[Sdpg] Travels in Permaculture By Andrew Jones
Wesley Roe and Marjorie Lakin Erickson
lakinroe at silcom.com
Tue May 6 10:02:52 PDT 2003
Travels in
Permaculture
http://www.seedsofchange.com/enewsletter/issue_34/dear_gardeners.asp
By Andrew Jones
I first came into contact with the work of Bill
Mollison and David
Holmgren, the founders of the permaculture
movement, on an
organic farm northeast of Cairns, Australia in 1987.
Two years later, while studying in Europe, I
attended the annual
Schumacher lecture in Bristol, England where Bill
Mollison was
one of four speakers. When I introduced myself to
Bill as a fellow
Aussie, he queried in his typical irreverent
fashion: "What are you
doing in this miserable cold place? You should go
home and plant
trees."
In 1992, at the age of 26, a sense of adventure led
me to sign a
contract with CARE Australia to work in the north
of Iraq. Little
did I expect that three years later, I would return
to Australia
with my new bride - Galawezh. We undertook postgraduate
studies in Australia, followed by further work with
CARE in
Canberra, Laos, Vietnam, and Papua New Guinea.
My initial six years of aid/development related
work emphasized
the challenge of building sustainability into the
core of such work.
Much of my experience was with complex humanitarian
emergencies and
disaster relief, where the focus is often on
short-term support to assist
distressed populations. The transition from aid to
development often highlights
the gulf between short-term and long-term
philosophical approaches to building
food security and community sustainability. The
urgency of providing aid often
drives us to build structurally unsustainable
systems. And yet, even when
circumstances allow us to design and implement
long-term programs for
development, we often fail to address the issue of
ecological sustainability.
Permaculture related ideas remained in the back of
my mind during this time but
I needed more knowledge. It felt as though I had
been getting increasingly
skilled at identifying structural problems
(looking) without an integrated
framework for proposing solutions (seeing). In late
1998, I started looking for
available permaculture courses.
Permaculture: Study at the Permaculture Research
Institute (PRI)
In March 1999, I arrived in northeast New South
Wales, Australia, to meet
Geoff Lawton, the Director of the Permaculture
Research Institute and his
energetic staff. Permaculture teaching follows
broad course content
requirements identified by Bill Mollison. The
72-hour Permaculture Design
Course (PDC) is designed to provide a framework for
students to orient their
experiences and problems, along with key areas for
understanding how to begin
developing solutions. Information is structured
broadly around the chapters of
Bill Mollison's Permaculture Designer's Manual to
include both ethical and
design concepts, design methods, climatic factors,
water, soils, earthworks,
climates, aquaculture, and invisible structures
like bioregional organization and
ethical investing.
Geoff's presentation of permaculture precepts,
ideas and generally outlined
solutions struck an immediate chord with me. Like
many PDC graduates, the
immediate question was how most effectively to
follow up on the new
knowledge?
During the post PDC on-ground training camp, I
gradually began to see the
landscape around me in terms of patterns. A food
forest as just a collection of
plants began to differentiate into a layering of
species from tubers and
groundcover, up through shrubs and different levels
of trees, through to the
overstorey or canopy species. Within the mix,
legumes were discernable in their
strategic importance to fix nitrogen from the
atmosphere. I also began to see
the wider landscape in terms of a broader
interaction of forces - water, wind,
sunlight, and geology. It dawned on me that
"looking" and "seeing" are different
skills and that part of seeing patterns in the
landscape was a pointer to seeing
the patterns of solutions where we fail to address
these fundamental
considerations.
Macedonia
I returned to work with CARE in April 1999, while
the situation in Macedonia
was getting serious. Within several weeks, hundreds
of thousands of refugees
from Yugoslavia flooded into this small country and
neighboring Albania. CARE
International was one of the key non-governmental
organizations (NGOs)
working to provide relief and protection. Of a
total refugee population of
260,000, 150,000 were housed with host families,
and 110,000 were directed
to 8 campsites within Macedonia. In May of 1999, I
took over as Camp
Manager of Cegrane refugee camp, the largest in the
country.
