One week left to support the first Open Source Urban Permaculture E-book
- Indoor and Balcony Gardening – Permaculture Style
- Tree Crops and Edible Forests
- Guerilla Gardening
- Community Supported Agriculture
- Mushroom log cultivation
- Composting and Vermi-composting
- Rainwater collection
- Micro-livestock
- Wind and Solar Energy
- Transportation
- …and much More!
Who is behind this project?
Sophia Novack – passionate permaculture geek and environmental activist. I’m studying in Prague, Czech Republic, but spend most of my time travelling and editing Permaculture Media Blog and Permaculture Directory. If you have any questions, you can contact me at permaculture.media.blog (a) gmail (dot) com or via my social media accounts: Facebook,Google+Permaculture Media Blog and Permaculture Directory have achieved a great amount of good with very little so far. Now we need to change the world in a huge way, and we need your financial support to do so.
Permaculture Media Blog is a continually growing archive of more than 2000 FREE videos, eBooks, podcasts and documentaries, divided into 4 main categories;Permaculture & Organic Gardening, Natural & Green Building, Renewable Energy and Environmental Activism.
Permaculture Directory is a FREE listing site for sustainable-living events from all over the world. Over 1300 events are listed, which have helped thousands of people to find life changing courses, workshops and festivals.1. Personal Thank you message via Facebook, Twitter and Google+ to thousands of our followers
2. Special newsletter subscription – monthly updates full of the best free educational media
3. Your name with an image and link to your website will appear on the Permaculture Media Blogand Permaculture Directory ‘About’ page
4. Pre-release version of eBook: Urban Permaculture Guide(December 2012)
5. Handmade postcard with a personal message for you
6. Your name will be listed in the acknowledgements of the Urban Permaculture Guide eBook
7. Online updates of manuscripts from Urban Permaculture Guide eBook
8. One Permaculture-related eBook (pdf format)
9. An additional 4 Permaculture-related eBooks (pdf format)
10. Handmade natural bag with colourful ornaments
+ handmade badge
11. Custom Open Permaculture T-shirt!
12. Book: The Quarter-Acre Farm: How I Kept the Patio, Lost the Lawn, and Fed My Family for a Year - Full of tips and recipes to help anyone interested in growing and preparing at least a small part of their diet at home, The Quarter-Acre Farm is a warm, witty tale about family, food, and the incredible gratification that accompanies self-sufficiency. TheQuarter-Acre Farm is Warren’s account of deciding—despite all resistance—to take control of her family’s food choices, get her hands dirty, and create a garden in her suburban yard. It’s a story of bugs, worms, rot, and failure; of learning, replanting, harvesting, and eating.13. Anima Mundi DVD - a new documentary on Permaculture, the Gaia theory, Peak Oil survival and Climate Change (man-made or not).
14. Handmade Thankful Hearth
16. You can support Guerrilla Gardening events in Eastern Europe! This spring, edible trees and beautiful flowers will be planted in your name. You will receive a photo report and documentation of each event.
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that is modelled on the relationships found in nature. The word “permaculture” originally referred to “permanent agriculture”, but was expanded to also stand for “permanent culture” as it was seen that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system.
Permaculture draws from several other disciplines including organic farming, agro-forestry, sustainable development, and applied ecology. “The primary agenda of the movement has been to assist people to become more self reliant through the design and development of productive and sustainable gardens and farms. The design principles which are the conceptual foundation of permaculture were derived from the science of systems ecology and study of pre-industrial examples of sustainable land use.”
For further reading and watching, please visit these resources:
- Introduction to Permaculture – 40 hours of free video lectures
- 100 Best Permaculture & Homesteading Books: The Ultimate Reading List for Sustainable Living (here you will find links to over 60 Free eBook previews and full eBooks)
- Permaculture / Organic Farming – Documentary Films Archive
Other Ways You Can Help
Video credits:
Music by David Griswold
Animation by Oz J Thoma
Permacorps and Haiti by the numbers
My instructor Scott Pittman of the US permaculture Institute on the need for a Permcorps from permaculture.tv
Gaia punk here,
Cities designed around local food
urban farm
Good day to you from Gaiapunk,
It is official Punk Rock Permaculture e-zine and Permaculture.tv are teaming up for a new permaculture media worker co-op that you can be a part of. This media co-op will cover:
- Permaculture Development, Techniques, People around the planet.
- The merging of the open source technology, cooperative, transition towns, permaculture movements and more!
- Radical permaculture and farmer movements in the 2/3rds (developing) world.
- Ecocity ideas that will make a real difference in the next decade.
If your interested in these topics or others and would like to learn more please contact thejulianeffect@gmail.com with the subject line “media co-op”.
Now please enjoy this awesome TED talk by Carolyn Steel on how local food is intrinsic to the design, function, and success of cities past, present, and future.
