The Earth Day Alliance (EDA) will host the 22nd annual Earth Day SLO festival on April 22 to celebrate and bring awareness to environmental issues on Earth Day’s 42nd anniversary.

This year’s theme, “Get Down to Earth,” aims to get more people serious about environ-mental issues.

Started in 1990, the EDA is a volunteer, non-profit organiza-tion with a main purpose of cel-ebrating the earth.

“Our hope is to get as many people as possible from the county to Earth Day and pro-mote education and fun op-portunities for people to learn about the environment and what they can do to pursue the beauty of our county,” EDA Di-rector Molly Johnson said.

The event will hopefully raise awareness of both positives and negatives in the county and will show people how to be green as well as different types of actions they can take to help sustain the earth according to Earth Day SLO 2012 program coordinator Sandra Marshall.

Founded in 1970, Earth Day is a day of recognizing and ap-preciating the Earth’s natural environment.

“There was so much pollution; there were pesticide problems, all kinds of things,” Marshall said. “A lot of colleges do pro-tests and different kinds of ac-tivities to bring attention to it (because) a lot of people didn’t know it was happening.”

The event will feature nearly 100 exhibits, including speeches on how to protect the planet preserve our natural resources, as well asocean and animal-themes presentations.

“It’s going to be like a fair, ex-cept this one (is) strictly about the environment and how to live lighter on the planet, how to conserve energy,” Marshall said. “That’s what (the theme) means about getting down”.

Along with having food and beverages including beer and wine, there will be a Green Zone specifically for children and live entertainment.

Local bands and performers Calinambe, Oso Sol, Mr. Eco, Midnight Express and Up in the Air will perform.

Well-known recording art-ist Brendan James will headline the show on the solar powered stage. James is an American pi-ano-based singer and songwriter from New Jersey who has had his music featured on numerous television shows including “So You Think You Can Dance.” Mr.

Eco, also known as business administration junior Brett Edwards, will perform several environmental raps from his new CD, “Get Green or Die Trying.” CDs will officially be released at the event.

“There are so many things that people need to do,” Mar-shall said. “It’s bringing atten-tion to them whether it’s (to) stop using plastic or what kind of food you eat.”

Official sponsors for the event include San Luis Obispo County Parks and San Luis Obispo Bo-tanical Garden (SLOBG). Major sponsors include the Informa-tion Press, New Times, SLO County Air Pollution Control District and Regional Transit Authority (RTA). RTA will pro-vide free bus rides all day long.

SLOBG executive direc-tor Mike Bush said they are pleased to be a full partner for the event. SLOBG first part-nered with the EDA when the celebration was moved to El Chorro Regional Park last year.

“We need to stop and rethink to reuse, recycle, repurpose,” Bush said. “We need to slow down and make sure we do it. We’re all so busy doing our day to day lives that we can overlook (things),” Bush said.

Johnson said he feels San Luis Obispo has become greener because of education. “(It’s) be-cause of people that make sure and get everyone informed. That’s (the EDAs) goal,” John-son said. “When people are exposed to these things, they become more aware and want to become greener.”

“If we didn’t bring it to peo-ple’s attention, I don’t know who would,” Marshall said.

The festival will be held at El Chorro Regional Park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is a free event for all ages.

2/MD Green edition Friday, April 20, 2012

KASSI LUJAkassiluja.md@gmail.com

‘Get Down to Earth’ with Earth Day SLO festival

What do you plan on doing for Earth Day?

WORD ON THE STREET

“Get a new recycling bin.”

•Kristina Soper dairy science senior

“Planting a tree.”

•Claire Sullivan agribusiness freshman

“Watch a marathon of ‘Planet Earth.’”

•Zach Koehnke computer science senior

Eight years ago, then-Cal Poly President Warren Baker signed a declaration to prioritize sustain-ability at the university.

