Permaculture, a permanent sustainable culture

Friends, the Los Cedros Biological Reserve is under serious threat.

The Ecuadorean government has secretly signed a mining agreement covering Los Cedros and other ?protected? areas with the Canadian company ?Cornerstone Capital Resources inc?, a large speculative fund which doesn?t do any mining itself but employs local small time operators until the big sell off to some real mining company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2N26Qc1KAUU

I found they have a fundraiser... and it's already over 100% funded!!

http://www.fundmyplanet.org/projects/save-los-cedros

But wait there's more

SEND A LETTER OF PROTEST!

Are you angry at Cornerstone? GOOD!

Please write letters of protest to:

Cornerstones CEO: Brooke Macdonald 

Am I doing it right?

I'm very interested in insect farming!  The downside is crickets are still not really economical, its something like 40$ a lb for cricket flour.  Not cheap.

I don't know how to process them into flour, but crickets are stupidly easily to care for.  You could have fucktons of them in a tank/tower and feed them scrap vegetables.  Just gotta figure out how to remove them and grind them up or whatever.

I think it's expensive because there isn't a huge demand beyond the novelty of the concept; if some big company started putting out cricket flour, it would get cheaper since it could be made by more than just small time operations.

A greenhouse is used to filter waste water at a highway rest stop in Vermont.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGmp4Nr0cOA

"The living machine"

And here's a lecture from a researcher that has been using plants for wastewater treatment at several facilities - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOAyMCN2k60

putting the Perma in Cult since this guy https://skepteco.wordpress.com/2013/10/12/the-cult-of-perma/

do any permies here do numbers?

Quote

Permies just don?t do numbers
-Peter Harper The Big Rock Candy Mountain 2013

Hey, I finally took the time to read this article and it makes some very interesting points. I think using the scientific method is incredibly important, and obviously the goal should be to grow as much food as possible, but at the same time we can't ignore the effects that chemical fertilizer runoff has on the ecosystem as a whole.

This woman, Dr Elaine Ingham, has spent decades studying soil ecosystems and the effects chemical fertilizer has on the microbes and fungi that form symbiotic relationships with plants - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2H60ritjag

I think it's shortsighted to say that contemporary industrial farming is the pinnacle of human achievement when despite the high yields, half of all food produced still gets wasted. It could be argued that because of all the waste in industrial farming, smaller scale gardening only needs to be 50% - 75% as efficient as industrial farming because we're cutting out transportation / consumer distribution losses.

If you want to see my numbers, check out the wetfish harvest page: https://wiki.wetfish.net/harvest

So far in 2017 our 0.01 acre garden has produced 0.15% of my annual food consumption. I'm shooting for 5% of my food consumption this year. Last year I produced roughly 1% of my annual food consumption. (Food consumption based on averages provided by http://www.nationalgeographic.com/what-the-world-eats/)

Also here's a pic of my baby strawberries <3



So far there's over 60 baby strawberries and over 20 flowers still waiting to be pollinated

This guy has a food forest permaculture garden where he only does 2-4 days of maintenance work per year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MIx5q_zbko

Oregon State University did a whole online permaculture course (FOR FREE)

http://open.oregonstate.edu/courses/permaculture/

They already offered this course a couple times in 2016 and this spring in 2017. Maybe they'll do it again this fall or maybe next spring??

Either way, a lot of their course videos can be found on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mwRAf3z9ag

Now this is my kind of permaculture

"The tech-filled greenhouses can adjust growing conditions over and over again until they find the combination of light, humidity, and other factors that make the most delicious vegetables. "

https://www.fastcompany.com/40419891/these-food-computers-use-ai-to-make-climate-recipes-for-the-best-tasting-crops

Hydroponic basil, grown in a mason jar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aaIwTB1aRY

Using string as a water wick for plants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uyc9q9kQbE

Large sections of Berlin have been converted into green spaces dubbed a "sponge city". Instead of using a conventional sewer system, they use vegetation filled ditches and green roofs which capture rain water and slowly release it back into the air, keeping the area significantly cooler than traditional concrete jungles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWjGGvY65jk

Did you know that carrots get bendy due to a lack of moisture?

If you grow carrots at home or buy them at the store with green tops, be sure to remove the tops before storage. If you don't remove the tops, the leaves will use the root as a reserve water supply, making the carrot dry out faster. For best results, store your carrots in a sealed container in the refrigerator!

Don't let this happen to you!

How To Make Money Farming !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yDUEg4urS4