Date: Thursday, 25th February 2010

Time: 17h30 - 19h00

Venue: Durban Botanic Gardens, Visitors Centre 

Please RSVP to Dorothy Lutchmiah on 031 311 4277 or Lutchmiahd@durban.gov.za for seating purposes 

As part of the commitment to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ in an environmentally sustainable way there was a strong emphasis in achieving energy and water saving during the construction of the Moses Mabhida Stadium.  The purpose of this open forum is to present on overview of key energy and water savings initiatives that were implemented in the stadium.   The Open Forum will start with two 30 minute presentations  

Project launched to ring urban areas with thousands of small farms in bid to reverse agricultural decline

Cuba has launched an ambitious project to ring urban areas with thousands of small farms in a bid to reverse the country’s agricultural decline and ease its chronic economic woes.  The five-year plan calls for growing fruits and vegetables and raising livestock in four mile-wide rings around 150 of Cuba’s cities and towns, with the exception of the capital Havana.  The island’s authorities hope suburban farming will make food cheaper and more abundant, cut transportation costs and encourage urban dwellers to leave bureaucratic jobs for more productive labour.  But the government will continue to hold a monopoly on most aspects of food production and distribution, including its control of most of the land in the communist-run nation.

The pilot programme for the project is being conducted in the central city of Camaguey, which the Cuban agriculture ministry has said eventually will have 1,400 small farms covering 52,000 hectares (128,490 acres), just minutes outside the town.  The farms, mostly in private hands but also including some cooperatives and state-owned enterprises, must grow everything organically, and the ministry expects they will produce 75% of the food for the city of 320,000 people, with big state-owned farms providing the rest.

From “Cuba plans city farms to ease economy woes“, by Marc Frank, the Guardian UK

Last Minute Market (LMM) is a project where shops and producers who have unsold food which would otherwise be discarded are linked with people and charities who need food. Originating in Bologna, it is active in more than 40 Italian towns, with 2 new projects under development in Argentina and Brazil.  LMM offers services to enterprises and institutions in order to prevent and reduce waste production at its origin. It also develops innovative services for the recovery and reuse of unsold goods. Since the introduction of the Italian anti–waste law in 2008, non-food items can also be recovered.

LMM has 6 different and interrelated areas of activities:

* Food- unsold food which is still edible
* Harvest- vegetables not harvested which would be rejected by retailers due to cosmetic reasons or weather damage
* Seeds- seeds that do not conform with market standards
* Catering- products not served by public and private catering
* Books- unsold books that would otherwise be destroyed
* Pharmacy- unsold pharmaceuticals which can be used to meet the health needs of socially disadvantaged people

 Click here to read the full article ...