HOMEGROWN
REVOLUTION TRAILER
Get inspired by the Dervais
family is sets a tone for what we
each need to do in our backyard
now, and/or in a local community garden plot.
Is there a garden at your nearby school
yet? Can you dig it?
CAN SANITY BE RETURNED TO AFRICA
THROUGH ORGANIC FARMING?
A generation of parents--more that
40% were wiped out by Aids in some countries.
There are kids who are not like feral cats
inhabiting enormous violent slums.
Africa once fed Europe during World War 2.
Now it is sucked dry by a few centers
of financial influence. People are starving
in the midst of potential plenty as distrbution
of food dictated by short sighted thinking
and motivated by greed runs rampant.
The evolution back to the garden begins
in your own life and will ripple out to the
places where your love is needed now.
A Moment of Awakening is called forth.
Return to your beat with nature.
Gain confidence you can grow some of your
own food. Start a new pot movement
in a container. Grow a beet.
Enchanted Garden Intentional Community within walking
distance of SDSU, four blocks from the recent 2010 CUltivating
Food Justice Conference wants your hands and dreams growing
in our soil. We need to supplement our already great community
with new members as others graduate. We need you to pull
the weeds out of your own life as you pull weeds from our
garden. Please come over. Help us see the beauty that is
here through your innocent eyes.
Cardeners and fellow Beet Keepers, Return!
Spring and Summer gardening starts May 2.
RSVP HERE TO COME ROOT YOUR DREAM.
ROOM RENTING NOW
for July 1.
MORE AVAILABLE BEFORE LONG.
Make plans now to join our live in,
and extended community garden community.
This is an old ad.
Room available July 1, 2010
$40.00 higher, $465.00 p;us $40.00,
Rent includes use of a shared Dome
out back for getaway from the house.
Dome is a wonderful art studio and site
for the future Enchanted Garden T.V.
show.
Connect through Facebook,
email, or phone, 619. 582.9669.
True job creation is directly linked to organic and sustainable farming
- it's time for the South African Government to take action
Brazil has already created over 700,000 new sustainable jobs and this will grow to more the 1 million in the next 4 years - why can't we do that here?
South African politicians and elected officials are very good at talking. They all sound good, say the right things, then nothing happens. This applies to job creation, housing for the poor, tackling HIV/Aids issue, eliminating corruption, taking action on crime, getting our hospitals to provide just a minimum level of service and so on.
Yes, I understand all of these are big and complicated issues and cannot be fixed overnight. But lets look at what Brazil, India, Cuba and Mexico have already accomplished. All have been incredibly proactive when it comes to real job creation.
We talk about creating ''call centres'' and other skilled jobs. They talk about going back to the land and growing things. What we are doing is moving people from lower paying jobs to higher paying ones. That's not job creation. What they are talking about is taking someone with no job and no skills and creating a sustainable paying job.
Brazil alone has already created over 700,000 new jobs by being creative with their bio-fuel programmes. They lead the way to becoming less dependant of oil importation. They have already displaced US$120 billion that would have gone to oil producing countries and invested this money in their own people. Fuels such as bio-diesel are renewable and can be made from agricultural products, like palm oil or soy beans, which can then be mixed at up to 30% with petroleum-based products such as diesel. Few countries can compete with Brazil as a bio-diesel producer. This is a vital project for ensuring more independence for Brazil, and they will become a large bio-diesel exporter.
Brazil's government also views bio fuel as a way of helping rural parts of the country out of extreme poverty. The use in bio-diesel of castor beans, from Brazil's arid northeastern Sertao, for example, is creating thousands of jobs in the impoverished region where tax breaks are being given to families producing the raw products used in bio-diesel production. The creation of jobs in rural Brazil by the sugar cane trade is reducing the strain on its overcrowded cities, many of which are dominated by tracts of shantytown housing.
Today bio-diesel, on sale in nearly 100 ''bio'' stations around Brazil and powering Rio's buses and refuse trucks, contains just 2% of vegetable-sourced diesel. But the plan is to achieve 20% by 2020, slashing carbon emissions, and, more crucially, the $1.1bn cost of importing 6bn litres of diesel each year. ''Flex fuel'' engines power 80% of all new Brazilian-built cars, up from 17% in 2004. This will be at 100% in two years.
Brazil has also embraced an organic faring programme that should be an inspiration to all of us. They currently have 7100 certified organic farmers. The government of Brazil has targeted organics as their national growth initiative. They are planning to capture 10% of the worldwide organic market by 2010 - a staggering US$3 billion. While the export potential and the inflow of cash is great. What really is great is that the programme creates jobs for people at the lowest economical level, it eliminates poverty, and it gives their people hope and instils pride that they too are making a difference for their families, their communities and their country.
