Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Business has been requesting workers with all types of skills. Interestingly, on the first day that the gov accepts forms, the entire year's quota is reached.

We have been reading in the press, (you remember paper things) that many of our foreign (both documented and undocumented) workers are leaving because of the economy. Small towns have lost large populations of school children as well as locally owned business. It is harder to send money to your relatives when prices are rising here, and building trade jobs have diminished. Raids on meat processing plants have contributed to this exodus. So to find people willing work in any food industry (other than Chinese buffets) becomes more and more difficult.

AP folks may show the way for the rest of us city residents. I'm willing to plant a "victory garden" if that will help. Just as soon as I can get permission from our association board...

Interesting changes,,, It's the beginning of winter here ,, so most of my favourite fruits dissapear from the super-markets ..... but what is this ???? AHHH Cherries from the USA ,,and cheap ..... looks like the fall in the $US is a BIG positive. I can only pray it keeps happening.

I keep hoping the real estate market will crash. Land is so high no one can pay for it without taking out a loan. Land prices have quadrupled in 10 years..

Dan ,, A big crash is on it's way,,, it's just been delayed by the US government falsely lowering interest rates. This will only stall the inevitable and hopefully soften it a little.
A correction in the order of 35% is expected. There will be a lot of European and Chinese money waiting to buy up when it lowers around 30%.

Cycles ,, don't worry too much , these things run around , up's and downs for every economy.

damn, ive been gone for a week and this post has turned into a political bomb field. this was not my intention but obviously its a sensitive and essentially political issue. i will need to read this over with a straight head. given there is no edit button i hope everyone kept a cool head posting. just skimming there seems to be a heated discussion going on. given the civil nature of most members here i'm sure everything said is respectful of each member. i'm in no state to be reading these posts now. i'm focusing on the positives in life for a while. i'm optimistic that we can figure this crisis out. there's just going to be a lot of suffering in the process. just today on the news they reported that the cost of food will double. now either people evolve and make use of they're waste (valuable resources) or they won't be able to afford to eat. its quite simple really. the sad thing is its the poor people who already make use of "waste" that are really going to suffer, while its the people who control the market will be better off. we all know the story.

i'm trying to get it into my parents heads that by the time they retire they will be lucky to buy food, let alone find it affordable. we are using resources at a rate greater then they are being produced destroying natural resources in the process. in order for societies to survive they will need to go back to tribal living, where village people supply the food to the village and are supported to do so by the tribe. this will become even more essential with the increase in petrol cost. thats if we want to survive. otherwise we will most likely die out.

my parents are starting to believe me and are looking into forming a tribe in the bush. they will provide me with the resources and i will produce food for them to eat. i will basically be working for them to produce food rather then them paying some corporation to destroy the earth while charging a fortune to do so. in order to correct our faults we need to go back to our roots before the faults occurred and live the working model. its only recently in mans quest to control everything that these problems have been occurring. if we create our own systems and work in unity we can beat this. only then will we be truly free.

my 2c

Im proud that the membership here and now can partake in such a charged topic and remain civil.

A++

TX, I once had a woman confide in me that she was ashamed of her generation- the 60's. She felt that her generation had ushered in drugs (and the evolvement of gangs, broken homes, narcissism) and free sex (and the evolvement of sexually transmitted diseases, esp. AIDS- as well as broken homes, unwanted children). What she also failed to mention was the beneficial impacts her generation has had- women can now have a choice of marriage, children, divorce (which is good in some cases), careers and in general, it also showed how free thinking can create a mostly passive resistance to the government status quo. I believe that the 50's mothers, who were so perfect in their homes, were also so stifled in thier roles, that they gave birth to the 60's revolution- the children picked up on their mother's dissatisfaction. And why these 50's women were so frustrated was because they in turn, were raised by women, who for the first time in history, had a active role in the economy. The women of the 40's were welders, manufacturers, they did everything- because all the men were in the war. When the men returned, the women were sent back to the home.

TX- your generation shows the importance of education, the choice between having a family or choosing not to- I am sure there are others that I'm missing.

The point is- don't be so hard on yourself or your generation. Each of us, we all look to do something better for ourselves and for our children, even the environment. I think this belief is an underlying current in this forum- after all why did we all decide to join.

I must say things are on the improve ....., gone are burning bra's and now we have push-up bra's ,, .

But i wait for the day that someone is sued for false advertising.

Back to reality ,, i don't think any individual should take too much responsibility for what happened in "their generation" , I haven't liked all the changes i see in Australia but I feel i have done what I can. Our greatest input is in the voting booth ,, and I've got to say I still stand by each and every vote that I cast. I even protested against the Franklin river dam ,, I'm no greenie ,, but that dam was just damn wrong.
People are also often caught up in the "pendulum cycle " you couldn't do much if you where a left wing liberal in the 60's.
Australia has had unprecedented economical growth over the last decade and the current government seems to be activery supporting the "traditional " family unit. Hopefully this attitude will help bring balance between financial gains and family life.
I'll get off my soap-box now

It is not the people- it's the government decisions, at least lately and the culture. Our culture is materialistic, there is no doubt of that but it is also invasive homogenation - it destroys the uniqueness of other cultures- a McDonald's in Russia and Japan?- and store bought clothes on native Indians in remote parts around the world.
(I love the fact that there is still a native tribe in South America that is virtually untouched by the rest of world. The helicopter flew over their huts to take photographs and they were defending their homes from this perceived threat with raised bows, thier skin all painted in red dye.)
The other things about our culture that I dislike are the sexual promiscuity and the drug culture- no one wants that in their society, not even us. I think this is the biggest sticking point with the Muslim world.
The last things I hate about our culture are corporate greed and the destruction to the environment. After all, global warming did not just materialize, it was created.
We exploit everything and have spoiled the world doing it. There is no surprise that the Constitution and Freedom of Rights was, hand in hand, with slavery.

Angie, believe me I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water, as with all generations mine possesses some good qualities. I consider my generation the fruition of the 60's generation, good bad or indifferent........ However, the excesses we learned were taught by those who suppossedly "awakened" in the 60's and wrote their manifestos like The Port Huron Statement. The writers, followers and sympathisers of the PHS, the founding membership of which traces it's roots to violent groups such as the SDS, many of whom are in positions of power today, skillfully hid themselves and their movement under the cover of their palatable stated goals, ie. racial and gender equality all while seething with a destructive angst pointed at ANY one or thing that represented authority (see spoiled children). I don't blame the 60's generation for what my generation is or is not, I do, however, point to them as a contributor for a generation that thinks everything is ok, cannot or will not take direction, can regurgitate the happenings on any given sitcom or reality t.v. show, but could't put together a single intelligible paragraph about what "stay the course in Iraq" or "Change we can believe in" actually means.

TX