Good luck to you in this 2010 growing season!
May you get to spend many happy hours in nature!

 

Friends of the Trees’ Spring 2010 Newsletter has a lot of information about permaculture as well as my news and events.

 

This newsletter is even larger than usual. The index on the right is to help you navigate to what is most interesting to you.

 

A two-week intensive Permaculture Design Course

 

July 12-25, 2010

 

Skalitude Retreat Center

Methow Valley,

North-Central Washington

 

Instructors:

Michael Pilarski

Andrew Millison

Josho Somine

Deston Denniston

David Sansone

& other guests

 

Permaculture is the premier design system for high productivity and ecologically-sound, food systems. In addition to the plant landscape, permaculture also considers transportation, energy, buildings, water supply, community economics and governance.

 

Course tuition:

Before May 1, $800

May 1 to June 15, $900

After June 15, $1,000

Single day $80

Some partial work trades and scholarships available. 

 

Tuition includes instruction, permaculture design certificate, camping, meals, and curriculum material. Graduates are entitled to use the term "Permaculture" in pursuit of livelihood and for educational purposes.

 

For registration and course information: Michael Pilarski:

michael@friendsofthetrees.net, (509) 486-4056

 

 

COURSE TOPICS

* Permaculture principles & methodology

* Observation skills

* Zones and sectors

* Site analysis

* Ecosystem restoration

* Home food production

* Fruits, berries, nuts

* Edible landscaping

* Soils, fertilizers, mulches, inoculants

* Edible and useful native plants, wildcrafting

* Multi-story, food forests

* Vegetable and crop selection

* Sources for seed and nursery stock

* Plant propagation & seed saving.

* Agroforestry & forestry

* Windbreaks, hedgerows

* Ethnobotany & ethnoecology

* Livestock and wildlife

* Urban permaculture

* Water in the landscape

* Swales, keyline, ponds & aquaculture

* Rain water harvesting

* Grey water & bioremediation

* Dry land strategies

* Natural building

* Alternative energy and fuels

* Intentional communities & ecovillages

* Local economies/barter systems

* Decentralized governance systems

* Large-scale design for cities, counties and islands

*  and much, much more!

INSTRUCTORS:

 

Michael Pilarski is a farmer, wildcrafter and educator. He is the founder of Friends of the Trees Society (1978) and has written extensively on forestry, agriculture, agroforestry, permaculture and ethnobotany. He has lived in the Inland Northwest since 1972 and is the most active permaculture teacher in this region. He has taught 22 permaculture courses in the US and abroad. This is the only course he is offering in 2010.

 

Andrew Millison recently moved to Corvallis, Oregon after 14 years of doing permaculture in Arizona. He is very familiar with dryland techniques and has been co-instructing advanced, permaculture teaching courses. He has taught at Prescott College, Ecosa Institute, Oregon State University and founded the Prescott EcoHood.

 

Dave Sansone is an avid forest gardener cultivating over 400 species of edible and useful plants in a multicrop setting.  He has taught numerous courses including wild edible and medicinal plant classes, ethnobotany of the Coast Salish, and Edible Forest Gardening workshops.  He is the director of Perennial Harvest, a non-profit that advocates sustainable cultivation systems. www.perennialharvest.org

 

Deston Denniston, Abundance Consulting, has 12 years of natural building experience in earth, natural fibers, and salvage materials. A living home breathes, procures its own energy, cleans its water, and draws structure from its environment while offering back the same.

 

Josho Somine is a designer and builder from northern California who has been active in the permaculture network since 1997.  He has worked with Occidental Arts & Ecology Center, the Lama Foundation, and Earthaven Ecovillage. He is currently finishing a master's degree in landscape architecture at UW Seattle, with a focus in urban green infrastructure.

 

Other guest speakers to be announced. Course participants will also bring a wide range of knowledge and experience to share. We are all students. We are all teachers.

