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"The harvest heals. It gives a sense of that wealth that only a stack of garlic or a pile of firewood or manure can represent..." --Stanley Crawford, from "A Garlic Testament". |
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I first came into contact with the work of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the founders of the permaculture movement, on an organic farm northeast of Cairns, Australia in 1987.
Two years later, while studying in Europe, I attended the annual Schumacher lecture in Bristol, England where Bill Mollison was one of four speakers. When I introduced myself to Bill as a fellow Aussie, he queried in his typical irreverent fashion: "What are you doing in this miserable cold place? You should go home and plant trees."
In 1992, at the age of 26, a sense of adventure led me to sign a contract with CARE Australia to work in the north of Iraq. Little did I expect that three years later, I would return to Australia with my new bride - Galawezh. We undertook postgraduate studies in Australia, followed by further work with CARE in Canberra, Laos, Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea.
My initial six years of aid/development related work emphasized the challenge of building sustainability into the core of such work. Much of my experience was with complex humanitarian emergencies and disaster relief, where the focus is often on short-term support to assist distressed populations. The transition from aid to development often highlights the gulf between short-term and long-term philosophical approaches to building food security and community sustainability. The urgency of providing aid often drives us to build structurally unsustainable systems. And yet, even when circumstances allow us to design and implement long-term programs for development, we often fail to address the issue of ecological sustainability. Permaculture related ideas remained in the back of my mind during this time but I needed more knowledge. It felt as though I had been getting increasingly skilled at identifying structural problems (looking) without an integrated framework for proposing solutions (seeing). In late 1998, I started looking for available permaculture courses.
Permaculture: Study at the Permaculture Research Institute (PRI)
In March 1999, I arrived in northeast New South Wales, Australia, to meet Geoff Lawton, the Director of the Permaculture Research Institute and his energetic staff. Permaculture teaching follows broad course content requirements identified by Bill Mollison. The 72-hour Permaculture Design Course (PDC) is designed to provide a framework for students to orient their experiences and problems, along with key areas for understanding how to begin developing solutions. Information is structured broadly around the chapters of Bill Mollison's Permaculture Designer's Manual to include both ethical and design concepts, design methods, climatic factors, water, soils, earthworks, climates, aquaculture, and invisible structures like bioregional organization and ethical investing.
Geoff's presentation of permaculture precepts, ideas and generally outlined solutions struck an immediate chord with me. Like many PDC graduates, the immediate question was how most effectively to follow up on the new knowledge?
During the post PDC on-ground training camp, I gradually began to see the landscape around me in terms of patterns. A food forest as just a collection of plants began to differentiate into a layering of species from tubers and groundcover, up through shrubs and different levels of trees, through to the overstorey or canopy species. Within the mix, legumes were discernable in their strategic importance to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. I also began to see the wider landscape in terms of a broader interaction of forces - water, wind, sunlight, and geology. It dawned on me that "looking" and "seeing" are different skills and that part of seeing patterns in the landscape was a pointer to seeing the patterns of solutions where we fail to address these fundamental considerations.
Macedonia
I returned to work with CARE in April 1999, while the situation in Macedonia was getting serious. Within several weeks, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Yugoslavia flooded into this small country and neighboring Albania. CARE International was one of the key non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working to provide relief and protection. Of a total refugee population of 260,000, 150,000 were housed with host families, and 110,000 were directed to 8 campsites within Macedonia. In May of 1999, I took over as Camp Manager of Cegrane refugee camp, the largest in the country.
 May is early summer in the Balkans, and it was already very hot in the camp, which was situated on a mountainside directly abutting the village of Cegrane/Forino. The site had been hastily prepared and quickly outgrew its initial boundaries. I arrived to crisis conditions as the camp's population swelled to roughly 30,000 people, far exceeding its planned capacity of 5,000. Bus convoys from the border arrived nightly bearing more refugees. Numerous NGOs, along with UN and Macedonian government agencies operated within the camp. My role as Camp Manager was akin to being unelected mayor, principally involving information management, issue resolution between stakeholders, and above all, keeping food and services flowing to the residents of a tented town. We had a team of roughly 150 international, local and refugee workers engaged with CARE alone.
