The Farm Scarecrow Meme ...
Because, well, I have nothing positive worth sharing at the moment ...
From adversity comes opportunities
I haven't been blogging as much lately. In fact, I haven't done much of anything online lately. No twitter, no news collation, no personal blogs ... worse than that, I haven't done much of anything other than work.
If you've known me for a long time then you know I am a long term sufferer of depression. It's not something that (unsurprisingly) I tend to like to advertise. I take my meds and for the most part it's under control. However, sometimes, it surges forward and takes over for a while. During this period, that has happened again. Stress, illness and lack of sleep are the primary culprits for the resurgence. I'm sure I will get it under control again ...
So there's a whole bunch of activities that are now waylaid because of this.
Which has lead me to think that I may want to rethink certain aspects of the property.
This farm project has always been focussed on one end task: to become a teaching farm. To provide case studies. To be a working farm that can be used to bridge the gap between farmers and townies. To highlight different methods of farming and to further those lessons.
So ... I'm thinking that I may open the farm up to share farming.
There is a farm plan in place that incorporates splitting the land up into one to two Hectare lots that are based on keyline features. So, the option of taking on a small area to experiment and/or demonstrate a technique is viable.
I think it may be an option that allows the land to begin being used for the purpose I had in mind without my illness interfering.
Your views - Biological vs. Conventional farming?
One of the many activities I have signed up for includes volunteering as a Green Champion in my workplace. As part of the activities, we tend to put together different events on how staff can "green" their lives and improve their sustainability. This month we're going to put together a few articles around the topic of "Food and the Environment" and I've taken on the task of putting together an article for the above topic.
Now, I know I have a weakness, that is that I tend to get into the technical bits and bobs of the farming process. SO, I'm opening it up to you dear readers of far and wide. What would you like to see covered, answered or otherwise explained in such an article?
As consumers - what would you like to know?
Farmers - what do you wish was clarified?
Answer via the article response form and I'll endeavour to ensure it is covered!
Peaked ...
In this illustration, the blue ball represents the volume of all the water on earth, relative to the size of the earth.
That tiny speck to the right of the blue ball represents Earth’s total fresh water.
If Earth was the size of a basketball, all of its water would fit into a ping pong ball.
How much water is that? It’s roughly 326 million cubic miles (1.332 billion cubic kilometers), according to a recent study from the U.S. Geological Survey. Some 72 percent of Earth is covered in water, but 97 percent of that is salty ocean water and not suitable for drinking.
“There’s not a lot of water on Earth at all,” said David Gallo, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) in Massachusetts.
CREDIT: David Gallo/WHOI [SOURCE]
Did you know we have reached peak water?
Over the last 40 years, the demand for freshwater use has grown dramatically. What was once the domain of human thirst and food production has become a battlefield for usage rights by mining, manufacturing and industrial plants.
Why do they need fresh water? Simply because salt water will lower the lifespan of their equipment, So, in an effort to extend the equipment life,reduce operational expenditure - in short - increase profits, they will happily consume as much freshwater as they can. In fact, industry is the primary reason for groundwater mining.
Artesian wells have been sucked dry - with effects visible on the surface as lakes and rivers dry up with them - and is directly responsible for raising the sea levels by 13% as the used water is drained off into storm water drains and into the ocean.
So, who cares, we can de-salinate right?
I mean, any talk of issues of creating super saline patches of water and wet desserts aside, how about the fact that the process of creating power and not changing our ways are still affecting the the planetary boundaries …
The blackdots are are our current measures and estimates of how the different control variables for seven planetary boundaries have changed from 1950 to present.
The green shaded polygon represents the safe operating space.
For an 18m Synopsis Watch this TED Video:
The majority of the environmental impacts on the planet have been caused by the rich minority, the 20 percent that jumped onto the industrial bandwagon in the mid-18th century. The majority of the planet, aspiring for development, having the right for development,are in large aspiring for an unsustainable lifestyle, a momentous pressure.
