One of the most awarded marine conservationists in the world, Valerie Taylor and her husband Ron have saved many species of fish and set aside many areas of the Australian coastline as marine parks. With our current focus on sharks and the negative attention they get on Australia’s East Coast, this cut of the interview Continue Reading →
BEN CUBBY – Sydney Morning Herald THE NSW Government has turned over a new leaf after decades of opposing commercial cannabis, revealing plans for a new scheme to grow the plant on an industrial scale. It will introduce legislation in weeks to allow farms to grow hemp, the fibres and oil of which can be Continue Reading →
The typical image of the Mediterranean is a blue sea with white-walled houses clinging to the rocky landscape. Every spring, after the Easter processions when the Mistral stops blowing, house-proud citizens freshen up those walls with a bucket of whitewash.
The power of a simple mixture of lime, chalk and water to hide the ravages of a year’s wear and tear is so compelling it has entered the language. When a politician puts the best face on a difficult policy, we accuse them of ‘whitewashing’ the truth.
The language lives and whitewash has now acquired a green tinge as companies appeal to environmentally careful consumers. Some of them claim green credentials where no green credentials exist. Culprits range from “green phones” through “eco-credit cards” to “clean, green nuclear power”. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has had to step in and regulate the offset of carbon dioxide emissions and provide guidelines and definitions for the term “climate neutral”.
Your challenge is to develop the necessary X-ray vision to see past the greenwash to the facts underneath. A mixture of specific examples and general principles are provided here to hone your green wash detectors.
UK local food initiatives Organisations & programs Allotments regeneration initiativehttp://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ari/ Campaign to protect rural Englandhttp://www.cpre.org.uk/home DEFRA Public sector food procurement initiativehttp://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/policy/sustain/procurement/ DEFRA Sustainable farming and food strategyhttp://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/policy/sustain/index.htm Eat the view (2000-2006 archive)http://www.countryside.gov.uk/LAR/archive/ETV/index.asp Farmers Weekly food miles http://www.fwi.co.uk/gr/foodmiles/index.html Federation of city farms and community gardens http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/ Food desertshttp://www.fooddeserts.org/ Food vision http://www.foodvision.gov.uk/ Local food.orghttp://www.localfood.org.uk/ Local food Continue Reading →
Cuban permaculturist, Roberto Perez, and star of Power of Community – the documentary film about Cuba’s transition to local, organic food production – is touring Australia at the moment. He tol The Generator on Wednesday that people from NSW Northern Rivers had played a significant role in his journey as a permaculturist.
Listen to the interview online.
His tour of Australia to deliver the message that western countries need to prepare themselves for a significant change in the way food is grown and distributed was launched in Byron Bay last week, because of his long term connection with the area.
The topic of local food has always been close to the heart of the Generator. As the introductory song says, "It’s about the plants you grow; the energy you use. It’s about the things you give and take … from the world around you … it’s about turning ideas into action." When we first brought Continue Reading →