Dirt is the new prozac

reading my favourite newsletter from the permablitz folk, i have now been enlightened as to why it gardening gives me such a buzz. it appears that the humble Mycobacterium vaccae, found in garden soil, give off serotonin - which is one of the mood-altering brain chemicals commonly used in anti-depressants.
well, all i can say is that getting down and dirty in the garden sure beats popping pills. and that's what i plan to do tomorrow, when i head off to my very first permablitz experience out in the wilds of Noble Park, where Gavin and Ileana are waiting for us to transform their backyard into a permy paradise.

matt and angela in Thailand

i have been following Matt and Angela's adventures in Thailand. seems like they're having a great time. funny how durian can be so cheap and plentiful when the media is so full of woe about dwindling rice supplies and rising food prices.

can you imagine, walmart is rationing rice. this is happening in the US. could be that the world's population may start to get healthier when large quantities of cooked food no longer become an affordable option. however it is not nice to think of people starving because they cannot afford to buy food.

but on the positive side, in cuba the health of the population improved to match and almost exceed that of the US population after 10 or so years of oil embargoes. this forced the country to change it's agricultural practices and now, more than 90% of cuba's food supplies are produced by organic farming methods. the percentage of fresh fruit and vegetables consumed has increased, and much of the urban food supply is grown within the city centres.

feisty food

what a provocative title for this article in the Blue Mountains Gazette this week. yes, the meeting last Thursday attracted a record number of members. it was a challenging experience yet i felt significant movement was made towards resolution. the discourse was highly emotive at times, yet thanks to Will's expert facilitation skills, a space was created in which members' voices could be heard. it may be some time before we see the light at the end of the zucchini. as of writing this, we are awaiting word on whether the incumbent directors will act on the motion that was carried at the meeting and call a second general meeting in 5 weeks time to vote in a new Board. mention is made in this article of the discussion paper that i prepared and that Di tabled at the meeting.
earlier in the year, the Gazette published this article. It makes reference to an "“an unauthorised Save Our Co-op campaign.”

what a find!

tucked away down a nondescript sidestreet in south melbourne, a stone's throw from busy clarendon street is this haven. it must be melbourne's best kept secret, but thanks to a tip-off i knew to look for it here. St Ali is a coffee house in the finest tradition.
not a coffee drinker any more, i can still enjoy the vibe of this magnificent converted warehouse. the space breathes, and the attention to detail goes right down to the chair seats re-upholstered in hessian coffee bags. this cafe is a model for the type of place i'm seeking for my next project. its tucked away but clearly the locals have no trouble finding it. seating for at least 30 with singles, mums and suits mingling, i felt quite at home despite the lack of raw food. They did however have OJ on the menu.
Ali was a sufi mystic from the late 14th century, a kind of patron saint of coffee, according to St Ali's website. it's places like these that make melbourne the foodie capital of australia.

food and caravan parks

Had lunch with my dear friend Dallas today. I so enjoy the time we have together, and always there there are those little gems in our conversations. a former associate - and good friend of Dallas, has recently been investing in caravan parks. there is method in her quirky choice of investment property it seems. Sad but true, an increasing number of people in Australia are turning to caravan parks as an alternative to going homeless. i don't see the situation improving in the near term as housing affordability spirals and living costs increase.
Living in caravan parks has been common in the US for some time, and i recently watched Conversations With God, an inspiring story about a man who has no choice but to live in a caravan park after being out of work, unable to pay the rent and consequently being evicted from his home. This is no longer just something that happens to other people, not us.
The story of homelessness is underlined by the growing global food crisis. This year food prices internationally have risen 45%. It is astonishing to hear that even Walmart in the US is rationing rice purchases. First there was climate change. Now we are coming to terms with peak oil, and if that wasn't enough, here comes a food crisis unlike anything we have seen globally before. All the more reason to start learning how to grow our own vegetables.

