Permaculture Training and the Gift Economy

The as-of-yet-unnamed Peace and Permaculture University at the Possibility Alliance offered its first class to 24 students: a gift-economy, 15-day Permaculture Design Certification course (Sept 24 - Oct 8).  

The Possibility Alliance is an intentional community in NE Missouri near Kirksville.  Ethan Hughes began the homestead 4 years ago, and since has hosted thousands of visitors, always using the gift economy.

What is the "Gift Economy"? 

The goal of the gift economy is to transform short, anonymous, impersonal relationships with direct, transparent, long-term relationships.  Currently, we live in a culture of placelessness with very few social contracts:  we don't owe anything to anyone because we can work to earn a living so we can pay with money for anything we need (earning far more than would be internationally sustainable and paying far less than the real cost of the good or service). 

However, when money stands in to replace our actual needs, it often coops our needs, and commodification takes us further away from meeting our real needs. when we are given a "gift", something is often moved inside of us to pay it forward in some way, out of joy and not out of obligation.  When we recognize our co-dependence and simply trade serving the needs of others and receiving gifts, our needs are met in a more humane, efficient way.  The "gift" is a currency of appreciation and reciprocity.  Some obligation is involved, but there is no expectation for immediate or direct repayment (I will probably not continue cooking my brother breakfast if he never offers me a thank you and a smile in return, and I'll probably stop offering my neighbors extra tomatoes from my garden if they never reciprocate my generosity by getting my mail when I'm away).  The currency of exchange has no value; it is only valuable to the person receiving the gift (often sentimental value).  And unlike any purchase in the market economy that quickly depreciates in value, the "gift"'s value continues to increase.

So why offer a Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) in the "Gift Economy"? 

A PDC teaches the foundation and principals of sustainable design.  There are over a million people certified with a PDC around the world, but the PA is the first (known) group to offer it on the gift economy.  The PDC often costs in the range of $1,500.  Yet such an high price tag on such useful knowledge may fall into what inspiring West Coast activist Van Jones coined in the term "eco-apartheid".  PA founder Ethan Hughes explains, "Middle-upper-class environmentalists are demanding that low-income folks “green” themselves, yet all the information comes with a price tag. Seeing that gap really inspired me to create a free educational center, so nobody would be excluded."

Everything at the PA is part of the gift economy, which allows anyone to participate. The 1,200 people who come through every year (for short and long-term visits) are given knowledge — permaculture, organic gardening, orchard care, animal care and appropriate technologies--in order to share the ecological movement rather than charge to be part of it.  

More about the Possibility Alliance

The vision of the PA is to "live so all life can thrive". Doing so, we may all reach our highest potential as human beings. Members of the PA have found that five practices have been most valuable to our well-being and to the planet’s well-being: radical simplicity, service, social activism, inner work and gratitude. 

Read a great article about Ethan Hughes and the Possibility Alliance, and see an example of a normal season of classes at the PA. 

Urban WWOOFer: Quaker Community in Bloomington, Indiana

Bloomington, Indiana
Time:  EST (That's right, East Coasters, all the way out here.)  

Population: 80,000

University  Population:  40,000

Bloomington is a (relatively) progressive city (mainly due to the atmosphere of thought brought by having Indiana University) in the center of Illinois, an hour South of the capital, Indianapolis.  My first destination upon arrival was the Saturday market to find farmers who may need a hand.  I found plenty!  Between volunteering on farms, exploring Bloomington has uncovered many interesting niches and unexpected personalities. 