May is early summer in the
Balkans, and it was already very
hot in the camp, which was
situated on a mountainside
directly abutting the village of
Cegrane/Forino. The site had
been hastily prepared and quickly
outgrew its initial boundaries. I
arrived to crisis conditions as the
camp's population swelled to
roughly 30,000 people, far
exceeding its planned capacity of
5,000. Bus convoys from the
border arrived nightly bearing
more refugees. Numerous NGOs,
along with UN and Macedonian
government agencies operated
within the camp. My role as Camp Manager was akin
to being unelected mayor,
principally involving information management, issue
resolution between
stakeholders, and above all, keeping food and
services flowing to the residents
of a tented town. We had a team of roughly 150
international, local and refugee
workers engaged with CARE alone.
With a mountain bike as my official vehicle, I
quickly came to grips with the
fundamental issues in the camp. In order to prepare
the site, the German
military had cut a series of terraces up the side
of the mountain. These formed
roads or bases for tents. The stony soil was being
augmented by truckloads of
gravel from a nearby quarry to provide some
traction and drainage. Lined pit
latrines and shower blocks were being provided,
along with cold rations for three
meals per day. The site had a natural drainage
channel through the center--the
continuation of a valley stream path. During
rainfall events the site was flooded
through the center from the valley draining the
mountain system above. The
floodwaters ended up in the main street of the
village and flooded the local
primary school. En route, the waters washed out
tents and caused a lot of
misery to refugee families.
The initial focus of our work was to ensure the
flow of services. However, once
NATO forces re-entered Kosovo, large numbers of
refugees from Macedonia and
Albania voluntarily repatriated themselves. As
refugees began returning home,
I started to think about the site and its future.
The land had originally been used
for growing grapes; then as the soil was depleted
it grew wheat. Further
degradation led to its use by the community for
rough grazing. This is the point
at which it became a refugee camp. I thought about
what could be done to
ensure the site's future value to the community,
whereupon I shared my
thoughts with Geoff Lawton and asked if he thought
we could showcase a
permaculture site rehabilitation.
Cegrane Camp Permaculture Rehabilitation Project
Geoff agreed that the site was a good candidate for
permaculture rehabilitation,
as well as perhaps for a teaching center for
permaculture in the region. The idea
had broad support from the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
(UNHCR) consultant working on physical
infrastructure for the region. CARE
funded Geoff's visit, on the basis that his design
would be the foundation for a
significant project. Geoff made a two-week trip in
which we attended the first
meeting on refugee site rehabilitation between
UNHCR, the Macedonian
authorities, NGOs, and donor representatives. Geoff
spoke about the possibility
of permaculture, people were intrigued and asked if
we could have a plan within
the time set for the next meeting in ten days. We
agreed.
Geoff worked hard with a
translator to learn about the local
agriculture and culture, as well as
walking and riding all over the site
in order to begin to envision a
design. Our subsequent
presentation showed a colorful
vision of what the site could
become. It was powerful, and
Geoff gave a 20-minute
explanation. At the end of our
presentation, there was silence .
Then, Patty Culpepper,
representative of the State
Department's Bureau of
Population, Refugees and
Migration spoke up. "This is just
the kind of thing donors should support; it will
stand as a symbol of
sustainability in modern times". She backed her
verbal support with cash, as did
the Austrian Government. Together they provided
roughly $1.3 million dollars
for the first three phases of a planned five-phase
project. Additional support
came from UNHCR and NGOs that were involved on the
site.
Geoff's design was based on a topographic survey of
the site. It also
incorporated the ideas and interests of many
parties, including the local
community and all the agencies that had worked to
provide services in the
camp. The design included several key features.
Permaculture design begins
with consideration of fundamental influences on any
site, so water and slope
were important factors. To relieve the pressure of
valley fed water flows, Geoff
incorporated a significant system of swales. These
are large ditches running on
contour, designed to intercept water flowing
downhill and hold it until it can
re-absorb into the soil. The bank on the lower side
of the swale becomes a
planting mound. Due to subsurface water, this area
tends to be a wetter
microclimate than the surrounding land, providing a
good platform for biological
growth.