digging it in south melbourne

saw this in the local newspaper today. it is heartening to see so many people getting into growing their own food. those raised garden beds look like fun. sounds like a good setup with both individual and community plots. will make a note-to-self to return to this garden in a year's time to see how it has grown. the Park Towers are a South Melbourne landmark. yes, they do tower above just about every other building in the suburb. and i used to live just round the corner.

guerilla gardening

i read about it in this month's permablitz newsletter. wow. this is greenie activism with a different slant. these guys look set to take over the world, one fruit tree at a time.

guerilla gardeners claim to wage war against the neglect of public spaces, according to this UK blog. sure beats sitting at home on a saturday night. and yes, there's even a chapter sprouting up in sydney. and here are some useful tips for getting started.

the great soy debate

How much of this discussion is substantiated by research? Or is it just viewpoints and opinions of the eaters.? At any rate, i didn't think soy was raw. don't they pasteurise it before it goes into containers?
So sure enough, i googled it and discovered that not only is soy boiled during the preparation process to inactivate the soybean trypsin inhibitor, but there are also differences in the Chinese and Japanese methods for preparing soy milk. These differences amount to whether the boiling occurs before or after filtration.
Give me almond milk anytime. My recipe, adapted from Alissa Cohen's recipe for almond milk.

Almond Milk
Soak 1 cup of almonds for every 3 cups of water. In the blender add soaked almonds, water, and a dash of agave nectar to taste. Blend it. Then enjoy the drink. That's it.

SLAH - wasted

attended another SLAH seminar this evening. Sustainable Living At Home: this week the theme was waste and recycling. oh dear! some of the stats are downright depressing. we heard annie leonard speak on The Story of Stuff. she reminded us that our continuous consumption is robbing the planet of resources.
75% of the world's fisheries are fished out. 80% of the forests are gone (less than 4% of the US is forested). that low! in two decades we have managed to use one third of the world's natural resources. as i said, it is depressing.
the good news is research shows that only 6% of people are inspired to change their behaviours by hearing bad news. 20% can be convinced by data and facts, whilst 70-75% are inspired by conversations with peers. so ignore what you just read in the last paragraph and let's start a conversation!
forget recycling. by then it is already too late. instead avoid consumption unless absolutely necessary. that's what the compacters do. this means persistent attention to every detail of what you buy or use. say no to plastic bags, to packaging. share stuff. borrow and lend rather than buy. simplify your life. we all have too much "stuff". it can become a creative game of ingenuity, working out ways of living lightly on the planet without the addictive consumption patterns that seem to grip us. start to notice it around you. everywhere we go - even so-called "sustainable" events - there are subtle (and not so subtle) exhortations to buy, to consume.
on a lighter note, Nick Dunstan spoke about waste and recycling. We, the residents of the City of Port Phillip have managed to recycle 40% of our waste in the last year. the government would like us to commit to 65% in five years. there's a challenge. and mattresses; i didn't know they could be recycled.

One small action - the juice
finally, one small action we each could take to reduce waste. one person said they'd take their mug downstairs to the cafe for a coffee at work, instead of getting a disposable cup each time. this sustainability idea is not new and Geoff, our SLAH seminar facilitator makes mention of the mug project on his blog.
"The Mug Project is a community of individuals and organisations that advocate the use of the mugs to reduce waste caused by single serve beverage containers".
Hey, i could do that when i go order a juice. In fact, i have been known to take my thermos into the juice bar for a takeaway. i was astonished to learn that some cafes won't serve it to me in my own container. Health & safety regulations don't allow it - apparently. This requires more investigation. Anyone else experienced this?

food for thought

phew! it's done. i have written a document containing observations, thoughts, and suggestions for the Food Coop governance framework. this is my contribution to supporting the coop through this challenging period.

