Ed Dowding

Category: Agriculture & Food

Notes from the Pyrenees

A first tentative vodcast… Music muchos gracias to the overwhelmingly talented Nathaniel Slade (Licence)

Fact about bottle water

Via Webecoist

FarmSubsidy.org

Interesting little site. See who near you is getting big old farm subsidies from Europe: FarmSubsidy.org Note, of course, that this does not mean they’re minted, just that they get some money from them. See also: http://www.followthemoney.eu/

Looking for a happy, well paid job? Become a gardener

1 acre of land = £43,000 income per year for about 30 days work.. Every time they harvested anything from their modest 1600 square foot (150 square metre) garden, they recorded it and compiled these figures into a spreadsheet and came up with an amazing 834 lb (380kg) of total harvest. From this they computed ...

Kim Stanley Robinson on BldgBlog

It seems Kim Stanley Robinson and I are in accord. The more we can live in keeping with our evolutionary history, the happier we are likely to be. Simple pleasures which put us in “the zone”, mind and body working in harmony, within our comfort zone, but occasionally brushing up against the edges to keep ...

Green Revolution in India Wilts as Subsidies Backfire

In the 1970s, India dramatically increased food production, finally allowing this giant country to feed itself. But government efforts to continue that miracle by encouraging farmers to use fertilizers have backfired, forcing the country to expand its reliance on imported food. India has been providing farmers with heavily subsidized fertilizer for more than three decades. ...

Ethical bottled water is an oxymoron

‘How Bad For The Environment Can Throwing Away One Plastic Bottle Be?’ 30 Million People Wonder All agreed that disposing of what would eventually amount to 50 tons of thermoplastic polymer resin wasn’t the end of the world. “It’s not like I don’t care, because I do, and most of the time I don’t even ...

A farm for the future

I finally got around to watching A Farm for the Future (available on Google Video) a few nights ago, and found it to be a great introduction to the concepts of permaculture. Key things to realise (some not from the programme): Current methods of farming will not continue to feed you during your lifetime. We ...

Do you have unused land in London? Get free money!

A share of £75,000 is now up for grabs for London’s green-fingered community groups. The cash is available as part of the Capital Growth scheme, supported by the Mayor of London and managed by London Food Link, which encourages Londoners to grow their own food in under-used areas of the capital. People can apply online ...

Hubris and humus – Lessons from the garden

After a day and a half of driving rain, which seemed very befitting once the mountains and forests were made dark by the thick cloud cover, the weather cleared up on Sunday afternoon so we went out to the garden to do some pruning, since it is the season. We read up about it in ...

Good.is' most popular infographics of 2009

http://www.good.is/post/transparency-good-s-most-popular-infographics-of-2009/

Supermarkets are still totally lame

I don’t think anyone really needs much convincing over the unintended consequences of supermarkets (inner city decline, fewer jobs in retailing, etc), but they aren’t delivering the savings we think they do, either. The EC is currently investigating the failure of supermarkets to pass price cuts on to shoppers. The cost of butter has fallen ...

How not to sell permaculture

…we will be co-creating a warm, nurturing heartspace to explore the personal and social aspects of permaculture…

Peak Everything

The World According to Monsanto

I’ve just been watching ‘The World According to Monsanto’. It’s pretty compelling stuff. As one of the contributors says, “Seed is more powerful than bombs, more powerful than guns” and given that, you’d have thought that we’d be a little more careful about what we do it. 70% of the food in the USA contains ...

Repurposing bikes

We recycle used bicycles to build pedal-powered machines, bicimáquinas, which support and help facilitate the work of small-scale, self-sustainable projects. Through this work we hope to contribute to the conservation of the environment, the health or the Guatemalan people, and the productivity of the local economy. MAYAPEDAL. Via @Al_Humphreys

Link roundup

Belgian city plans ‘veggie’ days Just Add Spice – Spice is a social enterprise that develops credit systems for engaging people in communities and public services. Spice’s community credit systems have been tried and tested and are uniquely successful in dramatically increasing participation of community members in public services and in achieving community transformation. Spice ...

Link Round up

Rethinking the food system – aka Food Security, with Tim Lang About 95% of people do not want ID cards Bolivia’s Chacaltaya glacier is completely melted What can we learn from the 1918 flu pandemic? Prince Charles’ Rainforest Charity – RainforestSOS.org Delivering medicines and information via Coke crates in Africa

An enormous civilisation discovered in the Amazon

I watched a great documentary last night about hunting for El Dorado. (Actually more like ‘El Dorado II’, because the main El Dorado story comes from a place called Muiscas in modern day Colombia, courtesy of conquistador ‘Jimmy the Cheese’, aka Jiménez de Quesada, in 1537). But this story is about another chap, Francisco Orellana, ...

The Ancient Greek economy

On the other hand, ancient Greek values held in low esteem economic activities that were not subordinated to the traditional activities of managing the family farm and obtaining goods for necessary consumption. So-called banausic work, which included manufacturing, business, and trade (which were not tied to the land and the family farm), and what we ...