#Permaculture... And why #Maine is perfect for it

By Topher Belknap, November 2018

"THE TERM PERMACULTURE was coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970s, but the concepts it embodies have been around for much longer. According to Holmgren, permaculture is, 'Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fiber and energy for provision of local needs.'

Permaculture design: a primer

"Permaculture is a form of landscape design intended to generate food for humans while simultaneously regenerating our soil and land. It aims to create environments that meet our needs in sustainable ways; repair damage to ecosystems; and maintain and return wild spaces. Or, as I like to say, 'Permaculture is farming with your head, your heart and ... trees.'

"With respect to ecosystem repair, there are several things we can easily do that nature struggles to accomplish—such as moving nutrients uphill; moving nutrients from the ocean back to land; slowing water on steep slopes; and planting trees appropriate to the changing climate. All these things can be done by people with just a small amount of planning and effort.

"Systems that mimic nature are more sustainable, whereas human-created systems tend to be linear in their design, consuming resources and creating unusable waste. Natural systems maintain a closed loop, where waste from one element becomes input for another element. Nothing is depleted, and nothing accumulates into pollution.

"In permaculture, before introducing a new element to the design it is important to consider what that element adds and what it takes away or consumes in relation to the other elements in the system.

"Chickens, for example, need food, but if you already have a surplus of grain and ticks, their food is provided in the system. They need a place to scratch, but if you have patches of land that need cleaning up, they will do the work for you. They produce manure, but if you have a garden, it needs the fertilizer. They produce eggs, but if you already have bacon... well then, you’ve got breakfast!"

https://greenmainehomes.com/blog/2018/11/20/permaculture-and-why-maine-is-perfect-for-it

#SolarPunkSunday #Homesteading #MoreTree #FoodForests #Agroforestry #AgroEcology #GrowYourOwnFood #PermacultureDesign #GardenDesign #ZeroWaste

#Agroforestry may be just what #Maine needs for agricultural growth

By Marina Schauffler
Published on: January 24, 2021

Excerpt: "Agroforestry, an age-old concept, could provide a path to Maine’s future. Part of the #RegenerativeAgriculture movement, it involves an integrated approach to cultivating #trees with #crops and – sometimes – #livestock. These diversified farm systems nourish #SoilHealth and #wildlife while offering more resilience in a warming world — locking up atmospheric carbon, absorbing floodwaters, and sheltering crops and animals from high winds and #ExtremeHeat.

" 'Diversity is really key to sustainability for small farms and the ecology of farms,' said vegetable farmer Max Boudreau of Winslow Farm in Falmouth. He sees many landowners and #homesteaders 'putting these principles into practice,' but said agroforestry is still 'a foreign concept' in farm service agencies.

"Being interdisciplinary, agroforestry challenges the siloed world of natural resource management. It is routinely ignored in college curricula and by technical service providers, said Meghan Giroux, an agroforestry researcher, technical service provider and practitioner in Vermont. Her nonprofit, #InterlaceCommons, seeks to fill that void by training farmers – including Boudreau – how to implement and maintain agroforestry practices.

"Boudreau was one of the 20 farmers selected among 92 applicants from around the Northeast for a free, agroforestry 'field consultancy' this year. Farmers are eager to learn about agroforestry’s potential to diversify income, and there’s growing consumer demand for its products – from nuts and uncommon fruits (like #honeyberry and #PawPaw) to #mushrooms and #MedicinalHerbs.

"Yet policymakers routinely tell Giroux there’s 'no interest in agroforestry,' she says. 'There’s no institutional will to move these practices forward primarily because people don’t understand them.'

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture has supported agroforestry since the 1990 Farm Bill and does exceptional research, Giroux feels, but “a knowledge-exchange issue” prevents guidance from reaching most landowners. A network of trained farmers could help support and train peers – a process that happens informally, Boudreau says, in the permaculture community, a related landscape design approach modeled after natural systems.

"Research has already demonstrated that #NoTill agriculture improves crop yields, reduces costs and improves soil health. Even more economic and environmental benefits could flow from cultivating crops in a layered, integrated mix of annuals and perennials more reminiscent of natural plant communities."

Full article:
https://themainemonitor.org/sea-change-agroforestry-may-be-just-what-maine-needs-for-agricultural-growth/

#SolarPunkSunday #NoMonoculture #Polyculture #AgroEcology #FoodForests

[Thread] I came across some gems on the @AgroecologyMap website... Highlighting a few of them for #SolarPunkSunday...

