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AbundantEarthFoundation.org

Like everyone, COVID offered the time for the Abundant Earth Foundation to stop and look at what we were doing and to ask how we could make a difference in the lives of those suffering so greatly, not only from the threat of the virus but climate change, social unrest, and other difficulties of life. How can we be relevant in these changing times? 

This small foundation started after the last International Permaculture Convergence in India in 2017 with the vision of doing grassroots fundraising to be able to offer support, in all forms of capital not just financial, to permaculture and regenerative projects around the world. At first, with COVID, we saw our donations go down, and so looked to be as strategic as possible with what little funding we had to share. 

Many requests came in especially from projects we already have had an association within Africa and Latin America. Donations went to small villages for protective face covers and handwashing stations. We’ve also been able to focus on efforts that would have a long term benefit for communities through the establishment of chicken and rabbit raising projects to provide an ongoing source of protein to orphanages and schools. The Canadian-based non-profit and our new partners, ReFarmers, establishes permaculture gardens for women who are raising many orphans and creating an abundance of food that can then be sold at local markets. With the closure of schools due to COVID, the usual food accessibility for youth has been cut off, and food shortages have been a dire issue. These gardens are helping feed many people and locals are hired to establish the gardens. There is a huge waiting list of people wanting help establishing their permaculture gardens, as COVID leads to increasing food shortages. Doctors have also started recommending gardens to improve people’s health, leading to even more requests. A donation of $80 covers hiring a local team to establish the garden and the starts to get it going. Seed saving and market selling lead to a self-sustaining endeavor right away. 

Through our partnership with another non-profit, Contor Lines, we have been able to provide emergency food supplies for a remote village in Guatemala whose imports were cut off, as well as the establishment of a tree nursery and purchase of land to continue a growing agroforestry project to train locals to restore degraded cattle land into a thriving food forest. In Afghanistan, a water line was able to be connected to a school so that their school garden could continue after the campus’s well dried up. In Kurdistan, funding was offered to support a small-scale permaculture project that helps feed a very arid village. 

All of our efforts look to help people with their emergency needs while also really considering how to take a longer view to make people as self-sustaining and food-sovereign as possible. These projects mentioned were all supported with donations of $50-$500 yet made a big difference in the lives of fellow inhabitants of this beautiful planet. Keeping in mind the 3rd ethic of permaculture, when we share our abundance with others, even donations of $5/month, we can collectively have a big impact in creating a world that works for all.  

Learn more at AbundantEarthFoundation.org

Contour Lines working with women in Guatemala to learn agroforestry:

Hand-washing stations and Mask making in Kenya:

Establishing a Grandmother Kitchen garden in Uganda:

By Rev Dele, PAN Board Member

Current events inspire me to reflect on racism within the permaculture movement. I have served on the front lines of desegregation since 1965 as a child, and now that I am an elder, I still seem to be the first black person in many professional venues. Racism is a virulent virus. These musings are just one way I am catching my breath.

Racism is an ideology that allows white people to separate themselves and their resources from the rest of the world. Racism uses the tools of secularization, separation and dichotomy to braid itself into most of the modern world. We see this played out when white men living in Australia created a new language for the regenerative design science of Indigenous peoples. This new language of — people care, earth care and fair share — allows permaculturists to ignore the first practitioners of regenerative design. Ignoring the people who give you something seems to be in direct violation of the “fair share ethic”… Anyway, these ethics came complete with a new “religion” called permaculture principles. I find it a little humorous that permaculturists have as much difficulty practicing their ethics and principles as most religious practitioners. The same tools of secularization, separation and dichotomy that embedded racism in western culture, created Permaculture. Relationship may be a faster cure than a new set of rules.

Mind you Indigenous peoples never stopped practicing regenerative design science. We are still spiritually grounded in the art and science of living on earth. We are grounded in relationship with earth. Westerners began to promote the idea that you can separate spirit out of everyday life and live a “secular” existence that does not honor your source of existence. The combined earth and social pandemics we are experiencing right now are a result of this type of thinking. 

Western philosophy continues to use physical force and economic violence to separate humanity from natural abundance into hierarchical, warring factions. The divine feminine and people of color populate the bottom of accepted ideology and practice. Dichotomy becomes a reinforcer. The term “woo woo” is still used to discredit and shut down permaculture practice which keeps spirit included in its teachings. I will never forget being on an international listserv where the white men were disrespecting one another and then became angry because there were a large number of us “on the margins” who did not join in the arguments. After a few threats, they deleted us from the listserv. So much for “valuing diversity at the margins.” As I said, religious practitioners are not always good at relationship. The good news is that with the pandemic we have a lot of time to rethink and strengthen relationships. I look forward to the time we rejoin people and earth relationships in regenerative ways.

Greetings! Oh, summertime. Bursting berries, shimmering sunshine, growth in all directions, north, south, earth, sky. Many of us are busy tending to gardens, stewarding seeds and plants, smashing the patriarchy, unlearning biases, dismantling white supremacy, tending the land, caring for our communities, and sharing the surplus this season. It’s all connected. We hope you are all striking a positive balance between work, play, and self care during these times we’re in and have always been in. 

So, what’s been new for PAN? 

