Regenerative capitalism and the holistic economy (report)

REGENERATIVE CAPITALISM: How Universal Principles And Patterns Will Shape Our NewEconomy

A holistic approach to the economy is necessary to avoid social, environmental and economic collapse, according to a new report by the Capital Institute.

UK Government taskforce suggests civilisation may collapse (online)

Scientific model supported by UK Government Taskforce flags risk ofcivilisation’s collapse by 2040

New scientific models supported by the British government’s Foreign Office show that if we don’t change course, in less than three decades industrial civilisation will essentially collapse due to catastrophic food shortages, triggered by a combination of climate change, water scarcity, energy crisis, and political instability. Before you panic, the good news is that the model isn't predictive. The model does not account for the reality that people will react to escalating crises by changing behavior and policies. But even so, it’s a sobering wake-up call.

 

N and C impacts of permaculture chickens (abstract only)

Soil nitrogen and carbon impacts of raising chickens on pasture 

Pasture-raised chicken is an alternative to industrial production. In this agricultural model, manure is deposited directly onto grassland soils. The fate of manure nitrogen from pasture-raised chicken production remains poorly understood. We conducted a controlled, replicated experiment on a permaculture farm in which small chicken coops were moved daily in a pasture. Manure deposition was relatively constant over the four weeks pasture-lifetime of the chickens. Soil gaseous reactive nitrogen losses were less in this pasture system compared to cultivated field amended with raw chicken manure. These results suggest that pasture manure management may have a smaller impact on gaseous reactive nitrogen pollution.

Eco-feminsit pedagogy and permaculture (#journal)

‘More Crucial’ Matters: Reclaiming ‘Sustainability’ and Transcending the Rhetoric of ‘Choice’ through Ecofeminist Pedagogy

This paper advances a theory for ecofeminist sustainability pedagogy. The need to adapt to a world of diminishing resources is central to ecofeminism, sustainability, and permaculture, and for this reason, the integration of principles drawn from these theoretical frameworks can serve as a powerful means of transforming what is taught in the classroom and beyond. Permaculture offers a conceptual map for moving forward in a holistic and integrative way by cultivating long-term systems thinking and situating human behaviors and practices within a local-global framework with social justice at its core. An ecofeminist sustainability pedagogy advocates empowered citizenship and inspires students to assume responsibility for their own choices, while fostering new approaches to culture change.

The future of permaculture (online)

Permaculture: History and Futures

This short essay argues that the future of permaculture lies in its great power to transform our own personal ways of being and doing. It can change our world view and with it our behaviour, bringing about an integral paradigm shift.

Permaculture principles in rural social work (journal)

Rural community transition and resilience: what now for social work?

With increasing impacts of climate change and losses of life, livelihood and habitat, rural communities have become beset with frequent, prolonged and persistent recovery and coping obligations. Designing for and increasingly demonstrating social work practices that prioritize the multi-modal skills of sustainable living may well be the most effective means to realize and sustain environmental justice advancements. Practitioners, educators, researchers and students engaged in mobilizing social work's professional commitments to environmental justice causes would be well-served by acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to realize sustainable livelihoods. Permaculture design principles and methods are cited as means for social work professionals to begin with their own personal and professional practices.

Mushrooms can save the world! (online)

Ted Talk: 6 Ways mushrooms can save the world 

In this mind-blowing TED Talk, mycologist Paul Stamets lists 6 ways the mycelium fungus can help save the universe: cleaning polluted soil, making insecticides, treating smallpox and even flu viruses, making fuel for our cars.

Special issue on food sovereignity

Globalizations Journal Special Issue: Food Sovereignty: Concept, Practice and Social Movements 

The third journal special issue from the 2013 Yale food sovereignty conference has been released, and is now available online, with free access for a limited time. The contributors argue that to advance the theory and practice of food sovereignty,  new frameworks and analytical methods are needed to move beyond binaries— between urban and rural, gender equality and the family farm, trade and localism, and autonomy and engagement with the state. A research agenda in food sovereignty must not shy away from the rising contradictions in and challenges to the movement. The places of seeming contradiction may in fact be where the greatest insights are to be found.