#Agroecology #RegenerativeAgriculture #GrowYourOwnFood #FoodForests #SustainableAgriculture

So, the @AgroecologyMap hasn't posted in a while... I do hope they return to Mastodon. Meanwhile, they do have a cool website that highlights #Agroecology projects around the world, and have an excellent resource page...

https://agroecologymap.org/en/home/index

#SolarPunkSunday #GrowYourOwn #GrowYourOwnFood #Resiliency #FoodSecurity #BuildingCommunity #SustainableAgriculture #FoodForests #Permaculture

RE: https://mastodon.nl/@voedselboskabouters/115832924454179729

Tagging for #SolarPunkSunday!

#FoodForests #Snow #Scenery

THIS EVENT HAS PASSED!

#SaintLouisMO - How to Start a #CommunityFoodProject
By #SeedSaintLouis

Jan 17 from 12:30pm to 2:30pm CST

"Overview: Learn the steps to successfully start your own community or school garden or orchard!

In this class, we will go over the steps to successfully start your own community or school garden, or orchard. This class synthesizes our 40 years of organizational experience supporting groups to make successful projects. We will go over our documents, examples, and other resources so you can utilize them to start your own project. We will also have time to allow you to meet other attendees to collaborate, and we will do some hands-on activities to help you plan your site."

Date: January 17, 2025, 12:30-2:30 pm
Location: Ameren Community Room, Delmar Divine

The Delmar Divine is at 5501 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63112. There is free street parking all along Belt Avenue.

Preregistration required. Cost is free.

"Since 1984 Seed St. Louis has connected people to the land, to their food, and to each other. We are a 501c3 nonprofit who supports a network of over 250 #CommunityGardens, #SchoolGardens, and #UrbanOrchards in neighborhoods throughout the St. Louis region. Our purpose is to provide communities with the tools, education, and empowerment to grow their own food."

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/how-to-start-a-community-food-project-tickets-1853793529349?aff=Websitexx

#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSecurity #FoodInsecurity #GrowYourOwn #GrowingFood #FoodForests #Missouri

How #Indigenous #FoodSovereignty can improve #FoodSecurity

Sustainable Bites: Food and Our Future What can we do to help make our food systems more sustainable? UBC researchers share small steps that can make a big collective impact. 

March 24, 2025

"Indigenous households experience food insecurity at rates two to three times higher than non-Indigenous households in Canada. #Agroecologist Dr. #JenniferGrenz, an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Forestry and Faculty of Land and Food Systems, studies Indigenous food sovereignty and food systems, and how to revitalize them.

Did you know?

#Kwetlal, or #camas, a lily-like plant with a starchy bulb, was an important staple for #IndigenousPeoples along the #SalishSea.
Kwetlal was cultivated in Garry oak #ecosystems by #W̱SÁNEĆ and Quw’utsun Peoples, until #colonization nearly destroyed these unique food systems.

What does Indigenous food sovereignty mean?

" 'Indigenous food sovereignty is the reclamation and revitalization of our food systems,' says Dr. Grenz, who is Nlaka’pamux of mixed ancestry, whose family comes from the #Lytton First Nation. She grew up and lives on the coast of BC.

"The lands across #BritishColumbia, Dr. Grenz explains, were purposefully shaped since time immemorial for foods, medicines and technologies by the Indigenous Peoples who lived there until colonial settlers dispossessed them of their lands, culture and traditions.

" 'Indigenous food sovereignty is also about #CulturalResurgence: being able to access those foods and medicines again and find new ones as we face a changing climate,' said Dr. Grenz. 'Heal the people, heal the land. Heal the land, heal the people. I think that’s really what food sovereignty is about.'

"Revitalizing Indigenous food systems can help diversify and localize food systems in ways that could buffer against #FoodInsecurity in a changing climate.

"Dr. Grenz’s research team is working alongside Indigenous communities impacted by the 2021 heat dome and wildfires to understand the effects on culturally important plants.

" 'If you think of land as just vegetation and an aesthetic notion of what belongs, you’re going to have very different approaches and different outcomes to recovery than if you see that land as a food system, not just for humans, but for our animal, bird, fish and insect relations,' says Dr. Grenz. 'We’re working alongside communities to develop those Indigenized processes around wildfire recovery that honour Indigenous food systems, sustainability and resiliency.”'

