There's a knot of people at the back door, necks craning, voices softly coming through, voices that are bringing the word to the community on a Saturday morning. The concentration at the door is due to the large amount of people already crowding the backyard- what we might call a capacity crowd- for a glimpse of a lively community action project: a demonstration permaculture farm, complete with new outdoor kitchen. Those soft voices are describing the principles of bountiful design and demonstrating the awesome power of a community that was brought together by the strength of its connections. Many people had heard of the workshop through Daily Acts, which publishes the Ripples journal and maintains a website, hybridizing several means of word-of-mouth communication. Just as many attendees heard of the workshop through friends and co-workers, the expression of one of our favorite types of word-of-mouth: the whisper campaign.

In the midst of this country's current economic and political context, there are pockets of people who are operating under the radar, as it were, which is extremely important to the health and continued thriving of social and environmental movements. Times are shifting so quickly that in order to stay on pace, we find ourselves constantly tracking information. We eventually see that most information presented in the mass media is just that: massive, factual (or not so factual), and disinterested. Inevitably, we turn to our trusted communities to sift through facts and get to the truth of things- we speak to each other, we teach each other. Harnessing that energy, which already exists in the magical spaces between us, and using it to develop communication channels, is inspiring and effective on a variety of levels as a tool for policy development, community action, and ultimately, new education models.

Ground-level communications like whisper campaigns and door-to-door style canvassing have long affected policy: a low-profile but highly organized group of people staged the Montgomery Bus Boycott and, eventually becoming high-profile and organized, changed the United States Constitution. A similar sense of passion and commitment, fed by mass organized communication amongst the people, led to the creation of the EPA. Community activism thrives on word-of-mouth and especially whisper campaigns; they are part of the essential warp and woof of each other. The time has come for not only an encouraging word, but an educational one as well.

We all have things to teach each other in a variety of methods and for a multitude of ends. The important part is the means, the process by which we educate ourselves and each other for maximum yield of our great potentials. We have a variety of resources available to us in this age of technological marvels: media of all sorts that can serve just as many purposes. Specialty news publications, DIY ‘zines, and small press anthologies are ideal places to begin in the print media, where groundbreaking ideas are planted in the public consciousness. We have on-line media forums that make fast exchange of information possible, necessary for dispersal of newly-planted groundbreaking ideas in the greatest number of directions and manners. What we've always had as members of the human community is the ability to communicate on a face-to-face basis, and now that we know so much and have so many ideas, we can use all of these methods to create ways of teaching and redistributing ever more groundbreaking ideas. Clearly a model for education in this day and age would be a hybrid of media and communication means, and a shift from systematic, linear education to experiential, cyclical education, that which emphasizes constant interpersonal, word-of-mouth outlets for information.

One such model might be considered Community Supported Education: collaboratives or collectives of educators, parents, and their supporting community who pool resources for a specialized education program that serves the CSE's members. For example, each CSE could operate a website that has discussion forums, class content, and online educational games and pay for its upkeep via membership dues; likewise, dues pay for books, news media, field trips, shared day care, and group activities that further facilitate the learning process. The community supported enterprise model is tried and true, and it's an exciting idea for education. We'll look forward to seeing them spring up along the banks of a fertile river.

Of course, there is room enough for a multitude of educational opportunities that utilize hybrids of media and keep the word-of-mouth spirit alive: interactive games that engage the entire community, idea bank websites, community workshops such as Saturday morning's demonstration garden discussion (which as we mentioned get to the very heart of one-on-one communication), community centers that offer access to chat rooms both physical and virtual, and small specialty presses which publish all of this incredible knowledge from the gamut of viewpoints and voices in the form of books, magazines, periodicals, anthologies, encyclopedias, reference guides, children's stories, and how-to manuals.

The challenge is to undertake this educational movement. The tools are already available and there are a variety of resources for investment, advice, and structural development. The medium of your choice and the capacity of your community are waiting for you to gather and utilize them, to keep them at the human-community scale and therefore local, and to develop the future of knowledge sharing.

Agricultural and Land-Based Training Program, Monterey County, California.  Image:  J&P Organics, Juan and Pablo Perez

Many farmers had their booths decked out in colorful arrays of vegetables, fruits, jellies and jams, dairy products, coffees and teas this Labor Day weekend at Slow Food Nation. From all over California they came. And one pair of farmers, Juan and Pablo Perez, brought the message of the Agricultural and Land-Based Training Program (ALBA).