Celebrating 50 years of biological records (journal)

Biological Journal of the Linnean Society Special Issue: Fifty years of the Biological Records Centre

A special Issue of the journal focusing on many aspects of ecological monitoring, citizen science and biological recording. With open access for three months (until 15th September 2015).

'Green growth' won't stop climate change (report)

Can Green Growth Really Work?

Many economists and policy makers advocate "green growth" as the new growth paradigm, based on enhanced material/resource/energy efficiency, structural changes towards a service economy and a switch to renewable energy. This paper argues that growth, technological change, population-expansion and governance constraints cast a very long shadow on "green growth" hopes. Such an evolutionary approach will be insufficient to cope with the complexities of climate change. It may rather give false hope and excuses to do nothing really fundamental. Its proponents need to realize that the required transformation goes far beyond innovation and structural changes to include better distribution of income and wealth, limitation of market power of dominant economic agents, and a culture of sufficiency.

Food quality over food quantity (report)

Food Report Says Quality Matters

Farmers and food researchers must focus on food quality over quantity to improve global nutrition and health, says a US think-tank. 2 billion people are malnourished because they lack essential micronutrients such as iron or vitamins, while nearly the same number are overweight. Agricultural research must solve both sides of this problem, says the report. Crops have typically been bred for size, visual appeal and yield, neglecting or unintentionally removing nutrients. Researchers should also involve end users — in particular women — in product development, to ensure new crops are acceptable replacements for existing foods

armers and food researchers must focus on food quality over quantity to improve global nutrition and health, says a US think-tank.

About two billion people in the world are malnourished because they lack essential micronutrients such as iron or vitamins, while nearly the same number are overweight, according to the UN. Agricultural research must solve both sides of this problem, says a report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, presented in London, United Kingdom, last week (2 June).

“We consider mostly volume and we don’t consider substance enough,” says Catherine Bertini, a Chicago Council fellow and one of the report’s authors. In terms of research and development, crops have typically been bred for size, visual appeal and yield, neglecting or unintentionally removing nutrients, the report says.

Bertini urges scientists to focus on local crops. “Look into indigenous crops that are already either highly nutritious or could be made highly nutritious, and look for ways to both expand their [shelf] lives and to make them more available,” she says.

“Look into indigenous crops that are already either highly nutritious or could be made highly nutritious, and look for ways to both expand their [shelf] lives and to make them more available.”

Catherine Bertini, Chicago Council

Researchers should also involve end users — in particular women, who do much of the farming and cooking — in product development, Bertini suggests, to ensure new crops are acceptable replacements for existing foods. - See more at: http://www.scidev.net/global/nutrition/news/food-report-quality-matters.html#sthash.Li38R9Ml.dpuf

armers and food researchers must focus on food quality over quantity to improve global nutrition and health, says a US think-tank.

About two billion people in the world are malnourished because they lack essential micronutrients such as iron or vitamins, while nearly the same number are overweight, according to the UN. Agricultural research must solve both sides of this problem, says a report by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, presented in London, United Kingdom, last week (2 June).

“We consider mostly volume and we don’t consider substance enough,” says Catherine Bertini, a Chicago Council fellow and one of the report’s authors. In terms of research and development, crops have typically been bred for size, visual appeal and yield, neglecting or unintentionally removing nutrients, the report says.

Bertini urges scientists to focus on local crops. “Look into indigenous crops that are already either highly nutritious or could be made highly nutritious, and look for ways to both expand their [shelf] lives and to make them more available,” she says.

“Look into indigenous crops that are already either highly nutritious or could be made highly nutritious, and look for ways to both expand their [shelf] lives and to make them more available.”

