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PERMACULTURE MAGAZINE
Permaculture News
Permaculture News is published in Permaculture Magazine and is reproduced on this page every quarter.
We are always looking for information concerning any projects, research or other news relevant to permaculture to inform and inspire others through the pages of Permaculture Magazine and this site. Help us promote good work and feed the information network, contact: tony@permaculture.co.uk.
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Permaculture News from PM56
Ireland To Grow Its Own Houses
AA hemp processing factory is being set up in Limavady in the north of Northern Ireland. In 2004, Frank Ferguson, a chemical engineer, along with permaculture designers, Marcus McCabe and Philip Allen, bought a hemp processing assembly line which was being scrapped in Wales and shipped it over. Last year they grew 400 acres of crops.
The ecological credentials for hemp start out in the fields. Farmers grow the crop under license and sell to the processor on demand. As it is an annual, the fields are ploughed, harrowed and seeded. The density can be controlled for tall and thin or thicker stemmed crops as they compete for the sun. Nitrogen in the form of chicken manure can be spread to fertilise the land. The seeds are sown in April and the crop matures in three months.
No herbicides are required as the fast growing hemp outraces the weeds and chokes them out. Farmers have witnessed a 10-40% increase in growth of follow-on crops both in roots and stems. This is because of the hemp roots favourably conditioning the soil by pulling up minerals from 1.2m (4ft) down and by the dropping of leaf litter. The roots also absorb phosphates. Hemp is better for wildlife than willow and farmers have recorded healthy bird life associated with hemp crops.
Cereal farmers are also glad to use hemp as a break crop to rotate and avoid monocultures. Hemp is the only biomass crop that is dual purpose, yielding both energy material and food. The seeds are highly valuable as a source of omega oils. Bread, pasta, ice-cream, beer, toothpaste, shampoos, soaps and body care cream can be made from hemp. Textiles, ropes and canvas were a historic end product before being replaced by synthetic fibres.
The process dries hemp into fibre for paper or insulation, woody shrives for bedding or mixing with lime to produce building materials and it uses the waste dust as pressed briquettes for fuel. The ensiled hemp is chopped, mixed with lime and water to make plaster. This plaster can be applied inside or outside a building. Hemp plaster can also be used for walls, floors and pointing around stone-work. Hemp/lime or ‘hemp crete’ is breathable and is stronger and lighter than concrete, an exciting solution to our most urgent environmental problem.
www.hempirebuilding.co.uk
Tel: + 353 (0) 47 52049
Forest Gardens Feature At London's Ideal Home Exhibition
Reading-based sustainable garden specialists, Sector39, designed a garden to complement one of the main exhibits at this year’s Ideal Home Show, the Eco House. The house is a single-storey family home, designed by John Prewer. Insulated by sheep and hemp wool and with a green roof which can be used as an aerial allotment, it has a central courtyard enclosing a solar heated pool in which edible fish (tilapia) can be produced. The house is raised above the ground which offers protection against flooding and space to store harvested rainwater.
Sector39 use permaculture design principles and their gardens are modelled on the edible forest garden – food-producing, low maintenance, no-dig – based on a natural woodland ecosystem. A combination of perennial plants, shrubs, trees and climbers creates a multi-layered garden which requires little pruning and lots of harvesting from spring through to autumn. More conventional vegetable plots can also be incorporated and Sector 39 use renewable and recycled materials throughout.
www.sector39.co.uk
Cultural Exchange Empowers Fragile Himalayan Region
This summer the International Society for Ecology and Culture (ISEC) is offering a unique opportunity in Ladakh to experience first-hand the pressures facing an ancient nature-based culture as it confronts the global economy. In this culturally-distinct region in the Indian Himalayas, participants spend one month living and working as part of a village family. The programme helps to strengthen the Ladakhis’ sense of cultural identity and pride in their traditional way of life. For foreign participants, it is an unforgettable experience where they gain valuable perspective on ‘progress’ and ‘development’ and become familiar with the international movement for eco-nomic localisation. The programme is open to people of all ages and nationalities.
Contact ISEC: Foxhole, Dartington, Devon TQ9 6EB, UK;
E: c.powell@isec.org.uk
or PO Box 9475, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA;
E: v.clarke@isec.org.uk
Join A Strawbale Build in Bulgaria
Barbara Jones of Amazon Nails (www.amazonails.org.uk) is leading a week-long, 5-9 July 2008, strawbale building programme in Bulgaria.
The build will take place in Hotnitsa, a small village near Veliko Tarnovo, the ex-capital of Bulgaria, built on the steep slopes of the River Yantra.
