| recursos | contacto | sobre | volunteer | tv news | video | radio | questions |
| |||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||||
      regiones:temas especiales:géneros:actions:all action pages >> recursos:red imc
|
features archive
A workshop held at the headquarters of City Repair, a local nonprofit which turns spaces into places, and reclaims the commons for public use. A synergistic workshop using both traditional and permacultural methods, which encourage healing through soil remediation and wise-use planting.
May 3, 2009 , 12-2 PM $10-20 sliding scale Double Digging and Biointensive Gardening Workshop: 3-5 PM
Your Choice (you can't go to both but you gotta go to one!!)
"Creative Direct Action" 6pm, Thursday March 19th, 2009 City Repair Head Quarters, 3125 E Burnside http:/www.cityrepair.org --or-- "Becoming the Media: A Critical History of Clamor Magazine" Thursday, March 19, 2009, 7 p.m. Reading Frenzy, 921 SW Oak, Portland  http://www.readingfrenzy.com
The City Repair Project is hosting a series of ten workshops to assist organizers in working more cohesively, effectively and inclusively. For information on the complete workshop series check out http://www.cityrepair.org/wiki.php/wow
http://cascadia.risingtidenorthamerica.org
Scary Stuff !!! Apparently there has been a steep rise in the number of large land purchases by governments/corporations in the last year -- millions of acres of agricultural land were sold.
Quoting Slow Food International (SLI), "Saudi Binladin Group is planning an investment in Indonesia to grow basmati rice; tens of thousands of hectares in Pakistan have been sold to Abu Dhabi investors; Laos has signed away around 15 percent of its viable farmland; Libya has secured 250,000 hectares of Ukrainian farmland, and Egypt is believed to want similar access." Madagascan Land Grab, 23 Feb 09, News da Terra Madre
The use of forest biomass for electricity and liquid fuel, currently proposed by our state and federal elected officials, threaten our climate and economic security with little return on energy invested. This presentation will dispel the myths that there is "waste" in a forest ecosystem and that large-scale forest "thinning" projects are needed to reduce fire risks.
Thursday, March 5 -- 6:30 to 8:30 pm Harris Hall, Lane County Auditorium, 8th & Oak, Eugene, Oregon. free admission http://eco-advocates.org
dont have land, still want to garden? come get involved! umm....wanna plant some seeds in someone else's yard? the weather is right for planting seeds and we will be in gardens old and new. come share your skills and seeds mondays 4:30 at nw. burnside and 16th.
if you interested in bike guerrilla gardening we will be meeting on thursdays at 3125 e.burnside (city repair) for more information see portlandfreeskool.org
bike guerilla gardening: emitting wholistic remediation through the rapid dispersal of seeds
[thurs] 02/26/2009 - 4:33 p.m. Location: sustain ability now, (2nd floor city repair 3125 e. burnside) 503 438 4093 guerilla gardening bike "hit and run" squad... unofficial spring is almost here. why not help start some raised beds and plant some seeds and transplants? we will be skill sharing, each one teach one, various permaculture knowledge. if you know alot thats great, if your thumb is black thats great too, we'll make it green, and cruising portland sowing seeds, and throwing seedballs. we will also have mushrooms to grow. prepare to ride, weather permitting at a medium-gentle pace. taking time to stop and plant some roses. Suggested Materials: something to plant, something to dig with, something to plant in, soome water to drink, something vegan to share and eat. Accessibility: Requires bicycling
Confronted by rising food prices and global climate change, more people are reducing their carbon footprint and saving money by making changes to their lifestyle. If you find yourself wondering how your dietary choices affect the environment, your wallet, and your health, now is a great time to sign up for Veg 101 and the Master Vegetarian Program.