Catherine Bertini, Chicago Council

Researchers should also involve end users — in particular women, who do much of the farming and cooking — in product development, Bertini suggests, to ensure new crops are acceptable replacements for existing foods. - See more at: http://www.scidev.net/global/nutrition/news/food-report-quality-matters.html#sthash.Li38R9Ml.dpuf

Repair and heal damaged landscapes (book)

Earth Repair: A Grassroots Guide to Healing and Repairing Damaged Landscapes

How can we work with the power of living systems to heal and transform toxic landscapes into thriving, healthy, and fertile places once more? How can we respond to environmental disasters in accessible and empowering ways? Earth Repair explores a host of powerful grassroots bioremediation techniques to assist with the recovery of the lands that nourish us, and to support the growing of healthy food and medicine in polluted and damaged soils. These techniques include microbial remediation (using microrganisms), phytoremediation (using plants) and mycoremediation (using fungi).

Maps of the global food system (online)

Seedmap.org

Seedmap.org is a unique, user-friendly, interactive and comprehensive online tool to explore where our food comes from, the challenges facing agriculture today, and strategies to overcome them. Explore their many online maps and learn about the origins of our food crops, the farmers who continue to nurture them, the threats to our food supply, and achievable solutions.

Financial benefits of agroecology in Africa (report)

Fostering Economic Resilience: The Financial Benefits of Ecological Farming in Kenya and Malawi

Greenpeace Africa has released a report documenting the income benefits for farmers practising ecological farming in Malawi and Kenya. It is based on field research with the World Agro-Foresty Centre and ICIPE comparing groups of farmers using chemical pesticides/fertilizers, with those not. There is an increasing literature on the YIELD benefits of ecological farming but very few studies show the INCOME benefits to farmers, comparing the two agricultural models. Remarkably, our report finds that the average profitability of maize (per acre, per year) for small farmers is three times greater for farmers promoting 'push-pull' technology (ie, no use of chemical pesticides) than for farmers using pesticides. The income benefits are especially large for women farmers. 

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Ecovllages (book)

Ecovillages: Lessons for Sustainable Community

In a world of dwindling natural resources and mounting environmental crisis, who is devising ways of living that will work for the long haul? And how can we, as individuals, make a difference? To answer these fundamental questions, Karen Litfin embarked upon a journey to ecovillages; intentional communities at the cutting-edge of sustainable living. From rural to urban, high tech to low tech, spiritual to secular, she discovered an under-the-radar global movement making positive and radical changes. This inspiring and insightful book shares her unique experience of these experiments in sustainable living. Not only is another world possible, it is already being born in small pockets the world over. These micro-societies, however, are small and time is short. Fortunately their successes can be applied to existing social structures, from the local to the global, providing sustainable ways of living for generations to come.

Extensive farming; better for people and animals (report)

Food Security and Farm Animal Welfare

Compassion in World Farming commissioned new independent research to find out what types of livestock systems would be best suited to feeding the world population in 2050. The study shows that continuing to intensify the farming of livestock is likely to increase pressure on food security in all regions, particularly in those where food security is already problematic, such as Africa and Asia. Extensive livestock farming often creates better food security than intensive farming. Extensive farming helps reduce competition between people and farm animals for high quality grains and high-grade arable land.

Sustainable intensification - an oxymoron (online)

Sustainable intensification - an oxymoron

A short report from Compassion in World Farming arguing that the concept of sustainable intensification is deeply flawed and that sustainability and intensive farming are inherently incompatible.

The true cost of cheap meat (book)

Farmageddon

Philip Lymbery is Chief Executive of Compassion in World Farming. Over three years, he travelled the world bearing witness to the hidden cost of cheap meat and the devastating impact of factory farming – on people, animals and our planet. The resulting book is a wake-up call, exposing factory farming as one of the most pressing issues of our time; responsible for unparalleled food waste, damage to our health and the countryside, and the biggest cause of animal cruelty on the planet.

Introducing geodesign (report)

What is Geodesign?

This white-paper, published by Esri, introduces the concept of geodesign, what it is and why it is important, most particularly for those engaged in planning, designing or managing some aspect of our environment, be it our natural environment or some portion of our built environment.