Free, online introduction to Permaculture Course

Courtesy of Oregon State University and the esteemed Andrew Millison, the course starts in early May. If you can't join the class in May, but want to study the materials on your own, here's what they'll be using:

GILA Word of the Week (part 2) - Green infrastructure bank

Ontario is set to become the first jurisdiction to put a limit on the use of neonics, a class of agricultural insecticides blamed for the reduction in bee numbers. This article, in particular, is a head scratcher. It's not simply "farmers" vs "the government", other groups like nurses and doctors have called for a ban for a while.

-Chicago is trying to address food deserts by outfitting buses and bring produce to the articles most in need.

-The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization estimates it would only cost $160 per person to eliminate hunger.

-Rhode Island may get an Infrastructure Bank soon. It's Clean Water Finance Agency may expand what it's already doing (making loans to cities and towns for sewer projects and other clean water infrastructure) and is already thinking beyond that. It just added roads and bridges to its portfolio and may finance all kinds of green infrastructure improvements, meaning everything from stormwater infrastructure to energy retrofits for buildings. The article states "the new green infrastructure bank would make giant loans – in some cases 'a half a million dollars or higher' for massive energy overhauls of public buildings."
How about green roofs as well?

-Oregon has been very supportive of urban agriculture. Now they will even allow you to grow marijuana (four plants) in your backyard, since it is now legal.

-For folks interested in (or in the middle of) an urban agriculture business a grad student has several models for success.

-Could the future of farming be underwater? If nothing else, we now know seaweed is a useful additive to green roof substrate. Perhaps it is to regular soil as well?

Plants help make us more creative?

A few things to write about, so here we go...

First up are always the videos. This one profiles two entrepreneurs who have taken their demonstration aquaponics set-up to a local Bushwick, Bronx market.

of the embryos and endosperm in seeds sharing the same mother and father with the growth and behavior of embryos and endosperm that had genetically different parents.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-altruistic.html#jCp

of the embryos and endosperm in seeds sharing the same mother and father with the growth and behavior of embryos and endosperm that had genetically different parents.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-altruistic.html#jCp

The researchers looked at corn, in which each fertilized seed contained two "siblings"—an embryo and a corresponding bit of tissue known as endosperm that feeds the embryo as the seed grows, said CU-Boulder Professor Pamela Diggle. They compared the growth and behavior of the embryos and endosperm in seeds sharing the same mother and father with the growth and behavior of embryos and endosperm that had genetically different parents. "The results indicated embryos with the same mother and father as the endosperm in their seed weighed significantly more than embryos with the same mother but a different father," said Diggle, a faculty member in CU-Boulder's ecology and evolutionary biology department. "We found that endosperm that does not share the same father as the embryo does not hand over as much food—it appears to be acting less cooperatively." A paper on the subject was published during the week of Jan. 21 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Co-authors on the study included Chi-Chih Wu, a CU-Boulder doctoral student in the ecology and evolutionary biology department and Professor William "Ned" Friedman, a professor at Harvard University who helped conduct research on the project while a faculty member at CU-Boulder.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-02-altruistic.html#jCp

-And here's a rare treat, an aquaponics setup in Hawai'i which is solar powered!

 

-The first urban agriculture technical program in Oregon, at Clackamas Community College, has kicked off its first semester.

-I was excited to see a few news outlets report that plants can hep enhance creative performance. I went to the source for further insight. Turns out what researchers in Germany did do is assert that the color "green" can help us become more creative, not necessarily plants. So a green crayon on top of your computer which you stared at for hours on end would do the trick. And since most plants are green, I guess they would too. But this is more of a story about green, than plants.

Oregon band films video on Portland green roofs

 A Portland, Oregon based alternative band called Rags + Ribbons made a music video for their song, on various green roofs or ecoroofs, as they call them in Portland. One columnist said "this video should do for ecoroofs what 'Thriller' did for dancing zombies." Hmmm...that's not too much pressure.

The great bee caper

-What do you get when bee hives worth about $100,000 are stolen? Tons of bad bee puns. I wonder if the hives were collectively owned if the crime would be viewed in a different light?

-On a few sites I have seen this Oregon man receiving a jail sentence framed as a permaculture issue, personally it seems a clear cut water-rights issue. When you are constructing dams 10 feet high on your property, your municipality will probably step in. 

-Forgot to mention that the European Permaculture Convergence is now underway. If you are in Germany you still have two days to attend the biggest permaculture conference in Europe. Hopefully there are some urban farming go getters there ready to collaborate, Germany has been waaaaay ahead of the green roof curve, but is definitely behind the urban agriculture one.

