Protect our food
This document is published under the Creative Commons. You may copy and republish it without further...
Gbiota Thinking: The Path to Restore Gut Health
Modern nutrition advice keeps changing, yet obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, and dementia keep rising. That...
Principles of a Gbiota Bed: Building Living Soil for Gut Health
Healthy food starts with healthy soil biology. A Gbiota bed is designed to grow plants in...
Honest Food for Metabolic Control and Preventing Diabetes
Health advice is full of bold claims, but most of it cannot be tested in a...
From Wicking Beds to Gbiota Beds: The Food Strategy
For many years, simple wicking beds helped people grow food during drought and hardship. Since then,...
Fixing Diabetes: Food, Rights, and a Practical Community Plan
Diabetes is driving a serious health crisis: unnecessary amputations, blindness, and early heart attacks. The scandal...
Health From Food Using Modernised Traditional Agriculture
For thousands of years, people stayed healthy by eating food grown in living soil using traditional...
Phytonutrients: Why Living Soil Makes Food Taste Better
Plants give us energy from sugars and fats, but health depends on more than calories. We...
Joining the Gbiota Club: Purpose, Rules, and How It Works
The Gbiota club exists to improve health through nutritious food, with a focus on chronic disease...
How Sugar Blockers and Baby Greens Improve Gut Health
Baby greens can help combat modern chronic disease by reducing sugar spikes and improving gut biology....
New Food: Why Modern Diets Are Making Us Sick
Modern chronic disease is not an accident but the outcome of how we grow, process, and...
The Food Revolution: Rebuilding Soil, Food, and Health in Society
Modern society is experiencing a rapid rise in chronic disease, despite having more food and medical...
Sugar Blockers and Baby Greens: Natural Control of Blood Sugar and Appetite
Sugar blockers and baby greens offer a practical, food-based way to reduce sugar spikes, support healthy...
Food for Health: Rebuilding Health Through Soil, Biology, and Community
Food for health is about more than gardening or diet. It is about how technology, farming,...
Join the Gbiota Club
The Gbiota Club is a community-based response to the global decline in health caused by poor...
The Gbiota Philosophy 1: Soil Regeneration Through Water and Biology
The Gbiota philosophy grew from practical experience rather than theory. Faced with severely degraded soil on...
Colin Austin Part 2: A Life Of Innovation In Water, Soil, And Sustainable Systems
Colin Austin is an engineer, inventor, and founder of Moldflow, a software company that helped shift...
Colin Austin: A Life of Innovation in Water, Soil, and Sustainable Systems
This article tells the story of Colin Austin, an Australian engineer and innovator whose work spans...
Soil Maker: A Practical System for Rapid Soil Regeneration Using Biology and Water
Healthy soil is the foundation of food, nutrition, and long-term resilience. Yet much of the world’s...
Food Production and Climate Change
The global food system has been remarkably successful at producing large quantities of food, even as...
The Coming Food Revolution: Living Plants, Better Soil, Better Health
Modern food is abundant, but it often pushes us toward excess sugar and fats while quietly...
Combating “Fat Tummy” Disease by Changing Gut Biology
Many modern chronic diseases share a common starting point: visceral “fat tummy” fat, often called metabolic...
The Survival of Our Species: Soil, Water, Food, and Gut Biology
This article reflects on more than four decades of work exploring technology, soil, water, food systems,...
G-Biota and Reversing Type 2 Diabetes: Why Gut Biology Matters
This article explains why common approaches to type 2 diabetes—low fat, low carb, plant-based, or fasting—can...
Preventing Chronic Disease with the Gbiota System: Food, Gut Biology, and Better Habits
Chronic diseases like diabetes and heart attacks are rising fast, and medical treatment alone cannot stop...
Gbiota Adoption: Growing Food That Restores Gut Health
Chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and dementia have risen from affecting about 1...
Gutivars Strike Back: A Spielberg-Style Story About Gut Health and Diabetes
This article is written as a playful “screenplay for a film by Steven Spielberg,” but it...
Safeguarding Future Food Supply with Wicking Bed Technology
This report explains how wicking beds can help safeguard future food supply by saving water, improving...
Why This Site Exists: Innovation for Future Generations
This site exists because I believe we have a responsibility to future generations to rethink how...
Anticipatory Irrigation: Using Timing to Save Water and Reduce Evaporation
Anticipatory irrigation is a practical, common-sense approach to watering crops more efficiently by working with rainfall,...
From Dirt to Living Soil: The Science Behind Soil BioPacks
Soil BioPacks were created to make soil biology practical for ordinary growers—so we can grow vegetables...
Wicking Beds and Nutrition: Why Soil Quality Matters More Than Water Saving
Gardening Australia recently showed how to build self-watering containers and asked people to focus on water...
Wicking Beds and Modern Diets: A Practical Path to Nutrient-Dense Food
Wicking beds are often promoted as a convenient way to save water and reduce the effort...
Ying Yang Food Explained: Nutrient-Dense Growing for Better Health
Modern diets often deliver plenty of energy—fats, sugars, and refined carbohydrates—yet fall short on minerals, trace...
Preventing Chronic Diseases with the Gbiota System
Chronic diseases like diabetes and heart attacks are not just medical problems – they are the...
Ying Yang System for Optimal Nutrition: Fresh Plants in Wicking Baskets
This month’s newsletter focuses on wicking baskets, also called the Ying Yang system. While the concept...
Taming the Hungry Beast: Understanding Sugar Addiction and Diabetes
High-fructose sweeteners and ultra-processed foods have created a powerful, addictive drive in many people — a...
The Rise of the Hungry Beast: How Processed Foods Drive Diabetes and Illness
Modern technology has transformed the world by boosting productivity, lowering costs, and giving us access to...
How Home-grown Vegetables and Wicking Beds Can Help Prevent Diabetes
This newsletter reflects on the human cost of modern diets, particularly diabetes, and the importance of...
How Wicking Worm Beds Maximise Water Efficiency and Boost Plant Growth
This article explores the practical and biological principles behind wicking worm beds—a sustainable and water-efficient growing...
Wicking Beds Under Construction: Beginner’s Guide to Reservoir Gardening
This practical guide walks you through building a wicking bed from groundworks to planting. It explains...
Open vs Closed Wicking Beds: How to Build the Right System
This article draws on practical instructions for building efficient wicking beds — whether open-in-ground or closed...
Stones vs Organic Materials: Optimising Wicking Bed Performance
This article explores the development and functioning of wicking beds, comparing the use of stones and...
New Developments in Wicking Bed Technology
This article explores the latest developments in wicking bed technology, highlighting design innovations, soil improvements, and...
Weather and Wicking Beds: How Climate Impacts Gardening and Soil
This article explores how weather influences the performance of wicking beds. Drawing from Colin Austin’s research...
The Complete Guide to Operating Modern Wicking Worm Beds
This article provides a detailed guide on operating modern wicking systems, from small garden boxes to...
Soil BioPacks: Building Living Soil for Healthier Crops
This article introduces the Soil BioPack, a living ecosystem of plants, fungi, bacteria, worms, and minerals...
The Evolution of the Modern Wicking Worm Bed System
This article traces how the wicking worm bed developed from simple subsurface watering ideas into a...
Sustainable Food Security Strategies for Local Communities
Food security is a critical challenge as climate change, soil degradation, and water scarcity threaten global...
Solving the Food Crisis with Soil, Water, and Community Action
This article explores the global food system, highlighting the importance of healthy soils, sustainable water use,...
Diabetes and Phytochemicals for Healthy Blood Sugar
Diabetes is a complex and potentially life-altering condition, but our diet — especially fresh, nutrient-rich vegetables...
The Science of Nutrition: Why Soil and Trace Minerals Matter
This article explores why many popular “health foods” and diet products — often promoted with flashy...
The Biology Revolution: How Living Soils Transform Food Production
'The Biology Revolution' explains how working with living soils can transform food production. Healthy, biologically active...
How Soil, Food Quality, and Lifestyle Shape Modern Health
This newsletter explains why some wicking beds fail, why they may smell, and how soil biology,...
Why Aeration Matters in Wicking Beds (and How to Improve It)
Healthy plant roots need both water and air. In wicking beds, water rises from a reservoir...
Understanding the Core Principles of Wicking Beds
Wicking beds work by keeping soil at a consistently moist level through capillary action, using an...
Why Fine Soil Outperforms Stones in Wicking Beds
Using stones or coarse materials in wicking beds is often counterproductive. This guide explains why fine,...
Changing the Diabetes Paradigm
Colin argues that diabetes is not caused by genetics or fate, but by a modern food...
Wicking Bed Technology Explained: Grow Nutrient-Dense Vegetables with Less Water
Wicking bed technology is a sustainable gardening method that saves water, improves soil fertility, and promotes...
Soil Regeneration for Healthy and Sustainable Wicking Beds
This article argues that human health and soil health are intimately linked: modern food often lacks...
How to Build Water‑Retaining Soil with Sponge and Wicking Beds
This article explores the principles of regenerating soil for vegetable growing using wicking bed baskets. It...
Personal Motives
This project is not an abstract health theory for me – it began with watching my...
Principles of a Gbiota Bed
The Gbiota bed is designed with a single purpose: to grow food in biologically rich soil...
Mk 11 Wicking Beds: Efficient Gardening for Vegetables
This newsletter explains the principles and practical use of Mk 11 wicking beds, a system designed...
The Gbiota Project
The Gbiota project is about one simple idea: growing food in biologically active soil to improve...
Preventing Chronic Diseases with the Gbiota System
Chronic diseases like diabetes and heart attacks are not just medical problems – they are the...
Mk 11 Wicking Beds for Nutrient-Rich Gardening
Wicking beds Mk 11 provide a practical, low-cost solution for growing nutrient-rich vegetables at home. By...
The Gbiota Club
Why changing how we grow food may be the key to changing our gut biology —...
Sponge Beds for Gardening: Create Fertile, Water-Retaining Soil
Sponge beds are a low-cost method for building biologically active, mineral-rich soil from poor parent material....
How to Grow (or Buy) Healthy Food
Why our modern diet is failing us—and how real health begins in the soil. A Personal...
Soils to Supply Essential Nutrients
This newsletter explains why healthy soil is fundamental to healthy food and healthy people. It shows...
Soil Biology — The Key to Healthy Soil and Nutrition
This article explains why soil biology is the foundation of healthy, fertile soil — not just...
Real Soil — Why Soil Life Matters for Our Health
This article argues that true human health begins with living soil. It explains how modern processed‑food...
WickiMix: A Practical Approach to Living Soil
This article presents the principles of “WickiMix” soil preparation for wicking beds in a clear and...
Soils, Minerals and Biological Health
This article explains why truly “living soil” is essential to good health. It describes how trace...
The Gbiota Club — Growing Soil, Food, and Human Health
The Gbiota Club helps people grow nutrient-rich food using living soils. Members learn practical gardening and...
Transforming Parent Soils for Healthy Growing
This article explains how to turn basic soils — like clay, sand, or potting mix —...
How Nature Creates Soil: Understanding the Journey of Soil Formation Across the Earth
Soil is the foundation of life, yet often overlooked. Modern agriculture treats it as inert, managed...
Growing for Health: A Community Guide to Nutrient-Dense Food Production
Growing for Health: A Community Guide to Nutrient-Dense Food Production This document is a condensed and...
Gut Biology from Food
Gut Biology from Food This article explores how healthy soils and biologically active plants support human...
Soils to Grow Food That Will Make Us Healthy
This article explains how healthy soil supports plants that provide essential nutrients and phytonutrients for human...
Living Soils, Fungal Composting and Health
The food we eat has a dramatic effect on our health. In the modern food system,...
Phytonutrients
When I was about 5, I was a naughty boy. We were told that we were...
How I Grow Wickimix
WickiMix is grown based on the practical observation that good soil is formed in the root...
Why WickiMix?
Modern humans are the end result of millions of years of evolution. Our food was generally...
Soils for Wicking Beds
Many people think wicking beds are just to save water; the most important feature however is...
Health Starts in the Soil & Community Supported Agriculture
Human health begins in the soil that feeds our food and ultimately our gut microbes. Healthy,...
Intelligent Control System & Blue Zones
Our intelligent control system, shaped by evolution and supported by gut biology, regulates appetite, fat storage,...
Food for Health & Growing
The intelligent control system that manages appetite, fat storage and overall health depends on nutrients and...
Breed Beneficial Gut Microbes at Home
Our intelligent control system depends on living microbes that originate in healthy soil. By learning how...
Gbiota Technology: Gut–Brain Food and Eco-Balance
Our intelligent control system relies on the biology of living soil — the microbes, minerals and...
The Essence of Life and Our Intelligent Control System
Our bodies are regulated by an intelligent control system that evolved over millions of years. This...
The Wicking – Gbiota Bed Story
For the past twenty years I have been working to change how we grow and think...
Health Starts in the Soil Part 3
The trillions of cells in our guts do more than digest food. They form part of...
The Gbiota Project: Rebalancing Diet, Soil, and Gut Biology
The Gbiota project shares practical knowledge on growing “refurbishment food” that supports gut biology and long-term...
Bed Depths for Wicking Beds
Many people have asked about the depths of the beds. The rules are pretty simple. The reservoir...
How to Replenish Your Gut Microbes
The microbes in our gut are critical for our health but in an effort to feed...
Food, health and sustainability
Our food should keep us healthy and be produced in a sustainable way. A couple of...
Soil for Wicking Beds: Biology, Minerals and Health
Healthy Plants vs Plants That Make Us Healthy The most common question I am asked is...
Soil Biology: The Key to Healthy Wicking Soils
Soil biology is the key — my aim with WickiMix is to provide a concentrate and...
Soil Journey: How Nature Creates Fertile Soil
Where to start regenerating soil? Well nature has been making soil for a few billion years...
Real Soil: Growing Healthy Food in Living Soil
I am a great believer in science, however I am concerned about the way science is...
Transforming Parent Soils for Healthy Wicking Beds
Parent soils, such as clay, sands and potting mixes can be transformed into soils suitable for...
Types of Wicking Beds for Healthy Soil & Plants
Wicking systems rely on the attraction between soil and water so water (and nutrients) will rise...
Why We Need to Change the Modern Food System
For the first few billion years the earth was just a barren rock. Then microbes appeared,...
Energy and Regeneration in Wicking Beds
Food gives us energy and regenerates our bodies. Most commercial foods now contain a lot of...
How to Replenish Your Gut Microbes
The microbes in our gut are critical for our health but in an effort to feed...
The Gbiota Mission
The Gbiota technology breeds beneficial microbes in the soil. Plants are grown in the soil which...
Breeding your own gut microbes
We may live in our cities of concrete and steel, but we are totally dependent on...
Extinction or survive and thrive
The wrong fat in the wrong place is at the core of the modern epidemic of...
The Gbiota Story
The Gbiota Story
The Gbiota Mission
The Essence of Gbiota Breed beneficial microbes in living soil. Grow plants in that soil and...
Will it work?
I may be a woke greenie concerned about the communities well being but I read a...
Changing the system
We all want to live a long and healthy life, free of disease. That depends very...
What does Gbiota do?
Gbiota enables people to breed beneficial microbes at home under controlled conditions so the beneficial microbes...
Gbiota Overview
Necessity is the mother of invention In my case, necessity came from my wife, a medical...
The quiet conflict
The world is in a state of quiet conflict between those who care about their fellow...
A compassionate society
Life is good, we are living longer and the supermarkets are full of healthy food. Sounds...
Understanding your gut-brain
We show the process of – breeding beneficial microbes in organic – growing plants in this...
Understanding your gut-brain
We show the process of – breeding beneficial microbes in organic – growing plants in this...
Innovation is a funny business
Let us look at the story of food and health. In the past, and that means...
Good microbes
You can grow the good gut-bugs at home in containers, gbiota baskets – even if you...
Food Change
For the first few billion years the earth was just a barren rock. Then microbes appeared,...
Managing Change
The third mega-change If you think the world is going through a difficult period you are...
Superclinics
We are facing an epidemic of chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia. In the...
Integration trials
Surely the aim for any community is for its members to live a long and healthy...
Health Professionals
Why is it that some people are fit and healthy, enjoy a long health span with...
Health span or Epidemic
Why is it that some people are fit and healthy, enjoy a long health span with...
Change for the better
Gbiota, at its core, is still about paradigm shifting but the scale of the battle is...
Intelligence
Our gut-brain comprises trillions of cells which communicate with their neighbours to create swarm or group...
Taste, hunger and healthspan
Is humanity in danger of extinction? Probably not. Is our modern comfortable lifestyle in danger of...
Gut health
There are trillions of microbes of thousands of species in your gut. Each cell can communicate...
The Health Myth
Across the globe people are getting fat leading to an epidemic of chronic diseases. Here is...
Health Challenge
Ask around “What is the biggest health challenge?” no not dinosaurs, you are likely to get...
Your choice
We are at a crossroads and have two options. In option one we can live in...
Gbiota introduction
What is Gbiota? Gbiota is a social movement that aims to create a thriving, sustainable society...
Organics save us
Modern food is that it may be hygienic, triple wrapped in plastics, but it is inert...
Introducing the Gbiota technology
The Gbiota technology breeds beneficial microbes in “Wickimix,” a specially enriched soil, for growing nutrient-packed plants...
Changing the Health Paradigm
We are living longer, thanks to major advances in medical science. In the past people died,...
Mind and body
We are living longer, thanks to major advances in medical science. In the past people died,...
Game changer
As a celebrated engineer recognized for his groundbreaking work in Computer Aided Engineering, Colin’s expertise in...
Healthy food – intro
Junk food is tasty, convenient, inexpensive but not healthy. Genuine organic food may be healthy but...
Community Benefit
My wife Xiulan, a medical doctor and surgeon became diabetic, the professional medical advice given to...
Ecosystems
We must create an ecosystem, a food ecosystem in which humans can thrive. Charles Darwin taught...
Chronic disease
Gbiota is a community benefit organisation aiming to prevent the current epidemic of chronic diseases, overweight,...
Health paradox
Chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks and dementia cause a great deal of personal distress and...
Prevention better than cure
Two-thirds of the population are overweight, the wrong fat in the wrong place is the root...
Health – prevention first
Across the globe, we are suffering from an epidemic of chronic or non-infectious diseases. We know...
Food – we love it
Food – we love it. But it is making us fat and sick and growing it...
Prevention
Across the globe we are suffering from an epidemic of chronic or non infectious diseases. Three...
Friendly bugs
Our bodies have an intelligent control system which regulates our bodies, particularly our appetite and immune...
Welcome to Gbiota
We teach how to grow plants as pre and pro-biotics. That is the easy bit, understanding...
Community Health
We are in the midst of an epidemic of chronic diseases, overweight, diabetes, heart attacks and...
Gbiota: Breeding Beneficial Microbes in Soil
The Gbiota process of breeding beneficial gut microbes starts in the soil where the conditions are...
Applying technology
With all our modern technology and automated production capacity, we should only need to work a...
Applying Technology
With all our modern technology and automated production capacity, we should only need to work a...
Technology
I do hold this belief that technology should work for the benefit of the community and...
Become a Healthy Food Ambassador
The global food crisis is not some threat for the future, it is here right now,...
Serious think about food
Has the world gone mad? We have mega companies spending billions of dollars on advertising so...
Think smarter
I want to sell you a concept. It is free you don’t have to pay me...
Thrive and survive
At the start, the earth was just a dead inert rock. Then the microbiota appeared, we...
Smart young girl
There is a nice story about a smart young lady who stalled her ageing car on...
Gbiota Soil Blood, Flood-and-Flush Irrigation, and Foliar Spray
Last updated 8th August with section on foliar irrigation Our basic inputs are organic waste, manure...
Breeding Wickimix
Last updated 8th August with section on making Wickimix in Gbiota boxes Wickimix is simply a...
Tim Spector
It is well known that our gut biota plays a major roles in our health. Many...
Enhancing gut health
This was made as a page by a professional graphics designer, I am republishing as a...
Food not pills
A million years ago the first humanoids appeared, they had a food Eco-system based on eating...
Making a Gbiota box July 24
Update on how to make Gbota boxes July 24
Gbiota overview
Pick and eat plants grown in living soil – that is the way to feed your...
The essence
Describes the underlying principles of the Gbiota movement
The Great Food War
Will the power of mega-corporations that control our food system reign supreme leaving the community fat...
Growers wanted
Growers wanted At this moment Gbiota is used by a pretty determined bunch who are prepared...
Feed your gut brain
We need the right sort of microbes in our gut to be healthy. The microbes in...
Community benefit
My wife Xiulan, a medical doctor and surgeon became diabetic, the professional medical given to us...
Does it work
Overweight, diabetes, heart attacks, and dementia all have a common underlying cause – the wrong fat...
Getting started
How to grow gut brain food and live a long and healthy life
Making a Gbiota box
Here I extract the key points from the many previous points and collect into one spost
Save 100,000 legs from diabetic amputation
I have set myself the target of saving 100,000 people from a diabetic leg amputation before...
Food crisis
Food is one of the major threats to humanity, not an absolute lack of food –...
User posts
Enables users to make posts
Why we get fat
We get fat because our gut-brain says so
Not little piggies
We don’t get fat and sick because we are little piggies and stuff ourselves with chicken...
Eco-balance
Humans have evolved to be naturally not fat – it is not good in the survival...
Compost – Bin or Bury?
It is just a sad fact of life that our modern food system is not working...
Food, health and wealth for all
I present a plan that will lead to a better life so we and our grandkids...
Why we need to act
People across the globe are suffering an epidemic of chronic diseases, obesity, diabetes, heart attacks, and...
Gbiota boxes – made easy
Developing a simple Gbiota box for people living in apartments has been the focus of my...
Newsletter 11 March 2024
“Colin, we know you are trying to persuade people of the benefits of eating healthy food...
Innovation and managing ignorance
I recently wrote an article rethinking food and diabetes that described a simple and inexpensive technology...
Learning plan
There are hundreds of posts and videos on this site. This post arranges the key posts...
Rethinking food and diabetes
We have known for at least twenty years that Diabetes gets serious when fat levels in...
The Gbiota project
Overview of the Gbiota strategy
Growers and gut biota
Microbes breed in the soil, enter plants which act as natural pre and pro biotics which...
Recycle to survive
Round and round it goes For some million years humanoid creatures have survived on this planet...
Learning experience
Homeostasis Many of my readers know that I am a bit OCDish about how our food...
Become a Gbiota supplier
The modern chemical industrial food system is highly productive producing large quantities of standardised energy food...
Help wanted with digital marketing
Help wanted with digital marketing Gbiota interest is how to grow gut brain food. Few people...
Creating change
Every machine has a control system, even if it is a simple on /off switch. The...
Prevention better than cure
The gut is a highly sophisticated organ that does much more than digest food. It forms...
Solving the food crisis
The world is suffering a food crisis, not in quantity – we are actually producing more...
The best pro-biotic ever
What is the best pro-biotic ever, in fact the only one that really works for sure?...
Food matters
It is well known that our gut biota plays a major roles in our health. Many...
Gbiota 101
Gbiota basics – collecting organic waste to make labile compost – starting a new box –...
Gbiota overview 2024
Gbiota is an evolving technology and when some new bit of technology comes along I write...
True Brain
Our gut is a true brain with intelligence. All those trillions of cells are communicating with...
Fire and food
Homo eructus, our ancient ancestor was a puny little creature that barely survived. But it discovered...
Conflict and aggression
Conflict and aggression or peaceful coexistence – these are the options facing humanity. Just look at...
Modern Epidemic
Modern epidemic Food is the root cause of the modern epidemics of diabetes, heart attacks, dementia...
Help me help you
Help me help you My wife, Xiulan, is a medical doctor. She became diabetic and her...
Fire, water and technology
Fire, water and technology There is an old saying that fire and water are good servants...
Fat and sick
Across the globe people are getting fat a sick from an epidemic of diseases like diabetes,...
Health starts in the soil
Health starts in the soil
Food and our nature
We know for sure that the food we eat can make us fat and sick, but...
Inoculants
It is easy when growing Gbiota plants to become focused on the plants, which you can...
What science tells us
Let us look at what science can tell us about life as though our lives depend...
Gbiota soil
Creating soil is the number two challenge facing humanity, after climate change. We know exactly how...
Tribox story
The Tribox is the grandfather of the latest Gbiota boxes. The top box is essentially a...
Gbiota meaning
Ask me what Gbiota is all about and I would reply the survival of our species....
Gbiota intro
Welcome to gbiota.com the technical web for the Gbiota movement which is focused on improving gut...
Gbiota Biobox – practise
The Gbiota Biobox system is about breeding beneficial microbes in organic waste to grow plants as...
Gbiota Biobox Theory
The Gbiota Biobox is designed to do one simple but powerful thing: turn cheap, everyday organic...
What to Grow (and Eat)
What should I grow? Sounds so simple but it is not. Gbiota is about correcting deficiencies...
Why we need to change
Humans are an intelligent, innovative and naturally cooperative creature. Our very first innovation was when a...
Our choice
We live in the Anthropocene which is just a flash way of saying that we now...
Ecobox – how to
In this post I show how to build and maintain a Gbiota Tribox Growing soil is...
Gbiota Tri Box – background
Modern food is full of energy but is low in the nutrients which feed our gut...
Future of food
We are the first generation in history which decides whether we are a healthy people living...
Making a Gbiota tribox
The flower pot method, using 40 cents flower pots, I described in an earlier post how-to-gpots...
The How too
I have written a lot about the theoretical aspect of growing gut food – it is...
Diabetes gut food project
We are experiencing a dramatic increase in diabetes. Fifty years ago just 1% of the population...
Growing Gut food
ou can read latest newletter under new posts (free) The new industry of growing natural pre...
The Gut Brain Revolution: Growing to Prevent Modern Disease
Growing food to feed your gut brain Colin Austin 19th June 23 Technology – benefiting the...
Food waste
‘I will just give these to the chickens.’ How can such a simple phrase lead to...
People over profits
We know that the dominant cause of sickness and death in 1900 was infections disease and...
Real and fantasy
Gbiota is not simply about growing plants. We breed a wide spectrum of microbes in a...
Invite to medical research
Excess storage of fat was largely blamed on our modern diet which could, it was optimistically...
Lamborghini and our gut
A dumb drunken driver in control of a Lamborghini is a dangerous combination. Our gut brain...
The Wickimix story
Chop my foot off – no way My wife Xiulan is a medical doctor, a gynaecologist...
Feed your brains
Our health span is set by our intelligent control system, our gut and head brains and...
Unks and Ununks
John is still claiming that the modern supermarket food system is providing a reliable and abundant...
Upgraded beds Introduction
The world is changing at an incredible rate, climate change, the virus and the polarisation of...
Upgraded Beds
It is approaching thirty years since I was invited to go to Ethiopia to see if...
Food for Gut Health
The Gbiota club is a community of people that wants to enhance their gut micro-biome by...
The food crisis
In the real world we all have to eat – and getting enough of the right...
The side hustle
It seems there are many people who understand the importance of gut health and how the...
Our gut brain
The aim of the Gbiota club is to improve gut health by breeding beneficial microbes in...
What is the Gbiota project
What is the Gbiota project? The Gbiota project is to enhance our gut microbiome by eating...
What is it all about
Energy food It varies a bit from person to person but about 80%, certainly the bulk,...
The story of our guts
Our gut brain, made up from trillions of cells and thousands of species, which communicate with...
Better gut health
Is it feasible that a couple of $8 plastic boxes could contribute to the worlds biggest...
Health starts in the soil
For many years now I have been promoting the importance of gut biology and how we...
The Gbiota Bed Update
I have written many articles on making and managing Gbiota bed, in this article I want...
Diabetes trial
Join the diabetes trial
Health span
We are living longer – our life span is increasing, but our health span – how...
Trench beds
Wicking beds can be modified to breed the beneficial biota in the soil, which enters the...
Gbiota boxes – update
Gbiota boxes, as there name suggests are enclosed and separate from any parent soil. They do...
Food and floods
Floods are making it more difficult to grow any food giving shortages and price hikes –...
Crazy world
Has the world gone crazy? Wars, food shortages, floods and droughts, prices through the roof, epidemics,...
Key Points
Key points When I am creating a project I find it useful to make a list...
No dumb donkeys
We live in the digital age where we seems to expect that any problems can be...
Soaker beds
I developed the original Gbiota beds to grow plants which act as natural pre and pro...
In-Ground Gbiota Beds
Sump beds were developed first as a way of taking advantage of the partial flood and...
Food for health
Historically four out of every five people died before their natural age from an infectious disease....
Community food
Growers breed beneficial microbes in organic matter in the soil, also adding rock dust which is...
Welcome to worm pooh
Health and life span We all have to eat and what we eat determines our health...
How Gbiota beds work
Wicking beds are now very common across the globe. Many have a base filled with some...
Food and the gut biome
The bulk of the food we eat is just burned for energy. We are really just...
Health starts in the soil
Every day we here stories of doom and gloom about food, price hikes from floods and...
Health starts in the soil Part 2
Every day we here stories of doom and gloom about food, price hikes from floods and...
Health starts in the soil
Every day we here stories of doom and gloom about food, price hikes from floods and...
Action plan
Our gut brain is the key to good health. Consumer get fresh veggies which act as...
Bit of a mess
Unless you are a total hermit you can’t have missed that the world is in a...
Community growers
If you looking at this web I assume you are interested in your health and understand...
Community growers
If you looking at this web I assume you are interested in your health and understand...
About Gbiota
The Gbiota Community An online community where groups can chat, exchange information – particularly on preferred...
Time travel
The aim of the Gbiota technology is to replenish our gut with living beneficial biota and...
Why Gbiota boxes
Our gut brain consists of trillions of cells which communicate with eat other and send out...
I am a person
The aim of the Gbiota technology is to replenish our gut with living beneficial biota and...
Bioboxes basics
The aim of the Gbiota technology is to replenish our gut with living beneficial biota and...
The paradigm shift
In the wonderful world of food the established paradigm, based on chemistry, has been incredibly successful....
Gut health
We have two brains, one that lives in our head and another we can call Gertrude...
Gut biology basics
The purpose of the Gbiota local food movement is to help people set up viable, ethical,...
Local gut food
It is about breeding beneficial biology in the soil and in the guts of the creatures...
Join the Gbiota Club
I believe everyone in our affluent world should have access to healthy food at an affordable...
Community food
Let me tell you a story about food. In our modern society all we seem to...
Making soil in Gbiota beds
The key principle of Gbiota bed is to breed beneficial biology both for the soil and...
Gut health
Our gut is one of the most important organs in our body – made up of...
Mother bed
Gbiota beds were developed to grow plants to feed our guts. Technically they have been successful...
Action plan for gut health
People don’t get fat and sick simply because they just happen to eat too much, they...
ecobalance
Why our gut brain is so important Our gut is one of the most important organs...
Get started
Life, even our modern sophisticated life, is totally dependant on the microscopic biota that are virtually...
Gbiota box story
Over hundreds of thousands of years we have evolved a gut brain that automatically looks after...
Opportunity
We all have to eat and the way we are currently growing our food is slowly...
Introduction to Gbiota
This web is a bit different. We are not trying to sell you something – there...
Gbiota boxes
The purpose of GBiota beds is to breed beneficial biology in the soil. This biology enters...
updateAug21
This is an update on the practical side of making and managing Gbiota beds. I assume...
Anthropocene
What should I eat so I am fit and healthy – what can eight billion people...
Gut Biology Sources
Technical references on food, health and gut.
What food does
I start with what food does which explains the various jobs that food does in our...
Food and innovation
food and innovation which has led to the wrong development of the wrong sort of food...
Principles of Gbiota beds
Gbiota beds grow plants to enhance our gut biology – here is the basic principles of...
Spreading the benefits of Gbiota beds
how to implement this technology – spreading the benefits of Gbiota beds so that the whole...
Changing the food system
In my life time the worlds population has increased three fold (actually 3.47) and they all...
Community Supported Agriculture
The Gbiota club is a community-supported agriculture movement where growers and eaters work together to restore...
The Gbiota story – continued
We know how to grow food with these essential minerals and biology and there are plenty...
Food and becoming adult
Our bodies have an inbuilt intelligent control system which regulates all aspect of our bodies including...
Greta Foodberg
In this article I show how Greta Foodberg and I are going to change the world’s...
Making soil 101
Gbiota beds are not simply a watering system to grow cabbages – they are to breed...
Feed your gut brain
Feed your gut brain My interest is how to grow plants that improve our gut brain...
Our gut brain
Modern food contains a surplus of energy food (fats and sugars) but is sadly lacking in...
Adapting to the food crisis
Learning how to adapt to the food crisis is the most important skill we can teach...
School Garden Project
In our gut are a huge number of micro organisms which talk to each to create...
Health and life span
how food affect health and life span
Gbiota Videos
This video library covers the core ideas behind Gbiota—how microbes shape soil, plants, appetite, energy, and...
Minister’s Reply on Water Reform and Water-Saving Innovation (2006)
In May 2006, Malcolm Turnbull MP replied to Colin Austin’s letter about Australia’s water policy and...
Aquaponics by Igor
This is a post from one of our users Igor Grossman in Melbourne about his aquaponics...
The essence
Our guts do much more than help us digest our food. Our guts are part of...
News flash 30 Oct 20
News flash for Gbiota club members When the virus has gone, as it surely will, the...
Gbiota easy
This is the easiest way I know to grow Gbiota food, it is dead simple and...
Dis-enabling
Yesterday the world changed. New Zealand has an explosion of new Corona cases. NZ was a...
Choosing a Gbiota smoothie
The main aim of a Gbiota smoothie is to improve gut health but they also contain...
Alernative food
Nutrition must be one of the most controversial, topics on the planet. Go on line and...
Creating an Alternative Food System
Nutrition must be one of the most controversial, topics on the planet. Go on line and...
Creating an Alternative Food System
Nutrition is among the most controversial, opinionated yet critical topics on the planet. We are suffering...
Nundah cafe
Your meal should feed more than your taste buds—it should also nourish the trillions of cells...
Gbiota club home
The aim of the Gbiota club is to make Gbiota food readily and widely available at...
About the Gbiota Club
When you join the Gbiota club you get a stronger gut, immune and hormonal system by...
Making soil work
We have the technical ability to grow food, which is convenient, taste good and is cheap...
Q&A15April20
I now live in Bundaberg, Queensland, the latitude is about 25 ° which is in the...
Germination
Wicking beds are highly productive and water efficient, the reason why they were so water efficient...
fresh food revolution
For consumers it will mean fresh produce full of the essential mineral, phytonutrients and beneficial biology...
The Gbiota Movement
I want my grandchildren to live in a society where everyone, regardless of their financial state,...
Soil destruction
Soil is created by biological action but the wide spread use of chemicals and mechanisation is...
Micro farms
I get angry about the way a few wealthy people manipulate the truth for their benefit...
Why We Need a Biofoodies Group
For thousands of years life has been getting better, we live longer, are fitter, taller and...
Xiulan’s story
Xiulan was not particularly concerned when she was first diagnosed with diabetes. She was a doctor,...
Truth vs Misinformation About Food
We live in an age of unbridled information, much of it conflicting so how do we...
Changing the Diabetes Paradigm
This post looks at the paradigm shift needed to change the way we treat type 2...
Gbiota beds – manual
living manual for building GBiota beds
Food for health
Do we really want our kids to grow up fat and diabetic, mums need to be...
Food basics
Do we really want our kids to grow up fat and diabetic, mums need to be...
Food for health
Gbiotafood was developed to provide the trace minerals and beneficial biology essential to health but missing...
GBiota Green Smoothies
Dietary advice can appear to be totally confusing with so many different opinions low fat, low...
Why you Should Join the Gbiota Movement
Our bodies naturally self regulate (Homeostasis) we don’t need to think about breathing or our heart...
Gbiota food for gut health
The Gbiota bed growing system was developed to provide an alternative to the high fat and...
Rock Dust & Why Soil Biology Matters
Why Not Just Add Rock Dust? The amount of micro-nutrients humans need is tiny—often just a...
Gbiota – Technology for the Benefit of Society
Humans are by far the most successful animal on earth for a simple reason: we have...
Letter From China: Fermented Food, Gut Health, and Why We Age So Differently
I came to China to look for better ways to make fermented foods that support gut...
What an Ordinary Chinese Town Reveals About Diet, Gut Health, and Aging Well
This article describes careful observation — “gawking” — in Jiangkou, an unremarkable town in inland China,...
Diabetes and the Eco-Village: Wicking Beds, Minerals, and Practical Recovery
Type 2 diabetes is when insulin struggles to move sugar out of the bloodstream and into...
Reversing Type 2 Diabetes the Yangtou Way
Many people are told Type 2 diabetes is permanent and will only worsen, but that message...
Stay at Our Gbiota Village: Practical Support for Diabetes Recovery
Spend a few weeks at our Gbiota village and improve your chances of reversing Type 2...
The Coach Scheme for Wicking Bed Technology
This article explains the Coach Scheme for wicking bed technology: why it exists, how it works,...
Healthy Food Association: Registry of Coaches
This registry is a simple public list of coaches connected to the Healthy Food Association. Coaches...
De-Boggling China: Food, Farming, and Health in a Rapidly Changing World
Halfway through a trip to China, Colin Austin is “de-boggling” — trying to separate real insights...
Gin Gin State School Wicking Bed Project: Educational Gardening for Schools
This community project at Gin Gin State School in Queensland brought teachers, students, parents and local...
The Future of Agriculture: Adapting Farming to Climate Change
This article is based on a talk Colin Austin — inventor of the wicking bed — gave during...
The Healthy Food Association: Growing Together for Better Health
This article introduces the Healthy Food Association, a non-profit community focused on improving health through nutrient-rich,...
Intelligent Control
Why is it that we are in the midst of a health crisis? What I call...
How Life Works
The Two Great Synergies Life is powered by the sun. Plants use sunlight to combine carbon...
Three Functions of Food
We often classify food by nutrients — carbohydrates, fats, proteins — but it is more useful...
Food and Innovation: How Modern Agriculture Changed Our Health
Innovation is often associated with digital technology — phones, electric cars, and automation. But one...
The Principle of Gbiota Beds
The aim of the Gbiota system is to restore and maintain a healthy gut by growing...
Spreading the Benefits of Gbiota Beds
Home Gardeners There are already many local growers who could supply their neighbourhood with gut-healthy food....
Adapting to the Food Crisis
The food crisis is not about empty shelves; it’s about food that’s energy-dense and nutrient-poor. That...
Choosing a Gbiota Smoothie
Minerals, Vitamins and Biology in Gbiota Smoothies The main aim of a Gbiota smoothie is to...
Sugar Blockers
Gut Biology is Ever Changing Our gut biology shifts depending on what we eat. A typical...
History of Food
From Rocks to Soil About a billion years ago, microbiology began breaking down rock, releasing mineral...
Understanding food
The Modern Health Crisis Obesity and diabetes have become widespread in just the last fifty years....
Food Basics
“Do we really want our kids to grow up fat and diabetic? Health starts in the...
Food for Thought
Feed our brains, our head brain and our gut brain and they will look after us....
Blue zones
Feed our brains, our head brain and our gut brain and they will look after us....
Continuous Monitoring
Welcome to my site, which I created after some thought and practical experiments. My wife, Xiulan,...
Health Starts in the Soil Part 1
Humans thrive because we build tools and cooperate. Today, rapid technological change and a highly processed...
Gbiota Club Aims & Code of Conduct: Growing Food for Gut Health
The Gbiota Club exists to help people improve health through food by rebuilding gut biology with...
What Traditional Food Systems in Yunnan Teach Us About Health
This article is a practical travel reflection written from Shenzhen after a trip to Yunnan. The...
How Urban Agriculture Can Combat Hidden Hunger
This article is a summary of Colin Austin’s 2014 Shanghai–Wuhan talk on wicking beds and why...
Yangtou Village Diabetes Farm Stay: Operating Plan
Type 2 diabetes is now so common that the standard medical system is overloaded. A farm-stay...
Gbiota Retreats for Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
A Gbiota retreat is a practical, education-first program that helps people with Type 2 diabetes reduce...
Wanted: Regenerative Farmers to Grow Food for Health, Soil, and Climate
This announcement is a call to regenerative farmers who want to grow food that supports real...
News from China: Scaling Wicking Beds for Food Security and Climate Action
This update explains the progress of international work to scale wicking bed technology as a practical...
Eco-Village Accommodation In Queensland: Heritage Stay At Kookaburra Park
Looking for a slower, healthier way to live (even if only for a week)? Kookaburra Park...
Join the Revolution: the Fight for Human Health
This article introduces what I believe is the next major revolution shaping human health and survival:...
GBiota Responses: Fermentation, Gut Health, and Diabetes FAQs
In this follow-up, I respond to the many replies to my article on gut bacteria and...
Pragging Diet and Diabetes: A Practical, Individual Path to Reversing Type 2 Diabetes
This article explains why standard dietary advice has failed to stop the diabetes epidemic and why...
Dodging Diabesity: Practical Steps to Reverse Diet-Driven Disease
Diabesity is an umbrella term for the chronic diseases linked to diet, including diabetes, obesity, heart...
Reversing Diabetes by Health Farm Stays: The Future of Eco-Villages
Eco-villages can help reverse the epidemic of chronic diseases by doing what normal life often cannot:...
The Choice Is Yours: Reversing Type 2 Diabetes with Food, Data, and Gut Health
Many people are told Type 2 diabetes is for life and will only get worse, but...
The Truth about Diet and Health: Insights from Colin Austin
This August newsletter explores how to separate reliable science from hype in nutrition and health. It...
Fresh Vegetables Made Easy: Wicking Baskets for Health and Nutrition
The wicking basket system is revolutionising access to nutrient-rich, home-grown food. By providing a simple, low-maintenance...
Grow Fresh Vegetables with Wicking Baskets and Beat Processed Foods
The Healthy Food Association is transforming access to nutrient-rich, home-grown food through the innovative wicking basket...
Wicking Bed Support: Coaches, Services, and Local Guidance
This article gathers experienced gardeners, designers, and permaculture practitioners around Australia (and beyond) who offer advice,...
Homegrown Nutrition: Wicking Beds for Healthy Soil
Jung Chang, the author of "Wild Swans," highlighted health, belief, and belonging as keys to a...
Dodging Diabesity
“Diabesity” is Colin’s word for the modern epidemic of diet-related disease – diabetes, obesity, heart attacks,...
Re-making My Gbiota Beds (Update)
This update shares a practical rebuild of a Gbiota bed after I noticed uneven water spread...
Diabetes Updates: What Monitoring, Stress, and Exercise Teach Us
Two new diabetes articles are now available, covering both the scientific evidence for reversal and the...
The Sad Tale of Reversing Diabetes: Why the Message Still Isn’t Landing
Diabetes does not have to be a one-way path to worsening health. The newer model is...
Reversing Diabetes and Gut Biota: A Practical Refuge Model
Type 2 diabetes is no longer seen as a one-way decline. The core issue is not...
Why I Run This Site
This article explains why this site exists and what it is trying to achieve. Colin Austin...
Publications And Topics On Water, Soil, And Irrigation
This page lists Colin Austin’s publications across water, irrigation scheduling, salinity, soil, climate change, and practical...
Water And Soil References: Books, Research Links, And Sources
This page brings together key references that shaped the WaterRight and soil regeneration thinking, plus a...
00 and the Soil Princess: A Story About Soil, Power, and Survival
This story blends fiction, politics, soil science, and water management into a single narrative that challenges...
Water, Soil, and Irrigation Publications: Two Decades of Innovation and Research
This page brings together a chronological overview of publications that document a long-term exploration of water,...
Solving Australia’s Water Crisis: Why Systems, Not Rainfall, Are Failing Us
Australia is often described as “the driest inhabited continent”, yet the raw facts point to a...
