On making things big, only to make them little again

First of all, thanks to you all for reading and your constructive feedback! My apologies for not posting for a while, as I've been consumed with life - first finishing exams and reports then moving to Nelson and starting a new job, not to mention poor internet connections and general distractions! Hopefully now I am back...

I wanted to comment on the strange predilection we seem to have for making things large when we really only want small things... confused? Well, what I am talking about is the fact that we put huge amounts of energy into growing, say, beef cattle, which are somewhat substantial creatures, when all we really want is a steak (I am not using the 'Royal We' here, BTW). In the Andes, they eat Guinea Pigs. In New Zealand, we poison rabbits so we can grow sheep... Energy to make it large, more energy to make it small...

And why would we grow a tree to enormous proportions and the grand old age of 30, when all we want is a piece of 2x4 timber (or, more curiously, woodchips)? In Europe they used to (and in some places still do) grow the tree for ten years, 'til it's the right size for the job, and then cut it down (after which it grows back, is cut down, and on and on ad infinitum). Avoids the need for enormous machinery and vast amounts of energy to transport and process...

And the lawn. Ahh, the lawn... I shouldn't have got started on lawns, but now it's too late! Yet again, here is a strange modern phenomenon - copious quantities of water, fertilisers, fossil-fuelled lawnmowers - and for what? So we can grow big grass... and make it small again! For goodness sake, how about replacing some of the underutilised lawns with permanent low-growing groundcovers - Roman Chamomile, clover, pennyroyal, native grasses... there are many options I could list.

I am not suggesting that all lawns should be replaced of course, just the ones which serve no apparent purpose. A friend of mine has a splendidly healthy 'lawn' which is largely the result of a complete lack of care and attention. It is a thrivingly diverse combination of red and white clover, dock, mint, dandelion, daisy, plantain and yarrow - in other words, a perfect herbal ley, which is habitat for many creatures, including insects as well as birds. Not to mention the nutritious mulch which goes around the plum and lemon trees...

So there we have it - something to consider in terms of energy inputs vs. outputs. In addition, while we are so absorbed with enhancing biodiversity, how about turning those barren monocultures (a hangover from a bygone age of Victorian status symbols) into micro-scale havens of diversity?

Give this some thought next time you plant a native tree - what is the state of your lawn? Haven or horror? And next time you tuck into a juicy steak, consider - wouldn't Guinea Pig be so much more energy efficient?!

And I say, how revolutionary would it be to use your lawn to raise guinea pigs for your table and avoid the need for all that annoying mowing and the plastic packaging that you get your meat in? Splendid!

Sustainable Substitutes for Fossil Fuelled Fun...?

i drove with my flatmates to Oreti beach the other day. it was a splendidly sunny, still day and we took the soccer ball for some kickin'...

naturally, being such a nice day, everyone else had the same idea and the beach was covered with cars and people. now, there aren't that many parts of New Zealand that i am aware of where you are not only allowed to drive a car onto the beach, you apparently have a sacred, god-given right to do so - there is even a speed limit (30km/h).

i am of course living in the land of burt munro, so i shouldn't be too surprised.

we took off to a nearby park to kick the ball. in the same park was a guy with three kids - they had driven there in a monstrous-looking four-wheel drive vehicle (it was absurdly large) and the kids were taking turns hooning round the park in a noisy small four-wheeled motorbike.

funnily enough, from the other side of the road came the hysterical scream of engines - it was opening day for Teretonga Park (the local speedway)... earlier that morning i had been woken by our 'boy racer' neighbours revving it up.

i started to wonder, are we going to be able to change our sporting and entertainment habits in the face of fuel shortages and climate change...?

you don't have to watch telly for long to see some form of motorsport - jet-skis, motorcross, formula one etc. and it is obvious that people are really into this stuff. now, don't get me wrong - i am not interested in telling people what to do or what sports to be involved with, however i can't help but wonder if the people who are into these things realise that they cannot last - that they are unsustainable...?

fuel prices are increasing, as stocks become depleted. food prices are increasing for the same reason, as well as climate change, and now we are using food to produce biofuels... are we so sure that we want to prioritise fossil-fuelled fun over feeding our families?

by raising our kids to admire and adore cars and the associated culture, we are doing them a great disservice, as by the time they are able to drive fuel will be such a precious commodity and the cost of emitting carbon will be so high that they will be unable to afford to do it.

so can we change this culture? can we decide to encourage non-fossil fun, sports that are people-powered like cycling, running, swimming, kayaking... and wean ourselves off the motorsport addiction? i for one am keen to try.

naturally, all organisms will preferentially choose the way of gaining the most energy with the least energy expenditure, so it is neither surprising nor 'wrong' that humans embraced oil (just as a possum will prefer a kiwi egg to a beech leaf), however we are now in a position to see that the results of people consuming so much energy and expending so little are that most 'westernised' of illnesses - obesity, and that most international of issues - climate change.

