During this course she provides a foundation to her students in botany, wild foods, and herbal medicine. The class starts the conversation, but where we wind up is deeper into the personal change that comes from a connection with nature; to know that nature is us and we are it; that we create our lives and the resulting yields from the system; and that each of us can choose to take action out of fear or out of love.

Just as we hold that choice, Victoria shares how her studies of healing lead to an understanding that trusting ourselves, one another, and the mystery of life leads to abundance and true, lasting security. We become free.

Find out more about Victoria and The Forager’s Apprentice program at charmcityfarms.org.

There is a parable, sometimes called “The Wolves Within” and attributed to the Cherokee, that came to mind when Victoria spoke about fear and love. A grandfather is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside of me,” he says to the boy. “This terrible fight is between two wolves. One is evil, full of anger, envy, sorrow, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is good, full of joy peace, love, hope, serenity, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going inside of you, and everyone else.” The grandson thought about this and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf will win?” The old man replied, “The one you feed.” I’ve read or heard a version of that lesson dozens of times.

For years, though a person of faith, I trusted the results that came largely from the security of a full-time job, often working more than 60 hours a week. It was the only way I knew to live. Even now there are times when it is incomprehensible, but a mystery arises by feeding your personal abundance, that wolf of joy, that brings more abundance into the world and sets you free, opening unimaginable doors.

Whichever wolf you currently find yourself feeding, if I can help you tend it, get in touch by leaving a comment below. 

Resources
The Forager’s Apprentice
Charm City Farms
Urban Permaculture in Baltimore (The first interview with Eric and Victoria)
Aldo Leopold
Barbara Brennan
Henry David Thoreau
Gary Strauss
Jack Kornfield

A Center for Nonviolent Communication certified trainer, during our conversation Karl shares how using NVC can begin the work of restoring our connection with one another in a direct, meaningful way that honors our needs while meeting those of others. He also illustrates the process of NVC using an example from his own life. I’m thankful for the open space created during the interview to allow for that discussion.

I first became aware of Nonviolent Communication and the work of Dr. Marshall Rosenberg during the first interviewed with Dillon Naber Cruz near the start of the podcast. Picking up a copy of the book, combined with The Four Agreements, changed the way I look at interpersonal relationships and what it means to communicate well. Though I’ve since added more resources to my list on how to share ideas and express my own feelings, NVC started my journey down that road had an incredible impact on my own experience.

Find out more about Karl and his work at Findflow.org, and more about Nonviolent Communication at CNVC.org.

Nonviolent communication helps us to think in a different way, act in a different way, and be to be different. It isn’t a panacea, but nothing really is, not even permaculture, as much as I love it. Our work requires ending the -isms that divide and dehumanize one another in order to create the world we want to live in.

Is it naive to think we can work against what seems like our human nature to be assholes to one another? Maybe, but I grew up with the stories of generations of my family living in poverty and in that place finding the humanity of people they were told were wrong, and wound up being friends. I grew up with the vision of Gene Roddenberry, where we would could live in a post-scarcity society where each of us lived towards our own calling. Star Trek was a symbol of what each of us could become if we were free to explore our lives, the world, and, with the right technology, the alpha quadrant.

I remain an idealist that believes in those stories, the ones that say we can create a just, peaceful, and joyful world. Doing so starts with me. It starts with you. Together we can escape the thinking that separates us, and get further into the deep work of designing nonviolent communities, cultures, cities, and societies that take care of Earth, ourselves, and each other.

If there is any way I can help you, get in touch and continue the conversation by leaving a comment below.

Resources
Karl Steyaert
The Center for Nonviolent Communication (Browse this site for information on training, books, and other resources).

How would you like to have more peaceful relationships with others?

You can, and though the work is not easy, the process is simple, and today Ethan Hughes shares with us how he and others put this idea into practice day to day at The Possibility Alliance, as well as in the Permaculture Design Courses held at the Peace and Permaculture Center. T

his audio comes from the first video session with Ethan, recorded while I was at The Possibility Alliance. For those of you on mobile, if you'd like to watch this video, I’ve included a direct link to the YouTube page in the resource section.