The pledge, “The Talloires Dec-laration,” is a 10-point plan com-posed by French university offi-cials in 1990 to commit academia to incorporating sustainability into all aspects of education.

Since the signing, green move-ments have taken root and blos-somed at Cal Poly, all of them are looking for new ways to make the campus and the community a greener place.

Today, Cal Poly administration and students are working in their own ways to make sustainable practices a part of every aspect of Cal Poly culture, Victoria Car-ranza, president for the Empower Poly Coalition said.

Empower Poly Coalition is a united group of Cal Poly’s many environmentally-minded clubs and student organizations.

“We need to all be thinking about how to combine our disci-plines and how to work together,” Carranza said.

Sustainability is not so much a specific study or action, but a method of doing things, she said.

Eco-Friendly Classes

If Cal Poly has a single guiding purpose, it’s to give students an education, and increasingly, peo-ple have been working to create courses and programs on sustain-ability, Center for Sustainability director Hunter Francis said.

The university’s commitment to polytechnic education is integral in teaching students about sus-tainability, Francis said.

The Center for Sustainability offers students internships, jobs, lectures and seminars on the sub-ject, as well as helping to create

new hands-on classes on subjects such as organic agriculture. They also offer tours of current green projects such as free guided tours of the center’s composting facili-ties this Saturday.

“Sustainability is something that’s very complex and people have different opinions,” Fran-cis said.

The variety of learning opportu-nities, though, helps students get a broad understanding of sustain-ability’s applications, Francis said.

The only drawback to the Learn By Doing approach, though, is that different colleges and pro-grams are so fragmented, he said.

In the future, Francis hopes to see different environmental pro-grams united, similar to the Em-power Poly Coalition’s approach to clubs.

“There could be a better coor-dination of efforts,” Francis said. “Within the different colleges there are initiatives for sustain-ability that are not always visible to people in different colleges.”

This coordinated approach is what inspired Poly Permaculture, a club dedicated to finding a “ho-listic” sustainable model, archi-tecture senior and Poly Permacul-ture president Alex Vincent said.

Sustainability needs to be incor-porated into all disciplines and classes instead of being a separate issue, Vincent said.

“Sustainable education at Cal Poly is sort of singled out,” Vin-cent said. “You take a sustainabil-ity class. It’s not integrated into other courses.”

And when budget cuts mean cutting courses, sustainable courses are sometimes the first on the chopping block, Vincent said. Students for Sustainability

But students can change sustain-ability’s image at Cal Poly, Vincent

VICTORIA BILLINGSvictoriabillings.md@gmail.com

Green edition MD/3

Sustainability on campus

see CAMPUS, pg. 2

said. Students can ask faculty to include sustainability as an issue in regular course material, Vin-cent said.

“The big thing is, demand it,” Vincent said.

Already, sustainability is a pri-ority for many vocal students at Cal Poly, business administra-tion junior Brett Edwards, more famously known as his alter-ego, Mr. Eco, said.

Edwards creates music videos as Mr. Eco to help raise awareness for ways students and community members can be environmentally

friendly and talks with on-cam-pus groups such as Associated Students, Inc., Facility Services and Cal Poly Corporation to push his green message.

He’s also met students on cam-pus who feel the same way he does about the environment through his music.

“I think there is a very strong pool of students that do care, and they are kind of the leaders,” Ed-wards said.

These students help lead through their clubs, such as Em-power Poly Coalition, which is the force behind events such as last Wednesday’s Green Career Mixer and upcoming California Student Sustainability Coalition

Convergence, an annual event held at Cal Poly this year to bring together all California students interested in the environment.

Empower Poly Coalition, cre-ated in 2005, is a prime example of green student activism, Car-ranza said.

“We came at it with the inten-tion to really spark policy changes on campus,” Carranza said.

The Business Side of Green

Students are not the only people at Cal Poly taking actions to be more sustainable though, Ed-wards said.