let's make a conscious decision to encourage young people to see through this fossil-fuelled facade and instead choose sustainable systems for social success and sporting stimulation - "two legs good, four wheels bad"?!

my ever-reducing wasteline

i think i have actually managed to achieve about as close to being 'zero waste' as it is possible to get while still living and consuming in a city...

i have a suite of mechanisms for achieving this and wanted to share these with you all. it takes a bit of commitment, but once in the habit it's a breeze!

of course as we all know, the first step is to minimise/ reduce/ avoid. this is best achieved by asking oneself - "do i really need this?" when shopping... "can i get it in bulk or in a reuseable/ recyclable container?" is a good next step.

once in my possession, the easily recyclable materials are cleaned and put in the recycling bin - step two complete. any organic residues (food scraps, newspaper etc.) head straight for the worm farm and/ or bokashi bucket (www.bokashi.co.nz) - step three.

the next step is the key - up 'til now i have avoided putting anything in the wheelie bin (invercargill city council provide a big wheelie bin weekly for rubbish - free (from rates) - so very little incentive to reduce!!)... all that is left is plastics - numbers 3 and up which can't be easily recycled, packaging films, bottle caps etc... so what do i do with this crap?

the answer is that i collect my empty milk tetrapak cartons (used to be imported soymilk, but found a better option - nz-produced organic cow's milk) and compress all my plastic 'waste' into them. pack them full and tape them shut. i now have a 'brick' made of non-degradable plastic! i have collected all my 'rubbish' like this for the last two and a half years and only have 100 of them... my next step is to make some sculptures with them (first up will be a comfy chair upon which one can contemplate one's waste 'ass-print' - this will use all 100 bricks).

in this manner i have turned a 'waste' product into a resource (as Bill Mollison said - "it's not that you have too many slugs, it's just that you don't have enough ducks", or in our case, "it's not that we have too much waste, it's just that we don't have enough rubbish bricks"!) (don't think i'm advocating making more rubbish though!).

some of my pet peeves... plastic bags for fruit and veges in the supermarket (take some paper bags in your reuseable shopping bag!); buying beer? visit the local micro-brewery and get a refill (it's cheaper and the beer is much better than the mass-produced variety); polystyrene meat trays - i don't eat meat so haven't come up with an alternative - suggestions please (this is what my flatmates fill the bin with)!

this is what i mean by "bionic= creativity, community, sustainability": a creative approach to what we perceive as a "problem" often shows us that it is actually an un-potentiated resource, as long as we can be creative with it... if we work together as a community we build strength and support networks and can deal with larger quantities of "waste"... this is how we will attain sustainability, if we actually can.

in the two and a half years i've lived in invercargill i have thrown out maybe one large wheelie bin of waste... my neighbours put out one each week! i am unfortunately not in a position yet to be able to keep my shit out of the toilet, but i'll get there yet...

bionic= creativity, community, sustainability... join me!

intellectual ecosystems and emotional composting

i was just thinking that when a bunch of people look at a scene, we all perceive slightly or radically different things... for example, looking at a river, some may see fishing potential, some may see swimming potential, some may see nature's intrinsic value and others may see potential energy production...

this diversity of perceptions is not unlike the ecosystem itself, and therefore when assessing 'value' in anything we must ensure that a healthy intellectual ecosystem is in place - that is, the components of the ecosystem must interact in a functional manner, in which they are all supported by and in turn support each other. this means us!

emotional composting is the term i have given to my method of being positive and happy most of the time...

all good gardeners know that gardening is actually not dissimilar to alchemy, in that one takes often unwanted, so-called 'waste' materials and through interaction with natural biological processes, creates something productive and beautiful.

when i feel sad or annoyed about something, i try and harvest the negative feelings and through interaction with natural biochemical processes in my brain, convert them into beautiful, productive thoughts - this emotional compost is rich and friable, and grows only the best.

it is essential to understand that in order to continuously produce such high-quality material, there needs to be a consistent input of so-called 'negative' emotions. through embracing this process, it becomes clear that the sad mad and just downright bad feelings have their place in a sustainable emotional management regime, and are really just good feelings in another form.

anyone fancy a hug?

local or organic?

i don't know about you, but sometimes i find myself spending inordinately long periods of time standing in the supermarket trying to compare one product with another...

specifically, i pick up the product, check the ingredients, see where it's made, see if it is organic... what do i know about the company that produces it - multinational/ local? good/ bad environmental record? good/ bad social record?

this can of course become rather time consuming, and so i pretty much find something i know and trust and stick with that every time i shop (i shop at four shops per week - an organic shop and three supermarkets!).

