Got Beef?

Sustainable development may seem like an oxymoron of sorts. Leading scientists like David Suzuki believe that infinite exponential growth is impossible, yet we continue to pursue it like our entire existence is ready to collapse the moment we slow down, even if only for a moment... Hmmm.. Something to ponder over...

It's an exciting time to be in the thick of learning all about environmental science and the flow-on effects of human activity. For the first time in human history, more people are now living in urban areas than anywhere else. While many of us may never see a productive plot bigger than a 2 x 4m terrace yard or splash knee-high through a spring stream teeming with fry, we all eat and agriculture is central to all of our lives whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

Pick a supermarket. Any supermarket. Traipse down an aisle and already we're completely overwhelmed trying to make head or toe of the nutritional content of breakfast cereals let alone delve into the complex world of sustainable food production. Luckily we have Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) to do the dirty work for us. They invest bajillions of dollars a year into improving and refining the sustainability of our country's meat production. 

MLA copped a fair bit of flack in recent months over the live export shit in Indonesia which is a little silly if you ask me. Solutions have to be culturally appropriate if they're going to work out in the long term without requiring constant babysitting. Jumping the gun would be like giving my 90 year-old grandpa (shrivelled hippocampus, dementia and all, who has taken to waltzing around his home naked) an iPad to read the paper with and then wondering why it's hiding in the dishwasher two months later. But anyway... As usual, MLA is a proud supporter of homegrown Aussie produce and soldiers on with what it does best - promoting sustainability and better industry practices. 

With a global population of over 6 billion, we have a huge influence on the wellbeing of our habitat, and we have an inherent responsibility to minimise the environmental impact of our everyday lives. As an omnivorous species, each and every meal we consume provides another opportunity to support environmentally friendly practices and steer away from those that do more harm than good. According to food writer Richard Cornish, one of the most practical ways to eat more sustainably is to have a relationship with the butcher. Not on the side of course. The milk man would never get over it. Mortal enemies they are. 

Jokes aside, Richie makes a solid point. Laughing at the occasional joke, smiling, asking about a favourite recipe and building a rapport with the people behind the counter allows you to sneak in special orders for butcher's cuts, beautiful sweet meats and things that may normally be harder to find like venison, wild rabbit, marrow, brains (if you swing that way), dry-aged beef and whatnot. An animal is killed every time we want to eat and what we don't buy gets pulped and goes into rubbish like pet food. Venture out of the pre-packaged cuts and experiment with lesser known parts. Give every part of the animal the respect that they deserve. Try something new! Be bold and daring!

Secondary cuts such as brisket, flat meats, neck, shin and shank are all beautiful and can be braised gently for hours and hours and hours until they're melt-in-the-mouth tender. As a general rule, darker parts of animals contain a higher level of myoglobin and are more flavoursome. They've had a bit more of a workout and take a little more love and care to prepare than overly popular (bland) cuts like steak and fillet, but they're more forgiving and the rewards can be bloody amazing. I promise you'll be pleasantly surprised and if you're lucky, you might feel the twinge of a warm and fuzzy feeling creeping into your belly after eating a little more sustainably. :)

Springing Back into Uni

It's good to be back! Spring lambs abound (albeit in winter) to tantalise our taste buds with plenty of exciting new challenges ahead! Being a total nerd with no social life over the last six months really paid off although I think I may have set the bar a little too high. Hopefully, and with a little luck I'll be able to keep my GPA at 6.75 for at least one more semester. 

This time around I'll be studying Biometry (some super boring and impossibly hard computer-based statistical unit), Resource Sustainability, Food Science 1 and Crop Production. Most are pretty interesting. One of them is unmentionable. Funny how the crappiest content-overloaded courses all begin with 'Bio'...

Food Science 1 looks like it'll be pretty exciting stuff. We get to make bread and yoghurt, compare taste, titration and brix results of fresh and commercial orange juice, we even get to visit a sake production plant! Crop production is by far my favourite though. Nothing beats being out in the field on a Friday morning with the sun's gently warming rays, knees deep in chalky soil tending to my mountain of kale and strawberries.

Resource Sustainability assessments sound terrible from what I've heard but I think it's something that is incredibly important to learn about. Where does our food and energy come from? Can we continue current practices well into the future? How can we minimise our carbon footprint? Are we able to find a balance between the growing human population and our ever increasing resource consumption?

There are some hot topics on the student discussion board and it seems like there are so many more aspects to consider than first thought when it comes to living sustainably. Sure, some of us can live the slow life on an isolated property with a tiny mud house, a swale and a food forest, but what about the rest of us? The global population is estimated to hit 9 billion people by 2050 and urban populations will soar. With increased housing, property sizes will shrink so what happens then? 

