Helen and Hugo’s Organic Farming Blog

On the weekend Hugo and I went to support Gerhard Grasser of Agrisolutions man his stand at the Seymour Alternative Farming Expo. On Saturday Gerhard gave 2 talks about rapidly creating the soil recover due to drought and/or bushfires. During the 1st one he was interrupted several times by a man in the audience about reduced use of fertiliser in a biological farming system.
The man left early but appeared at his stand afterwards claiming in a loud voice that Gerhard was dishonest - nothing else - just dishonest. When I asked why, he had little to say except repeat his claims. When I asked again he said that Gerhard hadn’t detailed which soil testing labs. were independent but he said he knew that there was only one that was independent - Incitec!!!!! it was curious as he would not engage in discussion.

Hugo said that there was a similar incident on Sunday with another man just hanging around and proclaiming that Gerhard was dishonest.

On discussing it tonight Hugo thinks, and I agree, that both men were there to discredit anyone perceived to be a threat to chemical fertiliser companies. The 2nd man was touting how good GM cops were because they increased corn yields in 3rd world countries by 3%. Once again he would not engage in any discussion.

“Grain growers have been urged to plan a rust-management strategy in line with their crop-sowing plan for winter” The Weekly Times Feb 18th 09 p.35

This article caught our eye as it went on to give details of the varieties of wheat and triticale that were rust prone and suggests choosing newer varieties, particulary triticale, that would be less susceptible to rust.

Last year we were asked our advice on how to treat stripe rust on wheat. It was prevalent through the district. Our advice was to apply a biological spray along with canola oil.
Not only did this treatment stop the rust, it did not appear again and of course the spray had the side benefit of feeding the microbes!
We noted that his neighbour sprayed a chemical to stop the stripe rust and sprayed 3 times throughout the season doing much damage to his soil life!
Maybe all farmers need to do is change their farming methods and activate their soil life.

These are just 2 photos from the daily sight from our office.
Some days we cannot even see the mountains due to smoke from the fires to the East and North.
Today we are smelling the smoke and the sun casts an orange glow.
It is an eerie reminder of the ongoing devastation that the bush fires are causing.

Another helicopter getting more water

The bush fires still rage on 11th February 2009

During the nuptials of Ben Van Deventer and Liz Nisbet, at the nearby De Bortoli winery, a dozen staff spent hours battling deadly embers as the 170 guests partied.

Flames came within a few hundred metres of the winery and its buildings and 180 hectares of vines survived.

Owner Leanne De Bortoli said the fire’s speed and ferocity surprised everyone. “We’d all been listening to the radio and hearing about the fires in Kilmore, but we thought, ‘That’s miles away’.”

The wedding took place in the garden at the centre of the winery at 4pm. It was 45 degrees but the wind had dropped. But as the ceremony ended, smoke thickened, the wind picked up and embers and ash started falling. Guests were herded out of a car park marquee into the safer main red brick building as appetisers were served while “all hands on deck”, including winemakers and musicians, watered surrounding grounds and gutters. As night fell, fires approached from hills 1 kilometre to the south and west.

About 9pm the bridal party were let back into the marquee to cut the cake and give speeches and some ventured outside for photos as the fire glowed in hills behind them.

Ms De Bortoli said the day was “quite frightening”, but staff were heroes and she feels lucky the winery was spared and no one was hurt. (The Age, p1 Carolyn Webb February 13, 2009)

Helen Disler from Farming Secrets spoke with Leanne on Monday unaware of how close de Bortoli’s were to the bushfires. As she spoke they were still fighting fresh fires at the vineyard.

Farming Secrets have been filming de Bortoli’s change over to organics using compost and compost teas in the vineyards close to where the fires were raging. They are very concerned for them at this time of loss and suffering for not only them but for the tight knit community around them.

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Just finished reading a review of philosopher Peter Singer’s new book “The Life You Can Save” subtitled “Acting Now To End World Poverty”. I was extremely interested to read more as it is a subject that I too have wrestled with and actively did what I could do about it for many years.

While you are reading this short piece, about 300 children will die, many from easily treatable, poverty-related causes?

(Based on UNICEF estimates that 27,000 children die every day)

These figures are hard to comprehend but nevertheless true.

In the past I have watched a short documentary, which was made about child mortality. To highlight the enormity of the figures, they showed that every few minutes this was the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing every few minutes. I have never forgotten the parallel and am confronted when journalists highlight the tragic loss of a single life in our society and I ask “Why, when we can relate to one death can’t we relate to thousands every day?” I came to the conclusion that we just fell totally disempowered in the face of such enormous tragedy.

Singer in his book deals with this confrontation to find out why many of us do nothing to address this gross world imbalance. He is not seeking in this book to make us feel guilty or bad but essentially putting forward an argument to empower us as individuals to end poverty. This he suggests is unavoidable if we want to live an ethical life.

Singer argues that if you are reading his book and drinking bottled water or maybe a soft drink, then you have money to spend on things you don’t really need. He rightfully claims that around the world a billion people struggle to live each day on less than you paid for that drink.

So what to do to make a difference? Hugo and I chose to contribute to the Grameen Bank which in turn provides loans for the poorest of the poor to have access to credit and in turn end their own poverty. We came to understand as we lobbied our Federal Parliamentarians that our Australian Government aid programme is not designed to do this.

Singer suggests that we can all in fact make a difference and end extreme poverty by allocating small regular amounts to reputable non government agencies (such as Grameen, or Oxfam)

Singer continues to question the eating of meat and the biofuel industry which robs grain which could instead feed the world. He examines the enormous wealth squandered on lifestyle and philanthropic trusts set up to buy valuable art objects. Is it morally responsible to spend millions on 1 painting when the money spent could have saved thousands of lives?

I find the whole discussion provocative, empowering and timely and will buy the book to read more in depth.

The Age Sat 31^st Jan 2009 Features p. 12 - 13