Quaker Meeting:  

Quakerism--Quakerism was born out of a Protestant history, branching out much further from Protestantism or even Christianity than did Puritans, but carrying much of the same cultural baggage that Puritans carried.  They did not believe in having an intermediary between the individual and God--neither priest nor book--so they worship without sacraments, liturgy or clergy.  They sought to strip away the religious infusions into our language and culture, changing the way they referred to time (as, of course, in English days and months are based on pagan gods) and they stripped life down even more to the bare essentials than did Puritans.  Interestingly, Quakerism has a very modern infusion of followers today of people who have moved back to the land and away from unsustainable lifestyles and unnecessary technologies.  One even explained to me that many Quakers are non-religious; they are drawn in by the focus on community and lifestyle.  Because there is no intermediary between individuals and God, the only real reason (that I have understood) to have weekly service is to build community.  Thus, in our Quaker service, we joined in community to sit for exactly one hour in silence.  We sat on pews that faced a center (hard wood-Ahhh!) with no one in charge.  Everyone gathers in silence and in their own prayer, waiting until someone feels that Christ has given them a message to share with the group, at which point individuals stand up and share the message:  a sermon, a song, a Bible reading, a prayer, or anything else.  Our service was pretty tame;  about five in total stood during the hour, and nobody seemed to be particularly out-of-body.  God speaks to everyone--all are ministers and none are elevated above others-- so everyone is welcome to speak out of the silence as they feel inspired.  Quakers have traditionally challenged social norms, been marginalized, but have continued to thrive in small communities.  All of the Quakers that I have met have been very active in creating sustainable communities in all aspects of their lifestyles:  food production, purchasing, intentional tool use, community building...essentially hippies + God.  

As there is no leader, each Quaker community is maintained and managed by the collective community.  They use concensus decision making and encourage all community members to participate on interest groups.

After our Sunday service, they had a shared meal and thn more meeting time.  I am interested in seeing a diveristy of Quaker communities:  from what I understand, this is only one in a very diverse grouping.

From an anthropological perspective, it was intriguing to watch, understand and dissect.   I can compare this form of worship to any other, whether Catholic, Presbytarian, or Buddhist, but I am very drawn to compare it to Vodun, a Haitian spiritual practice.  Typical to Vodun, during ceremony of song and movement, spirits will visit the ceremony, possess a person, and speak or act through them.  In each, there is a steady rise until people feel themselves “taken by the spirit”.  For the Quakers—who came on a cultural trajectory out of Europe through Puritan North America—they sit absolutely still to arrive there.  For the Haitians—who came largely out of a West African tradition—a crescendo of music and movement allows them to arrive.  Same ends with a very different means of arrival!  I lament profoundly that my cultural heritage aligns with that of the Quakers.  Movement and music is far more spiritual (for me) than sitting still and silent for an hour on a hard wooden pew.

Urban WWOOFer: Long Island Food Not Bombs in the News

Food Not Bombs Long Island helped me surpass the frustrations of life on Long Island.  Spending time with the empowered forward thinkers that make up LIFNB gave me inspiration every week!

 Solidarity, Not Charity!

Food Not Bombs is an organization that embodies the strive toward complete urban sustainability:

- FNB recovers and shares free food with the public.  Rather than take donations, they take the food that grocery stores and farmers can no longer sell (i.e. food that would be thrown in a trash or compost). 

- No restrictions.  Anyone is invited to partake!

- It is run by 100% volunteer power and is dedicated to nonviolent direct action to change society--food is a right, not a privilege.

This week there was an article in Newsday about a brand new location that they added to their already busy schedule of food shares.  Very impressive, LIFNB!  Solidarity, Not Charity!

Superheroes in the News!

Article about the Superhero Bike Ride in Oxford, Michigan:

 

 http://www.oxfordleader.com/Articles-News-i-2012-08-22-248494.113121-sub-Bicycling-Superheroes-land-in-Addison.html

Urban WWOOFer: D-Town Farms

D-Town Farm, a 7.5 acre farm on Detroit's west side, was started by the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network.  The DBCFSN has been developing for seven years, contributing to the public dialogue on food security, food justice, and racism in Detroit.  In addition to farming D-Town, they give tours and maintain a farm stand on site; they participate in farmer's markets six days a week and have a co-op buying club; and they run a lecture series and a youth development program.


There was a great Democracy Now video about D-Town in 2010.

