Radical Permaculture

Radical Permaculture follows the belief that the freedom of an individual is directly tied to the freedom of all. Radical Permaculture aims to create a decentralized network of autonomous individuals and collectives who work together using permaculture techniques in combination with effective community organizing, education, and direct action to give people and communities more control over their lives. 

[radicalpermaculture]

Deep Democracy: Can it Help Solve the 'Wicked Problems We Face Today'?

Citizens and communities engaged in "deep democracy" have the potential to counteract the ills plaguing society, such as historically low voter turn-out, ideological extremism, rampant inequality, and expanding corporate influence, according to a report issued this week by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

[radicalpermaculture]

Urban Food Production in Argentina and Cuba 

"Ashley Marchesi, Dreer award winner for 2012, returnied to campus on Wednesday, February 19th to present her Dreer award experiences investigating urban agriculture in Argentina and Cuba." 

[radicalpermaculture]

Pestalotiopsis microspora community culture

The Shroomery community has spoken and expressed an interest in circulating a culture of this fungi.

Imagine being part of the leading edge of community driven discovery and crowd funded knowledge pertaining to "the first fungus species to be able to survive exclusively on polyurethane. "

I am ReggieJenkins, and I am passionate about mycology

I have browsed the Shroomery for years, and have had my feet wet in the fields of mycological studies for about two years  

A few nights ago, I curiously entered into the search box at Google.com "Fungi that eats plastic". This lead me to a thread on the Shroomery aged at just over 2.5 years in time discussing the study of this fungus, and I was hoping it would lead to a culture. I read the whole thing, and upon arriving at the last post in the thread I noticed it was responded to only a few moments ago...so I chimed in, expressing my willingness to help find a culture in any way I could.  A few users expressed their willingness to contribute financially to get a culture circulating after one had been located (thanks MrCloudy) at a cost of $354 with no shipping cost.  The culture (if ordered today) would not be expected to ship until February. It is my intentions to obtain a culture and send it off to the most scientifically capable hands (someone with the proper lab equipment) and get it divvied up to all contributing parties to disperse and study this fascinating specimen.  IndieGoGo has a $500 minimum - any remaining funds after purchase will be used to ensure that the specimen arrives safely in capable hands, as well as covering the additional costs of creating additional slants/cultures and the shipping of these to interested parties.  Thanks for your help, the Shroomery thanks you! Peace, love, and good vibes everyone! Thanks for your help. 

[rezprojectresources]

Over the past four years, the Unist’ot’en clan of the Wet’suwet’en nation have literally built a strategy to keep three proposed oil and gas pipelines from crossing their land. Concerned about the environmental damage a leak could cause on land they’ve never given up, they’ve constructed a protection camp to block pipeline companies. As opposition to the development of Alberta’s tar sands and to fracking projects grows across Canada, with First Nations communities on the front lines, the Unist’ot’en camp is an example of resistance that everyone is watching. 

[biodiverseed]

Voracious Worm Evolves to Eat Biotech Corn Engineered to Kill It | WIRED

First planted in 1996, Bt corn quickly became hugely popular among U.S. farmers. Within a few years, populations of rootworms and corn borers, another common corn pest, had plummeted across the midwest. Yields rose, and farmers reduced their use of conventional insecticides that cause more ecological damage than the Bt toxin.

By the turn of the millennium, however, scientists who study the evolution of insecticide resistance were warning of imminent problems. Any rootworm that could survive Bt exposures would have a wide-open field in which to reproduce; unless the crop was carefully managed, resistance would quickly emerge.

Key to effective management, said the scientists, were refuges set aside and planted with non-Bt corn. Within these fields, rootworms would remain susceptible to the Bt toxin. By mating with any Bt-resistant worms that chanced to evolve in neighboring fields, they’d prevent resistance from building up in the gene pool.

But the scientists’ own recommendations — an advisory panel convened in 2002 by the EPA suggested that a full 50 percent of each corn farmer’s fields be devoted to these non-Bt refuges — were resisted by seed companies and eventually the EPA itself, which set voluntary refuge guidelines at between 5 and 20 percent. Many farmers didn’t even follow those recommendations.

Read more

See this is the problem: agribusiness creates a halfway decent product (Bt corn), but then expert science and caution go out the window when the profit margin is large enough.

This is also the problem with 50% of the world’s seed stock being owned by three multinationals [X]. The strength of their lobby undermines objective science, fairness, and neutrality.

The dangers of monocultures, be they GM or conventional, are many, but one such danger is that you create breeding grounds for fast-evolving organisms to perfect their mode of predation and pass on any acquired resistance.

This is the flawed logic with control-based technologies, in an evolutionary arms race. We need to work with principles of ecology, not against them.

#GMOs #insects #pest control #evolution

[radicalpermaculture]

The Radical Permaculture Manifesto (Downloadable PDF version)