 

The Skalitude Retreat Center is a 160-acre site surrounded by National Forest. The property and surroundings are gorgeous, fully-functioning ecosystems nestled at the end of a remote mountain valley in the North Cascades in the Methow River watershed. Carlton is the nearest town. Most of the course facilities are set up in one end of an expansive meadow ringed by forests and mountains. The adjacent forest provides shady camping.

 

Food:
We have a large, covered, outdoor kitchen where we prepare three meals a day of tasty, healthy food, mostly organic. The menu includes local meat, eggs and dairy as well as vegetarian and vegan fare.

 

Accomodations:

Tenting or RV - no extra charge

Shared room - $200  2-person bedrooms

Private room - $350

Shared rooms and private rooms only available July 16-25.

 

The word 'Permaculture' was originally coined in Australia in the 1970's by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Over the last 30 years, permaculture has become a global grassroots movement involving hundreds of thousands of people. Permaculture offers a huge storehouse of solutions, strategies and practical techniques gathered from around the globe and throughout history. If permaculture designs were implemented on a planetary scale in cities, farms and homes the world would become a garden of Eden.

 

The course covers the traditional Mollison permaculture curriculum as well as local knowledge. The species and techniques will be aimed at the Inland Northwest which includes Eastern Washington, Eastern Oregon, Idaho, Western Montana and southern Interior British Columbia.  Participants from other bioregions are welcome.  The main focus is learning permaculture principles and design methodology. The principles and methodology, once learned, can be applied and adapted to any site.

 

This course will impart permaculture principles and methodologies which can be applied anywhere in the world. Through lecture, slide shows, discussion, observation, field trips and hands-on activities, permaculture design students will develop the practical skills and knowledge necessary to design and implement sustainable systems that are in harmony with the natural world.

 

This course will be useful for gardeners, farmers, community food organizers, natural resource managers and anyone interested in self employment and local economies.

 

100s of strategies!

100s of techniques!

Saturday 5PM: Ecovillages, International Communities and Cooperative Farming - a Discussion with Michael Pilarski
This will be an informal gathering of people interested in these topics in general or Cloudview Ecofarm in particular. Micahel Pilarski will present a permaculture perspective. We anticipate a wide-ranging discussion led by the specific intterestd and questions of the participants. Please RSVP info.cloudviewecofarm.org
Potluck dinner. no charge. feel free to camp overnight.

 

Sunday 10-4: A Plant Walk with Michael Pilarski
We will be walking up a ridge in a shrub-steppe ecosystem just outside of Ephrata, WA.

 

 

Our aim is to:

$10 suggested donation. Bring bag lunch. Meet at the corner of B Rd NW and 17.7 in Ephrata. will see you at the red barn.
www.cloudviewecofarm.org

 

May 1, Leavenworth, Washington 10AM-4PM

Sponsored by Barn Beach Reserve. $20

Contact: info@barnbeachreserve.org  509-548-0181

 

May 7-8, Rice, Washington 10AM-4PM

Friday:
Permaculture Design for Yards and Homesteads

Saturday:
Wild Plants of Stevens County: Traditional and Modern Uses

Sponsored by Wild (in) Rice Productions.

Contact Maureen Takaoka Harlow.

wildinrice@gmail.com 509-738-6576.

 

May 16, Tonasket, Washington 1PM-5PM

 

Red raspberries

European Black Currants

Gooseberries

Strawberries

Mulberries

Apricots (Last year we had over 1,000 pounds!)

