Yearly Archives: 2019

Episode 176. The 2019 RegenEarth Online Conference: Backyard Regen

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 8th of July 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

So, this climate change thing, what’s to be done?

In the white English speaking world, of which I am a part, this whole climate change thing has become politicised. This is something I can’t quite understand and yet seems perfectly obvious.

Can’t understand: The evidence seems quite clear. I’m not particularly interested in the consensus of scientists argument. You could’ve used the same argument for an earth centred solar system and you’d have been wrong. No I’ve been convinced by the evidence, both empirical and on the ground, so to speak. I’ve spoken before of the farmer who’s cutting silage ten weeks before his father used to 30 years ago. I’ve spoken also of the grape growers moving from the southern parts of the Australian mainland to the most southern state of Tasmania because they are unable to achieve the wines they want with shorter growing seasons and warmer harvest times. They have records running over a century which remained within fairly tight extremes until the 1970s when those temperature records all started heading into higher and therefore warmer territory. Continue reading →

Episode 175. Dairying, the Canary in the Mine

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 1st of July 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

This week we begin with another horror story from the Australian dairy industry entitled: ‘The end is near’: Dairy farmers pushed to the brink from 2GB. Now for our Austrlain listeners, I’d like to say I do not listen to that particular radio station, ever but the story popped up in my searches so bare with me. For those listeners outside of Australia 2GB is an AM radio talkback station with a huge rightwing bias. Back to the story. Continue reading →

Episode 174. Defining the Fight and a Strategy!

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 24th of June 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

This week we begin with an interesting piece entitled: ‘Recycling Is Like a Band-Aid on Gangrene’ from the Atlantic.com.

I really couldn’t have summed up the nonsense we are being asked to do “for the Planet” any better than that title. It fits in with the “everyone must go vegan”, we must never use a plastic bag to bring groceries home if it’s given free with those groceries and the world must never use incandescent bulbs for lighting. Continue reading →

Episode 172. Why Regeneration?

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 10th of June 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

Today we’re going to discuss regeneration in particular regeneration of the soil and ecosystems. Over the last 50 to 75 years, basically since the second world war we’ve gone through a period of destruction. In effect a faustian bargain in which we gave up 1% of our topsoil every year in return for production returns.

We did this by using chemicals: chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides and herbicides and fungicides and to some extent, it worked. There were lots of famines and people starving in the 1970s. A lot of the techniques developed with chemical inputs saved many people, kept them alive. But the cost! That bill is coming due and we need to pay for it now. If we wait the cost will be so much higher. Continue reading →

Episode 171. Regen in the Field & Teaching the Future.

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 3rd of June 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

Our first piece comes from the website Inc.com entitled: ‘The Biggest Little Farm’: How One Couple Gave Up Everything to Live the Entrepreneurial Dream.

Quote:

In The Biggest Little Farm, filmmaker-entrepreneur John Chester captures the improbable story of how he and his wife Molly built a 200-acre farm with a singular goal: achieving the highest level of biodiversity possible. A fascinating case study in regenerative agriculture–a type of organic farming that continuously enriches soil and can help reduce climate change by sequestering carbon–the story of Apricot Lane Farms is also an inside look at the highs and extreme lows of putting everything on the line to chase after an ambitious entrepreneurial dream. Continue reading →

Episode 170. Hunter Gathers, Organic Workloads and a Change Worth Making

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 27th of May 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

The project I spoke about last week is coming along nicely and I’ll have lots more to tell you soon.

Today I need to dive back into my personal history. Fear not, I won’t be over sharing. 

Hunter Gatherers

Whilst at university I studied archaeology. This discipline only deals with humans so no dinosaurs just humans. The greater part of human existence was spent by us in the gentle arts of the fisher-hunter-gatherer. Now this was sold to me as lifestyle not worth the effort during my school days. You know the story. Civilisation arose in the Fertile Crescent, China and Mesoamerica and slowly at first but then with increasing rapidity, the bright lights of civilisation were brought to the whole world. What caused me to question this assumption, apart from the Mongols but that’s another podcast, was the interface of two opposing food systems.  Continue reading →

Episode 169. Canberra 100% Renewable, Antarctic Ice Melts and Farmers Have a Win.

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 20th of May 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

Well, democracy at work. We have elected a government without a climate change policy. There’s an energy policy but not a climate change policy. Which puts me mind of a thing I saw on Facebook this past week:

Quote:

The forest was shrinking but the trees kept voting for the axe because its handle was made of wood and they thought it was one of them.

End Quote.

So life goes on. Well life as we know it, Jim, anyway. Continue reading →

Episode 168. The Revolution Takes Shape!

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 13th of May 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

As you may recall I finished last week’s episode in a bit of a frustrated funk. We know we have to do, we have the techniques to do it but our political classes are still fighting battles from 15 years ago. 

So this past week has been one of deep contemplation, discussion with peers and a moment of satori, a moment of enlightened clarity. 

Let me explain. Looking at the “big” things that have changed parts of society in this millennium I came to a conclusion. Single use plastic bags from supermarkets being banned, incandescent bulbs being withdrawn from sale and the wonders of separating household waste for collection all have a few things in common.  Continue reading →

Episode 167. Time For A Revolution Run By Gardeners!

This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 6th of May 2019.

Jon Moore reporting!

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

I came across a quote somewhere in my travels lately that just won’t leave my mind. I suspect it was from Charles Massie of Call of the Reed Warbler fame. (Link in the show notes.) The words were something like: Sustainability isn’t enough anymore we need to regenerate. This immediately put me mind of a Bill Mollison quote. Continue reading →