Blog

Wednesday, April 1st, 2020 12:30-1:30 PM USA ET

Join us to hear Matthew discuss his research on permaculture convergences, the focus of his Ph.D. studies in Environmental Psychology at the CUNY Graduate Center. Matthew has traveled widely throughout the US attending convergences, fueled by both his research and his own practice and love of ecological design and permaculture. He will share from both his research and his own perspective.

Register today and receive a 30% discount code to Chelsea Green Publishing in your confirmation email!

Register here: http://northeastpermaculture.org/webinar/

PAN has recently affiliated with PINA, the Permaculture Institute of North America, to become the official northeastern hub representing our region.  PINA is a professional association of regional hubs working across North America and Hawaiʻi to:

    •    Elevate the status and impact of Permaculture by influencing public policy and private development to improve the quality of life for all

    •    Bring permaculture solutions to bear on the challenges of social justice, land regeneration, and climate cooling

    •    Promote permaculture pathways to professional development

    •    Grant diplomas

    •    Preserve the integrity and quality of the Permaculture Design Course

    •    Facilitate networking among permaculturists

PINA is a continental-scale organization focused on building a coalition of permaculture designers, teachers, builders, activists and organizations all across North America.  PDC graduates in North America are estimated at 50,000 people and PINA is an effort to connect us all across the continent in our new lives after the PDC in whatever professions we have evolved into.  Not all PDC graduates wind up in land care, design or teaching professions. Many PDC graduates find themselves in other professional domains like community-focused projects, non-profit work, finance, construction, public education, political advocacy and so much more.  You can read all about PINA’s goals and strategies at https://pina.in/about_pina/

PINA is trying to recognize symbols and representatives of quality work in the different domains of permaculture work.  Pursuant to this effort, PINA offers further educational opportunities with their permaculture diploma program to help certify those who desire a professional credential in a permaculture specialty like design, construction, education and community organizing.   (Read about it here https://pina.in/diplomas/)

Permaculture has a lot to offer the dominant society of North America in terms of design-based solutions to many seemingly intractable problems like ecosystem degradation and climate change.  With our legion numbering somewhere around 50,000 people continent-wide, PINA is trying to organize a membership of individuals and collectives into something that can exert greater force on the important decisions being made in our society.  With this membership of individuals, businesses and regional hubs; PINA has an intention to leverage its size and status as a “professional umbrella organization” to gain access to funding aimed at solving the climate crisis. One goal of this funding is to help with facilitating the construction of “on the ground” projects.  PINA has so far held design contests two years in a row with cash prizes going toward the implementation of the contest winners’ projects.   

Climate crisis monies seem to be flowing from many philanthropic organizations and PINA thinks of this coalition not as an end in an of itself, but rather as a strategy for amplifying the voice of the permaculture community and promoting/demonstrating the next iteration of solutions at a scale commensurate with the challenges we face as a society and species.  Part of the value in affiliating our regional network with a continental one revolves around establishing the credibility of land management strategies associated with permaculture and elevating these strategies on a continental stage with case studies and funding. We know we have been busy at work making resilient ecosystems that produce yields for our human needs while increasing ecosystem health.  We know we have been doing this all across our region with very little funding, and it’s time to make our vision and solutions known to a larger audience.  

PAN, as a regional network-stewarding organization, has existed since 2005 and we have much to offer younger regional hubs through the vehicle of PINA (http://northeastpermaculture.org/p-i-n-e-history/).  We can help younger organizations by sharing our patterns of success, and it is helpful to have an umbrella group like PINA to focus and facilitate those flows of information from where they are abundant to where they are scarce all throughout the continent.  

PAN and PINA will co-host a caucus at this summer’s 2020 Northeast Permaculture Convergence (http://northeastpermaculture.org/buy-convergence-tickets/) July 24-26 to talk about our collective work and the value of building regional and continental coalitions.  PINA will host a North American Leadership Summit in Loveland, CO August 20-23, 2020. We look forward to seeing you there!

-Jesse Labbe-Watson, Midcoast Permaculture Design.  Former board member, PAN. 

“Will we have the wisdom to survive climate chaos and planetary destruction?” This film offers four stories that answer this question, and invite its viewers to ask themselves, what am I doing and what are we doing, together, to put the destructive giant back to sleep? Produced by BALE – Building A Local Economy, based in Royalton, VT. The film follows the work and inspiration of people whose recognition of this destruction has put them on a path of radical change.  We hear from Leah Penniman of Soul Fire Farm in Petersburg, VT, committed to ending racism and injustice in the food system by raising life-giving food that is primarily cultivated by, and grown for those most marginalized by our current system of food apartheid. 

Chris Paina of Fable Farm and Fermentory, a working farm, winery, and culinary enterprise, hosts events to bring people together to celebrate rural life, arts, and culture, cultivating community so that relationship and people are valued over profits. Climbing Poetree, the soulful, truth-telling, musical creation of Alixa Garcia and Naima Penniman – two artists for whom spoken word and music have the power to transform, uplift, and rebuild. And the group of inspired young women at Metta Earth Institute of Lincoln Vermont, a center for contemplative ecology that focuses on education through a wide array of trainings, retreats, intensive programs, workshops, and consultations.

