- 2 days ago
Explores regenerative living and features real-world examples of people pioneering sustainable solutions in their daily lives, such as permaculture, timebanking, community-supported agriculture, and zero waste.
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00:00:26The current system has to go through a
00:00:28collapse unless you believe that infinite growth is possible on a finite planet.
00:00:32The system is growth dependent, so there's going to be a collapse in one form or another.
00:00:40If you just look at what's happening in terms of deforestation, resource overconsumption,
00:00:47waste streams and climate change, I mean these are all phenomena that are brought about by
00:00:53our overconsumption, overexploitation of resources.
00:01:05We have to leave 80 percent at least of the fossil fuel that we know about and that we
00:01:12know we could make money digging up, we have to leave it in the ground for the entire century
00:01:16at least.
00:01:18The ecological crisis comes from treating the earth as an other, as just a bunch of
00:01:25stuff.
00:01:27We've been so powerful and we've impacted on so much of the wild world around us that if
00:01:33we don't do something fairly soon, the wild world is going to consume us.
00:01:43You know, these are the massive issues, climate change, you know, energy and food, all of
00:01:47these things that are converging on us, and yet, you know, you pick up the paper every
00:01:52day and there'll be nothing about this stuff.
00:01:56If you look at our global economic system, I guess you'd have to first think of it as
00:02:00a system by accident.
00:02:02Nobody sat down and designed this thing, and in a lot of ways, it's sort of the worst of
00:02:08all possible combinations, because what you have is something that is supposed to be based
00:02:13in the real world, but behaves as if it were in a fantasy world.
00:02:19It's really exploitive, extractive, damaging, not only to people, but to the environment,
00:02:28and to the economy too.
00:02:35I think we're heading for some very deep water if we don't make these changes.
00:02:44Being sustainable is not just a nice thing to do.
00:02:48Being unsustainable isn't just a bit unfortunate, it is an existential threat to our species.
00:02:54People don't seem to get that.
00:02:56We actually need to do something about it or we're gone.
00:03:01You've probably had those moments of despair where you think it's just hopeless and the
00:03:06world is always going to be this way, and anything we do is not enough.
00:03:09But there's also, and I would say that this is maybe more of a heart-knowing that understands
00:03:16that a more beautiful world is possible.
00:03:18not just about things like that.
00:03:24But I couldn't walk you through.
00:03:34You live in a little shadow of a gal, and I will sign at this village
00:03:35will get you through the same and your hope.
00:03:37There are many things.
00:03:38Thank you any part of it.
00:04:46The world is built on stories, or even a story, a mythology.
00:04:53Every culture has a mythology that answers the deep questions like, who am I?
00:04:59What is a self?
00:05:01What's real?
00:05:02How does change happen?
00:05:04What's the nature of reality?
00:05:09Every culture answers that in a different way.
00:05:12And the answers that our culture has, and when I say our culture, I mean the dominant culture
00:05:18of this planet, the answers that have worked and guided our culture for several hundred
00:05:23years now, and to some extent thousands of years, aren't working anymore.
00:05:28We're facing a crisis in our basic way of making meaning about the world, and our understanding
00:05:35of the recipe for living life.
00:05:37Like, all of these things are in a state of crisis.
00:05:49The problems that we face in terms of environmental condition, degradation, overconsumption of resources,
00:05:56a lot of social justice problems, really pretty much all stem from a common cause, and that's
00:06:02economics.
00:06:05The biggest problem it has right now for us, the biggest implication it has for humans and
00:06:10pretty much everything else on the planet, is that it's causing a lot of unsustainable
00:06:15growth.
00:06:16It's causing growth to accelerate in a way that cannot be met by the natural resources or sinks
00:06:23on the planet we inhabit.
00:06:28The money system demands endless growth, it compels endless growth, it encourages endless
00:06:34growth.
00:06:35So, in other words, it encourages the conversion of nature into property, into products.
00:06:45Now, the problem with this growth, of course, is that if the economy keeps growing, sooner or
00:06:50later it needs natural resources to support that growth.
00:07:06One of the big flaws in the current money system is interest.
00:07:10We would probably only need to work half of the hours that we do and still be able to maintain
00:07:17the same standard of living if it wasn't for interest.
00:07:22Interest is hidden in so many ways.
00:07:27The price of any goods and services, most businesses have loans on which they're paying interest.
00:07:37And they don't pay the interest, you do, I do.
00:07:43And so that means that we have to work and work and work and exploit Mother Nature as well
00:07:50in the process way more than would be necessary if it wasn't for interest.
00:08:06For a lot of the things to keep running, to keep the finance engine ticking along and keep economies
00:08:12moving, we have to have lots and lots of energy.
00:08:26Energy for extracting natural resources, energy for shipping things around the world, energy
00:08:31for manufacturing, energy to promote them, energy to keep them going, energy to maintain
00:08:37things.
00:08:37So it's a lot of a lot of energy used in the system.
00:08:46Fossil fuel energy is energy from the sun that's been stored in plants or other living
00:08:51things and has been stored under the ground usually for millions and millions of years.
00:08:57When you dig it up, you get a free bonus, basically.
00:09:00You get this amazing wealth of energy which you can do all kinds of creative and amazing
00:09:05things with, but the problem is, is that when it runs out, that's it.
00:09:09It's gone.
00:09:12The other aspect of that, of course, is the process of getting it and digging it up is
00:09:17both destructive and also expensive and requires energy to do.
00:09:39Peak oil is a concept that is quite simple.
00:09:45What it means is that you have a finite amount of something and if you consume it at a steady
00:09:52rate, then there kind of isn't a peak, you just consume it.
00:09:57But if you consume it with an increasing rate, then you'll hit a point where you can't increase
00:10:02any more, and that would be a peak, and then the consumption would necessarily drop off
00:10:06in some way.
00:10:11The energy return on investment from fossil fuels, when we first discovered it, was so
00:10:15big.
00:10:16And that's why we have the abundance that we have now, is just that free energy.
00:10:21And we've been having this crazy party, you know, for a hundred years now on fossil fuels.
00:10:26It's just a crazy binge that we've been on and we're at the end of the binge now.
00:10:30Because the energy return on investment is dwindling all the time.
00:10:37It's how our food system works.
00:10:40We talk about this green revolution that fed all these people, but it's not a green revolution,
00:10:45it's an oil revolution.
00:10:49The entire system is hugely dependent on fossil fuel inputs.
00:10:55You pull those out, and I guarantee you, within days, the whole thing is going to fall down.
00:11:05If you take into account fossil fuels and the transport, the tilling, the, you know, everything,
00:11:10the packaging, the movement, the whole, you know, food system that we have in the developed
00:11:16world, the so-called developed world, then, you know, there's at least 10 units of energy
00:11:21for every one we get out of it.
00:11:24Basing a food production system that's meant to feed the world on something which is temporary
00:11:31brings obvious problems.
00:11:35As a result of that is the huge loss of biodiversity.
00:11:40And while not a lot of people care about bugs and all this other stuff, biodiversity is critical.
00:11:49So when you strip that away by having what we call monocultures, then you get, you know,
00:11:55you get massive problems.
00:11:56With monocultures, we are talking about growing one crop or farming one animal or, and, you
00:12:02know, you don't see that in nature.
00:12:04Nature doesn't work that way.
