Healthy soils are loaded with microorganisms such as bacterias and fungi that consume organic matter and produce readily available nutrients to feed plants. To grow healthy plants it is vital to create a healthy, diverse and alive soil ecosystem.
Soil bacteria and fungi under a microscope. Image: Soil Foodweb Institute
For Greenies has entered the WWF video competition – Life. Nature. You. Make the Connection with this video entry – “A Day in the Simple Life”.
Hopefully this video helps to inspire you to reconnect with nature and to live a beautiful and simple life just like those on Ahus Island in Papua New Guinea.
If you like it, rate it and help us get to the CMS Vatavaran Environment and Wildlife Film Festival & Forum in India! Thanks!
There is a small populated low-lying island visible from mainland Manus Island of Papua New Guinea that is shrinking because of climate change impacts. Life is becoming increasingly difficult for the 900 people of Ahus Island. Because of an increase in severity of weather and oceanic currents, the island that has sustained them for hundreds of years is slowly washing away and fish and other marine animals are becoming harder to catch.
The For Greenies film crew recently travelled to Ahus Island and recorded this climate change song written and performed by the Ponai String Band of Ahus Island.
Matthew Evans is a chef turned food critic who has moved from the big city to a small farmlet in Tasmania where he is discovering first hand what it takes to produce fresh and healthy local meat and produce. Learn about where the very best food comes from and what it takes to become a farmer as Matthew raises pigs and sheep, attempts to milk his cow and grows his own vegies whilst trying to make a living from it.
‘Gourmet Farmer‘ is on SBS One on Thursdays at 7.30pm
Participatory video is accessible to all genders and levels of education
Participatory Video is a method pioneered by Insightshare whereby a community of people are taught the basics of video production, how to plan a story and create a storyboard and then given a video camera and computer to produce a short film of their own choosing.
The purpose of the video is to create discussion, communicate issues, and ultimately make change.
Most documentaries are made by professional filmmakers who have years of experience behind a camera, and who have their own agenda, but through Participatory Video, putting the camera into the subjects hands helps them to express themselves and tell their own story exactly how it is.
In April 2011, supported by the AusAID-funded project “Building the resilience of communities and their ecosystems to the impacts of climate change in the Pacific”, led by The Nature Conservancy, I facilitated the first Participatory Video activity in the Solomon Islands, in the remote village of Chivoko on the north-west tip of Choiseul Island.
The Solomon islands are an archipelago of small islands to the east of Papua New Guinea where the people still rely directly on the resources from the land for all their daily needs. We have just returned after spending 3 months there and have alot of self-sufficiency ideas to share with you.
If you have a coconut tree nearby, you can use 2 fronds to make a natural fibre broom for sweeping indoors. If you don’t have a coconut tree nearby, I suggest you plant one as the coconut has many uses. As the South Seas proverb goes… “He who plants a coconut tree, plants food and drink, vessels and clothing, a habitation for himself and a heritage for his children”
This broom works well, looks great and when it’s (long) sweeping life is over it will return back to the soil without a trace. In this video, Melodie Pitamama from Boeboe village, Choiseul Province, generously showed us how she works a broom from the ribs of coconut leaves.