With a mountain bike as my official vehicle, I quickly came to grips with the fundamental issues in the camp. In order to prepare the site, the German military had cut a series of terraces up the side of the mountain. These formed roads or bases for tents. The stony soil was being augmented by truckloads of gravel from a nearby quarry to provide some traction and drainage. Lined pit latrines and shower blocks were being provided, along with cold rations for three meals per day. The site had a natural drainage channel through the center--the continuation of a valley stream path. During rainfall events the site was flooded through the center from the valley draining the mountain system above. The floodwaters ended up in the main street of the village and flooded the local primary school. En route, the waters washed out tents and caused a lot of misery to refugee families.
The initial focus of our work was to ensure the flow of services. However, once NATO forces re-entered Kosovo, large numbers of refugees from Macedonia and Albania voluntarily repatriated themselves. As refugees began returning home, I started to think about the site and its future. The land had originally been used for growing grapes; then as the soil was depleted it grew wheat. Further degradation led to its use by the community for rough grazing. This is the point at which it became a refugee camp. I thought about what could be done to ensure the site's future value to the community, whereupon I shared my thoughts with Geoff Lawton and asked if he thought we could showcase a permaculture site rehabilitation.
Cegrane Camp Permaculture Rehabilitation Project
Geoff agreed that the site was a good candidate for permaculture rehabilitation, as well as perhaps for a teaching center for permaculture in the region. The idea had broad support from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) consultant working on physical infrastructure for the region. CARE funded Geoff's visit, on the basis that his design would be the foundation for a significant project. Geoff made a two-week trip in which we attended the first meeting on refugee site rehabilitation between UNHCR, the Macedonian authorities, NGOs, and donor representatives. Geoff spoke about the possibility of permaculture, people were intrigued and asked if we could have a plan within the time set for the next meeting in ten days. We agreed.
Geoff worked hard with a translator to learn about the local agriculture and culture, as well as walking and riding all over the site in order to begin to envision a design. Our subsequent presentation showed a colorful vision of what the site could become. It was powerful, and Geoff gave a 20-minute explanation. At the end of our presentation, there was silence . Then, Patty Culpepper, representative of the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration spoke up. "This is just the kind of thing donors should support; it will stand as a symbol of sustainability in modern times". She backed her verbal support with cash, as did the Austrian Government. Together they provided roughly $1.3 million dollars for the first three phases of a planned five-phase project. Additional support came from UNHCR and NGOs that were involved on the site.
Geoff's design was based on a topographic survey of the site. It also incorporated the ideas and interests of many parties, including the local community and all the agencies that had worked to provide services in the camp. The design included several key features. Permaculture design begins with consideration of fundamental influences on any site, so water and slope were important factors. To relieve the pressure of valley fed water flows, Geoff incorporated a significant system of swales. These are large ditches running on contour, designed to intercept water flowing downhill and hold it until it can re-absorb into the soil. The bank on the lower side of the swale becomes a planting mound. Due to subsurface water, this area tends to be a wetter microclimate than the surrounding land, providing a good platform for biological growth.
The swales designed for the site were very large; those at the top were over 10 feet deep, with overflow and flood spillways to ensure adequate capacity to divert any floodwater runoff. As in any good design, they swales were created to provide, not just for average events, but for outlying events such as the 50 - or 100-year storm that can destroy a system designed only for averages. Since detailed rainfall data for the area was not accessible, Geoff hiked up the valley, noting high water lines in the vegetation from past flooding, then calculated peak event water flows down the valley. The final design called for 7.2 km of swales, with an estimated water holding capacity of 30 million liters.
Additional features of the design were a cluster of passive solar design buildings on the lower portion of the site near the village to be used for a permaculture center and local community activities. Surrounding these, gardens laid out according to permaculture design principles would showcase the potential to use guild plantings, mulch, and polyculture designs to enhance local family garden productivity. Surrounding this zone was a "food forest," a mixed planting of locally available fruit tree species. Going up the hill to the outer zones 4 and 5, were planned mixed tree belts along swales with interzone grasses and herbs to eventually support limited livestock grazing . The tree belts were to be planted into timber and flowering species to provide structural lumber and nectar flows for beekeeping. All planting areas included nitrogen fixing legume species to assist in building soil fertility.
Once the final proposals were presented to donors, funding followed. The project was carried out under the guidance of a core management team comprised of Paul Brant and several Australian permaculture specialists. The earthworks were a challenge, and an earthworks specialist , Richard Belfield was contracted to oversee their construction. The land was surveyed and contour lines marked. Bulldozers and diggers were sourced. And the work began in earnest.