more on the BM food coop | an ex-Director speaks

i've just returned from 10 days in the blue mountains where the food coop situation has been developing on a day-by-day basis. to summarise, the petition was successful. another example of online advocacy. 500 signatures were gathered in two weeks using the website and gathering signatures by hand outside the coop.
in response to this campaign, the Board held an information meeting on 26th march. on 28th march the "save our food coop" group submitted the petition to the Board requesting that a General Meeting be called. the Board have responded and called a General Meeting for thu 8th may. on 20th april, the "save our food coop" group submitted four resolutions to the Board, calling for the current Board to step down and for the re-election of a new Board of Directors. Margot Turner submitted resolutions (see insert above) to the Board on 25th april, calling for open dialogue and the swift election of a fully operational Board.

meanwhile, the Board and Management of the food coop continue with the change management intiative started late last year when external change management consultants were engaged facilitate the process. on sat 19th april a change management workshop was held with staff (i want to say more here, but this post is already turning into an essay).
following the information meeting, another group formed. this was initiated by Dianne Jacobus who felt that something more needed to come out of that meeting. this group is calling itself "friends of the food coop".

i attended a couple of the "friends of the food coop" meetings and felt that although there are tensions between the various groups (board, staff, members); significant break-ups in communication (and an erosion of trust); and, a lack of transparency with some practices in the current management of coop, there is a genuine intention by the board, staff, coop membership and the community, that the food coop continue to exist and thrive - and a desire on all sides to see a positive outcome.

my observations are centred around the need to review the governance structure and address issues contained in the current structure that make it inherently difficult for the current (or any) board to function in true cooperative spirit (that is, following cooperative principles). put bluntly, the food coop has grown significantly from one part-time shop coordinator and a handful of staff, to a team of about 20 staff, including coordinators with specific roles in marketing, stock ordering, financial, and overall management. there are some varying views amongst the membership and the Board about how the food coop needs to address this growth (management structure, active member participation, etc.). this divergence was present when i was on the Board 5 years ago. there are also some changes that have been made to policy and rules in the last few years that i don't believe are in the interests of the coop.
these and other governance issues will be the subject of the paper i am writing for presentation at the 8th May meeting. it will suggest some positive ways of taking this forward without moving into an adversarial (us and them) or blaming approach.
it is worth noting that in amongst all this, the current board has 4 members, of which 2 have resigned (to take effect from 31st May). No matter what else happens, the present Board is barely a quorum and therefore, as Margot's resolution states, it is imperative that a full Board be established with the requisite skills and diversity of views to adequately represent the coop's members as soon as is practically possible. Coop members with those skills, and the desire, need to step up now :-)

raw foodies talk :: matt and angela in melbourne

When I first heard that Matt and Angela were coming to Melbourne I did what most people do and googled them. After watching Matt’s vids on YouTube, and reading about Angela on her blog. I was doubtful about spending an entire afternoon listening to a young guy from California, sporting dreadlocks and a tanned body, talk about his great adventures eating raw. Angela; well, her story sounded good, but I didn’t have a weight problem and have always been wary of D*** word.

How glad I was then to have decided to go after all. OK, so I am already eating 100% raw, but have only been doing it for a short time. Matt is into his eighth year of eating only raw foods, and Angela has been eating raw for six. I wanted to find out what to expect whilst going through those first few years of transition. I knew, from having given up alcohol in my late twenties, that it doesn’t just stop the day you have your last drink. I suffered immediate detox, but for up to 12-18 months later my body continued to release toxins.

in his search for more information, Matt turned to the work of Dr Fred Bisci, who has been 50 years on a raw food diet. Dr Bisci, now in his 80’s spends most of his time supporting people healing from degenerative diseases (cancer and the like). The transition diet that Matt recommends in his first book is based on Dr Bisci’s work.

Matt and angela are examples of two completely different approaches to going raw. Matt, a self-admitted extremist ( I would count myself in that category), went 100% raw overnight. He said it happened after he read Dr Norman Walker’s book, Becoming Younger. I’m a fan of Norman Walker as well, and his juicing book is my juice bible.