 

Thyme

Oregano

Chives

Lovage

Garlic-chives

Tarragon

Marjoram

Dill

Basil

Parsley

Epazote

Sage

Horseradish

Peppermint

 

Leeks

Shallots

Yellow onions

Sweet Bell Pepper

Jalapeno Pepper

Cherry Tomatoes

Red, large Tomato

Aunt Jenny’s Purple tomato

Cucumber

Purple Globe Eggplant

Green beans

Kale

Potatoes (Yellow Finn and Butterball)

Carrots

Beets

Parsnips

Burdock

Jerusalem Artichokes

Winter squash

Summer squash

Tomatillos

Sweet corn

plus smaller amounts of other vegetables

 

Agrimony

Alfalfa

Arnica

Beebalm

Betony

Black Cohosh

Blessed Thistle

Boneset

Bugleweed

Burdock

Calendula

California Poppy

Catnip

Celandine

Clary Sage

Comfrey

Culver’s Root

Dandelion

Echinacea

Elderberry

Elecampane

Figwort

 

* Larkhaven Farm, a goat and sheep dairy specializing in artisan cheese.

 

* Leaping Sheep Farm. Mixed veggies, livestock and felting. Looking for a young woman, especially in summer and fall. 509-486-2064.

 

* Brooke Medicine Eagle is seeking help on her homestead.

 

Dmitry Orlov on predictions for the decade

 

2010 predictions by Kunstler.

 

Endgame by John Michael Greer. Wednesday, February 03, 2010

 

2010 Economic Forecast: The Cardinal Crisis.

These 2010 predictions outline some potentials for changes in the latter half of 2010 and the first half of 2011.

 

2010 food crisis leads to financial meltdown. A lot of analysis and figures for the current crop production situation in the US as well as a long, long, long list of crop reports from around the US.

 

A Comprehensive Approach To Transit, Transportation, and Land Use. By James Robert Deal.

 

This article outlines some aspects of what a permaculture approach to food production on a societal scale might look like. The topics here could be better organized and greatly enlarged, but taken all together they paint a picture of an abundant food future.

 

Most counties in the US only produce a small percentage of the food consumed there. From as low as 1 or 2% in metropolitan counties to 10% in rural counties. The figure does not get even that much higher for major agricultural counties since most food grown there is exported and most food consumed is imported. About one year ago the US became a net food importing country for the first time ever. The US now imports as much food as it exports. Granting that the exports probably weigh more than the imports, it is obviously not a good idea for the US to be dependent on foreign food. 

 

Low nutrient crops with low mineral and vitamin counts are common and high quality, nutrient-dense foods are rare. A large portion of the food supply is over-processed into forms that are hazardous to human health. Industry bombards the population with advertising for fast food, unhealthy food choices, etc. A lot of food is contaminated with pesticides, fungicides, and biocides. Genetically modified crops, especially corn and soybeans, are becoming a larger part of people’s diets.

 

What if the mechanized agri-business model of production, distribution and retailing breaks down?  Every county has an emergency preparedness team. They advise citizens how to prepare for an emergency, how to respond, and how to build neighborhood support networks.  Their timeline is generally only days, weeks or at the most months. What about emergency planning that thinks in terms of years? We need emergency planning for a food shortages and/or massive unemployment where people do not have the money to buy enough food.  Local citizen groups should prepare such plans. Permaculture has a lot to offer in this regard.

 

Some components of a permaculture food strategy.

 

The better the soil, the easier it is to achieve high productivity, but even the worst soils can be amended to be productive. The worse the soil, the more inputs are necessary and generally more time as well. Fertility inputs can be costly if you buy all your soil inputs from the store. Another way to go about it is to use free or low-cost local inputs.  This includes all organic matter such as spoiled hay, wood chips, hedgerow trimmings, bark, and of course all manures. Chipped power line trimmings are great.

 

There are lots of different techniques and strategies to use the wide range of organic matter/biomass effectively.

A sane society would insure that every single person that wanted to grow their own food had a plot of land to garden on. I think our goal should be to have a community garden space available for everyone who wants one within walking distance. This network of community gardens can take many forms. There are lots of examples to study. These gardens need coordinators to assist new gardeners in planning. The gardens should have access to irrigation water.  Wood chips, manures and fertilizers can be purchased in bulk to make it easier and cheaper for the gardeners. Public fundraising could help with things like fences and infrastructure.  Volunteerism, work parties and making do with local resources will be necessary in many cases. This is a useful investment in local productivity.