D-Town is now at its third and hopefully final location, thanks to a ten-year lease from the city.   On a temporary lease, they cannot build any permanent structures and only now are in the process of getting electricity, thanks to solar panels that were donated from DTE Energy.  For so many challenges and such little time, they have made huge strides.  Today, their 7.5 acres includes:

- Organic vegetable gardens

- Compost.  They believe their compost is the most important product they create:  they must rebuild a soil that is entirely degraded and frequently toxic after years of industrial growth and little environmental regulation in Detroit.  They compost their own farm materials along with wood chips that are brought from the city and rotting fresh food brought from Forgotten Harvest.  They hope to use this extensive compost project to serve their own needs, to use for education, and to eventually sell to other Detroit farmers to help bring back soil health around the city.

- Mushroom beds.  A renown professional came in and did preparation and execution of a giant project.  Unfortunately, it was completely unsuccessful.  Soon they will reassess and attempt again.

- 8 Beehives
        
- 4 Hoop houses for year-round growth

- Farmer's Markets 6 days a week

- Soon-to-be pond or marsh area to solve flooding




D-Town Farms is an exciting project, but it undoubtedly still has a steep road ahead.  Currently, its economic stability is due to the work of interns and volunteers, the leased land and donations.  Their goal is a for-profit model.  They are selling large amounts of local produce in the community and have had successful results on much of their land.  But as is the case with almost every farm seeking sustainability in the country today, in their development process their costs would still outweigh their income if they were not receiving donations and volunteers.




Challenges (to D-Town and to the 100 other small farms in Detroit):

- Organic Agriculture.  Chemical-free agriculture is simply more labor intensive and less fruitful in the short-term and in our economy.

- Rural farm challenges in an urban environment.  While they have many of the challenges that go along with having an urban farm, they also are dealing with deer, groundhogs, and many of the farming challenges of a rural environment.

- Farming Knowledge.  Many of the farmers are from Detroit and do not have a lifetime of experience built up in agriculture.  Many are starting from scratch as adults (sort of like me!)

- Cultural Stereotypes attached to agriculture.  Agriculture has negative connotations enough in our society at large. But in the African American community, it is often still associated with slavery and sharecropping.  Who would want to regress to a past that their families had spent so long to get away from?  One of the DBCFSN's largest challenges is addressing this misconception and encouraging the African American community to realize the value of participation in food production and gaining control of their food supply.  

- Accepting help that empowers; not that dis-empowers.  The DBCFSN is very wary of white hand-outs.  In fact, most organizers and activists in Detroit are.  Inner-city Detroit is 85% colored and the surrounding suburbs are 85% white.  The racial tensions in Detroit today still run high.  African Americans were excluded and compartmentalized throughout Detroit's rise, and they continue to be long after its fall.  Surrounding areas do business with each other but avoid Detroit, except when it comes to Detroit's resources that they need (from a direct quote).  White nonprofits and white humanitarians come in to help "fix problems", reinforcing the inherent inferiority complex that our society has already taught colored society.  White "help" reinforces that our certifications and degrees make us more valuable, they cannot solve problems without outsiders, and it creates a system of dependency. 

D-Town Farms made it very clear that race is a big issue still today in Detroit and on the farm.  If a group of white superheroes, for example, comes in to volunteer, they will have a few things to address before they accept our offer.

One they realized that we were offering nothing more than hands to help them execute their vision...they were more than happy to welcome us in.  :-)

Musings on Superhero culture

Friday August 17, 2012

Hall of Justice:  The Superhero Bicyle Ride

The Superhero Bicycle Ride is a phenomena that still eludes the internet's choking web, and, like most, I found out about it by word of mouth.  About one quarter of the riders on this August's Superhero Bike Ride were returners; the rest were new.

