News & Views

Scott Pittman to teach Permaculture Workshops in Maine

Scott Pittman, founder of the Permaculture Institute, will teach two Seeds of Change sponsored workshops at Moose Pond Arts+Ecology (MPA+E) in Otisfield, Maine, this September. The first, an Introduction to Permaculture, will start on the evening of the 12th and run through Sunday the 14th. The second, Practical Permaculture for Sustainable Farming and Gardening, will begin on Monday the 15th and run for 3 days, ending on the 17th. These classes will balance classroom and hands-on learning. There is a discount for students taking both classes.

Topics covered in the Introduction to Permaculture include:

• An Overview of Permaculture and Sustainable Living Concepts
• The Ethics, Principles & Methodology of Design
• Applications of Permaculture to All Aspects of Human Endeavor

Topics in the Sustainable Farming and Gardening Segment include:

• Garden Design Strategies
• Soil Building Techniques
• Preparations of Beds
• Direct-seeding and Transplanting
• Irrigation
• Intercropping
• Gardening for Biodiversity
• Cover Crops
• Mulching
• Pest and Weed Control
• Hand Tools
• Insectary Plantings
• Seed Saving Basics
• And more…

Scott Pittman is widely known for his work to establish permaculture in the United States and has taught in 18 countries on 4 continents for over 30 years. He also co-taught with Bill Mollison, the founder of modern permaculture, for 6 years.

Scott Vlaun of MPA+E and editor of this eNewsletter will assist Pittman in teaching the farming and gardening segment. Steve Peters from Seeds of Change will teach a segment about cover-cropping and soils on the 17th.

These workshops are co-sponsored by Seeds of Change and continue the relationship that the company has established with the Permaculture Institute. The workshops follow the success of this summer’s series of permaculture workshops at SOC’s Research Farm and Gardens in New Mexico, where educators from the Institute enlightened dozens of attendees on sustainable design principles, natural and constructed ecosystems, and bringing sustainability into the home and community.

MPA+E is located in Otisfield, one hour N/NW from Portland, and home to extensive organic gardens and numerous permaculture-related projects. The site functions as a Northeast Trial Garden for Seeds of Change, and has many agricultural trials underway,

Visit www.moosepondarts.com for additional information about the workshops and www.permaculture.org to sign up.

Farm Walk and Seed-Saving Workshop in Northwest Washington
“Integrating Seed into a Diversified Organic Farm”
Date: September 8, 2008 
Location: Nash's Organic Produce, Sequim, WA
www.nashsorganicproduce.com

Growing seed on-farm is a viable diversification strategy that can build farm financial and environmental sustainability. Micaela Colley from Organic Seed Alliance will join Nash Huber and the farm crew to lead a Farm Walk demonstrating the benefits of on-farm seed production. Nash came to the seed business as a produce farmer recognizing the need for variety security. The farm started maintaining their signature carrot variety "Nash's Best" 10 years ago. Since then seed production has filled many niches in their diversified 400-acre produce and livestock farm. Today they produce seed for on-farm use, variety security, livestock feed, and as a contracted crop. They are also involved in several on-farm breeding projects, including WSU wheat variety trials. Following the Farm Walk, a classroom and hands-on seed saving workshop will be taught by Nash Huber, Scott Chichester of Nash's Organic Produce, and Micaela Colley of Organic Seed Alliance
Farm Walk 9:30 to 12:00. Cost $10 Tilth members, $15 non-members
Lunch 12:00 to 1:00.
Seed Saving Workshop from 1:00 to 4:00. Cost $10 Tilth members, $15 non-members (space limited)

Offered by Tilth Producers, WSU Small Farms Team, and Organic Seed Alliance

Brad Lancaster Radio Interview and Booksigning Tour

Jill Cloutier of Sustainable World Radio will interview Brad Lancaster, permaculture teacher, designer, co-founder of Desert Harvesters, and the author of the award-winning Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume1, Guiding Principles to Welcome Rain Into Your Life and Landscape and the new Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Volume 2,Water-Harvesting Earthworks. Joining the interview will be Wesley Roe of Santa Barbara Permaculture Network. The interview will take place on Friday, Aug 22, 9–10am PST, and can be heard on Sustainable World Radio, KCSB 91.9 FM, and streaming live on www.kcsb.org. It can also found on www.sustainableworldradio.com later in the month.

From August 28 through September 21, 2008, Lancaster will conduct a booksigning tour throughout California. where he will share his experiences traveling the world learning about harvesting rainwater—with simple landforms and earthworks—in places like India, Peru, Mexico, Africa and the United States, where impoverished landscapes are turned into oases of life using brilliant, low-tech, regenerative systems to hydrate the land and maximize the benefit that water brings to plants, animals and people. For times and locations of these and other events visit www.harvestingrainwater.com.

Living on an eighth of an acre in downtown Tucson, Arizona, where rainfall is less than 12 inches annually, Lancaster practices what he preaches by harvesting over 100,000 gallons of rainwater a year. Brad has taught programs for the ECOSA Institute, Columbia University, University of Arizona, Prescott College, Audubon Expeditions, and many others.

Masanobu Fukuoka Passes Away

Sustainable agriculture luminary Masanobu Fukuoka passed away on Saturday, August 16, 2008, at his home in Iyo, Japan. He was 95 years old and died of natural causes.

Fukuoka is best remembered as the author of One Straw Revolution: The Natural Way of Farming, as well as many other books on the subject of natural farming, which he devoted many decades of his life to. Originally a soil scientist specializing in plant pathology, his path to sustainable agriculture began when disillusionment with scientific farming set in. He left the scientific establishment and moved to the family farm to grow organic mikans, a variety of mandarin oranges. It was here that he developed his system of “natural farming,” a method that eschews pesticides or fertilizers, weeding or tilling.

Bill Mollison, the progenitor of the permaculture movement, held Fukuoka in high regard. He credits Fukuoka with pioneering a way to sustainably produce grains—previously Mollison had not thought they could be incorporated into permaculture.

More information about Mr. Fukuoka’s natural farming system can be found at www.fukuokafarmingol.info.

"If we throw Mother Nature out the window, she comes back in the door with a pitchfork." - Masanobu Fukuoka

EPA Sued Over Use of Endosulfan

In late July, a lawsuit was filed against the Environmental Protection Agency regarding the use of Endosulfan, an organochlorine pesticide. The lawsuit alleges that the chemical poses a persistent threat to the environment and human health, and is particularly dangerous for children. The suit cites the findings of a 2007 study where children who were exposed to the poison during the first trimester of pregnancy were discovered to have a significantly greater risk for developing autism spectrum disorders than children who had not been exposed.

The enduring nature and heavy usage of endosulfan have allowed it to be widely distributed throughout the United States and the world. A government study discovered the chemical in national parks throughout the continental U.S., and in Alaska, at levels that threaten the ecosystems of these supposedly pristine areas. Although endosulfan has been banned by the E.U. and 20 countries around the globe, American farmers still rely upon it heavily, distributing almost 700 tons of it in 2002, the most recent year for which data exists, on crops such as cotton, tomatoes, and melons.

The coalition that has filed the suit includes the Center for Environmental Health, Farm Labor Organizing Committee (AFL-CIO), Natural Resources Defense Council, Pesticide Action Network North America, United Farm Workers, and Teamsters Local 890.

A complete article about the suit can be found here.