This unprepared, extemporaneous speech was delivered in the Fall of 2010 in Grand Rapids at the International Conference on Sustainability: Energy, Economy, Environment. It followed Nicole Foss's talk (embedded below) on how she prepared her family for peak oil and economic uncertainty.
"As a system of design, Permaculture provides a new vocabulary and pattern language for observation and action, attention and listening, that empowers people to co-design homes, neighborhoods, and communities full of truly abundant food, energy, habitat, water, income, and yields enough to share." - Keith Johnson
Educator Peter Bane is preparing for the local future, beyond the global economy and post peak oil. Bane's talk is the story of the history of permaculture, and how he has used permaculture methods to move towards a self-sustaining homestead using free or low-cost techniques.
Peter Bane has published the Permaculture Activist Magazine since 1990. He is a garden farmer with Keith Johnson in Bloomington, Indiana, where they teach permaculture design at Indiana University and elsewhere.. Peter has a bachelors from University in Illinois in political design and a diploma in permaculture design from the British Academy of Permculture design. He served on the peak oil task force for the City of Bloomington, Indiana, which was adopted in 2009 December and has recently finished working on The Permaculture Handbook: Garden Farming for Town and Country.
In this talk, Bane describes, in his own words, how he is moving beyond the money economy, to providing his essential needs from his homestead, and how he is utilizing the principles of permaculture.
Recorded at the International Conference on Sustainability: Energy, Economy, Environment 2010 hosted by Local Future and directed by Aaron Wissner.
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:
UMass Amherst Permaculture is a student group that educates the University of Massachusetts Amherst campus and the local community about ecological permaculture solutions by demonstrating edible perennial landscapes that are highly productive, low maintenance, environmentally sustainable, and socially responsible!
How to vote, and sharing the link with others!:
Simply click the link below and vote (all 3 of your votes!) for "UMASS Amherst Permaculture Initiative"!
Share the ‘example text’ below on your Facebook wall / Twitter feed so others in your network will also vote!
Post this message to Facebook groups and other online networks that you belong to!
Forward a link to this post to your friends, family, listservs, etc! Ask them to vote and share it with others as well.
Keep checking back, sharing this on Facebook during the next week, and keep the momentum high!
In summary, I feel that this is such an amazing opportunity to bring huge amounts of positive light to permaculture on the international stage — to further promote the environmentally and socially-just food system and world that we all want to see, and showing it to literally millions and millions of individuals! Thank you so so much, everyone. We could be at the White House on March 15 with your help!
This trio of video treats is re-evolutionary. Open Source Ecology is a network of farmers, engineers, and supporters that for the last two years has been creating the Global Village Construction Set, an open source, low-cost, high performance technological platform that allows for the easy, DIY fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a sustainable civilization with modern comforts. The GVCS lowers the barriers to entry into farming, building, and manufacturing and can be seen as a life-size lego-like set of modular tools that can create entireeconomies, whether in rural Missouri, where the project was founded, in urban redevelopment, or in the developing world.
The movement to amend the U.S. Constitution to get corporate money out of elections is picking up some serious steam.
Tens of thousands of activists across the country have already signed PFAW's petition calling for an amendment ... in November and December, thousands of Americans attended hundreds house parties nationwide -- organized by PFAW, Public Citizen, Move To Amend and other allies, and joined by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Jim Hightower -- to mobilize and plan for a day of action on the upcoming January 21st second anniversary of Citizens United v. FEC, the Supreme Court decision that unleashed unlimited corporate spending in our elections. Organizing meetings are taking place now and our movement was just this week featured on TV on both The Dylan Ratigan Show and The Young Turks.
TEN bills proposing a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United decision have been introduced in the current Congress -- including one by Rep. Ted Deutch to expressly exclude for-profit corporations from the rights given to natural persons by the Constitution, prohibit corporate spending in all elections, and affirm the authority of Congress and the States to regulate corporations and to regulate and set limits on all election contributions and expenditures.
Here's just a glimpse of the growing national movement!
In Colorado, the Jamestown Board of Trustees unanimously passed a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment establishing that only human beings, not corporations, are entitled to constitutional rights and that the First Amendment does not protect unlimited political spending as free speech. And voters in Boulder City passed a ballot measure calling for an amendment to the US Constitution that would state that corporations are not people and reject the legal status of money as free speech.
In California, the city councils of Fort Bragg, Richmond, Marina, Point Arena and Aracata, Oakland and Los Angeles passed resolutions last year supporting an amendment to make sure corporations don't have the same free speech rights as people in elections.
Missoula, Montana voters approved a local ballot referendum urging Congress to propose a constitutional amendment that clearly states that corporations are not people and do not have the same rights as citizens by a three to one margin.
Residents of Monroe, Maine passed a Local Self-Governance Ordinance stating that "no corporation doing business within the Town of Monroe shall be recognized as a ‘natural person’ under the United States or Maine Constitutions or laws of the United States or Maine."
And the councils of Chapel Hill, NC, Duluth, MN, Pueblo County, CO and New York City just recently passed resolutions supporting a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United.