 

Replace outside inputs with local inputs. The current farming systems require outside inputs to operate including fuel, machinery, parts, fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides (if they use them). What parts of these inputs could be produced locally?  Certainly much of the fertilizer, and there are management techniques and organic materials that can replace the use of pesticides and herbicides. Some fuel can be produced locally. The trend in American agriculture for the past two centuries is replacing labor with machines. We have perhaps reached the pinnacle of that trend. Organic agriculture and small-scale agriculture are growing trends which are more labor-intensive and less machinery intensive. This could be the source of a large number of right livelihoods in the future. 

 

These are some of the major components of a permaculture food strategy.  We will explore some of them in more detail in this article along with some practical comments.

 

Compost piles have multiple-purposes. The long-term goal is that the compost will be incorporated into the soil once completed. Compost piles can be situated where they will prepare the land under them for cultivation.  Compost piles condition and fertilize the ground underneath them and usually eliminate all weeds. Cool compost piles made of easily digested material take a year or less before they are ready to spread. Some woodier compost piles may stay in one spot for two years or occasionally longer. Vining crops are grown on the compost piles, usually winter squash. Introduce red wiggler worms to the compost piles.  After the compost pile is finished, chickens can obtain lots of worm protein by letting them have access to the pile or dismantling it gradually for them. Hot composts can generate large amounts of heat which can be used in various ways.

 

Almost all types of organic matter have uses in the garden such as: sheet mulching lawns, mulching annual and perennial crops, for mulching paths, hugelkulturs (biomass raised beds), hot or cool compost piles.

 

There are many kinds of manures as well as different strategies of using manure.  Different livestock give differing qualities of manure. As a general rule of thumb we could say that fertility levels go up as livestock intensity goes up. Because a permaculture goal is to minimize outside inputs, livestock feed should be produced on site as much as possible. This limits the number of animals.  The carrying capacity for livestock of any particular site will go up over time as fertility and plant growth increases. A backyard garden will produce more if there is a small flock of chickens on site. The chickens only have access to the garden at the beginning and end of the growing season.  Chickens should have a run for exercise and fresh food.  The chicken yard can be moved around the garden/landscape and used to prepare and fertilize areas for gardening. Chickens are great bug control, and turn kitchen compost and weeds into protein. They are not for every gardener but we can expect to see a lot more chickens in backyards. Chickens need to be integrated into the overall system and given a good life (and protection) so we can achieve maximum benefit. Permaculture has a lot to say about chickens (chooks as they call them in Australia).

 

Rabbits are one of the easiest animals to keep on a small place. During the growing season there is almost always somewhere to collect greens for them on a daily basis. Rabbits love cottonwood leaves. Their manure is one of the best and easiest to use of all manures.  Red wiggler worms introduced into the beds below the cages speed the decomposition and reduce odors.  Small rabbit tractors can be used to mow lawns or clean up garden beds.

 

Goats are the next level up. They are as intelligent as dogs, make great pets, are good for brush and weed control, eat almost anything and produce milk, meat and hides. Their manure does not carry cross-over pathogens for humans such as dog and cat manures do. You need a large yard to fit a goat into the system, but there are still lots of unused corners, lots and brushfields in town which produce goat fodder which can be harvested and brought to the goats. This is called “cut and carry”.

 

Over time and as people desire it, more and more home-owners and land-owners could have a permaculture design team come in and give advice on how to improve productivity, reduce expenses, build soil, improve habitat and have good aesthetics at the same time. Permaculture design teams could include people skilled in home energy audits, retrofits, passive solar, hot water panels, grey water, home power, food production, medicinal herbs, etc.