In terms of the sustainability of our food production I think that the key aspect that we need to face up to, whether we live in urban or regional areas, is waste. Waste is created when fruit doesn't grow to be picture perfect, when tomatoes don't survive the long haul to the supermarket, when we peel back the husks of corn, when we're not quite sure what to do with that last mushroom or we leave an avocado sitting out for just a tad too long. It becomes an environmental problem when we chuck it all in a hole somewhere far, far away and it's left to produce toxic methane and leachate. Harvesting crops, burying excess in plastic and flushing the rest out to sea means that farmland is becoming degraded.

We're still years away from convincing people to think of human poop as a renewable resource but the answer seems fairly simple and straightforward. Why don't we have a separate bin to collect biodegradable household waste? If we could keep it separate and send it off to a processing plant to be turned into compost through the use of worms, bacteria or heat, then we'd have a crapload of organic matter to redistribute to improve nature strips or backyard gardens or farms or whatever. Is it really that hard to make such a small adaptation to a system that we already have firmly in place?

We've Got Waste

One of my picture/poster ideas generated for the

Sustainable Campus Collective, UWS Hawkesbury

Waste is probably not something that is high on everyone's agenda. However, what happens to food waste or any biodegradable waste for that matter, is incredibly important.

Tiny little microorganisms that live in healthy soil are imperative in the decomposition process of organic matter and nutrient cycling. To put it simply, without these organisms soil virtually becomes a dead substance.

Every time crops are harvested, nutrients are removed from the soil. Without returning organic matter back to the soil, nutrient levels become depleted. When inorganic synthetic fertilisers are used, soil slowly becomes more acidic and more saline which is not conducive for flourishing microbes. When certain herbicides (such as those containing glyphosate) are used, soil life is wiped out altogether and the vicious cycle of synthetic fertiliser dependency ensues...

In order to create a sustainable 'closed loop' system, all we need to do is return biodegradable waste to the earth instead of burying it under tonnes of shit in landfill where it decomposes anaerobically, creating methane (which is over 20 times more toxic than CO2) and leachate (to join our lovely, pristine waterways). Whoever invented the flushing toilet will no doubt be remembered as the biggest dick in history.

Not only does returning organic matter to soil improve conditions for all-important nutrient cycling microorganisms, but it also reduces the need for chemical fertilisers and even some herbicides. In addition, increasing the organic matter content of soil improves its structure and water-holding capacity which means that less water is needed to maintain growth and plants fare much better in our quintessentially hot, dry Australian summers.

Our current systems seem so.. illogical.

Yes, change will require some effort but why ignore science and stick with methods that we are well aware are not only damaging but also impossible to continue indefinitely? Sustainable practices that incorporate a holistic view of environmental preservation and longevity should be the norm and not the exception as they are today.

I joined a student group called 'Sustainable Campus Collective' at the start of this semester and it's so damn frustrating. We can see what changes need to be made but the bureaucratic bullshit we have to deal with to get things done seems ridiculous and at times thoroughly disheartening. I sure wish things were less complex sometimes.

Living with bees

It's strange to think that winter is almost here. I'm secretly still hoping for summer to wake me up one morning and take me by surprise. Locked away in a sweaty restaurant kitchen, I think I somehow let the entire season pass by without realising and already we're nearing the end of another chilly Sydney autumn. Rust-coloured leaves are collecting underfoot and bees are getting ready to hunker down in their hives until spring.

I can't wait for spring. This year could be the one to welcome bees into the backyard! I finally made it to the natural beekeeping course run by Milkwood Permaculture in Alexandria, Sydney over a weekend with Tim Malfroy. Backyard beekeeping looks like a challenge but one that I think I'm ready for!

For Primary Production I had to choose an Australian agricultural industry and write a report about current issues and how it relates to the larger industry on a global scale. Having read a few articles about Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) leading to mysterious disappearances and endemic rate of bee deaths worldwide, my topic of choice was an almost instantaneous decision.

Imagine a world without bees. 80 percent of all flowering plants rely on insect pollination of which bees play an integral role. One book that I read (I think it may have been written by Eva Crane) identified 177 different crops of which rely on insect pollination for harvest, and another 60 or so that rely on insect pollination to produce seed and reproduce.

It's really scary to think that small and sometimes innocuous actions by us can have vast and far-reaching consequences, some of which we're probably not even aware of yet. Spraying plants with chemicals is a huge no-no that has somehow managed to become normalised over the last 50 years or so.

It's just amazing to think that people used to cover candy with vibrant lead paint. They had no idea of the health consequences because science at the time was not developed enough to detect every ill effect. We scorn the idiocy of mankind in its primitive state and yet we do the very same thing today. We douse our food, the soil and insects that we need for plants to continue thriving with all sorts of toxic concoctions without completely understanding what the hell we're doing to ourselves.