00:12:05It's evolved diversity for resilience.
00:12:11When you take that away, these systems become really brittle, and they're very prone to breaking.
00:12:18Now, we kind of stave off the worst of those effects, but we try to with fossil fuel inputs.
00:12:25We put in fertilisers, we put in herbicides, fungicides, pesticides.
00:12:29We go to great lengths to try and protect these very fragile food production systems.
00:12:42I think what a lot of people don't realise is that our food system is incredibly vulnerable.
00:12:50We do a pretty good job most of the time of getting food where it needs to go, managing
00:12:57supplies, managing surplus, transportation, all that sort of stuff.
00:13:00But it is quite vulnerable to major upsets, all kinds of crises, particularly economic crises.
00:13:11If the shops, the supermarkets stopped selling food for three days for some reason, how would
00:13:20you survive?
00:13:21What would that be like?
00:13:22How would that feel?
00:13:24What would you do?
00:13:26You know, it's happened to me in a major city just one day, and it really made me think.
00:13:34You begin to realise that there is a series of things which all need to be in place and
00:13:38all need to be functioning properly all the time for things to run smoothly.
00:13:44In a world of increasing climate volatility and the economic pressures that that can bring,
00:13:54it's really easy to see how a bad situation could develop.
00:13:59So this is the kind of scary reality, and it's coming fast.
00:14:04So unless we really, really quickly change our food system and how we do it, you know, then
00:14:10there's going to be huge impacts on humans, let alone the other animals on the planet.
00:14:20To a certain extent, people who really do understand the problem of climate change and resources and
00:14:27equity, it's really easy to get focused on the miracle technology solution to that, because
00:14:33that's what we do.
00:14:35That's what society is asking us to do.
00:14:39I think if technology could have solved all of our problems, then it would have already
00:14:44solved all of our problems.
00:14:46Theoretically, we have all the technology we need to live beautifully on Earth and beautifully
00:14:51with each other.
00:14:52But we have not lived beautifully on Earth and beautifully with each other.
00:15:22A hundred years from now, every solar panel we build will be rubbish.
00:15:27It'll be toxic waste, in fact, somewhere.
00:15:30I hope somebody figures out what to do with it.
00:15:33Every windmill we build now won't be running anymore.
00:15:37It'll be, hopefully, a lot of it will be recycled.
00:15:39I don't know.
00:15:40But the carbon we put in the air will still be there.
00:15:46You're never going to have air travel with renewables.
00:15:49You're never going to have steel with renewables.
00:15:51You're never going to have electronics with renewables, because you need diesel.
00:15:57So, making sure that you leave some diesel for later is kind of important.
00:16:06I'm not disillusioned with solar or wind or anything.
00:16:12I know that the substitution of those things for fossil fuels isn't possible.
00:16:18So, as long as we keep telling ourselves the story that it is, we aren't actually doing
00:16:23the thing we have to do, which is to just leave the stuff in the ground, which means what?
00:16:26There's only one thing you can do then, which is to use less of it.
00:16:34If there's an industrial civilization out there, a couple centuries from now,
00:16:38then they're using fossil fuel, tiny amounts of it, and they're using renewable energy.
00:16:47And that renewable energy they are using is hydro and geothermal.
00:16:54And wood that they are harvesting and husbanding very, very carefully.
00:17:00And what we notice most about them is how little they're using of most everything.
00:17:09That's what has to happen.
00:17:10It doesn't matter how many solar panels you ever put on anything.
00:17:14The only thing that matters is leaving the coal in the ground, leaving the oil in the ground,
00:17:18leaving the gas in the ground, all of it, and planting back every bit of forest that you
00:17:23possibly can.
00:17:24That's the only thing that matters.
00:17:39The history of civilization has been kind of like a history of an increasing power to
00:17:48dominate and control the other, the cultural other and also the natural other.
00:18:02And that's how little the colors that they see below.
00:18:02But nevertheless, it's a total of a building, but when you look at all levels of the
00:18:03lot about in the ocean of the ocean of the ocean of the ocean of the ocean of
00:18:24the ocean of the ocean of humanity.
00:18:32And this was supposed to bring us into utopia.
00:18:36We were supposed to live in paradise by now.
00:18:38A paradise of electrified comfort, robot servants, space colonies, artificial food, infinite lifespans, etc., etc.
00:18:46The breakdown that's happening today in part is happening because this glorious promise of technology and also social engineering was
00:18:57never fulfilled.
00:18:58And in fact, things are getting worse and worse.
00:19:00And in fact, our technologies of control now look to be seeding our destruction.
00:19:09The breakdown of the ecological basis of civilization.
00:19:24We don't know anymore what the answer is.
00:19:28We don't know who we are.
00:19:29We don't even know what's real.
00:19:31Because on every level, the story that answered those questions is breaking down.
00:19:38Politically, economically, and especially technologically and in our relationship to nature.
00:19:44So that leaves us not knowing.
00:19:46And it leaves us open to another story.
00:20:00We don't know.
00:20:00We don't know.
00:20:01We don't know.
00:20:01We don't know.
00:20:01We don't know.
00:20:02We don't know.
00:20:03We don't know.
00:20:03We don't know.
00:20:04We don't know.
00:20:04We don't know.
00:20:04We don't know.
00:20:05We don't know.
00:20:06We don't know.
00:20:07We don't know.
00:20:07We don't know.
00:20:08We don't know.
00:20:08We don't know.
00:20:09We don't know.
00:20:10We don't know.
00:20:10We don't know.
00:20:11We don't know.
00:20:11We don't know.
00:20:31If we want to solve health crisis, food quality issues, economic issues, we really
00:20:41have to change the system and the infrastructure of the system and we have to create our own
00:20:47infrastructure.
00:20:59I've been studying sustainable farming systems for over 25 years.
00:21:03There are no real issues.
00:21:06We can solve all of them.
00:21:08There are really easy answers to grow food quality and do that with good environmental
00:21:15care.
00:21:15That's the easy bit.
00:21:21We are in a position to do it properly because of the CSA.
00:21:26Our members allow us to create that diversity.
00:21:30That other old system doesn't allow you to create that diversity.
00:21:37CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.
00:21:43It means that a farmer starts growing food and growing food, there's a lot of unknowns in
00:21:52there and you have to start at the beginning of the season and you don't know for whatever
00:21:56reason if you're going to harvest all the things that you've planned to harvest that you've
00:22:01started sowing months back.
00:22:07So the idea is that a group of people support the farmer so the farmer knows he's got an outlet.
00:22:15And the members that we have, they know that every week they're going to get a box of healthy fresh
00:22:21foods that have been harvested just before they got them.
00:22:28For us it means we have stability in the fact that the plants we sow, they are sold.
00:22:35We don't have the issue of food waste because if a broccoli is small and it normally wouldn't be able
00:22:43to go to the supermarket, we can give people two.
00:22:52As a farmer, you want to create healthy soils and healthy plants and healthy animals and further up the food
00:22:59chain, you make sure that you create a soil that invites the right sets of microbes.
00:23:12That for us means we have soil which is the mineral component.
00:23:17In the soil we've got the microorganisms which are governing the system.
00:23:22We just create a habitat for them.
00:23:25Then you've got the plants growing out of there, be it annuals, perennials and trees.
