karen.
Karen McCavana Public Health Nutritionist Blue Mountains Hospital Email:
mccavak at wahs.nsw.gov.au Phone: (02) 4784 6529 Fax: (02) 4784 6980
..............................
Flemington Community Garden on TV
Ben Neil writes...
Hi, The wonderful Community Garden at Flemington has made the final of
Channel 7¹s ³Australia¹s Best Backyard² and is in the running to win the
title. We need your help to secure the title and win the prize. Winning the
title will assist us in publicising the importance of Urban Agriculture and
the role of local food production.
(No I won¹t be getting the prize myself! It will be auction off and the
money used the garden.)
To view the clip please click on the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_ETQnVl5_g
Please call 1902 55 77 77 or text 191 777 with your name, State and backyard
number 6.
Thank you for supporting the community garden movement
Thanks Ben Neil, Chief Executive Officer, Cultivating Community,
www.cultivatingcommunity.org.au <http://www.cultivatingcommunity.org.au/>
..............................
Permaculture International website new material
New features and events have been added to the Permaculture International
website - www.permacultureinternational.org
You too can have your events and course dates placed here. Contact Tim
Winton timwinton at internode.on.net or myself at info at pacific-edge.info
Recent features added to www.permacultureinternational.org:
Vanuatu delegation commends NGO on its organic approach - a food security,
farming and training program started by people with permaculture links
continues into its thirteenth year and is commended by a visiting Vanatuan
delegation.
Profligacy, greed or simply don't care? - The ecological footprint of
Sydney¹s Eastern Suburbs shows steady growth.
Permaculture Politics: New Pythagorean Links permaculture veteran, Colin
Ball¹s controversial article has already triggered angry responses on the
Permaculture International Oceania listserv.
Energy descent: the opportunity to relocalise David Holmgren has a word or
two about peak oil and its consequences.
Garden agriculture key to boosting urban food production, says David
Holmgren David Holmgren promotes urban agriculture at the 2007 Australian
City Farms & Community Gardens Network annual conference in Melbourne.
New times need new approaches - The decline of environment groups and the
future of sustainability activism in the new century.
A Taste of the Bush in the Backyard Robyn Francis leads us on a discovery
of the culinary potential of bushfoods, an essential component for all
Australian permaculture gardens and lovers of good food.
Unsustainable Food Production Its Social Roots and Remedies Newcastle
University¹s Terry Leahy's analysis of unsustainable food production. Terry
is a long-time commentator and analyst of permaculture and sustainability.
How to make Banana Flower Salad Sido¹s amazing recipe for a part of the
banana tree we usually discard into the compost heap.
...............................
Latest edition of ŒBobbing Around¹ online
Bob Rich writes:
³Just to let you know that the SEVENTH year of my ezine Bobbing Around has
started. I had way too much excellent material for the first issue. It's
over-size, and I still have lots of good writing for the next one. All the
same, I managed to squeeze in a little bit of my own writing. :)
To have a look, please go to http://mudsmith.net/bobbing7-1.html
All the best, Bob
...............................
Permaculture Central Coast¹s newsletter now available
President Vicky Gear writes that Permaculture Central Coast¹s October
newsletter is available.
Contact Vicki if you want to join their mailing list: vickyg at aapt.net.au
...............................
Border Permaculture Association¹s newsletter out now, too
The industrious Albury-Wodonga permaculture folk have been busy putting
finger to keyboard.
Obtain their newsletter by contacting:
Andrea Cook <swarajharvest at bigpond.com>
..............................
Assignment complete
Australia-Pacific development assistance consultancy, TerraCircle, in
association with local NGO, Kastom Gaden Association (KGA), has completed
the third and final assessment of the food security, energy needs and social
conditions of isolated regions of the Solomon Islands.
The assessments provide baseline information from which projects may be
designed.
The Solomon Islands is a large archepalego about three hours flying time
north west of Brisbane, in the South West Pacific. TerraCircle has a
long-established partnership with KGA and provides services to it such as
carrying out the assessments in cooperation with KGA staff. The assessments
received funding from AusAID.
Collecting information for the reports can be an arduous task, usually
carried out on foot over an extensive area and, where needed, by motor
canoe. The regions have little by way of transport and there are no roads.
Writing up and laying out the latest report, of an isolated region of
central Malaita island, is to start soon. A pdf edition of the report will
appear on KGA website with links from www.terracircle.org.au and
www.pacific-edge.info
Two earlier reports on the isolated weather coast of Guadalcanal and Makira
can now be downloaded from www.terracircle.org.au, along with other
publications.
...............................
OFA moves forward with Australian standard for organic food retail
The Organic Federation Australia (OFA) has held its first meeting to set an
Australian Standard for Organic and Biodynamic Products in Australia. The
meeting of the Standards Australia committee took plaace on May 7 this year
in Sydney.
