BIOREGIONAL FOOD SELF RELIANCE

Its possible here and now to be 100% food self reliant at a bioregional & local level!   Come and learn how...

TUTOR/FACILITATOR:  Robina McCurdy (Earthcare Education Aotearoa)

DATES:    FRI 2 (eve) - SUN 4 OCTOBER

Times:  Fri eve 7 - 10pm (beginning with a meal), Sat 9am - 9pm, Sun 9am - 4pm.

VENUE:  Janet & Mick Millington's property, EUMUNDI (directions given on registration)

COST:  $280 - $180

(Income-related sliding scale: highest being those on good incomes & organisation-sponsored participants - lowest being pensioners & lowest income bracket.  Choose your position on the scale accordingly)

Includes:  Handouts, Tuition, simple accommodation, Friday eve meal, food basics (bring additional food to contribute to combined meals).

A deposit of $50 is required by Wed 23 September.  Bank account details for direct deposit sent upon registration.

NUMBER LIMIT:  24

REGISTRATION:  Janet Millington:  miltech@bigpond.com   Phone:  07 54427200   (prefer emails)

Please include the following details:  Name & contact info (email, phone, physical address), involvement in any Transition Towns initiative (if so which one), Permaculture background (if any, brief),  community development & facilitation work (if any), relevant organisations you are part of, food production/gardening experience (brief).  Please also let us know in advance the full amount you intend to pay.

TRANSPORT:  Please let us know if you can offer or need a lift, so that we can help support efficient transportation.

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

This workshop is an interactive, in-depth sharing and practicing of Robina's tools and strategies in community building, nature connetion, sustainability analysis, conflict resolution and strategic planning - to achieve the goal of community & regional scale food resilience, in these challenging times of resource depletion, economic downturn and societal fragmentation.  Robina will also share about successful models of localised food production she has been involved with, in Aotearoa/NZ and in other parts of the world.

The key factors in Robina's comprehensive approach are:

* developing interconnected resilient food growing COMMUNITIES - with fun ways of motivating and organizing whole families to get involved!

* a multi-tiered PERMACULTURE design strategy - applied at backyard, neighbourhood, local, regional scales;

* extensive and efficient use of LOCAL RESOURCES, including the replenishing wild harvest areas;

* an interactive local SEASONAL CALENDAR for land management, food production, harvest and distribution, linked with social-cultural events;

* practical EDUCATION and personal EMPOWERMENT happening hand-in-hand with growing food;

* enriched regional food economies - increasing local and household WEALTH through growing surplus and value adding.

The intended outcome is that participants leave with a sound integrated strategy for community scale food self reliance, with immediate action steps towards achieving this individually and collectively, starting at their own back door, within their own neighborhood and with existing networks.

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BIOGRAPHY

Robina McCurdy is a co-founder, resident and trustee of Tui Community in New Zealand and trustee/founder of the Institute for Earthcare Education Aotearoa. For three decades, she  has been engaged in broad scale community development, and for the last 20 years in Permaculture design and teaching, organic growing, the development of environmental education resources and creation of participatory processes for decision making and collective action. She has taught and applied these powerful community building methods with households, neighborhoods, schools, farms, eco-villages and bioregions in Aotearoa/New Zealand, Australia, Southern Africa, British Isles, Brazil, Canada and USA.  She currently works as a community garden co-ordinator and educator at Victory Community Centre in Nelson, funded by the region's District Health Board.