Casey Council wants your feedback

Casey Council is seeking feedback from residents on a draft Food Security Policy.

The policy notes that:

"A large number of Casey residents are currently at risk of food insecurity. It is expected that in the future the community will be further impacted by food price rises and shortages due to adverse environmental conditions, water shortages, loss of agricultural land, peak oil, and cost of essential services."

The food security policy is intended to:

address five key areas in order to improve community food access; recognising that planning and acting now can have a positive impact for Casey in the future.

Makes sense to me. Please have a look at it and comment if you wish. We will be discussing this at the next meeting on March 7. We would love to hear your thoughts and possibly put in a group response, if this is thought appropriate. The consultation closes on March 9.

Permaculture and the Community

Today we met some of the community in Berwick Springs. The photo below shows Abbie at our stall before all the people got there.

The image below shows Bob and Alison explaining about natural beekeeping to some of the interested locals. In the background we see lemons from Marg, herbs from Megan and an olive tree in a pot brought by Alison. The bike is there to remind us of non petrol transport and the recycled toilet paper is there to remind us about the water, trees and greenhouse gases that are at stake when we don't use recycled paper.

Our group's first event

Our Permaculture group had its first meeting on Wednesday 8th February and one of our first decisions was to create a banner and a flyer to let other people know about the group. Our flyer states:

"We meet to share our interest in learning more about edible gardening, raise awareness of permaculture, share resources, swap excess vegies, make jam, preserve food and connect with & support, like minded people in the pursuit of these interests. Part of Permaculture Melbourne we are working to promote the sustainable development of greater south eastern suburbs of Melbourne."

Our group is called Greater South Eastern Permaculture because of our local focus in the area we live in. Tomorrow we are having a stall, organised by Abbie, at an event called People in Place, a free community event for residents of Berwick Springs and Narre Warren South. The purpose is to welcome new and established residents to Casey. I am so looking forward to the event. In preparing for the event we really had to think about what Permaculture was all about and recognise that it is more than just organic gardening. Permaculture is about design, relationships and energy flows. As the Permaculture research institute says, Permaculture is:

the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people — providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.

Look out for photos of the event tomorrow.