The swales designed for the site were very large;
those at the top were over 10
feet deep, with overflow and flood spillways to
ensure adequate capacity to
divert any floodwater runoff. As in any good
design, they swales were created to
provide, not just for average events, but for
outlying events such as the 50 - or
100-year storm that can destroy a system designed
only for averages. Since
detailed rainfall data for the area was not
accessible, Geoff hiked up the valley,
noting high water lines in the vegetation from past
flooding, then calculated
peak event water flows down the valley. The final
design called for 7.2 km of
swales, with an estimated water holding capacity of
30 million liters.
Additional features of the design were a cluster of
passive solar design
buildings on the lower portion of the site near the
village to be used for a
permaculture center and local community activities.
Surrounding these, gardens
laid out according to permaculture design
principles would showcase the
potential to use guild plantings, mulch, and
polyculture designs to enhance local
family garden productivity. Surrounding this zone
was a "food forest," a mixed
planting of locally available fruit tree species.
Going up the hill to the outer
zones 4 and 5, were planned mixed tree belts along
swales with interzone
grasses and herbs to eventually support limited
livestock grazing . The tree
belts were to be planted into timber and flowering
species to provide structural
lumber and nectar flows for beekeeping. All
planting areas included nitrogen
fixing legume species to assist in building soil
fertility.
Once the final proposals were presented to donors,
funding followed. The project
was carried out under the guidance of a core
management team comprised of
Paul Brant and several Australian permaculture
specialists. The earthworks
were a challenge, and an earthworks specialist ,
Richard Belfield was contracted
to oversee their construction. The land was
surveyed and contour lines marked.
Bulldozers and diggers were sourced. And the work
began in earnest.
Dave Clark came on as site manager, and stayed
through to the end of phase
three. Brooke Watson took the mantle from Paul
Brant as Project Manager for
phase two through phase three. Additional skills
and expertise came from
trusted local staff, many of whom had worked with
us in the camp during the
refugee activities. Their leadership and ability to
negotiate the local culture and
politics were critical to the project's success.
The Cegrane team successfully completed the
earthworks before winter set in.
The terraforming was impressive. It had a pattern
that confirmed a harmony of
design with the landscape. Flooding of the village
of Cegrane ceased as the
swales went in. Along with earthworks went planting
of trees and seeds (a
perimeter fence and ditch kept out goats). As
winter set in, the first
permaculture course was held in English for the
project staff. Phase one was a
clear success, and on the second day after the last
swale was completed, it
began snowing.
Winter was a time to focus on
education. Following the first
course, several translators were
selected for the next courses, to
be taught by Geoff and Sindhu
Lawton. Out of respect for local
customs, separate men and
women's courses were developed.
In the spring, the first course in
Albanian, was taught by Gazmend
Fetahi. A permaculture architect
was employed on the project to
help design the site structures,
and to train a local architect in
straw-bale building techniques
and oversaw initial small projects
to familiarize people with the processÑfoundations,
a moisture barrier, wood
frame, stacking the bales, wiring the walls, and
rendering the structure to
protect the straw from moisture and insect/pest
attack.
The project employed over 100 staff during the
second phase, and included a
management process involving the local authorities.
There were plenty of
issues to resolve, but progress was being made. A
children's garden was
completed, and a chicken tractor, entrance way
fence and the peace pond and
statue were in place. The local craftsmen were
quickly coming to terms with the
straw bale medium for building, and our women's
teams were showing the men
up. One of the clear policies of the project was to
provide employment
opportunities for local women.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
At the end of August 1999, the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
invited me to work as their Camp Rehabilitation
Consultant. I continued in this
role for nine months, and was able to give
strategic support to the Cegrane
rehabilitation project along the way. During this
time, I was responsible for
planning rehabilitation activities for all nine
refugee campsites in Macedonia, as
well as oversight of a program of Quick Impact
Projects (QIPS). These were
funded DIFID (British Overseas Aid and Development
Department) and
UNCHR. In my nine months, we allocated a total of
over $2 million to projects in
refugee affected areas. These were administered in
partnership with OXFAM and
we successfully completed a total of 112 projects
across the country. These
ranged from school repairs to small-scale income
generation projects and were
implemented through both international and local
organizations, as well as local
government.