The mission of ALBA "is to advance economic viability, social equity and ecological land management among limited-resource and aspiring farmers. We work to create opportunities for family farms while providing education and demonstration on conservation, habitat restoration, and whole farm planning."

These limited-resource and aspiring farmers tend to be Latino, often first or second generation immigrants who work the fields of California seasonally, or perhaps are working as sharecroppers, which frequently leaves people high and dry when something goes wrong. As industrial farming has taken over the American landscape, the attraction for small family operations has grown, especially those that produce organics and farm with environmentally sensitive techniques. According to ALBA's website, equally important is the opportunity for economic and educational advancement for "socially disadvantaged, small-scale" farmers.

This is the story of Pablo Perez, who had to give up the five acres he and his small family worked when one of the water pumps broke and there was no money to fix it. In time, Pablo's son Juan attended Cal State Monterey Bay and found out about ALBA's training program and was able to utilize its many resources to get the family back into farming. One of the key ingredients in the program is marketing training: once the food is grown, who will buy it? Juan and his father, well trained and part of ALBA's collective marketing umbrella, run a successful two-acre organic farm, J & P Organics, outside of Salinas, and also operate a small CSA.

ALBA as a program was made possible through the efforts of a dedicated advisory board and incorporated in 2001. Land was donated by the Central Coast Counties Cooperative Development Center for the creation of the Rural Development Center, an offshoot of the Washington, D.C. based organization Association for Community-Based Education. In time, this program was extended to include farm incubators, leadership development, and conservation techniques. University students are encouraged to design internship programs for themselves and receive room and board for labor.

The social venture enterprise model- essentially a non-profit/for-profit hybrid- serves ALBA well: ALBA Organics is a for-profit business that makes it possible to fund a scholarship program for the poorest members of Monterey County's agricultural community. In addition to operating a CSA, ALBA Organics also provides collective marketing for farmers to sell to large scale corporate and private clients, such as Stanford University and Veritable Vegetable.

While the number of farms has decreased slightly over the past few years in California, Juan and Pablo Perez are part of a simultaneous increase in the number of Latino farmers. The social and environmental ramifications of this shift are exciting. Equity is achieved in marketing and collective bargaining. Education and leadership skills are crucial in leveling the playing field. A strong voice is added to the small-farm and organic movement. Food transcends race and class and politics. Environmental stewardship is written into the very core of ALBA's programs.

Back at Slow Food Nation, J & P Organics did brisk business all weekend. They, like many others, were verging on selling out at several points. It was a time and place for showcasing some innovations and some simple logic: food should nourish us, mind, body, and soul. Working the soil should be a simple pleasure and an honor. Models like ALBA can serve as templates for social programs anywhere on the globe, especially with the social venture aspect, a growing trend in the non-profit sector. And the definition of the modern American family farm gets a little more expansive.

More information on the Agricultural and Land-Based Training Program

More information about J & P Organics

More information about social venture enterprises: Social Enterprise Alliance

The White House Organic Farm Project (TheWhoFarm)

This project is the brain child of Daniel Bowman-Simon, the International Ambassador of the Good Thing for the Who Farm. The Who Farm is a non-profit, non partisan organization, whose staff and volunteers are traveling the country hoping to sign people up for their vision: to respectfully request that the 44th president of the United States, whomever that may be, install and utilize an organic food producing farm on the grounds of the White House.

The petition offered up on the Who Farm's website looks quite a bit like a Bill of Rights, although these folks prefer to describe each Article as part of a "recipe." The recipe begins with the Farmers, those who will till the soil and tend the food: schoolchildren and Americans with disabilities. The Eaters will include the President and the Presidential Family, as well as local food pantries and schools in the Washington D.C. area. The Delivery is expected to happen on bicycle, which contributes no pollution and allows this farm's deliveries to operate at nearly zero cost to taxpayers. The Seeds are expected to be heirloom varieties, including stock straight from Thomas Jefferson's farm, Monticello, seeds that go back in northern Virginia over 200 years. (Those are some excellent peaches, by the way.) The Soil is to be fertilized by compost whose raw materials are gathered from the three branches of the U.S. government: the White House, the Capitol building, and the Supreme Court building.

