Michael's blog

THE English have their allotments; in Sydney we use the streets. In a variation on guerilla gardening, Sydneysiders are moving veggie plots from the backyard to the street verge, and converting formerly fallow public land into mini-market gardens.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/street-and-two-veg-a-green-solution-just-outside-your-door/2008/10/06/1223145261857.html

Your shopping basket is spewing greenhouse gases. But don't worry, you can easily cut out the culprits

• eating less red meat and dairy can be a more effective way to lower an average U.S. household's food-related climate footprint than buying local food
• a steak is equivalent to driving 30 kilometers
• switching to vegetables one day per week cuts the equivalent of driving 1160 miles per year (these are data from the US)

http://www.newscientist.com/contents/issue/2673.html

The government's waste advisers are claiming success for a pilot project in which households had their food waste collected separately and composted.

They say 4,272 tonnes of food waste were diverted from landfill, preventing the release of 1,967 tonnes of CO2.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/7620109.stm

A hard commercial logic dictates that the only way to get good fruit today is to grow your own.

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 2nd September 2008

I feel almost shy about writing this column. It contains no revelations, no call to arms. No one gets savaged: well, only mildly. The subject is almost inconsequential. Yet it has become an obsession which, at this time of year, forbids me to concentrate for long on anything else.

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2008/09/02/strange-fruit/

Man is born free but is everywhere in chainstores, except in Chippendale

The Food for the Future sustainable food fair, which will take place on Saturday 11 October and coincide with Good Food Month, will become more localised in response to an unprecedented reaction by Chippendalians to the ethos of sustainability.

A community festival "Cultivating Creative Community"was held today at Webb Park Mayfield, Newcastle Guerrilla Gardening Group made Garden Beds and planted Herbs and Veggies. The Gardens where extended During the recent Climate Camp by Camp attendees.

http://sydney.indymedia.org.au/story/guerrilla-gardening-newcastle