Facilities Services, which con-trols electricity, water and every-

thing else that makes the campus run, has been working for over a decade to decrease energy use. It’s also frequently implementing new programs that focus on sus-tainability, Edwards said.

“We’re doing tons of projects,” Edwards said.

Edwards has also been reached out to by Cal Poly Corporation. He recently be-gan collaborating with it on a project called, “The Clean Plate Club,” to help cut down on food waste at Metro Station.

“That’s something that’s show-ing that (Campus) Dining cares about their carbon footprint with excessive amount of food waste,” Edwards said.

4/MD Green edition Friday, April 20, 2012

CAMPUScontinued from page 2

Hundreds of miles from the hustle-and-bustle of Los An-geles and San Francisco, it’s no surprise that scenic San Luis Obispo provides residents with a variety of ways to help the out-door environment.

SLO Green Build

Lana Adams, executive director of San Luis Obispo Green Build, pretty much runs the show. She coordinates different groups of volunteers and the organization’s different programs.

“You name it, I do it,” she said.SLO Green Build is a non-profit

organization that educates and promotes sustainable building, focusing on issues such as con-struction and water and air quali-ty. The organization’s attention to these issues makes it “green.” Not only does SLO Green Build pro-

mote those concepts, it practices them in its building, Adams said. The floor is natural linoleum,

and it uses recycled furniture and their landscape involves drought tolerate plants, she said.

This Earth Day, Adams said SLO Green Build will partici-pate with the San Luis Obispo Botanical Gardens in support-ing the Earth Day Alliance and other non-profits.

Students who wish to volun-teer simply need to fill out an application. Adams said SLO Green Build conducts an orien-tation to see where the volun-teer’s interests lie, whether with construction, water and energy issues or administration.

“We love Cal Poly volunteers,” Adams said.

Students who wish to apply should see the organization’s website for contact information.

ECOSLO

Kylee Singh, program coor-dinator for the Environmen-tal Center of San Luis Obispo (ECOSLO), runs the programs

involving county and city trail service, placing people who need community service with non-profits and more. ECO-SLO does Coastal Clean Ups, ECO Summit, an environment-oriented conference and other educational events.

ECOSLO is a non-profit orga-nization that’s been in operation since 1971. According to Singh, ECOSLO works to protect the environment and keep the com-munity functioning sustainably. Singh said the organization is “green” because of its use of re-cycling and reuse within the of-fice, also within its goals.

“ECOSLO reaches out to the community to educate about recycling, pesticide use, envi-ronmental issues and protect-ing and preserving open space,” Singh said.

This Earth Day, ECOSLO will be participating at EL Chorro Regional Park at the Get Down

Friday, April 20, 2012

Celebrate Earth Day with local green organizations

KRISHA AGATEP/MUSTANG DAILY

SAMANTHA SULLIVANsamanthasullivan.md@gmail.com

Local organizations, such as the Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo (above), will host spe-cial events on Earth Day.

see ORGANIZATIONS, pg. 6

Green edition MD/5

to Earth Event with the Earth Day Alliance. Singh said volun-teers are a big part of the event.

ECOSLO also offers volun-teer opportunities involving trail maintenance on Saturdays. Cal Poly students who wish to volun-teer should visit the organization’s website. Emailing is the best form of communication, Singh said. Volunteers need to sign a liability waiver, which they can do the day they work, Singh said. ECOSLO also offers internship positions for spring and summer as well.

humanKind

Allison Cebulla is the store man-ager for humanKind, a non-prof-it Fair Trade retail store. Cebulla says the store is 100 percent Fair Trade certified, meaning it helps farmers and artisans to compete in the global market. Fair Trade focuses on fair price, fair labor conditions, environmental sus-

tainability and more. Some of the items humanKind sells are hand-made by people in developing countries, Cebulla said.

“How you spend your money impacts the world,” Cebulla said. “Fair Trade organizations sup-port small businesses, not big corporations.”