At the end of June 2000 the Cegrane project was
beginning its third phase.
Local management of the project was enhanced and
significant success had
been achieved through the teaching of permaculture
courses locally. In July I
joined the Cegrane project team to help develop
small business ideas for the
site to help generate much needed income. My day
started up the hill working
physically for a couple of hours, then morphed into
the office. A library was
taking shape and other features of the site were
also developing.
We had large numbers of tomatoes ripening from a
couple of acres of
commercial test gardens laid out on the site--the
total harvest for the season
was over five tons. Nobody believed it could be
done on such a site. We
experimented with drying tomatoes and packing them
in olive oil. I carried
cases of fresh organic tomatoes to sell to the UN
and other international
agencies based in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia.
In the height of summer,
tomatoes in Macedonia are practically worthless as
so many are grown locally.
Dried tomatoes on the other hand are light and high
value, especially if sold into
EU markets - hence our trial.
A suite of services and activities was developed to
provide a diverse income
stream from the site and employ a core staff that
had proven themselves during
our work together. Our funding for phase three was
to end in November, and this
was the mid-point of a planned three-year project.
It was difficult to explain to
local stakeholders that the money was not secure
for the whole project, but that
we were trying. In the meantime, the library
building was nearing completion,
and the benefits of its passive -solar design were
immediately obvious. It was
cool, even on the hottest days due to the straw
bale insulation qualities. These
same qualities would serve well to keep the
buildings warm in the winter.
Lessons from United Nations Environment Program
In September 2000, I was approached by UNHCR to
join a United Nations
Environmental Program assessment team visiting
Macedonia and Albania. Our
assignment was to consider the effect of the
refugee crisis on the environment
12 months later, and assess industrial hot-spots
and institutional capacity for
environmental management.
The trip highlighted how much energy is focused on
the emergency component
of such situations, and how fast the money dries up
afterwards. Full life-cycle
planning for refugee facilities is the ideal -
where environmentally stable
designs are integrated with facilities that can be
easily reused after the crisis.
The foundation for such an approach is considering
the landscape right from the
start. Had the Cegrane campsite, for example,
integrated swales from the
beginning, much time, money, and misery would have
been saved. Other
important issues identified were solid and human
waste disposal for countries
that generally had no effective disposal/treatment
systems in place.
Northwest Louisiana Commerce Center
Early in 2000, Paul Brant and I contacted Vic
Guadagno in Louisiana. We had
heard about a project he was undertaking that
centered on a reuse of U.S. army
facilities, with the possibility of a humanitarian
aid component. He welcomed our
involvement in the project.
We agreed to meet in Louisiana in late March and
proceeded to work on our
ideas, along with a third team member - Damien
Campbell. In March we flew to
Louisiana and presented our ideas to key
stakeholders in the project. In a week,
we got to know Vic and the team, as well as the
site. Vic is a keen
permaculturist and video producer with a suite of
skills in digital media,
communications and marketing. We eventually agreed
to develop a business
plan centered around a humanitarian aid hub--this
would provide appropriate
education, and attract strategic manufacturers to
the site to develop
appropriate new technology, as well as fabricate
needed items.
Vic also invited us to attend Bill Mollison's
workshop and subsequent
permaculture course to be taught by Geoff and
Sindhu Lawton at the Northwest
Louisiana Commerce Center in October 2000. We
funded three of our
Macedonia project staff - Pajtim Saiti, Gazmend
Fetahi and Basri Saliu to attend
this event, based on their capabilities and ongoing
efforts to begin local
permaculture organizations. The trip also allowed
me to brief the State
Department in Washington about the Cegrane project.
I had paid them a visit
earlier in the year, and had been warmly received.
The project was considered a
success. Unfortunately, it was outside their
mandate to fund any further phases,
but they were highly satisfied with the site
rehabilitation and additional
community development work was a bonus.
