Sprouting a Community

   Ferndale Permaculture has officially launched. This is one of the ideas I've been working on for the last year or more and I finally found a decent way to do it. There is a group of people in Jacksonville, FL who have successfully created a community group, using Facebook, to connect with each other to solve problems and provide assistance to those who need it. It is kind of like barter. We are all good at different things and when we apply our talents to helping each other, we build a true community. One based on intention instead of relative proximity.

   I just started the Facebook group. My hope is to grow this project to the point that it can become self sufficient. The group is open to anyone, but will primarily serve the Ferndale area.

   For anyone who is not familiar with Permaculture, its origins and definition, it is based in agriculture (combine the words permanent+agriculture) but it actually has far reaching implications into almost every social system. Permaculture ideas, like cooperation and patterning nature, can be implemented into economic models, social groupings, organizations and businesses. The basis is that we, as humans in charge of the planet at present, have a responsibility to secure a sustainable model which will provide for our needs as well as the needs of the future generations who will come after us. 

   You can see immediately that this flies in the face of most of our established systems in the United States. We are talking about growing our own food, bartering time and services, volunteering support and gathering under the idea that we need each other more than we need an authority dictating our actions.

   Once we reach a critical mass of users, there will be nothing we are unable to accomplish together.