The Permaculture Design Course for International Development held recently at Quail Springs was a memorable and transformative experience for students, teachers, and the community. We were pleased to welcome students from India, Liberia, Saskatchewan, South Africa, Ireland, and from all over the United States, including from the First Nation tribes, that all brought an impressive depth of knowledge and breadth of experience to the stimulating dialogues that occurred over the two weeks.

Tom Cole, Greg Scarborough and Warren Brush joined forces to talk about their work with USAID and Mercy Corps to take permaculture to the field in an introductory course. This is groundbreaking work for permaculture and we stand by in support of their rooted and culturally sensitive approach. It felt that this course was a big step forward in getting Permaculture into the discourse in international development with the combined forces of the high caliber students and instructors.

For the first time that we are aware of, the movements of Agroecology and Permaculture joined together to view the two different sectors, taking a look at the overlaps and seeing where either model may be strengthened through greater collaboration. The last week of the course continued with pieces on social justice and permaculture, bio-regionalism, with Pandora Thomas, and liberation ecology and data and research in the permaculture movement with Rafter Fergusson. We shout out a huge thank you to all of the students and instructors, and look forward to hearing about the work you carry forward as you take Permaculture out into the world.

Click here to learn more about our Permaculture program and upcoming courses.