Unfortunately, my university education in ecology was more like botany, based on classification and categorisation of species. However, I believe that the way that ecology is a departure from the traditional scientific method is in its systems analysis, which requires skills of synthesis rather than simply in-depth knowledge in a specialised area. The most similar discipline in human biology is physiology, which looks at functional processes in the body such as homeostasis (negative feedback).

Bushwalking in wild spaces such as Barrington (pictured) or South West Tasmania remind us of our smallness and frailty, in comparison to the intensity of the elements and the immense biodiversity of nature.

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FOOD

I'm interested in urban food systems in Australia, especially since urban areas usually coincide with the best soils in Australia.

*Community Foods (An amazing website)

*How to set up a community garden

*Listen to Helena Norberg-Hodge speak about local food economies and global trade at Melbourne Ceres: here

* Permaculture International

*Society for Growing Australian Plants

Visit the Seed Savers Network

*Listen to the excellent speech "Life After the GE Nightmare" by scientist Dr. Mae-Wan Ho, from the UK Institute for Science in Society, speaking in Melbourne. She discusses the real insights afforded by genomics, outlining the way biotech corporations attempt to re-cast life in their own image, with DNA as micro-commodity, and how this is a continuation of a mythology of blood-line and genetic determinism and the need elites have for a 'science' of heredity and 'survival of the fittest'.

Some quotes I scrambled to write down:

20:45 "This paradigm of genetic determinism has spilled out into the public sphere- there are genes for everything: ...(missed a bit)... and for females committing adultery, which is absolute nonsense, of course. Since the 1970's every single justification for genetic determinism has been falsified 21:59 They were so surprised by the nature of what they were finding in the laboratory, that they found a term to describe it: the fluid genome: The genome showed itself to be dynamic and flexible: responding to multiple levels of feedback from the environment, not only changing the genomic expression, but the structure of the genome and the genes themselves.

AUDIO 40mins.

Seedballs: I remember when Starhawk talked about seedballs, that they used in urban guerilla gardening around the time of some biotechnology conference in the US. Recently I was browsing through an Organic Gardener Magazine at my grandmas, and it had this recipe (also with added info from this document) :

Recipe for Native Re-vegetation Seed Balls.

Ingredients:

5 parts Dry powdered clay (red clay is best) with 1 part dried soil. Take this soil from below the surface, and sieve it to remove weed seed. The soil will contain beneficial microbes.

Add 2-3 parts dry mixed seeds of all the varieties that are going to be re-introduced to the area. ( hard coated seeds will need to be previously treated with scarification or hot water) 1 part blood and bone fertiliser (optional) to feed the emerging seedling and dissuade rabbits from eating the plants. 1 to 2 parts water added a little at a time.

Method:

Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly in a large container or bucket and then add water a little at a time. The consistency should end up like a stiff dough and can then be rolled into strips. Small sections are then broken off and rolled between the palms of the hands until smooth and round, about the size of a one cent piece. (10mm) A transformation occurs within the balls as they are rolled, and after a few seconds they can be felt to set up or organise, as the tiny clay platelets align themselves to each other, and the seeds they enclose. It is important to roll the clay until this polymerisation is felt. The balls then dry with structural integrity. Finished balls are tossed onto a tarp to harden undisturbed for at least 24 hours. When dry, seed balls may be stored in a cool ventilated place or used immediately.