Greening the Apocalypse

We talk changing your life and career in response to environmental fears with corporate world exile Andrew Lucas, now gardening expert and commercial compost maker, and co-organiser of the conference The Future of Local Food.

Later in the show we ponder why environmentally themed music sucks. To listen back to our full show the week before on this topic, complete with really shitty (and some good) music, stream it here.

We speak with Lachlan Simpson about the ever mysterious 'cryptocurrency' bitcoin. Bitcoin has both its many critics (who worry about crime and tax avoidance) and champions (who promote its decentralised, private nature). But this night we explore its environmental impact and energy demands. It turns out it takes a lot of juice to power a cryptocurrency and keep it secure and anonymous.

Zainil Zainuddin grew up on a self sufficient farm in Malaysia but these days she's a researcher and scholar in local food and urban agriculture, currently doing her PhD at RMIT. Some of her studies so far have involved working with home gardeners in Melbourne to figure out exactly how much food they grow. So what does home food production offer urban resilience, and how much can we really grow at home?

Where will Melbourne's food come from as urban sprawl, climate change and farm degradation reduce local growing capacity while the city grows to a projected 7 million by 2050? We ask Seona Candy, a food and urban systems researcher at VEIL (Victorian Eco Innovation Lab), who's recently co-authored the report Foodprint Melbourne.

While three fifths of the world's calories come from just three crops, John Ferris grows over 700 different edible species (not to mentions hundreds more cultivars) at his nursery business, Edible Forest Gardens! It's veritable botanical imaginarium of uncommon food plants, strange and wonderful! He brings some samples in for us to taste. :)

Let's squeeze more people into smaller houses. That's actually the main theme of the show as we think about sharehousing and grannie flats from environmental and happiness perspectives. To help us we have Kulja Coulston in the studio. When she's not presenting The Grapevine on Triple R, Kulja is managing editor of Sanctuary Magazine, which is about sustainable home design and architecture, a publication of the ATA (Alternative Technology Association). Check out their free Sustainable House Day where you get to see in other people's private homes.

Asking "what is agroecology, and can it save the world?" with agroecologist and permaculture researcher Rafter Sass-Ferguson, who joined us on the wires from Portugal. Rafter is currently a visiting researcher at the Center for Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Change at the University of Lisbon. Check out his work at Liberation Ecology.

Tonight's guest Russell Shields talks food security for asylum seekers. After years with the food rescue operation SecondBite, in 2014 Russell co-founded The Community Grocer, a not-for-profit and social enterprise that aims to improve access for people living in public housing to fresh, affordable food. These days he works at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, working to ensure that asylum seekers have access to good food, and drives the ASRC Food Justice Truck.

'Ethicurean' farmer Tammi Jonas joins us in studio to talk about the problems with your supermarket's bacon, and more ethical and tasty alternatives. Tammi with her family runs Jonai Farms in Central Vic raising pastured rare breed pigs, and she's also something of an agrarian intellectual who writes, talks and organises towards a regenerative, ethical food system, including being the current President of the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance.

We talk urban planning and the big issues facing Melbourne with James Larmour-Reid, Managing Director at Planisphere. Planisphere is a planning, urban design and landscape architecture consultancy. James is also the Victorian President of the Planning Institute of Australia. James also helped set up 3000acres -- and urban community gardens on underused land program -- with our co-host Kate Dundas.