Barbara is one of the world’s leading strawbale builders and will be building a small house and ecocentre, which will act as a home and focal point for ecobuilding in the region. In subsequent years, they hope to build more strawbale homes on this site.
To book a place on the build call +359 6 128 240
or email: contact@hotnitsa.com.
For more information about Hotnitsa,see www.hotnitsa.com
Sustainable Frome
Sustainable Frome is a community network set up a year ago with the aim of raising awareness about climate change and peak oil among local people. They hope to inspire personal and community solutions and move towards a sustainable future for the whole town.
Activities so far have ranged from creating art out of waste and hosting a green fair, to supporting sustainable plann-ing applications and becoming a Transition Town.
In November 2007, they took the message to a wider audience by staging a book drop. They assembled a collection of books, magazines and DVDs about peak oil, climate change and sustainability (all donated by publishers and individuals including Permanent Publications and Permaculture Magazine). They then left them at different venues around town, including shops, cafés and doctors’ surgeries. People can borrow and return any of the items at any of the participating venues on a trust basis.
For more information visit: www.sustainablefrome.org.uk
BBC Radio 4’s The Archers Discover Transition Towns!
On Saturday 24th March BBC Radio 4’s popular rural affairs soap opera, ‘The Archers’, introduced many thousands of listeners to the idea of starting a ‘transition’ initiative in their own town.
Pat Archer explained to Kathy Perks that the Transition Movement is something the Soil Association has been talking about for a long time and that other villages have actually begun to transform themselves...
See The Transition Handbook.
World’s First Eco Jail
The world’s first ecological prison has opened on Bastoey Island, Norway.
It uses solar panels for 70% of its power, produces most of its own food, and works to reduce its carbon footprint. It is a low-security jail intended to develop a sense of social responsibility in its inmates; anyone who tries to escape or breaks the prison rules is sent back to a closed prison.
From 8:15 to 2:30pm the prisoners work on the farm, cut timber, or restore the wooden houses scattered around the island. Each prisoner is respons-ible for a horse or a cow. The philosophy is that individuals will stop their anti-social behav-iour if they develop a sense of responsibility and empathy.
As well as its ecological emphasis, it has training pro-grammes for men who don’t know how to be good parents, and for violent offenders, drug addicts and alcohol abusers. It is also 30% cheaper to run than a closed prison.
Now, how about training programmes for carbon-abusers...!
Source: Guy Dauncey, Econews
Don’t Miss!
On If you would like to inspire others with permaculture, how about considering to become a teacher? Designed Visions hosts its fourth Training of Teachers (ToT) course, at Ourganics Dorset, 8-14th August 2008. See: www.designedvisions.com or phone: 01269 822 786.
Also recommended is the Commun-ity Conference: The Power of Collective Wisdom 3-6 July 2008, Berlin, Germany. With Thomas Hubl, Scilla Elworthy, Auke van Nimwegen, Margrit Kennedy. www.community-conference.org or phone: +49 390 009 0860.
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News in Brief
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Hampshire Green Fair,
The Sustainability Centre, 11 May 2008. See the advert on the inside back cover of this issue. Tel: 01730 823 166.
www.sustainability-centre.org
Sunrise Celebration,
Yeovil, 29 May - 1 June 2008. A blend of ancient wisdom, modern innovation, ecology, creativity, community, celebration and a permaculture area. Tel: 0845 0096 347.
www.sunrise
celebration.com
Glastonbury Festival,
27-29 June, 2008. It includes a permaculture area.
www.glastonbury
festivals.co.uk
Permaculture Convergence,
Ilkley, Yorkshire. 5 - 7 Sept-ember 2008. The permaculture networking event of the year. See the advert on the inside back cover of this issue. Tel: 08454 581 805.
Video Recordings
of the 8th International Permaculture Conference 2007, in Brazil are available at: www.ipcon.org/ipc8dvds
Londoners
can search for the location of their local allotment on a new website.
www.london.
gov.uk/allotments
In September 2007
work began on the first Dutch earthship in the village of Exmorra. It is being built as a part of a year round permaculture course at the Centre De Wilgenhoeve.
www.centrum
wilgenhoeve.nl
Also in the Netherlands,
a group are developing a small-scale village in Deventer with 15 earthships and related activities. www.aardehuis.nl
Greenpeace
have produced a useful ‘red’ list of fish species at high risk of being sourced from fisheries using destructive practices and their viable alternatives. www.greenpeace.org.uk
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