The Need for Data and Documentation to Move Permaculture Forward
Commercial Farm Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education — by Richard Perkins May 23, 2012
Bec Helouin, France.
Photos and article by Richard Perkins
A month into our epic family global film trip and we arrive at the beautiful and incredible La Ferme biologique du Bec Hellouin, an experimental organic farm being adapted according to permaculture principles.
Bec Hellouin is home to Charles and Perrine Herve-Gruyer. Farmyard buildings are mostly newly built, however with such sympathy for the traditional styles and materials that you might never guess. The original house is mimicked with its timber framing and cob wall infills, and thatched roofs are elegantly planted along the top. It is an incredibly beautiful farm and a lot of care has gone into the details of the infrastructure. Walking out through the yard down into the growing spaces I can see this is a very efficient place, with water carefully and magically carried through the landscape, creating productive islands and growing spaces where I can see immediately how multiple and diverse microclimates have been created. It’s breathtaking here.
Comments (0)Getting Kids Into Gardening, Part IV: Creativity in the Garden
Education, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Land, Medicinal Plants — by Anthea Hudson
Inspiring our children to develop an enthusiasm for gardening is a wonderful gift we, as parents or caregivers, can give them. This theme revolves around using the garden and its produce as an outlet for creativity. The following ideas will hopefully help give you some starting points for helping your children make the most of the garden in a myriad of ways. Use just one idea, combine several, or come up with your own ideas.
Mazes
Children are often fascinated by mazes. They can create their own living mazes, either on a miniature scale with low growing plants, or a full-scale hedge maze, if you have the room and can afford the plants. Get your kids to create a simple maze design on paper first (graph paper might be handy) and then lay it out on the ground using tent pegs or stakes and string. Alternatively, they could lay little stones or sticks out to mark the design.
Comments (1)Getting Kids Into Gardening, Part III: Creating a Resilience Garden
Education, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems — by Anthea Hudson May 11, 2012
Hands-on experience in getting the most out of a garden is going to be an invaluable skill in the challenging times ahead and getting kids enthusiastically involved, in their early years, is important for their future resilience. Giving your garden (or part of it) a theme can help inspire children and this particular garden theme — a Resilience Garden — may particularly appeal to boys, which is not to say girls won’t enjoy it also, of course!
A Resilience Garden helps provide some of the things you may need, that can be grown rather than obtained from an outside source, if necessary, thereby making your family more self-sufficient. The following are some ideas you might like to have your children try in your Resilience Garden. Some of them only take a short time to grow to a useable state, other things are more long term projects… but you’ve got to start somewhere!
Comments (5)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)Getting Kids Into Gardening, Part II: Create a Pizza Garden
Compost, Education, Food Plants - Annual, Medicinal Plants, Rehabilitation, Soil Composition — by Anthea Hudson
Pizza making with home grown produce
Gardening can be an invaluable tool for helping children explore all kinds of things — from chemistry to botany, healthy eating to interactions within a natural system. It also promotes a connection with the earth and an understanding of where food comes from and what is involved in producing it.
Kids love to eat what they have grown, so why not combine that with another kid’s favourite — pizza! Let your children try growing all of their favourite veggie pizza toppings.
Comments (2)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 (20)Peer-to-Peer Themes and Urban Priorities for the Self-organizing Society
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Education, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Nikos A. Salingaros February 7, 2012
by Nikos A. Salingaros, The University of Texas at San Antonio
Abstract
This essay presents desirable social functioning as basically a matter of free individual decision. I discuss two basic polarities: Left versus Right, and P2P (Peer-to-Peer) versus Global-mass-society. Each polarity takes certain distinctions and concerns as key to understanding political life. A self-organizing P2P society is driven by individuality, publicly-shared patterns, and common culture based on shared loves; whereas Global-mass-society is based upon groupthink, expertise, and glitzy consumerism, and is run by a small group of intertwined political, economic, and knowledge elites. These two polarities Left/Right, and P2P/Global-mass-society are split in their basic attitudes towards the past, towards authority, and towards religion. I argue that the concerns that have divided Left from Right are less important now than formerly, and that the P2P/Global-mass-society polarity is a better way to understand many important issues today. I then propose that the concerns that have motivated both Left and Right suggest the possibility of enlisting both on the side of P2P. We can overcome the traditional Left/Right distinctions in the name of a new political humanism.
Comments (6)Common Ground, Not Landscape Design: Improving the Uptake of Permaculture Ideas in Schools by Not Trying to Teach Permaculture
Education, Society — by Nelson Lebo February 1, 2012
This presentation makes a radical departure from many previous approaches to permaculture education in schools. It does not include gardens or design principles. Instead it considers the main purpose of schools — students learning — and the main factor that influences that purpose: the teacher. Most teachers feel overworked and are reluctant to add anything to what they consider an over-crowded curriculum. Most teachers have low ecological literacy and lack confidence to incorporate sustainability issues into their practice. For them, permaculture is just another multi-syllable, unfamiliar concept. It is the rare teacher who will embrace permaculture and run with it. Good on them!
But for the vast majority of teachers, more nuanced approaches are required for them to want to embrace some of the ideas surrounding permaculture. Those ideas include ethical decision making, applied science, sustainable living, and systems thinking. One strategy is to use permaculture design as the process for engaging teachers and students, not as a desired outcome. This presentation reports on two projects in which holistic, multi-layered approaches to permaculture were used to engage teachers and students in New Zealand Schools.
