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Created: Sep 08, 2007
Updated: Sep 24, 2008

Benjamin Fahrer

benjammin
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User Info 

Email: pcdesigns [at] earthlink.net
Address: Big Sur, California
United States
I Speak: english
I Am: Designer, Educator, Farmer, Networker
Member Since: September 08, 2007
Local Time: Mon Oct 6 07:33:09

About

"Ever since I was very young I have found a deep connection to the Earth and Ocean. When People Ask, "where have you studied? And who have you studied from?" 
 First and foremost I say...'My Earth mama Gaia,  My Mother Ocean”
 

 

 

 

 Being a Permaculture designer, educator, activist and farmer for the last 10 years, I have worked on projects spanning the spectrum of holistic models and do my level best to turn inspiration into action. I have been working with a diversity of frontline organizations and non-profits throughout Northern California doing, teaching and promoting ecological design and responsible land stewardship.


 For me, the definition of Permaculture is always changing and evolving, just like nature....

"Permaculture is a whole design science that pulls from natural patterns and promotes mutually beneficial relationships. Permaculture’s ethological intention of Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share helps employ ecological principles that are rooted in Indigenous wisdom. Through this powerful system, we are lead to a place of remembering our true nature and purpose within the environment and cosmos." 

I am the co-founder and Program director of the Permaculture First Responder Educational Initiative. I sit on the advisor Board of The Urban Permaculture Guild and am a registered teacher in Permaculture Design from the Permaculture Research Institute in Australia.

Currently I am teaching with The Solar Living Institute, The Occidental Arts and Ecology Center  The Esalen Institute, as well as in partnership with a handful of other localized organizations.


Specialties:

Soil Restoration, Seed and biodiversity preservation, Growing of food, Water deveolpment, Permaculture and Keyline design, Composting, Community Development, Eco-dwellings and Wholistic management


 
   FLow Forms ~ Water Restoration

 

As a main organizer for the Bay Area Regional Permaculture Convergence since 2003, We have helped build networks and strengthen relationship within the Permaculture community throughout the West Coast.

Check out our newly formed groups here on WISER Earth



My Journey as of Late...

Life takes us on amzing and profound journies and in 2006 I was selected as one of the 112 visionaries for The Table of Free Voices held in Berlin, Germany on September 9th 2006. A innovative project of Dropping Knowledge in which the likes of Jerry Mander, Cornel West, Helena Nordeberg-Hodge, Anthony Arnove, Steve Earle, Jodi Evans, Bianca Jagger, Anuradha Mittal, myself and others answered some of the most pressing questions of our time set forth by the global populous. The answers archived on the web, copyleft, a 100 questions and 11,200 answers to ignite a global dialog.


Table of Free Voices, Berlin, Germany September 2006

Celebrating the pleasures of the table as a 'Gastronome' and as a food producer my wife and I were selected as delegates to represent our food community at the Slow Food Summit, Terra Madre, in Turin Italy in October of 2006. We represented in part the Mayan Corn Motherseed project from Schools for Chiapas, in which we helped facilitate a living Seed bank of GE-Free indigenious corn throughout North America from the Oceansong Farm in West Sonoma County. By connecting and strengthening relations with food communities from around the world at this amazing gathering, we see that as farmers we all speak the same language; that of the soil. the water, the air and of the spirit.


Vadanda Shiva @ Terra Madre on the Future of the Seeds


My current projects are dealing with strengthening the local communities food relationships by helping to create a model for a regenerative harvest for local food security. I am also very involved in facilitating learning for people and communities on the immensely importance of using Permaculture principles and practices to prepare and respond in times of Peak Oil and Natural Disasters.

 

As an educator and promoter of responsible land stewardship I am nourished by my involvment in cultivating the edge of educational modalities. I place a strong emphasis on what it takes to be human and live in balance with the earth. I am committed to this life long work and pull strength from Buddhist teachings and a daily yoga practice; believing that in order to purify the body and mind one must give.

   
 

 

The Prime Directive of Permaculture

"The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children.

Make it now."

Bill Mollison

 

 

"Time weaves an interesting tapestry that sometimes has many meanings beyond our knowing. I close my eyes constantly to take me back to those places and people who have touched me most. Time builds on memory, it will be a very sweet moment when I am back by the spring again and also in circle with you my friend"

Comments (1 - 10 of 10)

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oblio69 2 months ago
"And that, quite simply, is the issue. We live in a finite world with finite resources. Although it may sometimes seem quite big, earth is really very small – a tiny blue and green oasis of life in a cold universe."




David Suzuki
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YOGAMUSE 2 months ago
Purpose calls you to the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet.
-Frederick Buechner 

I'm still inspired in the ripples of last weekends Permaculture Convergence.
Appreciating the chanel that you are and the clarity with which you share the work...which is our work.

May we be a Leaderful People.

Rich Blessings,
Grace
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caro79 2 months ago


i will be forever grateful to you for sharing your vast knowledge at tunitas creek...keep in touch professor!!

 

cheerios & milk,

 

--caro

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niccolo 5 months ago

hi all

I am an Australian, in Byron Bay Shire,  doing R&D on a few permaculture media projects

first-up, I have a prototype www.ecoburb.tv / www.permaculture.tv

will post some more as I work through the issues

cheers

-N

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katsteele 7 months ago
You are a North star! Thanks for being a teacher and friend.
Keep it flowin'
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freedomtothrive 8 months ago
Heaven in its rapture dreams of a perfect earth,
Earth in its sorrow dreams of perfect heaven …
They are kept from their oneness by enchanted fears.

Sri Aurobindo, Savitri
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tomsepe 8 months ago
Hey Ben thanks for the invite to be friends on wiserearth.org I'm in transition in my life looking for a farm to spend time growing food and soil. RIght now I'm visiting a friend in WInlaw, Canada, B.C. and may spend some time on a goat farm in outside of Ashland. If you know of any farming/gardening internships I'm looking for connections in the Northwest. Cheers!
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WISEFOOL 10 months ago
keep learnin,networkin,meditatin and listinen to mother earth i know we can change the world we already have. ben-jamin peace drop me a line. wisefool
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Rian 11 months ago
Thanks Mr. Fahrer for a great class and I look forward to seeing you in the future.

Peace.
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bowo 11 months ago
Hi Benjammin,

I am a beginner in the design methodology called permaculture. I see it as a profoundly simple and a simply profound concept that can become an important part of the foundation for "a just and sustainable world created by community", the motto of WiserEarth.

I especially like these insights from permaculture conceptor and practitioners:

"Permaculture design is based on observing what makes natural systems endure, establishing simple yet effective principles and using them to mirror nature in whatever we choose to design. This can be gardens, farms, buildings, woodlands, communities, businesses - even towns or countries. Permaculture is essentially about creating beneficial relationships between individual elements. Its application is only as limited as our imagination." (Maddy Harland, the editor of Permaculture magazine, UK)

"Permaculture simply asks people to put as much into life as they demand from it. Is this too much to ask to save the world? Use its principles in your everyday life. Teach your children, lobby your governments - local, national and international - with the wisdom it contains." (Dr David Bellamy, botanist)

"We can measure a population's ability to sustain itself by the rate at which it depletes the resources on which it depends. On current evidence modern human civilisation is heading for a major collapse." (Steve Jones, permaculture designer)

"How can we possibly expect to survive if we don't design what we're doing to be bearable?" (Bill Mollison, conceptor of permaculture)

I hope to learn more about permaculture in the future from people like you. I am especially interested in it's application for the wider reality outside of the ecovillage-style habitat design.
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