Bill Mollison Workshop
The Mollison workshop was a well-attended two-day
event. Bill was irreverent
and controversial, causing some people to leave,
but most stayed. This was
somewhat surprising considering that the audience
included members of the
Louisiana National Guard, US defense industry and
the US Army. On day two,
myself, Paul, Gazmend, Pajtim and Basri presented
the Cegrane project. It was
an emotional moment to see people's response. I
stayed for the subsequent
two-week PDC course, which my wife Galawezh also
attended. We looked at the
administration area at the ammunition plant site
and drafted designs for the
area as part of the practical component of the
course. One of the attendees was
Deputy Sheriff Eddie Bogues. He told us he was
doing the course because he
understood recycling - that's what they did with
prisoners. This is an important
issue considering that the US has among the highest
rates of incarceration of
any country.
I finally returned to Macedonia in
November 2000, but without
having secured any immediate
donor funds for the Cegrane
project. It was clear that the
project would end only half way
through completion. I agreed to
stay on and close the project,
probably the hardest part of any
mission. There was a lot of
community discussion and some
controversy about the future of
the site. In the end, it was handed
back to the local authorities that
had retained legal control over
the site. The physical
rehabilitation was an unqualified success, many
additional initiatives had been
begun, but the permaculture institute as an
integral component of the site was
not yet a reality. Nonetheless, during the course
of the project, we had achieved
the following:
- Full environmental stabilization and revegetation
of the 54 hectare (133 acre)
site through the construction of 7.2 km (4.5 miles)
of swales, planting of
15,000 trees and interswale seeding of winter grasses.
- Construction of a two-story straw-bale, passive
solar library and teaching
center, and similarly designed straw-bale office
building.
- Construction of various straw-bale storage
buildings and an 8,000 square foot
straw bale harvest center.
- Construction of 32-bed summer accommodation
consisting of 8 straw-bale
cabins with an outdoor kitchen and composting toilets.
- Planting of 5,000 mixed fruit trees with fully
operative, gravity-fed drip
irrigation system.
- Planting of a children's garden with fully
integrated and productive
permaculture gardens.
- Development of 1 acre of intensive mixed
vegetable gardens. These produced
abundant crops of corn, sunflowers, peppers,
squash, tomatoes, and herbs. -
Training of over 300 Permaculture Design Course
(72-hours) graduates in
surrounding communities.
- Seeding of two permaculture based environmental
NGO's from the project (see
the Permaculture and Peacebuilding Center website:
www.ppc.org.mk)
- Integration of women's participation in the
project despite traditional gender
stereotypes being a powerful feature of local culture.
As 2000 drew to a close, Vic Guadagno invited me to
join the team in Louisiana
working at Northwest Louisiana Commerce Center
(NWLCC.) They had a grant
from the army to incorporate a permaculture
demonstration as part of the site.
This seemed like the permaculture path, I accepted.
Northwest Louisiana Commerce Center/Louisiana Army
Ammunition Plant
The focus of the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant
reuse project was
encapsulated under the banner of the NWLCC. This
entity aimed to attract new
tenants to the site, a 15,000-acre ammunition plant
commissioned during
WWII. It had seen action during all the critical
military engagements that the
US had been involved with since this time, with a
final cessation of activities in
the 1990s. One part of the site remains in layaway,
awaiting a possible
strategic re-activation should national security
interests require it. The rest of
the site--over 400 structures, and miles of related
logistics and service
infrastructure such as road and rail lines--was
available for new use that could
attract new business to the site. With 80% of the
site forested, and wetland and
swamp areas well represented on the site, it had a
lot of high value natural
attributes to protect as well.
The foundation for the reuse approach was a
combination of industrial ecology
and permaculture. Industrial ecology is, if you
like, a permaculture approach to
an industrial ecosystem. It applies ecosystem
thinking in an attempt to link
waste streams from one process as feedstock for
another process or industry -
thus minimizing and ideally eliminating all waste
through its conversion to
beneficial use. In addition to a broad mandate to
attract new tenants, the
project had secured some DOD funds for a
permaculture study within the site.
This was intended as an opportunity to showcase
permaculture through its
application at a specific site on the base; it was
linked to a broader conceptual
program of setting up a physical location for the
Permaculture Institute.