 

Forest gardens (sometimes referred to as food forests) grow a wide diversity of food in a system which includes trees, shrubs, vines perennials and some annuals (and sometimes livestock). A permaculture design might include a food forest as well as a sunny vegetable garden and other types of habitats. Terra Commons in Olympia, Washington, has set a goal of planting a demonstration forest garden in every one of Olympia’s 30 neighborhoods. Homeowners volunteer their land and volunteers come and plant the forest garden which often involves large-scale, sheet-mulching of lawns.  Terra Commons has had a great response from Olympia’s neighborhood associations and can barely keep up with the demand. They are now promoting a forest garden in every urban neighborhood in the Puget Sound region.

 

Erik Ohlsen has started an initiative called Food Forests Across America. Here is Erik’s description of a food forest. “First let me share what I think the full expression of a food forest can be. Beyond the staple ingredients of a food forest; water harvest, tons of leguminous trees and plants, fruit and nut trees, wildlife habitat, growing mulch and building soil, I also see some additional elements we can message as part of a food forest. Chickens, outdoor kitchens, greywater, gathering and celebration spaces are all elements that I think can be part of a full expression of a food forest. Combining the kitchen garden with the food forest with the social needs of humans seems like a great way to message a new aesthetic for landscapes.”

 

Here are the emphasis from the brochure for a 2010 Illinois permaculture design course.

 

Course topics include: getting the most production from a small space, low external inputs, building soil, water harvesting, irrigation, vertical gardening, stacking, forest gardens, using biomass/organic matter, sun traps, perennial crops, native plants, integrating livestock, hedgerows, permaculture design, zonation, rolling permaculture, where to start, and stepwise evolution.

 

Peter Bane has written a great article “Expanding the Niche of Local Food: A City and Regional Plan” in the Spring 2010 issue of “The Permaculture Activist”. This is a well-articulated look at local food production from the perspective of Bloomington, Indiana, the county it is in and the 7-county region. Peter is able to draw on his experience of being part of a year and half study by the Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force. Worthy of study is their list of 21 short term strategies (1 to 5 years), 13 mid-term strategies (6-15 years) and 5 long-term strategies (15-30 years).

 

“What would it look like for this city (Bloomington) of 70,000, in a county of 110,000 in a seven-county region of 400,000 in south-central Illinois, to grow its own food.”

- Peter Bane

 

Peter Bane gives us some useful figures to work with.  The 2007 national average of food consumption was 2053 pounds of food.  The standard American diet requires 2.74 acres of land per person to produce under current production practices.  Using permaculture best practices and with some modest changes in diet this acreage per person could be much reduced. “John Jeavons has demonstrated and documented that a vegetarian diet for one person, including the fertility crops that would be needed to sustain soil health indefinitely, may be grown on about 4,000 square feet”.

 

This particular article is not up on their website, but there are a large number of articles posted at www.permacultureactivist.net/articles/articles.htm

 

An acre has 43,000 square feet, so theoretically 11 people could be fed from one acre under John Jeavon’s (Grow Biointensive) best practices.  An average city density is about 8 lots per acre.  Of course the yields possible on one acre have different limitations depending on the climate, water available, soils, etc.  John Jeavons did most of his testing at his farm in northern California. Yields go up over time on most parcels of land as soil fertility builds up. The more meat and dairy products in a diet the larger footprint of land that is needed to supply it.

 

For most habitable parts of the US, it would take between one-tenth and two acres to feed people. This is a big spread, and is probably justified.  Where I live in north-central Washington State, I would estimate that with irrigation that a well-managed half-acre of food production could support a family of four with a diet that included a modest amount of eggs, meat and dairy produced on the half-acre.  Few people want to eat only what they grow, but surpluses can be traded among local producers to diversify the diet.