HumanKind currently has three Cal Poly volunteers. Cebulla said volunteers can expect to work at least four hours a month at places such as farmers’ markets or doing event planning.

San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden

San Luis Obispo Botanical Gar-den (SLOBG) focuses on plants from the Mediterranean region. Kristina Van Wert, director of volunteers at the Garden, said the organization’s mission is to help reconnect people with na-ture and the Earth.

For Earth Day, SLOBG will celebrate at El Chorro Regional Park, opposite of the Garden. Van Wert said they will offer dif-

ferent classes all day focusing on topics such as raising chickens and wildlife. There will be speak-ers from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Garden will also have an Art Eco display until the end of May, Van Wert said. The display involves 75 pieces of art made from natural, recycled materials, she said.

To reach out to all ages, the Garden offers a children’s garden for its younger visitors.

“We’re reconnecting children with the Earth as well,” Van Wert said.

Van Wert said the Garden is “green” for many reasons, includ-ing its solar powered building and its work with the golf course, which has moved to zero waste.

Docents, volunteer tour guides, will also be on hand to answer questions. Cal Poly students who wish to volunteer can contact Van Wert.

ORGANIZATIONScontinued from page 5

6/MD Green edition Friday, April 20, 2012

COURTESY PHOTO

Fair Trade retail store humanKind sells handmade items from developing countries.

Here’s a list of easy tips that can help promote an earth-friendly lifestyle. The tips are simple, but have the potential to make a huge difference.

Replace your light bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs. Some people don’t like the color these bulbs produce, but you can still make an effort by switching to these in your closet, garage or pantry.

Get all of your errands done at one time. Plan out your to-do list at the beginning of the week so you’ll know everywhere you need to go to get everything done. You’ll save time, money and gas.

Don’t pre-heat the oven. To save energy, just put your dish in the oven right when you turn it on, and let it slowly start to cook.

Use a match instead of a lighter. Instead of using the plastic lighter filled with butane fuel (both made with petroleum), choose cardboard matches (as opposed to wood), which tend to be made from recycled paper.

Invest in a reusable water bottle and coffee cup. With so many affordable styles to choose — from BPA-free plastic to alumi-num to glass, you’re sure to find one (or two) to use every day. Some coffee shops even give a discount for customers who purchase coffee in a reusable coffee cup.

Download new software instead of buy-ing the CD. Instead of wasting a CD and its packaging, (the genuine version) of software is usually available online to download.

Go vegetarian — even just once a week. In addition to helping the planet, eliminat-ing meat once a week is a healthy choice as well. You’ll also help conserve the water, trees and energy that go into making and delivering your meat.

Pay bills online. Instead of receiving paper bills, choose to receive only an electronic statement.

Think about your laundry. To conserve energy, always wash clothes in cold water (it will help stop clothes from shrinking, too). Wait to wash clothes until you have a full load, or combine loads with room-mates to conserve water.

Choose cotton swabs with a cardboard spindle. By reading the packaging, it’s easy to find those made with cardboard instead of plastic.

Use one less paper napkin. If you tend to grab a handful of napkins when eating meals on the go, make a conscious decision to take fewer next time.

Stop using a coffee stirrer. Instead of stir-ring your coffee with a disposable stirrer, try adding sugar and cream before the coffee. Use a piece of pasta to stir instead, which can be eaten or composted, instead of thrown in the garbage.

Cruise along. Using cruise control, cars can get up to 15 percent better gas mileage.

Recycle the Mustang Daily — or any other newspaper. When you’re done reading, throw the Mustang Daily into a recycle bin, or save it for the next time you plan to paint or make a craft.

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* Information from Wire and Twire’s “50 ways to help the planet”

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The two women slowly ap-proach the animal, knowing that at any moment it could kick back and send one of them flying. The untamed horse looks unsure of what to do in this new environment; just three days ago, it was roaming in a foot of late-March Oregon snow.

