Permafraud
Part 1
Permaculturists working with Monsanto
at Permaculture Convergence in Tasmania
Gavin Edwards
The Centre for Community Self-Sufficiency™
Lapoinya, Tasmania.
I
am writing this in the interests of the truth. If anyone has any
information that contradicts these facts then I am interested in knowing
them. My intention is not to put people in a bad light but only to make
people aware of what is going on.
How did it come to this?
North-west Tasmania recently had the dubious honour of hosting the 12th Permaculture Convergence. Opened by the ex greens leader Bob Brown and organised by the North-west Environment Centre and the Reseed Centre.
I've
said this before but I'll say it again for people that haven't heard.
The Australian government is in business partnership with Monsanto
through a company called Intergrain. Monsanto has a 26% share. The
Western Australian government through its Agriculture department and the
Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), a Australian
Federal Government body, set up a company called Intergrain and gave it
150 years worth of WA's wheat research and wheat varieties. It then sold
shares in Intergrain to Monsanto.
Here's the link to the Pervergence http://www.apc12tas.com/
Here's my grievances:
- Permaculturists, namely Good Life Permaculture and the Reseed Centre, are taking funding from the Department of Premier and Cabinet – the Liberal government. They are taking funding from government that is in partnership with Monsanto. Hannah Moloney and Anton Vikstrom from Good Life Permaculture spoke at the revergence about “Making Good Shit happen”. Enough said – for the moment. Hannah Moloney also teaches at Milkwood Permaculture in NSW.
- One of the speakers at the conference, retired ag scientist Dr Bruce French (a baptist pastor) is the founder of Food Plants International and Food Plant Solutions with Rotary and Buzz Green, founder of agribusiness firm Servag. Food Plants International and Food Plant Solutions deliver food growing "expertise" to the third world. Unfortunately, on further investigation Servag is a seller for the chemical giants, selling poisons and seeds from Dow, Syngenta, Bayer Crop Science, Nufarm and the like. http://serve-ag.com.au/partners/ Food Plant Solutions have been sponsored by the Monsanto fund. http://foodplantsolutions.org/about/documents/Dr French also taught a PDC at Reseed Centre with Hannah Moloney from Good Life Permaculture, Steve Solomon and others. http://goodlifepermaculture.com.au/event/permaculture-design-certificate/
- Phillip Nicholas, a Greens member, is also on the board of the Reseed Centre. He has also had Bruce French as a guest speaker at Astrotas, a science promoting group. If these people are so intelligent, shouldn't they have done their research and found out who they are working with? Or are they pro-GMO's? This also raises other questions: Are the Greens party pro-GMO? and Why are Greens members taking funding from the Liberal government? If some of these people say they didn't know (as I suspect they will) then I suggest they admit their mistake and support me in fighting against GMO's.
So how did it come to this?
Permaculturists
and the Greens working with agribusiness to aid the third world using
GM crops and chemicals. GMO's have not been shown to feed the world's
starving and agrichemicals have been shown to cause poisoning of both
people and the soil. Some might think there is an agenda to control the
world's food supply and my own research is showing me that this is the
case (only the situation is worse than you could possibly imagine).
We
had a lot of people try and shut us down over the GMO issue - the
Western Australian Liberal government, the Greens in WA, the
permaculturists, the ABC and the Nursery industry. You would think that
the issue of GMO's contaminating our food supply would bring people
together and that people would try and support us rather than worry
about their fragile egos. We no longer practice permaculture or vote
green.
I've
spent most of my life saving rare seed varieties, studying edible
plants and sustainable food production methods (over 45 years). This
with self-sufficiency is my profession and it's taken more time than a
medical degree to learn it . I've done it all independently of
universities and governments for a reason - so they can't control it.
Please support me in my research and my mission to stop GMO's.
Ever wondered why the government supports permaculture while trying to shut down self-sufficiency?
Stay tuned for part 2 in which I will explain the reasons why.
Gavin Edwards is The Self-Sufficient Farmer™.
He is an independent researcher of Edible Plants and Small-scale Sustainable Food Production.