The meeting supported the development of an interim Australian Standard and
agreed to use the existing national standard as the basis. According to OFA,
this has three advantages:
1. Regulatory authorities such as the ACCC can start prosecuting products
that are false or deceptive in their labeling. 2. It gives OFA two years to
develop the final standard with full sector consultation. 3. It will mean
minimal changes for existing certified producers and processors.
The OFA welcomed the media release from the office of the Hon. Peter
McGauran MP, Federal Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
regarding the Ministers¹ decision on the Australian Standard at this
meeting:
"Council noted that the development of an Australian Standard for Organic
and Biodynamic Produce by Standards Australia will provide greater certainty
and credibility for the industry and consumers and will help the industry
maintain its recent strong rate of growth. Council agreed to consider the
need for a regulatory framework once the Australian Standard is developed
and agreed to consult the organic sector as part of this process."
..............................
For those with an interest in photojurnalism and media history...
Robert Capa is acknowledged to be the icon of conflict photography. From the
Spanish Civil War in the 1930s, through his famous coverage of D-Day, to his
death at age 40 in Indochina in 1954, he was on virtually every front line
for over two decades.
However, as the expression goes, "behind every great man stands a great
woman." For Capa, that woman was his collaborator and lover, Gerda Taro. A
strongly influential force in his early career, Taro was with him in Spain,
often photographing at his side. Sadly, her life was cut short in Spain when
she was crushed by a tank. She was only 26 years old. For the past 70 years,
her life and work have remained largely unknown to the public. But thanks to
a remarkable exhibition currently at The Center of Photography in New York,
on view alongside a show of Capa's work, Gerda Taro has finally been given a
chance to emerge from the shadow of her legendary partner. We are proud to
present highlights of these exhibits as this month's cover story, along with
an appreciation by Ron Steinman.
In the summer of 2006, Paolo Pellegrin and writer Scott Anderson covered the
carnage in Lebanon. They both found that this was a different war from any
they had ever experienced. The battlefield shifted daily. Waiters who
brought them coffee were shooting rockets at Israeli positions a few hours
later.
Pellegrin and Anderson have recently published a book, DOUBLE BLIND, which
testifies to the horrors of a war that Pellegrin claims "is a harbinger of
the 'modern' wars to come." Pellegrin, who is a member of Magnum, the agency
that Capa co-founded, was awarded the 2007 Robert Capa Gold Medal for his
work on this story. View his compelling B&W photo gallery in this issue and
you will see why.
Find this materal at Digital Journalist: http://digitaljournalist.or
..............................
IN THE MEDIA
The SYDNEY MORNING HERALD reported on August 23, 2007, in a stry entitled
³Issues with Woolies' green tissues², that Woolworths is marketing tissue
and paper products as environmentally responsible even though the paper is
imported from Indonesia, a country with one of the world's worst records for
illegal and unsustainable logging.
The story goes on...
³It also appears to be sourcing at least some of the paper from Asia Pulp
and Paper, an Indonesian company with what green groups have described as an
appalling environment and human rights reputation. Woolworths is using a
"Sustainable Forest Fibre" logo on its premium home brand "Select" range of
tissue and paper products, and claims they are "from a certified
environmentally managed company that is environmentally, socially and
economically responsible".
³However, timber industry and environment organisations contacted by the
Herald had never heard of ŒSustainable Forest Fibre¹. The paper producers
are clearly marked as Indonesian, but the supplier is not named. However,
the ŒSelect¹ packs of six tissues are embossed with ŒAPP¹.
³Asia Pulp and Paper, one of the world's biggest pulp and paper companies,
has engaged in illegal logging in Indonesia and destroyed a large area of
the nation's rainforests, said a Greens member of the NSW Parliament, John
Kaye.²
--------
http://www.theecologist.org/news in a story entitled ³Eco-home ruled a
danger to dormice² reported on 30/07/2007 that... ³The Roundhouse, an
eco-home in the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, faces demolition after an
ecological survey concluded that it threatened biodiversity.
³The park planning committee ruled that the reed bed filtration system and
organic garden installed by Roundhouse owners Tony Wrench and Jane Faith had
replaced undisturbed semi-natural vegetation, endangering protected species
such as dormice and bats.
³This decision is the latest twist in Tony Wrench¹s ten-year battle for
retrospective planning permission, and a test case for Pembrokeshire county
council¹s radical new planning policy. Introduced last year, this policy
grants planning permission to low-impact developments (LIDs) that meet
stringent sustainability criteria.
³Campaigners for self-sufficient housing have responded to the decision with
dismay. In a letter to the park authority, ecological designer Mark Fisher
accused them of having ²double standards², arguing that: ³I don¹t see the
national park using ecological surveys to condemn the broadscale
agricultural practices that go in the park.² He said that this landmark
decision showed that: ³any genuine attempt at integrating human existence
with wild nature² will ³be stamped on by whatever means.²
--------
The ecologist also reports in ³Organic farming CAN feed the world¹,
published on 17/07/2007... ³A new study by scientists at the
University of Michigan in the US suggests that on farms in industrialised
countries, organic farming can produce comparable yields to those achieved
by conventional farming.
