Save the world in 3 steps!

This is my outline for a talk I'm giving at my Unitarian Universalist Church tomorrow... So forgive the flow it's meant for interaction!

I'm so glad to share with any and All and if you have any questions about permaculture, I will do my best to help you for...of course for free. It's my karma yoga, my service work, my activism is my rent for living on the planet!

With much love!

~*~Permaculture~*~
Care of The People~*~Care of The Earth~*~Care of The Future


Good morning everyone, My name is Amber and I want to start by  thanking  you all for giving me this opportunity to share my passion for Permaculture. Well one of my passions, cause as you know I am also passionate about teaching our children the UU principles.   I recently spent 2 and 1/2 weeks getting my permaculture design certification with Starhawk (she is a Wiccan activist and author. I highly suggest her books, especially the 5th Sacred Thing, which is to be made into a movie and illustrates permaculture principles).

So what is permaculture?
And here is where we begin.. I don't want to give you some text book answer, some over simplified statement of a concept and application that is both as exceedingly complex as it is simple...but for the sake of time ill do just that..
Permaculture is as the title of this talk suggests...
Care of The People
Care of The Planet
And
Care of The Future.
And that in its complex simplicity is permaculture
Permaculture is about observing and working with nature, creating relationships, connections, and utilizing patterns and flow. Today I'm sticking to three main topics just to illustrate some simply profound things I learned in my training.

~*~Care of the people~*~

One of my favorite things I learned at this training was this amazing tool,  That empowers people, creates relationships and honors the principle of caring for the people.
So in honor of this I am going to both teach you the secret and ask you to help me at the same time.

I need your cooperation....

Anytime we are sharing or teaching people we can accelerate this process, save ourselves time and make the person whom we are collaborating with feel really smart  by asking these three important questions.


What do you know about.....?
What do you want to know about....?
And how can I help you get this knowledge?




~*~ Care of the Earth~*~
We are all aware of the current climate change...but did you know that the increase in carbon released into the atmosphere is in direct proportion to the rise of industrial agriculture? 70% of the carbon has been released from the ground through the processes of digging and scraping the soil.
Industrial agriculture is in direct conflict with nature way of making soil and trapping carbon, plus its way more work! Natures way of trapping carbon in the soil is also part of how the soil is made and how it is healed or remediated. Carbon is trapped in the living plants and when the plant dies or the tree loses its leaves they fall to the ground and are continually covered by more and more layers of deadfall, which turns into a compost system and naturally creates rich, diverse, living soil that traps carbon. The amazon rainforest is a huge carbon sink specifically because of its rich diversity and continuous layers of deadfall that  are mostly not disturbed by humans. It is vitally important that we protect this amazing resource. This rich diverse living soil invites many organisms into it and they all play their part in repairing damaged soil and trapping carbon. Important microorganisms in the soil and bioremediation scab plants and mushrooms,  which I don't have time to go into here but I also highly suggest a youtube video by Paul Stamets called How mushrooms can save the world and google a backyard carbon sequestering practice called biochar.
Before this training I still had compost guilt whenever I didn't eat my fruits and veggies fast enough, I felt guilty for throwing out food, yeah I was making compost to grow more food in my garden but still felt like I was wasting it when so many people went hungry. Now I am empowered with the knowledge that I am trapping carbon in the soil, and  repairing my little corner of this ecosystem. It's like having a superpower to help stop climate change!
In my garden I no longer dig! I mulch! I can tell you my back is much happier about it for sure!
Mulching is a gift of natural observation, working with nature to make our lives easier...that's permaculture at its finest!

Another great  tip I learned from Starhawk and it is so cute I just have to share it with you!

You might say well what if I have acidic soil, or hard pan, or poisoned soil...Starhawk says the solution is to OM! O M..... organic matter. just keep adding more OM and the soil will right itself...trust nature she knows what's she is doing, and all we have to do is work with her.
What do we do when something isn't working right? We OM!
Speaking of observing and working with nature I want to speak to you about care of the future. I am using fruit trees as an avenue to explain this permaculture principle. Fruit trees are amazing examples of the law of abundance. I realized this a few years ago and it has really enhanced my life! Each fruit tree produces sooo much fruit that there is always piles of fruit lying and rooting on the ground....more fruit than the people can eat,  more fruit than the rest of the animals can eat, more fruit than the birds and bugs can eat AND not only that the fruit tree naturally produces many more fruit trees through the dispersal of its seeds. I have three fig trees growing in my garden this year that I have never planted. Thank you birds!
What's more is that the rooting fruit that is under the tree that I've heard many people complain about...is actually fertilizing the tree!
Wow nature is Naturally abundant...abundance is natures law!
We care for the future when we plant fruit trees we might never taste the bounty of. We know that we are providing food for generations to come. Not only food but a symbol of abundance, a tangible example of faith in the future, a gift of love that exemplifies permaculture, A fruit tree cares for the people by feeding them physically and spiritually, it's cares for the earth by producing habitats, mulch, soul and carbon sequestering and finally it cares for the future long after we are gone.

As I am sure you will all agree these are worthy and righteous goals perfectly inline with our UU principles.
We all know that things aren't going so well in the big wide world out there, that the problems we face with the environment, economics and politics are complex and let's be honest here folks the stats are depressing.

But never fear permaculture is here!
When we grow food with permaculture principles we are caring for the people, the planet and the future by bringing our community together and feeding them, we are sequestering carbon and reducing our carbon footprint by eliminating the environmental costs of storing, processing and transporting our food over such great distance...we only have to walk to our backyard, neighborhood garden, farmers market or co op. We are creating a food shelter, food safety and a future that is sustainable for our community. I would love to see the land we have here provide food to the Torres shelter and our congregation and if that is something we are interested in doing you can count on me all the way!

Permaculture offers a solution, a real world, hands on, do it yourself, do it Today Solution. We don't have to raise funds for a lobbyist, we don't have to write our congressman, we don't have to ask an expert, we don't have to read books on the subject (but of course that wouldn't hurt ;). Is it a perfect solution?....No...there is no perfect solution. But this my good people is a damn good one in my humble opinion!