Modeled after the Master Recycler Program and the Metro Master Gardener Program, the nine-week Master Vegetarian Program was piloted by Northwest VEG in 2007 to teach interested members of the community about the environmental and epidemiological impact of food choices. Now in its fourth run, the program continues to attract both vegetarians and omnivores by offering thought-provoking lectures and discussion about the science and politics of food. Environmental Reasons for VegetarianismThe Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability
The snow is gone, and the ground is warming up! So its time to get back to transplanting and planting perennials. Now is the time to plant so they may make the most of this season to build healthy rootsystems. The class will meet in several locations, as there are a few gardens to work on, so check the schedule to see where we will meet for each class.
This week we will be adding soil amendments creating a raised bed. We have smashed up some tarmack and created a couple of beds, transplanted and planted. But our plants are probably in need of some tending to after the recent snow storm, and I will bring some vegan chocolate to keep us energetic. Start: 01/05/2009 - 16:33 End: 01/05/2009 - 17:22 Timezone: Etc/GMT-8 location: nw 16 and nw burnside
Sunroot Gardens is an urban CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farming enterprise. We bike around, growing vegetables in people's yards and "unimproved" public rights-of-way, etc. We saved a boat-load of seeds this year from a ton of veggies, herbs, and flowers, and will be making the collection available at an Exchange on Jan. 3.
There is a place near the river, where I live, that used to be a forest. I used to go walking there. The light filtered down through the trees, into the deep, green shade where I walked. Kestrels and red tailed hawks prowled above the branches near the edges of this wood. Deeper in the trees, delicate wildflowers blanketed the earth beneath the ferns in the spring. Now and then, deer would leap from the sheltering brambles as I walked. Musk rats, otters, and beaver glided through the lazy water of a clear and sparkling stream that wound its way through here. Trout darted from beneath the grasses bending out over the water from the shore. It was beautiful.
Last spring, bulldozers and loggers and heavy equipment came in and mowed it to the ground. They left muddy tracks and a flat wasteland behind them. I heard the land was being... "developed."
This October (2008) from the 24th through the 26th I had the pleasure of attending a convergence called "Deep Green Resistance" (DGR) just outside of Lincoln City, Oregon. Several previous DGRs have been held on the east coast and other locales.
In many respects, the works and theories of eco activist-turned-radical author (and Cascadian resident) Derrick Jensen have inspired these events, which are intended to accelerate the actuation of and preparedness for the collapse of civilization, as a means of halting current trends of environmental/biological disaster.
In the world of plants there is one time a year when all the elements conspire to bring on the harvest. At the time of harvest the plant is at its fullness for essential oils, fragrance, nutritional health and flavor. For most plants when the plant leaf, fruit, nut or root is mature... before the seed is formed, is when it is harvested by humans. There is only one way to know this. Study the plant. Then capture the plant in its prime.
Wapato Wapato "As you sow, so shall you reap" There is great harvest going on in Cascadia and on the earth at this time. It is a time when we look at our gardens and wildlands and find food to eat and store away. We are reaping what we have sown. The seeds of our actions are producing either healthy plants or plants without vitality. The way we humans have treated the earth, is creating either healthy plants or plants that are not regenerating.
Learn to grow specialty crops.
Trade with other members. Achieve food security. Introductory Gathering: Fridays, 7pm SW 107th & Canyon Rd 503-997-9996
The ride started out on Red Square at the Evergreen State College at 5:00pm with many people joining in along the way. The mass shouted and cheered as they drove by, feeling the power they shared together. Many people were vocally opposed to the existence of cars and shouted insults and other words of anger at SUV's and expensive looking cars for the poison they spew and the lives they take. When the yuppies yelled back, some even pretended to shoot them.
As reported on this website a few days ago, a group of us went out and hand-harvested a bunch of wheat from a field outside town. We have since processed it, which involved threshing and winnowing. This took a few days, many people, and yielded over 600 lbs. of wheat berries! Now it is being distributed through a creative scheme that rewards monetary investors and worktraders alike. We threshed it on tarps in the driveway under a fir tree in the Hawthorne district. We winnowed it in front of electric fans, pouring from bucket to bucket. One helper found that a basket with just the right holes in it worked well to sift off the straw and big pieces before bringing it to the fan. This discovery led to cleaner berries and less time in front of the fans. The grand total for the harvest: 636 lb.! Under an arrangement that was hatched this winter, 40% of that will be divided among the people who spent time helping
Information on the 11th Annual Symposium on Environmental Affairs hosted by Lewis and Clark College, Portland, OR. Takes place October 14-16 at the Lewis and Clark campus.
