Category: Sustainable Settlement and Agriculture
The Generator is founded on the simple premise that we should leave the world in better condition than we found it. The news items in this category outline the attempts people have made to do this. They are mainly concerned with our food supply and settlement patterns. The impact that the human race has on the planet.
admin /24 January, 2009
Los Angeles based design company Design Shift has won the job of building an ecotower as part of an environmentally friendly urban development on the badly polluted Anning River in Sichuan. Forming a central focus in a network of artificial wetlands the building incorporates filtering equipment that will complement the role of the wetland plants in cleaning up the river. Like many Chinese rivers the Anning is so badly polluted that it is dangerous for people to come in contact with the water.
admin /24 January, 2009
The National Farmers Federation has developed a blueprint to recession-proof the Australian economy based an supplying a hungry world with food. “The world food shortage is worsening as the global population grows by 100 million a year while there is less land for production,” the proposal says, arguing that the government should invest significantly to expand Australia’s agricultural capacity. Titled, Feeding a Hungrier World, the proposal prioritises ten separate areas of concern including regional infrastructure, financial support for farmers and water management.
admin /24 January, 2009
The plume seen off Cairns.
Picture: CSIRO/EOS Nasa/Geoscience Australia/Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
Queensland Liberal National MP, David Gibson, said last week that farmers were gutted by accusations that chemical pollution in run-off after recent rains was endangering the Great Barrier Reef. Satellite images show a large plume of dirty rainwater covering the reef off Cairns. World Wildlife Foundations estimates that one million megalitres of water containing a chemical cocktail of farm pesticides, nutrients and sediment.”
Gibson says that farmers are doing everything in their power to reduce the negative impact of their activities/ “These sort of accusations make them simply want to give up trying,” he told The Generator.
admin /18 January, 2009
A fish farmer on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast has identified Carbendazim spray used by nearby Macadamia farmers as the cause of her crop of mutant fish. After studying the causes of mutations in fish crops over four years the farmer, Gwen Gilson, used hatchlings from the nearby river this year and found 90 percent of them mutated, a large number with two heads. She has made a video that explains her findings which is available on You Tube. Australian Macadamia Society boss, Jolyon Burnett, said “Macadamia farmers wouldn’t spray anything that would have serious health effects on their children.”Gwen Gilson’s video shows macadamia farmers spraying Carbendozim on their crop during high wind events.Carbendozim was banned in the United States in 2001.
admin /10 January, 2009
Leader of the Australian Nationals in the Senate, Barnaby Joyce, has said that the international trade lobby is squashing Australian farmers and small business people through uneven trade practices and poor labelling laws. Discussing the fight to label Australian grown food he noted, “The majors are saying you can’t have branding because it discriminates against Continue Reading →
admin /10 January, 2009
The government of The United Arab Emirates has called for help to build a zero waste, zero footprint city near Abu Dhabi. The city of Masdar invites innovators, incubators, research and development, pioneers and solution providers to create, work and live in Masdar City. The government describes the project as a pioneering exercise designed to show the world how future cities should be built. The government is determined to invest its revenue from finite hydrocarbons into building a sustainable economy and provide a future for its citizens.