In a matter of seconds, one of the girls swings a fence open, pinning the horse to a wall. The other comes up behind the horse and pushes up against the animal to keep him from mak-ing any quick movements and possibly injuring itself.

The second is dairy science sophomore Kayla James, and she knows some people may think she is crazy for putting herself in a physical matchup against the 1,000-pound ani-mal. James has been bucked twice before, but said its her

love for horses that keeps her coming back to work with and learn about them. Now, she is working as part of a two-quar-ter-long class aimed to “break,” or train, untamed horses.

Students could go through their entire Cal Poly career and never see the dozens of horses on campus. But for those that spend their time working at the Cal Poly Equine Center, it is the ultimate Learn By Do-ing experience.

“You’re not going to get any Learn By Doing better than what we do up here,” longtime horse enthusiast and animal science professor Pete Agalos said. “You might have other programs down on campus that do stuff like this, but you can’t get any better.”

A 15-minute walk up the north side of campus leads to

8/MD Green edition Friday, April 20, 2012

Learn By Doing outside class — way outsideSEAN MCMINNseanmcminn.md@gmail.com

VICTORIA BILLINGS/MUSTANG DAILY

The Cal Poly Equine Center is approximately a 15-minute walk along the north side of campus.see EQUINE, pg. 10

Green edition MD/9

Heather Rockwood is a food science senior and Mustang Daily food columnist.

In the past 10 years, it has become “cool” and “hip” to care about our planet. Al-most every store has at least a dozen items promoting their sustainability or earth-friendly packaging model. Many generations before us cared deeply about the health of our planet, and once again, we are seeing a resurgence in the importance of sustain-ability and mindful steward-ship of natural resources.

Even the students here at Cal Poly have proudly pro-nounced that sustainability is the most important issue to address (according to a recent poll in the Cal Poly Portal, 28 percent of students said it is the most important issue to them personally). This at-titude is well represented by classes taught throughout the campus — many with sus-tainability even in the name.

The growing importance of sustainability has given rise to many movements, includ-ing the Permaculture move-

ment. This movement began with the thought of “perma-nent agriculture,” and was later condensed by Franklin Kiram King into the coined term “Permaculture.”

This movement is just be-ginning to make headlines within our generation; al-though the philosophies and goals of the movement are not earth-shockingly new and the implementations aren’t that advanced. If we take a look at many cultures that rely solely on the land for their survival, the idea of taking good care of the earth isn’t foreign. It is when we look at the industri-al food system that this con-cept becomes a true breath of fresh air.

Permaculture is a system of design in which individu-als and groups seek to design and implement systems of living that are ecologically sound and mindful. Agricul-ture is one of the largest areas of concern, but Permaculture is not limited solely to agri-culture; it also entails trans-portation, shelter, energy and

The ‘Permaculture’ movement grows

see PERMACULTURE, pg. 15

10/MD Green edition Friday, April 20, 2012

How sustainable do you think Cal Poly is?

WORD ON THE STREET

“Pretty good. We have a lot of LEED buildings.”

•Luke Reilly biomedical engineering junior

“Moderately. I know we have solar paneling.”

•Peter Minegar city and regional plan-ning sophomore

“Pretty. I’ve noticed they are using smaller boxes and different bags.”

• Jessie Li biochemistry freshman

the equine center. It is a road some students travel nearly every day as they make their way to the enterprise classes taught there.

Students such as James have the opportunity to work in these classes at the equine unit. This quarter, Agalos is teaching ASCI 490, an enter-prise in which students work with and train horses that have little or no experience dealing with humans.

It is a relatively new class Aga-los created to raise money for the animal science department. By selling the horses they train at the end of summer, students will make money that goes to providing more resources to the department.

“I’m trying to do some things to maintain the program as it is,” Agalos said, “and bring down some of the price.”

Breaking a horse is a long process and varies for each in-dividual animal, James said. The horse she initially trapped calmed down within a few min-utes, and James was soon able

to touch him without any re-sistance. Just a few yards away, animal science senior Shea Cosart was not having quite as much luck.

