mancunian green: Boon - or Bobbins? As the banking crisis continues, alternative or complementary currencies are back on the agenda, as evidenced by George Monbiot's last piece in the Guardian , and a feature on Lewes Pounds on BBC's radio 4 in the last couple of days. The idea of an alternative currency is not new, and back around 15-20 years ago, LETS schems (Local Exchange Trading Systems)were seen as a key part of the move to a sustainable society and there were close links between Green party activists and LETS schemes in various places around the country. The scheme in Manchester used a currency called 'bobbins' after the cotton industry and for a while local Green Party membership could be paid for in bobbins, though hardly anybody ever did.
First Steps Food Forest Permaculture Courses by Dominick ter Huurne & Inke Falkner Having found the bush block we had long been searching for, a protracted settlement period gave us plenty of time to decide exactly what we wanted to do with it. At 40 hectares the property was much larger than we had ever envisaged buying, but we fell in love with the diversity of wildlife and vegetation, seduced by the possibilities it offered. Establishing an orchard was a major priority, and having recently been introduced to permaculture gave us a chance to put many ideas into practice. So, armed with a lot more enthusiasm than experience, this is how Inke and I began the transformation of one small pocket into a food forest.
An Unconventional Billionaire Is Revolutionizing Philanthropy By Closing His Foundation Some people are into extreme sports, others extreme eating. You could call self-made billionaire Chuck Feeney an extreme philanthropist. Feeney, the 83-year-old co-founder of the pioneering retail business Duty Free Shoppers (the company that sells the tax-free alcohol and perfume in airports), is practically unknown as a public figure.
What is CSA ? CSA is based on establishing a partnership between citizens and local farms that practice sustainable agriculture. Mutual engagement and exchange is the essence of CSA: the farm nourishes the people and in return people support the farm by sharing in its potential risks and benefits. Generally, the consumer’s engagement is put in place by its upfront payment and commitment for the entire season. In this effort, consumers become «sharers» of a farm. a) Knowledge and experience What is required to start up a CSA project ? Many aspects need to be considered before launching a project.
GNH Centre Bhutan Gross National Happiness, or GNH, is a holistic and sustainable approach to development, which balances material and non-material values with the conviction that humans want to search for happiness. The objective of GNH is to achieve a balanced development in all the facets of life that are essential; for our happiness. • The Story of GNH • The 4 Pillars & 9 Domains • GNH Today • GNH Organizations Why does GNH matter? The Secret Agents of Capitalism Are All Around Us The young people grouped at the end of the bar resemble Gap models. They are facially attractive, in that asymmetrical sort of way, and they wear the new uniform of the Internet cast-aside who still has money to carouse with: tight dark blue jeans, T-shirts a bit too small and hair slightly greased. It's a Wednesday night at a small bar on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
Small is beautiful – an economic idea that has sadly been forgotten EF Schumacher's Small is Beautiful was the first book on politics I ever read; it was the only book about politics I ever saw my father read or heard him talk about. It arrived in our cottage in rural North Yorkshire as a manifesto from a radical countercultural world with which we had no contact. Re-reading its dense mixture of philosophy, environmentalism and economics, I can't think what I could possibly have understood of it at 13, but in a bid to impress my father I ploughed on to the end. Looking back over the intervening almost four decades, the book's influence has been enormous. "Small is beautiful" was a radical challenge to the 20th century's intoxication with what Schumacher described as "gigantism". For several decades, mass production methods were producing more cheap goods than ever before; the mass media and mass culture opened up new opportunities to a wider audience than ever.
Notes From The Underground “I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’… I’ll tell it and think it and speak it and breathe it And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it Then I’ll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin’ But I’ll know my song well before I start singin’”– Bob Dylan Seventeen years ago, I read a book called The Evolving Self. Though I didn’t realize it at the time, it profoundly affected the direction of my life. Here’s the section of the book that became a splinter in my mind and resonated the most with me: CHIEF SEATTLE'S LETTER CHIEF SEATTLE'S LETTER "The President in Washington sends word that he wishes to buy our land. But how can you buy or sell the sky? the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?
Fighting corporate seeds in South Asia These photos tell a story of corporate power and its impact on ordinary people. They were taken in the Indian and Bangladeshi countryside where farmers have been fighting the expansion of industrial agriculture for decades. In India, Monsanto has a tight grip on cotton growing with a 90% market share in cotton seeds. Its business model shores up its control of agriculture as farmers are pushed into uncontrollable debt because of expensive seeds and chemicals.