Tsunami Warning
News, Village Development — by eric seider
- why is the guy running towards the wave?
At 6:00 am the tsunami warning sirens starting going off, waking me up.
I laid there for a moment contemplating what the sirens might be for. For some reason leaning towards tsunami warning probably because of the signs around stating that you are entering a Tsunami Evacuation Zone. Needless to say when I realized it was stil dark out I started getting confused, then I heard someone calling my name and upon opening my tent Todd preceded to explain to me that we were indeed having a Tsunami warning because of an earthquake off the cost of Chile. And that we were going to have to evacuate.
Comments (0)Posted on: March 3, 2010
Permaculture Examined by SBS
General, News — by Craig Mackintosh
Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) recently visited the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia to check out the work of Geoff Lawton at Zaytuna Farm.
Those who watched Greening the Desert II will recognise some of my footage from Jordan as well.
Having the mainstream media peek at our work is getting to be a habit. Now we just need to move them from looking at this as a ‘novel idea’ to regarding it as an urgent necessity.
Comments (0)Posted on: January 11, 2010
How to Repair the World
Aid Projects, Deforestation, Demonstration Sites, Education Centers, Food Forests, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Land, News, People Systems, Plant Systems, Project Positions, Rehabilitation, Trees, Village Development — by Craig Mackintosh
The video embedded in this page spotlights the excellent work of Willie Smits I profiled a little while ago, where rainforest restoration in Borneo not only restored biodiversity and gave increased livelihood opportunities to local people, but it also increased cloud cover and rainfall as well. It’s well worth a watch:
We’re pleased to announce that we’re partnering with the makers of the video above, WeForest, to help establish self-replicating permaculture reforestation demonstration sites in accordance with our Permaculture Master Plan, in several worldwide locations – starting in Zambia in the first instance. Our Geoff Lawton has just agreed to be on their advisory board, and we’ll be working to supply guidance, knowhow and staff to pioneer these projects.
This is just one example of the many encouraging collaborative results we get as people boil current events down to their only logical conclusion – discovering we need to quit battling nature and get busy harnessing biological synergies to repair the earth and rebuild sustainable community interactions.
Comments (0)Posted on: December 8, 2009
The Localization of Agriculture
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, News, Social Gatherings, Society, Village Development — by Earth Policy Institute
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
In the United States, there has been a surge of interest in eating fresh local foods, corresponding with mounting concerns about the climate effects of consuming food from distant places and about the obesity and other health problems associated with junk food diets. This is reflected in the rise in urban gardening, school gardening, and farmers’ markets.
With the fast-growing local foods movement, diets are becoming more locally shaped and more seasonal. In a typical supermarket in an industrial country today it is often difficult to tell what season it is because the store tries to make everything available on a year-round basis. As oil prices rise, this will become less common. In essence, a reduction in the use of oil to transport food over long distances—whether by plane, truck, or ship—will also localize the food economy.
Comments (0)Posted on: December 1, 2009
The New Permaculture Research Institute 10-Week Internship Program
Courses/Workshops, Developments, News — by Geoff Lawton
At Zaytuna Farm here in NSW, Australia, we have been running a few variations of internships over the years, mostly on a very casual basis. The interest and enquiries continue to grow – especially focused on the need to gain experience as quickly as possible so that students, after taking the Permaculture Design Certificate course, can move into a professional permaculture career in design, consultancy and teaching in both international consultancy and project work. To this end, we’ve now created a higher quality curriculum-based internship program that covers a wide range of permaculture subjects, that are studied in depth over 10 weeks.
The new internship program is run three times per year, each beginning just after the first three PDCs end. The base requirement is that interns have taken a recognized PDC somewhere in the world. If a prospective intern has not completed a PDC, they can simply take one with us, then continue on with the ten week internship after that is complete.
Look for the internship indicator in our course listings to see more details.
Snippets of footage from the July 2009 Earthworks Course
Thanks to John Alexander Ericson and Misty Music AB for the music
Posted on: November 29, 2009
Exploring Dryland Strategies for Resilience – Atacama, Northern Chile
Community Projects, Developments, Education Centers, Land, News — by Grifen Hope
Desert Flowers
Recently we had a whirlwind tour of Atacama in the north of Chile, the driest place on earth. This was a learning experience rather than teaching – in this hostile and vulnerable landscape that has been occupied for thousands of years we find strategies for building resilience.
Comments (0)Posted on: November 27, 2009
Permaculture Seeds Sprouting on St. Croix
Courses/Workshops, Developments, News — by Ethan Roland
Birds eye view of the Virgin Island Sustainable Farm Institute
St. Croix, a 6 x 20 mile island in the Caribbean, is exploding with positive action. Led by the Virgin Island Sustainable Farm Institute, locally grown food and ecological agriculture are seeding in with island people and travelers across the island. Now, in collaboration with AppleSeed Permaculture and Gaia University, the US Virgin Islands are being innoculated with the empowering principles and processes of permaculture design.
Comments (1)Posted on: November 18, 2009
Letters from Jordan – a PDC at the Bottom of the World
Aid Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centers, News — by Craig Mackintosh
Profuse apologies for being remiss on the posting front of late. I have more than a dozen posts queued in my head, but finding a minute to breathe and get ‘em down onto the keyboard has proven difficult. A few people have been pressing me for Part III of the Sarvodaya series, but never fear, it’ll come as soon as I can. In the meantime I have a little video mission in Jordan to fulfil.
