2013 Financial Permaculture Workshop January 21-25, 2013
Miami Dade College
Homestead Campus
www.financialpermaculture.com
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After two days of inspiring keynote speeches we got down to business. First we designed the design process: how could we come up with a meaningful contribution to the Farm at Verde Gardens by the end of this week? Some of the important steps we identified included: to articulate goals, select enterprises to focus on, do market research and number crunching, determine production potential and market capacity, come up with some concrete strategies toward a proper business plan.
We took a good look at the enterprises that the farm can be home for, some of which are already up and running to some degree. In form of a Site Analysis and Assesment we identified all of our constraints, including how many jobs we have to create by means of the enterprises, and what biophyisical, organizational and marketing challenges (opportunities) we face.
This sweet graph reminds us that we are trying to grow soil, jobs, and income, as well as independence. It clearly shows how Earth Learning’s role in managing the farm is expected to become smaller and smaller over time.
We subdivided our group so we could start to run numbers on vegetable and fruit production, the grazing/milking operation, do market research, liason with the other groups, get a master spreadsheet going and be ready to present in a day and a half!
So we broke up into these whirlwinds of productivity in which one could see two of us over here rackin’ our brains over the carrying capacity of the 9 acres to be grazed, another two calling every gourmet international restaurant within a ten mile radius (yay local!) talking to chefs, and so forth.
Others were taking the history of farmer’s market sales and translating them to projections for yields and profitability. Finally we all gathered around to contribute to the master spreadsheet, and after a false alarm where we all became very excited to be super mega unrealistically profitable (with all our legal crops) we came upon some very reasonable projections that we felt good about presenting to the community and offering as guidance to Earth Learning as tools in their future decision making.
The presentations were smooth and fun, we got to show off our good work not just to the other teams, but also to a great many folks from the larger Homestead community as well as from the Miami Dade College, all hosting us so graciously.
“Many hands make light work,” we like to say, and I would add not just light but fun and enlightening work. Thanks Farm Team you gaians are awesome! See you at Financial Permaculture 2014 we hope!
Jonathan Cloud, with his presentation on Financial Permaculture and Local Economic Vitality, closed the keynotes of the 2013 Financial Permaculture and Local Business Summit in Homestead, Florida. He shared approaches and examples of channeling financial resources into economic development projects for creating local resiliency, and underscored the un-sustainability of a financial profit-maximizing economy. When production is solely for profit and value is only measured with money, unethical behavior ensues, resulting  in environmental and social degradation; it is therefore critical that a holistic model of measuring value is utilized, honoring our interconnectedness.
He also shared why it’s important to know where money comes from, and the consequences of using a debt-based monetary system which requires perpetual growth to sustain itself, in essence an elaborate, globalized Ponzi scheme that has been depleting our social and environmental wealth. We should therefore explore models of alternative currencies, such as LETS, that are not based on debt and thereby stimulate free enterprise and the increased flow of money through communities and strengthen their economic vitality.
Participants were also guided through an asset mapping exercise, identifying the social and physical assets of their design team’s business, and commencing the second phase of the summit.
The Financial Permaculture Institute and Earth Learning are hosting the 2013 Financial Permaculture & Local Business Summit, now underway in Homestead, Florida.
 Eric Toensmeier, on the second day of the 2013 Financial Permaculture & Local Business Summit in Homestead, Florida, demonstrated how permaculture can foster community driven economic development and environmental justice. In his presentation, Permaculture: Toolbox for Economic Development, Eric and Diego Angarita shared learnings and insights from their experiences working with Nuestras Raíces in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Overcoming the challenges of urban decay and unemployment, Nuestras Raíces established community gardens to improve food security and reduce crime; started a youth program to learn skills and connect with elders; and even established a farm using a participatory design process, from goals articulation, to site analysis, design and implementation. While the story was highlighted with many failures, it became clear both the failures and successes were equally important components of their grassroots community development.
We were then led through a hands on excercise connecting several hypothetical landbased businesses by their needs and yields, demonstrating that enterprises thrive based on the functional interconnectedness of their relationships.
The Financial Permaculture Institute and Earth Learning are hosting the 2013 Financial Permaculture & Local Business Summit, now underway in Homestead, Florida.
 David Rose begins by leading us in visualizing the direness of the situation humanity faces, not to push us into a fearful mire of disempowerment but rather to encourage us to allow ourselves to “ease into hope.” Despite the greatness of the task at hand, David inspires the kind of hope necessary to take on any Goliath.
Considering the heroic efforts of the local food movement, the changes that still need to be made for true food sovereignty are daunting to say the least, and it is through educating self and culture on how to relate to money so it can be moved in the quantities necessary to align with the wellbeing of self, people, and planet (these are after all only systems within greater systems, inseparable one from the other) that this can happen. Check out the Unified Field Corporation‘s page to learn more about how to tackle questions of Financial Permaculture through the lenses of
1. Projects and Businesses in 9 Areas of Sustainability
2. Quadruple Bottom Line Business
3. Whole Systems Economics
4. Regenerative Community Initiatives
The Financial Permaculture Institute and Earth Learning are hosting the 2013 Financial Permaculture & Local Business Summit, now underway in Homestead, Florida.
