Press Release on Toby Hemenway Visit to Twin Cities January 7-10, 2010

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Well-known Author Teaches Sustainable Gardening and Urban Food Production

MINNEAPOLIS, MN, November 2, 2009 – Permaculture, the “ordinary person’s science” of growing edibles in accordance with natural patterns, can alleviate many of the world’s current problems.  Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, will discuss agriculture, urban gardening, and food forests in several Twin Cities events on January 7, 8, and 9.

Thursday evening’s lecture on “How Permaculture Can Save Humanity and the Earth, but not Civilization” will explore the claim that agriculture in any form is inherently unsustainable.  “Farming must always drain energy and diversity from the land surrounding cultivation,” Hemenway wrote in a recent essay.  “Eden was a garden, not a farm.”  The lecture is open to the public, with a $10 suggested donation at the door and general admission seating.

Friday and Saturday, full-day workshops tackle practical skills of sustainable gardening and urban living.  Friday’s workshop “Design and Manage a Homescale Forest Garden” will equip would-be permaculture gardeners with the basic skills and knowledge to design, plant, and maintain a multi-level, productive garden of fruit and nut trees, perennial and annual vegetables, herbs, and beneficial companion plants.  "Many yards already contain most of the elements of a forest garden: a few tall trees in front or at the back edge, some shrubs for a hedge or berries, a vegetable patch, a few herbs, and a flower bed," writes Hemenway in Gaia's Garden.  "But in
the typical yard these elements lie separate and disconnected. A forest garden simply integrates all these pieces into a smoothly working whole."

“Strategies for Regenerating Urban Areas,” Saturday’s workshop targeting urban gardeners as well as city planners and designers, calls on Hemenway’s decades spent working to improve urban food production systems in the uber-sustainable city of Portland, Oregon.  Topics include getting access to land for gardening, creating public space in neighborhoods, and even building urban ecovillages. Learning from Portland’s experiences could help Twin Citians significantly boost our sustainability quotient.  In an interview for the city’s Diggable City Project [link?], one Portland resident says, “If we make that shift where we’re producing food locally and eliminating packaging, we don’t have the need for garbage trucks to come around as much, and we’re composting... in Portland it is happening on different levels, and it’s exciting to see.”

Each full-day workshop costs $100 per person, or register for both and save $25.  Space is limited.  Advance registration is required.  For more details or to register, visit http://www.pricoldclimate.org/event/homescale_food_forests_and_urban_str....
Contact Evelyn Hadden at comcoord@pricoldclimate.org with any questions.

Toby Hemenway worked for many years as a genetics and immunology researcher before shifting gears to devote his time to learning, doing, and eventually teaching permaculture.  His current project is developing urban sustainability resources in Portland, Oregon, where he lives. He also teaches at Portland State University, is Scholar in
Residence at Pacific University, and consults, teaches, and lectures on ecological design and permaculture throughout the country. He was associate editor of Permaculture Activist, a journal of ecological design and sustainable culture, from 1999 to 2004. Find out more about him at www.patternliteracy.com.

Hemenway’s Twin Cities events are being organized by Permaculture Research Institute Cold Climate, a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping residents of cold climate areas to achieve more healthy and eco-friendly lifestyles.  Visit http://www.pricoldclimate.org for a listing of current events and projects.

Events sponsored by Ecological Gardens