10/09/08

Email discussions can be difficult to follow, but this one is interesting. It is in latest first sequence.

10/09/08

Hi Chris, I have had another thought, which is do you (or the group) feel there is any merit in approaching these other organisations on a similar path to ours to see if they would consider forming some kind of alliance - many years ago I was involved with the Wildlife and Countryside Act as it was going through parliament and a committee was formed by all the various ngo's such as Greenpeace, RSPCA, FoE, Ramblers Association, Marine Conservation Society (and so on) to work together with unified voice, to achieve a common objective. This strikes me as a very sensible way to proceed. I would appreciate your thoughts on this. The larger the group, the louder the voice.

With all good wishes,

S…

09/09/08

I feel this is something Charity should respond to. We can certainly make the case that elements of the PFAF system can help towards food security

• permaculture approaches to soil health prevent loss of fertility and ensure long term security
• systems less reliant on fossil fuels/agro-chemical reduce reliance on imports of these from foreign countries
• shade tolerant plants allow effective land area to increase
• there is a vegan dimension as large reduction in land use for a vegan diet
• a diversity of plants increase resilience to climatic changes

In the past we have had fairly positive responses to contributions to these.

It’s worth contacting VON, Jamie Saunders on the permaculture mailing list is also quite hot on government policy stuff saunders@futuresedge.demon.co.uk

Rich Morris (former PFAF activist, trustee, web author and coordinator)

PS If you forward this to others please do not anonymise.

9/09/08

Dear Chris,

There are several videos up on You Tube which go into successful permaculture projects around the world The first three videos here feature Bill Mollison co-founder of Permaculture, talking about the general concepts and so on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofKTgmW_FAg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnVdl-BYi6Y&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwZiikke5HI

This one is a channel full of permaculture in action and related videos

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=permascience

And these two are ones I find particularly inspiring and heartwarming about success stories

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S6kTlz6Mk4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw7mQZHfFVE

Perhaps these may help in some way.

With all good wishes,

S…

09/09/08

Hi everyone, This is what one of us had to say about the DEFRA paper. I too would be interested to have some info on the profound effects that permaculture is having  in drought areas, salt laden areas, poor soils and so on. Is there ‘such a mountain of evidence that it (permaculture/sustainable farming – also plant-organics ) works’? If so we need to get it together, then we’d have a case for demanding a presence on the top table. Chris

Dear Chris, Thank you for forwarding this to me. I don't feel qualified to comment on the document but I can certainly give my pennyworth for what it is worth. I have skimmed the document and although there was mention of the 'need for sustainable' agriculture I did not see any actual commitment to same. There is mention of the need to control pests (why not use permaculture principles here) and there is still the mindset of 'monoculture' prevailing. I wonder if anyone at PFAF or in the permaculture movement could perhaps send in any documents they have on the profound effects that permaculture is having  in drought areas, salt laden areas, poor soils and so on. I am certainly not qualified enough to produce anything in the short time available, but perhaps someone somewhere could put something together - otherwise it looks like the same old chestnuts will be fried over the same old fires and yet more time is wasted. That is my pennyworth. A long document, doesn't really say much to me. I feel uninspired by it, but then it is a governmental paper. One point I would like to raise is that on all their committees there are no 'alternative' 'complementary' 'non governmental organisations that I can see, just farmers, scientists, government and a few others......I wonder if we should not press for a ngo place for permaculture/sustainable farming on the committees . There is such a mountain of evidence that it works, that would be my suggestion at this time.

With all good wishes,

S…

9/09/08

Hi everyone, This was forwarded to me by one of our group:

...

Dear Chris,

I sent this email to the Transition Town group that I’m involved with and, upon reflection, thought that you and PFAF trustees might be interested in commenting on the DEFRA paper I mention.

Regards

K...

Dear TTWers

On Saturday, I attended the AGM of Garden Organic and heard a key-note address from their incoming president, Prof Tim Lang, who is a professor of food policy at City University, London. It was an excellent speech on the future of food, and he mentioned a DEFRA discussion document that he felt was crucial for members of the public to comment on. It is called “Ensuring the UK’s food security in a changing world”. It is only available for comment until September 18 th – so nice to see it well advertised and such a long period for comment (not!). Here is the link if you are interested: http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodrin/foodstrategy/security.htm

The reason that I am mentioning it to you all is because so many structural issues that will affect the future of food also fall into our area of interest as a post-peak-oil transition group. Prof Lang noted that there are several structural “new fundamentals” that will affect food in future, including:

• Oil and energy (at present the food economy is entirely oil-based, as we all know)
• Water – he and a colleague have been investigating the concept of ‘embedded’ water and the need to audit food by its water consumption. For example, one single green bean imported from Kenya, a water-stressed environment, uses 4 litres of potable (ie clean, drinkable) water.
• Climate change (goes without saying)
• The collapse of biodiversity
• Demographics – how do we go about feeding 9 billion people by 2050?
• Growing urbanisation – most of the world now live in urban settlements
• Labour force – who will grow the food we need?
• The “nutrition transition” – the phenomenon of diet altering as income increases; for example, Mumbai has the highest rate of Type 2 Diabetes in the world – not in all of the population, but in their upper classes due to changing eating behaviours towards higher calorie, fat and sugar-rich foods.
• Health care-costs - the cost of diet-related illnesses is unsustainable.
• Power and control issues

I am not sure how many of the above issues were taken into account by DEFRA as they developed the discussion paper. I will look out for them as I read it. Please pass the link on to others who may be interested in commenting on the discussion paper.

Regards

K...

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