 

How many people could be fed on an acre of potatoes? Potatoes as a main diet is not recommended, but it has kept lots of people alive around the world for many centuries. The US potato harvest average in 1999 set a new record for 35,000 pounds per acre. That would supply 350 people with 100 pounds each.  The world record potato yield (as of the mid-1900s) was R. C. Zuckerman of Stockton, California, who produced 71,900 pounds per acre. His record may have been beat by now.www.springerlink.com/content/5484w7345l5l276k

 

Diversity is the name of the game in permaculture food production. The potato blight is still with us and so undue reliance should not be placed on potatoes. Still, in the temperate zone it is one of the highest yielding foods that can be grown in a small space, and it can also be grown successfully on “rough” ground.  I like to grow it in the early part of a rotation when starting on new ground.  It is relatively easy to weed compared to many crops and is competitive with weeds once established. It needs good nutrition to give high yields. 

 

 

For storage carbohydrate crops I mainly grow potatoes, winter squash and root crops such as beets, carrots, parsnips, rutabagas, and sunchokes, as well as corn. Over the long term it would be wise to plant enough selected chestnut trees (where climate and soils allow) to supply a part of our starch food requirements.  It takes about 10 years to start getting significant production with increasing yields for a long time.

 

 

Here is just one example. Digging biomass pits in the city. I recently talked to a young couple who live in south Seattle who are converting his parents’ one-fifth acre lot to food production.  One of their techniques is to dig big holes in the yard and fill them with hunks of wood, wood chips, lawn clippings, lots of produce waste from a nearby grocery store and other available organic matter. Their soil is a heavy clay with a clay pan one foot down.  The excavated soil from the big holes provides raised mound areas with a greater depth of aeration and better drainage overall on the site. This aeration increases fertility. They plant fruit trees, berry bushes and useful plants around the edges of the holes.  The crop roots have access to the decomposing nutrients.  It is taking them a few years in their spare time to gradually fill the yard with pits, fill them with biomass and plant around them. A side benefit of this strategy is that there is more water storage in the soil and there will likely also be increased infiltration into ground water. This is another good strategy for a specific soil type.  They have also bought two 1500-gallon tanks for roof water storage, and are conducting many mushroom projects.

 

 

How many people would take to carry out a permaculture food strategy on a societal wide basis? I haven’t yet made an attempt to do this in detail, but perhaps 10% of our labor force. Since a permaculture food strategy includes home gardens in most yards, this means that a large percentage of the population would be gardening.  This means much more than just the able-bodied workers actively seeking employment.  Around the world, gardening is a family activity which includes children, grandparents, retired, and disabled. Everyone who wants to garden should be enabled to do so.  This enablement is where a lot of employment can be created. People to help plan and install private gardens, school gardens, senior gardens, community gardens, and so forth. Garden designers of all types are needed including permaculture designers.

 

 

A permaculture design course is the fastest way to gain a deeper understanding of permaculture.

 

The permaculture approach to food production has a lot to offer to the world. 

 

Handout for permaculture workshops - January 25, 2010 version

Michael Pilarski wrote this version of the methodology and the list of recommended website.

This list of principles is from an internet source.

 

Permaculture was started by Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the mid-1970’s.

 

"Permaculture offers a radical approach to food production and urban renewal, water, energy and pollution. It integrates ecology, landscape, organic gardening, architecture and agro-forestry in creating a rich and sustainable way of living. It uses appropriate technology giving high yields for low energy inputs, achieving a resource of great diversity and stability. The design principles are equally applicable to both urban and rural dwellers" - Bill Mollison

 

The following list of 46 permaculture principles is the longest I have seen in print. The list is in a vibrant state of growth and everyone in the movement uses slightly different lists of principles and wording. (MP)

 

 

 

Whereas permaculture ethics are more akin to broad moral values or codes of behavior, the principles of permaculture provide a set of universally applicable guidelines which can be used in designing sustainable habitats. Distilled from multiple disciplines–ecology, energy conservation, landscape design, and environmental science–these principles are inherent in any permaculture design, in any climate, and at any scale. The following is a list of these principles.