Generations of Americans have come together to force much-needed change by amending the U.S. Constitution to expand democracy and protect fundamental rights. With the voice of the voter being increasingly drowned out by unlimited corporate spending in elections, the need has arisen again. Now, it's our generation's turn.
Roger Doiron is founding director of Kitchen Gardeners International, a network of people taking a hands-on approach to re-localizing the global food supply. Doiron is an advocate for new policies, technologies, investments, and fresh thinking about the role of gardens. His successful petition to replant a kitchen garden at the White House attracted broad international recognition. He is also a writer, photographer, and public speaker.
(BTW, all through this story are hyperlinks that are NOT underlined and some may be hard to find. If I knew how to make them more obvious I'd do that. So, use your mouse to find them.)
When our parents graduated from college, the bachelor’s degree was a coveted badge of honor. It gave applicants instant cred (and usually a larger paycheck) no matter what the job. Now, having a bachelor’s degree does nothing to make an applicant stand out from the masses. And if you’re applying for a job well below your skill level because you’re desperate for a paycheck, that B.S. degree will probably get your carefully crafted resume tossed in the trash.
American youth are slowly realizing that the old system is broken, and no longer holds the answer to all their dreams and desires. We’re discovering that stable, satisfying careers can be found outside the offices and factories around which our parents and grandparents built their lives. We’re acknowledging that the pursuit of bigger, better, and faster things have plunged our country into a time of despair and difficulty. We're convinced that business as usual isn’t an option any longer--but what's the alternative?
Together, we’re learning that instead of waiting for politicians and corporations to fix the system, it’s possible to create a better one of our own, right under their noses. A new way of living, in which access is valued over ownership, experience is valued over material possessions, and "mine" becomes “ours” so everyone's needs are met without waste.
If these ideas get your blood pumping, there’s good news: young people all over the world are already making them a reality. It’s called collaborative consumption, (or the sharing economy) and it’s changing the way we work, play, and interact with each other. It’s fueled by the instant connection and communication of the internet, yet it’s manifesting itself in interesting ways offline too.
If you’re ready to connect with people who can help you save money, pursue your passions, and reduce waste, here's a quick-start guide to your sharing experience:
1. Remove all items from the box and assess
Sit down with yourself (or some friends) and talk about what you’ve got, what you need, and what you could live without. Take stock of what you’d be willing to share, rent, or give away. Write down all the things you really need to be productive/happy/connected. Then, cross out all the things that you want just to have them, and highlight all the things that involve a valuable experience. Now you have a list you can tackle through sharing.
2. Connect to the power source
The collaborative consumption movement empowers people to thrive despite economic climate. Instead of looking to the government or corporations to tell us what we want or create a solution for our problems, we take action to meet our own needs in a creative fashion. This is our power source. Start looking for ways to share at school, on community billboards, by asking friends, or use the resources below:
Housing
Roomates.com - A roomate finder and roomates search service which covers thousands of cities nationwide.
How to Start a Housing Co-op - one of the best affordable housing options around, and shared food expenses and cooking can increase your savings.
Guide to Sharing a House - buying a home by yourself may be out of reach in high cost areas, but shared ownership might be the ticket.
Cohousing Directory - Cohousing is homeownership in a neighborhood that shares.
Craigslist - find almost anything including a house or housemate on Craigslist.
Social Food
Grubly, Eat With Me and Housefed are the Airbnb for meals. Use them to find or host a meal in your neighborhood. Never eat alone!
MamaBake - Large batch group cooking saves time and money, not to mention it's fun!
Local Harvest - A massive directory that helps you find farmers' markets, CSA's, and other sources of sustainably grown food in your area.
Neighborhood Fruit - find and offer free fruit to your neighbors with this site and iPhone app.
Kickstarter - A crowd-funding site powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.
Profounder - A site that makes it easy for your community to contribute financially to your business, so they're literally invested in your success.
BetterMeans - Use open-source decision-making rules, and self-organizing principles to run your real-world projects.
Task Rabbit - A service that enables you to outsource your tasks and deliveries (Boston and San Francisco Bay area only...for now).
Use the coworking wiki, Loosecubes or Liquidspace to find a friendly place to cowork. Coworking is a flexible and community-oriented workspace option for business travelers, independent workers, and entrepreneurs.
CouchSurfing - An international non-profit network that connects travelers with locals in over 230 countries and territories around the world.
AirBnB - Connects people who have space to spare with those who are looking for a place to stay, all over the world.
iStopOver - Homeowners worldwide rent out space in their homes to travelers looking for unique accommodations.
Park at myHouse - Provides affordable and fine-free parking by enabling property-owners to rent out their empty driveways, garages, car parks etc. to drivers needing somewhere to park.
Roomorama - An online marketplace for short term rentals all over the world.
Tripping - Tripping enables you to connect safely with locals who will introduce you to their towns, their cultures, their lives and their friends.
And when the time comes to start a family, use ThredUp to swap children's clothing and toys with other parents.