Permie Punk Profile: Ethan Roland
Get Your Forest Garden On…
Hey Gaia Punk here,
So I was just recently accepted for a 3 month Advance Permaculture Design internship with Ethan Roland of Appleseed Permaculture in the Hudson Valley area of New York. I am very excited for this opportunity to deepen my skills and I’m dedicated to the helping make permaculture design accessible to even more people than ever before. Ethan is such an awesome force in the world of permaculture and vital mentor to so many wonderful folks that I decided I would take a moment to highlight some of his work.
Ethan is a full time Permaculture designer and teacher and expert in the areas of large scale perennial polyculture systems and ecological community design. See slideshow:
Ethan studied at Haverford College and later obtained a M.S. in Collaborative eco-social design from Gaia University a innovative and global growing university through which he now occasionally teaches courses. Ethan is the principal of Appleseed Permaculuture which collaborates with permaculture and ecological designers from all over the world. Ethan currently sits on the board of Permaculture Across Boarders which assists permaculture projects in the developing or 2/3 rds world. His work has brought him all over world (Thailand, Azerbaijan, Kazakastan, the Virgin Islands,) with direct learning experience and mentoring from folks like Geoff Lawton and Dave Jacke. Ethan is directly involved with the Carbon Farming and Financial Permaculture movements. He supports and promotes sustainable community based cooperative enterprises like the innovative cocao CSA Booyacacao. Ethan contributes contents and expertise for Earth Activist Mentor a amazing site and service for up and coming designer like myself, folks looking for detailed in depth resources, or distance mentoring for permaculture diplomas. Well, I hope to do a video interview shortly with Ethan and Nicolas Roberts from Permaculture.tv but until then enjoy this inspiring lecture Ethan presented to a group of UMASS architecture students and Greg Landua presentation of Booyacocao “Theobroma” production.
Permaculture Knowledge Ecosystem!
How we can and must open permaculture knowledge up to hundreds languages and people all over the world and bring it from the digital dark ages! Publishing on demand will cut out the middle men, save money, and open up content!
recommended sites working in this direction appropedia.org
Ingenio “Patent” Campus?
Hello lovely Permies,
Due to my posting of the entire Permaculture Designers Manual , commonly known as the permaculture bible, I received a swift take down notice from Tagari Publications and Scribd which I respectfully followed. It is my opinion that this book is so important that it should be made completely free on all the myriad internets. We’re living in a time of extreme ecological and social crisis and the tools needed to fix the crises must be made available to everyone not just those with the economic privilege to afford them. Please see the letters below and also please comment if you think the designers manual should be liberated onto the internet. I feel this debate gets at the very heart of the permaculture ethic of “fair share” and I will post any further correspondence with Tagari here and elsewhere.
Join the campaign by tweeting for the liberation of the permaculture manual on twitter @gaiapunk #permieliberation
My first letter from Tagari:
ATTENTION: Evan Schoepke
Pursuant to 17 USC 512(c)(3)(A), this communication serves as a statement that:
I am the exclusive rights holder (being the Publisher) for the book titled: Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual written by Bill Mollison.
ISBN 0 908228 01 5 and first published in Australia in 1988 and reprinted in 2004, 2009 by Tagari Publications, Australia.
These exclusive rights are being violated by material that has been available upon your site at the following URL(s): http://www.scribd.com/doc/22260478/Permaculture-D-Manual and http://punkrockpermaculture.com/.
I have a good faith belief that the use of this material in such a fashion is not authorized by the copyright holder, the copyright holder’s agent, or the law;
Under penalty of perjury in a United States court of law, I state that the information contained in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on the behalf of the exclusive rights holder for the material in question.
I may be contacted by the following methods:
Phone: (Aus) 61 + 3 6445 0945
Fax: 61 + 3 6445 0944
Address: 31 Rulla Road, Sisters Creek, Tasmania, 7325, Australia
Email: mollison.lisa@tagari.com
I hereby request that you remove or disable access to this material now and in the future as it appears on your service in as expedient a fashion as possible. Thank you.
Regards,
Lisa Mollison
Director
My reply:
Okay Tagari,
Hi Evan
Thank you for your response and we appreciate you removing the book from the internet. We know there are several versions available free and we are trying to get them removed. If you would like to direct us to the free books that you know of then this would be of great assistance to us.
In regards to your questions about making the book free of charge – All end of year profits from the sales of Tagari Publications books go to the Permaculture Institute which in-turn assists several organisations that have limited funds, knowledge and resources. Bill Mollison and the Permaculture Institute have worked tirelessly with many organisations over the years and regularly donates funds and books to people who have limited resources, so if the book was available free then this would drastically effect this assistance plus the future of any sales, re-prints and new material written by Bill.
We try to keep the costs of all our books to a minimum but there are costs associated with printing, publishing and distributing our titles, and if the books don’t generate any income I’m sure you could foresee the outcome for Tagari Publications and the Permaculture Institute.
Bill Mollison is now 82 years old, he still writes, teaches and supports many organisations. Bill has dedicated much of his life to this cause and is a valuable entity to all involved, but without finances Bill would not be able to continue with his teaching, writing and community assistance.
