Community Buys Own Supermarket – Mullumbimby NSW, Australia
Community Projects, Consumerism, Ethical Investment, News, Society, Village Development — by Brian Hedge March 24, 2012
The small community of Mullumbimby in the Byron Shire of northern NSW, Australia, is currently in the process of determining their own food supply future by purchasing their local supermarket.
This movement, which is gaining momentum daily at an amazing rate, began by chance, fate, serendipity — call it what you will. Greg Dutton, president of the local community garden approached Richard Storie, the proprietor of the local IGA supermarket, about selling the community garden organic seedlings outside the store. During this conversation he quipped, "If the seedling sale goes well I’ll be back to buy the store". That’s a lot of seedlings. Nevertheless an idea was conceived and now after a five month gestation period a movement has been born.
Comments (4)Peru Bans GMOs
Biodiversity, GMOs, Health & Disease, News, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor March 13, 2012
Back in 2009, Wikileaks released some diplomatic cables from the U.S. which revealed a list of priority countries for ‘GMO outreach’. Peru was amongst those on the hit list.
Well, now it seems Peru has opted out….
Comments (2)UMass Permaculture Wins White House Campus Champions of Change Challenge!
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education, Education Centres, News, Society, Urban Projects — by Ryan Harb March 7, 2012
We did it everyone! It is now official. The UMass Permaculture team will be heading to the White House on March 15! This has been an amazing and inspiring week to see the voting results unfold and be in the center of it all. I can’t thank everyone enough for the support you’ve provided us with.
I’d like to share some reflections for how this week has been for me personally.
Comments (7)A Forest of Food in the Center of Seattle
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Food Forests, Land, News, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Andrew Beard March 1, 2012
Click for larger view
In the Beacon Hill community of Seattle a revolutionary community garden is being developed to feed her people. The Beacon Food Forest is transforming a previously unused piece of public land into a vibrant food forest filled with hundreds of different varieties of edible plants, fruits and nuts. The seven acre plot uses perennial crops and sustainable methods rooted in permaculture to create a source of food available to all.
Comments (3)Permaculture Goes to the White House… With Your Vote!
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education, Education Centres, News, Urban Projects — by Ryan Harb February 25, 2012
I’ve got some incredible news to share with you! The permaculture initiative that I facilitate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (USA) has been selected by the White House as a finalist for the Campus Champions of Change Challenge award! This means we are in the final round and the general public is now voting for which teams will get a trip to the White House (judges selected 15 projects from more than 1000 applications!) The top 5 winners also get featured on a television program called ‘The Deans List’ on MTV.
Imagine the potential this has! This is by far the most important thing that I can be doing for the world right now — I truly feel that in my heart.
We have only 1 week to tally as many votes as we can – voting ends Saturday, March 3 at 11:59PM est (New York time!) Here’s a short description about the student group that I oversee, and how to vote:
Comments (21)Kenya: Permaculture – Agriculture With a Green Touch
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, News, Society, Urban Projects — by Rosemary Quipp November 2, 2011
Editor’s Note: This article appeared as the cover story for Kenya’s main newspaper — the Daily Nation — helping give top exposure to the just-established PRI Kenya. Warren Brush (see also) sent this through, and has been the main driver in helping get PRI Kenya off the ground, or onto the ground, as the case may be. The article also appeared on AllAfrica.com. Here’s hoping this new work in Kenya can help invigorate the real kind of ‘development’ that too many countries have detoured around in their search for happiness.
Click for full view
A green oasis nestles on the barren expanse that is Nairobi’s south-east end, somehow managing to blossom between kennels of barking dogs and the exhaust fumes of an auto garage.
Overflowing with colourful vegetables and flowers, the lush patch of garden breaks the grey monotony of concrete and barbed wire, and provides a home to a dozen rabbits, chickens and quail.
Owned and run by the security and courier company Wells Fargo, this garden is the brainchild of the company’s operations director, Ms Gai Cullen.
