permaculture

[Pierre Marx <pierremarx@ymail.com>]

Thanks for posting David.

Dare I cast a stone in the hornet's nest?

All good ideas being discussed in these clips. But…. shall I talk about the 
elephant in the room? If we got rid of the 50% (or thereabouts) of food that 
gets lost as it travels for farm to fork, wouldn't that be the place to start?

Put succinctly, the world does not have a food production problem, it has a 
food distribution problem. If we eat bio-regionally, we will do much to 
address this. And if Westerners / the Global North made a cultural shift 
towards eating seasonally, you'd have the problem solved. But that is 
currently too much to ask, it seems.

Another thing: "feeding the world" implies that those that produce excess 
food can sell or donate to those that have too little. Again, wrong thinking. 
This is the model that has commoditised food and has brought us dependence on 
aid handouts. (I agree that desperate times call for desperate measures, but 
then again how about solving local "famines" by support from bio-regions 
nearby - the neighbours?) There are political obstacles to this vision, I 
know, not to mention the vested (corporate) interests in upholding this 
current model. But surely that is where the energy should go, what academics 
should be thinking/writing/talking about, what environmental activists should 
be campaigning about, what John Doe should be educated about (note: I'm not 
saying "made aware of" - that's too weak), and what politicos should be 
debating?

Band-aiding a flawed system is never going to work - the system has to be 
replaced. Back to the drawing board.

All the best,
Pierre



On 21/02/2013, at 4:09 AM, David Fortson wrote:

> Hi Permaculture friends,
> 
> One of our projects in New Mexico is with the Quivira Coalition 
> (www.quiviracoalition.org).  The recently hosted a conference titled "How 
> to Feed Nine Billion People."
> 
> They brought in speakers and scientists from around the world on a variety 
> of topics.  We have 6 videos posted of these short lectures (with slides) 
> here:http://www.youtube.com/quiviracoalition
> 
> Noteworthy Talks: 
> 
> Dr. Jill Clapperton - Soil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6daE2sYegg
> Principal Scientist and President Rhizoterra Inc. Dr. Jill Clapperton is 
> the Rhizosphere Ecologist at the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada 
> Lethbridge Research Centre in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
> 
> Dr. Molly Jahn - Seeds http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKT5xln3uRk
> Special Advisor to the Chancellor and Provost for Sustainability Sciences 
> and Professor of Agronomy and Genetics, Nelson Institute for Environmental 
> Studies, Center for Sustainability and the Global Environment, University 
> of Wisconsin-Madison.
> 
> Sandra Postel - Water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agSMj2KC708
> Director,The Global Water Policy Project. Founded in 1994 by Sandra Postel, 
> a leading authority on international freshwater issues, the project fosters 
> ideas and inspiration for redirecting society's use and management of fresh 
> water toward conservation and ecosystem health. Sandra lives in Los Lunas, 
> New Mexico.
> 
> Gabe Brown - Soil http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKjX3UdVDFU
> The Brown Ranch, east of Bismarck, ND, believes in and practice Holistic 
> Management, a part of which is farming and ranching in nature's image. They 
> strive to solve problems in a natural and sustainable way. Improving soil 
> health is a priority and no-till farming has been practiced since 1993.
> 
> Enjoy and share.  Some good information in here.
> 
> David Fortson
> 
> LoaCom.com
> ....Better World Strategies
> David Fortson
> 
> 
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