Global Food Swadeshi Project

• public domain 20080719-20081116.
• LucasG
• Please, use the "discussion" tab to add your comments and ideas. I just need some time to write all this down. Thanks for your patience. And many thanks to L and V for their ideas, comments and support.
• Update 20100409: Please help add links! #Haiti may make use of some of this. Thanks!

Author Vinay Gupta, of hexayurt fame, created a Vital Systems Mapping scheme, centered around the 6 broad ways people can die in a catastrophe. These 6 ways are being too hot or too cold, hunger or thirst, internal disease or external injury. Food matters for all 6 ways. For "hunger" and "thirst" the relationship is direct. Some food gives shade, shelter and fuel which are good to fight "too hot" and "too cold". Looking at "disease", food gives nutrition and farmacy, and appropriate waste treatment is good for people's health. Finally, looking at "injury", food gives shelter and more importantly one less reason to fight each other.

• Food just grows vs Food systems are ill
  • Globalised
    • External dependency
    • Just In Time = No Stocks
    • Economic efficiency = No Redundancy
    • Cheap food != Good for you
  • Outcome
    • Poverty
    • Bad health
    • Supply risk
• Levels from individual to global
  • Individual, household, town (50% FAO?) < 10 km (walk, bike)
  • Region (25% FAO?) < 100 km (car, truck)
  • World (25% or less FAO?) > 100 km (boats, trains, planes)

• Food: 2000 cal/person-day
• Water: 15 liters/person-day
• Irrigation: 100 liters/person-day?

Help ===

• Assess
  • Present situation
  • Assetts
  • Distance to horizon
  • Blockage points
  • First steps
• Change
  • Motivation
  • Design
  • Principles
  • Methods
  • Do
  • Help doers

Deliverable ===

• Open content
• Text
• Video
• Translations

• Place
  • Land
    • Surface per yield
    • Surface per person
  • Containers
  • Square Foot Gardening
  • EarthBox
  • Bag Garden
  • KeyHole Garden
  • Vertical
• Soil
  • Features
  • Mixtures
  • No-till
• Nutrients
  • Companion plants, green compost
  • Compost, tea compost, humanure, chicken tractors, worms, algae
  • SolarCone, Akvo.org (sanitation)
  • Waste
    • Plants, Kitchen, Humans
• Water
  • Rain catchment, Pyramid, Akvo.org (water)
  • SODIS, WaterCone, deep seawater (cold)
  • Pumps, Selfwatering methods
• Seeds
  • Seedballing, networks, dry, store, select
  • http://www.ag.purdue.edu/ipia/pics/Pages/Home.aspx store seeds
  • Which crops?
    • Calories
    • Yield
    • Simple to grow
    • Robust crops
    • What do people use all over the world, and locally?
• Protection
  • From
    • Sun, Wind, Pests, Excess water, Animals
  • With
    • Cover, other plants, chemicals, counterbugs, mulch
• Time
  • 3-4 months or more
  • Seasonality - related to storage of food and seeds
• Knowledge
  • Plants
  • Weather
• Work
  • People
    • Attention
    • Bend back
    • Work seated
  • Tools
    • Simple
      • Cup, pencil, etc
    • Complicated
      • Irrigation system, LifeTrac, etc
    • Open design?
  • Kinds of work
    • plant, care, harvest, process
    1. Hours
    2. People
• Climate-Weather
• Non-plant food
  • What: eggs, meat (poultry, rabbits, pigs, cows), fish (sea, ponds, ferrocement tanks), fungi, algae
  • Nutrients, "housing" & care, process, market

• Transport = catchment area
  • Walk <10 km (individual, town)
  • Bike < 30 km (individual, town)
  • Motor > 30 km (region, world)
• Store
  • Cold
    • Pot in pot, deep sea water, in ground
  • Conserve
    • Solar dryer, Salt
• Cook
  • Solar cooker, cushions, stoves
• Economy
  • Price of food
  • Workers wages
  • Price of inputs
  • Taxes and subsidies
  • Local currencies
    • Buy local means Grow local
    • Fab Lab makes coins?
  • Futures markets = measure risk
  • Business oportunities
    • Grow, Food industries, Sell
    • Support with know-how, make tools, share tools
    • TTT = training, tools, trade
• Regulations
  • Land
  • Food industries
  • Public health
  • Machinery
• Mindset
  • Different people's points of view
  • I'm a farmer, I grow my food, We grow our food
  • Changes here are powerful (Donna Meadows)
  • Changes here may be beyond your sphere of influence

• DNA of the project
  • Define
  • Refine
  • Share
• Aim = Usable Content
  • Text
    • 200 pages
  • Video
    • 10 hours
  • TV
    • 200 hours, see Vinay's project
• License
  • Template: ask for open license: what, Why, What, How
  • If not, find open alternatives
  • If not, re-invent, re-photo, re-video
• Ecosystem of cooperation (**)
  • Create content
  • Compile
  • Translate
    • dotsub.com
    • traduwiki.org
    • etc
  • Use
  • All benefit
    • like linux developers
    • linux user groups = local geeks
    • linux end users

• Motivation = Energy for Change
  • Want to
    • Mindset shift
  • Have to
    • Urgent need
• Grow
• Teach
• Business
• Science
• People
  • Available time
  • Skills
• Ecosystem of facilitation (**)
  • Accelerate
  • Leverage
  • Business model(s)
    • Open franchising
  • Transition
    • From fossil-based fertilisers and pesticides
    • From global to local

• Global Swadeshi Network
• Local food production
• Urban agriculture
• Permaculture
• Lazy gardening
• Intensive cropping
• Victory gardens
• Composting
• Resilience