Save locusts & our wildlife : no enforced chemical spraying : give farmers choice

This image is from here

I have had an email from The Network's 

dearest and most faithful friend, 

Denis Wilson of The Nature of Robertson.  

Links in the letter are by Miss Eagle. Please go to Denis's post on this matter. He has numerous links which interested Networkers will be sure to follow up.

Bird painting of a 'Brown Hawk' by Alfred May (1862-1948) Tasmania

Hi Miss Eagle

I first posted about Locust spraying madness after I came back from a bird-watching trip to West Wyalong - 450 Km each way, through wheat-growing country (mostly), and I realised I had hardly seen a small hawk all the way. That was several months ago.

 Locust map from here. Click to enlarge.

I vividly recall driving through wheat country as a child and as a young adult, and it was normal to see a Kestrel or a Brown hawk on every second or third telegraph pole. On that trip I saw just two such birds.

Where have they gone?

You would be familiar with Silent Spring, no doubt.

Your John Brumby has now come out and declared war on Locusts

Why?

They supposedly pose a  threat to the Melbourne Cup! "Locust plague threat to Melbourne Cup"

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/09/16/3013214.htm

Anyway, there is a Victorian farmer who is being roundly vilified for his environmental campaign against COMPULSORY SPRAYING FOR LOCUSTS.

His brother wrote to my blog, sticking up for his brother Eris O'Brien (you've got the love the Irish!).

Anyway, his video is compelling.

http://peonyden.blogspot.com/2010/09/plague-locusts-mad-use-of-poisons.html

Have a look at the list of chemicals registered for use on CEREAL CROPS - to make them poisonous enough to kill Locusts - but we eat the crops (and feed it to our mean animals) after the "withholding period".

How stupid are we?

I would appreciate some support on this, plus also for Eris O'Brien's website, [Save the Locust.com] and You Tube video.

Cheers

Denis

www.peonyden.blogspot.com

 Eris O'Brien, Mitiamo

The picture came from this site.

 
  
Related reading:
   
Silent Spring

Related articles by Zemanta

• Locust plague threatens Australia's Melbourne Cup race (telegraph.co.uk)
• Locust plague threatens crops (heraldsun.com.au)
• Beware the coming swarmageddon (heraldsun.com.au)
• Drought over, but here come the locusts (news.theage.com.au)
• Locusts may arrive earlier than expected (news.theage.com.au)
• Days of the locust (theage.com.au)
• SA preparing for attack on locusts (news.theage.com.au)
• Pilots warned of locust threat (heraldsun.com.au)
• Organic farmers miss out on locust spray (news.theage.com.au)
• War against locusts begins in earnest (news.theage.com.au)

Lilydale chicken & racism claims: racism and chicken do not go together

Miss Eagle is vegetarian - but occasionally cooks for her carnivore family.  At these times, Lilydale Free Range Chicken is often on the menu.  However.......

Over at Facebook, the National Union of Workers is campaigning...

The National Union of Workers is standing behind a Lilydale chicken worker who it suspects was sacked after he raised concerns to management about racist behaviour in the workplace. This is a community group dedicated to spread the word that this type of intolerance is unacceptable. The NUW strongly suspects that this reflects a pattern of workers' rights abuse.

A little racism with my chicken? I don't think so.

STORY UPDATE - 22 October 2010

Free chickens, caged workers

Poultry producer's workers claim intimidation

Poultry producer under investigation for worker mistreatment -

Lateline video clip

Poultry producer under investigation for worker mistreatment -

Lateline transcript

A kindred spirit: Vegetable Vagabond

Tucker Lovers, isn't it a lovely feeling when we meet a kindred spirit - someone whom you want to ask home to play, have a cuppa, pull up a chair for a chat.  Thanks to my dear friend Belinda, of Belinda's Place, I have discovered Kate living at Cygnet, in Tasmania.  Her most recent post is called A Brief History of the World - and it is brilliant. Of course, Miss Eagle is a sucker for anyone who loves and lives community and works at it - as clearly Kate does as her blog links attest.  So please pop over and say hello and say that Miss Eagle sent you.

THE TREE: A FILM FUNDRAISER FOR PEACE BRIGADES INTERNATIONAL

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THE TREE

A great film for a great cause! 

Peace Brigades International.

All funds to help us protect human rights defenders 

in Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico, Guatemala and Nepal.

6.30pm - Cinema Nova, 380 Lygon Street, Carlton, Victoria 

Thursday 7 October 2010.  

Tickets: $18 full / $15 Concession

Festival De Cannes, Official Selection Closing Night Film Director Julie Bertuccelli’s adaptation of Judy Pascoe’s bestseller Our Father Who Art In The Tree. 

Filmed in the open Australian bushland,The Tree will open your mind. Alternating skilfully between the supernatural and down-to-earth reality, the filmmaker immerses us in the lives of a devastated family, with grace and a delicacy that is illuminated by the presence of Charlotte Gainsbourg. - Marine Cluet, La Tribune 

Join us for drinks and refreshments at the Back Bar at the Cinema Nova before the film starts.