This is now the twenty second Superhero Bicycle Ride (Michigan 2012 among rides in Iowa, England, Thailand, British Colombia, Texas and Australia).  The first was a ride from Seattle to Boston beginning with Ethan Hughes (The Zing) in 1994.  Today, the Zing can be found creating an intentional, sustainable community at the Possibility Alliance in NE Missouri.  The space is petroleum and electricity free and hosts guests and educational courses.  Ethan, busy on the farm and with young children, did not attend this ride, which was called and organized by Laughing Moon and Stardust.


Beautiful Musings from My Time the Superheroes

The superheroes have a fantastic group culture that creates consistency year to year while honoring the uniqueness of each ride and its group culture.  Daily ritual is created morning, noon and night through words, games, and activities.  From our morning "Readings of the Great" to our daily "Dice of Destiny" and our evening "Goodnight Hugs", these rituals use a daily culture to create spontaneity and to invite fun and play.

Taking time off of work for service and often doing work like weeding that does not highight your abilty and talent, can become less than exciting.  As is usual in this sort of work, sooner or later it usually causes burn out.    Part of the necessity of the joy and silliness of dressing as a superhero is to bring levity to heavy topics.  The Superheroes try to inject play into our own space and in our public  service.

Creating the character is a giant part of the process, both in name and in Fantastical Superhero Costumes.  We went through a Superhero Naming:  The Spectrum of Perspectives training to help us find the superhero within us.   What part do we want to highlight?  Where are our personality strengths?  Are we leaders?  Teachers?  How can we choose a persona that will be the best version of ourselves?  Once we have a personality, we create a persona, with costume and all.  In costume, people are willing to act in ways they may not in other circumstances, and people receive us differently, as well.  I may not walk into a town fair and dance around to a kazoo while engaging anyone and everyone in conversation normally, but in costume, sure!  Here, we always have on our superhero capes, allowing or encouraging us to always be the best version of ourselves.

Example top--notch names of other superheroes:  Soular Eclipse, SerendipiTease, Lady Joystous, Laughing Moon, Stardust,  Bright Sky, Compashman.

We live without expectations.  We arrive to a town not knowing a) anyone b) if there is any service for us to do C) if there will be a place for us to stay.  These are all important things, yes?  Yet to plan them in advance prevents us from the meaningful interaction we have when trying to make those connections face to face on the street.  Perhaps we will get a community center to stay in; perhaps a backyard.  We may have access to a bathroom and heating; we may have a shovel, trees and an outside water spicket. 

We do not plan the number of showers one "needs" to ensure comfort.

We are comfortable making your bathroom--from toilet to shower to sink--in the woods

We enjoy camping...and get used to setting up and taking down camp frequently.

We enjoy bugs, slugs and dirt.

We are happy to have foraged greens, dumpstered food, donated food, and LOTS of bulk grains!  For breakfast, we are content to have cold oatmeal and no coffee.  We consider ourselves blessed to eat delicious food prepared with tender loving care!

We share!  In free-time, we do lots of skillsharing:  yoga, massage, co-councilling, cooking, Harmonica-ing, sewing.

We wear capes everyday!

Most importantly, after volunteering for any person or group, we make it clear to them that we are part-time superheroes who wear funny costumes, while they are the full-time superheroes, there day in and day out.  We surround them with a Super Send Off of a Supernova of Exploding love and Unending Kindness to honor the superhero within them.

After a month, I ask myself what more uplifting and healing way to spend a month every year than with the bicycling superheroes?

Superhero Training

I headed north from Detroit with Bright Sky, another superhero, to challenge the impossible at Superhero Training, roughly 75 mi away.  Setbacks included (but were not limited to):  three flat tires, falling out screws, falling off panniers, and twice broken pedal.  Setbacks resulted in:  new tubes, tires and tape; extraordinary pannier arrangement savvy; and new pedals. 

Superhero Training

22 Superheroes converged on Colombiaville, MI for four days at Three Roods Organic farm for training, service on the land, and service in the community. 

By the end, when old superheroes' powers were dusted off and new superhero powers had been found, we set off for the next stage of our adventurous mission, to spread spontaneous joy and realize the impossible across Michigan.