While traveling from New York to San Francisco for Slow Food Nation, where Bowman-Simon gave a short speech on the Soapbox Stage, the Who Farm picked up volunteers to ride along on their bus, formerly owned by Ben Cohen, which is distinctive to say the least. The very top sports a food producing garden, growing in pots which are also able to be spread out on the sidewalk for display at events like Slow Food. Peace signs and American flags hang out the windows, and the cheerful beautiful people inside are happy to spare a few minutes for discussion. Kate Croft, a volunteer on the bus who is working on media for the Who Farm said, "The information on [organic food production] is out there. We're talking to people across the country and using that to create a national database of organic farms and farmers, and we can use that to affect policy."

Indeed, the Who Farm's goal for a White House organic farm is evolutionary food politics. Part of the petition's Preamble reads: "The White House Organic Farm will be a model for healthy, economical and sustainable living everywhere. It will serve as an educational tool and economic aid, and as a means to provide food security in the Nation's Capitol. It will reconnect the Office of the Presidency to the self-sufficient agricultural roots of America's Founding Fathers."

Read more about the Who Farm and sign the petition

UAS is proud to feature this article from Lime.com

Organic gardens and green roofs are starting to sprout up all over urban America, with city dwellers raising food for their families and neighbors on any available land. Besides providing scrumptious salads, these green spaces also cut wastewater runoff, attract bugs, bees and birds and create a cooling microclimate amidst the city's heat island. With such abundant benefits, why not put them everywhere?

Maya Donelson, a 2006 Syracuse University graduate, proposed such a verdant vision in her application for Focus the Nation's Project Slingshot grant, which awards $10,000 to projects that directly address impacts of global warming. Funded by Cliff Bar, the grant is a way to "empower young people who have a bright idea that they can implement over the summer that will eventually become self supporting," said Alex Tinker, one of Focus the Nation's directors.

Donelson's winning "Graze the Roof" proposal immediately appealed to Glide Church, a San Francisco congregation known for its progressive politics and service to the homeless population in the city's Tenderloin neighborhood. "They were looking for someone to start a rooftop garden," said Donelson, "and I was looking for a location, so it was a perfect fit."

Over this past summer she created a 1,000 square foot container garden on the church roof with the help of adult volunteers and kids in the Glide youth education program. Her mentor, Thomas Azwell, is a leading researcher on soil-less gardening techniques and worm composting, and has advised her on the use of state-of-the-art technologies for hydroponic food production. By trying out different substrates in the gardening containers, they will be able to monitor and demonstrate which ones work best for local conditions. And the kids, who come mostly from low-income families, will get involved in every part of the food cycle, from making the milk-crate containers to weeding, watering and cooking up the produce in their nutrition class.

Donelson is planning a fully functional on-site composting system that will also accommodate  some of the food scraps from the church's kitchen, which serves 67,000 meals per month for the homeless. An educational mural designed by the green consultancy firm 6S ties the whole project together, showing scenes of kids planting, harvesting, eating and composting their cucumber, kale, corn, squash and tomatoes.

"I hope the project will kick off more green initiatives at Glide Church and become a model for rooftop agriculture in the Bay Area and beyond," she says.

This is a personal labor of love for founder Eve Sibley, who launched the website in time for Slow Food Nation, held over Labor Day weekend in several venues around San Francisco. She traveled across the country to pass out fliers and spread the word about her website in the Civic Center outside of the Victory Garden, encouraging conversation with the opening line, "Excuse me, do you have a garden?"; When she hears, "Well I have a few containers on my window sill", she happily hands over her flier, which reads "Put your garden on the map!"

The World Food Garden website features a discussion forum, space for showcasing your own food garden and posting photos, a reference database, and an upcoming Garden Calculator that synthesizes climate condition data for a given location with sustainable design principles. The resulting calculation renders location-specific recommendations for biodynamic food gardening on any scale, from one square foot on up. Become a Garden Warrior is a list of simple and elegant action items that should appeal to everyone on some level. The website also includes the World Food Garden Map, quite like a Green Map, that allows users to post the location of their own garden, the location of community gardens, and locations of seed distribution centers around the globe. Seed exchanges are freely encouraged through the "Support a Garden- Send Seeds" option.

