The Top 5 Permaculture News Stories this week

1 Did you know, you can now read www.permaculture.co.uk in 64 languages! Packed with information, videos, articles, solutions, courses, contacts, news and more, our websites totally FREE and a great addition to subscribing to the magazine! Simply select the translate button on the top righthand side. Please share this far your non-English speaking friends far and wide as it is a great way of spreading the word about permaculture.

2 A year ago The Guardian and Permaculture magazine featured the story of a group of Londoner's who banded together and bought a 10-bed house. The diverse group of people went on to set-up The Drive Housing Co-op (which has just launched a fundraising initiative).

Rupert Jones' latest piece concentrates on the financial and social side of what the group are exploring and achieving together, and we are pleased to report it is all round good news.

The group, who source their food from a local permaculture project, are truly inspirational, particularly in a week when housing co-operatives find themselves the subject of proposed Government cutbacks.

To read more see 'Housing co-ops: is The Drive dream still alive?'

3 Woodsman and permaculturist Ben Law recently appeared on NHK's 'El Mundo' magazine show on Japanese public television - the equivalent to 'The One Show' in England. Showing more wonderful footage of Prickly Nut Wood, they spoke to Ben about his home and woodland. We hope all of our Japenese reader's enjoy watching this footage of Ben.

Ben's books, The Woodland Way, The Woodland House, The Woodland Year and Roundwood Timber Framing, along with his Roundwood Timber Framing DVD, are all available from our sister site www.green-shopping.co.uk

Watch the extract:

4 Telgraph writer Christopher Hope, this week covered the Government's plans to encourage more people to grow their own fruit and vegetables. He reports that the initiative urges people to "spot a plot" of unused land at which point new legislation could enable councils to turn these into allotment spaces. It is another sign that localisation is taking a hold and that permaculture offers an essential and workable guide for people who want to go down this route (Permaculture magazine, Patrick Whitefield's Permaculture In A Nutshell or the Permaculture Association are each good places to start for reference and more information). A Government booklet, 'Space For Growing,' is also available, and this covers many of the practical aspects you may need to cover.

Read 'Eric Pickles urges eager gardeners to 'spot a plot' in drive for more allotments'.

5 Finally, our friends at Rapanui have sent us some interesting footage of iconic TV Weatherman Michael Fish MBE. The man famous for his "there will be no hurricane" quote has recently completed a B.A.S.E. jump to raise awareness of climate change. 68yr old Michael Fish made the freefall jump, landing by parachute, after training with experienced urban B.A.S.E jumpers. Michael said: "Raising awareness of climate change is really important, because there is no doubt whatsoever that if we carry on the way we are there will be shortages of food, shortages of water, towns and cities will be flooded, there's all sorts of chaos that could arise, in fact some of it is already happening. We have to do something about it now, not wait until it's too late. If some of us have to make sacrifices, like risking our lives by jumping off buildings, then so be it". Watch and share a video of the Michael Fish B.A.S.E. jump: