Resistance Is Fertile: Smashing Green Capitalism & Letting Green Anarchy Grow : Melbourne Indymedia

I even went to a Green Festival in San Francisco hoping for some more insight on how I could live my life more eco-friendly. However, all I found was a two story building filled with people whose goal it was to keep the market alive. What I have found out since then (on my own, not with the help of the media of course) is that change won’t happen through the market, change is only going to happen when we live a life in deep connection with the earth.

Most of these big companies that are now toting eco-friendly labels such as “USDA Certified Organic,” “Free Range,” “Pesticide Free,” or “Fair-Trade,” aren’t really concerned whether or not all of the old growth forests in the world are destroyed, or if your local park is bulldozed to be replaced by a strip mall, or about high levels of mercury from factories that’s being emitted into our water systems and causing very harmful health repercussions, or that the air pollution in some areas is so bad that children are growing up suffering with severe and acute cases of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, or about worker mistreatment, or about animal suffering and exploitation.

What these big companies do care about is capital. Their first priority isn’t to save the environment. Their priority lies in what’s going to make them money; and that is to exploit the earth and the consumer’s wants and desires. If it takes a little bit of changing how they manufacture their product to make sure they are still raking in the high profits, than that’s what they’ll do.

When I became aware of this I asked myself, “How is this really any different?” Corporations are still corporations, mass production is still mass production, industrial agriculture is still industrial agriculture, greenhouse gas emissions are still green house gas emissions, worker and animal exploitation is still worker and animal exploitation. Essentially, nothing is really changing. A lot of oil, natural recourses, land, and beings are being used and exploited in order to produce on this large of scale, even to make eco-friendly products. So it’s clear to me now that buying in to “green” companies really isn’t going to cut it. In order to truly liberate ourselves, the Earth, and the animals we need to cut capital and consumerism out completely.

A beautiful example of a way we can free ourselves from and smash the system of the market and its many harms is to grow our own food and reclaim unused, abused, and/or neglected land for nature. Food grown organically may be less harmful to the earth and our health but it still takes a lot of recourses and land to grow mass amounts of food and ship it to processing facilities and then ship it out to stores so it can be paid a high price for. The area I live in was once covered in lush wetlands which, not so long ago, was home to many different species of animals, plants, and indigenous cultures, most of which are no longer here. Most of the land has long since been taken over by agriculture, just one of the many means of capitalism. There are countless pieces of land here where all of the plant life has been ripped out and now all that remains are empty dirt lots resentfully awaiting to be topped by more shopping strips and other centers of consumerism.

Early this Spring, my partner and I started a local guerilla gardening project on a little piece of vacant land hugged between a road and a parking lot. It was littered with garbage but had lots of grass growing so we decided it would be a good home for some more plant life. We liberated some small potted trees and other small plants, cleaned up all of the trash, and started planting. We also started sprouting different vegetable and fruit seeds which will be ready in mid-Spring to plant in the garden and will produce food for us and the community. This is now an open piece of land where friends and others in the community can grow food for themselves as well. No market involved there.

Starting a garden like this is so easy and fun. Collecting seeds and soil for free is simple. It’s also really easy and quick to liberate potted plants. Just get a few friends together, find a spot, get some seeds and plants, and you have instant bonding with your community and with the Earth! Make sure to give your plants plenty of attention and water when they’re growing so your garden may thrive. Another fun way you can spread a little bit more nature around is to make seed bombs and throw them in places like cracks in the sidewalks, empty dirt lots, and road dividers. Grass seeds and wildflower seeds are really good to put in seed bombs because they grow really easily without much attention and water.

To make seed bombs check out the Seed Grenade Recipe from http://www.lizchristygarden.org. You can also make them very simply with just some soil and seeds. Mix some seeds into the soil, add a little water to it if necessary to get the soil to a consistency where it will stick and hold into a ball shape. Mold the soil with your hands, let the balls dry a little bit to make sure they’ll hold together, then go seed bombing! These are great ways to build your connection with your community and with the Earth and cut out the market. And it really is great fun. Try it in your town, get creative, get crazy, smash green capitalism and let green anarchy grow!

Even in Melboring Ozfailure kids !

growing veggies is easier than you may think, they tend to grow themselves. All you need is some reasonable soil and water.

An advantage to growing your own over buying from shops is that you get the full lifecycle of your plants. That is, instead of harvesting the plant to go to market, you can pick from your plant only what you need at any one particular time ...and then the plant keeps growing. Much more can be yielded from a plant in this particular way. Of course this only works with some plants ,like celery, which have multiple shoots.

I suggest ordering some seeds from http://www.edenseeds.com.au/ - yes yes, before you yell at me for using the market, realize that you only need to buy once. Let some of your crop go full cycle into seed and harvest and save the seeds. I recommend this supplier as the seeds are Old Traditional Open pollinated varieties, that is, they aren't hybrids or GM as you may get from the supermarket. Ever eaten pink celery??

Minister denies Adelaide using last 40 days of water

The South Australian Government says claims that Adelaide has only 40 days of water supply left are incorrect.

Professor Paul Cullen from the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists says that, due to record low flows to the Murray, the system is virtually empty.

But State Water Security Minister Karlene Maywald says the city's reservoirs are at about 56 per cent of capacity and that will supply the city for another eight months.

"Also as a consequence of the contingency planning that we have been undertaking at the national level, we have authorisation to pump an extra 60Gl [gigalitres] into our reserves as a buffer against the potential for low flows next year," she said.

"So it's simply just not correct.

"Normally at this time of year we would slow down the pumping into the storages in the Adelaide Hills, with the expectation of winter rainfall to flow in.

"But as a drought contingency measure that we think is necessary, to just be 100 per cent sure, we're forward pumping water for next year."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1903562.htm

Why would John Howard govt lie to you?

To make panic and force his hand with Victoria to privatise our river systems for max corporate profits!

Yes but it can be "noice maaaate" to get together with other folks be it at the Collingwood Town hall recently for the growing food in the cities event, visiting nearby Collingwood Childrens Farm and school's kitchen garden
or CERES this weekend during the Melbourne Social Forum
or the recent anti-nuke celebration - however the Sustainability Fair at Fed Square was a little alienting I agree

All those plastic dishes the corporations sell the stuff in is a big problem too. Where do they end up? On the tip! Do they break down?