Imidacloprid is just one example of the latest variety of insecticide made available in Australia. The insecticide has been banned in four European countries since 2005 but we've seem to become so blase about chemical usage that we just don't give a shit. The systemic pesticide leaches into the soil where it stays for up to 3 years after a single spray application. It enters plants through the roots and travels to every part making leaves, stems, petals, seeds, pollen and nectar toxic. It kills bees on contact and it has been said that bees have died after drinking rainwater droplets on the leaf of an affected plant.

Neonicotinoids like imidacloprid cause nervous system disorders in people, disorientation or death in bees, paralysis in birds (perhaps this explains the mysterious phenomenon of birds falling from the sky in huge numbers), liver dysfunction in dogs and a hoard of other complications. Strange then that we're spraying the stuff on everything from stone fruit to vegetables, ornamental plants and turf.

We're quite lucky in the fact that CCD has not affected Australia with the same level of destruction as seen in Europe and the United States. This could possibly be due to the lack of varroa mite (a deadly blood-sucking insect that can transfer disease and weaken bees) in Australia so far but most beekeepers fear that it is only a matter of time before it catches up with us.

If we want to give our bees the best chance at survival now and far into the future, we need to think about the effects that our everyday actions have on the nation's primary pollinators. There are so many different pest control methods that don't require synthetic chemicals at all like beer snail-catchers, soap mite sprays and simple water+molasses concoctions that wipe out caterpillars by altering their osmosis gradient through sugar and water.

When spring comes around I'll be introducing a hive of bees into my backyard (fingers crossed). They'll help pollinate your fruit, flowers, vegetables and hopefully make lots of delicious, natural honey that I can share with you, my friends; so I ask that you help me to keep them healthy and safe. The next time you're outside in the garden and you pick up that spray.. Please think about the bees.

 see more photos of natural beekeeping here..

Grilling the producer

A few weeks ago, I was invited (along with 7 other food bloggers) to participate in designing a dish to showcase Australian beef in a degustation dinner at Warren Turnbull's restaurant Assiette. I'll admit to feeling apprehensive at first. I was excited, a little shocked, and I wasn't sure what to expect or whether I'd be able to juggle yet another commitment. In the end I agreed of course. Who in their right mind would turn down an opportunity to coordinate a dish with one of Sydney's top chefs?

The concept of the dinner sponsored by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), is from 'paddock to plate' and the recipe that I spent last weekend tinkering with was a very simple, unadulterated one. Seared sirloin with butter-poached veg, pickled celery, horseradish and dashi.

I'm no master chef so it'll be interesting to see how Warren transforms my idea into something restaurant-worthy. If I could fish my hat out of the washing machine, I'd put it on and take it off to him. I have no idea how he designs such visually aesthetic dishes at his restaurant. As a chef, I find working with the components and constraints of someone else's recipe much easier. When let loose with no limitations how does one decide which direction to go in? I only spent a week in the library, poring over ancient cookery books and pulling my hair out, searching for some form of inspiration, yet this is something that Warren does on a regular, seasonal basis!

This upcoming event is both exciting and nerve-wracking. The guestlist includes Alison McIntosh, championed cattle producer; Anthony Puharich of Vic's Meat (leading national supplier) and Victor Churchill (possibly the best butcher shop in the entire Southern Hemisphere); and of course, a handful of wonderful people from MLA and Hausmann.

Having worked for Kylie Kwong who is a firm advocate of organic and biodynamic produce, I'm familiar with the ways in which chefs and suppliers approach the issue of food sustainability. Sydney Fish Market, for example, will not facilitate the sale of unsustainable seafood such as bluefin tuna, which has been overfished to such an extent that it is now classified as an endangered species.

Warren says: "Chefs are, and have always been, very resourceful in using every single last bit of produce they bring to the kitchen," which in isolation may not seem like much, but is in fact incredibly important. I visited a dairy farm this morning and learned that to feed the 2,000 resident Jersey cows, it takes over 20,000 acres of land. Imagine if everyone in Australia only ate steaks. Now imagine the waste it would create. Farmers would have to keep up with demand by increasing productivity through more intensive farming practices.

There are a few debates centred around beef - free-range versus non-grazing, grass-fed versus grain, etc. Interestingly, 3% of plants worldwide exhibit C4 photosynthesis which in layman's terms, means that they transpire less water and are more effective than other plants in carbon sequestration. Roughly half are grasses (including maize, millet, and sorghum) and contribute to 20-25% of primary production. So in a sense, by choosing locally produced grass-fed beef (over grain-fed), we're encouraging farmers to maintain agricultural carbon sinks in Australia.

I don't know much about the beef industry so I shot Alison a few questions to find out more:


1. What is your view of food sustainability in Australia - Is sustainable agriculture something that we should be concerned with?

