The Alchemy of Converting Economic Capital to Natural Capital: A Journey Into For-Profit Permaculture
Commercial Farm Projects, Demonstration Sites, Economics, Ethical Investment, Village Development — by Warren Brush September 26, 2012
by Warren Brush of Quail Springs Permaculture
Regenerative Earth Farms panorama
In early September 2012, Regenerative Earth Farms, a family inspired and held endeavor, was born with the close of escrow of its first farm investment as part of a strategy to help people convert their economic capital into regenerative natural capital and soil building efforts that contribute to community food resiliency, and social and ecological stability. Our first farm is ideally situated 2.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean near Santa Barbara, California and is in a unique sub-tropical/Mediterranean micro-climate for optimal growing. It is also near to an ideal consumer constituency to market the type of farm produce, added-value products and services from the farm’s multi-enterprises. How did this come about you might be asking yourself?
Comments (10)Quail Springs Permaculture launches PDC for International Development Professionals and Social Entrepreneurs
Aid Projects, Courses/Workshops — by Warren Brush April 30, 2012
Permaculture Design Certification Course Hosts Roster of Instructors from around the World. Quail Springs Permaculture launches Permaculture Design Certification Course for International Development Professionals and Social Entrepreneurs.
Quail Springs, California
Photo © Craig Mackintosh
Monetary assistance and training without stewardship ethics seems to be the standard for international aid today. With over 14 billion given by the U.S. Agency for International Development alone, it is increasingly important to ensure the results of aid are regenerative. Today, giving a man to fish, opposed to teaching him to fish, means that he will overfish. Quail Springs is not only teaching people how to “fish” but they are equipping people with the ethics and tools that lead to multi-generational ecological, social and economic sustainability. By using permaculture as a sustainable design framework to help secure community and individual stability, Quail Springs is innovating a new pathway for the international development community. Their upcoming Permaculture Design Certification course (PDC), taught by professionals with experience in international development projects, will teach participants sustainable systems thinking, design strategies and provide a comprehensive approach to permaculture as a tool for future development projects.
The instructors, hailing from Quail Springs Permaculture in southern California, all the way to Africa, span a gamete of professions whose various experiences make up an impressive group whose international efforts have seen much success.
Comments (1)Permaculture Resiliency Project with the San Bushmen in the Kalahari Vergenoeg, Namibia
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Food Forests, Irrigation, Potable Water, Village Development, Waste Water, Water Harvesting — by Warren Brush March 8, 2012
In a land of contrast, mystery and years of imperialism, a small village of over 300 people on the edge of the Kalahari in Namibia germinated a new permaculture resiliency project in January of 2012. In talking with the headman of the village, he shared that their people, the San Bushmen, have lived in harmony with the land as hunter gatherers for eons. They are often cited as the first peoples of Africa and very likely all of humanity may have descended from their ranks many millennia ago.
The village elder sadly shared that colonialism has destroyed the San migratory way of life — a hunter gatherer tradition that was sustainable for thousands of years. He told us that they were no longer allowed to roam freely and trophy hunters destroyed the vast herds of game that formed their principal supply of food. Both Black and White farmers alike built up huge herds of cattle that destroyed the ecology of the Kalahari and subsequently the foods that had been their staple diet. They soon found they had to work for the farmers to be able to feed their families and hence a cycle of poverty and separation from their cultural roots ensued.
Comments (6)Quail Springs – a Season of Growth
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Land, Village Development — by Warren Brush July 17, 2011
The most frequently asked question of me lately has been about this past October’s flood and its long-term impact on Quail Springs’ work to demonstrate sustainable living practices. Looking to Nature for insight, my response uses the metaphor of a snake losing its skin. At first, the snake may be shocked and confused by such a drastic change beyond its control, but eventually realizes the skin underneath is vibrant, healthy and a better fit for its growing body. Similarly, we now see this flood was a gift in numerous ways and a source of rebirth.
Comments (0)Concentric Rings of Change – the Power of a Single African Permaculture Design Course
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, People Systems, Village Development — by Warren Brush December 29, 2010
by Warren Brush of True Nature Design and Quail Springs Permaculture
Over 700 children, orphaned by the scourge of HIV in East Africa, live here at Nyumbani Village. Nyumbani Village was founded in 2006 by the late Father Angelo D’Agostino with a dream of offering orphaned children love, guidance, and a sustainable existence.
