Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - [permaculture] news from lehigh valley,pennsylvania

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Steve Hoog <livingpotentials@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] news from lehigh valley,pennsylvania
  • Date: Sat, 25 Nov 2006 12:01:57 -0800 (PST)

just thought i'd pass along some news from my area
I am a member of two groups that are quite active in this area to raise
awareness, start vital projects , remind politicians of their commitments,
and urge organizations in the area to work together on key issues. One is the
Alliance for Sustainable Communities-Lehigh Valley and the other is Lehigh
Valley Beyond Oil.
One project that the Alliance has is the printing of a directory of
organizations and businesses that promote sustainability. We print a hard
copy every year and it is on our website www.sustainLV.org At first
when it was printed in 2004 we weren't sure if in was worthwhile but over
the years we found that many people were using it as a reference .Local
college students and professors were using it to connect to the local
environmental movements ,environmental action committees and other social
awareness groups.We also print an Earth Day Calendar, a School-Food Calendar
in October,and this year printed a Shop Local Directory. For several years we
held monthly Community Dialogues on a wide array of sustainability topics.
This has tailed off a little now as we are into other projects but we still
do some dialogues. We have several working groups focusing on special areas.
The ones most active are the land use group, the school-food connection, the
energy center,
and the permaculture study group. The land use group is working with
another organization,the Green Valley Coalition, to prevent sprawl,preserve
farmland , encourage more people to enter farming, and raise awareness about
local food issues. The school-food group is working toward improving the
quality of food in schools and getting them to buy local and organic-a
daunting task. The group is also trying to raise food awareness among school
officials,food service,teachers, students and parents. We recently sponsored
an adult ed class entitled FOOD PHILOSOPHIES where we presented
macrobiotic,weston price and vegetarian/vegan principles for discussions and
dialogue. The energy center group has submitted a proposal for the
development of an alternative center with wind turbines, solar panels, a
living machine for septic waste, and a permaculture garden on the premises[
and in every nook and cranny where productive plants will fit]. The idea
would be to invite businesses in
that would use each others waste for productive means and minimize waste
going to landfills. It would also be a resource center for anyone in the area
who wanted to learn more about renewable energy and how to incorporate it in
to their homes or businesses.[There is a local Green Builders Forum with whom
we would be working on this project as well as a Sustainable Business
Network} The idea for this center came from last years election when the
Northampton County executive declared that he was interested in creaitng a
world class center on the site of the old Bethlehem Steel plant. We jumped
on that and created a proposal for him to consider. We are moving ahead on
this even if he is slow to respond. The proposal can be seen at the above
mentioned website.
The permaculture study group started three winters ago with monthly
meetings discussing Gaia's Garden by Hemenway. By spring we decided to go to
various sites and do daylong permaculture designs by gathering info,touring
the site, listening to visions and playing at possible designs.This year we
installed a spiral garden at Morningstar Retreat center where the alliance
holds its meetings.Other workshops were held thru the year and this winter we
are doing a book discussion series on Holmgren's PERMACULTURE: HERE
PRINCIPLES AND PATHWAYS BEYOND SUSTAINABILITY . I will be working with
people just south of here in Quakertown who have 10 acres and want to set up
a learning center for teaching sustainability skills.We are planning a series
of workshops drawing on local people with a variety of skills. All classes
will be listed on the above mentioned website under permaculture.
Thru the efforts of the Alliance and Beyond Oil the mayors of Allentown,
Easton and Bethl;ehem ---the three major cities in this area --all signed a
Mayors Climate Agreement{modeled after the Kyoto agrreement}.. The local
paper failed to cover it. A few months later we convinced the two county
executives of Lehigh and Northampton which cover the three cities to also
sign a similar agreement. again the local paper failed to cover it. i am not
sure there is any place in the country that has gotten three large cities and
two counties to do such a thing and it got very little publicity. However it
was accomplished and [i am not sure whether the politicians knew what they
signed] we will remind them as often as possible of what they did. We have
several college interns working with us next spring and one of their projects
will be to get their respective colleges and universities to sign an
agreement ..We have also contacted the Bethlehem school district to get the
School
Board to sign on. Other School boards will be contacted .
We have just set up" sustainability internships" to encourage students to
monitor the energy use at the institutions that they belong to.
Finally, for now, i am in the process of developing an agricultural
proposal for the Lehigh Valley which is presently 10 hard copy pages long. It
outlines what we should be doing to prevent global warming and prepare for
the consequences of peak oil. It is constantly being updated as i do more
research and talk to various organizations about their contribution to the
effort. It is modelled somewhat after the Tompkins county Relocalization
effort in upstate New York{you can google it}. With help i have added
questions and included activities presently going on here with local and
regional resources. I am using it as a basis for lectures and classes that i
am teaching. The proposal ranges from county and municipal action to things
that individuals can do. The steering committee of the Alliance and the
Beyond Oil group are working with help from interns and local sustainability
organizations to promote movement on each of the points that i have outlined
.[there are 32]For
example on January 24th there is scheduled a Developing a Regional Food
System Conference with five panelists talking about different aspects of
the issue. This will be followed by study circles about those issues and an
ag summit on March 14th sponsored by the Penn State Ag Extension. We hope to
extend the study circles into working groups that will continue to press for
action on regionalizing our agricultural. There is a lot of sprawl pressure
in this area and much work needs to be done.A summary of the proposal is on
the Alliance website previously mentioned and a full copy can be seen at
http://relocalize.net//node/5037 It will be updated every 3-4 months so
you can check back on new posts if you wish. I hope to add more permaculture
specific items in the near future. comments are welcome.
We are aiming to get as many institutions to talk about global warming and
peak oil [also permaculture] when considering their decisions.

Steve Hoog



---------------------------------
Want to start your own business? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business.



  • [permaculture] news from lehigh valley,pennsylvania, Steve Hoog, 11/25/2006

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page