Cuba launched a Greening of Cuba campaign over 10 years ago. They have been faced with political isolation, oil restrictions, trade embargos, and a lack of agri-chemicals. The Cuban government took a proactive stance. They converted the vast majority of their schools to solar power. They promoted organics as the only viable alternative. Today 80% of all their fresh produce is organic. Having been forced to make the ''mind-shift'' there is no turning back.
India launched a very innovative 9 Seeds programme. This is a community-based project that has been set up in 110 different sites all over India; this programme is 100% organic. It has created thousands of jobs, eliminated poverty, provided a healthy diet - but more than that has educated countless families, mainly those on the lowest rung of the economical ladder, to living a healthy lifestyle with a respect for the earth's natural resources.
Mexico's organic story is a little different. Their biggest customer base, the North American market, has over the past 10 years demanded chemical free production. It was a case of go organic or lose their customers. Today there are 35,000 certified organic farmers in Mexico and that number will continue to grow significantly.
Why are these countries all embracing organics? The worldwide organics industry is now 25 years old in the modern era. Actually it's how most of our crops were grown from the beginning of time until 1950. Since 1950 over 100,000 new chemicals have been introduced into our food supply - and now we wonder where the increase of cancer, bird flu and mad cow diseases have all come from?
The organic (chemical free) industry is the fastest growing industry segment worldwide - and is growing at 25% annually. Compare this with conventional produce using chemicals and GM seeds - this segment is only growing at 2% per year. But this is not just about making economic sense. Organics is about going chemical free. It's about soil health, which leads to plant heath, which ensures human health. But it's far more than even this; it's about creating a lifestyle for all economic levels of our society that is totally sustainable.
As a South African, look around you, what do you see? A culture of fast food consumption - high in fats and salts, washing it down with sugar based soft drinks and alcohol. What destroys the immune system the fastest? High sugar and fat diets - no wonder we have the highest HIV/Aids infection rate in the world; with obesity a close second. Then, when the Minister of Health talks about the nutritional value of fresh fruit and vegetables she is ridiculed. Why have we gotten it so wrong?
Each of these 4 countries mentioned all are tasked face with the exact same issues that we are challenged with in South Africa today - but they have taken action. So, where does South Africa stand?
We have millions of people who need work and live in poverty.
We have huge tracts of under-utilised land.
Our Department of Agriculture still does not have a clear bio-fuel or organic agricultural policy.
There is no South African organic standard or certification legislation.
We only have 200 certified organic farmers (against Brazils 7,100 and Mexico's 35,000)
We have 5 active organic wine producers, and another 12 beginning programmes (Australia, Italy and the USA have more than 100 each. 80% of all France's vineyards are now chemical free)
The South African government has further confused the issue by supporting GMO programmes as a way to boost agricultural production. GMO seeds require chemical fertilizers. The GM seeds do not re-germinate and therefore must be purchased every year - along with many more supporting chemicals. This is tantamount to the multi-national chemical companies ''enslaving'' our African farmers - once on the treadmill; it's difficult to get off. The chemicals damage the soil - and that requires even more chemicals to fix the problem, and then at the end of this process most African countries are rejecting our GMO production - so most of it has to be consumed locally.
GMO's do not create jobs, do not enhance the quality of our lives, they have not eliminated poverty - their use has just lined the pockets of the global chemical companies - just look at any of their balance sheets.
What our government needs to do is to take the lead from programmes that work in India, Cuba, Mexico and Brazil. Define an organic and bio-fuel strategy and implement a South African organic standard certification programme that will be recognised worldwide, and finally use our country's wonderful natural and people resources.
Empower our communities, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds to join community projects and become esteemed by becoming organic and bio-fuel farmers. We could create over 500,000 new jobs in the next 5 years, make a huge impact on eliminating poverty, and as a bonus educate our people to the values of good nutrition, and improve health by allowing South Africans to live a sustainable lifestyle.
Organics is the fastest growing market sector worldwide, it's about living a healthy, chemical free and sustainable lifestyle, it requires lots of land, employing thousands of people. There is huge international funding for a project like this and our government could not invest in a better programme.
It sounds like a win-win situation to me. Don't conference and workshop this to death - come guys, let's just do it.
Issued by: David Wolstenholme
Exhibition Director of the Natural & Organic Products Exhibition.
20-22 October 2006, Gallagher Estate, Johannesburg.
Contact: 021-674-4026
e-mail: david@specialised.co.za
Alert Webmaster