Angela on the other hand, started eating raw when her weight reached 120kgs. For her the detox effect was so great that she slowed her transition by eating about 70% raw. Even whilst eating 30% cooked food, she lost 50kg in her first year of this diet. Mind-boggling. That is equivalent to my current bodyweight! Angela now eats 100% raw, having transitioned gradually on a combination of raw and cooked foods.

Matt Monarch
Matt’s key message was “you don’t have to eat 100% raw to achieve the benefits of a healthier body”. And angela underscored this with “you don’t get a halo for eating 100% raw”. Yes, it is easy at the beginning to think that anything less than 100% is failure. Being a perfectionist, that was my initial thought. At the beginning I really did think that a completely raw diet was too big a mountain to climb. But taking one step at a time has given me an opportunity to enjoy the journey along the way.

The Food Groups
These are the groups that Matt explains in his most recent book, Raw Success.

• Refined sugar (as found in sweets, bakery items, cakes, biscuits . . . you know)
• Animal protein
• Processed starches (the most common are bread, pasta, cereal)
• Dairy
• Raw vegan foods (fruit, vegetables, nuts, sprouts, seeds)

Interesting to me (a vegan who understands the dangers of animal protein; read Colin Campbell, The China Study), Matt’s view (and Dr Fred Bisci’s) is that the TWO most damaging food groups are refined sugar and processed starches.

Matt gave us three core principles for raw food eating. These come from his own experience and from studying Dr Fred Bisci’s methods.

What you leave out of your diet completely and without exception is the way to ultimate health
In other words, even if you ONLY cut out (completely) refined sugar and processed starches from your diet, and didn’t eat entirely raw foods, Matt believes you will still see significant health benefits. This is important. I realise now I learnt this in one of my dietary adventures 3 years ago, but didn’t recognise it at the time.

Colonic irrigation
Essential when on 100% raw diet to assist with removing the build-up of waste. This has to be the most useful message I got from the afternoon’s talk. People on 100% raw food diet are detoxing quickly and waste is being eliminated at a cellular level from the entire body. Years and years of waste and toxins. The body’s normal elimination channels – the skin, bowel, lungs – are not capable of clearing the toxins out of the body fast enough. So we need a little help in the form of colonics. This prevents us from becoming ill and experiencing the side effects of de-toxing, or autotoxic (forcing the body to re-absorb its own waste) reaction. Read matt's article on "the missing link".

Green vegetable juices
Being an avid juicer for several years, this was not news. Fresh organic vegetable juice (in particular the green juices) is the way to ensure that the body receives enough minerals to remain completely nourished and keep the system alkaline. On a raw food diet, it is simply not possible to get that level of nourishment from eating the vegetables. Juice goes straight to the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive process. Smoothies vs juicing is an interesting conversation that raw foodies have, and matt’s views of this are in his article "juicing vs blending". Norm Walker followed this principle and I tend to agree. I experience the vitality and health that comes from drinking juice daily.

This is just the summary of matt’s talk. Woven into these core principles matt also discussed enzymes, the cleansing properties of fruit, use of supplements, some good juice combinations, the gas diffusion principle (explained fully in raw success), bowel bacteria, water and much, much more.

There are many reasons for eating raw, and for most, it is focussed around better physical health, which of course is a good place to start. One of the beautiful outcomes of eating more raw food is that it raises the body’s vibrational levels and increases awareness of and receptivity to nature and our spiritual being. Personally I was glad to hear Matt talk about the spiritual changes in his life, including the opening of his third eye and solar plexus chakras. Joe Alexander (a blatant raw foodist) also makes reference to this in relation to his creativity. As a visual artist, he discovered that eating raw food sharpened his sense of colour and enabled him to draw more vibrant and lively compositions.

Angela Stokes
Angela’s story of morbid obesity began with an underactive thyroid at age 11. After transitioning to raw food, she is now half the size she was, and certainly twice the person. Angela’s skin literally glowed with health. She talked about how so many people try eating raw, often jumping in to 100%, then hit some kind of detox wall . . . only to go back to cooked food. Her philosophy is to start with where you are, but more importantly: start NOW! By start, she means at least 50% raw. Eating at least 50% raw is all you need to do to see some benefits.