The Eleventh Annual Symposium on Environmental Affairs: Scales of Sustainability October 14-16, 2008 Lewis & Clark College As colleges, corporations, and cities across the country scramble to embrace sustainability, it is worth asking what exactly we hope to achieve. The 11th annual Symposium on Environmental Affairs draws together students, practitioners, and community members to discuss sustainability in time and space. Does sustainability mean eternal equilibrium, or is there a role for destruction and restoration? Are local systems always more sustainable? What exactly would global sustainability look like in today's complex world? For a complete schedule of keynote speakers, panel sessions, and other activities, please visit the Symposium website: http://www.lclark.edu/dept/envs/symposium.html
All events are free and open to the public. For more information, contact: Peter Vidito Environmental Studies Program Lewis & Clark College 503.768.7719  vidito@lclark.edu
On Saturday, while the news was full of stories about a collapsing financial system and possible Greater Depression on the way, some of us spent the day out in a field harvesting wheat by hand. Our methodology was ad hoc and primitive; the harvest of "spikelets" -- the heads of the wheat containing the wheat berries -- was substantial. Much attention has been given over to growing vegetables and scoring fruit in the city, and many creative approaches tried out; yet those foodstuffs comprise only a small percentage of the typical human diet, which is heavy on grains augmented with proteins (the majority of it vegetarian). The less-than-an-acre plot we harvested on Saturday is part of one attempt to address this issue. Help is still needed winnowing, and wheat will be shared with those who put in time.
Reclaim the Commons!!
SE Portland Food not Lawns has tools and herb/veggie starters ready for use. What we need are more people and places to start more gardens in SE, especially outer SE. A lot of the starters I have really need to get into the ground ASAP. Where my gardeners at!!!!! Looking for people that want to start garden outside of there personal gardens and community accessible. If you have space or know of spaces and want to learn, please contact us [Click on Read More Link]
Out on the edge of Cascadia, there is a pirate raft being built from recycled material, that will ferry people up and down the Columbia. There's an eco village with a composting toilet and a kite powered water pump. There's a thrift shop/ media center/ potlatch. And if you're looking to start a new life, there's an open invitation to you:
Get thee out to Ilwaco. There, the Nutrinos and friends are laying the groundwork for a community on the water, centered around activism, anti capitalism, egalitarianism, hard work, and fun. Lots and lots of fun.
Rising Moon Organics (RMO) has served the finest ravioli and desserts at the Oregon Country Fair (OCF) since 1992. RMO was formerly one of many food booths producing mountains of trash over the 3 day festival, but changed their approach in 1993 to pursue a trash-free mission.
As a result, RMO has saved over 100,000 plates, cups and forks from going to the landfill. RMO marked its 15th year at the Oregon Country Fair in 2006, by becoming a not-for-profit booth donating all profits to local organizations. RMO has been instrumental in creating a sustainable fair with less trash that supports the OCF in furthering its trash-free mission. The process began in collaboration with the Fern Ridge School District to wash most durables off site. And that was just the beginning for greening the practices of feeding thousands of hungry fair goers.
I have been asked to speak here tonight because of the way I have been spending my time lately, which is growing vegetables, fruit, and herbs in a bunch of different plots around Southeast, and doing most of the traveling, hauling, etc., by bike. "Bicycle-based urban agriculture," it has been called. I am running the operation as a CSA. A CSA -- which stands for "Community Supported Agriculture" -- is a business arrangement in which a set of households provide resources, fiscal and otherwise, to a farmer in the Winter and Spring and in return recieve produce throughout the Summer and into the Autumn.
