Friday Night@Not A Cornfield / Salon:

Friday October 14, 2005, 7.30-10.30pm

The challenge of creating a sustainable relationship between human beings and the planet we inhabit is one of the most pressing of our age. But is sustainability enough?

 Pointing beyond sustainability toward the more abundant propositions of restoration and transformation, the Not A Cornfield art project has both literally transformed 32-acres of polluted earth into a verdant cornfield and generated a green vision of future possibility in Los Angeles. Growing in the midst of LA's Downtown re-vitalization, the project invites us to consider innovative ways of addressing urban ecology and the integration of fertile spaces into dense cities.

In this fruitful context Larry Santoyo, one of the United States' leading permaculture practitioners, discusses the radical Permaculture Design Movement. Developed over the last quarter century by renowned Australian ecologists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, permaculture is a design system that applies ecological principles to all of the systems and disciplines that human settlement requires. Weaving together food, fibre and energy production, water management and human needs into intricately connected productive communities, permaculture has evolved from an initial vision of permanent or sustainable agriculture into one of permanent or sustainable culture.

Larry Santoyo is an artist trained in land use planning, resource protection and product development, including seven years of training and service with the State of California and studies with Bill Mollison. He is among the most experienced Permaculture designers and teachers in the United States. Since 1983, he has assisted individuals in the design and installation of residential ecosystems and has assisted companies in developing industrial ecologies and sustainable business practices. As business and product development consultant, Larry Santoyo serves as the senior planner for Earthflow Design Works and the co-director of The Terra Foundation. He is also the founder of the Permaculture MicroVillage Network and the creative director at The Center of Natural Design.

--