Redistribution Sites (where uneeded stuff finds a loving home)
Freecycle - The original grassroots organization for giving and getting free stuff in your town.
craigslist - The ultimate free classifieds site with categories for free stuff, barters, and shares.
eBay - International online auction that allows you to buy from and sell to other individuals.
ecoSharing - The first sharing website that lets us share what we own with people we know and trust: our friends on facebook.
SpiltStuff - A new site that organizes local communities to buy in bulk and "split" the goods and the cost, thus reducing waste and unnecessary consumerism.
Renting and sharing of general goods where you live
Textbookflix, - A system that lets you rent text books in the same way that you rent movies from Netflix.
Students for Free Culture - An international, chapter-based student organization that promotes the public interest in intellectual property and telecommunications policy.
Bloomsbury College - Crowdsorced learning for the entrepreneurial student.
CafeScribe - A new service that lets you download electronic copies of your textbook, add friends, and share your notes.
Notely - A collection of online tools (including a Facebook app) designed to help busy students organize their hectic lives.
Class Notes - A Facebook app that enables students to share handwritten or printed notes from class.
Open Courseware - free college course materials offered by scores of top universities from around the world.
If you don't see the sharing solution you need, check out our huge list of how to share guides on Shareable. Or add resources you know about in comments.
3. Press the power button
Once you discover local opportunities for sharing and collaborating, it’s time to add the power: you. Get involved. Create a profile on sharing/renting/bartering site and actually list some stuff you could trade. Contact the moderator of a local offline sharing group and offer up your goods or services. Collaborative consumption requires a venture into a social world, even if it's only online; you need to get out there.
4. Sync with other devices and enjoy
Ideas like eBay, Netflix, and GameFly are pretty well-known examples of sharing, but it's important to remember that options exist offline as well. Sure, the internet makes it safe for us to share with strangers, but that doesn't mean you should forget about the satisfaction of sharing face-to-face. Coworkingbrings collaboration into your professional life; a local food co-op brings sharing into your pantry, and skill-sharing communities bring comraderie to your weekend hobbies.
Don't be afraid to let sharing/bartering/collaborating go viral in other areas of your life as well. You'll discover, as Rachel Botsman does in What's Mine is Yours, that "over time, these experiences create a deep shift in consumer mindset. Consumption is no longer an asymmetrical activity of endless acquisition but a dynamic push and pull of giving and collaborating in order to get what you want. Along the way, the acts of collaboration and giving become an end in itself."
Thomas Linzey: Turning Defense into Offense: Challenging Corporations & Creating Self-Governance This excellent video was filmed at the Bioneers Conference in San Francisco. Linzey and his team teach communities to resist the oppression and toxicity of large corporations. See http://www.celdf.org/
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit, public interest law firm providing free and affordable legal services to communities facing threats to their local environment, local agriculture, the local economy, and quality of life. Our mission is to build sustainable communities by assisting people to assert their right to local self-government and the rights of nature.
Established in 1995, the Legal Defense Fund has now become the principal advisor to community groups and municipal governments struggling to transition from merely regulating corporate harms to stoppingthose harms by asserting local, democratic control directly over corporations.
Through grassroots organizing, public education and outreach, legal assistance, and drafting of ordinances, we have now assisted over 110 municipalities in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine, and Virginia to draft and adopt new laws with over 350,000 people living under these governing frameworks. These laws address activities such as corporate water withdrawals, longwall coal mining, factory farming, the land application of sewage sludge, and uranium mining.
Our city council tonight is considering removing the 5 chicken limit and eliminating the requirement for getting permission from adjacent neighbors. There would still be a small annual registration fee and inspection. We hope to expand the limits to include other animals, too, overtime.
The impulse of rapid change and shocks to the economy may cause it all to happen much faster as people stop waiting for permission and simply take command of their own local destinies. Do all you can where you are...and take a stand. I guarantee, it WILL be challenged. Find your allies and hold strong.
Meanwhile, where the hell are the leaders who will stand up and say that all citizens must begin to throw off the chains of their dependency on the industrial producers, of food-like substances, that are destroying our soils, air, water and health? Don't wait for them to tell you. BE THE LEADERS! BE the ones we've been waiting for!
This article from Mother Earth News reminds us that once upon a time our government EXPECTED us to raise our own food to demonstrate our patriotism in a time of war (which we've been in for some time now, if you hadn't noticed). Now they want us to be dependent on huge, impersonal, uncaring, greed-motivated industries who produce nutritionally empty, over-processed, over-packaged, over-transported crap that keep us sick and dependent on a bloated industrial drug / insurance monopoly. We, the people, can do better.
… Or he did, back in 1918, as this poster illustrates.
Funny how things change, isn’t it? These days, people have to fight and petition and beg and plead in many municipalities to get their government to let them keep a few backyard hens. And even when city leaders permit it, they lay out complicated rules about how many, where and how the birds must be housed. And please! No roosters!
As the poster so rightly points out, two hens per person will keep a family in eggs. The flock will take minimal effort, cost little and provide plenty of enjoyment, because chickens are fun to watch.