Yes, we definitely need to be concerned with food sustainability and food security, which is, of course, directly related to sustainable agriculture. As an Australian farming family, our livelihood and our future depends on the sustainability of our farm. For us, sustainable agriculture means that we are able to produce good quality wholesome food for which we are paid a fair price, which in turn enables us to invest in improving the health of the environment on and around our farm. With sustainable agriculture, we will be able to have food sustainability and provide food security for Australians, and overseas markets. The Australian beef industry exports around two thirds of all beef produced - our markets want a safe, healthy product that has been produced in a healthy environment. With issues of climate change we need to be continually looking for more efficient systems of farming.

2. Have your views influenced the way your business operates?

Yes, we are certainly concerned with land sustainability and how we farm, this has evolved into the way we produce our cattle, and practices on farm have certainly changed a lot from the time my grandfather and great grandfather farmed here. For us, it's all about producing the highest quality beef that we can, naturally and sustainably, while maintaining and looking after our land. We also try to remain very much in touch with what our consumers and the market are wanting - and that is healthy food!!!

3. Are there any aspects that could be improved upon for the industry in general to become more sustainable? What are the obstacles?

Yes, our agricultural industries certainly have challenges ahead, and scientists and industry are continually working on these issues, but we certainly need to look at climate change, water efficiency and the like. Farmers are managers of Australia's land and we are producers of world food - it's a big job and a big responsibility - and we certainly need to be continually improving. There are so many variables and unknowns we face working in agriculture and these will always be our biggest challenges - climate, seasons, consumer demands, competition from other products, economy, cost of production and a whole lot more.

4. What can the average consumer do to support positive change in the industry?

The average consumer can be more aware of the food products they are buying, and can support Australian produce, by buying local produce. With this support farmers will be in a better position to continue to adopt change and meet the needs of the market. Just by understanding and educating themselves about Australian agriculture and food production I think consumers are better able to relate and understand how farmers produce food.

I think more should be taught in schools so that Australian children grow up knowing 'where their food comes from' and more about the systems that are used to produce it. Urban children particularly I think are unaware of agricultural systems and food production - they need to know that beef doesn't come from a pack.......!!

5. What is your favourite way(s) to enjoy beef?

For me, I don't think you can beat a good sirloin steak, cooked just to medium on the BBQ, with a little mustard and a good green leaf salad!

All eight blogger dishes will be revealed at dinner this coming Monday night so stay tuned to find out more. For the moment, Alison's words provide us with a concept that we could all do well by mulling over for a while. To propagate change we need to invest in what we believe, and support those who are the backbone of the movement towards a better future.

Darling Mills Farm goes live!

Steven Adey's Darling Mills Farm website is finally up and running! See if you can spot my photos in the gallery! :)


Hint: there are 4!

Click here to see pictures from a tour around Darling Mills Farm

Defining sustainable food

I met with a beautiful woman last week and while she was in the midst of getting me completely intoxicated, a friend of hers asked me what food sustainability means. I umm'd and ahh'd and blurted out a list of facts about increasing strains from a booming global population, peak oil and limited resources; without actually answering her question. Cycling to uni the next morning with a hangover, I considered her question a little differently under the glaring light of day.

I find it strange that in high school we all learn about the origin of the universe, the human body, how cells are the building blocks of life. We spend countless periods listening to teachers blab on and on about sex, food and nutrition (the three imperatives in my mind), but we don't learn about something which holds the same level of importance, and perhaps even a little more urgency - how to sustain life on Earth.

Somehow, despite my passion for the course that I'm undertaking (well.. maybe passion isn't quite the word I'm after to describe my feelings about biology) I never defined what food sustainability actually means. So what is this so-called 'food sustainability' that the media has suddenly latched onto and why is it important?

Under Key Programs, UWS describes food sustainability with the following:

By 2050 global food demand is forecast to be 70% greater than current levels. While this is a daunting challenge, it is only part of the story. At the same time that we face this global food challenge, the natural resources that underpin agricultural production; land, water, energy, and human capacity; are in decline, facing competition from other uses, and becoming more expensive. 

Are you confused? I'm still confused. To understand what food sustainability is, we first need to define the concept of 'sustainable food'. My definition of which is:

'food produced in a holistic manner for the purpose of environmental health and longevity'

When I say the environment, I'm not just referring to trees and oh save the rainforests! No.

Plants, animals, people, microorganisms in the soil, entire ecosystems, water, air, earth; they're all important features of the environment.

Obviously environments can vary dramatically with spatial and temporal differences so we need to keep an open mind whilst also considering the effects of farming practices, waste management, logistics, integrated pest management, nutrient recycling, and so forth.