These conversations with Ethan, a beautiful synthesis of the wisdom of others with his own experiences of living in community, continue to change and transform my life and lead to new discoveries. As I apply the lessons learned along the way I find that they work. There is less strife and more understanding of others, while also decreasing the sense of other or enemy identity. I won’t say it is perfect, and we call these things practices for a reason, but the improvement is there. By changing ourselves, we change the world. Now imagine all the possibilities.

If there is anyway I can assist you on your road, wherever you are in that journey, get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Resources
Conflict Transformation video (YouTube)
Ethan Hughes - Necessary Simplicity

Our conversation is based on his forthcoming book The Gandhian Iceberg: A Nonviolence Manifesto for the Age of the Great Turning. We talk about nonviolence and the three parts to the Gandhian model: self-purification, constructive programs, and satyagraha. I became aware of Chris and his work through conversations with Ethan Hughes, who gave me a rough copy of The Gandhian Iceberg.

Through that, and time spent at The Possibility Alliance, meeting with members of the Catholic Worker Movement, and those practicing nonviolence and building egalitarian communities, a light went off in my thoughts on how nonviolence is a required component of creating the world espoused by permaculture. That lead to this conversation with Chris on how to move from a place of anger and fear, to one of compassion and love. As discussions emerge about how the third ethic of permaculture is the least discussed and most confusing to understand and implement, nonviolence and the Gandhian model provide a way to return this ethic to a proper place in our practice.

You can contact Chris at moorebackman@gmail.com and find more about his work via the links in the resource section in the show notes. Creating a more bountiful world requires peace and nonviolence.

To continue to exist under old methods and modes that create feelings of scarcity and result in violence and oppression don’t fit within the ethics of permaculture. A new revolution is required, lead by the practice self-purification, constructive programs, and satyagraha. Should you choose to embrace this path, and I suggest you explore it further at the very least, there are additional resources in the notes for this episode that include links to the Metta Center for Nonviolence, a series of free books on nonviolence from the Albert Einstein Institute, and further articles on satyagraha and the power of nonviolence.

Along the way if I can assist you, wherever you are, get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Resources
Chris’s Email: moorebackman (at) gmail.com
Bringing Down the New Jim Crow
Chris’s Articles at Truth-Out
Dr. Michael Nagler, author of The Search for a Nonviolent Future Martin Luther King
The Inconvenient Hero by Vincent Harding
Brene Brown
Gene Sharp
Michael Brown
“The Presence Process” Charles Eisenstein

Peace Projects
Be the Change Reno, Nevada
The New Community Project Harrisonburg, Virginia
Canticle Farm Oakland, California

Additional Resources
Nonviolence: Working Definitions (Metta Center for Nonviolence)
Satyagraha (Wikipedia)
Non-violence, the appropriate and effective response to human conflicts
Collection of free books on nonviolence (Albert Einstein Institute)
The Power of Nonviolence
/r/nonviolence (reddit)

My guests for this episode are Nate Kleinman of the Experimental Farm Network, Paul Glover the founder of Philadelphia Orchard Project, Robyn Mello of Philadelphia Orchard Project, and Kirtrina Baxter of Public Interest Law Center, in this first of the Philadelphia Round Table conversations, recorded earlier this year at Repair the World.

During the discussion, they share with us ways in which cities provided numerous opportunities for permaculture practitioners, as well as visions of why working in urban spaces is important to the future of creating an abundant, regenerative world. Before we begin, a few thanks.

The first is to Dirk McGurk, for being the man with a plan who organized this event. It’s been a while since I was in Philly, and Photographer John and I had a good time wandering around the neighborhood before the event and spending time with everyone who came out.

The second is to Jamie Bright of Chakra5 Studios, out of Burlington, Vermont, for letting me demo the microphones that were used in this recording.

Finally, I’d like to thank you, the listener for your ongoing and continued support of this show through your donations, sharing of links with friends and family, and taking the time to call, email, or write in letting me know how this work helps you. Together we make a difference. Thank you.

I’m grateful for what the panelists share with us today because of the unique role that cities can play in our lives. Growing up on a rural dead-end street, the beginning migration to the exurbs of the small city of Hagerstown, Maryland, where I called home throughout my childhood, there were always large connected lawns, with houses fully inhabited. My neighbors didn’t move until they sold a house, and there were no vacant lots. Land there, as with where I now call home, was expensive and rarely available. Farms butted up against well manicured lawns and no one I knew at the time grew a garden.

