Permaculture Community day of Action!
We would be delighted if you were able to join us for a
‘Galway City Permablitz’
Saturday June 10th 1-5 pm
Third Space Galway are delighted to be working with Galway City Tidy Towns this year, on a new Climate Change, Food and Biodiversity Community initiative, creating the City’s first ‘Permaculture Food and Biodiversity Trail’ in the Galway City Center’s Westend neighbourhood,
An integrated approach to designing healthy, productive, wildlife friendly places, Permaculture, as an ecological design system for sustainable living, offers practical and effective solutions to help people address global issues like food security, poverty, and the impacts of climate change at a local level. .
The day will consist of :
– An ‘Introduction to Permaculture and project workshop at 1 pm in the Secret Garden, William St West
with Permaculture Designer, Hannah Mole.
– Hands on community planting day on Henry St., Fr. Burke Park and along the Canal throughout the afternoon with the generous assistance of Conservation Volunteers Galway and the local community.
We will make our way to the Street Feast Potluck at the Spanish Arch which launches this year’s Bike Week at around 4.30 pm… feel free to bring some local, organic, vegan food for yourself and something to share
This year’s Tidy Towns programme hosts this permaculture, food sovereignty and green care awareness project devised by Third Space Galway in collaboration with Hannah Mole to highlight how we can collectively address climate change through redesigning and co-creating more sustainable ecosystems, including food and fibre producing polycultures, wildlife habitats and community food systems in the city.
Utilising specific restorative and regenerative agroecological planting designs, we aim to bring greater awareness to the possibilities for sustainable urban food production, revisiting our local food heritage, utilizing heirloom seeds and plants from Irish Seed Savers, as well as our textile and material heritage, of utilizing our natural resources. Taking the history and thematic of the former Work House site and Laundry on Henry Street we will be planting on this site, a renewable source of trees, shrubs and plants historically renown for local textile crafts use, fuel, fiber, building and textile dying.
As well as addressing urban pollution and biodiversity loss by creating specific bee and pollinator friendly postcard gardens, we aim to include these areas as part of the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan 2015-2020 which is an island-wide attempt to help pollinators by creating a landscape where they can survive and thrive on native trees and plants. Our agroecology designs aim to also include pollution-soaking plants and increase accessibility to materials such as fuel and fibre in the city centre for ongoing local and community use.
Permaculture designs practical ways in which we can provide food, shelter, energy & well-being, for ourselves & our communities, while also regenerating the health & wealth of the ecosystem of which we are a part. It is a design approach which incorporates the core principles of People Care, Earth Care and Fair Share, and concentrates on the interconnections and relationships between elements. By working in harmony with nature and with regenerative design processes, with thoughtful consideration of these, its believed we can cocreate more productive, sustainable healthy living systems.
We hope to see you on the day!
All welcome .. For more information visit www.thirdspacegalway.ie
Email: thirdspacegalway@gmail. com or
call 0872201972
This project is made possible with the support and assistance of Galway Tidy Towns, Galway City Council, Conservation Volunteers Galway, GRETB, Lets Get Galway Growing, Galway City Partnership, HSE, Post Carbon Galway and the local Galway Community.
Please come along & spread the word!
Bígí linn & scaipigí an scéala!
This event is hosted by Third Space Galway members, artists Elodie Rein, Roisin O Faolain and curator Martina Finn…
UN: ONLY SMALL FARMERS AND AGROECOLOGY CAN FEED THE WORLD
“The 2009 global food crisis signalled the need for a turning point in the global food system”, .United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Prof Hilal Elver … said at the event hosted by the Transnational Institute (TNI), a leading international think tank.
“Modern agriculture, which began in the 1950s, is more resource intensive, very fossil fuel dependent, using fertilisers, and based on massive production. This policy has to change.
“We are already facing a range of challenges. Resource scarcity, increased population, decreasing land availability and accessibility, emerging water scarcity, and soil degradation require us to re-think how best to use our resources for future generations.”
The UN official said that new scientific research increasingly shows how ‘agroecology’ offers far more environmentally sustainable methods that can still meet the rapidly growing demand for food:
“Empirical and scientific evidence shows that small farmers feed the world. According to the UN Food & Agricultural Organisation (FAO), 70% of food we consume globally comes from small farmers”, said Prof Elver.
“This is critical for future agricultural policies. Currently, most subsidies go to large agribusiness. This must change. Governments must support small farmers. As rural people are migrating increasingly to cities, this is generating huge problems.
“Agroecology is a traditional way of using farming methods that are less resource oriented, and which work in harmony with society. New research in agroecology allows us to explore more effectively how we can use traditional knowledge to protect people and their environment at the same time.”