There are a number of key issues that we must tackle if we want a chance to sustain life on Earth for the many generations to come, and one that stands prominently as the easiest to change is the use of fertiliser.

Conventional farming relies heavily on inorganic synthetic fertilisers which are produced from finite sources, clearly a problem in itself if we want to continue with our system of conventional farming and continue using synthetic fertilisers indefinitely.

Nitrogen fertilisers build up and mineralise with the soil which causes acidification, making nutrients less accessible to plants and decreasing productivity. Nitrogen has a half-life of approximately 41 years (Wood 1995) so as you can imagine, the side-effects of using inorganic fertiliser can be rather long-lasting. Acidification doesn't stop at soil level however. Fertiliser continues to leach down through many soil horizons before making its way into aquatic systems; leading to excessively high levels of nitrogen, flourishing algae growth, depletion of oxygen and death of marine life (look up eutrophication and hypoxia for more information).

Synthetic fertilisers do not replenish organic material and other elements. Trace minerals present in fruit and vegetables have plummeted by almost 60% in the last few decades (Thomas, cited in Lawrence 2004, p. 213) and funnily enough, coinciding with the booming industrial revolution and rapid increase of fertiliser use over the past forty years. Without constantly replenishing organic material and through excessive tilling, conventional farming is accelerating the rate of soil erosion. Sooner or later, conventional farmland will be nothing but a dry dust bowl.

Conventional farming practices and the application of petrochemical fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and insecticides to crops has had negative implications for the microflora which inhabit soil and colonise in organic matter. The diverse range of microorganisms recycle biochemical compounds and make nutrients and trace minerals available for plant intake. Much like the bacteria which live in our gut and attribute to good health, soil microflora is imperative for the regenerative health of soil.

Fortunately environmental issues have been allocated more importance as of late. Community allotments and 'green' structures are popping up all over the place; passionate permaculturalists (or permies as they like to be called) are spreading their knowledge of holistic management; and we have witnessed an influx of farmers from a younger generation, bringing with them simple ideals for the new world.

These are by no means enough to see us through the enormous challenges that lie ahead, it's merely a start.

Wood (1995, p. 137-140) said it best:

Surplus food production in developed countries together with increasing concern about the effects of agricultural practices on the environment are now prompting a critical evaluation of the long-term feasibility of high-input agriculture.. we are facing problems of unprecedented magnitude: such as how to feed an ever-increasing world population, how to protect the Earth's atmosphere. These are not solely environmental problems, they are issues which involve the fundamental relationship between human beings and the Earth.. Such strategies will involve a shift away from energy-intensive technologies to more knowledge-intensive technologies.. Biological agriculture aspires to a system in which the maintenance of soil fertility and the control of pests and diseases are achieved by the enhancement of natural processes and cycles.. This is a concept that is remarkably akin to that of sustainability.

Lawrence, F 2004, Not on the label: what really goes into the food on your plate, Penguin Books, England

Wood, M 1995, Environmental soil biology, 2nd edn, Blackie Academic & Professional, Glasgow

A Different String

chilli ristra in the making

It's Valentine's Day today, there are one hundred and sixty-eight hours to the week, twenty-eight days of February in 2011 and only nine shifts before I leave the job I love.

It's about time I left. Life wasn't meant to be static. I'm trading in my full-time work for full-time study and it's a little scary stepping back out into the unknown.

I'm going to miss my awesome boss and the inspiring people who I've spent the last two and a half years with. My time here really helped me to discover what it is that I'm passionate about, and for that I'm most thankful.

I'm not leaving the food industry, merely wandering down the path less taken, admiring a newly completed scenic route.

It's going to be hard. I can see it being completely overwhelming - the house, the car, the mortgage, the weekend work, the forty plus hours of study per week, the self-motivation and dedication that I'll need to get through the next three years and come out sane.. and successful..

While some people might ask: "How long is a piece of string?", I want to analyse the damn thing before hurrying along to find out what lies at the other end.

Leaving you with words from Joel Salatin himself:
                   
                        
                               "May all your carrots grow long and straight,
                                may the foxes be struck blind by your chickens,
                                may your customers love cooking your food in their kitchens,
                                may the rains be gentle on your pastures,
                                may your fields grow with soil,
                                may your earthworms dance with celebration,
                                may the wind be always at your back,
                                your children rise up and call you blessed,
                                and may we all leave a better world than we found."

(Chef & soon-to-be Food Sustainability student @ UWS)

Giant Snow Pea Giveaway!

 beans in my backyard!

Over the last few months I've been quietly encouraging my friends and colleagues to become actively involved in the process of growing their own food. I think everyone has an appreciation for good food, but developing an appreciation for good produce really requires going out into the garden and giving it a go.

