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Announcement :: Environment |
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Permaculture @ The IMC |
Current rating: 0 |
by Clint Popetz
Email: clint (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified!)
Phone: 217-398-4186 |
07 Mar 2003
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Tommorow, Saturday March 8th from 10am-4pm at the IMC (2318 W. Main St in Urbana,) there will be a special presentation by the Urbana Permaculture Project. Internationally reknown permaculture designer and teacher "Farmer Dave" Blume will speak, and an organic vegetarian lunch will be provided. |
Permaculture is the art and science of ecologically designing human
beings' place in the environment. Going far beyond landscaping,
permaculture integrates disciplines relating to food, shelter, energy,
water, trees/plants, wildlife, livestock, weather, waste management,
economics and social sciences.
Permaculturists reclaim devastated lands, rolls back deserts, produce 16
times the yield of conventional agriculture, with food containing up to 3
times the nutrients per pound, build just social/economic systems & design
planet-based livelihoods .
Learn: proven, permanent organic pest control systems, how to make it
rain, grow trees in the desert, assemble cultivated ecosystems, heal the
planet, why organic vegetables contain lots of B-12, increase soil
fertility without animal manures, run your auto on plant based fuel for 43
cents per gallon, reduce heating and cooling costs of a home by 90%,
produce as much income on two acres as a corn farmer makes on 2000 acres,
and grow your own retirement fund!
Hear about where permaculture is being done around the world and how you
can be part of this global movement.. Did you know that there are now more
permaculturists working on the ground around the world than the combined
Peace Corps of the US and Japan.
"Farmer Dave" Blume is an internationally acclaimed Permaculture
designer/teacher, ecological biologist, longtime organic farmer, PBS
television series host, writer, and President of the International
Institute for Ecological Agriculture. He has taught worshops to over 9,000
people since 1980. His book Alcohol Can Be A Gas! on alternative auto fuel
production will be in bookstores everywhere late 2003.
For more information on permaculture visit the IIEA website at
www.permaculture.com
Net proceeds of this event go to fund the costs of revising and publishing
Alcohol Can Be A Gas!
Your attendance donation is tax deductible.
March 8th 2003 10am to 4pm at the Independent Media Center
218 West Main St. in downtown Urbana
Organic Vegetarian Lunch provided
Minimum $5 donation requested.
Send questions to upp (at) prairienet.org
A very abbreviated story of Dave Blume's work:
In 1978, Dave Blume started the American Homegrown Fuel Co. to teach
farmers how produce low-cost alcohol fuel, a renewable energy source, as a
gasoline replacement in automobiles. In one two-year period, 7,000 people
attended his workshop. PBS then made a 10 part series about his workshop
which aired in San Francisco in 1986. The series was so compelling that
oil companies threatened to pull all funding to PBS if the series was
released to the rest of the PBS stations, and it was effectively censored.
In 1984, Dave founded Planetary Movers, a wildly successful shipping
business based in the use of alcohol fuel. The business was run by the
workers themselves. Planetary Movers became the main mode of
transportation for food and medical aid to the democratically elected
government of Nicaragua, during the Reagan Administration's terrorist
campaign the CIA-trained Contras. Dave is currently building momentum for
the publication of Alcohol Can be a Gas! which explains his remarkable
system of alcohol fuel production.
In 1990 he worked with the Nauhautl people of central Mexico to develop a
system which would use agricultural pollution (coffee pulp) in local
rivers as a medium for growing Oyster Mushrooms. The Nauhautl Cooperative
now produces more than 200 kilos of mushrooms daily. In 1993 he founded
the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture (IIEA), which has
trained and certified more than 450 participants in its two week
residential Permaculture Design Course since 1996, more than any other
organization in the USA. In 1994 he started Our Farm, a community
supported agriculture (CSA) experiment which grew to be one of the largest
CSAs in the country, feeding 450 people at its peak, without industrial
technology, and while also hosting more than 200 live-in interns and
apprentices from all over the world. In 1999 Dave began holding
Permaculture Design Courses for the Blackfeet Nation of Indigenous
Americans in Montana. Dave is a master of balancing the budgets of
Permaculture projects, and then some! For instance: undoing the $250,000
deficit of the 1600-acre Hidden Villa Farm and Wilderness Preserve.
Affectionately referred to as "Farmer Dave", Blume has spoken before
countless conferences and people, and has testified before various
agencies on issues related to land and democracy.
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