Yet in Philadelphia and other cities like it, is an opportunity to walk short distances to find many neighbors and open spaces, and to find old plants, and breed new ones, adapted to the spaces more and more people will inhabit in the future, and to care for the people around us; to understand the historical and cultural underpinnings of issues like access to land, systemic racism, and oppression so that together we can mitigate those vectors on cultural and individual abundance.

Along the way if I can assist you, wherever you call home and whatever leg of the journey you are on, get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Resources
Nate Kleinman nathankleinman@gmail.com 215-264-0446
The Experimental Farm Network
Experimental Farm Network (Facebook)
Experiemental Farm Network (Instagram)

Paul Glover
PaulGlover.org
Citizen Planners Los
Angeles a History of the Future
Patch Adams

Robyn Mello robyn@phillyorchards.org 215-571-9506
Philadelphia Orchard Project
Beardfest.net

Kirtrina Baxter kbaxter@pilcop.org
Public Interest Law Center
Garden Justice Legal Initiative
Grounded In Philly
Black Permaculture Network
Black Permaculture Network (Facebook)

Other
Permies United (Facebook)
Occupy Vacant Lots
Soil Generation
Clear Creek Schoolhouse

This leads us to talk about the Ecological Landscape Immersion program taught at PSC, the role of mentoring, the results of Miriam Volat at The Farm School, and we eventually touch on the shortcomings of a Permaculture Design Course for anyone wanting to practice as a professional.

As I continue to navigate social permaculture and living in community, the work of Erik, his colleagues, and others like him are important for creating the next generation of landscape oriented permaculture practitioners. The Permaculture Skills Center offers a variety of trainings focused on creating a career for students whether that involves ecologically focused landscaping, regenerative agriculture, or permaculture education. If you are near Sebastopol, California and considering any of these path, these programs are definitely worth investigation. Permaculture Artisans and The Permaculture Skills Center continue to raise the bar of what it means to practice permaculture professionally.

Find out more about Erik and his work at permacultureartisans.com and the numerous education offerings, as well as their own blog and podcast, at permacultureskillscenter.org.

Along the way if I can assist you, wherever you call home and whatever leg of the journey you are on, get in touch by leaving a comment below.

Resources:
Permaculture Skills Center
Permaculture Artisans
Clear Creek Schoolhouse

I’ve known Robyn for many years, after meeting in Philadelphia during a presentation given by Peter Bane at the Awbury Arboretum alongside the executive director of POP, Phil Forsyth. Along the way we’ve kept in touch as I continue to follow her work in Urban Permaculture. Not only is Robyn an amazing permaculturist, she is also a musician with The Radicans and an organizer for BeardFest.

Find out more about Robyn and her permaculture work at PhillyOrchards.org.

Resources:
Philadelphia Orchard Project
The Radicans
BeardFest

We met several years ago in Philadelphia, before she joined Philadelphia Orchard Project, when Peter Bane came to the city to speak about his work and The Permaculture Handbook, and kept in touch as I followed what she was doing in and around the city.

In addition to her work with POP, Robyn is an awesome musician with The Radicans, an organizers of BeardFest, a music, art, and sustainability festival, and an all around amazing permaculture practitioner. During the conversation we talk about the start of the project, what the organization does, including outreach beyond planting orchards, and Robyn gives a long list of plants that included beyond just trees. The resulting installations have more in common with food forests than what you might imagine when first hearing the word orchard.

Find out more about Robyn and Philadelphia Orchard Project at PhillyOrchards.org. You can also listen to her with The Radicans, and checkout BeardFest via the links below.

As I mention in the opening with Robyn, this is just an introduction to Philadelphia Orchard Project and Ms. Mello. We have a longer, more in-depth conversation that will follow this one in a few weeks. In the meantime, if you are in the area, check out POP and see about getting involved.

If along the way there is any way I can be of assistance, my door remains open for any listener, professional, novice, or in-between. You can reach me and continue the conversation by leaving a comment below. 

Resources:
Philadelphia Orchard Project
The Radicans
BeardFest

This episode serves as an introduction to these ideas, and Nati’s background, as, similar to the conversation with Rhamis Kent and Islam, there is a great deal of ground to cover before getting to the conversation proper, because my understanding of Judaism, is very limited and I pepper the conversation with questions to get myself up to speed.

