Videos for Lifecycle: Electronics

For those who missed the workshop, we've put a few short videos up on our YouTube channel.

The Story of Electronics is a good place to start:

Lifecycles: Electronics - Links and Resources

For those who didn't make it to the workshop, or who came and want to know more, here are a few places to start looking.

Karen Allen, 2009, The Human Cost of Mining in DR Congo

A short video and article about some of the consequences of militarised mining for people living in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

David Sullivan & Sarah K. Dreier, 2009, Electronics and Atrocities

This article discusses a new US government plan to map the areas of militarised mining in the DRC.

Basel Action Network

BAN works on the environmental and social impacts of toxic trade. While some sections of this website haven't been updated in a while, it has some good information on the Basel Convention and related issues. It's also worth having a look at the Basel Convention website.

Tanya Ha, E-Waste

A brief overview of some of the issues with electronics disposal, and potential solutions, from an Australian perspective.

Electronics Takeback Coalition

This coalition promotes green design and responsible recycling in the electronics industry. The website has some excellent resources, including an annual electronics recycling report card.

Greening Electronics

Information on how to reduce electronics waste at home, work, and school, and how to put pressure on electronics companies and governments to support greener electronics. This site has a US focus, but many of the ideas are relevant for Australians.

The Story of Electronics

Download 'The Story of Electronics' movie, read FAQ sheets, find out what you can do. Again, this has a US focus, but is still useful.


The Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance

This project is "a voluntary system to independently verify compliance with environmental, human rights and social standards for mining operations." As well as providing an overview of the project and its members, it links to some useful information, including on Australia's Mining Certification Evaluation Project.

Aida Akl, 2010, Tracing DRC's Conflict Minerals a Daunting Task

More information on the difficulties involved in tracing conflict minerals.

Resolve Wiki

RESOLVE was commissioned by the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) Extractives Workgroup to map the supply chain for key electronics components. This wiki provides example supply chains.

Lifecycles Workshop #3: Electronics

Wednesday, 10 November 6:30pm-8:30pm

The Edmund Rice Institute for Social Justice
24 High St, Fremantle

Entry by donation.

The Bluestocking Institute's Lifecycles workshops focus on helping participants to develop action plans around the issues that they care about.

Speakers at Lifecycles: Electronics will discuss the environmental and social costs of producing electronic goods, ways to prolong their usefulness, and how to recycle them ethically. There will also be time for you to ask questions and share your own experiences and knowledge.

You are invited to bring old mobile phones that you wish to recycle.

For more information or to RSVP:
• visit the Facebook event page at http://is.gd/g2BSZ or
• email us at bluestocking@bluestockinginstitute.org or
• call Sky on 0411 595 834.

Sponsored by The Bluestocking Institute for Global Peace and Justice

Lifecycles: Food Roundup and Links

Our first Lifecycles workshop, focusing on food, went well. A big thank you to all the excellent participants who came down and were willing to share their knowledge and enthusiasm with each other and with us! The workshop opened with a brief introductory talk, including an outline of ideas for developing action plans. You can read more about developing action plans at the Living Smart website, which also provides a Home and Work Action Guide.

At Bluestocking, we think it's important to link actions at different levels, including individual lifestyle changes,community-level change, and advocacy for broader structural change. It's important to consider action in each of these areas because they're mutually supportive. Broad structural change helps people to make better choices in their own lives: for example, it's easier to shift from driving to cycling and walking if the government has been encouraged to build more cycle lanes and develop a healthy public transport system. Similarly, taking action at a community level helps to support individual lifestyle change, and helps to provide models of alternative models for food production, consumption, and distribution. Developing an action plan is a good way to start shifting towards the world as you'd like to see it. Some tips for creating an action plan include:

• Think about what's realistic for you.

• Frame your goals positively, rather than negatively. Remember, anything that you're committing to doing you're doing because you care, and because it will make your life and your community better. When you're working out your goals, keep your motivations in mind. Will the action help you to feel happier? Healthier? Will it save you money? Will it help you to feel more connected to the people around you?

• Be specific: if you've chosen to do something like read an article or write a letter to an MP, give yourself a due date. If you're going with something like, “eat more vegetarian meals”, give yourself a specific number or rule, for example: 'I will make a vegetarian dinner five nights a week', or, 'I'm going to stick to vegetarian food on Mondays'.

• Think about how the people around you can help you to achieve your goals. This could mean sharing your action plan with your partner, housemates, or friend.

During the workshop, participants shared useful tools and information. There were some great ideas for campaigns and organisations to get involved in, including:

• Live Below the Line: Live Below the Line is an education and fundraising campaign that will be happening around Australia from the 2nd – 6th of August 2010. During this time, participants will feed themselves for just $2 a day to increase understanding of the obstacles faced by those currently living in extreme poverty, and to raise money for life-changing education programs.