Our team was diverse and made up of a combination
of volunteers and
consultants led by Vic Guadagno. Josh Tosteson and
Paul Brant focused on the
Eco-industrial development front, seeking
opportunities to turn local waste
streams into opportunities for new business
start-ups. I headed up the
permaculture project assisted by Amy Jo Vickery and
Nick Hogarth. We
developed a close working association with Dr.
Charles Reith from the
University of Louisiana Lafayette. We spent six
months planning and applying
for permits to carry out a permaculture design on
the administrative area of the
site. This was to combine a small business
incubator with the various elements
needed for a full-fledged permaculture academy.
During this period, we also held
a PDC taught by Geoff Lawton that drew on the local
area and identified pockets
of people and organizations with an interest in
sustainability issues.
During the first part of the year, I was able to
return to Australia to participate
in Bill's Tasmania permaculture course. It was here
that I met Janet Millington
and Darren Doherty, co-teachers on the course. It
was my third PDC and
contributed additional views and ideas to my
perspective on sustainability. One
thing that I realized was that there were an ever
expanding network of people
working in very professional and organized ways to
further understanding and
make practical application of permaculture
knowledge. Another course
attendee, Wayne Parrot has subsequently embarked on
a new venture strongly
centered on permaculture (www.fountainhead.com.au).
After the course, over Bill
Mollison's kitchen table, I met with Howard Yana
Shapiro and Nancy Shapiro
from Seeds of Change and learned about their
efforts to promote organic seeds
and food. Seeds of Change later made a much valued
seed donation to our
NWLCC permaculture project.
Often, the greatest challenges to applying
sustainable ideas and technology
isn't the technical side, but rather cultural,
bureaucratic, or institutional
resistance to change. In our case, it came in the
form of a decision for the
Louisiana National Guard to take an increasing role
on the site. Allied to this
was their decision to host a third 'Youth
Challenge' program in Louisiana. It is
seen as a successful program in Louisiana, and our
administrative area with the
proposed permaculture design was seen as the
perfect venue, minus the
permaculture. Our offer to work with them to tailor
a Youth Challenge program
for the site that included permaculture ideals and
skill transfer was not taken
up. We initially looked for an alternate site on
the base, then we looked off site
for somewhere more accessible to the public.
Our off-site strategy was accepted by the DOD as a
form of outreach into the
communities that had done so much to support the
LAAP facility, and taken a
big economic hit during its phase down and eventual
closure. We eventually
identified a suitable organization with whom to
work, Cultural Crossroads of
Minden. They are a broad based not-for-profit
entity engaged in environment,
culture , and the arts in Webster Parish. The
events of September 11 occurred
in the midst of our project re-orientation, just
following a second PDC course
run by Janet Millington. For me, following my
initial disbelief, 9/11 underscored
the interconnectedness of life on our planet and
the fact that we all need to be
living well for a peaceful future. This will be
premised on sharing abundance and
reaching a common level of quality of life, rather
than the patchwork of luxury
and wretchedness that currently stands as normality.
A component of the PDC was development of a site
design for a piece of land
that had been donated to Cultural Crossroads in the
heart of the town of Minden.
Here, on approximately 4 acres, we had agreed to
focus the permaculture
implementation. It was great to start work
physically following all the paper
pushing. In the midst of planning for gardens and a
community celebration, we
sought out some worm castings. These are a valuable
natural fertilizer, but not
yet commonly available in your average garden or
retail store. Louis Michot, one
of our summer interns found a company called B&B
Worm Farms. They had
castings, they were willing to make a donation, and
the CEO, Greg Bradley was
willing to make a long drive personally to do so.
We were aware of vermiculture as an important
method of taking organic
material and producing a valuable soil amendment.
Greg had over 1000
contracted worm growers spread across the country
and was looking to
implement industrial scale vermicomposting systems.
As we discussed our
project and the NWLCC project, some connections
quickly formed. One of the
premier feeds for earthworms is horse manure. One
of our identified challenges
was to take the stable waste from Louisiana Downs
and find something more
useful than landfilling for it. The eco-industrial
team headed up by Josh
Tosteson and Mark LeJeune had been considering
biogas digestion and
composting of the material. Vermicomposting had the
additional benefit of a
higher biological quality end product with greater
economic value.