Comments (2)Cuba To Host Eleventh International Permaculture Conference (IPC11)
Conferences, News — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 27, 2011
Roberto Perez triumphantly rides a camel at IPC10,
while looking forward to hosting IPC11 in Cuba, November 2013.
Photo © Craig Mackintosh
One of the tasks for attendees of each International Permaculture Conference (IPC) is to hear bids for hosting the subsequent IPC, consider the best option and to vote on it. Cuba, ground zero for the largest peak oil rehearsal the world has ever seen, easily carried the day. So, all eyes now look to November 2013 for IPC11 — an IPC with a distinctly Cuban flavour.
If you didn’t catch it already, watch Roberto’s IPC10 conference presentation here. And, below you can hear Wes Rowe talking to Cuba’s Roberto Perez — representative of the Cuban Permaculture NGO, the Antonio Nunez Jimenez Foundation for Nature and Humanity — about his thoughts on the winning bid:
Comments (1)The PRI Restarts the Permaculture Teacher Registry
Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Education Centres, Networking Sites, News, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 19, 2011
Short Version
If you’ve been waiting to apply to be a PRI PDC Teacher, we are now ready to receive your application (English only at this point — but read the rest of the post below to find out more about other languages). To apply, simply log into the Worldwide Permaculture Network, ensure you’ve clicked on the ‘Click if you are a PDC Teacher‘ link on the right side of your profile, and then click on the ‘Apply to be a PRI PDC Teacher‘ link.
Long Version
In March 2010 Bill and Lisa Mollison’s Permaculture Institute (PI) ceased taking applications for their long-running permaculture teachers’ registry. As many immediately recognised, this left a gaping hole in the permaculture garment — one which needs to be filled if the movement is to maintain a reasonable standard of recognised education.
Accordingly, when the registry ceased, the Permaculture Research Institute (PRI) was suddenly flooded with "What now?" emails, and requests that we step in and take over the role of processing and verifying applications from permaculture teachers. This call came because existing teachers, and prospective teachers, all want to ensure that their students have confidence in the courses they’re committing their fees to.
Before I share what we’ve sought to do to fill this void, I will try to expand a little more on the above about why we believe having a globally recognised teachers’ registry is important and why we’ve been working hard to answer the many calls to facilitate this need.
Comments (19)The Rodale Institute’s 30-Year Farming Systems Trial Report
Compost, Conservation, Demonstration Sites, Food Shortages, GMOs, Global Warming/Climate Change, Health & Disease, Irrigation, Land, News, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Society, Soil Biology, Soil Composition, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor October 13, 2011
 The Rodale Institute’s 30-year Farming Systems Trial report (1.3mb PDF) |
The Rodale Institute has been, for a full 30 years now, conducting a long-term comparative Farming Systems Trial. Starting in 1981, when it was already abundantly clear that industrialising nature was creating far more problems than it solved, the Rodale Institute began documented research comparing organically fertilised fields and conventionally fertilised fields on its 330 acre farm in Pennsylvania, USA.
It’s the longest running comparative study of its kind in the world.
In time for their trial’s 30-year anniversary, the institute has put out a report outlining its documented observations. You can download this report via the link at right.
This report is one of several well-researched reports that have come out in recent years, including the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Failure to Yield report (which proves GMOs do not perform as claimed) and the IAASTD’s 400-scientist-strong, 3-year worldwide study (which concluded we need to quickly transition back to relocalised, diverse, agroecological methods).
Comments (6)Permaculture Featured on New York Times
General, News — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 29, 2011
We all know the world is looking for answers to very pressing questions — so it’s high time the mainstream media started to share them! As such, it’s great to see the following article on the New York Times website. Thanks to New York Times writer Michael Tortorello, and well done to Wayne Weiseman, David Cody, Scott Pittman and the many others involved in this piece:
As a way to save the world, digging a ditch next to a hillock of sheep dung would seem to be a modest start. Granted, the ditch was not just a ditch. It was meant to be a “swale,” an earthwork for slowing the flow of water down a slope on a hobby farm in western Wisconsin.
