Local food growers, processors, retailers, and consumers in SE Qld and NE NSW are invited to register their interest in participating in one of three Local Food Value Chain Workshops to be held in May 2008.

The workshops will be convened by the Ethos Foundation and Food Connect (Australia's leading community share agriculture scheme) and will feature keynote presenter Judy Wicks, co-founder of the US Business Alliance for Local Living Economies.

The workshops will be held in Lismore on May 26, Ipswich on May 27, and the Sunshine Coast on May 28.

These three workshops will offer local food producers, processors, retailers, and consumers an opportunity to identify the barriers to viable local food production in their regions and develop strategies to overcome these barriers.

It's a real pleasure to announce the release of SEED International's terrific film "think global: eat local". Many of our readers will know of the pioneering work of Morag Gamble and Evan Raymond, two of Australia's most accomplished Permaculture teachers and practitioners, and this film is the result of Morag and Evan's extensive travels and onground work. The film is 15 minutes long and is a wonderful introduction to the ideas and activities within localisation. It contains interviews with Fritjof Capra, Kristen Lyons and a number of other key figures in the localisation movement. It also contains footage of community and urban agriculture from 15 countries including India, Bulgaria, India, Indonesia, Australia, Turkey, Cuba and South Korea. For more information or to order the film, go to www.localfood.net.au

Hot off the presses, the Ethos Foundation book shop now has available "Visionaries of the 20th Century: A Resurgence Anthology" edited by Satish Kumar and Freddie Whitefield. This extraordinary reference book brings together the lives and works of 100 great men and women who have offered inspiration, hope and healing. Despite the conflicts of the 20th century, many heroic individuals kept alive the hope of a sane and sustainable future through their example, ideas and vision. Their influence helped to bring an end to colonialism and imperialism, apartheid and authoritarian regimes, and they also helped to foster the resurgence of an ecological, holistic and spiritual vision which increasingly resonates in the world today.