Brisbane Organic Growers Annual Fair is on this Sunday - 4th October at The Peace hall, 102 McDonald Rd, Windsor between 9am and 3pm. The hall is located directly under the Albion Overpass near the Albion Railway Station so wont be difficult to find! Many aspects of organic growing will be present...with over 60 stalls... there's sure to be good food and coffee as well as and a whole host of "how to" demonstrations. This event is free and well worth a detour if you are going to be in Brisbane Sunday. I know where i'll be at 9am anyway ...beating the heat, getting a look-in first thing! I want to investigate the rare and endangered species and seed-savers stalls! Click Here to find out more about this organisation.
Aims
Do you want to grow your own fruit and vegetables without chemicals, hormones, synthetic herbicides/pesticides, and exclude genetically modified foods from your diet? Then our club might be right for you, as BOGI aims to:
- Encourage people to use organic methods in their gardens
- Stop using chemicals fertilisers and toxins
- Care for the soil through composting, worm farming, mulching, re-using and recycling waste and living environmentally sustainably.
- Create a healthy ecosystem so natural predators are encouraged and plants are strong enough to resist attack from pest and diseases.
- Produce healthy plants that will resist disease and be safer for human consumption.
- Encourage native wildlife through reducing the use of dangerous chemicals
- Encourage nature through planting native species to encourage insects, frogs, birds and all wildlife that are part of our biodiversity.
- Ensure that water from all sources is economically used to sustain all plantings.
- Encourage less waste in our garbage by recycling it into compost
- Grow plants with companion plants which deter pests.
11 comments:
thank you for calling to my blog sopie......oh my goodness you have such life and excitement on yours ! ...I am happy to see this blog and thank you for being so open and sharing :)
Hello Queen jane from the West of Ireland,
i do love your profile...to which I refer here! Your blog is a treat and a delight to visit!
There's a lovely feel to your work and blog.
I shall visit again! Thanks for you gracious comments! Much appreciated.
S
A more than worthwhile event - I wish I could attend! Brisbane sounds like a progressive place. I appreciate that :)
Hi Janis,
it was a fantastic event...everything of high quality, and so care-fully produced.
S
Oh! Wish I could have been in Brisbane on the weekend this was on - would have been great! If you are after heirloom seeds/seedlings, the Diggers Club in Victoria are a great way to get them (I'm a member) - http://www.diggers.com.au/
Ive heard a lot about Diggers...and somehow never managed to get there when I lived in Melbourne! They have done enormous work publicising the vulnerability of seeds in the global market etc. and run an amazing business i agree!
There were quite a number of local groups at the fair with excellent seeds...including the organisers of the event...Brisbane Organic Growers Inc. They have a very large and active membership who contribute to a central seed collection that is organised in the home of one member and with help of volunteers. They were selling high quality seeds for $1 a packet...sensational.
You can't beat $1.00 for seedpackets! Now I really wish I had been there.
I will be connecting further with the seed packaging project...so...will let you know Jay Dee...They clearly want to make it viable for people to grow best quality, non GM seeds!
Critical as it is said 96% of the worlds (traded) seeds are owned by 6 corporations - all of whom are intent on getting top dollars for seeds that last one season only. Talk about taking the heritage of the world setting out to stuff it up in a few short years...and then what...controllling food sources globally. We thought we'd seen damage last century at the hands of certain dictators. This kind of greed and skewed vision gets Govt approval effectively.
Interestingly though, in the US when Michelle Obama moved in to the Whitehouse and had an organic kitchen garden installed...the corporates across the country lambasted her for being un-american...for inciting the people to "do it themselves' and not continue to support the Industrialised Food Industry!
thanks for commenting Jay Dee,
S
Hi Sophie - I know exactly what you mean re greed and shortsightedness on the part of large seed/chemical companies. My background is partially in horticulture and I follow what is happening with GM and terminator crops very seriously. Last year the 5 year ban on GM crops being tested in Australia was ended without any debate regarding people's positions on these crops in our country. I believe Victoria has already allowed GM crops to be grown commercially since then and there are test crops in other parts of Aus including farms near the Glasshouse mountains. Once here these crops are impossible to keep contained despite what authorities would have us believe. I have a very good book called 'Genetic Roulette' published last year in Aus with excellent factual information on the problems and lack of complete studies into GM crops - you are welcome to borrow it if you have not read it already.
Thanks for this response Jay Dee. Its an important conversation that I know a lot of people are displeased or downright outraged about and yet mostly feel powerless to speak to!
love to borrow the book and also discuss at more length. Have you looked into the Arts and Ecology blog by the RSA on my website...RSA stand for Royal society for the encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures and Commerce...fascinating discussion on how the arts can respond to ecology and future thinking.
we must talk!
thanks JD,
S
Oh - thanks for the link to the RSA site Sophie - I'll have a dive in and look now :) - and yes, we must talk!
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