This is the World Organic News for the week ending 25th of May 2020.
Jon Moore reporting!
Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
This the transcript from a Real Food Chain episode.
I was planting garlic this week and not able to complete the usual episode.
Please enjoy.
Part One
R: Hello and welcome to Episode 4, Season 5 of The Real Food Chain. I’m your host Rich Bowden, coming to you from the Central West of NSW and I’m joined as always by my friend, author and podcaster at World Organic News Jon Moore.
J: Hello one and all.
R: Jon I gather that your worldly wanderings for your Good Lady Annie and yourself are close to a end, with a permanent move to a northwestern Tasmanian farm now imminent, depending on a successful settlement.
J: By the time this episode hits the feed we’ll be on the road to Highclere and some sort of permanence.
R: The very best of luck to you and Annie for this next stage of life, I wonder though if you would mind sharing with us, how you see plans for the farm fit in with the regenerative farming practices you’ve been writing, podcasting and practising now for many years.
J: Ok, this will be a series of experimental plantings as well as food and so on for ourselves. I’ve planted Fukuoka grain gardens before but this time I’ll be documenting and photographing and so on. Demonstration gardens like the 3 sisters and so on.
R: Can you just go into Fukuoka grain gardens concept a bit for us please Jon? And how you expect this to work in a Tassie climate zone?
J:
- Sow before you reap the previous cereal crop.
- Return the straw and chaff to the field.
- Rinse and Repeat
R: Thanks Jon. You’ll be joining a swathe of farmers big and small who are moving to Tassie, to take advantage of the cooler climate and relative availability of water in the state compared to drought-stricken parts of the mainland. I grew up in the south of the island, and my recollections of rare travels to the north are quite hazy, but I recall it as being very picturesque, very green, clean and closer to the mainland than we were in the south! As I say all the very best on behalf of Carol and myself and all Real Food Chain listeners and we look forward to the blog, podcast and (perhaps) a mini series?
J: Who’s to know at this stage?
R: OK, after the quick break, we’ll be back to talk about Jon’s fascinating latest podcast episode about Evolution and Gardening and Farming and also a sneak preview of our sister episode Permaculture Plus, which will hit your podcatchers on the 15th of December.
Part Two
R: Speaking of World Organic News Jon, I listened to a fascinating — and informative — episode of yours titled “Evolution, Gardening, Farming and Decisions”. It certainly filled in a number of gaps in my knowledge. Can you briefly discuss the topic please Jon, especially the relationship between evolution and the food we eat today?
J: “And you’ve got a special episode coming up for Permaculture Plus Rich?”
R: Thanks Jon, and thanks for the insight into evolution and food. We’ll have the link to that in the show notes. [Talk about interview with Lis Bastian, community organiser, permaculturalist, climate activist and much, much more bullet points below.
- Co-production with Mark Spencer’s Climactic.
- Lis very generous with her time.
- Amongst her many community activities in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, Lis is running a fascinating grass roots media venture called Big Fix. And she bases this on permaculture principles.
- Within each problem is the solution.
- Top down, Murdoch-esque media identified as the problem. Solution is non-profit, community driven, positive media.
- Hard copy, social media, website and video.
- Fascinating focus on storytellers driving the local media venture.
- Here’s Lis talking about how the traditional, mainstream media methods moves people away as the focus.
J: And the full episode will hit the feed on the 15th of December.
R: One of the great parts of the interview was that Lis mentioned that she believed the whole Big Fix project was entirely replicable to any community. I’d love to see a version in the Central West of NSW. What about you in the northwestern farming community of Tassie Jon?
J: We’ll see what’s already up and running in the district. I’m not one to charge in and start telling the locals this is what you need now. Especially if I add the phrase, this is how we do it on the mainland but yes there is a possibility for a big fix style set up, in time.
R: And yes, I’ll be supplying you with a few seasoned Tassie descriptions of mainlanders as a moving in present! And on that note, that’s it for episode 4 of Season 5 of The Real Food Chain. Goodbye from me Rich Bowden.
J: And goodbye from him Jon Moore.