Dave Clark came on as site manager, and stayed through to the end of phase three. Brooke Watson took the mantle from Paul Brant as Project Manager for phase two through phase three. Additional skills and expertise came from trusted local staff, many of whom had worked with us in the camp during the refugee activities. Their leadership and ability to negotiate the local culture and politics were critical to the project's success.
The Cegrane team successfully completed the earthworks before winter set in. The terraforming was impressive. It had a pattern that confirmed a harmony of design with the landscape. Flooding of the village of Cegrane ceased as the swales went in. Along with earthworks went planting of trees and seeds (a perimeter fence and ditch kept out goats). As winter set in, the first permaculture course was held in English for the project staff. Phase one was a clear success, and on the second day after the last swale was completed, it began snowing.
 Winter was a time to focus on education. Following the first course, several translators were selected for the next courses, to be taught by Geoff and Sindhu Lawton. Out of respect for local customs, separate men and women's courses were developed. In the spring, the first course in Albanian, was taught by Gazmend Fetahi. A permaculture architect was employed on the project to help design the site structures, and to train a local architect in straw-bale building techniques and oversaw initial small projects to familiarize people with the processÑfoundations, a moisture barrier, wood frame, stacking the bales, wiring the walls, and rendering the structure to protect the straw from moisture and insect/pest attack.
The project employed over 100 staff during the second phase, and included a management process involving the local authorities. There were plenty of issues to resolve, but progress was being made. A children's garden was completed, and a chicken tractor, entrance way fence and the peace pond and statue were in place. The local craftsmen were quickly coming to terms with the straw bale medium for building, and our women's teams were showing the men up. One of the clear policies of the project was to provide employment opportunities for local women.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
At the end of August 1999, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees invited me to work as their Camp Rehabilitation Consultant. I continued in this role for nine months, and was able to give strategic support to the Cegrane rehabilitation project along the way. During this time, I was responsible for planning rehabilitation activities for all nine refugee campsites in Macedonia, as well as oversight of a program of Quick Impact Projects (QIPS). These were funded DIFID (British Overseas Aid and Development Department) and UNCHR. In my nine months, we allocated a total of over $2 million to projects in refugee affected areas. These were administered in partnership with OXFAM and we successfully completed a total of 112 projects across the country. These ranged from school repairs to small-scale income generation projects and were implemented through both international and local organizations, as well as local government.
At the end of June 2000 the Cegrane project was beginning its third phase. Local management of the project was enhanced and significant success had been achieved through the teaching of permaculture courses locally. In July I joined the Cegrane project team to help develop small business ideas for the site to help generate much needed income. My day started up the hill working physically for a couple of hours, then morphed into the office. A library was taking shape and other features of the site were also developing.
We had large numbers of tomatoes ripening from a couple of acres of commercial test gardens laid out on the site--the total harvest for the season was over five tons. Nobody believed it could be done on such a site. We experimented with drying tomatoes and packing them in olive oil. I carried cases of fresh organic tomatoes to sell to the UN and other international agencies based in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia. In the height of summer, tomatoes in Macedonia are practically worthless as so many are grown locally. Dried tomatoes on the other hand are light and high value, especially if sold into EU markets - hence our trial.
A suite of services and activities was developed to provide a diverse income stream from the site and employ a core staff that had proven themselves during our work together. Our funding for phase three was to end in November, and this was the mid-point of a planned three-year project. It was difficult to explain to local stakeholders that the money was not secure for the whole project, but that we were trying. In the meantime, the library building was nearing completion, and the benefits of its passive -solar design were immediately obvious. It was cool, even on the hottest days due to the straw bale insulation qualities. These same qualities would serve well to keep the buildings warm in the winter.
Lessons from United Nations Environment Program
In September 2000, I was approached by UNHCR to join a United Nations Environmental Program assessment team visiting Macedonia and Albania. Our assignment was to consider the effect of the refugee crisis on the environment 12 months later, and assess industrial hot-spots and institutional capacity for environmental management.
The trip highlighted how much energy is focused on the emergency component of such situations, and how fast the money dries up afterwards. Full life-cycle planning for refugee facilities is the ideal - where environmentally stable designs are integrated with facilities that can be easily reused after the crisis. The foundation for such an approach is considering the landscape right from the start. Had the Cegrane campsite, for example, integrated swales from the beginning, much time, money, and misery would have been saved. Other important issues identified were solid and human waste disposal for countries that generally had no effective disposal/treatment systems in place.
