permaculture

[Steve Hoog <livingpotentials@yahoo.com>]

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
   

 
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