-Lastly, a US based researcher pursuing a Ph.D. in permaculture wants to compile a list of all the permaculture inspired farming operations in the continental US.  Add yours to the list!

Your GILA (green infrastructure, urban agriculture) word of the week :Urban Agripuncture

Thanks Huff Post for adding this one to our dictionary!

-I didn’t see many inspiring permaculture stories in the back half of May, but there were a couple great ones last week.  El Paso is going to have their very own urban food forest. At 10,000 square feet in a town where it rarely drops below freezing, this provides the opportunity for a few families to feast all year long. 

-In Portland, Oregon neighbors are banding together to save an 11,000 square foot permaculture food forest. The only difference from the El Paso startup? This one is 35 years old!!! 

-Okay, can we officially call aquaponics red hot? A German company, in 2013, will be constructing a 7,000 square meter (75,350 square feet) aquaponics facility! I haven't seen one yet, but I feel somewhere there's a columnist drafting an urban agriculture column pitting aquaponics versus hydroponics. 

Urban agriculture + permaculture events

May is rapidly passing us by and there is lots to look forward to this summer.

The PeaceMeal project has planned a four day workshop, from June 18-23 at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). If you have ever thought how can my “daily act of eating contribute to creating a more peaceful world”, this is for you! Also in Toronto is a one week Locavore Food Camp. On the menu, growing, preserving, cooking, harvesting local food at the incredible Evergreen Brick Works.

And I can’t forget to plug an Architecture for Humanity get together next week, a speed networking event where two people have five minutes to discuss one topic and then it's on to the next topic and attendee. 

Lastly in July, once you have attended the first ever Mediterranean Regional Permaculture Conference in Istanbul, you can head stateside to get your permaculture teaching certificate in Oregon.  

Green roofs in depth in Oregon

A few more quiet days before lots of projects take off for us and others. So, here are a few stories before things get wacky.

-Wedded dynamic duo Nicole Sangsuree and Katie Boeh bring spin farming and more to Oregon, although with the recent brouhaha over trademarked names, surely someone will be clambering that the term
Farming for Victory was actually theirs first. We all know Oregon is miles beyond most of North America, Sustainable Business Oregon reports the city has a total of 273 ecoroofs over 13 acres!

-Here's another entrant into the vertical farming field, looks like these folks based in San Diego focus on greenhouse growing. Cityponics in Chicago I think is one step beyond with their system, but maybe doesn't have the community contacts yet. But that's just a guess.

- In Bayramic, Turkey, from June 4-11, there's a natural building workshop which will cover adobe, strawbale, earthen plasters and local plastering methods.

For questions contact Filiz Telek at filizatbaraka@gmail.com or peruse the website.

-And one quick permaculture job posting in Pakistan

Along with the help of various assistants and machetes...

Something about that line just struck me really funnily. On a more serious note, this "Chase and Chase" team sounds like a true dynamic duo. They've unearthed (with some help) that the Mayans were green builders. I wonder what kinds of plants they used on their green roofs?

When you're in Los Angeles and looking for grub, here are some of the best ways to scrounge up some food.
David Craft's latest ebook can help you distinguish even more foraged finds. Give it a preview and see if you want the whole shabang.

The Obama Administration is getting behind the locavore movement. And it includes gems such as "Where possible, use school gardens to educate students about healthy eating. School gardens offer opportunities for fun and physical activity while also serving as an important educational tool to help students understand how healthful food is produced" Sounds good to me.

Montreal bus shelters are getting green roofs. I saw something like this in Toronto, except, I think it was the handwork of guerrilla gardeners because once the city found out, the greenery came down. Heading further east, Nova Scotia Community College recently completed their first vertical garden.



Lastly, if you're in Portland, Oregon...please drop me a line and let me know how the local food cook offwent today.

verticiel on the air + west coast living architecture crawl

I should probably have a weekly post featuring all the cool things cities have planned. But first tune in to the Green Majority radio show (CIUT 89.5 FM) Friday, February 12 at 10:30 am as verticiel Inc. drops by to talk about green roofs and Toronto's new Green Roof Bylaw.

On to the west coast, last week the City of Seattle proclaimed 2010 "Year of Urban Agriculture". Looks like they have a slew of activities planned so far.

On to Portland, where we get a primer on where to get urban agriculture and permaculture supplies.

Further south in San Fran, in two weeks the American Institute of Architects, San Francisco chapter (AIA San Francisco) will present an exhibition highlighting vertical gardens in all their splendor.

There's a call for papersfrom the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development (JAFSCD) focusing on best practices in urban and peri-urban agriculture. Up to 2,500 words so don't get verbose!

And last but not least, we'll head to the mountains to spotlight Green Roofs Utah. I'll have to introduce myself, like a good neighbor should!