Narrated by Penobscot elder, Sherri Mitchell (Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset), we are introduced to the Penobscot mythology of the cannibal giant: a creature awakened by the destruction of mother earth. 

Find it in the theatre Thursday, April 2 in Montpelier, Vermont at the  Vermont Center for Integrative Health at 6-8 PM.

Visit https://www.dancingwiththecannibalgiant.com/screenings1 for future screenings, or watch the trailer and/or purchase film here:

https://vimeo.com/288565530

PAN Listening Session on March 16 at 4:00 PM!

An informal opportunity to join PAN’s Board Treasurer, Patty Love, to ask questions, share information, and connect on topics related to PAN’s mission to increase the resilience of the Northeast region by strengthening the regional permaculture network and increasing access to relevant education and resources. We can explore:

• What’s working for me about PAN is…
• What I hope PAN will do is…
• How I can help is…

Join whenever you can, leave whenever you need to. This feedback will be carried to PAN’s Board Meeting at DAcres on January 31st. (All members are welcome and must register. Contact us at info@northeastpermaculture.org for more info)

Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/294315865?pwd=L1EzNU1jR01QTTIrWXJER3Jsc1lsZz09

Meeting ID: 294 315 865

Password: 798491

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In October 2019, PAN organized a dynamic webinar conversation for the northeast permaculture community with Starhawk, a prominent author, activist, permaculture designer and educator, and voice in modern earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. She is the author or co-author such books as  The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, The Fifth Sacred Thing, and its sequel City of Refuge. She’s been offering permaculture education opportunities through her program, Earth Activist Training, for many years and brings a unique perspective to permaculture that embodies spirituality and feminism. In the first half of this webinar, Starhawk explores topics like interconnection, multi-functionality, complex systems, and personal regeneration. The second half of the webinar was dedicated to Q&A and included discussion about how spirituality can be brought into permaculture no matter what religion or belief system they abide by and balancing caring for zone 0 while also being active changemakers in our communities. 

Does this webinar sound like something you’d like to listen to? PAN members get FREE access to all past webinar recordings and non-members can get access for a sliding scale fee starting at $10. To get access to this webinar, please email info@northeastpermaculture.org. 

Waaay back in November, PAN Board Treasurer, Patty Love, spoke with Peter Bane about PAN’s role as a regional hub of Permaculture Institute of North America (PINA) and about developing collaborations between the organizations.  “What? PINA? Regional Hub? Tell me more!,” you might be thinking.

Per PINA’s website, the history of that organization is:  “In the early 1980’s, Bill Mollison asked several people to create an organization in order to foster permaculture in North America. They created PINA version 1.0, hosted an International Convergence in 1986 and launched the Permaculture Activist magazine (which, as Permaculture Design, is still going strong), but then disbanded for lack of staff and volunteers. In 2009, several long-time permaculture practitioners began working on a new organization, and in 2014 they launched the revitalized PINA as a network of largely autonomous regional membership organizations spanning the continent.”

PINA is a 501(c)(3) incorporated in Oregon as professional association of regional hubs working across North America and Hawaiʻi to:

• Elevate the status and impact of Permaculture by influencing public policy and private development to improve the quality of life for all
• Bring permaculture solutions to bear on the challenges of social justice, land regeneration, and climate cooling
• Promote permaculture pathways to professional development
• Grant diplomas
• Preserve the integrity and quality of the Permaculture Design Course
• Facilitate networking among permaculturists

In 2018, after many conversations between PINA Board members and PAN Board members and PAN Board Members with PAN members, the board voted for PAN to join PINA as a Regional Hub.  This decision was made with care because the PAN Board has limited capacity to take on new initiatives. We want to do well at what we do rather than keep trying to do more and fumble.  Also, we’ve heard the concerns from our members about the level of difficulty it takes to achieve a PINA diploma. Ultimately, we decided that our most empowered position it to be the regional hub, which also gives us input into PINA’s requirements, etc.

As a regional hub, PAN is playing a role in weaving the permaculturalists in our region into the national network.  We are indeed proud that former PAN Board Members Jono Neiger, Lisa DePiano, and Jesse Labbe-Watson, along with long-time PAN member Claudia Joseph all hold PINA Diplomas.

In addition to the Northeast Permaculture Convergence being organized by many of PAN’s Board Members and some especially dedicated PAN Members, a Continental Convergence is being planned for August 20-23, 2020 in Colorado at Sunrise Ranch.  Peter relayed that this event will be more like a summit rather than a collection of workshops and will focus on empowering communities to do regenerative projects and climate action. PINA will handle the outreach and funding and the Colorado Permaculture folks will handle the local organizing.  (Stay tuned for more info…nothing on their website yet.)If you have questions about this collaboration or want to play an active role in it, please contact PAN’s Board Coordinator