Incredible Mackem Organic
This group has been formed to allow like minded people, primarily - though not exclusively - from the Wearside area to take part in growing local sustainable food. Growing organic food is surely the most ancient of pastimes; for at least 4,000 years people have been growing food organically using traditional agricultural techniques. Recent human history has seen an era w
hen food has been produced using ever increasing amounts of synthetic petrochemical fertilisers, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides. These products have definitely increased yields, but their use, and the system that spawned them, has been largely based on seemingly unlimited use of oil and other hydrocarbons coal and gas. The era has been a mere blip in human history, but its consequences have devastated the biodiversity of the planet and now threatens life as we know it, through climate change and other factors. Why should people choose to take part in growing local sustainable food, when the current global political hierarchy seems determined to carry-on with the old paradigm? Many people believe that a 'perfect storm' is approaching:
http://tinyurl.com/o5q4tjn
Change IS coming - we see the start of that change already as a consequence of the economic recession - it cannot fail to come as oil begins to run-out. What form that change takes will be, in large-part down to society. If society acquiesces to the diktats of its politicians and their corporate masters, then there is a very worrying future ahead. If however the change comes FROM society politicians will have no option but to follow. Gardening, growing, eating and buying organic food is a part of that change. And its fun! The group originally began as a facebook group named Mackem Organic Gardeners which can be found hear:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/MackemOrganicGardeners/
Its name changed when it was added to the Incredible Edible Network which can be found here:
http://incredibleediblenetwork.org.uk/content/what-incredible-edible
