The Festival raises awareness and provides tools for change by showcasing tangible solutions to the ecological and social challenges we face.

In 2009 the Festival at Federation Square attracted over 124,000 visits and engaged more than 450 community volunteers.

In its eleventh year, the Festival is getting even bigger!

The 2010 Festival will include 2 programs, the Main Event at Federation Square (19-21 February 2010) and the Local Events Program (6-21 February 2010). The new 2-week format will enable individuals and communities across Australia to host and promote their own sustainability event, extending the reach of the sustainability message even further.

The Main Event at Federation Square in the heart of Melbourne will continue to celebrate the very best examples of ecological and social sustainability. The event will fuse interactive workshops, talks, demonstrations, artworks, exhibits, films and live performances. In recognition of the climate situation, the Main Event will be inspired by the theme: Get Ready for the Safe Climate Decade!

Our pics (most relevant/interesting to Renters)

Top 10 Reasons to Grow Your Own

How Car Dependence is Turning the Suburban Dream into a Nightmare

Sustaining Fashion? An Open Forum Exploring The Darker Side Of Fashion

GM Free is the way to be

Living Zero Waste

Life Time Affordable Sustainable Housing

Consumer Power-Making the Change

Sharehood Communities

And of course… How to Live Sustainably in a Rental Property yep, we are presenting a talk. It’ll be lots of fun with pictures, samples and demonstrations of things you can make yourself, so please come along . You can also chat to us as part of the Sustainable Living Library

Monsanto is an American-owned international agro-chemical and foods conglomerate. It employs about 45,000 people and peddles over eight billion dollars a year in chemical products all over the world. While Monsanto has been critised for some time for their production of NutraSweet and the genetically engineered rBGH (Bovine Growth Hormone), the latest criticism is for it’s moves into the world of GMOs (genetically manipulated organisams). They produce ‘RoundUp Ready’ soya beans that are genetically altered to be resistant to their chemical herbicide ‘Roundup’ (the biggest selling agro-chemical in the world with sales totalling more than $620 million a year), which provides 40% of the companies operating profit.

You can view afantastic documentary on Monsanto, why they are evil and why you should say no by clicking here

You also might like to attend the following rally:

Farmers and Shoppers World-Wide say No ! Monsanto !

WHEN : 7 am on Thursday 18th February

WHERE : Hilton on the Park, 192 Wellington Parade East Melbourne (near Fitzroy Gardens) 

 Monsanto spokesperson Peter O’Keeffe will address the Rural Press Club at the “Hilton on the Park” promoting farmers’ “choice” to grow GM canola and Monsanto’s role in the future of agriculture.

 In solidarity with majority world farmers who are fighting for sovereignty against multinational control of their land and patented seed monopoly, we will rally outside the Hilton to say “No! Monsanto !”

Profits, seed monopoly and patenting are Monsanto’s real agenda.

From the cotton fields of Indonesia, where the company was fined $US1.5 million for bribery while trying to influence a GM cotton approval, to India, where over 100,000 people fasted in January against seed monopoly and GM eggplant introduction, world-wide awareness of the threat of GM crops is building. Corporate spin will not convince us that Monsanto’s patented seeds will “feed the world”.

We don’t want unstable, untested GM food products on our plates while GM canola spreads and contaminates our paddocks, in the name of a farcical “choice” which destroys our choice to farm and eat GM free.

Join us for a GM free breakfast rally with speakers and debate.

Rally sponsors : MADGE info@madge.org.au LASNET lasnet@latinlasnet.org Friends of the Earth Australia realfood@melbourne.foe.org.au

We’re big fans of the ‘make do and mend’ ethos here at Green Renters, but I’m not sure I’d wear these creations out of the house! Good to see such an important issue covered in a mainstream fashion magazine however!

(The photos are by Tim Walker for Vogue Nov 2009)

Really pleased to find that Martha Stewart has been talking about food and vegetarianism and ethical farming, interviewing the director of Food Inc and organic farmers featured in the documentary. (It’s a great documentary, we saw it this year at the Melbourne International Film Festival) She even spends some time cooking vegetarian recipes. Good stuff as she has an enormous fan base.

