Krishna Eco Farm Day Trip
Sunday, 15th March 2020
The Krishna Eco Farm project was started in 2012. Throughout the year, the Eco Farm welcomes visitors to their farm for a range of activites. From celebrations of seasonal festivals to day visits, short stays, retreats and volunteering programmes, the Eco Farm offers a wide range of experiences for those wanted a getaway out of Glasgow.
Based in Lesmahagow, the Eco Farm is home to two beautiful alpacas. The Farm has created a lifelong contract for these funny creatures, stating that they will remain with the Farm for the duration of their life to ensure the best quality of care and to be certain their future is secured. Visitors to the farm can walk the alpacas around the farmland, and take part in textiles workshops using their wool which is collected from the alpaca once a year.
We took 16 people to the Eco Farm, all very keen ZooSoc members who had a brilliant day out and a well-deserved break from a chaotic second semester at uni. A fan-favourite activity that we did in the day (besides the alpacas – obviously) was a pottery workshop where we were taught how to use a pedal potters wheel. We took turns for a 1-to-1 lesson on how to use the wheel while the rest of us made some sculptures of clay using a coil technique to build up a secure structure. Hopefully, once our pottery has been fired in the kiln at the farm, the final items will be collected by our committee and distributed to their creators!
The Eco Farm also provides the #FoodForScotland free vegan food most Wednesday on the UofG campus – so keep an eye out for them as their food is amazing!! We had an incredible lunch of all sorts of dahls and chutneys, roti and pakora, as well as their legendary Chai (which we all got a recipe for). The best part of the lunch was that most things we ate came directly from ingredients grown on the farm! They aim to be as self-sufficient with food as possible and anything else is often sourced very locally and sustainably.
The whole farm is powered through an eco-efficient wood burner, which is fully stocked all year round with certified sustainable local wood. Trees are being planted on site to hopefully add to their self-sufficiency in future years. We spent the afternoon helping out with gardening in the greenhouses. Krishna has a heated and non-heated greenhouse and our job was to plant some beans in old guttering lines with newspaper and soil. These gutters were to be hung in the greenhouse to protect them from mice. Once they sprout, they’ll be moved to the outside garden and once harvested, will be used for some delicious recipes in the kitchen!
We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the Eco Farm and we hope to make our visit a regular tradition!
Documentary Night
Thursday, 14th november 2019
As most of the 4th years on the committee were away doing fieldwork in Egypt for their final year Tropical Marine Ecology project, ZooSoc decided to take it chill and have a Netflix evening. The documentary we chose was ‘Virunga’, the Oscar-nominated film focuses on the struggle to control Congo’s rich natural resources paying tribute to the people dedicating their lives to persevering Virunga National Park and its mountain gorillas against all odds. While exposing how rich ecosystems and parks like Virunga can become battlegrounds for governments, and sites of corruption. It was an incredible film and highlighten the plight of the mountain gorilla an the extraordinary courage of those dedicating their lives to protect this iconic species.
In the forested depths of eastern Congo lies Virunga National Park, one of the most bio-diverse places on Earth and home to the planet’s last remaining mountain gorillas. In this wild, but enchanted environment, a small and embattled team of park rangers – including an ex-child soldier turned ranger, a caretaker of orphan gorillas and a dedicated conservationist – protect this UNESCO world heritage site from armed militia, poachers and the dark forces struggling to control Congo’s rich natural resources. When the newly formed M23 rebel group declares war, a new conflict threatens the lives and stability of everyone and everything they’ve worked so hard to protect, with the filmmakers and the film’s participants caught in the crossfire.
A powerful combination of investigative journalism and nature documentary, VIRUNGA is the incredible true story of a group of courageous people risking their lives to build a better future in a part of Africa the world’s forgotten, and a gripping exposé of the realities of life in the Congo.
From director Orlando von Einsiedel and executive producer Leonardo DiCaprio.
“Urgent investigative report and unforgettable drama, ‘Virunga’ is a work of heart-wrenching tenderness and heart-stopping suspense”
LA TIMES
“Showcasing the best and the worst in human nature, ‘Virunga’ wrenches a startlingly lucid narrative from a sickening web of bribery, corruption and violence”
NEW YORK TIMES, CRITIC’S PICK
Halloween Deadly 60 Social
Wednesday, 30th October 2019
Things got spooky at ZooSoc as we headed to the Glasgow Cocktail Club for our legendary Halloween social! The theme for 2019 was based of the iconic ‘Deadly 60′. The Steve Backshall TV programme was a staple in any budding-Zoologists’ childhood, so it was good to bring the amazing show to some of our international members.
ZooSoc members went all out for their costumes for this one! We had some creative and inventive predators, and some amazing home-made outfits.
Animal World Freshers Pubcrawl
Thursday, 26th September 2019
As the semester kicked off we hosted our annual Freshers Pubcrawl. New deadlines are forgotten as ZooSoc brought our members together, old and new, for a night of animal themed fancy dress. We were so grateful for a huge turnout and we hope we’ve shown our new freshers that ZooSoc is the society to be in! Great to see so many Post-Grads there too.
Freshers’ Fair and GUEST Sustainability Fair 2019
Tuesday 17th – Thursday 19th September 2019
We get most of our member sign ups at Freshers Fair, when we get to meet lots of new faces and tell people about our society and the amazing eople we get to come and speak at our events. This year we spent two days at the UofG 2019 Freshers’ Fair, and then a day at the Glasgow University Environmental Sustainability Team’s (GUEST‘s) “Sustainability Fair”. There were many sustainable societies at the fair, from the GU Vegan Society to the GU Beekeeping Society, from R:evolve Recycle Swap Shops tackling fast fashion to the Krishna Eco Farm promoting sustainable agriculture practices and utilising local resources.
As well as talking to prospective new members, these fairs give our committee a chance to wander around and talk to like-minded societies to reach out for collaberations over shared interests. From the GUEST fair alone we got many of our members signed up to the R:evolve Recyle scheme, organised a joint talk with GU Beekeeping and started planning for a society day trip to the EcoFarm in Lesmahagow.
Litter Pick ‘n’ Picnic in Kelvingrove Park
Saturday, 21st september 2019
The first event of our semester, we hosted a litter pick in Kelvingrove Park in support of Keep Scotland Beautiful‘s Week of Action. We thought we’d have the added bonus of a a potluck picnic afterwards in the park for a chance for everyone to meet the committee and other members of the society before our lectures started. It was a beautiful day and we had an amazing turnout for our first event! We were shocked at how much litter we collected in such a short amount of time – and we could’ve been there a lot longer there was still so much out there!
The Upstream Battle Campaign on litter aims to encourage everyone across the Clyde River catchment to understand the pathway of litter to the ocean, and to take action to prevent litter ending up in the sea.
80% of all marine litter comes from land, where litter is washed into gutters, blown into streams or discarded. This means that litter in our streets and parks is not only costly to clean up but is a threat to the marine environment. With 12.7 tonnes of litter and plastic reaching our oceans each year, the solution is prevention. That’s why we joined the Upstream Battle campaign to remind everyone that we need to stop litter at source.
There are also opportunities for individuals, community groups, schools and businesses to get involved, with activities including awareness raising, taking action by doing a litter survey and
clean up or taking part in the Eco-Schools linked activities.
University of Glasgow Zoological Society 