• The Animal Advocates Australia website has some excellent resources for finding out more about animal rights and suggestions for how to take action. There's also a campaign running at the moment against caged eggs being sold at supermarkets: as well as emailing the relevant ministers, you can take part by asking your local supermarket to stop stocking caged eggs.

• There are also plenty of organisations and resources to help you get started on food gardens at home or in your local community: the permaculture WA website or City Farm are good places to start looking.

• The Good Grocery Guide website provides ideas on how to shop more ethically, including an online guide to different products.

Have I missed something? Feel free to share ideas and resources in the comments!

Reminder: Food workshop on 16th June

Lifecycles: Food
16th June, 6:30pm to 8:30pm
The Edmund Rice Centre for Social Justice
24 High St, Fremantle

Are you an urban gardener? Do you care about animal rights? Do you want clearer labelling on food in the supermarket? Or perhaps you want to buy more ethical food, but don't know where to start? If you're already passionate about changing how we eat or just want to know more, Lifecycles: Food will give you a chance to learn, share, and develop some ideas for change that suit your interests and level of commitment.

The Bluestocking Institute's Lifecycles: Food workshop will build on The Politics of Food workshop by helping participants to share their knowledge and develop action plans around ethical and sustainable food production and consumption. The workshop will begin with a brief introduction outlining key issues and discussing methods for taking action on an individual and community level. We will then break into smaller groups in which participants can share ideas, either about issues that they already care about or about areas where they want to learn more. We'll finish with a short discussion period.

For more information or to RSVP:

• visit the Facebook event page at http://bit.ly/LifecyclesFood or
• email us at bluestocking@bluestockinginstitute.org.

Suggested donation $5

Reading Food at the Downunder Feminists Carnival

The latest edition of the Downunder Feminists Carnival features some great blog posts that touch on how we produce food, who produces it, and what we eat, including:

• Helen Razer criticises PETA for their use of sexism and racism in advertising campaigns, and argues that real argument is needed to change people's minds about meat.
• Tammi Jonas talks about some of the debates surrounding the relationship between feminism and the local food movement.
• Steph writes about the 'Hear Me Roar' forum, which considered 'the parallels and intersections between equal rights and animal rights in society and law'.

Food labelling

Food labelling matters, because it allows consumers to make informed choices. It also enables campaigns that put pressure on manufacturers: Fair Trade certification allows us to give support to those who pay workers better, while campaigns against palm oil face problems due to the difficulty in working out which products contain palm oil.

The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and the Australia and New Zealand Food Regulation Ministerial Council (Ministerial Council) are currently reviewing food labelling laws. The final report is expected to be out early next year.

Currently, there are many problems with Australia's food labelling system. "Made in Australia" labels can be misleading, food standards are often set at the lowest common international level, and the body responsible for food health and safety standards (including labelling) is torn between a public health focus and a focus on promoting commerce and international trade. If you'd like to learn more, there's a great Background Briefing program about the problems with our existing food labelling system and what's happening with the review here.

If you care about food labelling and want to know where your food comes from and what's in it, you can also make a submission to the food labelling review at the website.

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Photo courtesy of The Labour Party.

Changing the food system

There's an interesting article over on Good magazine about why salads in the US cost more than Big Macs, and what can be done to change. It's a useful reminder of the political processes that shape the way we eat, and the links between individual food choices and the broader structures of food production. There are also quite a few other articles by the author, Peter Smith, that are worth checking out.

Lifecycles Workshop: Food

Sign up now for the first Lifecycles workshop. Details below.

16 June 6:30pm-8:30pm

The Edmund Rice Institute for Social Justice
24 High St, Fremantle

The Bluestocking Institute's Lifecycles workshops help participants develop action plans around the issues that they care about. The emphasis for Lifecycles: Food will be on building a fairer, healthier, and more sustainable food system through actions that we can take in our own lives and communities.

Speakers at Lifecycles: Food will discuss different aspects of food production and consumption, including how and where food is grown, fair trade, and animal rights. There will also be time for participants to share their own experiences and knowledge.

For more information or to RSVP:
• visit the Facebook event page or
• email us at bluestocking@bluestockinginstitute.org or
• call Sky on 0411 595 834.

Suggested donation $5

Earth Day

Do you think of Earth Day as a time to reflect on personal choices, engage in community action and pressure world leaders to address climate change and environmental degradation? Or has Earth Day been co-opted by corporations wanting to attach their names to feel-good events without changing the status quo? Everywhere you look products are labeled as green and environmentally-friendly. Does this signify any real change or is it just a case of greenwashing, where companies use false claims about a product’s environmental impact in order to sell more stuff?

Greenpeace runs a website devoted to exposing greenwashing with the slogan ‘Clean up your act, not your image’. I share their skepticism of corporate slogans and their new-found interest in jumping on the green bandwagon. However, I also believe that consumers and activists can use corporate commitments and codes to draw attention to how products are made and the impact they have on the environment and the people who make, sell and consume them. So keep an eye out for greenwashers and in the meantime use Earth Day as a time to reflect on your personal choices, engage in community action and pressure world leaders to address climate change and environmental degradation. For more on the history of Earth Day and events, go to the Earth Day 2010 Action Center.

