1. David Holmgren
David talked about his booklet on future scenarios of peak oil and climate change. In particular, the implications of an energy decent scenario that permaculture deals with.
David started with a reminder these topics are bl**dy complex, and to expect scientists to know what will happen when, is v unrealistic.
Opportunities for farmers?:
- obviously tree planting and sequestering carbon in soil.
-Urban agriculture and growing spuds, pumpkins and organic veg in peri-urban area close to the city.
- Dairy in high rainfall areas and goats elsewhere.
There will be a general reorganisation of land use, with the fat being cut out. Eg we won't grow so much sugar cane in qld, or cotton or aluminium production and so on.
2. Peter Andrews
Author of 'Beyond the Brink'. He talked about Natural Sequence Farming. How we need to learn to read the landscape and how water moves and carries nutrients. He talked about the daily water cycle that, thanks to the forests that used to exist in the first 150km from the coast, gave us a net 10% increase of water, instead of 40% loss in any given period. Forests on the coasts would draw moist air in from the sea. Via transpiration and evaporation (forming dew), water was trapped within the canopy and reused, resulting in 100% efficient use of water. It led to rain further inland and hence forest begot more. Humans have disrupted this process by chopping it down.
(Pic: Regrowth after fires)
Peter talked about other natural processes in the Australian landscape. Stepped diffusion, where a series of pools in a flood plane, and flood events create terraces. We just need to let the weeds to their corrective job.
3. Gwyn Jones
Gwyn showed how a King Lake blueberry farm was able to largely recover from the bush fires. They pruned back hard, provided water, seaweed solution for the roots, reinocculated the soil (bugs in bottles) added compost and coal. This helped kick start the soil biology. Hard decisions about where to start first had to be made, with 9000 bushes. Recovery was helped by having good soil with humus, beforehand.
Glyn described the balance required between calcium, magnesium and potassium and sodium, and some tricks to getting it right. Also suggested using paramagnetic rock or rock dust. He gave us a list of weeds which show the fertility of soil.
He finished on a reminder to 'think before you put more-on' or you become one. We need to experiment and question things.
4. Kirsten Larson
Kirsten's from the Victorian Innovation Eco Lab (VIEL) and she talked about the issues around food security (quality). 60% of our burden of illness is due to diet. Yet there's no money in farming. Compounded by 84% of farmers having been affected by climate change. Eg in future, we'll have 85% less water for irrigation. Drought lifted the price of vegies and fruit 30-40% and bread 17%.
Food is 28% of the average victorian's green house gass emissions.
Fossil fuels are 30% of costs in agriculture, versus 1-2% ave for most other industries.
Need pathways to have the discussion with mainstream society, for example by talking about Food Sensitive Urban Design (FSUD).
(Pic: Temporary village in Kinglake)
5. Sherry Strong
Sherry's a dietician with a great voice! Gee i wish I could wake up singing like that. Really good presentation on what the stuff in supermarkets is doing to us. All that refined and processed "food" which shuts off signals to stop eating and hence is addictive. And why wouldn't we treat our bodies like a finely tuned race car and put decent (real) fuel in them? We'll suffer less anger, hyperactivity, mood swings, health etc etc.
6. Daryl Brooke - CSA
Daryl's developed a business model for a Community Supported Agriculture scheme, in the Nillumbik/ Kinglake region. He's starting small and plans to grow to 50 farmers and 1000 customers, within a 30km radius. His role is distribution. Each customer will commit to an annual cost and wears the risk of 'a bad year on the farm'. Daryl's $ take is transparent and each customer is supplied by one farmer so they can meet and build trust. The scheme supports farmers and they should get a good income. The land area required per farmer is modest at 1ha or more. Consumers and farmers can use the network to distribute other value added products like jams or honey, or to share knowledge and equipment.