 

(There were 12 original principles by Mollison. The latter (13-34) were added on over time and some may not be directly from Mollison. MP)

 

 

Michael Pilarski

 

1. Client interview, determine goals, resources, clarify values, client constraints. A questionnaire can be used as an interview guide (a la Max Lindegger) and/or filled out by the client at home (home is especially valuable if there is more than one person.) Client needs and resources: lifestyle; future development; number of people and form of involvement; finances available for the project, other resources, skills, interests. Ask women and children as well as men.

 

2. Resource inventory. List resources.

Site observations/analysis: everything. (assets, problems), soils, water, vegetation (species & patterns). Constraints such as: soil erosion (gully, sheet, rill, wind), flooding/waterlogging, salinization, soil toxicities, weeds, diseases, insect pests, other pests, theft, wildfire danger, other hazards. Keep in mind that a year of observation before development is commendable.

Data collection: climate, soils, maps, catastrophic data. Local horticulture surveys and resource possibilities.

 

3a) Prepare base maps.

b) List themes.

c) Apply principles and design methodology. Zone and sector analysis. - First functions, then species. Select elements - pattern assembly. Place elements - pattern relationship.

 

4.Prepare a rough design for review with mapping (bubble design).

 

5.Check with client, modify as needed. This feedback loop may be repeated a few or many times. Reiterative process.

 

6.Prepare report, maps (topographical and land use), staging, timetable (small achievable steps at a time for most clients), succession plantings. budgets, useful references (i.e. resource people, other clients, books & publications, government assistance, financial help, organizations, government restrictions, regulations, water zoning, permits needed). Cost benefit analysis. Crops/income sources (short, medium and long term).

 

7.Implementation.

 

8.Modification.

* Prioritize development steps in design. High on the priority list should be: access, fecncing, soil rehabilitation, erosion control, water supply, earthworks, roads, dams, swales, terraces, paths, nursery.  Soil rehab before planting. Find best bulldozer operator.

* Generally create a nucleus and work out. Start at Zone one.

* Train your client in design. Educate the client.

* Permaculture design is applied science. Permaculture is implementation.

* Permaculture design is site-specific, culture-specific and client-specific.

* Function = performing a role. A list of some functions: windbreak, fertilizer, feeding livestock, bee forage, heating, improve porosity of soil, provide income, water collection, water purification, insect control. 

 

O'BREDIM is a mnemonic and acronym for observation, boundaries, resources, evaluation, design, implementation and maintenance.

 

 
April 2, 2010

 The world seems to me like an awesome thriller movie. There is intrigue, war, and behind the scenes maneuvering for world power. At the same time there is incredible human love, heroism and mass movements for change. The Earth itself and the climate are changing. I catch glimpses of the action via the internet, newspapers and from first hand reports.

 

What is going to happen next in world affairs?  We each have our own perspective. Each one of us could be considered a broadcasting antenna. Our belief structures about the future and our cosmology are transmitted to the overall planetary mind of humanity. We each contribute to the planetary human mind. The “noosphere” is one of the terms to describe this planetary mind consciousness. Further, each nation has a national character (or characters), a national noosphere. Also each culture, people and tribe has its noosphere. Judging from the wide diversity of thinking in the world today, one might think the collective noosphere must be confused, at war with itself and riddled with contradictions. The corporate media, Hollywood, television and advertizing have a strong influence on the noosphere. The noosphere is not static. Powerful ideas which catch on in a big way in the planetary mind are called memes. Ideas can sweep across the world, especially in these days of rapid communication. Peace, freedom, localization, and many good memes are out there as well as the negative ones stirred up by people with dark agendas. 

 

Just as I believe that every person will eventually evolve into a loving, enlightened being, so I believe that humanity’s noosphere is evolving to a higher state. A state marked by love, high ethics, neighborliness, service to one’s community and equitability. With a consequent decrease in hatred, war, greed, violence and disregard for the environment.

