The Voices of Permaculture

I would like to share with you an incredible resource for learning and being inspired by permaculture, and the people who practice it.  Permaculture Voices is a yearly conference put on by Diego Footer in San Diego, CA.  The conference has or will host talks by such permaculture greats as Geoff Lawton, Allan Savory, Toby Hemenway, Mark Shepard, and many more.  This years conference takes place from March 4th to the 8th in downtown San Diego, and tickets are still on sale.  Diego was kind enough to offer some low income scholarship tickets this year, so I am very excited to say that I will be attending the conference!

For those who can’t make it to the conference, there is tons of free information at http://www.permaculturevoices.com, primarily in the form of hour long podcasts in which Diego interviews some of the greatest minds in permaculture, along with some other people that you may not have heard of, but are doing some amazing things out there in the real world.  There are nearly a hundred podcasts posted, along with several “B-reels.”  Diego’s mission is to inspire others to use more permaculture in whatever it is they are called to do, and furthermore to help people get over the fear of making the step away from their day jobs and towards a career in permaculture.

This year’s conference is focused heavily on showing how permaculture farms and businesses can be financially viable.  I think this is an important matter to focus on, as it is very hard to convince people that permaculture is a viable solution if you can’t give examples of people making a good living using it.  Although I feel that it is possible, through permaculture, to create a world where no one has to worry about having enough money to supply their basic needs, in the social and economic environment of today we need to work within the current system to provide pathways towards transition to that better world.  This is something I have been very focused on lately, building a transition to financial stability by creating my own career in permaculture.  Needless to say, I am looking forward to the conference.

In the meantime I have been gathering heaps of inspiration from listening to the Permaculture Voices podcasts, and I hope you will too.  Here are the links to a few of my favorites:

Joel Salatin talks to the next generation of farmers

SPIN farming with Curtis Stone

The future of agriculture – changing the concept with Mark Shepard

Lawncare to Earthcare. Building Businesses, Embracing Failures, and Transitioning to a Career in Permaculture.

Permaculture and the Forgotten. Teaching Permaculture in Places That Absolutely Need It. A Message of Hope with Rosemary Morrow.

Do Your Impossible.

100 Degrees and 3 Inches of Rain. Greening Saudi Arabia with Neal Spackman.

Stacking Fiefdoms with Joel Salatin. Creating Multiple Complementary Businesses Under the Umbrella of an Exisiting Business.

Social Permaculture. Creating a Diversity of Functional Connections Between People and Their Skills.