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

I was really excited to find out about the new Take Out With Out Campaign, directed at reducing the use of unnecessary plastics and packaging with take out food. They have the very sensible creed:

ReFuse Unnecessary Stuff

When taking out, refuse the unnecessary packaging! Think about the spoons, forks, straws, and napkins that you get served (why do they give you enough for a family of 20 when eating alone?). Ask yourself before accepting all these items, “Do I really need all of this?”, “Am I going to be eating this right away?” (If so, why take the bag or the napkins)… just enjoy your muffin – and be neat so the napkin isn’t needed!

ReTakeYour Own Reusables

Bring your own reusables (BYOR) and you won’t need to use the can – garbage, that is. You can bring your own containers, straws, cutlery, mugs, bottles, and even your own bag – It’s so easy to find and use!

ReConsiderYour Habits

It’s easy to fall into a routine, so why not choose to create a new one? Reconsider and readjust your habits and adopt healthier eating strategies – it might be challenging at first – but it will save you time, money, your health, and our world. The bonus? You’ll feel like an eco-hero and will inspire others around you to follow suit.

It’s a great little campaign which includes posters and wallet sized tips you can download, an interesting blog and a list of restaurants which support the cause. I usually bring my own bags where I go, and still often have to state more than once “I don’t need a bag thanks”, and I think this is a great extension of the BYO bag idea, taking it up a notch. We’ve seen it happen with the reusable coffee cups such as the Keep Cups we reviewed last last year and I think this is the next step. It would be great if restaurants and cafes supported the enterprise by offering a small discount to those who BYO their own containers etc since they are saving on packaging.

The Naked Lentil, a three part documentary series made by Greg Williams and Kylie Bryant, starts this Thursday 28th of January, at 8.30pm.

Tune into SBS One at 8.30pm on Thursday to see the first episode!

The doco follows Lentil through a pretty turbulent time…. mounting debt, staff conflicts… and heaps of other crazy jazz! It also shows an incredible community that comes together to make sure the doors of Lentil stay open.

It’s going to be a rocky ride and you’ll see lots of familiar Lentil faces!

Watch it. Tell your friends. Tell the person next to you on the tram!

THE NAKED LENTIL* BEGINS SOON!

Check out:
http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/nakedlentil
http://www.sbs.com.au/secretsandlives

Episode 1 – 8.30pm 28th January.
Episode 2 – 8.30pm 4th February.
Episode 3 – 8.30pm 11th February.

*Please note the show features no actual human nudity… only a few nudie vegetables.

I’m loving these DIY centrepieces using fruit and veg. They are  definitely recyclable as they can be eaten on boxing day!

from Craftzine

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

Tell Food Standards Australia-New Zealand to label nano-ingredients in foods

Concerned about the health risks of nanotechnology and genetic engineering ingredients being used in unlabelled products? So are we!

Food Standards Australia New Zealand is currently conducting a review of Australian food labelling, giving you a fantastic opportunity for you to support strong government action to ensure mandatory labelling of ingredients produced using nanotechnology or genetic engineering, and to ensure that palm oil is labelled.

Please take a few minutes to email Food Standards Australia New Zealand, we have provided some points below that may be useful to you. A short message is fine.

The deadline for commenting is Friday 20 November. Submissions can be emailed to FoodLabellingReview@health.gov.au
Please forward this info to anyone you think may want to know about this inquiry.

Georgia Miller

Friends of the Earth Australi
http://nano.foe.org.au

Last night we had our first vegan dinner party! It was great fun. Four keen friends joined us to enjoy an entirely vegan meal.

On the menu was:

Entree:

-Moroccan spiced Olives

-Semi Dried Tomatoes

-Turkish Bread

-Hummus Dip

-Beetroot Dip

Main:

-Dahl

-Garden salad (from our garden) with avocado and tomato

-Falafels

-Quinoa Tabouli

-Broad beans

-Oven desiree and sweet roast potatoes with nutritional yeast and cajun spices

Dessert: Chocolate Beetroot cake with soy icecream.

We drunk cider, Chris’ homebrew beer and some local wines including a lovely cherry wine. Great fun, can’t wait to do another one!

Well it’s been interesting so far. I bought up a heap of suitable food with the aim of cooking up a storm but predictably, I haven’t been home all week!

(Rest assured I have been having plenty of veggies!)

We spent the country in Wagga at a wedding and the challenge kicked off on sunday.

Sunday hotel breakfast was fine, I bought along some soy yogurt which I had with dry cereal, fruit and green tea. And black coffee. I had a killer hangover from the wedding the night before! My preferred hangover fare usually involves something of the bacon variety and lots of milky tea so it was a challenge.

We went to a Bill Kerr exhibition and to visit some ducks by the river. The local market was fun but i didn’t sample any of the wares…

Trying to find somewhere for lunch was a bit tricky. Usually with travelling I would bring stuff with me to eat but I didn’t have anything that would travel well in that kind of heat. We visited the local organic restaurant but they were sadly lacking in vegan options! They offered minestrone soup (it was 35 degrees so no thanks) or a green salad with the cheese taken out ($15, no thanks). So we ended up at the pub with bread and dip and steamed veggies.

I enjoyed quite a few beverages I must say. On the way home I was lucky to get some fresh fruit salad at the train station and I had some vegan crackers with vegemite and avocado when I got home. All in all, not a bad effort for the first day.

We all waste far too much  food! Leftovers from other meals can easily be re-used in whole new meals, the wondrous baked beans can make any meal interesting and great again…

For more ideas take a look at this blog post from howstuffworks.

recipes.howstuffworks.com/fresh-ideas/easy-dinner-ideas/10-meals-to-make-from-leftovers.htm