00:23:35Then amongst that you've got the insects living in there and then we've incorporated pigs, sheep, cows, ducks, geese and
00:23:46I'm sure we're forgetting a few bits and bobs.
00:23:50And every single item adds value.
00:24:00So on the closed loop systems, they will have tree crops and all that nuts, fruit, all that kind of
00:24:06thing happening on the fringes or in shelter belts.
00:24:12A whole really diverse approach to farming that is way more sustainable but also it closes that nitrogen or that
00:24:22fertiliser loop so you don't have to bring it in from the outside, you just don't waste it.
00:24:37While eating less meat is a really important thing to do, it's important to recognise that you can't have a
00:24:45healthy ecosystem without animals.
00:24:47A truly environmentally friendly and ecologically healthy food production system must have animals.
00:24:54Because as soon as you take animals out of that system, all the jobs that those animals did in that
00:25:00functioning ecosystem now needs to be done some other way.
00:25:04Whether that's by people or chemicals.
00:25:08The health of these food production systems is supported by the natural and healthy interaction between plants and animals.
00:25:18And that can take the form of pest control, fertility cycles.
00:25:22There's lots of interactions between animals and plants which we can and should use to support a healthy and resilient
00:25:34food production system.
00:25:37So really what that boils down to is we need to eat less meat.
00:25:41We don't cut it out, but the best thing that anyone can do is try and find producers that are
00:25:48operating systems which are looking after the health of their environment, including the animals, and supporting them.
00:26:18What comes out the back end of a worm is really good stuff.
00:26:23And then it's just really cool just seeing this hyphae of fungus and that just growing on the surface of
00:26:32the soil.
00:26:40So holistic grazing is a management technique that's been devised by a Zimbabwean man, Alan Savory.
00:26:46And he was observing the large herds of buffalo in Africa and it could be bison in America and just
00:26:53massive herds of ruminant animals.
00:26:56And these animals were constantly on the move because there's generally some lions or something just on their back and
00:27:02wanting to pick off any of the weak ones.
00:27:07We have large mobs of cattle that are shifted every day, but instead of lions, you know, keeping them bunched
00:27:13together, we have electric fences.
00:27:17And each day they're going onto fresh grass and it's long grass and so they're not eating at all.
00:27:22Some of it's getting trampled and with the dung and urine and that, it's just all forming that kind of
00:27:28compost heap on the ground.
00:27:33Other farmers might be looking at us and saying, well, you're just wasting all that grass because it gets dry
00:27:37and stalky and what have you.
00:27:39But, you know, my reply is that waste is a human concept. Nature doesn't do waste.
00:27:45And so we are using that pasture as part of our first fertiliser programme because that's what's getting put down
00:27:52on the soil and broken down and going back into building soil.
00:28:02When the grass is grazed into the holistic lawn grazing system, it gets cut off short by the animal and
00:28:10it also sheds its roots at that time.
00:28:13And that's what is releasing carbon into the soil.
00:28:17And I guess one of the most exciting things and drivers of what we're doing is the potential that that
00:28:22has for helping with climate change issues.
00:28:31Some of those CAFOs that they call in America or the feedlot cattle fattening operations are a climate disaster.
00:28:38But again, you know, under this system, they are sequestering more carbon and are part of a natural cycle that
00:28:45is actually beneficial.
00:28:51Conventionally, farmers, it's all about keeping the grass short in a vegetative state, so it's growing vigorously.
00:28:58And that system works while you're putting on, you know, lots of imported fertilisers, particularly phosphate fertilisers, largely from North
00:29:05Africa.
00:29:06And a whole system that requires digging up that fertiliser and trucking it and then shipping it and then trucking
00:29:12it and then processing it and then flying it onto hills.
00:29:14It's a system that's not going to work in a future with less fossil fuels.
00:29:26What we're doing on the farm here is trying to reduce the amount of fossil fuels that it takes to
00:29:31produce food.
00:29:33We've got the cattle going around.
00:29:35We have, you know, hens following along behind the cattle.
00:29:39There's pigs on this farm too.
00:29:41And we're milking a few dairy cows.
00:29:43And all that is really about using a perennial crop like grass pasture with, you know, forage from trees and
00:29:52that around as well.
00:29:52So we can, you know, produce eggs from the chooks and pork, you know, without relying on so much of
00:30:00the annual grains and all the energy that's involved in producing them.
00:30:04So just trying to get, you know, the fossil fuels out of our food system as much as we can
00:30:10and producing healthy natural food.
00:30:18The powerful thing is that with regenerative agriculture, we can not only produce food and we can not only produce
00:30:24an abundance of food, but we can do it in a way that regenerates the land, that replenishes the aquifers,
00:30:31that sequesters carbon, that nurtures and supports biodiversity.
00:30:37Regenerative agriculture, permaculture, holistic management, there's nothing magical about the way that these things work.
00:30:45It's all based upon sound science and about having a point of view that is looking at your ecosystem in
00:30:53its entirety, not just individual aspects of it.
00:30:56So really what this breaks down to is that anyone who's looking after land, whether you're a farmer or a
00:31:03gardener or whatever, you're an ecosystem manager.
00:31:29My philosophy about what to do in the world isn't go to a pristine area and live there and enjoy
00:31:36your life.
00:31:36It's to find a place that's degraded and fix it up.
00:31:4723 years ago we started developing the food forest system here.
00:31:52We've got 480 different species of plants at last count.
00:31:56That doesn't include the 80 different types of apples and the, you know, 60 different types of gooseberries.
00:32:01And so it's lovely to have that diversity.
00:32:03And it means that every time of the year there's things flowering, things giving fruit, you know, root crops you
00:32:09can eat.
00:32:10And so having diversity is special and that's what makes a forest garden resilient.
00:32:19This property had been abandoned for probably 40 years.
00:32:23No one lived here and the old house had burnt down on the spot.
00:32:29And the top area, this area where the house is now, was completely covered in junk and the remains of
00:32:36the old house.
00:32:38Most people would have not even crossed the threshold of the property to have a look at that, I don't
00:32:43think, because it didn't look very appealing.
00:32:45But to us it did, because I thought, well, for one thing, nobody wants it, so it's probably going to
00:32:50be cheap. And it was cheap to buy.
00:32:54And secondly, I thought, I can fix this.
00:32:59A food forest is a permanent planting.
00:33:03So you want to set up just like a forest system.
00:33:06So a forest system can be there always.
00:33:08The big trees and the middle sized trees and the bottom layer and the ground layer, they work together.
00:33:13Some plants pick up some minerals and give others back and the other one does something else.
00:33:21Growing out in the forest garden there, aside from the native trees, which I've used as a framework or a
00:33:27platform for building everything else,
00:33:29and those provide me with shelter from the wind and also nest sites for the birds.
00:33:34And the birds are a really important player in the management of the garden, in the tikoka, the cabbage trees
00:33:40that I've got growing there.
00:33:43Starlings nest in almost all of them.
00:33:45And those starlings, as they're feeding their yunkers, their babies, are flying out and finding any soft bodied caterpillar or
00:33:52grub they can.
00:33:53So there's our pest management for that kind of thing.
00:33:58And then as an understory, or the second layer down to that, we have our fruit tree layer,
00:34:03which is our heritage apples and pears and plums and nectarines and peaches, apricots.
00:34:10And then below that, a layer of berry fruits and currants, red currants, black currants, white currants, gooseberries,
00:34:18worcester berries, all of those sorts of shrubby plants that like to grow in the semi-shade.
