permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

Sustainable World Radio: Friday mornings at 
9:00-10:00 am PST on KCSB 91.9 FM in Santa 
Barbara, California and streaming live on 
www.kcsb.org. Also found 
on  www.sustainableworldradio.com, or www.radio4all.net later in the week...

        Join Jill Cloutier of Sustainable World 
Radio Fri. May 30 , 9am ,  interview with Peter 
Bane publisher of the Permaculture Activist 
Magazine www.permacultureactivist.net, 
Permaculture Teacher, Writer and Designer.
He was awarded in 2005 the Diploma of 
Permaculture Design in Media and Communication, 
Teaching, Community Development, and Trusteeship 
at the 2005 7th International Permaculture 
Convergence in Croatia for 15 years of Permaculture Work and Design.
Also joining the interview will be Wesley Roe of 
Santa Barbara Permaculture Network

MORE DETAILS ON PETER BANE

Peter Bane is the publisher  of Permaculture 
Activist Magazine  www.permacultureactivist.net, 
the longest running journal in the permaculture 
world.(23 years). The PC Activist publishes a 
magazine 4 times a year , sells permaculture 
books and videos, shares articles on Pc and has 
an amazing World Permaculture Directory listing 
PC teachers, groups/guilds, associations and 
Institutes. for the PC community. (thanks to webmaster Keith Johnson)

In 1994 Peter Bane with a group of 12 founding 
members bought 320 acres of wet mountain valleys 
SE of Asheville in 1994  to create Earthhaven 
Ecovillage (Permaculture 
Designed)  www.earthaven.org/ and saw its 
membership grow rapidly from 12 to 30, then more 
slowly toward the 65 or so members it has today.
In 1997 he created a non profit Cultural Edge to 
teach Permaculture and Natural Building Courses.
More than 40 buildings have been put up in 13 
years, including a meeting hall, two barns, and a 
social club, cabins, co-housing blocks, and 
single-family homes. Most of these buildings are 
innovative in various aspects of natural 
building, and of course, the entire community is 
still off-grid. It continues to develop along 
lines of energy and material self-reliance. 
Agriculture has begun to develop over the past three years.

In 2004 Peter served on the site committee for 
9th Continental Bioregional Congress  , which was 
held at Earthaven to great acclaim in July of 
that year. Over 230 persons attended from all 
over the Hemisphere bringing together the North
American Bioregional movement with  Ecovillage and Permaculture movements


 In 2006 , Peter Bane and his partner Keith 
Johnson (Permaculture Teacher and Designer) left 
Earthaven Ecovillage and relocated to 
Bloomington, Indiana where they are creating a 
suburban mini-farm. Peter is a consultant to 
Indiana  University and Vice-President of the 
Association  for Regenerative Culture. www.arculture.org/ .
Also working with the Community Solution in 
Yellow Springs, Ohio,  Peter  made significant connections to the national
community of Peak Oil activists with the result 
that he now find myself on the City of 
Bloomington Peak Oil Task Force advising 
municipal government on the issues of Energy Descent.



ARTICLE

Teaching for Change
by Peter Bane
http://www.permacultureactivist.net/PeterBane/PBDesigning4Change.htm

Following a trail of slightly mysterious clues, I 
found my way into a Permaculture Design Course 
some thirteen years ago, in January of 1990. 
Emerging on the other side a rainy fortnight 
later, I felt a bit like Alice after she 
disappeared down the rabbit hole: nothing was 
quite the same as it had been before. Or perhaps 
it was, only more so. Whatever words I put to it 
now, my life had changed: There was no going back.

That heady combination of camaraderie, 
intellectual stimulation, intimacy, and holistic 
learning provided a peak experience, one I can still summon vividly to mind.

But what had changed?

On the surface and in short order, everything: 
job, career, relationships, residence, studies, 
daily activities, associations, friendships. What 
had changed fundamentally was my view of the 
world and my relation to it. As my core values 
had at last been linked with a coherent means of 
expression, all the outer forms of my life 
underwent an upheaval. I had found a way to live 
responsibly on earth, learned to see through 
present problems toward future solutions, and I 
think most importantly, discovered that there was 
important work to be done and that I could do 
some of it. The power of making these discoveries 
in the company of others similarly “turned on” 
was profound and long-lasting. Why should any of 
this matter? Of course, the turmoil and 
transformation were exciting and full of personal 
meaning, but the changes I embraced in my own 
life have, I believe, made a positive impact on society.

Moreover­and this is why I write­this personal 
experience of change offers some insight about 
the process itself. And the process of personal 
empowerment and transformation, engendered as I 
suggest by taking the Permaculture Design Course, 
lends credence to the strategy of teaching as a 
vehicle for progressive social change.

It would be foolish to imagine that my calling is 
the only way good work can come about in the 
world. Certainly permaculture is not the only 
answer to the world’s woes. But it does have a 
role to play. And those of us who carry this gift 
need to remember the value of sharing it.

.... article continues at 
http://www.permacultureactivist.net/PeterBane/PBDesigning4Change.htm