Learning and Writing Permaculture
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Hello friends, family, and random internet browsers,
As many of you know, I've spent the past three years as an organic farmer, learning how to grow food commercially by building healthy soils, and without chemicals. I've learned a lot, and now it's time for me to take the next step in my education: permaculture. Permaculture practitioners take sustainable agriculture to the next level, working to create food-producing systems that mimic nature as closely as possible, eliminate external inputs, and build true resiliency into food production systems. The word "permaculture" itself, which combines "permanent" and "agriculture", gives a good indication of what the goals of the practice are (to learn more, visit permaculture.org ).
I have the opportunity to earn a certificate in Permaculture Design this fall and spring through The Growing Project, a great local-food non-profit here in Fort Collins, Colorado. But I need your help to pay for it! The link above will take you to detailed information about the certificate program, but here are the basics:
For one weekend a month, from August through March, I will learn from certified professionals all aspects of permaculture design - plant and soil biology, design methods and processes, community justice impacts, and much more. By the end of the program, I will have earned a Permaculture Design Certificate and gained the knowledge to help neighbors, farms, community members, and non-profits to grow food more effectively, more naturally, and more resiliently. I hope to use that knowledge to further my career, and to fight inequalities and injustices within our food system.
In addition, I plan to share my experiences in the class, and the knowledge I gain, through writing. Throughout the course, I'll reflect on my experiences in a series of essays, which I will collect and publish at the end. The specific topics are necessarily undefined right now, but they will generally be about my discovery of permaculture, and will attempt to relate what I'm learning to the American life and food system. I'm also anticipating personal growth through this program, and will integrate stories of that into the essays as well.
I'm very excited for this, but again, I need your help to do it. The one-weekend-a-month schedule gives me enough flexibility to keep my job, but I don't have the money to pay for the course, which is $1,250. I've set the goal of this fundraiser to cover the cost of the course plus the estimated costs of the fundraiser - GoFundMe takes a percentage of contributions, and it will cost a bit to fulfill the rewards I'm offering for contributions of various amounts. Speaking of which.... I have thank-you gifts and rewards for various levels of contribution! Check them out below! I'll be sending thank-you cards as I receive contributions; all other rewards will be fulfilled around summer 2016.
Of course, if you're not able to contribute, no hard feelings (I totally understand not having extra money)! I would ask that you share this fundraiser with anyone you think would be interested, though.
If for some reason I don't raise enough, and am unable to take the course, any money I do raise will be contributed to The Growing Project (although there will be no essay collection). And if I raise more money than I need to enroll in the course and fulfill the rewards, that extra money will also go to The Growing Project!
Thank you all so much for your support! I look forward to sharing my experiences with you, and please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions about what I'm doing.
- J. Mark Tebben
As many of you know, I've spent the past three years as an organic farmer, learning how to grow food commercially by building healthy soils, and without chemicals. I've learned a lot, and now it's time for me to take the next step in my education: permaculture. Permaculture practitioners take sustainable agriculture to the next level, working to create food-producing systems that mimic nature as closely as possible, eliminate external inputs, and build true resiliency into food production systems. The word "permaculture" itself, which combines "permanent" and "agriculture", gives a good indication of what the goals of the practice are (to learn more, visit permaculture.org ).
I have the opportunity to earn a certificate in Permaculture Design this fall and spring through The Growing Project, a great local-food non-profit here in Fort Collins, Colorado. But I need your help to pay for it! The link above will take you to detailed information about the certificate program, but here are the basics:
For one weekend a month, from August through March, I will learn from certified professionals all aspects of permaculture design - plant and soil biology, design methods and processes, community justice impacts, and much more. By the end of the program, I will have earned a Permaculture Design Certificate and gained the knowledge to help neighbors, farms, community members, and non-profits to grow food more effectively, more naturally, and more resiliently. I hope to use that knowledge to further my career, and to fight inequalities and injustices within our food system.
In addition, I plan to share my experiences in the class, and the knowledge I gain, through writing. Throughout the course, I'll reflect on my experiences in a series of essays, which I will collect and publish at the end. The specific topics are necessarily undefined right now, but they will generally be about my discovery of permaculture, and will attempt to relate what I'm learning to the American life and food system. I'm also anticipating personal growth through this program, and will integrate stories of that into the essays as well.
I'm very excited for this, but again, I need your help to do it. The one-weekend-a-month schedule gives me enough flexibility to keep my job, but I don't have the money to pay for the course, which is $1,250. I've set the goal of this fundraiser to cover the cost of the course plus the estimated costs of the fundraiser - GoFundMe takes a percentage of contributions, and it will cost a bit to fulfill the rewards I'm offering for contributions of various amounts. Speaking of which.... I have thank-you gifts and rewards for various levels of contribution! Check them out below! I'll be sending thank-you cards as I receive contributions; all other rewards will be fulfilled around summer 2016.
Of course, if you're not able to contribute, no hard feelings (I totally understand not having extra money)! I would ask that you share this fundraiser with anyone you think would be interested, though.
If for some reason I don't raise enough, and am unable to take the course, any money I do raise will be contributed to The Growing Project (although there will be no essay collection). And if I raise more money than I need to enroll in the course and fulfill the rewards, that extra money will also go to The Growing Project!
Thank you all so much for your support! I look forward to sharing my experiences with you, and please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions about what I'm doing.
- J. Mark Tebben
Organizer
J. Mark Tebben
Organizer
Fort Collins, CO