Comments (4)Community Design Template for 25-500 Families
Alternatives to Political Systems, Bio-regional Organisations, Community Projects, Education, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Dann Zealley January 31, 2012
Introduction
Back in 2008 I spent 6 weeks in Venezuela. I have a Venezuelan friend who believes as I do that permaculture could and should be a driving force for positive change. We both also believe that the Bolivarian Revolution, championed most famously by the charismatic and controversially colourful personality of Hugo Chavez, despite many serious ‘growing pains’, provides the most pragmatic model for the social transformation of humanity towards a truly just and ecologically sustainable world. Already tremendous social and political changes have taken place since Chavez was elected in 1998. Despite corporate media propaganda to the contrary, his government’s record of accomplishment is undeniable (particularly when contrasted with the dramatic economic and social decline of the so-called ‘developed’ nations and the disturbingly increasing deficit of democracy occurring in Europe and North America.)*
Comments (8)John Hardy: My Green School Dream
Aid Projects, Building, Community Projects, Eco-Villages, Education, Education Centres, Energy Systems, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor January 16, 2012
Comments (0)Join John Hardy on a tour of the Green School, his off-the-grid school in Bali that teaches kids how to build, garden, create (and get into college). The centerpiece of campus is the spiraling Heart of School, perhaps the world’s largest freestanding bamboo building. — Ted.com
Permaculture and Philosophy
Courses/Workshops, Education, Society, Village Development — by Angelo Eliades January 11, 2012
We can teach philosophy by teaching gardening, but we cannot teach gardening by teaching philosophy. – Bill Mollison
The place of philosophy in Permaculture has always been a contentious subject and for very good reasons. The very identity and credibility of the design system of permaculture rests on its sound scientific underpinnings and foundations.
Through the definition of strict boundaries of what can and cannot be added to the body of the permaculture syllabus, it has managed to retain its intended focus, and therefore its effectiveness as a scientific design discipline.
If the relationship and connection of permaculture to philosophy is not clearly understood, we run the very real risk of destroying the integrity of the discipline of permaculture, by making inappropriate additions in the misguided endeavour to ‘make it all things to all people’.
So, the best way to tackle any contention about this subject is to examine the nature of permaculture itself as well as the nature of what we loosely define as philosophy, and the relationship between them. And that’s precisely what we’ll do!
Comments (15)Ryan Harb: Permaculture at U.S. Universities – UMass Amherst Case Study (IPC Presentation – Video)
Community Projects, Conferences, Demonstration Sites, Education, Education Centres, Land, Presentations/Demonstrations, Society, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh PRI Editor December 14, 2011
Permaculture at U.S. Universities – UMass Amherst Case Study
Ryan Harb gave this 1-hour talk at the Tenth International Permaculture Convergence (IPC10) in the Wadi Rum desert in southern Jordan in September 2011. Here’s a little background to get you interested:
Comments (1)UMass Amherst transformed a 1/4 grass lawn on campus into a thriving, abundant, permaculture garden during the 2010-2011 academic year. Learn how this student-led project can be easily replicated and spread to other campuses, institutions.. any piece of land for that matter. UMass Amherst is one of the first university’s undertaking a project like this, directly on campus, and supplying the food to its dining commons.
Towards Ecological Literacy: A Permaculture Approach for Junior Secondary Science
Education, Society — by Nelson Lebo November 17, 2011
by Nelson Lebo, Centre for Science and Technology Education Research, University of Waikato, New Zealand
Background
The profound lack of sustainable systems on our planet is of great concern to environmentalists, some of who are environmental educators and some of who are permaculturists. It can be argued that many of the problems facing the Earth and its inhabitants are caused by a lack of ecological literacy among much of the human population. Ecological literacy includes an understanding of the scientific principles of ecology, including the recognition of limits and possibilities. It also includes an attitude of care toward the environment and a commitment to act. Finally, it includes the ability to recognize interconnectedness; what some people call systems thinking.
Comments (2)The Youth Permaculture Challenge – Educating NSW, Australia
Courses/Workshops, Education, Society — by Sarah-Jane Potts November 6, 2011
Editor’s Note: A recent post gave us a good look at where permaculture stands in education today in Australia. In short, there’s a lot of work to do yet…. The effort outlined in this post, however, is a very positive step in the right direction. I put it up both to encourage the organisers, but also to give inspiration to the rest of you — for what you could try in your own region.
There are many ways to address a sustainable future for our region, Byron Shire, NSW, Australia. The youth Permaculture Challenge aims to do exactly that.
The Youth Permaculture Challenge (YPC) will engage 15-17 year olds who may have an interest in or passion for a sustainable future.
It will provide an opportunity for up to 50 youth to reconnect with the power of nature, learn the principles of permaculture and investigate future pathways in the 2nd fastest growing industry in Australia.
We have secured significant funding to create this program in collaboration with our youth, our schools and our community.
The program provides tangible life-skills in communication, leadership, food production, permaculture and self sufficiency and a Statement of Attainment towards a Certificate II in permaculture.
The Permaculture Youth Challenge is a collaboration between:
- The Mullumbimby Community Garden (Incorporated Association)
- Better Futures (an initiative of the NSW Government)
Sustaining Agricultural Education – Where does Secondary Education Stand?
Education, Society — by Joanne Dodd October 21, 2011
In the 1990s the Bachelor of Agricultural Science course I studied had one lecture on organic farming and a tour of a permaculture property. For one subject I delivered a presentation on biodynamics, for which I received an award for ‘bravery’. Sustainable agriculture at that time was presented as little more than the stubble retention and direct drilling technologies of conservation farming. Disheartened by this lack of consideration of ecology-based systems my path strayed from ‘conventional’ Agriculture. That was until I decided to undertake formal teaching qualifications after working as a biodynamic gardener at a Steiner school. I was disappointed to find that little had changed in terms of representing ‘alternative’ systems (organic, biodynamic, permaculture, agroforestry, etc.) in mainstream education. There are no explicit references to any of these systems in any of the syllabi that cover agricultural education in NSW high schools.