FullCircle LLC: www.fullcirclellc.com
At around the same time as
we considered
vermicomposting, we also
began serious discussions
about forming ourselves into
a company that could take
these sustainability focused
ideas and find economic
value in them. The
eco-industrial team had
taken the broad approach of
considering regional waste
streams and looking for
industrial matches to turn
these waste streams into
feedstocks. One abundant
regional waste stream was
centered on the forest industries and post-consumer
waste-wood. On the basis
of a survey of availability, a company was
attracted to the NWLCC that was to
take post-consumer waste-wood, grind it and produce
particle board. This
represented a $30 million investment and
significant new jobs. We felt that
there was value in taking this basic model of
operating and using it as the
foundation for a company with core permaculture
ethics as its operating
philosophy:
- Care of people
- Care of the earth
- Return of surplus to support the first two
principles
We formed ourselves into a company - FullCircle
Limited Liability Company that
eventually included four partners, Dr. Charles
Reith, Paul Brant, Josh Tosteson,
and myself. We took a royalty position in relation
to the proposed vermiculture
project on the LAAP. The business planning that was
done in relation to the
track showed an annual liability of approximately
$150,000 in tipping fees, and
a similar amount in transport costs. This was
caused by a peak population of
1,600 horses stabled at the track during racing
season. It was our target to
take this liability and turn it into a profit by
producing an organic soil
amendment, rather than groundwater pollution and
greenhouse gasses in a
landfill.
New York, New York
December 2001 saw relocation for Paul and myself to
New York City. We
cemented our company mission: to conceive, design,
develop, practice, and
promote enterprises that accelerate the transition
to sustainability, using the
concept of a sustainable system and the functional
properties of natural
ecosystems as our blueprints. Our initial focus was
on alternative energy and
vermiculture.
The project planning and various business planning
and environmental stages
were completed for B&B's new operation at LAAP. We
took the project before the
Louisiana Department of Economic Development and
Louisiana Governor Mike
Foster and found great support from our Minden
representative. People
remembered our work with LAAP and our work in
supporting the City Farm
Project. The effects of the project, in purely
economic terms, stacked up from
the perspective of the LDED. We were attracting new
industry and helping to
create jobs Ñsustainable economic development. More
importantly from our
perspective, we had diverted waste streams into
productivity.
By March 2002, the first worms arrived onto the
site, and all the track's stable
waste was being delivered there. As of the end of
July, there are an estimated
150,000 lb of earthworms processing this material
into a valuable product. The
initiation of this, as the second major business on
the LAAP using regional
waste streams as a feedstock means that the NWLCC
is beginning to truly
function as an eco-industrial park in the way it
was originally conceived. It is
hoped that the army and current managers continue
to stay true to that vision.
We launched our website in July:
www.fullcirclellc.com. There are abundant new
opportunities and an expanding network of
collaborators. Writing this has
reminded me what an exciting ride the past three
years has been. A feeling of
being engaged in creating solutions generates
additional energy and ideas,
especially as part of a wider team with shared
values and vision. There is also
so much more to learn, and as I contemplate my
small garden in Brooklyn, I'm
reminded of the importance of seeing and nurturing
the biological systems that
underpin our true wealth on earth.
Things change when we choose to change them, we
need however the skill to
"see" where that intervention will be most
effective. Permaculture has given me
some skills in this area. I am now surrounded by a
team of people with whom to
cooperate on this venture. A tremendously life
affirming aspect of the
experience has been the confirmation again that
people working mutually within
a meaningful framework can prevail against what may
seem insurmountable
odds. Harmonizing the efforts and effects of our
economic, political and social
systems is the challenge of finding sustainability
as we move into the 21st
Century. Together we can.
Andrew Jones is currently in northern Iraq working
with Counterpart International to
help Iraqi people rebuild their agriculture. He is
a Partner in FullCircle LLC with a
background in ecology, permaculture, humanitarian
aid and international
development. A native of Australia, he has worked
extensively over the last 12 years
in the Middle East, the Pacific, Asia, Europe and
the United States.
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