Together with my farming partners, who also ride their bikes everywhere, we are growing food for 40 households out of all these plots. We also have "The Staple Foods Project", with its own set of supporters, which is intended to raise survival foods such as quinoa, soybeans, sunflowers-for-oil, soup peas, lentils, and more. The overall goal of these projects is food independence, for a small number of people anyway, by this winter. Also, we will share whatever it is we learn with whomever wants to know. When it comes to food growing, none of us can afford to make any trade secrets.
A friend recently was complaining about how everyone is talking about buying gold to protect themselves from economic collapse. He told me a story about his elderly aunt who had lived through several holocausts. She was Jewish and one of only a few who survived in her family. As a child she and her mother first fled the Nazi's and ran into Russia, then fled the Russian's and fled into France and finally they came to the U.S. They had few things with them. The woman told my friend that she and her mother survived starvation, which killed many refugees, not by hoarding gold, but by secretly carrying seeds in the fold of their clothes. People around them, even the enemy let them live because they had a skill that was much needed... the knowledge of how to raise their own food. [ Radical Botany ]
I want to introduce you to someone. This is C404. He is a unique, intelligent being. In this photograph, you get a sense of his playful nature. He's like this. More than many sea lions, he seems to seek out human contact. I've known him for years, and although I always try to maintain a respectful distance from my wild neighbors, this guy has often followed me in the water when I am out on the river. The Columbia river is his home at this time of the year, as it has been home to countless generations of sea lions before him, for thousands, upon thousands of years. And he is in danger. Wildlife officials want to kill this being, perhaps as soon as next week,unless you stop them.
Salmon have been on the Columbia river for at least 100 million years. Sea lions have been on the Columbia river for at least 10 thousand years. After at least ten thousand years of co-existence with sea lions, the salmon runs of the Columbia nevertheless numbered tens of millions of fish. Commercial fleets and capitalism came to the Columbia river about a century and a half ago, and more than 200 dams began cropping up in the region about a half century ago. While the sea lions were able to live with the salmon for at least 100 centuries without reducing the runs, the humans took only one century to drive the runs down from 20 million fish to roughly 1 percent of their historical levels. Human predation, under the demands and strange incentives of capitalism, has led the salmon toward extinction. The only way to lead the salmon away from that brink is by curbing human predation. Not by killing sea lions.
The public is invited to comment at the hearing in the Council Chambers, 4th and Madison at 2 PM, Wednesday. Comments can also be e-mailed to Karla Moore-Love, Council Clerk
kmoore-love@ci.portland.or.us or given or mailed to her at 1221 SW 4th, Rm. 140, Portland 97204.
This is your opportunity to tell the Council what you think of more high-rise development, gentrification, and construction downtown. Moyer's architect is talking in the press like a planning Czar. He says he can put skyscrapers anywhere downtown using FAR stratagems if zoning does not allow, as with Moyer Tower. The Block-5 area has been a construction-sacrifice zone too often through the years :1997-2000, 2006-2008, and, if Moyer gets his way, it will be so again 2008-2011. "What market collapse?" say developers, who claim they're building "ten years into the future" and for "an exclusive market." What do you say to the makeover of your city for the benefit of some hypothetical upscale market from out of town? Moyer Tower stands for all of that and more of that.
This last Fridays Critical Mass , a monthly bicycle ride with a history of police harassment resulting in no fun and small turn outs, starts out with 60 plus riders, a human pyramid, a bitchen sound system, and pays a visit to the auto show.
We made it to the auto show and grouped up outside the main door. A good sized banner was unfolded and held up for all to see that were making their way into the auto show. People laid on their backs and made like they were pedaling.
I once lived in the Coast Range of Oregon. I had a farm with a large garden and a few fruit trees. My children and I were happy there. My farm was surrounded by land owned by a family who made their living harvesting forests. They used the most terrible type of tree extraction - clearcutting. About a year after I moved onto my property, the family decided to clearcut the forest just above my farm. I could hear the chainsaws take down the forest. It was a sad time for me. I loved that forest above me. It was diverse: Douglas fir, red alder, a wonderful array of wild native berry plants, ferns, and many herbs and wild flowers lived in that place. My children and I had identified three types of wild orchids in that forest: Fairyslipper (Calypso bulbosa) Mountain Lady Slipper (Cypripedium montanum) and Western Coralroot (Corallorhiza maculate).