For now, here’s a teeny glimpse at the latest:
Geoff, Nadia and I are currently stationed a stone’s throw from the Dead Sea in the Jordan Valley. At 400 metres below sea level, this is the lowest place on earth. Geoff and Nadia are teaching a Permaculture Design Certificate course (PDC) to 35 students from many different countries. With this course, and other previous Permaculture Research Institute efforts in the region, we have a really good wedge of influence in what is effectively the hub of the middle east – the very open-bordered country of Jordan. Although we have a few ‘westerners’ here, the bulk of the students are from either Jordan or surrounding nations – like Palestine, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Qatar, Afghanistan, Turkey and even a couple of slightly further afield train passengers from Bulgaria. Other students come from Australia, Italy, UK, USA, Singapore and China. It’s been great getting to know them. A story could be told about many of these people alone. (Aah, so many blog post ideas, so little time….)
Comments (2)Posted on: October 15, 2009
A Virtual Geoff Lawton Urges You to Cross the Line
Developments, News, Society — by Craig Mackintosh
We’ve just happened upon a rather unusual way of sharing the Permaculture ‘get out there and do it’ message. Someone has taken an interview Geoff did in California last year, and turned it into a rather impressive animation. Although it was a bit strange for Geoff to see himself portrayed in such a way, if it helps get the message across, then we figure so be it.
The end of the clip even appears to have cameo appearances from Bill Mollison and David Holmgren:
Or, put another way, courtesy of the 1970s UK sitcom favourites Tom and Barbara Good in ‘The Good Life’:
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CNN Takes a Look at Permaculture
News — by Craig Mackintosh
A team from CNN recently came to Zaytuna Farm to get up close and personal with Permaculture. What a great idea.
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Posted on: October 12, 2009
Introduction to Permaculture Design DVD to Ship!
Courses/Workshops, DVDs/Books, News — by Craig Mackintosh
The Introduction to Permaculture Design DVD has finally been pressed and printed and will be dispatched to all pre-orders from Zaytuna Farm (base camp for PRI headquarters here in Australia) on Wednesday September 30. We said we’d do a September release and we meant it, and even made it – just!! A big thank you to all the many people who had faith in us but were wondering what happened to their pre-order. It is on its way!
We spoke with Frank Gapinski, the producer – who recorded and spent countless hours fine tuning and preparing this release – to find out a little more about this important DVD:
Comments (0)Posted on: September 25, 2009
Permaculture Design Course at Pine Ridge Reservation
Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Land, News, Rehabilitation — by Warren Brush
by Warren Brush, co-founder of Quail Springs Permaculture & True Nature Design
We are eight days into a 13-day Permaculture Design Course here at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the home of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The Permaculture Guild has organized this exciting course in collaboration with the Oglala Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitalization Initiative (OLCERI) and will be offering other courses here in the coming year. Students from as far away as Florida and California have joined local tribal members in learning about how to integrate permaculture into their lives, livelihoods and cultural regeneration processes.
Comments (0)Posted on: September 24, 2009
Young Permaculturists, UNITE!!!
Community Projects, Developments, News, Social Gatherings — by Kelly Pagliaro
Evil is afoot! Conventional Agriculture has teamed up with Toxin-Spewing Factories to destroy the earth’s ecosystems! It looks like a job for…THE GREEN TEEN TEAM! (Try saying that three times fast.)
…No? Okay, but seriously, I took my PDC in Melbourne, Australia with Bill Mollison and Geoff Lawton in 2008 at the age of eleven. When my parents decided to take the course I didn’t quite know what to say. “You’re going to Australia? …and what, I’m staying at home in the U.S., alone with my {then nineteen-year-old} brother for two weeks? I can’t stay alone with him for two weeks, we’ll annoy each other to death!”
Comments (0)Posted on: August 7, 2009
Rich Nations Buying Up Land in Poor Countries at Escalating Rate
Consumerism, Deforestation, Economics, Food Shortages, News — by Craig Mackintosh
As concerns over food security – and maintaining a lavish lifestyle – deepen, people in poor nations are seeing their land whittled away as it gets sold to wealthy nation states and corporations.
The era of cheap food is over….
Some of us have followed the news on the recent coup d’état in Madagascar. Since January 2009 over 170 people were killed in protests before President Ravalomanana resigned as President. (Andry Rajoelina, former mayor of the capital, Antananarivo, had already declared himself the country’s leader a month earlier.) But, did you know that the actions of the South Korean car manufacturer, Daewoo, was a major rallying point for the drama?
Because of the food crisis of 2008, Daewoo negotiated to ‘develop’ 1.3 million hectares (3.2 million acres) of land on Madagascar – equivalent to almost half of the country’s arable land(!) – so they can grow corn and palm oil to send back to Korea. Much of this land is yet ‘undeveloped’, which means it is still biodiverse rich rainforest…. And, what’s more, locals in Madagascar will get nothing in return but a few new job openings from the multinational.
Comments (0)Posted on: July 6, 2009
Help Miraji from Tanzania Take Part in Global Education!
Aid Projects, Developments, News — by Martin Winiecki
 Miraji Muganda |
His name is Miraji Muganda. He is a 17 year old Tanzanian boy, who lives in Musoma on Lake Victoria. Tanzania suffers from poverty and environmental exploitation. At 14, Miraji followed an Australian Permaculture teacher when he went to pray in the Mosque of his city and introduced himself. He wanted to learn and wanted to help – to do what he could. Geoff, the Permaculture teacher, invited him to his courses and Miraji has been practicing and teaching Permaculture himself ever since. He started a project in his school, told teachers and fellow students about his new knowledge, trying to inject them with "his poison," as he likes to say. He is working seriously and with determination for a sustainable future – not only for himself, but wants to help the people in his country. He is one of those who has the potential to reach people’s hearts with his enthusiasm for change.
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