The horse Cosart was leading up to the pen would stop and stutter every few feet, obviously uncomfortable with its sur-roundings. But even when the animal shook it’s head and al-most hit Cosart, she said his be-havior was actually not that bad.

Having started two horses of her own outside of class, she said she has seen much worse.

“It’s about getting a feel for my specific horse and knowing how to train horses starting at differ-ent levels,” Cosart said.

During the enterprise class, students take a horse from its original untrained state and aim to ride it just months later. It begins with basic techniques such as those James and Cosart worked on during the first week of spring quarter. Tethering the horse against a fence and getting it comfortable being around humans is the first step of many in the process to train the animal.

Cosart said she knows some people think the way she and her classmates work with

horses could border on animal cruelty, but she said they just do not understand what is nec-essary to be successful in the training process.

“The basic fundamental of training really is getting them to give to pressure and understand we’re the dominant one,” Cosart said. “What we use is not hurt-ing them, it’s just encouraging them to give to pressure. We wouldn’t go full force.”

Cosart and other students like her spend dozens of hours at the center every week. She said she’s worked in several differ-ent enterprise classes during her two years at Cal Poly, in-cluding a program where stu-dents help mares give birth to foals, or baby horses. She said Agalos provides opportunities for those at the equine center who ask for them, and what the students do there is rewarding for both the horses and the hu-mans involved.

“It teaches you responsibility, because you’re up there 20 hours per week,” James said. “You’re either working or checking in on a horse and taking care of a horse. You have to have the basic ability and have experience and be dedicated to it.”

EQUINEcontinued from page 2

VICTORIA BILLINGS/MUSTANG DAILY

ASCI 490, an enterprise class in which students train previously untamed horses with the goal of riding them by the end of the quarter, is a relatively new class at Cal Poly.

Check out our Day in the Life of equine center co-manager Fletcher Gales (pictured

here).

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Friday, April 20, 2012 Volume LXXVI, Number 108

©2012 Mustang Daily

“Happy 4/20.”

Green edition MD/13Friday, April 20, 2012

Mr. Eco raps his way to greenMr. Eco is difficult to miss. Wear-ing a green cape, bright yellow T-shirt, green basketball shorts and “bling” adorned with a compact florescent light (CFL) bulb, students might have seen him at football games, soccer games, during Week of Welcome (WOW) or at the SLOBound event downtown.

People around campus also might see him in a black T-shirt and a bucket hat. Outfitted like this, he can be recognized as himself, Brett Edwards.

Though Edwards refers to Mr. Eco in the third person, they tru-ly are the same. Both Edwards, a business administration junior, and Mr. Eco, a rapping super-hero, share a love for the environ-ment and fight to spread the word about how to be eco-friendly.

“Brett is very environmentally friendly in his everyday life, his habitat, and tries to influence his roommates and the people he’s around,” Edwards said of himself.

Mr. Eco takes the ideals that Edwards said he cares so much about and spreads them in a fun, interactive way. He does this through parodies of his fa-vorite rap songs, with a green spin to them.

Edwards first found success as Mr. Eco last year when he part-nered with the Living Learning Program in residence halls and their energy saving competition, but didn’t want to stop there.

Edwards then worked to se-cure a sponsorship through Pa-cific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) to pay for the video spots. Debora Wilhelm, a mar-keting manager at PG&E, said she was immediately supportive of the idea and signed Mr. Eco

for a $5,000 sponsorship.“I think Mr. Eco is great,” Wil-

helm said. “I love this because it’s much more grassroots than something a corporation would think up. It’s much more com-munity-oriented.”

While half of that money went to producing and airing the tips at athletics events, the other half went to the Alliance to Save En-ergy’s Green Campus program, where Edwards is an intern. Green Campus is a program at 16 universities in California that works to promote energy and water efficiency.