 Jude Hobbs explaining Permaculture and Foodwebs during the first day of the 2013 Financial Permaculture & Local Business Summit. Jude Hobbs, during her presentation on Permaculture and the Food Web, shared her insights and perspectives on Financial Permaculture, which she described as applying whole-systems thinking to resilient local economies. Through real-life examples from around the world, she illustrated the diversity of ways permaculture principles can be applied to designing businesses and projects that operate within and strengthen the foodweb.
In the search for creating right livelihood, the ethics of permaculture (Care of the Earth, Care of the People and Redistribute the Surplus) can be a useful roadmap for how to act positively. As designers, permaculture provides us with a decision-making process and principles from which to derive strategies and techniques for creating permanent culture.
Participants were then given the challenge and opportunity to collaboratively engage on designing local agribusinesses for the Homestead, Florida foodweb, focusing on edible flowers, livestock, community buyers coop, edible landscape nursery, commercial composting, and roof water catchment. The result was a flow of creativity and warm-up to the dynamic process of conscious design that will follow in the days to come.
The Financial Permaculture Institute and Earth Learning are hosting the 2013 Financial Permaculture & Local Business Summit, now underway in Homestead, Florida.
Originally posted at http://www.financialpermaculture.org/?p=849
 Emily Kawano explains capitalism and solidarity economy. Emily Kawano opened the Financial Permaculture & Local Business Summit in Homestead, Florida, with her keynote on the Solidarity Economy – Building an Economy for People and Planet. As she guided us through a collective visioning of a just and sustainable world, it became clear that the thriving community we imagine aligns with the principles of the Solidarity Economy.
Capitalism, as defined by the Center for Popular Economics, is based on five core characteristics: Private Ownership of Means of Production; Production for Profit; Commodity Production; Wage Labor; and Market Exchange. And while popular assumption is that capitalism is our primary economy, deeper reflection reveals that more value is generated and exchanged daily outside the capitalist system. Activities like care giving, co-ops, DIY, open source, time banks, CSAs, co-housing, fair trade, and many more, are included in the “big tent” of Solidarity Economy.
The transformation of our economies beyond capitalism does not, however, require revolution; it can be an organic evolution. The Solidarity Economy highlights the principles of Solidarity, Democracy, Equity, Sustainability and Pluralism as essential elements towards cultivating economic systems that one might call Permacultures.
Emily’s presentation slides can be viewed clicking here. Video of her lecture can be watched clicking here.
The Financial Permaculture Institute and Earth Learning are hosting the 2013 Financial Permaculture & Local Business Summit, now underway in Homestead, Florida.
Originally posted at http://www.financialpermaculture.org/?p=858
Blog Author, Marisha Auerback works as a permaculture teacher for Bastyr University, Oregon State University, Pacific University, and The Evergreen State College. She also collaborates with a number of non-profits including The City Repair Project, Aprovecho Education Center, Lost Valley Education Center, and Fertile Ground Community Center. Marisha sits on the Board of Directors of Cascadia Permaculture Institute and the Northwest Permaculture Convergence. Marisha is also one of the Permaculture Design experts for the 2013 Financial Permaculture & Local Business Summit in Miami, Florida.
A business in local food production truly embodies the permaculture principle of “turning problems into solutions”. As I travel to teach permaculture classes, I have seen a common billboard that states that one in six Americans is hungry. This situation is due to poverty and inadequate distribution of food (http://feedingamerica.org/ ). As I pass these billboards and drive into neighborhoods, I am struck by all of the underutilized spaces, including front and backyards, parking strips, parks, and common spaces that could be used to grow food and solve this problem. Even the smallest piece of land could potentially be contributed to be a piece of the mosaic of land in suburban and urban communities used for local food production.
Local fruits and vegetables tend to provide the highest in nutritional values for consumers. The fruits and vegetables that are highest in nutrition and easily incorporated in the daily diet are the best choices for the home and neighborhood garden. Produce grown on large farms is selected for ease of marketing, rather than for nutritional content. Produce degrades in nutritional quality from the time it is harvested until it is eaten, and various handling methods can cause a degradation of nutrients (http://chge.med.harvard.edu/resource/local-more-nutritious). Fruits, vegetables, and eggs tend to have the most volatile prices (Source: ERS calculations using Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index data). As the price of food rises, these food items become increasingly unaffordable for low-income individuals. A solution to this situation is to increase local food production in communities. Often called “food deserts,” many low-income communities have more convenience stores and limited locations that sell fresh, nutritious fruits and vegetables. However, locally grown fruits and vegetables are affordable as they have minimal transportation cost. Local food production in “food deserts” can be increased with community groups stewarding abandoned lots, green spaces, front yards, and available public lands with fruit trees and vegetables.
To read the rest of Marisha’s post, please go to:
http://marishabee.wordpress.com/
*The Financial Permaculture Institute and Earth Learning are collecting and publishing articles from independent guest writers to promote the January 21-25 Financial Permaculture Summit in Miami, FL. Neither organization claims responsibility for or necessarily agrees with the content provided by these guest writers.
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