Hermann Scheer

Victory Gardens

In 1943, 20 million gardens were producing 8 million tons of food.

Victory Gardens, also called "war gardens" or "food gardens for defense", were gardens planted both at private residences and on public land during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. These gardens produced up to 41 percent of all the vegetable produce that was consumed in the nation.
-City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening in America, Laura Lawson

In 1941, America went to war. At home the war effort touched everyone. Throughout the country, at home in the States, people plowed front yards, lawns, back yards, flower gardens and vacant lots to grow their own vegetables. Even public land was put to use, from the lawn at San Francisco City Hall to the Boston Commons to portions of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. San Francisco's victory program became one of the best in the country. There were over 800 gardens in Golden Gate Park. Every park in the city had gardens and many vacant lots were used for growing vegetables.

Drawing from the rich history of World War II Victory Gardens, Victory Gardens 2007+ puts a new spin on the meaning of “victory”. In this program, “victory” is:
- independence from corporate food systems
- community involvement
- getting people closer to the natural environment.

A Friendly Permaculture Critique of the Obamas’ Vegetable Garden



Holistic Agriculture Library

Ackoff

Does knowing more necessarily make you happier?

WISDOM

.... a little differently: if we want to try and live in a world of truth, we should make an effort to live in a world of possibility. Let's take two cooks, and one cook is living in the world of truth and knows exactly how to cook everything. The other cook is open to possibilities. For example, I wonder how many people in this room when making scrambled eggs have put currants in scrambled eggs, it's very, very good. Trying possibilities, possibilities— we want to live in a world of truth which obviously if you're driving a motor car that's valid, but otherwise open up a bit to have possibilities. People behave in a certain way and you think they are aggressive. You say maybe there's a possibility, maybe they're a little bit insecure, maybe there's something else. But we don't make enough effort to open our universe to possibilities.

We want to say this is true, this is right answer in school, that's what the teacher is going to give you marks for. And possibilities enlarge the world tremendously.

Architectural Firm Uses Fungi to Reimagine Sustainable Neighborhoods

.......Building sustainable neighborhoods using new methodology would give communities new tools with which to green their environment. More flexible systems around resources, like food, water and energy production, could be clustered around the border to encourage adoption outside the ecodistrict. The colonization of empty spaces would give residents a sense of self-organization and autonomy to regulate the needs of their neighborhood. And the nodes of activity outside the ecodistrict would help launch visible, sustainable development out into the community. These ideas, if implemented, would radically transform the traditional way that developers and designers look at cities.

In the end, the biomimicry challenge also transformed the way the team worked, especially the part that removed them from their physical anchor. "It's a different approach when you're talking about solutions in the office," says Rodríguez. "The environment was really leading our discussion. You can refer to different things and point to them--that doesn't happen in the office. It's a creative way of exploring and it was really an exploration." Rovalo saw another transformation occur when the architects stopped looking in design books for inspiration and started looking outside. "For me it was really interesting to see how designers and architects have references of other architects or other designers. Even though they propose and create new things, they're always looking at previous references," he says. "Now having a reference of a mushroom--it's like jumping to another world."

Nature as an inspiration for architects - Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has come up with a design for a floating city based on a giant lillypad, which he says would be a long-term solution to rising sea levels.

FAIRCONOMY-Einsteiger: Geld für alle

Being less bad