In just four short years, Nyumbani Village, located in the heart of the Akamba traditional tribal area, has become, with the help of local and international partners, an important and successful model for the care of orphaned children and elders. It has developed an impressive infrastructure that includes site-built housing using mud, cement and tin for nearly 800 people, ecological toilet composting systems, rainwater harvesting, food security, long term natural capital systems, vocational education in woodworking, sewing, metal work, and agriculture.
Two years ago I was contacted by Joseph Ntunyoi, Director of the Nyumbani Village Sustainability Department, and asked to teach the first Permaculture Design Certificate (PDC) course at the village with the goal of inspiring and advancing stable, resilient and sustainable systems of human settlement in Kenya. As my bumpy ride up a rutted, red dirt road ended just through the entrance to Nyumbani Village on a warm day in early December 2010, the dream of bringing permaculture to this extraordinary place finally came to fruition.
Comments (4)Spreading Permaculture and Touching Lives in East Africa
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops — by Warren Brush December 21, 2010
With your help, Warren Brush, International Permaculture Designer and Educator, will be offering educational programs and permaculture design consultation for various orphanages and villages in East Africa over the next six months.
We need to raise $9,000 in the next three months to meet a challenge grant that will match the funds dollar for dollar. The amazing projects will have a broad concentric ring of impact in the people, mostly orphans, in this developing region of the world.
The projects include:
Comments (3)Quail Springs Flood Update – Recovery and Rebuilding as the Sun Dries the Land
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres — by Warren Brush October 11, 2010
Editor’s preamble: More info on Quail Springs’ recent destructive deluge can be found here, and here.
Hello Dear Friends of Quail Springs,
The waters have settled and the clay deposits are beginning to crack in the sun as the land at Quail Springs begins to rest from last week’s unprecedented flooding event. Since the mountains of water came to reshape the land and our lives, our spirits have been lovingly buoyed by the tremendous outpouring of kind words, offers of assistance, donations, general encouragement and appreciation from hundreds of people locally and around the globe. We’ve been reminded again and again that our work touches many people, in many places, and in many ways.
Quail Springs Sustains Major Flood Damage
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Education Centres, News — by Warren Brush October 4, 2010
Editor’s Note: This pains me. I took a PDC at Quail Springs in August 2008. The Quail Springs team are amongst some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and the work they’re doing is just plain awesome – pioneering research that all of society can benefit from. Please support the team at this challenging moment.
We wanted to share with all of you that we’ve just come through two days of major flooding that have altered the face of Quail Springs. First of all, we are so grateful that no one was hurt or lost. This is a huge blessing for which we are all thankful.
Beginning on Friday, October 1st, we had a storm that dropped a little over 2" of rain in about an hour that caused extreme channel flooding that ripped out our lower gabion, silted up our larger swales and caused damage to about 10% of the garden. We wish that this was the extent of the damage yet mother nature had another story to share with us.
Comments (5)Permaculture Continues To Take Root In Kenya
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, People Systems, Village Development — by Warren Brush August 23, 2010
Take a PDC in Kenya (PDF) or donate, either way will help to underwrite the course expenses so that local Kenyans can participate without cost….
There are two very unique and exciting opportunities to learn Permaculture Design and obtain your certification in Kenya this coming December of 2010 or in March of 2011. Students from around the world are invited to join local Kenyan students and International permaculture teacher and designer, Warren Brush, of Quail Springs Learning Oasis and Permaculture Farm and other teachers from the local culture for this learning journey of a lifetime.