00:34:27And then wrapping around all of that are the biennial and perennial herbs, some of which are edible, some of
00:34:35which are medicinal.
00:34:35And then below that, there are bulbs and root crops that grow, such as parsnips and wild carrots, those kinds
00:34:46of things.
00:34:46And then winding their way up through these things are vines, like grape vines and kiwifruit
00:34:52and minturine gooseberries and hops and all sorts of things which kind of bind everything together and tie the forest
00:35:00together.
00:35:07It's so peaceful when you walk about and it's just all the different flowers and the energy and action and
00:35:12all the insects.
00:35:13And the birds have their own life. And so the birds are doing all their thing up in the trees
00:35:16and coming down to feeding
00:35:17and insects are flying around and having babies and flying off emissions.
00:35:22It's like being in another universe, really. It's just amazing.
00:35:26And to me, it's how life should be with that livingness and the interconnectedness of all the plants and the
00:35:31bees
00:35:31and the herbs.
00:35:36In a forest garden like ours, the major player is wildness, is the natural world and all of those things
00:35:44that happen in there.
00:35:44And my job is just to kind of mould that to suit our purposes, to a certain extent.
00:35:54We are not separate from the wild world. We are as wild as it is.
00:36:00But we've worked towards a form that is not fitting in with the wild world at all well.
00:36:07And it's going to realign us fairly soon, in my view, unless we can recognise that we need to be
00:36:16fully integrated into that world.
00:36:29People in indigenous societies, in tribal societies or in agrarian villages,
00:36:35they were enmeshed in a matrix of relationship that gave them a strong identity.
00:36:43Everybody who they saw on a daily basis knew them really well.
00:36:50And we also were in intimate connection with the land.
00:36:54We knew every plant, we knew every animal, every bird.
00:36:57We knew its song and when it sang and what bugs it ate and where those bugs lived
00:37:01and what the soil smells like where the bugs live and what plants grow there and what medicine the plants
00:37:06are used for.
00:37:06We were in this web of interbeing.
00:37:11We felt as if we were at home in the universe.
00:37:16That is missing in our current society.
00:37:19We're surrounded by a sea of strangers, people that we know only very superficially, if at all.
00:37:37For Māori people, the ancestors and the land are all part of one.
00:37:42We come from the land.
00:37:44And most people, humans on the planet, relate to land one way or another,
00:37:49because they belong to it.
00:37:51And they forge their own identity out of it as well.
00:37:54And that will always continue to happen.
00:37:58It's like a biological bond between a mother and a child.
00:38:02You can't break it.
00:38:04That bond is enforced when the genealogy of the ancestors, of their families, grandparents,
00:38:10is emotionally installed in that person, that they feel that they belong here.
00:38:24Interbeing is a very natural term.
00:38:27It means more than interconnection or interdependency,
00:38:30which kind of suggests separate selves having relationships.
00:38:35Interbeing is more of an understanding that we are relationship,
00:38:38that my very existence depends or draws from or includes your existence.
00:38:47My well-being is intimately connected to your well-being or to the well-being of the river,
00:38:53the ocean, the forest, people across the world, and so forth,
00:38:59because I'm not really separate from you.
00:39:03And that means that in the story of interbeing,
00:39:06I know that whatever I do to the world will come back to me somehow.
00:39:12So if our true being is the totality of our relationships and includes everything in the cosmos,
00:39:20if we are truly maybe a holographic mirror of all that is,
00:39:26then when we cut ourselves off from any aspect of nature, other people,
00:39:32we create a wound, we create a cut-off.
00:39:35And this is painful.
00:39:38And we yearn to recover our wholeness.
00:39:43However, due to ideology, due to the economic system that we're immersed in,
00:39:50due to cultural factors, due to many, many, many reasons,
00:39:55the reunion that we long for is unavailable to us.
00:40:00That is good for business because it drives consumerism,
00:40:05it drives acquisitiveness, it drives greed,
00:40:07it drives all kinds of neurotic behaviors that seek to compensate for the missing relationships.
00:40:27I felt myself being drawn into this materialistic world
00:40:31because all the people that were around me had material possessions
00:40:35and there was this wanting and creating of attachment and wanting and wanting more stuff.
00:40:40So I sort of got swept into that in a way.
00:40:50So yeah, I studied business and I was involved in finance,
00:40:54and more specifically the stock market.
00:40:55So we used to help people manage their money.
00:40:59And one of the organizations I worked with,
00:41:02we used to manage, you know, hundreds of millions of dollars for people.
00:41:06I wasn't from that background,
00:41:08from a sort of a conservative sort of upbringing,
00:41:10then all of a sudden I'm involved with, you know,
00:41:14guys that are driving luxury cars
00:41:16and living in an expensive house in Sydney suburbs.
00:41:19It's sort of a bit overwhelming.
00:41:23A lot of the guys that I'd worked with, you know,
00:41:25they were multi-millionaires.
00:41:28But, you know, 20 million wasn't enough.
00:41:30So they have to have the, you know, three cars,
00:41:34they have to have, you know, a holiday home,
00:41:35they have to have a boat.
00:41:38And what happens is you can get trapped in that lifestyle, hey?
00:41:48So the idea is to, you know,
00:41:52have native plants mixed among fruit trees.
00:41:55So we've got, you know, natives here.
00:41:56We've got, we've got a tamarillo here.
00:41:59We've got manuka and carnuka in,
00:42:01and pitosporums, natives.
00:42:02We've got a cabbage tree here.
00:42:05This is a pine nut.
00:42:07So those are really expensive nuts you get in the supermarket.
00:42:11This is one of those that takes about 10 years
00:42:13to get any fruit on it or any nuts.
00:42:16So that's a long-term project.
00:42:17And then we've got, over here, we've got a fig tree,
00:42:21which is fruiting quite nicely.
00:42:24And then for the monarch butterflies,
00:42:26we've got a couple of swan plants,
00:42:28which they really enjoy.
00:42:31And we might be lucky to see one.
00:42:34Here he comes now.
00:42:36It was only after Beth and my wife and I moved,
00:42:40made the move to New Zealand,
00:42:41we'd just had enough of the whole corporate life.
00:42:44And we wanted a slower, simpler lifestyle.
00:42:48It was then the realisation sort of hit home.
00:42:51I started to research more,
00:42:53read, you know, hundreds of articles
00:42:55and watched hundreds of documentaries
00:42:57and all sorts of stuff.
00:42:58Then I started to really understand,
00:43:00wow, we've got some serious issues here
00:43:03and no-one's really talking about this stuff
00:43:06and it's quite scary.
00:43:11I guess with realisation of some of the broader issues,
00:43:17such as, you know, climate change,
00:43:19peak oil or resource depletion
00:43:21and the extinction crisis we're currently going through,
00:43:25and it's sort of like these massive issues
00:43:28are being given lip service by governments
00:43:32and organisations and...
00:43:34It's like, oh, it'll just won't happen
00:43:36or it'll just...
00:43:37The system will solve this problem.
00:43:39And that's what it sort of feels like.
00:43:43So I guess that brings up a lot of emotions
00:43:45like, you know, frustration and anger and guilt
00:43:49and it's like,
00:43:49why isn't someone doing something about this?