Tagari Publications will be re-printing The Book of Ferment and Human Nutrition in the next few months (due to sales of our other titles). Current stocks are limited or nil throughout the world and therefore book stores and second hand dealers plus private owners have realised its value and increased the price significantly. When Tagari Publications have new stock we will be selling the book for approx. $46.00 AUS.
Thank you again for your response and please view our website in the near future for information regarding our stocks of Ferment and Human Nutrition.
My new response:
Dear Tagari,
The G20 Protesters and the new face of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA–
It seems as though Pittsburgh is either the De facto capital of the rust belt or a city in the midst of a revolutionary transformation. In recent years Pittsburgh has become a epicenter for green building, bike paths, solar composites, and one of the professed launching pads of the new “green economy”. This is fascinating because Pittsburgh could also be considered one of the many coal capitals of the world, and anyone who has studied the issue knows that there is absolutely no way to make coal “clean” as long as your using mining techniques such as “mountaintop removal”. There is nothing like synthetic stench of two faced liberalism to hide the odious fact that the root of some very serious issues like housing, poverty, gentrification, and classism are not being addressed. The city of Pittsburgh’s role during the current wholly undemocratic G20 summit is to act as a PR spin machine to distract the public from the main show of global power grabs behind the scenes and behind closed doors.
While the media is very focused on equating anarchists with terrorists, they’re also wholly ignoring the police harassment and abuse that has already taken place even before the summit. The Seeds of Peace collective has been repeatedly attacked by the police solely because of the fact by that by bringing a bus to act as kitchen and medical support for the g20 resistance they’ve been made an obvious target. Yesterday, the Landslide Community Farm and the Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writers Guild house were raided for no plausible reasons by swarms of cops trespassing without warrants or accurate justification. The Landslide Community Farm and the Cyberpunk Apocalypse house are centers of different type transformation happening in Pittsburgh, that of radical culture.
These centers are the works of truly earnest folks, that divide up what free time they can muster into making art, hosting cultural gatherings, giving out free food, planting permaculture food forests, building bike co-ops, fighting all forms of oppression, and re-envisioning all that has been abandoned in the shadows of steel that is the forlorn rusty spine of Pittsburgh. Some of them are even proud to be called anarchists. These groups and many, many, others like them are true community builders something the G20 aristocrats will most likely never understand. Perhaps the new face of Pittsburgh is not the gilded ”green” skyline for the rich but the rainbow of diversity in an urban farm for everyone.
For more info about the Landslide Community Farm visit: www.punkrockpermaculture.com
For real time updates on the G20 resistance visit: pittsburgh G-finity
Permaculture and why I support The Pirate Bay…
- have you kissed a pirate today?
Humanity would never have evolved this far with out recognizing this very basic truth “in most cases it is better to share than to not share”. Everything was pretty simple until you had the arrogant “landowners” followed quickly by even more ridiculous and “legally” empowered capitalist. The Pirate Bay (whether the courts agree or not) is a indexing site of the many bit torrent links that have been posted by it numerous users, in reality it is not so different from sites like Google except in one respect, it’s just not used to make billions of dollars for private investors.
Permaculture and The Pirate Bay incorporate whole systems or “closed loop” design. Closed loop doesn’t mean closed design, quite the contrary. Closed loop means whole systems design that emphasises the relationship between elements and facilitates those various relationships in a wholelistic way. In nature everything contributes and takes in such a seamless fashion it is difficult to distinguish the takers from the contributors. Nature is the ultimate innovator. The pirate bay works organically in much the same way because each “taker” in turn becomes a contributor for someone else. This innovative model has been very successful at distributing large amounts of info to a broad spectrum of people. The only reason the big media companies are upset is that they are cut out of the loop as they should be. Middle men are inefficient….look at health insurance in the US, or much of the education system, hell just look at most politicians. Middle men and the proprietary, inefficient, or bureaucratic systems that support them are truly a dying breed and we can do vastly more without them. In this brave new digi-tech world we can teach ourselves to collaborate to create, spread, and disseminate our own media while remembering there is no politician anywhere who could ever represent all our dreams. Let this unjust trial of the pirate bay be a signal of the desperate dying breaths of all the middlemen, a siren call from which we can rally. This is no longer a issue of who controls the media, but who controls your mind? I say let it be open…
We are all the Pirate Bay!!!,
Long live the Open source revolutions,
For the future of all the internets,
ArRGH! maties sail on sail
Open Source Ecology!
evolve to freedom!!
The liberation mutation…
Thanks to 100 Sommerville for inspiring this post:
I want to share with you all a very interesting project born from the grasslands of Kansas but sweeping the globe.
Open Source Ecology
is exporting sustainable, appropriate, and farm based technology in order to create a replicable model for community sufficient ecovillages all around the globe. Please help them spread the word, gather knowledge and resources, and network, by checking out there blog, wiki, and the Factor E Farm itself.
