ten more conversations for you at farmers markets than supermarkets

This is a useful study for its research on, among other things, urban farming; here are some snippets – enjoy: “Farming the Cities An estimated 800 million people are involved in urban farming worldwide. (p. 50) Consumers in urban areas pay up to 30 percent more for food than people in rural areas. In some cases, poor urbanites spend 60–80 percent of their income on food. (pp. 51–52) Studies show that people at farmers’ markets have as many as 10 times more... Read More

New York Times – record droughts now ‘normal’

New York Times – record breaking droughts ‘normal’ from now on; will seem ‘wet’ compared to droughts  that lie ahead in the next decades. www.nytimes.com… ‘It is increasingly clear that we already live in the era of human-induced climate change, with unprecedented weather and climate extremes . . .  Read More

Come gardening with us tomorrow

Chippo Nasturtiums on desk Gardeners There’s a couple of dozen buckets of good soil for us to put onto our gardens tomorrow. We need lots of us; even if you just have half an hour to help that would be terrific. We’d love to see anyone who’s never gardened, or think they can’t garden – after an hour with us you’ll be on your way and you’ll discover how easy and enjoyable it is to do something which connects you with Earth.... Read More

The Sustainable Communities Plan is on the web

Sydney City Council asked me to make a plan to make the whole suburb of Chippendale sustainable. It’s not just a plan for this suburb; it can be used to make any suburb sustainable – it’s free and you’re welcome to put it to work where you are. Now the Plan can be read on mobiles, kindles and is very easy to search, use and tweet.  Get it here: theplan.sustainablehouse.com… Enjoy. You can see some of the folks who support the Plan. Please sign the... Read More

Bee collapse research

A new study from Harvard University has identified how pesticides kill bees. The summary of the research reads: Imidacloprid, one of the most widely used neonicotinoid pesticides, has been named as the likely culprit in the sharp worldwide decline in honey bee colonies since 2006. Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health say their new research provides “convincing evidence” of the link between imidacloprid and colony collapse disorder. “It apparently... Read More

ABC Radio National By Design Panel

Tomorrow on ABC Radio National there’ll be a panel discusion on urban farming:  info on their web page, here:   www.abc.net…   Go the city farmers, Michael  Read More

Toby’s Estate supports Chippo community garden

New lime tree Mulch from reused sawdust from local craft workshop + coffee husks   Reused coffee sacks in timber pallet garden On Thursday this week about ten folk from Toby’s Estate coffee gardened with me while we planted out some herbs and fruit trees they’d purchased from a list I gave them. And today a new gardener and arrival to Chippo, Anna, watered the new plants, introduced herself to some Toby’s folk and will join them in maintaining these and... Read More

Urban farming on Radio National

On ABC Radio National on Wednesday 4 April at 2 to 230 pm there’ll be a panel discussion of urban farming.   There’ll be three panelists: Indira Naidoo, Will Smart and moi.   The Panel starts each show and runs for about 25 minutes all up.   abc.net…   Should be fun.   Let’s know if you listen in and find it handy, M  Read More

Green Building Council office compost onto our road gardens

Geoff, Green Building Council compost and road verge Today Geoff and I picked up three bags of compost from the Elizabeth Street offices of the Green Building Council.  For info about the Council:   www.gbca.org….au   Two fellows, Toufik Refki and Jeff Oatman were waiting on the footpath with the compost in hessian sacks ready for loading into Geoff’s van.   Loaded up, Geoff and I went straight to the area most in need, the road verge outside the units... Read More

Chinese delegation investigates Chippendale’s Sustainable Streets Plan

On 25 October a delegation of 21 government and industry representatives visited Chippendale to discuss the Sustainable Streets and Community Plan (Chippendale).   The delegation from Hangzhou in coastal China included representative from the city’s Construction Committee, Training Centre, Illegal Construction Inspection Office, Centre of Demolition and Relocation Housing Construction, Real Estate Management Bureau, Public Utilities Supervision Centre, Urban Planning Bureau,... Read More