After talking with Eve for a few minutes, it becomes clear that she's in this for the inspiration. She says she was inspired by the amazing proliferation of communications infrastructures that have sprouted up in the past few years, like Google Maps and MySpace. With this website, the focus is, according to Eve, "empowering individuals through this direct philanthropic network to have seed exchanges and sponsor gardens." It's global gardening, in a way, with information flying to and fro, with a simultaneous emphasis on using the resources immediately on hand. Eve is planning on posting the Garden Calculator upon her return to the Carolinas, talking gardens and spreading the seeds for this website along the way.

World Food Garden Map
Biointensive Gardening

Season's Greetings Allies!  UAS has been working diligently to put together this AMAZING 1st Annual event for you.  The time is ripe for an ECONOMIC EVOLUTION - a shift towards conscious commerce and the local economy - and for Joyous Celebration!

EcoHoliday SF
A Local Shopping Experience
www.ecoholidaysf.com

Sunday December 14th, 2008
11:11am - 8:08pm
Galleria SF Design Center
$5 admission / $3 if you ride your bike

FEATURING

• 100 local green exhibitors inside a spectacular 4-story atrium!
• Eco-Friendly, Local & Fair trade GIFTS, ART, CRAFTS & lots of FUN
• Live Music, Performances, DJS, Costumed Characters and Random Revelry
• Creative Do-it-Yourself Workshops
• Childrens Activity Area
• Yummy Healthy Food and Drinks, and full Cocktail Bar
• Healing Space, Bodywork
• Bio-Shuttle to/from Union Square/BART
• Valet Bike parking, Plenty of Street Parking
• Portion of the profits donated to Green For All, an Ella Baker Center initiative

SHOPPING HAPPENS

We all know that shopping happens.  You shop, I shop, we all shop for somebody at this time of the year.  We shudder at the sight of the hordes clenching toxic sweatshoppy bundles from corporate big box stores.  Smaller, unique, green and local businesses usually get drowned out in the frenzied cha-chinging of the season.... until now.

Please keep the date open - Sunday December 14th - before spending one single dollar at chain stores and cross-country online stores.

Bring your friends and share quality time with us, celebrate our local commonalities, and help nurture the local Green economy.  Make a personal connection with local designers and entrepreneurs who are making a positive shift towards sustainable commerce.  Keep your hard-earned dollars circulating in our local economy - that merchant may become YOUR next customer or best friend!

We add that special San Francisco flavor to your shopping by making it an experience you won't soon forget.  It's going to be a lot of FUN guaranteed!  Spontaneous revelry may erupt upstairs 'n downstairs due to the strolling Clowns, Elves, Magicians, Jugglers, and YOU.  That's right, put on your funnest holiday outfit and become part of the joyous scenery.  Best costume wins a sweet surprise!

Join us as a guest, a participant, a volunteer, an exhibitor, or as a partner in making this a very happy Eco-Holiday season!  Pass this along to friends, co-workers and family.

LIVE PERFORMANCES BY:

Brass Menažeri Balkan Brass Band
www.brassmenazeri.com
Bay Area's Award winning Balkan Rom ("Gypsy") style brass band, performing hard driving music of Serbia, Macedonia & Greece.

Beats Antique
www.myspace.com/beatsantique
BEATS ANTIQUE forges a curious alliance between middle eastern traditions and potent west coast circus, underground hip hop, breakbeat brass band, downtempo, glitch and dubstep.

Irina Mikhailova featuring d'Yara
www.irinamikhailova.com/events
Rich of the multi-ethnic sounds that surrounded her childhood, and the depth of her soul, Irina Mikhailova blends her warm and otherworldly vocals with trance-inducing music of an amazing cast of musicians. At the event Irina is presenting female group D'Yara, " Daughters of the Sun", the afro-slavic blend of West-African meters and Balkan melodies singing the songs of empowerment and wisdom.

DolRhythms
www.dholrhythms.com
An organization dedicated to promoting the arts and culture of India by teaching, performing the harvest folk dance from Punjab, called Bhangra.

Shamanic Cheerleaders
Multidimensional Entertainment and Divine Pep!
www.shamaniccheerleaders.com

AcroYoga®
www.AcroYoga.org
AcroYoga® is a unique blend of partner yoga, acrobatics and thai massage. AcroYoga teachers will be offering interactive flying sessions free to the public as well as doing demos of more advanced material.