Having a kitchen garden that I can run out to whenever I want some fresh herbs to add to the pot is incredibly satisfying. I know where my food comes from and I know it's healthy. My salad leaves aren't doused with calcium chloride. They haven't been sitting in a bag for 2 days and transported from the other side of the country (or the world!) to reach my dinner table. I have black tuscan kale just begging to be picked; rambling nasturtiums providing ground cover and a bright, peppery addition to any salad. The apples I eat haven't been stored in a shed for 8 months. My bananas aren't artificially ripened with ethylene gas. I eat tomatoes when they're ripe and in season. I know what's in season.

I've worked for Matt Moran and now Kylie Kwong - top Aussie chefs who pride themselves on sourcing the best produce and letting it speak for itself, but before I tasted homegrown beets I had no idea they could taste so good!  My beetroots are unbelievably sweet because they're eaten within hours of being picked and there's absolutely no comparison with store-bought produce. None whatsoever. Zilch.

Encouraging as many people as possible to try growing at least some of their own food is an important step in becoming self-sufficient and (fingers crossed) sustainable. Our grandparents grew food in Victory Gardens during the war and the great depression to offset costs so it can easily be done. I find it highly ridiculous that my generation has grown up thinking that food comes from a shop when we can all grow food for free!

I've never ever had a giveaway before, but (..and I did say this was going to be a year of good deeds didn't I?) if there's a time to get people gardening, it's now.


Send me a picture of your garden (it can be anything - a large styrofoam box filled with compost, a collection of pots, a reclaimed verge, etc.) along with a few words about why you would like to grow your own food and I will send you some fun seeds to get you started:

· Hon Tai Tsai - I have no idea how to pronounce this but it's a super tasty Asian green that you can't find in the shops and is delicious stir-fried
· Giant Red Mustard - gorgeous leafy vegetable that can be added raw to salads when small or left to grow for a more intense flavour
· Lazy Housewife Bean - a climbing bean that is easy to grow with high yield
· Giant Yukomo Snow Pea - succulent snow pea up to 14cm long with beautiful purple flowers

All of these awesome plants will produce seeds so you'll be able to grow these for the rest of your life and share them with your friends for free!

Don't forget to include your address! This offer is for Australian residents only and will continue for 3 months or until I run out of seeds, whichever comes first. Not open to NT or TAS due to quarantine.

Active Ingredient in Roundup Weedkiller Causes Cancer

Revealed: the glyphosate research the GM soy lobby doesn't want you to read

Changes need to be made. Chemical applications containing glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup weedkiller) should be banned, period. Tell all of your friends to stop using any products containing glyphosate as they have been found to cause miscarriages, birth defects and childhood cancer.

A Fighting Chance..

Food security is critical for the survival of mankind, yet we've all but acknowledged its immeasurable importance until now. Ask anyone on the street if they know what it means and they probably won't have a clue what you're banging on about. Since my last post, cities around the globe have already witnessed riots due to rising costs and food shortages.

I don't normally write about articles (Foreign Policy - The Great Food Crisis of 2011) that I come across on the web but I believe that education leads to change and that this is so absolutely fundamental to human life that we simply cannot ignore the facets of contention any longer. It's more important now than ever, that we take personal responsibility for the resources that we use and do what we can to minimise our 'footprint', so to speak.

Although the future might seem bleak and overwhelming, we can help ourselves and those in poverty to offset the rising cost of food by growing our own vegies instead of fussing needlessly over perfectly manicured (not to mention useless and superficial) front lawns.

Ps. check out Garden Girl TV for inspired gardening ideas and how-to videos.

Resolute Thoughts In Motion

With Russia up in flames, and Pakistan and our very own Queensland under water; extensive losses of crops and livestock have propelled world food prices to a new high to a level not seen since the United Nations began compiling a monthly index in 1990. It is feared that rising food costs will spark new riots, mirroring those around the world that caused the death of 44 people in 2008.

With the current floods in Queensland, sugar cane growers are warning that production will be affected for the next three years. Australia is the fourth-largest exporter of wheat and the largest exporter of cooking coal. Both losses are expected to increase costs worldwide.

While people in less fortunate situations face serious hardships and food shortages ahead, the majority of us probably won't notice anything other than the inflated price of bananas, pineapples, sugar and meat.  For my fellow food lovers it may not seem like much of an affliction, but in a world where peak oil looms closely up ahead, supply and demand of fresh food are wildly disproportionate and millions of people starve each day, I'm challenging myself to make 2011 a year of good deeds and I challenge you to do the same.

This year I'm going to:

· Ride my bike more often to stay fit and reduce my carbon emissions

· Grow more food to become less reliant on supermarkets that frankly do not stock the best produce, and why pay $2 for a bunch of herbs that has been sitting on the shelf for a week when a packet of seeds costs the same amount and can provide for a lifetime!

