be inspired

On 21 September 2009, at more than 2600 events in 135 countries across the globe joined together to issue a deafening wake-up call to world leaders on climate change.
Check out Avaaz, the organisers, Avaaz is a 'new global web movement with a simple democratic mission: to close the gap between the world we have, and the world most people everywhere want..'

FROM PLAINS TO PLATE: THE FUTURE OF FOOD IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA

FROM PLAINS TO PLATE: THE FUTURE OF FOOD IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA
CALL FOR WORKSHOPS AND PRESENTATIONS

From climate change, salinity, and the peaking of world oil
production, to issues of trade, urban planning and public health,
securing sustainable and just food systems in South Australia is
facing growing challenges.

In February 2010, “From Plains to Plate: the Future of Food in South
Australia” will be held in Adelaide. “From Plains to Plate” will seek
to build networks between active communities, government and industry
to strengthen South Australia’s food system in the face in these
intensifying environmental, social and economic challenges.

We are currently seeking expressions of interest from farmers,
gardeners, planners,
activists, permaculturalists, cooks, community
workers, health professionals, teachers, policy makers and others to
participate by offering workshops in your field of interest.

If you:
- are involved with projects that aim strengthen local food systems,
(including community gardens, co-operatives, cow-shares, fruit and
vegetable exchanges, guerrilla gardening, community-supported
agriculture or more); or
- have practical skills to share, (including on gardening, design,
composting, livestock, preserving, roof gardens, community building or
more); or
- have a food-security concept that you would like to initiate or
share; or
- can offer a professional or community perspective on food issues and
challenges
We want to hear from you!

For more information, or to register your interest in presenting,
please forward your name, organisation, contact details and a short
summary of your proposed topic
to joel.catchlove@foe.org.au.

ORGANISATIONAL SUPPORT
While “From Plains to Plate” has been initiated by community
environment group Friends of the Earth, it is growing into a broad
coalition committed to developing local responses to food production
and security. We are currently seeking organisational support and
partnerships, please contact us for more information.
For more information on “FROM PLAINS TO PLATE”, visit Friends of the Earth

dying to be green

Rixa wrote a great post on home burial a few days ago on her blog Stand and Deliver which got me thinking about the connections between birth and death and just how removed we have become in western, highly industrialised societies from the cycles of life and our propensity to hand over the 'management' of some of the most intimate expereinces we ever face as humans to commercial business. The baby/body becomes the comodity. Home birth may be still a fringe occourence, less than 0.1% of women birth at home today in Australia, the statistics on home funerals/wakes I'm unclear about.

When Simons wife died he brought her home and held her wake here. It freaked me a bit at first to know that. That my study... but in my heart I believed what he did was the right thing so i managed my weirded out feelings. When my twin sister died, my mum carried her coffin in the car to the crematorium. Being close and involved seems important in the grief process.

When i was living in Thailand and on holiday with my boyfriend in his rural hometown, his grandfather passed away and it was one of the most incredible expereinces i heve ever had and the memory has always been a wonderful one. For three days the whole community prepared. As Thais live in rather open style homes you could see preparations going on all down the main street where his family lived; grandma and grandpa lived across the road and cousins and aunts and uncles down the street, so you could see into peoples homes and the preparations the community was undertaking. Men were hard at work making the coffin and preparing the ceremony and women were sitting around threading flowers onto strings to make hundreds of garlands for the service and preparing huge pots of food.
Come the day of the service i was blown away. we walked across to his grandparents home/shop and the shop had been clearerd out to make rom for all the guests. The coffin sat in pride of place but set back into a corner. It looked fantastic. It looked like a tall decorative steamboat, and it stood three tiers high. The bottom tier contained the body, then there was a smaller long box on top and another smaller one on top of that. I am not sure if these other boxes served a purpose. The coffin was beautiful, painted black and decorated ornately with thousands of tiny coloured tinfoil cutouts. It looked like sparkly mosaic and it was draped in twinkling fairy lights and flower garlands. It was the most beautiful coffin Ive ever seen. The attending monk sat next to the coffin and conducted the service which was full of guest chatterings and not alot of listening! My boyfriends grandma seemed to pay more attention to my novel blonde hair than the service for her husband! After the service, the coffin was lifted by the men in the family and carried it low and we walked, some 100 strong down the middle of the main street of his small town, to the temple where the body was deposited to be burnt, returnng to my boyfriends house to feast. The ownership of that funeral was intense and is something i have since realised is so humane, normal and integrating.