Dennis Elliot, the assistant di-rector of energy, utilities and sus-tainability at Cal Poly, is the staff adviser for Green Campus. Elliot worked with Edwards from the beginning, as he began to devel-op Mr. Eco.

“Brett came up with the idea completely on his own,” Elliot said. “We thought it was an in-novative way to do outreach and get people thinking about the en-vironment. Since then, he’s really

gotten the ball rolling on it.”But Edwards isn’t satisfied with

just working through athletics and Green Campus. He wants to expand Mr. Eco and make him into a well-known hero all throughout California.

Edwards recently met with ad-ministrators of Clovis Unified School District in Fresno, Calif., where he went to school. He talk-ed to the head of science curricu-lum development about creating a series of mini-documentaries that cover different environmen-tal topics.

After watching the videos, the students will write elementary-level essays on them to submit into a school-wide contest. The winners of the contest, one from each grade level, will accept their awards at an assembly that fea-tures a live performance from Mr. Eco.

“It’s a win for everybody be-cause it covers the (science and English) state testing standards,” Edwards said. “And I get to then promote my vision of sustainabil-

ity in a fun, cool, interactive way.”Even more ambitious is Ed-

wards’ plan to make a docu-mentary chronicling his trips to perform at different elementary schools throughout California.

“It’d be kind of like ‘An Incon-venient Truth,’” he said. “It’d show me performing in Fresno, and then in the school district in San Luis Obispo and what Mr. Eco is trying to do to educate.”

Educating youth is important, Edwards said, because they don’t have preconceived ideas about the environment yet. He said that though his ideals have been around for a long time, they haven’t been on the fore-front of education.

“I know that I look ridiculous wearing a cape, but I think that little kids will really think Mr. Eco is cool,” he said. “And not that it’s not important to educate college students, but I think it’s more beneficial to educate kids.”

This article was originally pub-lished Sept. 27.

SEAN MCMINNseanmcminn.md@gmail.com

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY MAGGIE KAISERMAN/MUSTANG DAILY

“I know that I look ridiculous wearing a cape, but I think that little kids will really think Mr. Eco is cool,” business administration junior Brett Edwards said of his alter ego.

For more Mr. Eco, check out his You-

tube channel.

Green edition MD/15Friday, April 20, 2012

PERMACULTUREcontinued from page 9

all other aspects of human liv-ing. The three primary goals of Permaculture design are: No. 1, care of the earth; No. 2, care of people; and No. 3, set-ting limits to population and consumption.

Many design elements of Permaculture are drawn from ecological theory and na-ture itself. Designers observe patterns seen universally throughout nature and then model these throughout the garden in home to achieve

greater yield with less waste and effort. Synergy — the sum of two parts being greater than their individual aspects (1+1=3) — is a vital compo-nent of the design system.

Permaculture offers the American ideal “more for less.” The design system builds in complexity over time and as each element builds upon it-self, the work load becomes less while the food production becomes more.

Initially, there is a little extra work because much more is observed than just the garden.

In Permaculture design, the first few steps bring us back to

the core goals listed above. Not only do you look at the space of the garden, land plot, etc., but you also take into consid-eration the house/buildings as well as the needs of the people and animals present before planting a single seed.

The design element of Perma-culture also boasts in the fact that it is versatile. It is not lim-ited to large farms with much land, but the benefits can actu-ally be seen even more vividly in smaller areas where many claim things just won’t grow.

At first glance, this may seem like a few over-glorified garden-ing techniques, but to many,

this is a step toward change. As time continues, more and more people are questioning the in-dustrial food level’s question-able practices in using tremen-dous amounts of resources and producing excessive amounts of waste in order to obtain our food supply; Permaculture re-looks at the grand design and offers a fresh look.

Cal Poly is full of progres-sive minds and, according to its students, a sense of need for sustainability in numerous ar-eas of life.

This article was originally pub-lished Feb. 7.