Posthumous Orwellian permaculture

November 13, 2008 One egg.

The striped goat now completely out of milk.

On the whole very hot in the daytime lately. Fire at nights but not really necessary. Immense flocks of starlings, probably as many as 5000 in a flock, all the while attacking the olives, which are now ripe on the trees. Arabs out all day in the olive groves, shouting to scare the starlings away. E. compares the sound of the starlings’ twittering to the rustle of a silk dress.

I would have never have guessed that famous author and social critic George Orwell was also a keen gardener and homesteader.

The posthumous publication of Orwell’s diaries are a fascinating read. Not so much for Orwell’s trademark social and political insights but more for his observations of his garden, chickens and the agricultural practices of Moroccan farmers.

It seems that Orwell took as much interest in the natural and cultivated world around him as the world of politics. The last few entries have simply documented the number of eggs his chooks are laying. Not fascinating reading perhaps but a fascinating insight into one of the 20th centuries greatest literary figures.

A solution to global nutrition to make your skin crawl

My partner often reminds friends that all chocolate contains acceptable levels of contamination by cockroaches.

Don’t know if it’s true or not, but the reaction is typically one of horror. Yet eating bugs doesn’t seem like such a bad idea.

While Indigenous peoples have nourished themselves on invertibrates for millenia, the UN has cottoned on just recently.

The United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is looking at the benefits of using insects for human consumption for the Asia Pacific region.

This may make your skin crawl. But with insects being as rich a source of protein as meat and fish, insects might be a huge nutritional and commercial opportunity.

Scoop has an article, UN: Edible Insects Provide Food for thought. Thanks to Raj Patel’s blog for this one.

And if you are interested in some creeply crawly cuisine, I recommend Bill Mollison’s The Permaculture Book of Ferment and Human Nutrition published by Tagari press.

It contains serving suggestions for weavils, grubs, grasshoppers, termites, acquatic insects and snails.

North African cous-cous, a fermented wheat-cake dish, for example, contains grasshoppers.

Although my partner will never agree with me – she squirms at the thought of anything wriggly – I can’t see any good reasons not to eat invertibrates.

They are abundant. Some insects have more protein than fish or meat. Larvae are even rich in fats and other essential nutrients.

I reckon we need to break down the barriers between food animals and “pests”, as insects are often thought of.

If you can develop a cuisine based around nuisance creatures, it will reduce the need to obliterate them with toxic pesticide regimes.

It seems apt to quote permaculture legend Bill Mollison who said “the problem is the solution”.

Saving the seed and fighting the new GE feudalism

Just finished Earth Matters for this week. The show focusses on genetically engineered canola and the many risks associated with GE crops.

It also takes a look at seed saving with one of Australia’s pioneers in the field, Jude Fanton pictured here with a mildew resistant Professor Mary Sheahan’s cucumber.

I interviewed Louise Sales, genetic engineering campaigner with Greenpeace. Louise discusses what’s been an eventful month in relation to GE crops.

Moratoria in Victoria and NSW will end in February while South Australia took a more cautious approach on GE crops deciding to extend its moratoria.

February also saw several Canadian farmers visit Australia to warn about the perils of adopting GE-canola. I interviewed Canadian National Farmers Union Vice-president and a canola grower, Terry Boehm who talked about how GE seeds and biotech companies are forcing farmers into a relationship he likens to “feudalism”.

Jude Fanton, co-founder and director of the Seedsavers Network talked to me about the importance of saving the seeds of hierloom and rare varieties to combat the consolidation of the seed ownership and the ecological risks of genetic monocultures.

You can download the show (after Sunday) or subscribe to the podcast at www.3cr.org.au/podcasts.