How can #Settlers support the revitalization of Indigenous food systems?

"Learn about the histories of the lands you live on and what the traditional food systems were, what they are now and what they could be, says Dr. Grenz.

"Incorporating reciprocity into your relationship with the land is also important. 'Learn about the plants of those lands and find a way to invite them into your life. How can you take care of them, nurture them and steward them?' asks Dr. Grenz.

"One way might be to Indigenize your own back yard or community garden. Or learn about Indigenous food system protocols and the concept of '#HonourableHarvest.'

How can land-based learning support Indigenous food sovereignty?

"Land-based learning is an opportunity to get students and people out on the land—and start taking steps to give back while they are learning.

"At #UBCFarm, Dr. Grenz and students are starting two different Indigenous food systems to work as part of the agrarian food system that exists there — 'essentially bridging two food systems, #decolonizing and #Indigenizing our understandings of what foods are and how those two systems work together to benefit both.'

"In one, they are establishing a Garry oak ecosystem and growing camas, which is a traditional food system of the W̱SÁNEĆ  and Quw’utsun Peoples. Another type of #ForestGarden, similar to other Coast #Salish, #Tsimshian or #Haida food systems, will see the forest shaped by different plants like beaked #hazelnut, #elderberry, #salmonberry and #thimbleberry.

The students will be able to practice how to care for plants ordinarily thought of as forest plants, and 'learn how to reclaim traditional #LandStewardship practices to actually increase the production of those berries.' "

Source [includes video links]:
https://beyond.ubc.ca/how-indigenous-food-sovereignty-can-improve-food-security/

#SolarPunkSunday #FirstNations #Quwutsun #ClimateChange #Resilience #DecolonizeYourDiet #HonorIndigenousFoodSystems #LandBasedLearning #IndigenousFoodSovereignty #IndigenousFoods #BuildingCommunity #CommunityGardens #FoodForests

#NewZealand / #Aotearoa - The transformative power of urban #FoodForests

1 April 2025

"#IndustrialFarms depend on #FossilFuels – making them significant contributors to climate change, says University of #Auckland professional teaching fellow Daniel Kelly.

"He is researching ways to produce food without fuelling climate change, while helping grow a food forest at #PapatūānukuKōkiriMarae in #Mangere.

" 'Growing food has given me faith that humans can be a positive force for #ecological #restoration.

" 'There’s this narrative that being human means being an ecosystem destroyer, but that’s only a story about one type of human.

" 'Perhaps the biggest challenge facing us as a society is learning how to become another type of human, who cares for and enriches their place,' says Kelly, who teaches psychology and sustainability and is involved with the University’s Centre for #Climate, #Biodiversity and Society – #NgāAraWhetū.

"Kelly stumbled across gardening while flatting in his early twenties and became focussed on climate change while completing an environmental law degree.

"Now 36, he’s trying to refine the art of growing food while sequestering carbon – and tackling social inequities in the process.

"Five years ago, Kelly learned about #syntropic #agroforestry at a workshop at PermaDynamics in Northland. It’s a new technique for growing trees and food that is inspired by pre-modern farming in Europe and contemporary #Indigenous practices in #Brazil.

"#SyntropicAgroforestry is aligned with #agroecology, a political movement that aims to hand control of land and food production back into the hands of ordinary people.

Agroecology aims to address hunger, #FoodInsecurity and ultimately #Social Inequality.

"In #Aotearoa, food inequality disproportionately affects urban #Māori and Pacific people, who more often live in areas with poorer access to healthy food and are less likely to be able to afford fresh fruit and vegetables, says Kelly.

" 'That can be traced back to #colonisation and the large-scale dispossession of Māori land to support the establishment of European farms from the 1860s onwards.'

"In 2020, Kelly started experimenting with growing a syntropic food forest at Papatūānuku Kōkiri marae in Mangere.

"That food forest has become part of his PhD thesis on #FoodSystemChange - and from bare clay five years ago, it has grown 12-metre tall trees, berries, bananas, peaches, figs, #pawpaw, peppers, and many other crops.

"The bounty is distributed by Papatūānuku marae as part of its efforts to support people facing hunger in the community."

Read more:
https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2025/04/01/the-transformative-power-of-urban-forests.html

#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSovereignty #Decolonization #FoodSecurity