Permaculture lecture at Arboretum Thursday

This Thursday, the J.C. Raulston Arboretum will be hosting a lecture on permaculture by Will Hooker, a professor of horticulture at N.C. State University. According to the Arboretum's announcement:

Permaculture is a sustainable living methodology, with the word itself being a contraction of two words, PERMAnent and CULTURE, or agriCULTURE. At its basis, permaculture encourages people to take greater responsibility for meeting many of their own needs, – food, water, waste recycling, energy, shelter, etc. – thereby reducing their ecological and carbon footprints. (To prepare yourself for this talk, you might want to take the two quizzes at http://www.earthday.net/footprint/index.asp and http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/carboncalculator/.) The principles of permaculture will be highlighted, and then Will will discuss the work that he, his wife, Jeana Myers, Ph.D., and their son, Eli, have done at their home in Raleigh, known as the Bitty City Farm.

I've been lucky to have reported several stories about the important work that Will and his family are doing, including their efforts to encourage chicken-keeping in the city and to raise people's consciousness about the link between the food we eat and energy consumption.

The lecture starts at 7:30 p.m. and is free for Friends of the J.C. Raulston Arboretum, N.C. State students with ID, and Department of Horticultural Science faculty and staff. For all others it's $5. For directions, click here.

(Photo from N.C. State University Web site)