Come Join Us in Panama for a 2-week Permaculture Design Certificate Course, June 4-18, 2010
Courses/Workshops — by Matt Whittley May 7, 2010
We will be holding the course at Tanglewood Wellness Center, 90 minutes from Panama City. This is a beautiful retreat center that caters mainly to health and wellness and is working on incorporating Permaculture Design techniques to stabilize soil, grow their own food, secure clean water, use grey-water systems and become sustainable while contributing to their local community.
While there, we will be designing their property, getting our hands dirty learning design techniques and teaching the full 72 hour Permaculture Design Course including the following topics:
Small Scale and Urban Food Production
Bird Life, Food Shortages, Livestock, Society, Urban Projects, Village Development — by Matt Whittley April 12, 2010
An important and often overlooked detail is appropriate size. What is the ideal size of car, house, meal, lawn or farm? Bigger is not always better. In the case of modern monoculture farms this is very apparent.
Going out of scale in farming can cause soil erosion, water pollution and the need for massive subsidies.
Our romantic ideas of what food production is supposed to look like (with corn for as far as the eye can see), may cloud our view for the greatest and most efficient opportunity for growing our food. Backyard gardens and urban gardens lend themselves to producing food that is eaten locally, produced without fossil fuels, utilizing urban wastes and do not require government subsidies.
Comments (5)Permaculture Groups and Government Influence
Alternatives to Political Systems, Bio-regional Organisations, Economics, People Systems, Society, Village Development — by Matt Whittley April 9, 2010
In our efforts for positive change, while we should be open minded and receptive to opportunities to work with our governments, we cannot leave all responsibilities to the government alone. Rather, the public should take action and represent themselves when their appointed officials do not.
Self-reliance and true sustainability are extremely difficult as an individual or single family. Local permaculture groups have been a very effective tool in local communities for positive change, including influencing local government.
How to start a local permaculture group:
Comments (4)Two 72 hour Permaculture Design Certificate Courses being taught in the Tropics
Courses/Workshops — by Matt Whittley April 8, 2010
May 14 – 24, 2010 – COSTA RICA
June 4 – 18, 2010 – PANAMA
Since the first Permaculture Design Course in 1972, this course has been taught thousands of times around the world. This internationally recognized course is based on the teachings of movement founder Bill Mollison and all chapters of the text, Permaculture: A Designers Manual. The course gives an in-depth understanding of the design process and the main elements involved. The course also gives many ideas and inspiration for further study in specific disciplines that can integrate with a productive property of any scale.
Comments (0)Our Environmental Status and Future Events
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton & Loss, peak oil — by Matt Whittley
Editor’s Note: Geoff Lawton spoke at Geelong, Victoria last year. Matt Whittley shares some snippets from his talks.
If we are being honest with ourselves, most people would admit that the next 50 years is going to be a lot different than the past 50 years. Future generations are going to need to cope with overwhelming conditions that they had nothing to do with creating.
I believe that we need regular reminders and need fresh perspectives to assess what is going to happen tomorrow and how our actions today have an affect.
We are entering into critical times as we reach tipping points on economy, climate, energy, food, water, soil, and social elements. This video is a great call to action; Permaculture Design is the action!
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