One afternoon a year after the extraction of the forest I walked up the mountain to see what damage had been done. My heart was broken. I kneeled on the ground with my hands over my face. I saw a land that had been broken. I did not go back up that mountain for another month. It was late spring when I sat in the muddy field of the clearcut. I looked around. I did not see anything unusual. I closed my eyes and asked for healing. I opened my eyes. I saw not far from the outer edge of the clearcut a bright green plant. I went to it. It was beautiful with waxy round leaves and a little white flower attached to a stem that shot up through the leaf. I sat for a long time and observed how it seemed to be spreading all around the edges of the wounded earth. It seemed to be creeping from the darker edges of the forest. I took a sample of the plant to a local native plant lady and she identified it as Miner's Lettuce. She told me the story of how the plant was supposedly named by Miners who were suffering from scurvy and were able to find this plant, where hardly anything else grew, including in piles of mine tailings. They ate the plant and felt very much better. My friend called the plant a major healer of the earth. Where ever it grew there was work to be done. It grew heartily along abandoned logging roads, in clearcuts, and in other disturbed areas.
Yesterday, an internal memo leaked out of the offices of the Pacific Fishery Management Council and into the hands of the press. The story outlined in that memo is horrific: The Chinook salmon of California's central valley, and indeed the salmon populations all up and down the west coast, are crashing. They are in "precipitous decline."
Since the salmon crisis on our own Columbia river is being blamed upon sea lions at Bonneville dam, sea lions who are being threatened with assassination this spring due to the dwindling salmon, it is important that we look at the real scope, depth, and breadth of this problem. It is not only the salmon of the Columbia, but those of every waterway along the west coast, who are in peril. According to the Pacific Fishery Management Council memo, this year's run of fall Chinook on the Sacramento river dropped by a shocking 67 percent over last year's run. Sixty-seven percent! This number is even more astonishing if we consider that, last year, the same organization lamented the unexpectedly low numbers of returning salmon, so that a 67 percent drop in an already calamitously low number raises the looming specter of extinction. In truth, the salmon population has been taking a precipitous nose-dive for years. Over-fishing, loss of habitat, and collapsing ecosystems are to blame. On the Columbia, we have the added burden of being the only river in the nation to actually allow commercial gill nets within the river channel -- a channel that is home to fish known to be "protected" under the Endangered Species Act. (If you want to see this for yourself, you will need to go out at night. Wisely, the commercial nets are not cast until after 7pm. They work at night, when there are few witnesses. But, despite the thousands of threatened and endangered salmon swept up in the nets, the ODFW declares that their activities are perfectly legal.)
As Peak-Oil and economic change begin to affect the growing and distribution of food, new approaches that are more sustainable and locally-based seem likely to emerge.
Some readers of this site might know me from when I worked at People's Co-op, or was an Indymedia activist. These days I've become what I guess you'd call an "urban farmer". I garden a set of plots around the City of Roses, mostly in Southeast. Lacking both a driver's license and a desire to drive, I do most traveling, harvesting, hauling, etc., by bicycle. Occasionally, I'll get help from a friend with a truck to move a tiller or something, but that's not too common. I am supporting myself this way by using the CSA (Community-Supported Agriculture) model. So far I've been in no danger of becoming money-rich, and I've really been enjoying the endeavor! I will be having an event about the urban farming I've been doing. Attendees will be treated to a slide show of bounty and be made privy to the details of running a business like this, from property-acquisition to planning & planting, financial budgeting and harvesting & processing. Wed., Jan. 30th, 7-9 pm People's Food Co-op 3029 SE 21st Ave. (1 block north of Powell)
|