Rixa talked briefly about home burial, now Im not sure what the legalities of that are in Australia. But I know 'green' funerals are becoming more popular as cremation and burial both have environmental impacts. Eco funerals in Adelaide provide cardboard coffins lined in calico, carbon offset credits and use Toyota Yaris! (how a body fits lying down in a Yaris i dont know!) and WhiteKnight, also in Adelaide, have removed the coffin completely, shrouding the body in cotton then hessian - no wood, no waste, no varnish, no metal, no formaldehyde leaching into the grondwater. Additionally , instead of burying the body at the "traditional six feet under, the body is buried at medium depth, allowing it to break down at a normal, healthy rate rather than the much slower rate imposed by anaerobic conditions further down in the soil" How green is that?

Bush burials are taking off and its this kind of burial that I'd like. Bushland setting, body in ground, tree planted on top. Yes please. If i could, id be propped under a tree somewhere in the outback, but thats not allowed. Burials, even so called bush burials must take place in a designated 'graveyard' and there are only a few in Australia, Lismore, Adelaide and Tassie. These kinds of burials coupled with a home wake and preparation seem to me to be more humane, more loving, intimate and meaningful and certainly greener. How 'bout you, what are your preferences? grin.

and the winner is?

Last night in Adelaide the Greenpeace design awards for 2009 were held. Due to incredible interest and volume of submissions,the awards were split into an international and Aussie category. Some incredible designs were put forward. The winner,second place and runner up? who do you think?

a cool first

XERO Project, a proposal for an "X" of greenways and zero-energy building design in downtown Dallas, earned one of three first-place prizes in the Re:Vision Dallas design competition on May 28, 2009. The juried competition—led by The City of Dallas and Urban Re:Vision in partnership with Central Dallas CDC and BC Workshop—sought visionary ideas in sustainable urban and architectural design by asking the question, "What if one block in Texas became the sustainable model for the world?" The competition team awaits a meeting with the Central Dallas CDC to present their design and to build the most sustainable district in America.

Thanks to City Farmer News, i love these news pieces, they make my day coz change cant happen without political support and leadership.

wife of a preacher man

Simon has decided to throw his hat into the political ring after much urging from the The Greens, for the next election to the lower house ... life could be about to get very hectic. Im excited but Im also thinking that life as we know it will change whatever the outcome... but Im happy for him, he has been a dedicated activist for over 25 years. Recent success by several Greens members in securing federal and state seats is a very encouraging sign of the times and a good indication that the populace is beginning to vote with their feet!Go Si!

Kiva micro-loans

As promised, 2 names drawn. First out of the palm was Veggie Gnome! Then came Ramsey!
I then discovered that Emma from Indian Earth had gone ahead since reading the giveaway Haiku and put up $25 of her own for a micro-loan!! - nice work Emma - so im gonna give another one to Kale for Sale then all four of you will be loaners! As Emma said 'Be the change you want to see'.

I have been micro-loaning for a while. Its easy. I like to lend to women who are supporting families and who are prospoing sustainable and 'ethical' businesses (not soft drink sellers). I think these micro -loans are a brilliant idea. They are non interest bearing loans; you make no money on the 'investment', you just get your initial investment back. Then when the loan is repayed in full you can choose to make that money available for another entrepreneur or redeem your money. For the recipient, it can mean the difference between susbsitence living or a more secure future. By by-passing the big banking system this way, we are building our own community and providing opportunity for people who do not meet big bank lending criteria. For me, micro-loans are a way to express my belief in sharing the wealth around without condition so i have never chosen to take my money out of the Kiva system, i always re-loan and every time a loan is repayed, for each loan i add another, hence this giveaway; 2 loans were repayed.

So Katrina at Kale for Sale, Veggie Gnome from The Mad Gnome Strikes Again and Ramsey of Sunshine Valley Hut, I will email you your $25 Kiva gift certificates to redeem at your leisure and to loan to whomever you choose. Pass on the Kiva word, give locally too and thanks for reading Haiku!

Haiku Friday

post me a comment.
two micro-loans up for grabs
just two get the gift.

i will draw the winners randomly on 1/6/09