· Buy direct from the source where possible, so all profits go straight to the farmer/grower/producer and as they say: "FRESH IS BEST!" 

· Recycle as much as possible - I save glass jars at work to use for my homemade preserves and at home I turn old newspapers into seedling pots that can be planted straight into the ground as is, eliminating transplant shock

· Compost as much as possible to prevent biodegradable products like paper and food from ending up in landfill where they produce methane and leachate

· Plan my meals to reduce waste and save money

· Use food waste to grow food via composting, food scraps decompose and return nutrients to the soil to fuel more growth

· Learn about permaculture and organic gardening methods without the use of harmful chemicals like Roundup

· Learn about beekeeping to prepare us for a future hive that will increase fruit and vegetable pollination within a 5km radius and hopefully provide our household and friends with delicious local honey!

Wild Weeds & Waste

A fly lands on the face of the artist behind Casula's Weedy Connection Tour but he is unperturbed as he ploughs through a list of dangers to native Australian wildlife caused by the application of Roundup. I try not to look too distracted as Diego Bonetto explains the cultural connections and employment of local weeds throughout history. It's not that I don't find all this information incredibly fascinating because I do. It's just that at this very present moment, there's a mysterious bug bite on my arm just below my elbow that is swelling to epic proportions.

Leading our intimate group around a small storage building to a spot where the fence line ends, the eucalypt trees part and the rushing river swells; Bonetto points to a common weed - edible plantain, enlightening us to its medicinal uses in Aboriginal culture.

Farther along, we pass through a field of wild fennel growing by the river bend. The bowing fronds brush against my hot skin with a feather-light touch. It's hot, it's muggy and the bloody flies are all over the place but standing here surrounded by overgrown weeds, it feels incredibly peaceful. It feels right. We're a million miles away from civilisation in a tiny pocket of Mother Nature's abode that has not yet fallen to the paradigm of human design.

Costa Georgiadis believes that the prevalence of convenience food is the bane of our existence. We're polluting the air when we drive to the shops, polluting the environment with non-recyclable packaging and slowly killing the earth by throwing away millions of dollars worth of food each year.

Researchers predict that 40 years from now, Australia will need to increase food production by a whopping 70%! With our increasing population, finite land and resources; it presents as a huge task to broaden the spectrum and adapt unconventional farming methods to urban landscapes.

Glen Op echoes a niggling thought in his presentation: 'Eating Liverpool' at The Garden Day, held at Casula Powerhouse Art Centre. "There's a lot of potential for us to grow food" he says, and a quick glimpse at Google Earth curbs any questions. Most people use their front and back yards to grow the occasional tree and a crapload of grass. We don't use grass and we sure as hell can't eat it so why aren't we growing our own food and taking advantage of the vast expanses of arable land around us?

By relying on big supermarket chains that care more about profit and quantity than quality, we're buying the short end of the stick. Our affluent society has become so engrossed with materialism and so far removed from the our origins. Sure my neighbour has a super expensive car and my cool friends all have the iPhone 4.2 but living this way is not sustainable. We're stripping the Earth of everything and giving only a minute portion back.

Costa challenges us with the problem of poo. Its more endearing term in the field is humanure and, with proper composting and decomposition, can safely return rich organic matter to the soil where it is needed to replenish all the nutrients that are extracted by the plants and animals that we eat. "Nearly a third of all household drinking water in the US is used to flush toilets" writes Joseph Jenkins, author of The Humanure Handbook. Costa's challenge is for us to devise a better way to manage our sewerage. Since 2008 Thames Water have been burning poop and methane derived from poo to generate electricity to offset their bill at the sewerage treatment plant. Sydney Water captures methane and ships treated 'biosolids' to farms around the Western Slopes of NSW. The website lists 3 simple ways to "help improve the quality of biosolids. These include:

· don't wash paint, pesticides, medicines or other chemicals down the sink or toilet. Put them in the bin or take them to a chemical collection point 

· use low phosphorous or phosphorous-free detergents and pesticides, and only use the recommended amount of detergent for your washing machine and dishwasher

· don't pour grease, oil or milk down the sink.

By improving the quality of waste entering the wastewater, you ultimately improve what returns to the environment after treatment."

Although any steps towards sustainability are positive, I don't believe that it's enough to call it a victory for the human race any time soon. Perhaps when every household has one of these nifty machines in the garage next to the solar-powered hot water system and Google Earth reveals more food than grass, then maybe I'll change my mind.

How To Compost, Reduce Food Waste & Save The World

As I've slowly learned the basics of growing food at home, I've become increasingly impassioned by the origins of my food and the process that it undergoes to reach the dinner table; however It wasn't until I transformed my front yard from a muddy bank into a tiny but thriving vegetable patch that I gave any thought to the path that food takes when it leaves the kitchen.