00:43:52Oh, here we go, here's strawberry, here's strawberry.
00:43:54So here's a nice one, I can...
00:43:55Look at the colour of that thing.
00:43:58Then I started to research permaculture
00:44:00and realised that it was an integrated approach
00:44:04to how we're living.
00:44:05So at the moment, our current society,
00:44:08it's a fragmented approach to living.
00:44:11So everything's compartmentalised or separated,
00:44:14whereas permaculture is a holistic approach
00:44:16to how we're living.
00:44:19It integrates food, environment,
00:44:22with your lifestyle and taking care of, you know,
00:44:25people, the planet and the natural resources.
00:44:33So a lot of people come over to our property
00:44:35and have a look around.
00:44:37They go, what about all your fruit trees?
00:44:39Do you get pests and stuff like birds that eat them?
00:44:41And I say, yeah, sure, but we don't mind that.
00:44:43You know, they were here first and, you know,
00:44:45we're a part of nature.
00:44:46And, you know, we've had comments from other people
00:44:50that live around near us on the farms
00:44:52and they say they can't believe how much wildlife
00:44:54and bird life is here.
00:44:56And their property's just, you know,
00:44:58a few hundred metres away
00:45:01have almost no wildlife or bird life.
00:45:18So, you know, we're attracting bird life and wildlife
00:45:22through just letting nature be
00:45:25as opposed to wanting to control it.
00:45:30Permaculture links into other aspects like collaboration,
00:45:34localisation, food resiliency and networking.
00:45:38So it's not just about growing food,
00:45:41it's about connecting a whole system
00:45:43and integrating a whole system into one's life.
00:45:48This lifestyle, working on the land and doing permaculture,
00:45:52it feels more rewarding and like I'm putting something back.
00:45:56We also live a less consumerist lifestyle,
00:45:59so we don't need as much stuff.
00:46:02So I haven't got this constant craving for more and more things
00:46:05to make me feel satisfied or happy.
00:46:09So there you have it.
00:46:11We have homegrown salad, fruit salad, green salad and some eggs.
00:46:17And I can't believe still that I don't have to go to a supermarket.
00:46:23We've grown all this ourselves in just three years.
00:46:26I'm still amazed.
00:46:28So anyone can do it.
00:46:37When I was living in big cities,
00:46:41it was like I had to get away to connect with nature.
00:46:43But when I wake up every morning, I come outside
00:46:46and I'm immediately in nature here,
00:46:49I don't have that void anymore.
00:46:51I've just got this instant connection and satisfaction.
00:46:55It's hard to explain.
00:47:02Maybe you've had this experience feeling like I'm not living my life.
00:47:08I'm living the life I'm paid to live.
00:47:09But what about my life?
00:47:11So this is a different dimension of human nature
00:47:16that we need to invoke.
00:47:19We need to implement.
00:47:22We need to create conditions for that part of human nature to blossom.
00:47:39We have been living in Katikati.
00:47:43And I was working a regular job as a GP in the practice there.
00:47:51And then I just found these kind of warning signs
00:47:53that I was trying to get out of balance.
00:47:55You know, I'd be lovely with my patients,
00:47:57but I'd come home and be kind of shitty.
00:48:00I was feeling quite depressed.
00:48:03Just kind of the internal cogs weren't running together very well.
00:48:10And we started talking about it and thought,
00:48:13maybe we really need to kind of radically rethink how we want to live.
00:48:21So the house is 20 square metres.
00:48:23It started with sheep shearers quarters just to the side of us here.
00:48:29And that was maybe 20 years ago that that was built.
00:48:32So our bedroom is the original cabin.
00:48:35And then this L-shaped space is our kitchen, lounge, library, office, day bed.
00:48:46Everything.
00:48:47Everything, yeah.
00:48:4920 square metres.
00:48:51We've got a shower just adjoining and a bit of a deck out the back.
00:48:56A few months ago, a friend of mine helped me put a 300-watt panel up on the roof.
00:49:00And so that powers the broadband and telephone and a bit more light.
00:49:07What else?
00:49:08Now we can...
00:49:09Use the sewing machine.
00:49:11Yeah, we can.
00:49:12The sewing machine is good.
00:49:16A lot of people, when they hear about it, they think,
00:49:19oh, my gosh, how is that with a baby?
00:49:21And even before that, how is that just the two of you?
00:49:23I think, actually, it's great with a baby living in a small space
00:49:27in that wherever she is, she's never that far away.
00:49:33So it's quite easy to be doing whatever I need to be doing
00:49:37and keeping an eye on her.
00:49:39And when she's sleeping, she'll be close by.
00:49:46We have a, I don't know the term for it, like a work-trade arrangement with the owners.
00:49:53And we've been living here just over a year.
00:49:55So about three or four days a week, I'm on the farm.
00:49:59And then part-time, I work as a GP.
00:50:02So our costs are fractional to what they were living in town.
00:50:10I don't have any stress about money, which is a huge benefit.
00:50:15Emotionally, I'm healthier.
00:50:28It was a choice wanting to be more immersed in my environment
00:50:33and more directly connected with my needs, where my food was coming from.
00:50:38And I love going out and seeing the garden each day
00:50:41and seeing how things have changed.
00:50:43Yeah, it's like having a relationship with a living thing.
00:50:45Well, lots of living things.
00:50:51Regularly attending in the garden,
00:50:53I had this feeling of almost being in love with the garden,
00:50:57which blew me away.
00:51:01The future of humanity is to return to that relationship to nature
00:51:07and to all beings and all human beings too.
00:51:09To fall in love with the world,
00:51:13its well-being is my well-being.
00:51:18If we really were in love with the planet
00:51:21and incorporated that love into all of our systems,
00:51:24into our money system,
00:51:27we would not have an ecological crisis.
00:51:32If an economy is operating outside of ecological limits,
00:51:37then the inevitable conclusion is that it's going to completely erode
00:51:42the resource space until it implodes or collapses.
00:51:49So really, the choice that we have is to design and develop an economy
00:51:55that operates within ecological limits.
00:51:57That's our only safe bet.
00:51:58It's our only bet at all.
00:52:02So if we think about the whole problem of deflation
00:52:06and what could happen post-collapse
00:52:09in a country that experiences a sudden reversal
00:52:13and this loss of liquidity where the money supply really, really gets chopped down,
00:52:17people still have needs.
00:52:20People still have goods and services.
00:52:21They're going to find a way to exchange those.
00:52:24What you want is the easiest possible way to make this happen.
00:52:29And this is where alternative currencies would plug the gap.
00:52:32If a central government were quick thinking, quick off the mark,
00:52:37and actually had a plan for dealing with this stuff,
00:52:40they could introduce a new currency, maybe a parallel currency,
00:52:44maybe a replacement currency, to counteract the disappearance of all the bank money.
00:52:49That probably won't happen, though.
00:52:51So it's going to be up to local and regional currencies to fill that void.
00:53:05I woke up one morning and jumped out of bed without even being conscious yet,
00:53:10saying, I'm going to start a local currency.
00:53:13And I just felt so much joy.
00:53:16There was just like this energy moving through me.
00:53:19LOVES stands for Local Origin Asherist Voluntary Exchange System.
00:53:23It's one of those acronyms that you fit the words to the acronym instead of the other way around.