 

How would this manifest in the way we grow food? Industrial agriculture will wane, or perhaps even suddenly collapse. The forerunners of the new food system are rapidly falling into place with the development of things like the expansion of farmer’s markets, the growth in home gardening, the growth in organic gardening and farming, permaculture, biodynamic farms, CSA farms, farm internship programs training new farmers, school gardens, farm to school food supplies, food security councils and initiatives, farm to chef links, food forests, buy local campaigns, and so forth. Together they only produce a small part of the food consumed in the US at this point. Most of our food is still produced by industrial agriculture and a lot of it is sourced from countries around the world. The US recently became a net importer of food for the first time in history. The US now imports more food than it exports.

 

There are still over 500 million small farmers in the world. Many of them are subsistence farmers with only a few acres. The number of subsistence farmers has been diminished greatly over the past several centuries. Dispossession of land, economic pressures forcing them off land and into the slums, dumping of subsidized crops by “developed nations”, and millions killed by colonial and neo-colonial wars and aggressions and western-supported dictators. Still they persist and in some cases resist. India for example is a hotbed of farmer’s movements fighting against multi-national agribusiness control. Small farmers have it tough everywhere in the world, but still many are hanging on and some are even doing well. In the US, small-scale farming is hard economically and there are an ever increasing burden of regulations. The FAO estimates that in 1994, there were some 500 million landless people in rural areas of the world.

 

The corporate, agricultural complex is part of the military/industrial/financial complex which has thoroughly embedded itself in the US federal government, congress, and government regulatory agencies. Through economic means and government influence it is striving for ever greater control of the food system and discourages grass-roots movements for change. This world struggle for control of the food system is part of the fascinating, thriller movie that I am studying. Recently I watched the movie “The World According to Monsanto” and also the movie “Food, Inc.”. Both are films which expose some of the shadow side of big agribusiness.  I also watch films about new developments in local, small-scale agriculture. Monsanto and agribusiness have power and money on their side, but I believe they are losing the battle for the world food noosphere. The home gardening meme is growing and could rapidly expand if the need arises. There is an international movement for urban gardening which has been growing over the past two decades.

 

Cuba and Russia are two examples of how agriculture can change on a national scale. Industrial agriculture in both countries largely collapsed in 1990. Cuba invented a gardening movement which became a major food supplier within several years. Cuba’s agriculture underwent an organic revolution because the embargo allowed few industrial inputs. Today, Cuba’s food production is predominantly from home gardens, small-scale, organic farms and farmer cooperatives.  In Russia, the people responded to the crisis by doubling their gardens and home food production. Today, the Russian people still home produce 85% of their fruits and berries, 75% of their vegetables, and 45 to 50% of their meat and dairy in their family gardens.  The Russians had a distinct advantage as they still were a gardening culture while the Cubans did not have much of a gardening tradition.  Russia is also a large country with lots of available land and is not under a US embargo like Cuba was and still is. If the Cubans could do it, just about everyone could.

 

Growing a garden is a good idea even if there are no crises.  The fresh, tasty food, the exercise and mental enjoyment, and the thrill of eating your own food are well worth it and can save a few bucks too if that is important for your family.  If you have never gardened before, you would be well advised to start this year.  It takes years to build up skills and knowledge.  Over time, your yields will get better and with less work on your part.  Garden smart. Your failures and successes will teach you.  Find the best gardens in your area and study them. Talk to the gardeners.  Most gardeners are happy to share knowledge and sometimes plants.  Pay special attention to the organic types and those who rely on local inputs. The permaculture approach to home food production offers a lot of ways to grow food economically.

 

 

Riversong, Hood River, OR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ceremonies will occur in many locations around the Salish Sea and planet-wide. You are encouraged to participate by organizing ceremonies near the Salish Sea, its rivers, or waterways near your home.

 

Many of us believe that we can collectively make a difference and heal waters everywhere.

 

 

Olympia, WA – April 21 The Evergreen State College Longhouse 6-8PM

 

Seattle – April 22 Seattle Unity Church 7-9PM

Advance ticket sales $10 (Students half-price)

 

Bellingham, WA– April 23  Western Washington University Performing Arts Center 7-9PM