Regardless of your background, however, this is a good place to begin if understanding the cultural underpinnings for the rituals, customs, and beliefs that make up this modern world are part of your permaculture practice. This promises to be the start of something that leads to more practical practices stemming from Jewish teachings.

You can find out more about Nati and his work at Jewish Farm School.

Coming out of this, Nati’s closing notes grab hold of me and connect the thread of the faiths of Abraham—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—is the creation story from Genesis. That we come from the earth, made from the dirt, or clay. Those few inches of topsoil that cover the land allow crops to grow and animals to feed. Though the earth is covered by so much water and there are traditions of fisherman, it is still Earth from which we arise in these traditions; faiths that encompass more than half the world’s population.

From that it seems a natural fit, as a non-theologian, to tend to where we come from, whatever may happen in the next life. What we have is this world, this Eden, given to each of us by virtue of our birth. We are shepherds. Gardeners. Tenders of the wild.

If there is any way I can help you to explore these ideas of faith and earth care, get in touch. 

Continue the conversation by leaving a comment below. 

Resources:
Jewish Farm School
Institute for Social Ecology
The Teva Learning Center
Adamah Farm
Greener Partners
Eden Village Camp
The Shalom Center (Rabbi Arthur Waskow)

Along with this, we look at the impact that we can have on positive outcomes by taking personal responsibility for ourselves and understanding our individual roles as part of the problem. We close with David sharing five ways in which human systems differ from natural systems which we should consider as permaculture practitioners. If you work with any kind of system involving people, yourself included, this is an episode to kick your feet up, take notes from, and then give me a call so we can talk about it. There’s a technical, heady, yet accessible conversation ahead.

You can find out more about David and his work at appliedsystemsthinking.com. You can find out more about his book there, or at the site for the publisher, Chelsea Green.

After speaking with David there were a lot of pieces that struck a chord with me, but two in particular that I keep turning back to are regard governing versus espoused values, and the need for personal responsibility. Our governing and espoused values have the space between them, something Ethan Hughes refers to as the integrity gap, and this exists for individuals and organizations as well as systems. On reflection this shouldn’t seem surprising, but how often do we think about that gap? Do you ever consider the impact that that space between desires expressed and actual activity has on your life and the choices you make? For a long time, I didn’t. Doing so involves concentrated effort. Thinking this way, seeing the big pictures, requires serious intent initially until it becomes a habit. Once normalized into our daily practice it turns from ongoing moment-to-moment consideration to require periodic re-evaluation to ensure that we don’t fall into a lull once the pressure stops, as Peter mentioned, or allow old habits to creep back in. We become the guard at the gate of our thinking, taking responsibility for how those thoughts lead to action. Responsibility is something that Bill Mollison implores us to have in The Designers’ Manual, where he writes:

"The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children. Make it now." (Emphsasis in original)

This Bill calls The Prime Directive of Permaculture. Though it speaks to ethical actions, it is on page one of the big black book of permaculture, coming before the ethics that we commonly think of, before discussing any principles. This is what one of the founders of permaculture opens his seminal work with. That we must make this decision now is in bold, and speaks not to just this moment, but also to the future. Our children. Though we might fall into individualistic perspectives, I also read this as a collective call to action. To take responsibility for our own existence, but that our and own reaches out to our community, of our genetic or adopted descendants, but also of those who live in our neighborhoods. The future generations that call a place home with us, in the homes down the street or across town that connects us.



There is plenty of talk about the other ethical entreatments, such as Earth care, or people care, and debate of what exactly the third ethic is in the current era, but I don’t hear this prime directive in discussion very often. Let’s talk about it more. In thinking about responsibility and what taking hold of it for our existence and that of our children would look like, I don’t have an answer for any life but my own. If we start talking about what this looks like for ourselves, we can start to find more answers and more solutions.

So, what does personal responsibility mean for you? Have you recognized how you are a part of the problem? What works? What doesn’t? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you. Continue the conversation by leaving a comment below.

Resources:
Applied Systems Thinking (David’s Site)
Systems Thinking for Social Change
Chelsea Green Publishing