Sunday, November 18, 2012

MICHAEL MOBBS: Sustainable Food

MICHAEL MOBBS ON THE ABC:   Broadcast:Monday 12 November 2012 3:05AM 

Michael Mobbs is a former environmental lawyer who spent nineteen years working on aluminium smelters, coal mines, water and infrastructure programs. During this time his interest in sustainability grew. Today his area of expertise lays in being a sustainability coach and speaker, sustainable urban farm designer, residential sustainability consultant and a consultant for major sustainability projects. He is an associate lecturer in the School of Engineering at the University of Technology in Sydney. 

Michael is also the principal of Michael Mobbs Sustainable Projects and Design. His latest book is called Sustainable Food – CSIRO Publishing. He has also authored Sustainable Hous[LINK], which was updated in 201 ... click here to listen on the ABC

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After renovating his inner-city Sydney terrace and making it almost entirely self-sufficient in energy, water and waste disposal, Michael Mobbs realised his house was sustainable, but he wasn’t. While his house saves 100,000 litres of dam water a year, the same amount of water is used to produce ten days’ worth of food for the average Australian. 

In this companion book to the bestselling Sustainable House, Mobbs turns his attention to reducing the carbon emissions associated with growing, processing, transporting, selling and disposing food. With his own experiences anchoring the book, Sustainable Food contains practical advice on establishing community and backyard vegetable gardens, keeping chooks and bees, and reducing water usage, along with insights into dealing with councils, sidelining supermarkets and what we eat and why.

This book should be compulsory reading for every Local Govt. functionary and elected representative. They have much to learn and Michael Mobbs has worked hard trying to get them to see reason for a very long time now. The chances are that none will and probably because they imagine Michael Mobbs as something like an "ageing hippy". If that's how they imagine him they will have missed  point the of the evidence and experience he has to present.

1 comment:

Bruce said...

I wonder if council people watch ABC TV. Probably not! If they did the wouldn't need Michael Mobbs to tell them about community gardening on the verge. That Costa fellow is doing a good job turning people's minds around. Look him up here http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/ontheverge/default.htm