³In the less-industrialised world, however, the study showed that up to
three times greater yields can be obtained by farming organically. These
results were achieved using existing quantities of organic fertilisers -
such as manure or green manure - and without turning more land over to food
production.
³Professor Ivette Perfecto, lead author of the research, said she was struck
by the yields which could be obtained from organic farming, and how these
could be obtained by simple methods such as growing nitrogen-fixing crops
in-between harvest and sowing times. She added that assuming the world would
go hungry if forced to farm organically was 'ridiculous'².
.............................
COURSES
Djanbung Gardens
Course: 2-week intensive Permaculture Design Course
Date: November 5-17, 2007
Venue: Djanbung Gardens international permaculture education centre, Nimbin
Northern NSW.
Fee: This course is a no-frills special cost of only $790 and includes a
comprehensive PDC handbook of note and resources.
Contact: admin at permculture.com.au
Blurb: Don't miss this opportunity to learn at Australia's leading
permaculture education centre in sub-tropical Northern NSW, with Robyn
Francis and team of experienced permaculturists and trainee pc teachers.
Dynamic, interactive and well-grounded training in a permaculture paradise
of living sustainability.
Full PDC curriculum covered.
The training team for this PDC will include graduates from the Erda
Institute full-time Cert IV in Permaculture who have recently completed the
Training & Assessment Cert IV course with Robin Clayfield and Robyn Francis
- this dynamic team of enthusiastic and exceptionally capable young permie
professionals are looking forward to facilitating innovative creative
processes in the PDC. This promises to be a most inspiring and empowering
living learning experience.
Camping available on site. Meals will be communally prepared and shared.
..............................
Byron Bay
Course: Accredited Permaculture Training training as post-carbon
professionals. Certificate 4 and Diploma fast track.
Date: March 2008.
Venue: Byron Bay and environs, Northern NSW.
Fee:
Contact: info at permaforesttrust.org.au www.permaforesttrust.org.au
Blurb: Energy descent action planning, community climate change strategies,
relocalisation plannning, community sustainability initiatives, food
security, community gardens, past-carbon transition and more.
...............................
APT training on NSW South Coast
John Champagne writes...
³The Far South Coast Community College are pleased to be able to offer a TAA
Certificate 4 for Creative Facilitation in Bega starting late November.
Robin Clayfield and Virginia Solomon are the tutors and this 8 day course is
a requirement if your interested in delivering Accredited Permaculture
Training².
kind regards, John Champagne - Mumbulla Bioregion.
Find details of this course at: www.permacultureinternational.org/ > Events
..............................
EVENTS
Location: Sydney, Eastern Suburbs
Event: Wentworth Electorate Climate Change Forum
Venue: Auditorium, Waverley RSL Club, 1-9 Gray Street, Bondi Junction
Date & times: 17th October 2007 at 7pm
Contacts: Bookings 02 4647 6594 or lizzie.rose at mcsl.org.au
Cost: $150 includes lunch, materials.
Details: The action that residents of Wentworth take now to influence the
candidates will have a major impact on how Australia tackles climate change.
Come and find out how your candidates intend to represent your views about
climate change.
MC: Samantha Lang, film writer/director and Wentworth local SPEAKER: Dr Mark
Diesendorf, Institute of Environmental Studies, UNSW, introducing "Climate
Change, the State of Play".
Information: See the flyer here:
http://www.wfca.org.au/documents/ClimateChangeForum.pdf
..............................
Event: Earth oven workshop
Venue: Macarthur Centre for Sustainable Liiving, 1 Mt Annan Drive, Mt Annan
(about 1.25 hr drive from Sydney along Hume Highway).
Date & times: Saturday/Sunday 20-21 October 2007, 10-4pm.
Contacts: Bookings 02 4647 6594 or lizzie.rose at mcsl.org.au
Cost: $150 includes lunch, materials.
Details: A practical Œhands on¹ workshop run by keen permaculturalist and
strawbale builder Sue Mossman Learn how to build a low tech earth oven for
your backyard so you can enjoy the aroma of fresh bread and pizza baked at
home! Participants will build an oven on site using raw materials;
including discussion on design, construction material selection, temperature
control and cooking tips
Information: lizzie.rose at mcsl.org.au www.mcsl.org.au
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
RUSS GRAYSON journalism, editing, online journalism &
content, photojournalism, instructional manuals/communication services for
international development
PO Box 1045, Manly, NSW 1655 AUSTRALIA info at pacific-edge.info P: 0414 065
203 www.pacific-edge.info
TerraCircle international development team, Oceania www.terracircle.org.au
Australian City Farms & Community Gardens Network www.communitygarden.org.au
Sydney Food Fairness Alliance www.sydneyfoodfairness.org.au
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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