What does 50% raw mean?
Percentages are rife in the raw food community. Angela explained thus. If you have a dinner plate, and half of the plate has spaghetti and meatballs on it with the other half containing a few leaves of lettuce, some tomato, and cucumber, let’s say. That is 50% raw by VOLUME. But the spaghetti and meatballs weight more than the lettuce leaves. So when we talk about 50% raw, it means by WEIGHT.

Top ten tips for going raw
Angela gave us her top ten tips for going on to a raw food lifestyle.

• Start now
• It is a lifestyle, not a diet
• Eat whole foods
• Do it for yourself. There is no need to convert other people
• Have a supportive social network
  (raw food communities are popping up everywhere – even Melbourne!)
• Dry skin brushing helps remove dead skin and stimulates the lymph system, aiding elimination
• Chew your food well (matt talks about Fletcherising in his book raw success)
• Have your greens (1 green juice every day)
• Structure – recognise it is always changing (what Angela eats now is different from what she ate 18 months ago, 6 months ago)
• Seaweed is important for minerals; sprouts are the best form of live food; and, water, drink plenty of it and as pure as possible (matt discussed the benefits of distilled water)

Angela talked about her recent Juice Feasting experience, eating (drinking) nothing but raw juices for 92 days. There’s a global movement (excuse the pun) of juice feasters. This is something I’d like to try. One day. According to the geneticist on ted.com, it is possible to change your genetic structure within 90 days.

Thanks Matt and Angela. I’ve come away from this talk inspired to make some micro-adjustments to my current raw lifestyle. 1. Start the colonics next week. My body is wanting it. 2. Today I started straining my juices – and wow, I can really taste the difference. 3. Attempt to avoid snacking between meals and no eating late. This has always been hardest for me, but I know the benefits. 4. Go back to doing a green juice in the afternoons. I gave that up over a year ago when I returned to full-time work. It’s a chore to clean out the juicer twice a day, but now I have so much more energy . . .

And wow, it was so great to meet other rawfoodies, plus one or two familiar faces from our rawfood meetup group. Check out Joanne's postings on the rawmom website.

i love my worms

i've arrived home to find that the caterpillars are still ravaging my green herbs, the neighbour's cat has been using the lettuce patch as a toilet (and dug up the mizuma seedlings), and i have two ripe roma tomatoes on my flailing tomato plants. margot has given me back my worm farm and i have lovingly transported it in the car from katoomba to melbourne. and lo, the worms survived the journey, but not without a damp patch of worm wee in the boot. never mind. it is wonderful to have worms again. they are my pets :-)

food facts

Food consumption makes up 20% of an individual's greenhouse emissions.

At a NSW State and Regional Development Seminar on "The Future of Food" last night the focus was on urban agriculture and the fact that more than 20% of an individual's greenhouse emissions are related to their food consumption - mainly because of things like food miles and packaging. The increasing price of food was also discussed with the price of milk going up 31.7% and bread up 23% in the last 4 years.

from Liz Bastian's blog, A Year In A Day - 3 Apr 2008 19:53

hypno-chicken

From Liz Bastian's blog, this delightful hypno-chicken video shows that yes, it is true! you can hypnotise a chicken and it will lie on it's back with it's little feet in the air. Liz's blog, A Year In A Day, is all about taking small steps along the path to living sustainably on this planet. Every little thing we do does count. Even hypnotising chickens.