Image courtesy of epSos.de

Ethical Grocery Shopping

Sometimes it can be mystifying trying to make the right choices when grocery shopping. I find myself staring at a wall of biscuits, or oil, or toothpaste, try to weigh up the issues. Buy local? How much packaging does each product have? Has the company that produces it done anything particularly odious? Is the company owned by another umbrella company (probably)? How far can I stretch my budget to make a more ethical choice?

Ethical shopping guides can be a useful shorthand to help you with these choices. The Ethical Consumer Guide, for example, offers not only a printed guide but also an iPhone app, supermarket tours (in Melbourne), and some principles to guide your choices.

The Good Grocery Guide is also useful, and is Perth-based. As well as providing an ethical product list, it also offers more general ethical shopping tips.

Shopping guides have their limits. As the Ethical Consumer Guide points out, in many cases it's best to think carefully about whether you really need to buy the product at all: "About 80% of all saleable products end up as waste, on average, within just 6 months."

Lifecycles Workshop #1: Food

This year, the Bluestocking Institute's work will focus on the lifecycles of three different products: food, clothing, and electronics. In each workshop, speakers will give brief ideas on how to translate concerns into action. Participants will also be invited to take part in informal discussion.

The 'Food' workshop will include speakers (TBA) on a range of topics, including ethical grocery shopping, key food policy issues, and fair trade. Snacks will be provided.

Please RSVP on the event's Facebook page.

Cost: $5 waged/ gold coin donation unwaged.

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Image courtesy of Flickr user Darwin Bell.

Sourcemap: open supply chains

A friend recently linked to Sourcemap, an open-source tool for mapping ecological footprints, travel, and the supply chains of different products. The site's creators write: "We built Sourcemap so that everyone can access the information needed to make sustainable choices and share them with the world."

I haven't had a chance to play around with the site yet: I'm sure it's worth spending a few hours there browsing through the maps that other people have uploaded and creating your own. If you use the site, why not leave a comment telling us about it?

Upcoming Events: RawFest, Youth Week RRFM, Fossil Fools Day

There are a few events coming up that are relevant to Bluestocking's Lifecycles theme, exploring different approaches to what we consume and how we consume it.

RawFest 2010
The first of these is RawFest, which runs from 6pm to late this Saturday at City Farm.

Many Raw Food proponents focus on the health benefits of eating unprocessed and uncooked foods, and incorporating more Raw Food into your diet can also help to decrease the burden our food choices place on the planet and on your wallet. Raw foods often travel less before they get to our plates, take less energy to produce, and cost less.

RawFest will be a great chance to learn more about the Raw Food movement, and there'll also be drumming and dance performances by Akwaaba.

Fossil Fools Day
This Fossil Fools Day, the Safe Climate Coalition is focusing on Barnett's plan to build new coal-fired power stations:

National Youth Week Really Really Free Market
The next Really Really Free Market will be held from 10am to 5pm on Saturday 17th April at Hyde Park.

If you're interested in helping out or want to chat about running a workshop, you can phone Emma on 0403 952 365, or email perth.rrfm@gmail.com

The Really Really Free Market

Last year's Really Really Free Market was great: it was a mix of workshops, kids running around, music, free food, stuff (musical instruments, old puzzles, clothes, furniture, even a car was being given away), and a lovely sense of community.

This year, there are four Really Really Free Markets planned, and the first is coming up soon:

REALLY REALLY FREE MARKET
3-6pm, Sunday 21 March
Stage Area, North Side of Hyde Park, North Perth.

Bring useful items that you no longer need or want to share freely with other members of your community.

Browse through the things others have brought and leave with what your family needs, regardless of whether you brought something or not.

Bring your talent and give something of yourself: music, poetry, storytelling, lessons.

Or bring your unique service or expertise to share with others: haircuts, painting, knitting, bicycle repairs etc.

Bring a gift of food and share in a picnic lunch with other friends and families from your community or share surplus produce from your garden.

www.rrfmperth.blogspot.com

Lifecycles

This year, the Bluestocking Institute's theme will be Lifecycles, specifically focusing on the production, consumption, and disposal of food, clothing, and electronics. We are often separated from the people and processes involved in what we consume. We don't know where our food is grown, who makes our clothes, where electronics go when we throw them out. This makes it difficult to see the effects of our choices on the environment and on people in other parts of the world. It also separates us from the pleasures and lessons that we learn from growing food, sewing, fixing, and engaging in other activities that sustain us.

These issues are complicated by class, race, global inequalities, gender, and the paradoxes involved in consumer activism. Over the next few months, we will begin to explore different perspectives on the lifecycles of key products and provide resources to help people make informed and active choices in their daily lives.

We're currently putting together a plan for our activities and publications for the year, so visit the blog again or subscribe to our RSS feed to find out more.