Northwest Louisiana Commerce Center
Early in 2000, Paul Brant and I contacted Vic Guadagno in Louisiana. We had heard about a project he was undertaking that centered on a reuse of U.S. army facilities, with the possibility of a humanitarian aid component. He welcomed our involvement in the project.
We agreed to meet in Louisiana in late March and proceeded to work on our ideas, along with a third team member - Damien Campbell. In March we flew to Louisiana and presented our ideas to key stakeholders in the project. In a week, we got to know Vic and the team, as well as the site. Vic is a keen permaculturist and video producer with a suite of skills in digital media, communications and marketing. We eventually agreed to develop a business plan centered around a humanitarian aid hub--this would provide appropriate education, and attract strategic manufacturers to the site to develop appropriate new technology, as well as fabricate needed items.
Vic also invited us to attend Bill Mollison's workshop and subsequent permaculture course to be taught by Geoff and Sindhu Lawton at the Northwest Louisiana Commerce Center in October 2000. We funded three of our Macedonia project staff - Pajtim Saiti, Gazmend Fetahi and Basri Saliu to attend this event, based on their capabilities and ongoing efforts to begin local permaculture organizations. The trip also allowed me to brief the State Department in Washington about the Cegrane project. I had paid them a visit earlier in the year, and had been warmly received. The project was considered a success. Unfortunately, it was outside their mandate to fund any further phases, but they were highly satisfied with the site rehabilitation and additional community development work was a bonus.
Bill Mollison Workshop
The Mollison workshop was a well-attended two-day event. Bill was irreverent and controversial, causing some people to leave, but most stayed. This was somewhat surprising considering that the audience included members of the Louisiana National Guard, US defense industry and the US Army. On day two, myself, Paul, Gazmend, Pajtim and Basri presented the Cegrane project. It was an emotional moment to see people's response. I stayed for the subsequent two-week PDC course, which my wife Galawezh also attended. We looked at the administration area at the ammunition plant site and drafted designs for the area as part of the practical component of the course. One of the attendees was Deputy Sheriff Eddie Bogues. He told us he was doing the course because he understood recycling - that's what they did with prisoners. This is an important issue considering that the US has among the highest rates of incarceration of any country.
 I finally returned to Macedonia in November 2000, but without having secured any immediate donor funds for the Cegrane project. It was clear that the project would end only half way through completion. I agreed to stay on and close the project, probably the hardest part of any mission. There was a lot of community discussion and some controversy about the future of the site. In the end, it was handed back to the local authorities that had retained legal control over the site. The physical rehabilitation was an unqualified success, many additional initiatives had been begun, but the permaculture institute as an integral component of the site was not yet a reality. Nonetheless, during the course of the project, we had achieved the following:
- Full environmental stabilization and revegetation of the 54 hectare (133 acre) site through the construction of 7.2 km (4.5 miles) of swales, planting of 15,000 trees and interswale seeding of winter grasses.
- Construction of a two-story straw-bale, passive solar library and teaching center, and similarly designed straw-bale office building.
- Construction of various straw-bale storage buildings and an 8,000 square foot straw bale harvest center.
- Construction of 32-bed summer accommodation consisting of 8 straw-bale cabins with an outdoor kitchen and composting toilets.
- Planting of 5,000 mixed fruit trees with fully operative, gravity-fed drip irrigation system.
- Planting of a children's garden with fully integrated and productive permaculture gardens.
- Development of 1 acre of intensive mixed vegetable gardens. These produced abundant crops of corn, sunflowers, peppers, squash, tomatoes, and herbs.
- Training of over 300 Permaculture Design Course (72-hours) graduates in surrounding communities.
- Seeding of two permaculture based environmental NGO's from the project (see the Permaculture and Peacebuilding Center website: www.ppc.org.mk)
- Integration of women's participation in the project despite traditional gender stereotypes being a powerful feature of local culture.
As 2000 drew to a close, Vic Guadagno invited me to join the team in Louisiana working at Northwest Louisiana Commerce Center (NWLCC.) They had a grant from the army to incorporate a permaculture demonstration as part of the site. This seemed like the permaculture path, I accepted.
