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Permaculture is the New Organic

Permaculture is a term introduced in the 1970’s, but is being talked about more and more. I think we are going to hear even more about it in the coming months and years.

I recently posted about the term ‘organic’ being rendered irrelevant by large scale agriculture and food companies, and permaculture may soon replace this term.

Permaculture is not so much a set of rules as it is a philosophy. It’s about doing things in a way that are low impact to the environment as well as minimizing inputs and outputs. Inputs and outputs are minimized by reusing waste as much as possible and designing systems that are self-sustaining and don’t require inputs of energy, chemicals or natural resources.

For many of us this is nothing new. It’s how we have been gardening and living our lives for a long time now. It is however useful to have a term and a way to formalize and discuss it. In this way we can all improve the way we do things, and help each other at the same time.

Expect to hear this word a lot more on this blog! If you’re interested in a longer and more detailed discussion of these principles, Wikipedia has an article on it here.

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Biofuels Report

A very extensive report on the current state of biofuels was published by Grain yesterday.

As we approach ‘Peak Oil’, the point at which world oil production ends it’s long period of steady increases and begins to decline instead, a mad rush to find alternatives has begun. Instead of investing in conservation technologies, or more appropriate ways to generate energy from biomass, we are insisting on producing liquid we can put into our cars. This threatens widespread environmental damage and the resulting loss of biodiversity.

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Increasing Irrelevance of Organic Certification

In the US changes are underway to allow 38 non-organic ingredients in food certified as organic. Increasingly food companies want to sell certified organic food containing non-organic ingredients when organic ingredients are not available.

This comes amid the realization that for some time now beer sold in the US as certified organic has in fact contained non-organic hops. This is due to an interesting loophole in the organic certification rules that allows food in the US to be certified organic when up to 5% of it’s ingredients are non-organic.

There are similar moves in Europe to centralize organic certification on a EU level, allow 5% non-organic ingredients and allow 0.9% GM ingredients. Many people may find it difficult to find anything wrong with this last point, 0.9% GM ingredients, because they think some contamination is inevitable. In fact by being this lax simply guarantees our food supply will become contaminated to this level. It’s not inevitable and if we buy food expecting it to be GM free, it should simply be GM free.

Also while food in Europe containing genetically modified organisms are considered GM, food that is made with the assistance of GM organisms is not. For example the artificial sweetener aspartame, ‘vegetarian’ rennet in hard cheeses as well as many food supplements fall into this category and are allowed in certified organic foods.

A similar thing happened with Fair Trade certification. We all want to believe we can help people in the developing world by spending more money on Fair Trade products. Increasingly there are stories of very lax enforcement of Fair Trade standards and of farmers who aren’t paid at all for their products. Even when the rules are followed, and farmers are paid, the extra they receive under Fair Trade schemes is very small compared to the extra we as consumers pay for the products.

If you want organic food, the only meaningful way to get it is growing it yourself or buying it from a local source you trust.  You also simply have to avoid processed foods. The same thing is true with Fair Trade. We all live near farmers or other local businesses who are having a hard time in the current economy, and it’s better to spend your money on these people than on goods imported half way across the world with a meaningless certification attached to them.

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Ornithologists Call for Zero Growth

Male Townsend' Warbler during spring migration near Oliver

This comes from a recent post on Anarchocyclist.

The British Columbia Field Ornithologists (BCFO) recently called for a ‘steady state economy’, that fluctuates but doesn’t expand as a necessary step to conserve biodiversity. The details of this can be seen on their about page.

Noteworthy is the following from their preamble:

There is increasing evidence that North American economic growth is having negative effects on the long-term ecological and economic welfare of North America and the world.

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Indian Photo Essay

Celebration of Seeds

Here is another photo essay from the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh is where a large number of commercial farmers have been taking their own lives as a result of the financial pressures they find themselves under. This photo essay is a celebration of biodiversity, seed sovereignty and the contribution of women.