Organic NZ Book Club

Organic NZ has a selection of high quality books available about organic growing, farming and lifestyle. They are an excellent source of information and make wonderful gifts for friends and family.

You can order these books by:

A Tohunga's Natural World: Plants, Gardening and Food

Dr. Paul Moon
$29

Travelling deep into Tuhoe territory, Dr. Paul Moon reveals his encounters with the tohunga Hohepa Kereopa and his world, including traditional plants, cultivation, gardening, foods and medicines.

This book is for anyone with an interest in customary Maori Life and provides a unique perspective on the work of a great tohunga at the height of his powers.

A Worm's Eye View of Recycling Rubbish

Lenka Fields
$5 

An entertaining way for children to learn about composting and recycling.

Design Your Own Orchard – Bringing Permaculture Design to the Ground in Aotearoa

Kay Baxter
$33.50

Earth User's Guide to Permaculture

Rosemary Morrow
$39 - Highly recommended

Permaculture is both a philosophy and a practical approach to land use based on care for peopole and care for Earth. This book is a straightforward and simple approach to achieving self-sufficiency while nuturing and restoring the earth.

There are plenty of easy-to-understand diagrams to help you set up a sustainable food production system.

This book will allow you to reduce your carbon footprint and adopt energy-saving strategies and technologies. There are also chapters on seed saving, integrated pest management, water-saving techniques and dealing with weeds.

Ecology Begins at Home

Archie Duncanson
$20

How one man reduced his personal ecological footprint using the power of CHOICE. This book is packed full of simple ideas to reduce the ecological impact of your daily life.

Exploding the Myth Series

$6 each or the set of 7 for $35

  1. Irradiated Foods
  2. Genetic Engineering
  3. Electro Magnetic Radiation
  4. Vaccination
  5. Fluoridation & Amalgam
  6. Cheap Oil
  7. Nanotechnology

Dr Bob Anderson was a New Zealand scientist and Organic NZ contributor. Bob passed-away in 2008, his work is continued by his wife Jean Anderson.

Feed Me Right - Nutritional Know-How and Body Science

Dee & Tamarin Pigneguy
$29.90

"Feed Me Right presents the nuts and bolts of nutrition, leading the reader through a journey of discovery and an exploration of our body's relationship with food.

In fact, I believe this book is the most comprehensive guide to health and wellness that has been developed for adolescents and their parents.

Certainly Feed Me Right deserves to be taught in schools throughout New Zealand... simply turn the page and begin your own journey on the path to superb health" Damian Kristof, N.D, Downsize Me Presenter

www.feedmeright.co.nz

Gardening for Planet Earth

Gardening for Planet Earth

Dee Pigneguy
$25

"If we were to focus on growing food in family backyards, we could shape a new world."

Gardening is all about learning, experimenting, changing things, adapting, being observant and open to new ideas. Let the amazing photographs in this book help you to learn how to create your own garden paradise.

Gardening for Planet Earth will help you discover:

  • How organic gardens depend on nature's cycles for everything from making soil and fixing nitrogen to growing nutrient dense food.
  • How plants sustain life on earth based on the sun's renewable energy.
  • The role insects play in the predator-prey cycle.
  • The fun and excitement of growing your own fruit, flowers, herbs and vegetables.
  • How organic gardening can slow climate change


http://www.papawai.co.nz/books/Planet_Earth.htm


Investigate Before You Vaccinate: making an informed decision about vaccination in New Zealand.

Sue Claridge
$29

"Parents are not informed that vaccines aren't assessed for safety in New Zealand or subjected to independent review or large-scale longitudinal trials. Despite the Ministry of Health's reluctance to provide people with information from both sides of the vaccination debate, we do still have the freedom to choose whether we wish to vaccinate or not.

The Immunisation Awareness Society's book: Investigate Before You Vaccinate by Susan K. Claridge is an important reference for people wanting to make an informed decision" Sue Kedgley, Green MP.

Joan Donley's Compendium For a Healthy Pregnancy and a Normal Birth

Joan Donley
$36

Written with wit and humour Joan provides a complete compendium of information to answer any question about having babies and keeping healthy.

A book to help you give your baby the best start to life.