Bookings essential!  

Pre order your tickets at fundraising@pbi-australia.org or 9016 3769 

   
Our Father Who Art in the Tree

Tobie Puttock and Cook Like an Italian come to Readings @ Hawthorn

Picture from here

Dear Tucker Lovers,

 

Please get out your diaries.  We're off to Readings, 701 Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn again on Monday 27 September for a 6.30pm assignation with the delightful Tobie Puttock.

To welcome the beginning of Foodie Month at Readings Hawthorn, they have Tobie Puttock talking about his third cookbook, Cook Like an Italian.  

I love Italian cuisine.  While I am vegetarian, unless the dish specifically features meat - like Osso Bucco - Italian food is easily converted to meat-free.  A lot of the cuisine is derived originally from self-sufficient and sustainable home-garden produce and is easy to replicate at home and so it is good to see Tobie bringing his personal passion for cooking Italian food, and more importantly, for cooking simple Italian food – perfectly – to our very own kitchens.

For the past few years while teaching people to cook in his kitchen at Fifteen Melbourne, Tobie has been yearning for something more… something to inspire him. So he went to Italy! 

Cook Like an Italian is the result. 
An amazing culinary journey through wonderful Italy.

$20 per ticket includes tastes from his cookbook, and wine by Scorpo. 

Tickets from Readings Hawthorn.

Heritage, Food and the Future

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Isn't this the most gorgeous vegie patch you ever did see?

I love to wander over to Casaubon's Book, the blog belonging to Sharon Astyk.  She has fled the farm and is off to this vegie patch at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello to do something useful -  like low-energy food preservation, complete with tastings.  She will also be speaking about Jefferson's idea of a nation of farmers under the title of A Nation of Farmers: coming home to our land.  Here follows an abstract of her talk.  Her abstract and that of others can be found here.

Our present agricultural system depends on heavy inputs of increasingly expensive and scarce fossil fuels, and is exacerbating our current world food crisis. It warms the planet and depletes soil and water and contributes to every major problem we face. Meanwhile, 100 million people have joined the starving and one in every 10 Americans requires food stamps to sustain them. But that doesn’t have to be the case – agriculture could help us regenerate our society. We explore the possibility – and urgent necessity of creating a truly sustainable food system.

Now I'm sure the patch is not maintained by part-time gardeners.  It displays investment of labour, knowledge and dollars.  In many ways, it is a garden that is not easily replicated.

 And I have to confess.

I love the lushness of the jumble of things growing together -

be it ever such a humble and ill-informed project.

Arabella Forge and Frugavore: eating well and understanding where your food comes from

 

Tucker lovers, I want to draw attention to a new book which will hit the bookshops next month.  You might like to put in your request to your local Public Library to purchase the book hot from the press.  Publication details are:

Pub date: September 2010

RRP: $29.95

ISBN: 9781863954891

Imprint: Black Inc.

Format: PB

Size: 180 x 180mm

Extent: 240pp

In this book Arabella Forge covers all the territory of good, sensible, affordable and ethical food and eating.  She is well qualified.  Arabella  is a Melbourne-based nutritionist. She teaches regular cooking classes at CERES Environmental Park and Organic Wholefoods, focusing on traditional techniques. She has featured as a speaker at Slow Food forums and speaks frequently on radio about issues relating to food and health.

Mark your diaries, Tucker lovers, because Arabella will be in conversation with Catherine Deveny at Readings Hawthorne bookshop on Thursday 16 September at 6.30pm.  The event is free but Readings do like you to book so please RSVP by email: events@readings.com.au or phone: (03) 9819 1917.

There is a Frugavore website here and a Facebook page here.

Grow your own heirlooms, organically and simply - with Belinda's help

I first posted the words and picture below nearly six weeks ago. I decided to do a 'reprint' because Belinda has to-day done a marvellous post on Community Supported Agriculture. Community Supported Agriculture in the form of 'food in boxes' operates in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne.  In addition to these links, The Organic Food Directory tries to cover a fair bit of Australia.  Now I am certain to have omitted other 'food in boxes' schemes and organisations - so please email me at misseaglesnetwork(at)gmail(dot)com if you want to get linked from this blog.

What Belinda is writing so refreshingly of is how extensive the Community Supported Agriculture project can be. She says that "every single product traditionally sold at a farm gate or farmers market has the potential for adaptation to a Community Supported Agriculture model."  

Certainly, Belinda is working her darnedest to carve out her own niche within this growing economy - as you will see below.

That friend of mine Belinda from Belinda's Place is something.  This organised, organising, methodical woman  is in the category of Urban Homesteader.  She does it all from the Mud Palace at Ferny Creek in the beautiful Dandenong Ranges on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia.  You can follow her doings and don't-ings in the aforesaid blog.  So for all you need to know, the contact details are above.  For the rest follow her on her blog.