Gavin and his wife, Lisa McAndrew, run The Good Heart School of Self-Sufficiency™ , in Lapoinya, Tasmania, where they teach aspiring small farmers how to run a Self-Sufficient Smallholding™ and do Self-Sufficient Farming™.
They were the founders of Australia's first Sustainable Small Farm™.
© Gavin Edwards 2015. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced without prior permission from the author.
The
Self-Sufficient Farmer™, Self-Sufficient Farming™, Balingup Sustainable
Small Farm™ , Sustainable Small Farm™, Good Heart School of
Self-Sufficiency™, Self-Sufficient Smallholding™, Centre for Community
Self-Sufficiency™ are common law trademarks of Mama Earth Pty. Ltd. ACN
146 054 828.
You're drawing a really long bow there Gavin. I know the folk at Good Life and Reseed very well. They are absolutely top notch, caring, passionate, and committed people. If the word 'integrity' applies to anyone, it is them. What you've said here is not only false, it is outright malicious, and it reflects really poorly on you.
ReplyDeleteHi Todd,
ReplyDeleteCan I ask which part you think is actually false?
They did do a PDC with Bruce French.
They have taken funding from Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Does it reflect badly on me to tell the truth?
All that you are saying at the moment is that you know them and that you think they are good.
There is nothing malicious about what I have said. They are my concerns in the interests of truth and transparency. I AM very concerned about people who are working with people funded by Monsanto.
Also wondering Todd,
ReplyDeleteas you are executive director of Sustainable Living Tasmania (and Anton's employer), what is your opinion on the government being in business partnership with Monsanto? Is that sustainable?
My own opinion on that - it's damn well not.
That makes SLT taking funding from a government that is practicing unsustainability also unsustainable.
Why don't we all just tell whoppers about being sustainable while living in unsustainable cities and shutting down small farms trying to do self-sufficiency and be REALLY sustainable? Is sustainability only for rich urban dwelling university types?
We did Australia's first Sustainable Small Farm - we know what we are about. We won't let a government or NGO define sustainability or self-sufficiency and try and tell us how to be sustainable when we have done it more than anyone. We live on a sustainable smallholding and we have lived with governments and funded NGO's trying to copy us and then tell everyone how to do what we've done.
In short Sustainable Living Tasmania can keep doing what it does in the unsustainable city taking funding from the government that is in partnership with GM companies and we'll keep fighting to get the truth out there. The REAL version of sustainability.
Yes Gavin. I'm Todd Houstein the Executive Officer of Sustainable Living Tasmania. And yes, we have received quite a number grant-, quote- and tender–won contracts with the Tasmanian Government to implement community projects. I’m proud of what we’ve achieved with them, including helping thousands of Tasmanian households – predominantly ones on low incomes (not rich urban dwelling university types you’ll be happy to know) – to reduce their energy consumption; grow, preserve and prepare their own (organic, non-GMO) food; compost; reduce waste; and so on.
ReplyDeleteIf Monsanto have some extraordinary influence over the Tasmanian Government’s agenda as you seem to be suggesting, then it's a little surprising that they recently extended the Moratorium on GMOs. By the way, you'll find submissions to the review of that moratorium from both Good Life Permaculture and Sustainable Living Tasmania on the public record here:
http://dpipwe.tas.gov.au/biosecurity/product-integrity/gene-technology/2013-review-of-the-moratorium-on-gmos-in-tasmania/submissions-to-the-gmo-review
But what exactly are you trying to imply with your blog post anyway?
An organisation received some money from the Tasmanian Government to help people grow their own organic GMO-free food; and the Tasmanian Government is currently run by the Liberal Party; and the Liberal Party also runs the Australian Government; and the Australian Government has a partnership with Intergrain; and Intergrain is partly owned by Monsanto… Therefore the organisation helping people to grow their own organic GMO-free food is in cahoots with Monsanto? Is that what you’re trying to imply? If so, that’s an exceptionally long bow to draw. It’s longer still because it was actually a Labor-Green government that provided the funding you speak of.
Or is it simply that by accepting money from the Government to do something good we are being complicit in whatever the Government does that is bad? If so, then I presume you think no one should work with the government to do anything good. That’s one hell of a way to cede power to those you oppose.
