event

Stefan Sobkowiak – Beyond Organic

James Samuel — Sat, 30 Aug 2014 04:42:10 +0000

This two hour interview makes for an important addition to the knowledge shared in the Permaculture Orchard film. In it Stefan talks about the next piece of the puzzle, soon to be released from Miracle Farm.

The podcast which has just come online, would have gone longer if Stefan hadn’t excused himself to join a scheduled conversation with John Allan of APW and myself. We needed to talk about the Masterclass Stefan will be leading at Unitec Auckland next year, as part of the Beyond Organic NZ Tour.

For New Zealanders the survivalist concepts that are promoted in the lead-in may seem foreign, and you can of course skip them and jump to 8m:40sec, or you may wind up asking, what’s happening in the USA? What’s being expressed there is an expression of people responding to the increasing uncertainty and rapid change that is underway across the world – we’re just each experiencing it differently.

Now, onto the interview on The Survival Podcast with Jack Spirko.

Up front we hear about Stefan’s background and having a Masters degree in both Biology and Landscape design, before learning what got him inspired to set up a Permaculture Orchard. We find a man with a deep desire to maximise the positive impact he can have on the world around him, and as the minutes turn into hours, we start to appreciate the gifts he’s offering.

Building community like a forest

James Samuel — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 19:23:25 +0000

The first New Zealand Food Forest Hui, held in Auckland last week was a high energy and over-subscribed event (we had sold out and had people in a waiting list). Here are some of the highlights and outcomes. If you missed it, stay in touch, there’s sure to be another!

Building community like a forest

While we spoke at the Hui, about food forestsand forest gardens, we also modelled living like a forest – each playing our part in an intricate eco-system of exchanges.

Our forest layers were represented by age, stature, flexibility, stores of knowledge, experience, wisdom and more.

We celebrated what is, embraced the possibilities of what could be and committed to practical actions to support the vision.

Imagine food forest projects popping up all over the country, on public land, on private land, for community benefit, for individual food security and well-being, and for commercial gain. We were united around this vision of building New Zealand’s food self-reliance through resilient, multi-layered, mostly perennial food systems, all the while remaining grounded and caring for each other.

Food Forest in a box

James Samuel — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 06:25:28 +0000

Have you ever wondered how many plants you might need for a food forest? Well take a look at this, and you’ll get a good feeling for the numbers.

Andy Cambeis is spending some time on Waiheke and we got together on the weekend to go over the wording of his “Manual for creating a Food Forest on Public Land“. We did this because of a couple of bright young women – a publisher and a graphic designer – who are working to turn this into an app for iPhone and iPad, and which I hope we’ll get a preview of at the Food Forest Hui at the end of September.

While I was there Andy kindly allowed me to shoot this video which shows the volume of plants he is raising in a window sill in the house where he’s staying. While he has a few more canopy trees than would be included in a 700SqM ‘pod’, and there are no climbers represented, this is the essence of the plants needed for a temperate food forest pod.

Dick Smith and Sam Johnson at important Queenstown event

James Samuel — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:14:32 +0000

Dick Smith has been quite outspoken about his views on energy and population, so this event could be an opportunity to have some open honest discussion, on important topics. If you know people in the Queenstown area, please let them know about this.

An Afternoon with Dick Smith & Sam Johnson

hosted by Rod Oram

September 14th, 2012

Don’t miss out on an amazing afternoon hearing Dick Smith talk in Queenstown. Dick Smith is one of Australasia’s most progressive business leaders having founded Dick Smith Electronics, Australian Geographic Magazine, and Dick Smith Foods. Come along to hear him talk about what drives him as a leading entrepreneur and what he sees as the challenges and opportunities for the future.

He will be joined by Sam Johnson, an inspiring and action-orientated young New Zealander who is best known for initiating the Student Volunteer Army in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquakes. One of their current projects is The Concert: A Concerted Effort where youth are asked to volunteer 4 hours of their time in return for a free ticket to the best concert the South Island has seen!

"Resilience by Design" 11th Australasian Permaculture Convergence

Ecoshow — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:20:47 +0000

Hope you are all well as we head into the last month of the year.

Signs of Change Conference on YouTube

James Samuel — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:33:37 +0000

You may want to bookmark this one for some holiday viewing.
http://www.youtube.com/user/signsofchangeconf#g/u

David Suzuki and beyond

James Samuel — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:12:03 +0000

He didn't leave us with a lot of hope, and understandably. The population growth statistics, and our impact on the life support systems we depend on, are hard arguments to refute. The biggest thing I was grateful for, was to test the ideas I have been preparing to share at the Signs of Change conference on Monday. I was happy for that, and feel I am on the right track.

350's 10/10/10 Global Climate Working Bee - time to get involved

sam@350.org.nz — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 01:04:37 +0000

350.org 2010 Presentation

Get active and be part of something big

sam@350.org.nz — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 23:17:37 +0000

Transition Town Brooklyn Summer! Celebration (& AGM) All welcome!

hinaalvi — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:20:29 +0000

Join us to celebrate our 2009 community achievements & dream for 2010!

BYO nibbles, elder flower & honey tipples, tea/coffees+ cake supplied.

World Premiere + TT Video: “A Frocking Good Swap”

Koha appreciated

Enuf is Enuf - Poison Free NZ

James Samuel — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:30:08 +0000

Enuf is Enuf is an awareness raising campaign, to challenge and stop the aerial drops of poison designed to kill native bird predators. Unfortunately the side effects may, as many suspect, be far greater than the cure.

This Sunday afternoon, all across New Zealand people will be coming together to take a stand on this issue. This music video of the Enuf is Enuf song by New Zealand artists, will be screened at the various events. It was launched last night on youtube.

Camp for Climate Action Aotearoa - Its time for D.I.Y. Climate Action!

climatecampnz — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 23:15:12 +0000

The Big In Tent for sustainability

James Samuel — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:06:44 +0000

2 days of film and ideas to challenge and expand our worldview. There were several live video feeds bringing people in from all over the planet. We connected with people like Rob Hopkins of Transition Network in the UK, Andy Bichlbaum, half of the famous "Yes Men" duo, Mike Fincken, the skipper of the Rainbow Warrior - who were in the Thames River at the time, and others.

Some local personalities and some imports from Auckland made for a lineup of presentations that covered wide ranging topics, to compliment the diverse offering of (mostly) documentary film.

Wellington EDAP Visioning in Planning

NicolaRankin — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 06:05:37 +0000

Wellington Energy Descent Action Plan – Creating The Vision

Heads up Wellington Transitioners!

The (long awaited) next Wellington Wide Transition Town event will be a collective graphical visioning workshop....our first step towards (drum roll) Wellington's Energy Descent Action Plan!

Waiheke Why Wait

James Samuel — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 08:35:33 +0000

It was a 6 hour event from 10am to 4pm on Sunday and about 50 people came. The community feels like it is rallying around the ncessary work that has to be done. We spoke about the triple crunch challenges and then did a "dotmocracy" 'voting' to see which 3 topics would float to the top. They were transport, food and waste. Groups gathered around these and with the skilled facilitation of three people, some great visioning and planning and action steps were recorded. Here's the graphic which was created as we gathered, schemed and planned:

Here's the Gulf News report on it written by Minka Firth.