Since the 1950's when large scale supermarkets and centralised food production became the norm, we've lost some of what was once considered common knowledge. Nowadays you rarely see people tending to their vegetable garden out in the suburbs or picking edible wild 'weeds' by the roadside. My sister practically lives on dehydrated 2-minute noodles loaded with MSG; the girl next door can't eat anything with a recognisable face; a little boy who lives across the road believes that everything he needs to live a healthy life resides in a packet of crinkle-cut chips.  

As a society we're spoiled rotten and our ethos has turned largely to materialism so it's no wonder that we're becoming increasingly detached from the origins of the very lifeblood of which sustains us. We've ceased to think of food as food should be. It's just another product that comes from only God knows where.

Food and paper, if left to nature, both decompose and return nutrients to the earth. It's terribly ironic then that food waste is the #1 least recycled material and it's absolutely horrendous to think that these two components combined, contribute to nearly 50% of all municipal solid waste. When buried in landfill, they're deprived of oxygen and begin the long process of anaerobic decomposition. This produces methane: a greenhouse gas, 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Food waste in landfill also results in something called leachate - a toxic chemical runoff which seeps deep into the earth to enter our drinking water.

Dumping food in landfill not only contributes to polluting our environment, but also detracts from precious nutrients that should be returned to the earth. Farmers are forced to use chemical fertilisers to replenish nutrients in the soil year after year, which itself poses a cataclysmic kaleidoscope of problems.

If you have a garden and even if you don't, there is something you can do. Reduce the amount of methane-producing waste you send off to join the millions of tons of compacted waste already in landfill. You can do this by composting your food scraps, plant debris, charcoal, paper, cardboard, toilet rolls, coffee grounds, even hair. Newspapers can be composted too since printing ink is soy-based nowadays. If in doubt, anything derived from something that was once living can be composted. In Sydney, 52% of the average household bin is compostable material. Some councils offer cheaper rates for rubbish disposal if you ask for a smaller garbage bin which could potentially be a huge money saver.

There are a few different options when it comes to compost.

The cheapest option (if you have a garden) is to mound up your scraps with grass clippings and dried leaves in one big pile. Thermophilic micro-organisms will heat up the pile and if you give it a mix (for aeration) once every week, in about 2 months you'll be left with a lovely rich compost. The heat produced with this method will effectively kill bacteria and weed seeds.

A compost tumbler is a fancy barrel fixed to a pivot that can be filled with material and aerated by spinning. It composts quickly but without reaching high temperatures.

Keeping a worm farm is a little more compact and neighbour friendly if you don't have a large garden space. All you have to do it place some moist coir (fibre from coconut shells) into the bottom, put a box of composting worms inside, give them some food scraps, a sprinkling of soil and a moist layer of newspaper over the top. Keep them out of the sun and rain. They'll eat their weight in scraps a day and any liquid produced can be diluted with 10 parts water and used to fertilise the veg.

The Bokashi Bucket is a relatively new system. Its design allows you to compost meat and fish which are usually avoided so as not to attract rodents or vermin. The bucket is able to be kept indoors or under the kitchen sink; the micro-organisms work anaerobically and the sawdust/bran mix sprinkled on top acts to absorb any unpleasant smells which may occur from the decomposing matter.

There is one more option that in my mind, is also the most efficient for home users: 

"NatureMill brings home composting to the mainstream user. It is essentially a miniature in-vessel kitchen composting system. NatureMill delivers an answer to the problem of space and labor for both traditional composting.. Waste is collected right where it is generated—in the kitchen. A computer controls the temperature, air flow, moisture, and mixing to accelerate the process and eliminate the backbreaking work. Everything is fully self contained in a modern, attractive container. Just a few square feet of floor space is required. No special plumbing or electrical connections are needed, other than a standard electrical outlet.. Best of all, NatureMill provides home gardeners with a source of rich, organic compost. And there is something uniquely satisfying about witnessing the entire food chain: from the garden, to the dining table, and back to the garden again." 

All of these systems work by employing either worms or micro-organisms or both, to turn carbon and nitrogen-rich waste into beautiful, dark compost that can be added back to the garden. The benefits of composting are many. Not only does it act as a fertiliser, but the addition of organic matter also improves soil structure which enhances moisture and nutrient retention, increasing microbial activity.

Composting eliminates methane production in landfill but digging compost into the garden goes further through a process called carbon sequestration - atmospheric carbon dioxide is trapped in organic matter and buried. All plants need carbon and with a more readily available source for them to tap into, they'll have more energy to grow.

Scientists are looking to sequester carbon to counter global warming on an industrial scale in the future but we don't have to wait for years to make a difference. Do your bit by simple composting and help save the world, at home.