however, i still wonder to myself - should i buy the local non-organic product or the imported organic product...?!

the answer i think lies in a multi-faceted approach to ascertaining a product/ company's credentials. if we are concerned about carbon emissions due to 'food miles' then it would seem obvious to choose local, however farming practices may be better in it's country of origin than here, so in fact there may be fewer emissions than if it were local (this is the argument used to reassure european consumers about consuming nz products).

sometimes purchasing an imported 'organic' product might be a case of "same shit, different country" as organic standards are known to vary significantly in their strictness - the USDA even tried to include use of battery farming, sewage sludge and genetic engineering in it's organic standard!

ultimately, i think it is more important to support local food producers, even if they aren't organic. i come to this conclusion because if we don't support the locals but choose imported products (even if we perceive them to be 'better' for our health or the health of the environment) we risk undermining the locals and putting them out of business, thus making us even more reliant on imports.

if we choose local products, we are able to show the food producers that we support them. once they have sufficient reliable support from consumers they will be more willing to consider the switch to organics - especially if we, their supporters, insist upon it.

my method has thus become:
1) do i need this product? is it something i could grow/ produce myself?
2) who is trying to get me to buy it - what is their track record? does a better company produce the same product?
3) is it local/ nz made? if not, how far does it travel to get here?
4) is it organic?
5) can i afford it?!
6) what is the packaging like? recyclable/ reuseable? landfill-bound? can i get it in bulk?

generally speaking, the further away a product comes from, the more effort i'll make to find an organic and/ or fair trade alternative. new zealand's environmental and worker protection rules, while not ultra-flash, are at least better than many other countries and we are more able to change nz practices than those of other countries...

it sounds like a lot of work, but hey, it's time we shrugged off the yoke of ignorant consumerism and started taking some responsibility for our lifestyles - toughen up!

educate yourself - it'll make you a better person, and also it's trendy now.

bean there, done that

although much is being done to protect new zealand's indigenous biodiversity, there is sadly too little focus on protecting the biodiversity of the foods we rely on.

i can't help but feel that ensuring a richly diverse range of foods must be of more importance than protecting native flora and fauna, recognising of course that if we cannot feed ourselves sustainably, we cannot look after anything else!

it would be ideal if both native conservation and food conservation were equally supported in new zealand.

heritage plants and animals are not only intrinsically special; they have been bred by humans over time to display particular characteristics - such as storage ability, pest resistance, productive season and taste.

it is only within the last few decades that these characteristics began to take a turn for the worst...

gradually, we have allowed ourselves to accept the identically mediocre foods offered at the supermarket, day after day, all year, the same foods regardless of season... because it is 'cheaper' and 'more convenient' to buy things from the supie than the eqivalent time spent gardening. good little consumers.

oh, the thousands of apple cultivars! the yellow, white, purple hued carrots, violet caulis, frilly afro lettuces, multi-coloured chickens!

these heritage varieties offer an exciting journey in cultural realisation - we can reremember that certain fruits taste better at certain times, that fresh picked is thrilling, that colour, flavour, texture can be vibrant instead of banal...

but these plants and animals need our help, because without people to keep producing them, they will vanish - and we will suffer. The corporate-controlled food production systems are only interested in a few regular uninspiring food species, so will only preserve these, and as genetically engineered crops creep into our fields we will face pollution of our heritage with dubious technology.

while preserving heritage animal breeds is a more serious commitment, it is splendidly easy to have a small tub of tomatoes growing on your doorstep (there are so many delicious choices!), sow alternating rows of different coloured lettuces, plant a heritage fruit tree... i reckon they taste better, even if that's just cos they look so damn nice!

grow, grow, grow!

cycles of life

ahh, it's impossible to adequately express what a joyous feeling it is to be a bicycler... but i'll try.

apart from the obvious and well-known financial and health benefits of cycling, it is such a nice way to integrate oneself into the surrounding environment...

although invercargill can be a hazardous cycling environment (broken glass, bad drivers, coal smoke) it is still a pleasure to be able to say hello to the people you pass, stop to sniff a flower, easily find a park in front of every shop... while drivers in their personal personnel carriers stress out, pay for fuel, for parking, for gyms...

i love my bike - i can hear the world's sounds and smell it's smells, whistle in the wind, enjoy the rhythms of the pedals - make cycling music.

i have two bikes - one a slightly rugged 'mountain' bike (try finding a mountain in invercargill!) and the other a beautifully cruisy oldschool road bike - ah, the easy gears, the mudguards, the carrier - classic.

if you don't already ride a bike regularly, consider that not only will your health and general wellbeing improve, you will be better insulated against rising fuel prices and the imminence of peak oil...

i love my bike.

inflate your spirit! cycle for victory!