00:53:29It is meant to be a voucher system that circulates in Asherist and the Pahangana Valley
00:53:35as a voluntary alternative to using money for exchange.
00:53:42LOVES is primarily trading at the Asherist community market, and we have about a dozen or so businesses that are
00:53:48accepting it there.
00:53:49We've got the cheesery, we've got the fudgery, we have several plant businesses.
00:53:54We have a business consultant who accepts it outside of the market, and there's half a dozen others that are
00:54:01accepting it as well.
00:54:03One of the primary benefits of the currency in my mind is the awareness raising that goes along with it.
00:54:10We're after not the currency itself, but the relationships that come out of the currency.
00:54:15So one of the major things is this awareness campaign around the benefits of buying local.
00:54:20The benefits of having a commitment between customers and businesses, of knowing what's available in your own community,
00:54:28of going to town instead of the city when you need something, of supporting your neighbours and looking to your
00:54:34neighbours and their businesses as a primary way of meeting your needs.
00:54:40The wealth generated by using our local currency, 100% of it stays here.
00:54:47There's no interest, and it just keeps circulating and recirculating in the local community.
00:54:53And rather than being considered in competition with the national money, it's actually complementary to it.
00:55:06So you strengthen these local connections.
00:55:09Of course, that's a very resilient thing to do because it just means that if things are rough, you've got
00:55:15friends, neighbours and people in your region that are able to help one another out.
00:55:24Time banking is a very interesting development in that it uses a very egalitarian basis.
00:55:32It says everybody's time is equal.
00:55:35That it doesn't matter how skilled you are or what your qualifications are or what you do for your day
00:55:40job, that your hour is worth the same as my hour.
00:56:04I'm Maria Lee from Te Mahi Kai at Diamond Harbour School, which is a gardening to cooking programme.
00:56:11So we teach the children how to grow everything themselves and they put the seeds in, then look after the
00:56:19garden.
00:56:20And then when it's my turn, we harvest what they've grown and turn it into lunch.
00:56:32So today we're making kale chips and broad bean dip and each week it's different.
00:56:39The idea is just to teach them some basics of cooking.
00:56:42And in order for that to work, we use Time Bank volunteers and we couldn't do it without them.
00:56:48Our volunteers are paid one credit per hour that they come and volunteer for us.
00:56:54So we take those from the school Time Bank credit system and give it to them.
00:57:00And then they use that to trade for whatever they need.
00:57:07It's always easier to build your barn while the sun is shining than try to put it up in a
00:57:13howling gale.
00:57:14So if you put these things together now, if you get a system up and running and especially with something
00:57:20like a local currency where there may be some marketing involved, you know, trying to get buy in from people
00:57:26and all that.
00:57:27You don't create one of these things out of whole cloth and get it widely accepted overnight.
00:57:36Look, there's no getting away from it. A huge part of this is that we just consume too much stuff.
00:57:44Our entire economy is built on getting us to buy and consume, dispose and re-consume things.
00:57:53I don't think it's realistic that we can expect to live in a world where we don't make things or
00:57:57use things or use resources.
00:57:59Of course we do, but we need to use them in a way that is smart.
00:58:01You know, it's about intelligent use. It's about being efficient and not wasteful.
00:58:08The notion of waste is something that wasn't around two or three hundred years ago.
00:58:13You know, we just didn't have waste. Things had utility, things had value all the way through.
00:58:19And if they reached the end of productivity, they were, you know, reformed into something else.
00:58:33Welcome to Bayswater Repair Cafe.
00:58:36A Repair Cafe is a free pop-up event where local community experts in a variety of different areas
00:58:45offer their skills and services to other people in their local community for free.
00:58:51You know, every year we send a crazy amount of stuff to holes in the ground.
00:58:57And this is about maybe doing something to address some of that flow.
00:59:02But also in the process of doing that, bringing people together in a beautiful way that connects people,
00:59:09creates some networks and maybe even some friendships.
00:59:13So we've got five different repair areas at the cafe today.
00:59:20We've got an electrical appliances repair space and that is overwhelmingly the most popular area.
00:59:26So people bring in toasters and lamps and all kinds of random bits and pieces.
00:59:33We've got a clothing repair space and we've got a team of seamstresses and a seamster, if that's the right
00:59:41word, who are mending clothes.
00:59:47We've got a guy who is repairing wood and pieces of furniture.
00:59:53And we've got general repairs and we've also got two bike mechanics.
01:00:00I was speaking to the daughter of one of the volunteers who helped out with repairs and he was an
01:00:08older guy.
01:00:09And he said to her that he felt a real sense of belonging and a real sense of feeling useful
01:00:18and having purpose.
01:00:21And I thought that was an amazing outcome from the day to make someone feel good about having shared their
01:00:30skills with local people.
01:00:34This is a beautiful example of a community initiative that brings people together and enhances connection, enhances a sense of
01:00:43community and neighborhood.
01:00:44And, you know, we fix a lot of stuff, but more important than that, I think, is the building of
01:00:53connection and community.
01:00:59It's really important to remember that when you dispose of something, you can't throw it away.
01:01:04When you throw something, it goes somewhere.
01:01:08You might not know where that is. It may be out of your sight, maybe out of your mind, but
01:01:12there is no such place as a way.
01:01:18In 2007, we were really starting to think about our impact that we were having, just our regular day-to
01:01:24-day actions.
01:01:25And one of the things we focused on was how much rubbish we were producing.
01:01:28I mean, we could have focused on anything, but rubbish was so visual.
01:01:32And just every week, rubbish bags filling up.
01:01:35And so we somehow decided to challenge ourselves.
01:01:40We can't even remember whose idea it was now, but we did this crazy thing where we thought,
01:01:44right, we're going to try and make no rubbish for the entire year.
01:01:48We were genuinely not green people.
01:01:52We were putting out a bag of rubbish every week without fail.
01:01:56And we had literally never thought about it before.
01:01:59We sort of, it came to us one day and went, oh my gosh, this is terrible.
01:02:04In terms of, the challenge was to try and live for one year with less than a city council rubbish
01:02:09bag.
01:02:09And most of it was made up of, yeah, items that were out of our control.
01:02:13So the radiator hose on the car burst, and so we had a radiator hose.
01:02:18And we tried to carry on doing things that you'd normally do, so we were renovating our home back then.
01:02:23And we had all the lead paint from scraping the weatherboards.
01:02:27So in practical terms, that's what we had left over at the end of that, yeah.
01:02:35I think when we look at the average rubbish bin, you know, or what people are putting out,
01:02:41at least 50% of it's generally organics.
01:02:43And so you take the biggest things out first, right, so deal with organics is the no-brainer.
01:02:50If you do that, you're 50% ahead of the average citizen.
01:02:55And then there's another sort of 30% of recyclable material generally these days in a rubbish bin.
01:03:02So that's the next thing.
01:03:03So you deal with the organics, then you recycle everything you can, and you're getting up there by that stage.
01:03:09You've made massive gains.
01:03:12People can feel overwhelmed and feel that what they're doing doesn't make a difference.
01:03:17But most of the waste we create, or we're kind of complicit in, is waste we've never seen.
01:03:25So we'll buy something, and there'll be a bit of packaging around it that we see.
01:03:28But in making that item, that's when the bulk of the waste is created.
01:03:33So if you're putting out a rubbish bag, it actually represents 70 rubbish bags of waste that you've never seen
01:03:40that's gone into making that bag of waste.