Avy K Productions - Ad Lib.
Visual artist Vadim Puyandaev, dancers Erika Tsimbrovsky, Suzanne Lappas, and Andrew Ward, and multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Sean Feit come together for this boundary-pushing improvised performance.

Leila Sadeghi
www.leilasadeghi.ws
Classical Persian and Central Asian dance, as well as Arabic and Turkish (belly dance) styles. Leila is a member of the Persian Classical and Central Asian dance company Ballet Afsaneh in Berkeley, CA.

Mystic Marlow
www.mysticmarlow.com
Professional themed strolling close-up and stage magic! Several types of themes - as a pirate, a western gambler or on-call santa - hours of performance!

CelloJoe
www.cellojoe.com
the wildest beatboxin' cellist in the west

DJs:

Neptune (spiritual technologies, beat church)
Alex Theory : www.mysticvibration.com
Michael Gosney : www.cyberset.com

GET INVOLVED!

info@EcoHolidaySF.com
exhibit@EcoHolidaySF.com
perform@EcoHolidaySF.com
volunteer@EcoHolidaySF.com
sponsor@EcoHolidaySF.com
media@EcoHolidaySF.com

For this event to be a success, we need your help!  Just 3 hours of your day will going a long way in making this event possible.  Volunteer shifts range from event set up to greeting shoppers and vendors when they arrive.  All volunteers will receive free organic veggie meal, plus free entrance for you + 2 friends, not to mention our eternal thanks!

We need over 70 volunteers for the following shifts:

7-10am
8-11am
10am-1pm
1-4pm
4-7pm
6-9pm
7-10pm

If you are interested in volunteering for this very special event, please contact: Ishara Casellas-Katz via e-mail at volunteer@ecoholidaysf.com.  Include the shifts you would be available to volunteer.  Please feel free to forward this along to others.  Nothing like volunteering with friends for the holidays!

Q. What is the vision for Events?
The emphasis is on creating conscious parties- full out, unrestricted, celebratory dance parties... THE PLACE TO BE! On any given weekend, people want to go out and enjoy. That's going be the foundation for the future of sustainability- great music, aware people, topical discussion, and an inspiring environment... with the most perfect vibe we can create. Part of that will be done by showcasing and celebrating the very best that the Bay Area sustainability community has to offer, such as EcoHoliday SF. Check our website often for further announcements of upcoming events and opportunities to volunteer. www.uas.coop

Q. What is the point of a Convergence Center?
We'll be creating an energetic, magnetic space that pulls the sustainability community together in a fun and natural way, but then what? There has got to be more. We plan to design it in a way that contains a conscious directive. We are all here because we are all co-creating the change we want to see in the world. Look around- you're not alone. Everyone can meet each other in a physical location known as the Convergence Center, interact, and then go out into the world and keep on bringing the shift- while working together! Check our website often for further updates of the creation of the Convergence Center and opportunities to volunteer. www.uas.coop

Q. What exactly is "Mapping the Ecology of the Movement"?
Mapping the Ecology of the Movement (MEM) is UAS' database of participating members, who are working in various areas of the sustainability meta-movement, which is set up to show users where there are overlaps and gaps in our collective work. Any member can become listed in the MEM database and anyone can find out more at www.uas.coop/node/981. We are also looking for some dedicated volunteers to help gather and compile this information into the database. Please contact Kevin Bayuk, our interim Volunteer Coordinator, for further details at http://kevin@uas.coop.

Q. What are people saying about Communications, baby?
UAS has been maintaining a website and newsletter (which is in front of your eyes right now) for years, and we are looking for ways to improve our communications. The newsletter is always looking for contributors to write articles, submit events, and highlight exciting happenings in the sustainability movement in the Bay Area and beyond. While staying true and focused on our Bay Area roots, the newsletter is expanding to reach a larger audience on a wider variety of topics that interest you! That means we want to hear more suggestions for topics and submissions from our members. Articles should be about one page in length and be very solution-oriented. We know what the problems are already, so let's focus on the answers! Contact Hillary Strobel, Communications Facilitator, for further details at http://hillygirl@yahoo.com.