Nicole Faires

May 6th is International Permaculture Day, and I want to celebrate.  Most people who want to learn Permaculture do so by earning a Permaculture Design Certificate.  This piece of paper is really great, but also really expensive ($1500 to $3000). Guess what?  You don’t need a PDC to learn permaculture and implement the principles into your own life.  So we’re going to have…

a VIRTUAL PERMACULTURE STUDY GROUP. For FREE.  It’s as cool as the study group on Community, except that we won’t build pillow forts.  Or we could…hmm.

The No PDC Needed Study Group will start May 1st and last through the whole month of May.  It’s informal, but it does have homework.  As part of this study group, you will:

1. Talk to others who are interested in permaculture via comments on this site as well as on Facebook.  

2. Learn the basic principles of permaculture and how to begin analyzing your own living space to make it sustainable and self-sufficient.

3.  Complete one permaculture project which you will share with the group. 

I will facilitate this group, but learning will be in a true permaculture-style: student led and flowing with the natural discussions that come up.  

To be part of this, you will need to have access to a camera.  Your project will be shared and discussed here, and we will need to see pictures of its progress.  There is also some recommended reading which will be posted at the start.  

You will also need to like my Facebook page in order to be part of a lively discussion.  

What we will do is talk about the permaculture principles and how they apply to specific projects that we can build into our lifestyle.  To do this we’ll share pictures here and talk about them.  We can ask questions on how to do something, or how to do it better.

This is going to be a low-key, super-convenient way to get into permaculture, and I swear you’ll be addicted.  

My project is going to be a duck garden.  What’s yours?  If you don’t have any ideas, don’t worry!  I’ll be posting a list of great, easy projects to help inspire you.

Don’t forget to share this with your friends. The more the merrier.

Two of these eggs are regular large white Western Family brand.  Three of these eggs are large brown GoldEgg Organic. See the difference?  The two Western Family egg yolks are bigger, and a beautiful bright orange.  The GoldEgg Organic yolks are a pale yellow and much smaller.  If this were a good judge of a healthy chicken, I would think that the Western Family chickens were doing better.  Let’s find out.

I did a bit of research.  Western Family eggs here in BC are likely to come from Daybreak Farms, located in Terrace, BC.  Daybreak chickens are not free-range, but they are the only egg farm in BC that does not have to vaccinate their chickens.  They also make their own quality feed free of any antibiotics or additives.  They do all of their own processing and grading and deliver direct to stores under the Western Family brand, which means that these two eggs traveled about 1400 km (or 869 miles).  BC is a big place.

The GoldEgg Organic eggs are produced by National Egg, Inc.  These particular eggs were organic and free-run, but not free-range.  This means that they aren’t in cages and can run around inside an enormous barn, but they don’t go outside. The chickens are fed certified organic grains, which is basically the same diet as the Western Family eggs.  According to organic standards, hens must have access to the outside but this requirement is very loose and according to the GoldEgg website must not be any real access.

I found an interesting relationship between the two companies. Daybreak is considered a small farm - only 30,000 hens versus the usually factory amount of 1 million or more. When Wal-Mart came to Terrace, BC, Daybreak offered to supply the eggs but quickly got a phone call from National Egg.  National Egg told them that only they could supply Wal-mart’s eggs, so unless they did so under the National Egg brand, they couldn’t do it.  Daybreak made the deal, but has continued to operate independently. In this way, they are still a small farm who supplies eggs to Western Family.

So where did the GoldEggs come from?  In BC, they are likely to come from Golden Valley, what National Egg calls a partner.  Golden Valley is owned by Fresh Start Food and L. H. Gray & Son.  Fresh Start is a corporation owned by egg producers, and makes 75% of BC’s eggs.  They never say where their eggs come from, but one of the largest organic free run producers is Burnbrae Farms, which has locations across Canada.  It is doubtful that these particular eggs came from BC since they aren’t carrying one of the local labels, and so they came from much farther than 1400 km away.

So what’s the difference?  It seems to me that Daybreak feeds their hens much, much better. I also think that Daybreak hens probably live in cages.  National Egg doesn’t feed their hens as well and is obviously more interested in profits than sustainability.  I wonder if National Egg has to vaccinate their organic BC chickens, or is Daybreak referring to just conventional hens?  It’s such a grey area… who would you support?  

EDIT: I should also add, that while I would like to purchase from a small farm nearer to me, there is not enough supply to meet demand and those eggs are hard to find.  They are most often sold out.

The State of Maine is suing small farmer Dan Brown for selling some milk and a few homemade pickles and jams. 

Food democracy is your right to eat whatever food you want to eat, and it is under threat. Legal action against small farmers like Dan Brown affects the justice system forever, making it possible for further oppression against small farms.  Who are they protecting?  Consumers, or big ag?

Keep track of this story at Local Food Local Rules but MOST importantly - SIGN THE PETITION:

Sustainable Food Petition: Drop the lawsuit against Farmer Dan Brown