01:03:45Consumers have it tough, right?
01:03:47A lot of money goes into marketing and sending them messages that you can buy our compostable packaging, and you're
01:03:56saving the environment.
01:03:57And of course, compostable packaging in the landfill's just as bad.
01:04:00It's the sort of thing that actually needs to be composted at very hot temperatures, so it really needs commercial
01:04:07composting to be done properly.
01:04:10One of the biggest problems in my business is that I have to go to vendors and say,
01:04:15I'm sorry, I know you've paid more, and you've been promised that this is eco and compostable by the person
01:04:21that sold it to you.
01:04:23But they didn't actually go and do their product stewardship and find out whether the composting industry can take it
01:04:30in every place.
01:04:33I think we've actually got consumers that want to do the right thing.
01:04:35We've got businesses that are doing amazing stuff, and we've got a government completely missing in action,
01:04:41in terms of providing a framework to encourage those behaviours more and more.
01:04:47So when you do buy a container in the supermarket, you make sure it's a reusable container.
01:04:51And then you wash it out, and you take it into one of these stores, and you get them to
01:04:54weigh it,
01:04:55and then you fill it up with whatever you want, and they take the weight off it, and you've just
01:04:58stopped that plastic packaging.
01:05:02If people are combining composting and learning how to recycle, then they're just putting a bit of extra thought into
01:05:06how they're shopping,
01:05:08particularly considering that packaging.
01:05:13It's that choice when you're at the supermarket or at Bunnings or whatever, thinking about the item.
01:05:21Essentially, if it's plastic or got other composite materials in it, what can you do with that at the end
01:05:27of life?
01:05:28Not much. It's going to be rubbish. It's going to be around for thousands of years.
01:05:33Every time we spend a dollar, it's a boat.
01:05:36We have so much power, so much more power than what we realise.
01:05:40So it's like, keep on that knife edge. Like, yes, see that it's a big...
01:05:43Yes, there's big issues, but also, yes, we can make a difference.
01:05:50Like, there's part of me, you know, when I go to recycle my bottles, you know, or compost my waste,
01:05:58it's like, well, what good does it do?
01:06:00You know, I'm just subtracting one plastic bottle from the enormous trash heap that gets shipped to India
01:06:08and is making new mountains in India and China, you know, of waste.
01:06:12Like, what does it matter? One bottle different.
01:06:17You can say, well, if everybody did it, then it would make a difference.
01:06:21So you have to do your part.
01:06:23But part of you will say, well, I'm not everybody.
01:06:27And if everybody does it, then it doesn't matter if I do it.
01:06:31So we have to have another reason.
01:06:33For me, it comes down to relationship and ritual.
01:06:36I like to save my compost and use composting toilets, for example,
01:06:43not because I've done some calculation that this is going to save the world,
01:06:49but because it's a different kind of relationship with the beings around me.
01:07:03Composting toilets, like composting your own ship, processing your own toilet waste,
01:07:08is a real basic fundamental thing that we should all practice.
01:07:12It's a simple way of demonstrating self-responsibility.
01:07:19So with a flush toilet, basically, you take really nice clean drinking water and our ship and mix the two
01:07:26together.
01:07:27Both, you know, both wonderful resources.
01:07:30When you mix them together, you create a toxic problem.
01:07:34So with a compost toilet system, you're able to capture that amazing resource and take care of it
01:07:42and treat it in a way that removes any pathogens or problems and create a wonderful resource.
01:07:53OK, so welcome to our toilet.
01:07:55For a start, it's a composting toilet bucket batch system.
01:07:58We've got cover material, which we use old sawdust from the mill.
01:08:03It's already got bacteria and a bit of fungus in it.
01:08:06So you go make your deposit, put a bit of cover material on, leave it.
01:08:11And then when we've got a certain amount of buckets, we go to the compost and add straw and garden
01:08:17waste and kitchen waste.
01:08:21And this is one I did maybe a week ago.
01:08:24And we'll put the compost thermometer in here and see what we're looking at.
01:08:29We're still looking at 50 degrees. It's going up.
01:08:32It got up to 65 degrees the other day. I recorded a bit of that.
01:08:36You know, there are pathogens you have to consider.
01:08:37There's roundworm eggs and all these different kinds of worm eggs that can exist in your manure.
01:08:45If you do a hot compost, that's the safest way because you can nuke all those things within hours.
01:08:54And over here is what you get.
01:09:03I'll put it in a bag, but you don't need to.
01:09:08That there is about a year old. It's got lots of worms in it.
01:09:12We put all our garden waste and all our kitchen waste in here.
01:09:18But the worms are a good sign. If you've got worms, it means it's not too acidic and yum, good
01:09:23stuff.
01:09:24And that goes straight on the garden and the plants love it.
01:09:27And we love the plants.
01:09:31When it's finished composting, it doesn't look like or smell like anything like poo.
01:09:36It's just beautiful black compost.
01:09:40We've monitored it closely. We've watched the temperature. We know all the pathogens have been nuked.
01:09:46We feel confident in our process, so we feel safe to use it in our garden.
01:09:53Anyone can do this. It's just really a matter of being engaged and wanting to do it and getting the
01:09:59knowledge.
01:09:59It's a knowledge-based system. It's not technological or anything really advanced.
01:10:04I've seen people do it in cities, you know, with a wee backyard, small backyard.
01:10:10Yeah, and I've seen people do it in really rural settings. It's just a matter of being engaged.
01:10:15Yeah, it's for everyone. Everyone who wants to take more responsibility for themselves and not pass it off.
01:10:24Everyone who values their poo.
01:10:29I value my poo.
01:10:33I value your poo too, so you're welcome to leave a deposit before you go. It's sort of expected actually.
01:10:39No pressure.
01:10:53I've come to see that in order to be part of the solution we really need to use our everyday
01:10:58choices
01:10:59to change our behaviour. And it's a cultural shift that needs to happen in order for us to at least
01:11:05sustain ourselves.
01:11:06Which isn't even enough, of course, because what are we sustaining?
01:11:12And so that's something I've really been putting a lot of time into recently is designing my work so that
01:11:17it's actually regenerative.
01:11:25Sort of out of necessity, I started this organic waste collection.
01:11:29Check this out.
01:11:33Yeah, we're currently picking about two and a half tons up each week from local businesses and instead of that
01:11:40all going into a hole in the ground,
01:11:42it gets returned back to the soil by way of windrow aerobic composting.
01:11:49So we currently have around 45 businesses on the Y-Waste collection and they have a number of bins or
01:11:58buckets, mostly wheelie bins, and some have up to five wheelie bins at their business.
01:12:04And every week, Y-Waste comes and picks that up and we take it to, we weigh it, we record
01:12:10all the data and things like that, we take it to a composting facility.
01:12:14And so, yeah, we're in partnership with them so that we can return that waste back to the soil.
01:12:22Recently, one of my clients rang me up and they were super stoked because they were able to cancel this
01:12:28big like skip bin for their rubbish, you know.
01:12:31And now they just use a 240 litre wheelie bin, which is much, much smaller.
01:12:37And that's as a result of all of their compostable waste going back to the soil.
01:12:45Oh, what's that? Oh, tasty muffin.
01:12:53I'm really passionate about composting as a solution of minimising our waste and our impact here on this one planet
01:13:02that we have.