Cody: an advertisement for healthy eating

In today's paper, Pierce Cody, founder of Cody Outdoor - you know, that company that owns billboard real estate across the country - tells us where he ate last week.
In 2004, Cody became part-owner of Macro Wholefoods, which up until then had been a small organic wholefoods grocery store and cafe located at Bondi Junction for 20 years, and regarded as "an institution" by the locals.
I guess owning an organic wholefoods store is a business proposition for Pierce, not something that is reflected in the way he lives (and eats).

save our blue mountains food co-op

received and email today from my blue mountains friends, and with it, a call to action. there are some concerns about recent events, including resignations from the Board of Directors. a petition has been launched to request that a General Meeting of the Directors be called. I see that Sybbi has resigned as bookkeeper. this must be serious. Sybbi has been bookkeeper for the food coop for as long as i have known her (6 years), and has been an active member since almost the beginning of the coop. i have always respected Sybbi's input. though we might not always have agreed on matters, Sybbi has consistently stood up for what she believes in.
residing in melbourne means i'm no longer actively involved the blue mountains food coop, however i have a strong interest in seeing the coop continue to thrive as a sustainable community resource for the blue mountains. it embodies all those things i feel passionate about; food, community, organics, sustainability and local action.
i recall that even during my time on the Management Committee, there were tensions. aren't there always? the issues then were related to the two "p"s. people and premises.
back in 2002-03 a fair amount of discussion, and some division, arose around the issue of whether to remain small, or whether to grow. despite varying views, a search for new premises began in 2002. this proved to be a difficult proposition as few sites in central Katoomba (ie. the main street) provide the necessary floor space in which the coop could expand.
at the same time, some issues were arising amongst the coop workers. i saw some of this activity as a response to growth. with the need to increase staff numbers and extend opening hours, the coordination of staff became a larger and more complex job. yes, personalities were involved, but more importantly what was missing was the ability to sensitively and compassionately manage the impact of the changes that were resulting in problems. trust was becoming an issue, and i could see a rift opening up between "workers" and "management" which i know neither party wanted.
these issues remained unresolved when i resigned my directorship in 2003 (or was in early 2004?). seems like they are coming to the surface to be resolved now.
i have cast my vote on the website to call for a General Meeting, because i believe that the only healthy way to resolve a situation like this is through open and honest communication. because this is a cooperative, it absolutely must honour the views of it's members. open forum is essential.
i'll be watching this space . . .

Are oats raw?

Wow. Seredipity at work. Cathy and i had this conversation yesterday, on the way back from seeing a film. She asked me if rolled oats were a raw food. I didn't have an exact answer, but had heard that some brands were and others were heat-treated above 45 deg. In summary, it depends. Mental note, to do more research. Then in today's paper . . . here it is!

Demeter Farm Mill "oats are not heated when they are rolled".

Welcome to my blog

Welcome. After many years of toying with blogs, fiddling behind the scenes and staying too attached to my paper diaries (and the wonderful experience of hand-writing them), i realise it is now time i started publishing these gems. Here, the greatest obstacle has been (as has always been the case with my written diaries) how to organise the blog (s)? Do i have one blog, or many? Do i organise them by personal and professional, by topic or how? As an information management consultant, it seems ironic to be held captive to the classic dilemma of the "cobbler's children". Whatever. So today, in the spirit of a "do it now" impulse, i am launching this raw blog.

It's raw because i want to gather together my thoughts on how i live. This is the journey of my experiences with food. Occasionally it digresses into related areas; growing food (permaculture, community gardens), housing (sustainable living practices) and other sustainable practices (eating vegan, buying local, food miles, sustainable transport); but the theme is food and the food is primarily raw and living.

What is raw? The raw foodists call it food that has not been heated above 45 degrees celsius. Below that temperature, the food is still "alive". It still contains living enzymes, minerals and has a high nutritional value. Heat it above that level and the enzymes, minerals and highly nutritional things die. Raw food is not processed. Unless the label says so, all processed (generally, food that comes in a packet; including drinks) food is cooked or pasteurised. Cold does NOT equal raw. In essence raw food is whole, un-processed, fresh and as close to nature as is humanly possible. Some raw foodists include (fresh) raw animal flesh and other raw animal products (e.g. milk) in this category. As a vegan, I don't.

I hope you enjoy my ramblings. I hope you'll contribute your thoughts.