And the trenchers, far from being day laborers, had paid $1,300 to $1,500 for the privilege of working their spades on a cement-skied Tuesday morning in late June.
Fourteen of us had assembled to learn permaculture, a simple system for designing sustainable human settlements, restoring soil, planting year-round food landscapes, conserving water, redirecting the waste stream, forming more companionable communities and, if everything went according to plan, turning the earth’s looming resource crisis into a new age of happiness.
It was going to have to be a pretty awesome ditch.
That was the sense I took away from auditing four days of a weeklong Permaculture Design Certificate course led by Wayne Weiseman, 58, the director of the Permaculture Project, in Carbondale, Ill. — The Permaculture Movement Grows From Underground
As per the New York Times, "A version of this article appeared in print on July 28, 2011, on page D1 of the New York edition with the headline: Growing From Underground."
Comments OffJail Time for Planting Front Yard Garden?
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Land, News, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development, peak oil — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor July 17, 2011
This is by-law madness, and it’ll have to change…. I rather blatantly encourage everyone to disregard dumb rules like this which would stop you from increasing your resiliency and demonstrating better use of your lawn space. The more of us who rebel against absurdity, the easier it becomes to legalise sustainability. I just hope you’ll be smart enough to ensure that your lawn-liberation is done whilst keeping aesthetic standards high as well (i.e. don’t give people justifiable reason to complain!). Julie Bass’ nice tidy veggie planters, which you’ll see in the videos below, are a good example, and only reflect all the more poorly on the neighbours who have complained and the local government who are obviously wholly ignorant of where we presently stand in history….
Vegetables are most definitely suitable!
Comments (23)My Smart Garden
Courses/Workshops, Networking Sites, News, Social Gatherings, Village Development — by Sarah Lamshed June 2, 2011
Do you live in Melbourne’s Hobsons Bay or Moonee Valley City Council areas and like gardening but don’t know what more you can do… or are you a budding gardener and don’t know where to start?
Comments OffPermaculture Comes to Aruba
Community Projects, Conferences, Courses/Workshops, News — by Amber Bacca May 28, 2011
Editor’s Note: A former PRI Australia intern shares exciting news of efforts she has been successfully engaged in since her stay at Zaytuna Farm. Well done Amber!
A U.S.-based non-profit, Resilient Futures International, recently travelled to the beautiful island of Aruba to participate in the country’s first Permaculture Fair, which took place between April 10-20, 2011. Over the course of a week, RFI presented the permaculture concept and methods to around 700 participants from various sectors of Aruban society, including but not limited to businesses, the tourism industry, and local NGOs.
Frank Fekonia
News — by Ecofilms March 7, 2011
I was very sad to hear of the passing of a true legend and active member of Permaculture Noosa – Frank Fekonia. Husband to Elisabeth, Frank was a true maverick character who told me how he escaped from communist Slovenia in the early 1960s by stealing a canoe and paddling night and day for the shores of Italy. Exhausted by the journey, he was picked up by Italian fisherman when he tumbled into the water off the Adriatic Coast. Eventually, as a refugee, he made it to Australia. A frustrated musician and trumpet player who was more used to the traditional Jazz and Swing sound of the 50s, he became a builder instead when the Beatles, he said, ended his career as a musician.
He eventually moved to Cooroy in Queensland and with little money built a three storey home – entirely out of concrete – from moulds he designed himself.
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Weekly Linkfest – Edition 17
News — by Oyvind Holmstad February 23, 2011
Welcome to round seventeen of our Weekly Linkfest, where we share the good, the bad, the ugly and the just plain interesting from what we’ve seen this week.
I would greatly appreciate readers getting involved in this weekly linkfest. Please email editor (at) permaculturenews.org with links (and ideally a summary sentence outlining the key point of each link) to noteworthy articles and news reports on the internet.
Off we go:
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