As a renter I don’t really see the point of store bought Christmas trees. They’re synthetic and kinda ugly and we have no where to store them inbetween Christmases (like most rental properties, storage cupboards are lacking). I don’t see in the point of a cut tree, and the potted variety seem to die off in the summer heat anyway.

I also should mention that we don’t really have the space for a big Christmas tree, our living room is quite small!

So I was excited to see these photos of DIY christmas trees using household objects…

The first three are from here. The ladder looks great and I like it as it doesn’t take up too much space. The second photograph is of an old drying rack, I think something similar could definitely be made with an old clothes horse!

(more…)

Christmas is coming up. If you’re lucky, you might have a wonderful family who support your choices for a low impact Christmas with suitably environmentally friendly food, decorations and gifts. But for most of us, Christmas can be a challenge. My family is small but my parents are kinda conservative about environmental strategies. Already Mum has requested Chris “not make that tofu roast again, it smelled terrible (it didn’t actually and they never tried it)”. But we’ve turned the tables a bit and offered to host Christmas at our house. I’ve lived there for over 5 years but I could count the number of times on one hand that my family have dined there. Our house is clean (sometimes messy) but they don’t like driving through the city and Mum finds Brunswick a bit bohemian hehe.

This isn’t my family, I googled ‘conservative family’ and found it. Makes me laugh.

Tree hugger offers these strategies if you struggle with your family dealing with you choice of food. This could also apply to your choice of fashion, partner or anything else that family goads you on.:

1) If a relative is baiting you, don’t rise to it. Some wag once said “Of course your family can push your buttons, they installed them”. Chances are the uncle who is goading you is never going to see things from your point of view, and is just trying to get you going, so don’t bother arguing with him.

2) Offer to bring a vegetarian main course so that you aren’t making extra work for your parents. Make something that is ready to serve and doesn’t require precious oven or stove space.

3) Don’t cover old ground. Families have a way of endlessly reprising touchy topics. Keep in mind a list of things to talk about that will help you avoid the mobius strip of argument.

4) Before the big day, ask the cook to keep unnecessary meat additions out of the side dishes. Really, no one is going to miss bacon bits in the salad.

5) Be open to friendly discussion about your food choices if this is your first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian. Being a vegetarian is a normal, everyday thing for you and if you are matter of fact about it your family will see that it needn’t be a big deal.

6) If you’ve already had the friendly discussion and you don’t want to keep having it, it’s time to set some limits. Politely point out that there may be other topics more interesting than what you eat.

7) Don’t apologize to your family for your food choices, but also recognize that they have the right to their own choices as well.

Smile and be thankful.

I also found a very amusing site on how to deal with Climate Change skeptic family members. It’s got some great retorts and strategies, but in general I’d save the discussions for another day.

Some of Cate’s tips

-Suggest a neutral place for Christmas day such as a park or restaurant if you can.

-Don’t stay with family if it makes you stressed. That friend’s couch or cheap motel will be worth it if you feel like an escape.

-Focus on positivity. It’s a day for being together and celebrating.

-Thank everyone genuinely for their gifts, even if you don’t like them. You can always swap them with someone else.

-Bring some food that you like to eat

-Don’t drink too much, you’ll just get annoyed

-Christmas day is not the day for political discussion if you can avoid it. Just smile and change the subject. Hard to do, I know.

-Have something to look forward to. Spending time with your partner on Christmas night, going away, whatever. It’s only one day.

more tips here

I guess a lot of my posts have been about eating out, probably because this is more of challenge than cooking at home where you can control what you like to eat. On saturday we went to Docklands for a look. It was rather like an empty CBD with lots of chainstores which we managed to avoid.

We decided the have some lunch and were pleased to find a Morroccan restaurant with lots of veggie and vegan options. There were plenty of tapas type dishes but I decided to have the veggie couscous hotpot with a rather lovely cocktail. Great stuff!

60 Minutes was on tonight with a big story on Australian pig farming. Very distressing, and it certainly made me happy to be following a vegan diet. You can watch the video here