Northwest Louisiana Commerce Center/Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant
The focus of the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant reuse project was encapsulated under the banner of the NWLCC. This entity aimed to attract new tenants to the site, a 15,000-acre ammunition plant commissioned during WWII. It had seen action during all the critical military engagements that the US had been involved with since this time, with a final cessation of activities in the 1990s. One part of the site remains in layaway, awaiting a possible strategic re-activation should national security interests require it. The rest of the site--over 400 structures, and miles of related logistics and service infrastructure such as road and rail lines--was available for new use that could attract new business to the site. With 80% of the site forested, and wetland and swamp areas well represented on the site, it had a lot of high value natural attributes to protect as well.
The foundation for the reuse approach was a combination of industrial ecology and permaculture. Industrial ecology is, if you like, a permaculture approach to an industrial ecosystem. It applies ecosystem thinking in an attempt to link waste streams from one process as feedstock for another process or industry - thus minimizing and ideally eliminating all waste through its conversion to beneficial use. In addition to a broad mandate to attract new tenants, the project had secured some DOD funds for a permaculture study within the site. This was intended as an opportunity to showcase permaculture through its application at a specific site on the base; it was linked to a broader conceptual program of setting up a physical location for the Permaculture Institute.
Our team was diverse and made up of a combination of volunteers and consultants led by Vic Guadagno. Josh Tosteson and Paul Brant focused on the Eco-industrial development front, seeking opportunities to turn local waste streams into opportunities for new business start-ups. I headed up the permaculture project assisted by Amy Jo Vickery and Nick Hogarth. We developed a close working association with Dr. Charles Reith from the University of Louisiana Lafayette. We spent six months planning and applying for permits to carry out a permaculture design on the administrative area of the site. This was to combine a small business incubator with the various elements needed for a full-fledged permaculture academy. During this period, we also held a PDC taught by Geoff Lawton that drew on the local area and identified pockets of people and organizations with an interest in sustainability issues.
During the first part of the year, I was able to return to Australia to participate in Bill's Tasmania permaculture course. It was here that I met Janet Millington and Darren Doherty, co-teachers on the course. It was my third PDC and contributed additional views and ideas to my perspective on sustainability. One thing that I realized was that there were an ever expanding network of people working in very professional and organized ways to further understanding and make practical application of permaculture knowledge. Another course attendee, Wayne Parrot has subsequently embarked on a new venture strongly centered on permaculture (www.fountainhead.com.au). After the course, over Bill Mollison's kitchen table, I met with Howard Yana Shapiro and Nancy Shapiro from Seeds of Change and learned about their efforts to promote organic seeds and food. Seeds of Change later made a much valued seed donation to our NWLCC permaculture project.
Often, the greatest challenges to applying sustainable ideas and technology isn't the technical side, but rather cultural, bureaucratic, or institutional resistance to change. In our case, it came in the form of a decision for the Louisiana National Guard to take an increasing role on the site. Allied to this was their decision to host a third 'Youth Challenge' program in Louisiana. It is seen as a successful program in Louisiana, and our administrative area with the proposed permaculture design was seen as the perfect venue, minus the permaculture. Our offer to work with them to tailor a Youth Challenge program for the site that included permaculture ideals and skill transfer was not taken up. We initially looked for an alternate site on the base, then we looked off site for somewhere more accessible to the public.
Our off-site strategy was accepted by the DOD as a form of outreach into the communities that had done so much to support the LAAP facility, and taken a big economic hit during its phase down and eventual closure. We eventually identified a suitable organization with whom to work, Cultural Crossroads of Minden. They are a broad based not-for-profit entity engaged in environment, culture , and the arts in Webster Parish. The events of September 11 occurred in the midst of our project re-orientation, just following a second PDC course run by Janet Millington. For me, following my initial disbelief, 9/11 underscored the interconnectedness of life on our planet and the fact that we all need to be living well for a peaceful future. This will be premised on sharing abundance and reaching a common level of quality of life, rather than the patchwork of luxury and wretchedness that currently stands as normality.
A component of the PDC was development of a site design for a piece of land that had been donated to Cultural Crossroads in the heart of the town of Minden. Here, on approximately 4 acres, we had agreed to focus the permaculture implementation. It was great to start work physically following all the paper pushing. In the midst of planning for gardens and a community celebration, we sought out some worm castings. These are a valuable natural fertilizer, but not yet commonly available in your average garden or retail store. Louis Michot, one of our summer interns found a company called B&B Worm Farms. They had castings, they were willing to make a donation, and the CEO, Greg Bradley was willing to make a long drive personally to do so.