01:13:04Food scraps and biodegradable waste takes up over a third of what we send to landfill.
01:13:10When biodegradable matter biodegrades anaerobically, it produces a lot of methane, which is 23 times worse than carbon dioxide as
01:13:23a greenhouse gas.
01:13:24And not only do you get that gas going into the atmosphere, but you also get a liquid version of
01:13:32it leaching into our soils, into our water table.
01:13:37So what we're trying to achieve here is build a really hot compost around this drum and also all of
01:13:46this, build all this irrigation into it.
01:13:49So that when that aerobic hot compost heats up, we should be able to pump water through the system out
01:13:58and over to these bathtubs over here and have free biologically heated hot water.
01:14:09The reason why I'm so enthusiastic about compost is that it's fertility in its purest form.
01:14:15This is how nature builds soil and that enables us to grow more food.
01:14:22And if people are conscious of composting, they're probably going to become more conscious about what they're eating.
01:14:30And if they're opening less packets, that's good for everyone.
01:14:33That's good for the planet.
01:14:34It's good for our people.
01:14:36If we can get people to focus on eating better, then we're actually able to produce a lot less landfill
01:14:43waste and a lot more biodegradable waste, which then can be turned into more fertility to produce more food.
01:14:51So the healthier we eat, the better our waste is and much easier to manage and return to the land.
01:15:00People talk about thinking global, acting local.
01:15:05I suppose I'm really sitting in that truth presently.
01:15:09I'd rather think global and act global, but we've got to start somewhere, you know.
01:15:14And so, yeah, that's the change that I'm wanting to see in the world.
01:15:20So I'm being it best I can.
01:15:35My favourite theme meal here.
01:15:49I'm being it best.
01:15:55And my family members, I'm on Facebook.
01:16:04I see a lot of people who are very sensitive to the devastation, the damage or just civilisation
01:16:12and it paralyses them and that's sad because we need those people, all of those people.
01:16:21You know there's lots of things that could depress you out in the world
01:16:24but if you take each negative act as almost like an opportunity or provocation to do your thing,
01:16:32which is the opposite of that, you know, give more life, then it's fun, then it's a winnable game, that's
01:16:38how I see it.
01:16:45It would be awesome to see our country before human contact, you know, the thousands and thousands, millions of birds.
01:16:54Huge, huge Cody trees, just unimaginable.
01:16:58I think we all have done a misjustice to look in life at Papatua-luku.
01:17:06My ancestors were always exactly the best conservationists either,
01:17:09but we now have a chance to revive and recover those landscapes before it's too late.
01:17:19Over a three-year period we planted 85,000 trees.
01:17:23The majority of those are New Zealand native trees which are now flourishing and really transforming the landscape.
01:17:30I just sort of would love to see what this place looked like a thousand years ago,
01:17:33which is such a, you know, brief period in ecological time.
01:17:37And in that time we've sort of stripped most of the native vegetation and done a whole lot of damage.
01:17:44And we've gone about as far as we can down that road.
01:17:47And so now it's time for us to try and find the balance and restore those ecosystems,
01:17:54but find a place for humans living harmoniously within it.
01:18:02You don't realise this, but this used to be a pastoral desert.
01:18:06What is grass?
01:18:07Yeah, and this is what people can do.
01:18:10You can create heaven on earth.
01:18:17Start growing food.
01:18:18Food is central to the way we live, our health and our whole ecosystem environment.
01:18:26Even if you're in an apartment, you can, you know, windowsills, pots, whatever.
01:18:30You can start, and that's the first step.
01:18:32Once you engage with growing and experiencing nature, then things start to happen.
01:18:39I get asked this a lot, you know, what can somebody do if they're not a farmer or they're not
01:18:44on the land?
01:18:44What can they do to change it?
01:18:46Well, they can do a lot.
01:18:48The best thing that anybody can do is to vote with their wallets.
01:18:51While in some cases it may be more expensive, do what you can.
01:18:55You know, if you see people in your area that are producing food that is ecologically healthy,
01:19:02they're doing it in a way that is looking after the environment,
01:19:06then that adds up, you know.
01:19:07The more people that do that, the less expensive it will become as that becomes normalised.
01:19:17You know, from an individual's point of view,
01:19:20the biggest change by far that we can achieve in our own,
01:19:25by changing our own lifestyle, is to reduce the amount of meat we eat.
01:19:29That will have a much bigger effect than what we do transport-wise or almost anything else.
01:19:37There's a lovely poem that talks about we don't have to be good,
01:19:40we don't have to walk a hundred miles on our knees repenting in the desert,
01:19:43we just have to do what the soft animal of our body loves.
01:19:47And I really like that.
01:19:49I really like that.
01:19:51For me, this turns out to be what I love.
01:19:54And I have a suspicion that this is actually the blueprint,
01:19:57and there's something when people get to it,
01:20:00everybody would want to live this way, I suspect.
01:20:03But it might be a really long journey for some folks to get to that knowing.
01:20:12Last year, I made a submission to a council long-term plan that I thought climate change was by far
01:20:21the most urgent
01:20:22and important issue that councils should be concerned about.
01:20:28And they said,
01:20:30and what would that look like?
01:20:34I got a reaction.
01:20:37So I ruminated on that for a while.
01:20:40And I took it back to a group that I was part of called Project Wararepa.
01:20:47And they said,
01:20:49yes, let's do this.
01:20:52You should have heard the buzz at that first meeting.
01:20:56It was fantastic.
01:20:59And that feeds me, that encourages me that I'm doing something useful.
01:21:05It's my time to give back to the community that's been so good to me,
01:21:10where I've raised my kids and had such a good life.
01:21:17So my vision for the future, I have to be really clear,
01:21:20it doesn't have anything to do with things working the way they do now,
01:21:24but with renewable energy.
01:21:26That's actually not a possibility.
01:21:29Working on renewable energy and being quite different from what we do now,
01:21:33evolving into something else, is the vision I see.
01:21:37Now, how well that's all working,
01:21:41how high a quality of life that is,
01:21:43how fair it is, how equitable it is,
01:21:46how stable the governments are,
01:21:48how much war has come between now and then,
01:21:50completely depends on what we do right now.
01:21:55I think that the place that we're going is a place that we cannot see from where we are.
01:22:01It'll only emerge or become visible as we move toward it.
01:22:07But, so I'm not going to say,
01:22:08okay, you know, here's the blueprint for the future system.
01:22:11I've thought it all out, you know, and now I'm going to tell you what it is.
01:22:14But I do catch glimpses sometimes, you know.
01:22:17One thing that comes to me is that,
01:22:19in the future, we'll feel really at home in the world.
01:22:22We will be intimately familiar with the landscape around us.
01:22:28We will be in rich communities.
01:22:33Like the best experiences you've had in your life,
01:22:37the most authentic, the most vibrant,
01:22:40those don't have to be exceptions.
01:22:45Trust what feels loving, trust what feels good,
01:22:47trust what feels aligned with who you really are.
01:22:53If you live by that and spread that vibe,
01:22:56and other people start living by that,
01:22:58then the whole planet is going to change.
01:23:01Such is a huge proponent of the Haitian dynasty.
01:23:01Woah lae.
01:23:20It.
01:23:23Maybe.
01:23:24Yeah.
01:23:24Huh.
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