Natural Farming – A Practical Guide

Pat Coleby
$45 - Highly recommended

Natural farming carries a simple message: healthy soil makes healthy plants, which in turn makes healthy animals and healthy people. This book explores the consequences in the soil of applications of superphosphate and other artificial fertilisers over decades, and explains soil chemistry in terms that every farmer can understand. It describes the exact role of each mineral and vitamin, both in soil and in the body. And it explains how to prevent expensive disease outbreaks and minimise the use of costly artificial sprays and fertilisers.

The prescriptions are simple and can be applied to any farming enterprise—market gardens, orchards, crops and pasture—to restore the natural balance and fertility of the land, improve soil health and increase productivity.

Natural farming equips the farmer to get the best from the land using environmentally sustainable methods to save time, expense and worry and to supply the rising global demand for pure food.

Pat Coleby is Australia’s foremost authority on farming without chemicals and has written, published and lectured widely on the subject.

Not on the Label

Felicity Lawrence
$29

Felicity Lawrence is an award-winning journalist and editor who has been writing on food-related issues for twenty years. She is consumer affairs correspondent for the Guardian.

We no longer trust what we eat. We lurch instead from food scare to food scare while farming is in crisis around the world.

A handful of retailers and food manufacturers exert unprecedented control over what we eat and where we buy it. We have come to depend on processed food that is routinely adulterated.

In a series of undercover investigations tracking some of the most popular foods we eat at home, Felicity Lawrence travels from farms and factories to pack-houses and lorry depots across the world. She discovers why beef waste ends up in chicken, why a third of apples are thrown away, why bread is full of water and air.

She shows how obesity, blighted town-centres, clogged motorways, environmentally ravaged fields in Europe and starving smallholders in Africa are all intricately related aspects of our newly globalised, industrialised system of twenty-first-century food production.

A must read it you want to understand what really goes into the food on your plate.

Nutrition Awareness - Ten Steps To Healthy Eating

By Karin Puttner
$25

Karin who offers cooking classes, seminars and workshops, has written this book to help you become aware of the advantages of eating food that is as natural and unchanged as possible to help you take the first steps to Vital Nutrition.

It answers the following questions: What is really healthy food? Why should I eat it? How can I create delicious and nutritious meals? What other changes are necessary to live life to the fullest? www.nutritionawareness.co.nz

Organic Futures - The Case for Organic Farming

Adrian Myers
$39

Adrian Meyers, an English orchardist, has put together some compelling arguments for sustainable farming. He has researched the history and politics of organic farming and has done exhaustive research on the deterioration of soil life within conventional agriculture.

He discusses nutrition and GE and devotes a large section to understanding the "living soil".

The main purpose of the book is to show that only sustainable growing methods have any future at all in the production of our food, and that means sustainable over centuries and not years.

Meyers suggests that organic husbandry will not stand still, being "based on an evolving knowledge of soil ecosystems as understood by the biological sciences"

It is user-friendly with a great index, a list of further readings and is not overly dense or scientific for the lay people among us.

Organic Garden Calendar

By Kath Irvine
$15

A month-by-month guide on growing, with info on compost, planting and pruning trees, pest control, extending winter crops, comfrey, mulch, herbs, storing harvest & using up your crops.

You can order this book from the Soil & Health National Office or the Levin Branch.

Organic Gardening - A Guide by Organic NZ

$9.90

An excellent introduction to the principles and practise of organic gardening. This book is highly recommended by experienced tutors and practicioners in the field of organic growing. This book doesn't tell you specifically how to grow your lettuce or tomatoes. What it does tell you about are the fundamentals of organic growing. A very good summary capturing the best organic advice since we were established in 1941!

Organic Resource Guides

Published by the Soil & Health Association, Earthwise Consulting Ltd and the Bio Dynamic Association.

Organic Pastoral Resource Guide - $40 (currently not available, new edition available 2010)
Organic Summerfruit Resource Guide - $25
Organic Citrus Resource Guide - $25
Organic Avocado Resource Guide - $20

Pesticides & Breast Cancer – A Wake Up Call

By Meriel Watts (PhD)
$29

A compelling argument for preventing the exposure of woman and girls to many of today's commonly used pesticides.

Published by the Pesticide Action Network Asia & the Pacific.

