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Happen Films

Restoring Paradise

By Permaculture6 Comments

About the film

Regenerative agriculture offers a future for the sustainable farming of meat in line with nature’s needs, by using holistic grazing and organic/biodynamic practices and even sequestering carbon in the soil – so important in the fight against climate change. At Mangarara, in New Zealand’s beautiful Hawke’s Bay, Greg Hart and his family are in the process of restoring 1500 acres of land conventionally farmed for over 150 years into the paradise it once was.

Focusing on diversity of animals, plantings and practices they are creating not only a beautiful landscape but also a beautiful place for animals and people to live and thrive. Holistic grazing keeps the grass long in order to build soil biology, sequester carbon, reduce fossil fuel inputs and keep animals naturally healthy. The neighbouring farmers might think it’s a wasteful practice, but as Greg says in the film, “Waste is a human concept. Nature doesn’t do waste.”

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June 14, 2017
Love17

Organic Farming is the Future of Agriculture

By Permaculture3 Comments

THE FUTURE OF FOOD

In this film, organic market gardeners Frank and Josje talk about why the supermarket system doesn’t work and how Community Supported Agriculture fits into a new story for food growing. CSA members help farmers to grow the best quality vegetables and to nurture healthy soils by committing to receive vegetable boxes every week for a season.

That way, the farmer can get on with growing great food and sending it direct to their customers, without having to accommodate the profit-geared demands of the supermarket chains, which drive conventional growers to produce less nutritious vegetables in ways that damage the soil. This is the future of food, a future in which both people and planet are healthier!

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KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM "THE FUTURE OF FOOD"

  • CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture – a system that enables farmers to plan their crops efficiently because their CSA members commit to purchasing a weekly box each season.
  • The customer knows they’ll receive a box of freshly harvested nutritionally grown food each week, while the farmer knows in advance what seeds to sow, and there’s no issue of food waste.
  • This system differs to that of the industrial supermarket system, where the focus is on uniform, blemish-free produce with a long shelf-life, requiring farmers to use chemical inputs to grow crops faster in an unnaturally pest-free environment and to discard imperfect produce, creating a system overloaded with toxic waste and extreme food waste.
  • A mixed system between plants and animals is important to create an optimal situation where bought-in fertilisers and other inputs are not required.
  • A farmer’s job is to create the right kind of soil for healthy microorganisms, so that plants, trees, insects and animals can thrive in a biodiverse system.
  • “We are in a position to do it properly because of the CSA; our members allow us to create that diversity. That other, old system doesn’t create that diversity.”
Walking through garden with wheelbarrow
Rows of vegetables on organic farm
Free range chickens

COMMENTS

May 22, 2017
Love25

David Holmgren Interview

By InterviewsNo Comments

About the film

An interview with David Holmgren on permaculture, energy descent, and future scenarios.

This is the full-length version of the interview from our documentary A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity.

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April 9, 2017
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Ted Trainer Interview

By InterviewsNo Comments

About the film

An interview with Ted Trainer on ‘The Simpler Way’.

This is the full-length version of the interview from our documentary A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity.

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April 9, 2017
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Graham Turner Interview

By InterviewsNo Comments

About the film

An interview with Graham Turner.

This is the full-length version of the interview from our documentary A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity.

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April 9, 2017
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Helena Norberg-Hodge Interview

By InterviewsOne Comment

About the film

An interview with Helena Norberg-Hodge.

This is the full-length version of the interview from our documentary A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity.

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April 9, 2017
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Nicole Foss Interview

By InterviewsNo Comments

About the film

An interview with Nicole Foss of the Automatic Earth. Nicole provides easy to understand answers in response to questions on peak oil, financial crisis, energy descent, resilience, community, and simple living.

This is the full-length version of the interview from our documentary A Simpler Way: Crisis as Opportunity.

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April 9, 2017
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Closing the Loop

By Permaculture2 Comments

About the film

Here’s a subject we’re super passionate about – although it’s not a topic always appreciated at the dinner table! Humanure composting is the ultimate in self-responsibility – when we use flush toilets we not only waste beautiful clean water, we waste an incredibly useful resource. Our poo, when properly composted, is a brilliant addition to our gardens, making it the ultimate in ways to create a closed-loop system.

While this isn’t an immediate option for apartment-dwellers, it’s certainly an option for anyone with a back yard big enough to hold a couple of compost bays. In this video, Greg and Lisa, from Wanaka, New Zealand, describe one of the easiest ways to compost your poo. We highly recommend the book Lisa mentions by Joseph Jenkins, The Humanure Handbook – you can buy it online or download a free PDF.

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April 8, 2017
Love6

Urban Abundance

By PermacultureOne Comment

About the film

In the small town of Oxford, Kane and Fiona Hogan have transformed their urban 1/2-acre property into abundant veggie gardens. The aim of Urban Gardener is to build resilience and food security in their local community – both by growing food for people to purchase and by helping people to grow food in their own backyards.

Here is yet another inspiring initiative that brings together the essentials for resilience: good healthy food and strong communities. Check out progress at Urban Gardener on their Facebook page.

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April 8, 2017
Love14

Thriving 23-Year-Old Permaculture Food Forest

By Permaculture2 Comments

AN INVITATION FOR WILDNESS

In the small town of Riverton at the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island is Robert and Robyn Guyton’s amazing 23-year-old food forest. The 2-acre property has been transformed from a neglected piece of land into a thriving ecosystem of native and exotic trees where birds and insects live in abundance. Robert and Robyn are a huge inspiration to us, not only for their beautiful approach to healing the land and saving heritage trees and seeds, but for the way they’ve impacted on their local community.

They’ve operated an environment centre in their town for over 20 years, where the community comes together to learn and discuss, buy produce and sit by the warm fire over a cuppa. We’ve even heard of folk who’ve up and moved to Riverton because they’re so inspired by the Guytons!

Read more about life at the Guyton’s place on Robert’s blog.

SUPPORT HAPPEN FILMS

We rely on our viewers to help us keep making short films and to continue releasing them for free.

If you enjoyed this film please consider donating an amount that feels right to you.

Find out more

KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM "AN INVITATION FOR WILDNESS"

  • There is great joy to be found in taking a degraded place and working with nature to return the biodiversity that creates a healthy ecosystem.
  • The forest garden is layered: trees providing canopy, shade, nesting space for the birds, and fruit – including 80 different heritage apple trees; berry fruits and shrubby plants that like the shade – providing fruit to harvest 10 months of the year; biennial and perennial; bulbs and root crops – parsnips, wild carrots etc. Winding through it all are vines – hops, grapes and more.
  • A trickling creek found on the property was left alone to regenerate naturally. Consequently fish have come back and it is now a healthy stream.
  • As a forest gardener you learn that you’re a bit-player, with a responsibility to learn how it all works by stepping back and watching the processes.
  • Your diet might change – according to the climate you’re in, you’ll begin to eat plants that thrive in your region, perhaps including health-giving plants you once thought of as weeds.
  • The forest garden provides habitat for birds and insects, bringing in more of them than are found on surrounding farmland, and providing pest management in the garden.
  • Rowed gardens require a huge amount of work, while the invitation for some wildness to come into your garden, and interfering as little as possible, creates greater biodiversity and also means much less physical labour for the gardener.
  • “We are not separate from the wild world, we are as wild as it is.”
Food forest
Food forest understory

COMMENTS

April 8, 2017
Love13
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