We were aware of vermiculture as an important method of taking organic material and producing a valuable soil amendment. Greg had over 1000 contracted worm growers spread across the country and was looking to implement industrial scale vermicomposting systems. As we discussed our project and the NWLCC project, some connections quickly formed. One of the premier feeds for earthworms is horse manure. One of our identified challenges was to take the stable waste from Louisiana Downs and find something more useful than landfilling for it. The eco-industrial team headed up by Josh Tosteson and Mark LeJeune had been considering biogas digestion and composting of the material. Vermicomposting had the additional benefit of a higher biological quality end product with greater economic value.
FullCircle LLC: www.fullcirclellc.com
At around the same time as we considered vermicomposting, we also began serious discussions about forming ourselves into a company that could take these sustainability focused ideas and find economic value in them. The eco-industrial team had taken the broad approach of considering regional waste streams and looking for industrial matches to turn these waste streams into feedstocks. One abundant regional waste stream was centered on the forest industries and post-consumer waste-wood. On the basis of a survey of availability, a company was attracted to the NWLCC that was to take post-consumer waste-wood, grind it and produce particle board. This represented a $30 million investment and significant new jobs. We felt that there was value in taking this basic model of operating and using it as the foundation for a company with core permaculture ethics as its operating philosophy:
- Care of people
- Care of the earth
- Return of surplus to support the first two principles
We formed ourselves into a company - FullCircle Limited Liability Company that eventually included four partners, Dr. Charles Reith, Paul Brant, Josh Tosteson, and myself. We took a royalty position in relation to the proposed vermiculture project on the LAAP. The business planning that was done in relation to the track showed an annual liability of approximately $150,000 in tipping fees, and a similar amount in transport costs. This was caused by a peak population of 1,600 horses stabled at the track during racing season. It was our target to take this liability and turn it into a profit by producing an organic soil amendment, rather than groundwater pollution and greenhouse gasses in a landfill.
New York, New York
December 2001 saw relocation for Paul and myself to New York City. We cemented our company mission: to conceive, design, develop, practice, and promote enterprises that accelerate the transition to sustainability, using the concept of a sustainable system and the functional properties of natural ecosystems as our blueprints. Our initial focus was on alternative energy and vermiculture.
The project planning and various business planning and environmental stages were completed for B&B's new operation at LAAP. We took the project before the Louisiana Department of Economic Development and Louisiana Governor Mike Foster and found great support from our Minden representative. People remembered our work with LAAP and our work in supporting the City Farm Project. The effects of the project, in purely economic terms, stacked up from the perspective of the LDED. We were attracting new industry and helping to create jobs Ñsustainable economic development. More importantly from our perspective, we had diverted waste streams into productivity.
By March 2002, the first worms arrived onto the site, and all the track's stable waste was being delivered there. As of the end of July, there are an estimated 150,000 lb of earthworms processing this material into a valuable product. The initiation of this, as the second major business on the LAAP using regional waste streams as a feedstock means that the NWLCC is beginning to truly function as an eco-industrial park in the way it was originally conceived. It is hoped that the army and current managers continue to stay true to that vision.
We launched our website in July: www.fullcirclellc.com. There are abundant new opportunities and an expanding network of collaborators. Writing this has reminded me what an exciting ride the past three years has been. A feeling of being engaged in creating solutions generates additional energy and ideas, especially as part of a wider team with shared values and vision. There is also so much more to learn, and as I contemplate my small garden in Brooklyn, I'm reminded of the importance of seeing and nurturing the biological systems that underpin our true wealth on earth.
Things change when we choose to change them, we need however the skill to "see" where that intervention will be most effective. Permaculture has given me some skills in this area. I am now surrounded by a team of people with whom to cooperate on this venture. A tremendously life affirming aspect of the experience has been the confirmation again that people working mutually within a meaningful framework can prevail against what may seem insurmountable odds. Harmonizing the efforts and effects of our economic, political and social systems is the challenge of finding sustainability as we move into the 21st Century. Together we can.
Andrew Jones is currently in northern Iraq working with Counterpart International to help Iraqi people rebuild their agriculture. He is a Partner in FullCircle LLC with a background in ecology, permaculture, humanitarian aid and international development. A native of Australia, he has worked extensively over the last 12 years in the Middle East, the Pacific, Asia, Europe and the United States.
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