Practical Organics for NZ Farmers

Trisha Fisk

September 2009 - Waiting for books to arrive in November.

Practical Organics is an accessible guide to natural and sustainable farming. In this book Trisha Fisk shares her indepth knowledge of the land and her passion for organic farming. Farmers wanting to understand the processes that take place on their land will find this book enormously useful. Topics include; the soil, plants, animals, practical on-farm management advice, going official, marketing and conservation.

Self Help Cancer Cure Book

Editor Chris Wheeler, Soil & Health Association Publication
$25

Cancer is relatively easy to prevent and cure. Self help is the context of this book. We, the publishers and authors, have done our best to produce an up-to-date guide to cancer treatment routines with a tried and true history of producing complete recovery - hence our use of the word "cure" in our title.

We cannot, obviously, guarantee such cure. Readers should therefore proceed no further unless they are prepared to take on full responsibility for their use of the therapies outlined.

So Shall We Reap

By Colin Tudge
$29

Food in the West is cheaper, more convenient and more plentiful than ever. Yet this relentless drive for maximum food production at rock bottom costs continues to lead to health scares.

So Shall We Reap is a blueprint that not only shows us how to feed everyone, but how to feed them without comprising the ethics needed to nurture responsible food production.

The Sustainable Dream - Lifestyle blocks working for you

John Pearce
$16

For anyone contemplating buying a rural property there are lots of questions to ask and answers to seek.

This book by John Pearce, one of NZ's most experienced organic farmers, is a must for anyone seeking a place in the country with a comfortable home and a crop that pays the bills.

The Wild Green Yonder

Philippa Jamieson
$30

Itching for a change, city girl Philippa Jamieson quits her cosy job in Dunedin to travel around New Zealand on the WWOOF scheme (Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms).

Over the course of two-and-a-half years she volunteers at 40 locations – market gardens, livestock farms, communes – many of which truly lie in the wild and hairy yonder.

Along the way Philippa meets a bevy of diverse characters: the irrepressible farm host who’s built his own coffin – with a limerick for an epitaph; Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons; and many more, not forgetting Thelma the goat.

Some of our unsung heroes can be found in these pages: forward-thinking Kiwis who are quietly working away at producing healthy food without toxins, saving heirloom crop varieties, practising self-sufficiency and improving the soil for the next generation.

Informative, entertaining and affectionate, The Wild Green Yonder offers inspiration to anyone with a yen for life's positive alternatives, as well as a unique view on where organic farming is at in New Zealand today.

Whole Foods Handbook

By Joanna Piekarski
$8

A concise guide to 120 products commonly sold in organic shops. With information on each food, a nutrition profile & preparation instructions, including some recipes. A simple guide to enjoying whole foods.

SPECIALS

Limited copies available, please call the office to order.

Living The Good Life

Linda Cockburn
was $39
  sale $28

Disillusioned by their lives, Linda Cockburn and Trevor Wittmer decide to break the cycle of too much work and too little time. Their idea is to live sustainably on a suburban block by drawing their power from the sun, harvesting their water from the rain and growing enough produce to give them variety.

For 6 months they experimented with positive action to change the world from their backyard. This funny and informative book includes the results of this extreme experiment, practical ideas about gardening and food preparation as well as tips and recipes.

Passion for Earth

Marion Bridge, Graeme North & Jackie O'Brien
was $39
   sale $28

This book is a visual celebration of New Zealand's Earth building renaissance. Twenty-four earth houses are studied and discussed with their owners. Includes colourful photos and technical notes.

Raw Meaty Bones Promote Health

Tom Lonsdale
was $34
   sale $25

Peridontal disease is arguably the most common disease condition seen in small animal practice and its effects on the gums and teeth can significantly affect the health and well being of affected animals.

Tom Lonsdale is adamant that the working dog's performance can be jeopardised by regular consumption of processed foods. As well as making a case for a natural diet for your pets, he takes a look at some of the scientific issues, the politics and the marketing practices surrounding the pet food industry.

The House That Jackie Built

By Jackie French
  sale $20

A Simple guide to Building In Stone With Formwork.

Includes garden walls, pathways, ponds, stone floors or a whole house. Even if you don't plan to build a stone city, you'll feel confident to tackle paving, stone floors and maybe even a whole house!