
Last week I passed the half-way point of my project here in Lima, so it seems a good time to reflect on the six months that have been and to consider...
Category: Economics, Education, Ethics, Institutions & infrastructure, Politics & society, Popular culture, Rants & raves, Volunteering & activism Tags: a year in Peru, activism, aid, building community, change, corruption, creating a better future, dependency, development, education, enabling change, environmental management, government, Lima, living abroad, peru, policy, pollution, social inequality, sustainability, volunteering
So here I sit in a specialist coffee chop, tucked away underground, at Larcomar, the boutique brand outdoor mall on the edge of the sea cliffs of Miraflores. Larcomar is a...
Category: Anecdotes, Ethics, Health & wellbeing, Rants & raves Tags: a year in Peru, anti-consumerism, being a hypocrite, coffee, consumerism, economics, ethics, expat life, expat living, graffiti, Lima, Miraflores, peru, poverty, privilege, social inequality, street art, trading authenticity for security, wankers
Today is International Volunteers Day, apparently. There’s a day or a week or a month for everything, it seems, but volunteering is a good thing to stop and think about now...
Category: Adventures, Community, Ethics, Lifestyle, Politics & society, Rants & raves Tags: building a kinder society, building community, community, contributing, donating time, happiness, helping, International volunteers day, neighbours, opportunities, skills, the benefits of volunteering, volunteer, volunteering, what you can do, working overseas
Seeds: they are amazing. That these tiny things hold within themselves the complete potential for an enormous tree, beautiful flower or delicious vegetable is a wonder of nature and evolution. That...
Category: Farming & food systems, Industry & agriculture, Politics & society, Rants & raves, Science, Technology Tags: ag science, agri-business, agricultural science, agriculture, Bayer, crop diversity, EU plant reproductive materials act, genetic engineering, genetically modified seeds, GM, GMO, human rights, Monsanto, occupy Monsanto, plant genetics, pseudo-food, science, seed legislation
Chances are you heard about the severe bushfires that swept through Tasmania a couple of months ago. It was awful, a terrible combination of a hot dry summer and a day...
I’ve just returned home from a failed attempt to do my usual weekly produce shop down at my local farmer’s market. I go most every Sunday to buy my fruit &...
These last couple of weeks I’ve been feeling a little low. This time of year does it to me: I get over-scheduled, over-committed, under-slept, and with most folk getting busy with...
Category: Community, Ethics, Farming & food systems, Food & cooking, Gardening, Industry & agriculture, Lifestyle, Rants & raves Tags: agriculture, backyard farming, bartering, community, food security, food systems, Gardening, grow your own food, in my garden, independence from supermarkets, seasonal eating, sustainable food
Tasmanians, the Forest Peace Deal Agreement is going through the Upper House, where the legislation will either pass, or crash and burn with a huge loss of public faith and return...
Category: Community, Ethics, Extractive industries, Politics & society, Rants & raves Tags: activism, compromise, creating the future, environmental activism, environmental politics, forest peace talks, legislation, petition, sustainability, Tasmania, Tasmanian Forest Agreement, Tasmanian Government
I love Tasmania’s forest. Happiness is a mountain-top or a myrtle forest in my world and I’ve spent many blissed-out hours walking through the mossy half-light of the old-growth forests that...
Category: Environmental economics, Extractive industries, Industry & agriculture, Politics & society, Rants & raves Tags: a way forwards, conservation, creating the future, economics, environmental activism, Florentine, forest peace talks, forestry, high conservation value, old growth forests, sustainable communities, Tarkine, Tasmanian economy, Tasmanian Forest Agreement, temperate rainforests
There is nothing like travel to give you a heaping dose of perspective. We in the western developed world, the vast majority of us, anyway, are so damn spoilt. Here in...
Category: Environmental economics, Ethics, Lifestyle, Politics & society, Popular culture, Rants & raves, Travel Tags: consumerism, creating the future, developing world, electricity, environmental ethics, food, lessons from my travels, living simply, living small, materialism, mindfulness, poverty, resource use, shrinking your footprint, sustainability, travel, water
The shape of things to come