September 2012

Food

Garlic for a self-sufficient garden

Garlic is an essential ingredient in any situation where you have no access to antibiotics – or cannot afford them. Buy heads here for your garden. Turn it into an industry and sell them at your local farmers market (this book will help you do it right).

One medium-sized clove of garlic daily provides health boosting effects. Numerous over-the-counter supplements are available from Amazon as are enteric-coated tablets. Those who don’t like the strong flavour can try deodorised capsules. It is a cornerstone of good health.

This is not myth. Garlic has long been known a medicinal food in the wisest of ancient cultures. For centuries garlic has been used as a medicinal and culinary substance in India, China, Greece and other countries. It has been used as a salve for everything from headaches to colds to infections and healing wounds. It was used to protect against plague by monks in the Middle Ages. Hippocrates used garlic vapors to treat cervical cancer. Garlic poultices were placed on wounds during World War II as an inexpensive and apparently quite effective replacement for antibiotics which were scarce during wartime.

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Land

Buying land in Alaska

Discovery press office is crowing about a new off-grid series it has just commissioned:

Witness the challenge of purchasing a home that has no running water, electricity, indoor bathrooms or, in some cases, access roads when BUYING ALASKA heads to the last great American Frontier to learn what it takes to own a treasured piece of the untamed north. (Or you could put a posting on www.landbuddy.com).

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Energy

China prioritises off-grid power

China may be the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases but it’s also the biggest green economy.

Now Beijing has asked local governments across the nation to submit proposals for “non-grid-connected” (ie off-grid) solar power generation projects, whose total scale exceeds targets set under the current 5 year plan by 50%.
The development comes at a time when international demand for solar panels is weak and industry overcapacity and corporate losses are severe, said state-owned media. It would help domestic solar panels and parts makers, but analysts said implementation would bypass the powerful power distribution monopoly State Grid Corp.
The National Energy Administration this week,demanded all the provinces and municipalities to submit implementation proposals, the China Securities Journal reported, citing unnamed sources.

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Composting toilets – Everything you wanted to know,

For users seeking a toilet for an off-grid site rather than one which will clean itself and lower its own seat, a composting toilet could be just the ticket.

Modern composting toilets – also called waterless toilets – originated in Sweden in 1939. Engineer Rikard Lindstrom was looking for a toilet that wouldn’t pollute the Baltic Sea near his home in Sweden. He launched Clivus Multrum in 1962, and the company and others like it would eventually spread to the United States in the early 1970s. Today, composting toilets are used in a variety of home situations.

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Energy

Super-efficient generator

Watch out for Shannon Miller and her company EtaGen. Her generators may soon be providing a power solution in places with little sun or wind.

It’s hard to radically improve the internal-combustion engine. But Shannon Miller may have done it, by getting it to work at extremely high compression and expansion ratios. Miller’s engines use 33 percent less fuel than conventional gas-powered generators.

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Urban

Mitsubishi Smart House

Service promises to keep energy bills down and an eye on grandma

Is today’s smart home technology, which connects a household’s appliances to the Internet, ready for tomorrow? It’s getting there. Companies are now carrying out pilot projects to determine how much and what other kinds of utility these connections can offer consumers.

Mitsubishi is conducting an experiment to connect its HEMS with the Internet at its Ofuna Smart House, a white-and-gray detached house built near JR Ofuna Station in Kanagawa Prefecture.

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Underground shelters

A second home or cabin that just happens to be 20′ underground? Could be useful if you live in a tornado area, or think the Iranians might try a pre-emptive strike on the Florida Keys. Infowars has featured a state-of-the-art pre-manufactured, underground steel survival shelter – “above FEMA and military standards” but with luxurious interiors” and to be installed underground off the grid for a very affordable price.

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People

World’s Top Eco-Cop

David Higgins works for Interpol. He wants the world to wake up to eco-crime, and take steps to prevent it.

Higgins is head of Interpol’s Environmental Crime Programme. He helps police forces around the world when their investigations crimes like pollution, illegal deforestation or trade in animal parts take them across borders and outside of their jurisidiction.

Higgins started as a member of the Tasmanian police force, then moved to wildlife law enforcement for the Tasmanian government, and the the Australian Customs Service, then the Australian Department of the Environment before joining Interpol.

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Mobile

The world’s best travel trailer

The Prolite Suite is a travel trailer small enough to be towed by a Smart car but large enough to sleep two< With their ability to pack a bedroom, dining area and kitchen into a small space, travel trailers are a great idea. But their convenience has traditionally been offset by their substantial weight; most require full-size cars, trucks, or minivans capable of towing them. The Prolite Suite has rewritten the rules on travel trailers. Although it can sleep two people and comes with a double bed, table, mini-fridge, and portable stove, the Prolite Suite only weighs 250 kilograms (550 pounds). That's light enough to be towed by a two-seater Smart car, which is how Roulottes Prolite (www. roulottesprolite.com) likes to showcase this Lilliputian home on wheels.

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“Revolution” has arrived – will be televised

The off-grid life is about to go mainstream — in a new network TV series called “Revolution” on NBC.  Produced by the creator of Lost and other hit series, Revolution is set 15 years in the future, after electricity ceases to exist on earth because of a solar flare.

The series stars Tracy Spiridakos as Charlie, a teenager who tries to rescue her brother after he’s taken by a local militia in this post-apocalyptic future where all technology has been disabled.

The show launches Monday Nov 17th, so be grateful your TV still works – if it does. “Revolution” mixes a terrific cast, breathtaking visuals, sharp action sequences and brave twists into a low-tech “Mad Max” where cars don’t work anymore.

Survivors refer to that fateful day as the Blackout, but no one knows what caused it until well into series 1.

Director Eric Kripke says: “Its saying what would happen if we all lived without electricity in this very incredibly technologically overextended little world of ours and how would we survive.

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Group of friends looking to go off the grid

Are you part of a group of people planning to move to living off the grid?  Or part of an existing off-grid group looking for more members?  Or perhaps you know of  a group or community that is making the move off the grid?

We need to make contact with groups that fit this description, in the United States, Britain and elsewhere –  and may be able to offer resources and/or land – please contact nick@off-grid.net

Please send us videos or still photos, showing yourself and your group, as well as a written description of your philosophy and plans.

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