The evening of 4/21/10 saw one of our best L.A. Greens' Earth Day events yet! About 30 people gathered and shared a delicious vegetarian potluck before our guest speakers began their program. Then Ramona Merryman, the "Mistress of Soil" shared her insights and varied resources with us, including a show and tell box of hungry little earthworms! Take home message: Permaculture is about taking care of the earth and taking care of each other and putting resources back into both.
Larry Santoyo, our main speaker, led an interactive introduction to permaculture design. Defining permaculture as a "diversity of functional relationships, " Larry described the various components of a flowing, dynamic system that would embody permaculture principles. Injecting humor along the way (e.g., "I went to a biodynamic farm and they really kicked ass. Can you say 'kicked' here?"), Larry kept us engaged in his unfolding lesson. Some of his more memorable points were:
- If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space!
- You can't impose a static design on a dynamic landscape.
- We work *towards* sustainability as it can never be completely achieved.
- Diversity is not just linear, but cyclical, too.
- Diversity is not always harmonious.
- Apply natural principles, in context, to arrive at solutions; how would nature solve the problem?
- You can apply permaculture principles to whatever you do, not just farming.
- Re-think how to live on a dynamic landscape.
Then Joey Soto gave us information about the Gardens of Gratitude project which enables people to grow their own veggies in their own yards.
Our facilitator, Lisa Green, presented our guests with tee shirts of her earth inspired designs.
Various other announcements closed out the night, including an appeal to vote NO on Props 14 and 16 and YES on Prop 15 in the June 8, 2010 primary.
Thanks to Lisa Taylor, our Volunteer Coordinator, for setting up the program and guest speakers and to all who brought yummy food to share.
-Linda Piera-Avila
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