Permaculture and the Western Syndrome
Aid Projects, Deforestation, Food Forests, General, Insects, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Society, Trees — by Warren Brush January 30, 2010
For tens of thousands of years intact peoples from around the world have been intricately woven into the fabric of the landscape that nourishes them. Culture itself has sprung from the land through the people’s relationship with all that sustains them. This is not as esoteric as it sounds… Imagine a group of people who live in a particular watershed with a distinct mix and availability of flora and fauna, weather patterns, sun angles, sound resonance, distance to other bio-regions, etc. Everyday necessity would be provided for by these and other more subtle structures and influences that would provide unique implements for survival, foods, hunting practices, shelters, musical instruments, honoring practices, ceremonies and stories. These peoples have known the origins stories of all that give them life, this in turn became the foundation of true, intact culture where the land would express itself very tangibly through the people
Permaculture Design Course at Pine Ridge Reservation
Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Land, News — by Warren Brush September 24, 2009
by Warren Brush, co-founder of Quail Springs Permaculture & True Nature Design
We are eight days into a 13-day Permaculture Design Course here at Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the home of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The Permaculture Guild has organized this exciting course in collaboration with the Oglala Lakota Cultural and Economic Revitalization Initiative (OLCERI) and will be offering other courses here in the coming year. Students from as far away as Florida and California have joined local tribal members in learning about how to integrate permaculture into their lives, livelihoods and cultural regeneration processes.
Comments (1)Quail Springs – Put to Music
Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Musical Interlude — by Warren Brush May 11, 2009
High school students from inner city Los Angeles recently came to experience permaculture through Quail Springs. As a part of the Green Ambassadors’ program, currently based out of Environmental Charter High School in Lawndale, CA, the group of 10 students and their fearless leaders spent four days learning about permaculture, natural building, and relationship building with community and each other.
Not only did they learn the value of living symbiotically with their environment, they also thought of creative applications for the knowledge to be used in their school, communities, and homes. Every member of the group expressed their gratitude for the trip, many with a desire to return for Quail Springs’ Sustainable Vocations program this summer.
Alex Gorosh, an artist and filmmaker who accompanied the Green Ambassadors youth to Quail Springs this April, wrote and produced this video that gets to the heart of Quail Springs:
Further Reading:
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Take a PDC in India with Warren Brush
Courses/Workshops — by Warren Brush October 21, 2008
Permaculture Design Course with Warren Brush of Quail Springs, in India at Satya-Jyoti farm, January 15-26th, 2009
We are pleased to announce that we will be offering a Permaculture Design Certification Course taught by Warren Brush at the Satya-Jyoti farm (about 70kms from Gurgaon), in the Alwar district of Rajasthan in Northern India this coming January. Satya-Jyoti is a unique skill-based education program that supports young women who have been abused and outcast from their families and communities and have asked us to teach a design course for their community.
Warren Brush speaking at Quail Springs in California
A Pattern Revolution
Eco-Villages, Health & Disease, People Systems, Society, Trees — by Warren Brush October 1, 2008
by Warren Brush, Quail Springs
All over the world, an ancient way of being has combined its elemental forces with the truths gained in the modern age to spark the fires of a new and imperative revolution. It is a subtle revolution of knowing the story of where all that sustains us comes from, and of honoring those things deeply. This revolution’s power draws from an ancient well of knowing that we as humans, with our opposing thumbs, expansive brains, and the capacity for empathy, are destined to draw from as we become stewards and caretakers of the land, and one another. Weaving our story with that of which sustains us not only empowers us to be revolutionaries in an age of rampant capitalism and its resource and culture eating syndromes, but also allows us to take true responsibility for the impacts of our lives. In its sheer humility, this revolution may be the very humus that is formed under the footsteps of the soldiers of capitalism and imperialism. As they pass unaware of us, our way of being becomes the nutrient from which new life will grow in a time beyond our own.
Permaculture Design Course In Liberia – a Resounding Success
Aid Projects, Courses/Workshops, News — by Warren Brush June 21, 2008
by Warren Brush, Co-Founder of Quail Springs Learning Oasis
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The first graduates of a Permaculture Design |
Back in March we celebrated the first graduating class of a Permaculture Design Course in Liberia’s history. Liberia had been in the throws of a brutal civil war since the late 80’s when the Permaculture movement was making its way around the world and was unable to get into Liberia until now, four years after the cease fire and peace building ensued.
We had 19 official graduates of the course which took nearly a month to complete as we had to translate into the local Lorma language. There were six other attendees who completed 3/4 of the course and who will complete it at a later date which will bring the graduating class to a total of 25. Many of the graduates shared how this was a historical moment for Liberia as Permaculture is seeding new ways of agriculture and living into their part of the world and deeply into their world-views.
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