[…]
Now, as a scientist, what’s the evidence for this? Well, the evidence is, unfortunately, ample. It’s not only carbon dioxide that has this hockey stick pattern of accelerated change. You can take virtually any parameter that matters for human well-being — nitrous oxide, methane,deforestation, overfishing land degredation, loss of species — they all show the same patternover the past 200 years. Simultaneously, they branch off in the mid-50s, 10 years after the Second World War, showing very clearly that the great acceleration of the human enterprisestarts in the mid-50s. You see, for the first time, an imprint on the global level. And I can tell you,you enter the disciplinary research in each of these, you find something remarkably important,the conclusion that we may have come to the point where we have to bend the curves, that we may have entered the most challenging and exciting decade in the history humanity on the planet, the decade when we have to bend the curves.
For Source Material read the full paper here
Why It’s Ethical to Eat Meat ...
The Ethicist column of the The New York Times Magazine started out an article with the following paragraph ...
Ethically speaking, vegetables get all the glory. In recent years, vegetarians — and to an even greater degree vegans, their hard-core inner circle — have dominated the discussion about the ethics of eating. From the philosopher Peter Singer, whose 1975 volume “Animal Liberation” galvanized an international movement, to the novelist Jonathan Safran Foer, who wrote the 2009 best seller “Eating Animals,” those who forswear meat have made the case that what we eat is a crucial ethical decision. To be just, they say, we must put down our cheeseburgers and join their ranks.
The article continues on and invite their readers to make the strongest possible case for this most basic of daily practices. Put simply, why is it ethical to eat meat?
National Soils Conference -
I know I am overdue in writing something about the event ... and I will get to it, I promise!
Researching the Components for an ECO House
So, the farm and the many projects that are involved there have taken a second place to the home building components and engineering specifications worksheets.
Well, specifically, the choice of items that we need to finalise so that the Architect and engineering firm can finalise the Building and Engineering specification sheets that can be used to then go to tender to find a builder.
This is not an easy task.
As per my previous post about the triangle of expectations this home brings, there are the many concepts that one must consider that involves trying to not only see yourself in the home, but in a lifestyle that may have altered in five years time.
That said, one is not forced to do this all alone.
Save the Date: October 06, 2012
By that date, I will have had the tree project seedlings (all 4000) delivered in early September and the saplings will have had a chance to have been aclimatised for a few weeks and ready to begin their plantings.
I am in the process of trying to organise a day on the property to surround the planting.
I will be sending out eMails to local landcare, DPI, CMA, DSE and Volunteer groups to invite them to think about joining us on the property to offer talks on the day around not just tree planting, but also land management issues. These, I hope, will include topics such as:
- Property and land management:
- salinity and erosion management,
- taking care of creeks and banks
- the value of paddock trees and wildlife corridors
- natural pest management
- fencing
- Choosing Native Trees
- Hedging
- Composting and Hugelkultur
- Sustainable Housing and Practices
- Choosing a site
- Passive Solar and Thermal Mass
- Trombe Walls
- Solar Ovens
... there are so many potential topics that can be covered.
I'd also like to open up the invitation to anyone who thinks they can offer a hand in planting, provide additional information sessions or topics they think may be of interest or help with logistics such as food and bathroom facilities.
There's a lot to do and not much time to organise it in -- and to be honest, I'm probably biting off more than I can chew, so any advice and assistance will be welcome and appreciated.
The triangle of expectation and the Autonomous Passive Eco house
Whenever it comes to any project, most of us are aware of the old triangle of expectation of "good, fast, cheap - pick two" and no truer is the sentiment than when looking at designing and building a home.
However, when you decide to take on a project with additional philosophies, then it becomes far more complicated.
In this case, we've decided to design and build a fully autonomous home that is designed on passive principles with three factors that guide the decisions undertaken - a fixed budget ceiling, a desire to ensure environmental sustainability and a desire for natural and healthy materials.
Here we have a new triangle of expectations now - affordable, sustainable and healthy. But is it truly a triangle or more of a venn diagram that we need? with a magical grey area that can provide a balance of the three?