I wonder, would that same logic apply to products and services one uses? For example, you use blogspot, which is owned by Google, which has a partnership with the Chinese Government that includes restricting the content accessible to its citizens, including around human rights abuses happening in China. Does that mean you’re complicit in human rights abuse? I don’t think so.
Monsanto are getting away with all sorts of things and yet you choose to focus your energy on howling down some wonderfully passionate and committed people who are not only speaking out publicly against GMOs, but working bloody hard to help people grow their own organic non-GMO food? That, Gavin, is what reflects poorly on you.
We are also trying to run a business teaching people to grow good, clean, organic, GM-free food. It is hard enough to earn a living in the country without having to compete with city-based, government funded organizations well meaning or not. We effectively pay our government to compete with us and shut down our own livelihood. You know, we try like hell to earn income at the same time as growing our own food, live sustainably and help others. We are aiming at poorer people not rich people in the cities. We do not charge $2000 for a two week PDC. We also cannot afford to teach for free or cheap like government funded organizations. Glad to talk to you about government-funded business competition since you bring it up. Do you not think a private business could teach people to be self-sufficient? I don't care about private competition but I do when it's funded by a government in partnership with GMO companies.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you're organization put in submissions against GMO's but how could you then think it OK to work with someone funded by Monsanto?
We will not work in any way with a government that is in business partnership with Monsanto and nor should you or anybody else. It is not sustainable and for an organization promoting sustainable living I would have thought it almost criminal.
I will continue to howl down anyone who works with Monsanto. It reflects extremely poorly on you and your organization that you defend and even promote someone who is in partnership with Monsanto. That's the bottom-line, the truth.
Dr Bruce French took more than $10 000 from Monsanto and Good life and Reseed worked with him. Please deny and contradict that. You cannot because it is the truth.
When we did Australia’s first Sustainable Small Farm™ we were under constant assault from all sides for our anti-GMO and stance. We had permaculturist, green neighbours (she worked for the Greens party and her brother-in-law was one of the bikies) dob us into the ag dept for having blackberry while I had a fatal fungal infection (which I had for 4 years but recovered from) and Lisa had chronic fatigue. The ag dept put a 13 week removal order on us and we put 8 goats on the hill on tether which I had to move twice a day, while unwell, and cut back 2 acres of blackberry by hand. We later found out that we didn’t have to do that - they had tricked us - the law only said control not remove. The farm got too hard and we left for over a year. After another assault at work (security) I packed the truck and we moved back to the farm. I had PTSD bad and was not sleeping (0 - 1 hrs per night, about 7 hours per week). Lisa had a miscarriage and we lost the baby. Everything broke down - car, chainsaw, tractor, hot water system, etc. Then the other neighbour took us to court for a new fence. They were liberal party members - she was the daughter of a magistrate who owned a nursery in Manjimup and a B&B in Bridgetown and god knows what else and he worked for Department of Premier and Cabinet. After the judge addressed her by her first name and obviously knew her we agreed to just pay her(about twice what it was worth) - Lisa was too sick to be dragged through court. They also harassed us over a power pole they wanted removing, with the power company claiming access to our land for a pole that wasn’t on our land. During this time the permie neighbours let their son ride his dirt bike around their 12 acre farm nearly every afternoon.
ReplyDeleteAt the same time a group of gardeners from the ABC came to our town to teach sustainable gardening workshops for free (two of them had a nursery growing plants for Bunnings which has a link to Woodside through their board) and their friend used our trademark to teach Sustainable Small Farm™ workshops backed by an ex-Woodside lawyer. The local permaculturists also did a Sustainability Open Day to teach the stuff we were teaching and tried to take over the community garden we got the land for and try and say it was a Transition Towns initiative. The government then called for submissions on GMO but all the data was not available for download (no risk assessment matrix) until I think about two weeks before. The neighbour put a submission in but, as it was also spring and I had to grow my food or we didn’t eat, I was unable to. GMO’s got in anyway - regardless of the submissions. I was probably the only person capable of making a difference to that at the time and they had well and truly tied me up.
I will waste not more time responding to something you should already have done something about in your organization. Any further posts by you will be deleted. I have a small farm to run and things to do. Don’t waste my time.