Octopus’s gardens, myths and seeing what’s there

Through the clear water we could see the octopus’s garden on the lake bed below.  It was bare. Rocks. Sandy backing only.  But outside the desert circle it’s borders were green, ripe seagrass, whizzing fish and abundant life.   So much for that myth.  *  (And I thought I could trust you, John Lennon!)   While I laughed at the Beatles song in my head, Graeme, a fifth generation Australian fisher steadied his boat to slowly map the circle of marine desert below... Read More

Big little things on a tropical island

Some observations made during my six weeks in Lombok, Indonesia, a tropical island – my first stay there.  I arrived at the end of August 2012 and left in the middle of October: Lombok has about 4 m people on an area about the size of the Sydney wider metropolitan area “villa’ is perhaps the most abused word in Lombok and Bali, especially when used in ads, the Web and promotion – don’t be confident of something out of Italy – such villas exist... Read More

How to promote my book with least ego?

I’m way over me.  A subject that bores me. But I do want to promote my new book’s ideas and solutions. Almost every idea and solution in Sustainable Food is someone else’s. The book is really about other people, other ideas, the little critters and plants and all the wonders that make our food. It’s just reviving and repeating what ancient cultures, peasant cultures, farming cultures developed.  So its fair that they – and all the wonderful people... Read More