permaculture

[kelda@riseup.net]

In ever-so-friendly farmer competition, many of us in the NW are voting
for Carrie Little for White House Farmer www.whitehousefarmer.com.

She's a permaculturist! Her farm is sponsored by our regional Food Bank
non-profit to provide fresh food at the food banks. She grows in simple
polycultures to feed lots of people; she has the most
how-do-we-feed-masses-with-polyculture farm I've seen to date. (plus
orchard, perennials, herbs, bees, horse plowed, etc.). Also, the most
massive seed-saving I've ever seen by a farmer on that scale.

AND, besides lots of community volunteeers, she's started a program so
that inmates from the nearby women's prison can come work on the farm, and
just to make sure it isn't like slave labor, the women now receive college
credit through UC Santa Cruz' farming program.

Why good for the white house? She's my favorite radical in disguise. The
most approachable, loving, yet stern-on-her-ideals woman I know, who is
happy. For my expanded rant on this topic, see here:
http://www.permies.com/permaculture-forums/1197_0/permaculture/mother-earth-farm-at-the-white-house

It's true we would miss her, as noted previously. Nevertheless, this is a
permaculture listserve and I had to give a shout out to the woman who
practices many of our approaches so exquisitely.