Strengthening the Network 

We see value in offering tools to our members and the northeast permaculture network that strengthen communication, collaboration, and connection with each other. This can be hard to achieve in our region since many of us are physically far from each other and will continue to be an issue due to risks associated with traveling and convening during this COVID-19 era. Because of this, we have invested in new membership software – a program called, Membership Works. While this tool also helps us better manage our membership database, it provides a suite of features on the PAN website for members to use including a membership directory, interactive map, and member profile. As we integrate this software into our website, we will work with all of you to ensure that this transition is seamless. This will greatly improve the ability for members to connect with PAN and with each other! Please note that PAN will be offering an introductory session at the 2020 Virtual Northeast Permaculture Convergence, so tune in there for more information about this program! 

2020 Virtual Northeast Permaculture Convergence

In lieu of cancelling the in-person Northeast Permaculture Convergence, PAN coordinated a 2020 Virtual Gathering that brought in speakers who discussed topics related to wild edibles, revolutionary permaculture, urban ecosystem justice, and more! For access to the recordings, please visit https://northeastpermaculture.org/convergence-2020/. 

PAN Webinars 

PAN has been upping its webinar game! Since the pandemic began in March, we’ve hosted virtual conversations on the role of permaculture during the pandemic and teaching permaculture to youth. We’ve also begun planning a two-part webinar series exploring suburban and urban permaculture systems. Our next webinar is focused on Permaculture for Suburban Landscapes, so keep an eye out for more information on this! 

Do you have an idea for a future webinar topic or speakers? Let us know by sending a message to info@northeastpermaculture.org 

Equity Statement

The PAN Equity Statement Committee is working to collaborate and co-create an organizational equity statement and implementation plan. The equity statement will identify a vision and actions related to building racial equity and resisting white supremacy in our organization’s decision making structure, organizational culture, and non-profit projects, and within the broader northeast permaculture community. The next work group meeting is on Tuesday, August 18th at 5-6 PM and all PAN members are welcome to attend. For more information, please contact info@northeastpermaculture.org. 

Please enjoy this free recording of our recent webinar from May 27 entitled PANdemic Webinar: Permaculture Tools and Strategies in a Time of Crisis and Possibility.

Info below:

Join us for a conversation with Permaculture activists, designers and educators as we explore questions about mutual aid, people care, and organizing in this time of COVID-19 including:  What are some permaculture tools and strategies people are leaning on to get through this time collectively and equitably? How can we leverage this moment to create lasting transformational change?

Panelists:

Scott Kellogg is the Educational Director at the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center, an urban environmental education non-profit in Albany, New York.  Radix maintains a one-acre farm that presently is focusing on supporting local food sovereignty and pandemic resilience.  Scott is Chair of Urban Agriculture for Albany’s Sustainability Advisory Committee and teaches at Bard College and SUNY Albany.

Bonita Ford is the author “Embers of Hope: Embracing Life in an Age of Ecological Destruction and Climate Crisis.” She gives courses and workshops in permaculture (ecological design), Nonviolent Communication (cooperative communication), Reiki (energy work), and gardening. Bonita has led groups around the world for over 18 years. To learn more, visit www.livinghEARTH.net.

Keith Morris of Prospect Rock Permaculture has been applying his lifelong love of nature and culture and experience as an activist to permaculture and ecological design since 1996. Since 2000, he has worked professionally as a designer, builder, and grower of ecologically regenerative, socially just, and culturally appropriate whole-systems in cities and countrysides around the world.

Adriana Magaña is a drummer, permaculture designer, visionary, and eternal student of the natural world. She lives in the Hudson Valley with her partner Andrew Faust and daughter Juniper where they operate the Center for Bioregioinal Living, a permaculture education, design, and consulting organization. She believes that an education founded in the patterns and practices of nature will help people understand their connection to and place within the natural world and works to facilitate and teach these skills to all who want to learn.

Moderated by: 

Lisa DePiano is a PINA certified permaculture designer, teacher and practitioner with over 15 years of experience. She is a lecturer in Sustainable Agriculture at the University of Massachusetts and a research fellow at the MIT media lab.  She runs the UMass Carbon Farming Initiative on the 40 acre Agriculture Learning Center.

This event is free, with donations welcome: http://northeastpermaculture.org/get-involved/donate/ 

Please consider membership in PAN to support our educational mission:

Membership – Join PAN

Greetings!

We hope you and yours are well and are able to creatively respond to the numerous changes in our midst!

This spring, a global pandemic is inviting us to live out our permaculture principles from a deeper place as never before. It feels as if we are all being drawn inwards to uncover Earth’s infinite wisdom to guide this journey. Hopefully we can pull out what we need to balance ourselves and strengthen social and economic cohesiveness. Let’s work together to learn new skills and nurture new networks.

While some are sharing necessary permaculture techniques, we want to support the exchange of permaculture ideas for our Northeast region. PAN wants to refresh our communities with online forums that move us out of anxiety and engage the unique conversations that face us at this moment in history. Be on the lookout for more information about these in the near future!

We are also spending this time creating a new membership website and database that allows members to more easily connect with each other and share resources. We believe this is essential moving forward to ensure our network remains strong and resilient into the future.

We believe we will get through this together by strengthening our collaborations and finding the solutions waiting for us in the challenges we are currently facing. We look forward to you joining our online forums to dialogue about how we can apply that wisdom in a way that nourishes our planet as well as our personal and professional well being. 

Sincerely,
The PAN Board of Directors

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