ABOUT AND FOR SUSTAINABILITY - Blog About And For Sustainability

September 20th, 2022

9/20/2022

ANNOUNCING THE PERMACULTURE FARM SCHOOL VILLAGE PROJECT

Dear Friend,
First of all, I pray for your well being and our common future in this world!

I am writing here to share with you about a project I am launching that I believe will change the world for the better! You are seeing this because I know you are interested in these kinds of things, and I invite you to see what is in it for you! This project is a reframing of my life’s work, happening already, and it springs from my strong commitment to contribute to the creation of a healthy, abundant, peaceful and thriving future for all to enjoy.

You will soon see all of my channels of communication filled with presentations and shares about this multifaceted project: The Permaculture Farm School Village Framework, Network and Academy. The basic invitations will be to learn about and join the possibilities of transforming the world via a network of permaculture farm school villages created everywhere around the world. (we have a few going already!!!)

I will invite as many people as I can reach to imagine a network of permaculture farm school villages that meet human material and non-material needs, while being in service to all life, sustainably, regeneratively and indefinitely, everywhere around the world - villages that will enhance the well being of their local communities while also regenerating the health of the local ecosystems in which they exist - villages that will be able to exist in urban, suburban and rural spaces, and reflect, respect and integrate the local historical culture and wisdom, as well as the culture of those who initiate, build and inhabit them, exhibiting their own unique flavor of the permaculture farm school village framework.

You will be able to see and participate in shaping The Permaculture Farm School Village Framework (see picture of the 1st iteration below), and learn how to apply it all or parts of it via The Permaculture Farm School Village Academy. You will soon be able to also learn that the Framework, Academy and especially the Network are not designed to compete with anything else out there that is contributing to a regenerative and sustainability based future for all, but indeed they are designed to help existing and new projects succeed!

July 21st, 2022

7/21/2022

A look at the 2 weeks Permaculture Design Course we hosted this summer 2022
at Sun And Bloom Farms in Lebanon Missouri

The people showing up are inspiring, the bonds we form are empowering, and the moments we create while learning how to rediscover our power and wisdom to regenerate our shared ecosystems and communities are changing the future indefinitely!

Pictures are worth infinite words and for this blog entry we will let them speak about the intensive learning and growth we facilitated for 15 brave, kind and "willing to show up for our common future" souls! The core team consisted of Lucian and Anna Maria +, Russell, Christine, Nick, Whitney & Chef Aleana on site + various other guest speakers in-person & online.

Humanity Chapter 1 - (Part 1) A necessary way forward: The Villages of Basic Earth & People Centered Skills

7/5/2022

Humanity Chapter 1 - (Part 1) A necessary way forward: The Villages of Basic Earth & People Centered Skills 

Humanity, the podcast, was launched today July 5th, 2022. It starts with Part 1 of a series that will reveal an idea I have explored for more than a decade: contributing to the creation of a life sustaining and regenerating world via a Network of Villages of Basic Earth & People Centered Skills. In this first episode I share with you why these spaces of permaculture, sustainability, and regenerative education are needed, and briefly how one specific model could look, feel like and function like.

Here is a written synopsis of this 1st podcast (I DO HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU LISTEN):

August 29th, 2019

8/29/2019

PART 1 (the first 4 ideas) - "SIMPLE STEPS & IDEAS TO GET GOING & GAIN MOMENTUM IN PERMACULTURE, SUSTAINABILITY & REGENERATIVE WORK & BUSINESSES"
a limited series by Lucian Toma
also in podcast and youtube audio format

Give courageously! ~ Author Unknown

CHAPTER / EPISODE 1 RECAP

On August 20th, after many requests and messages from my permaculture students and the instagram and facebook community, I decided to create a limited series on “Simple Steps and Ideas to Get Going and Gain Momentum in Permaculture, Sustainability and Regenerative Work and Businesses”. Most of the communication from these people was in the form of questions on how they can take their passion and career in these multifaceted fields to the next level. I seemed like someone that knows what he's doing and moving “seemingly” fast in these fields. The overall perception came from my social media feed that has been telling the story of my progress.

My mission in life, under the umbrella of my organization “About And For Sustainability”, is to inspire, empower and support people and their work in this field, therefore creating this series was a no brainer. It brings value to those that have asked these questions and others that have not asked anything else directly, individuals that want to learn and grow in this life giving work. The truth is, I have worked on a plan and curriculum for a series on these subjects for close to a decade; yet, because I was using most of my time to apply the concepts in my career and personal life, I never got around to sharing the lessons in a more structured way. I now do it because I discovered there is a need for this type of practical information for those that want to step into or take this type of work to the next level.

The first chapter/episode was streamed live on instagram on the day of my decision, on August 20th. What follows is a transcript with extra information and details (the video got lost).

I am sharing this short series freely online for a limited time only. Its contents will be incorporated in a 1 year long course to train and help people step into leadership and get their regenerative and sustainability based projects, businesses and careers going and to the next level. The course is entitled “Regenerative Leadership - knowledge, skills, values and attitudes conducive to thriving careers that better the world”. In the meantime, here is the recap of the first chapter/episode of this FREE SERIES:

August 10th, 2019

8/10/2019

ENLIGHTENED SELF-INTEREST
by Lucian Toma

Would you rather forecast or create the future? ~ Author Unknown

THE AWAKENING

10 years ago, while I was studying Sustainable Development in a masters Program in Hawaii, I woke up to a persistent and deepening pain for our world. A lot of things that I was studying and most of the news I was turning to were pointing out to a continuously growing ecological and social degradation around the world. I was living a very comfortable and abundant lifestyle at that point, it seemed like these things I was learning about were not effecting me. Yet as I started to pay more attention, I realized that the effects of that ecological and social degradation were around me too. It became clear that the beautiful island of Hawaii was experiencing this also. It occurred to me that poverty, hunger, despair, pollution, deforestation and the likes were not facts just for places like my own ex communist home country or somewhere in the third world. It was happening everywhere around the world. Yes good things were happening too, however at a very close look, the main story of our world was one of continuous degradation, some part of it very obvious to most, but the biggest part of it unseen in the main stream cultural conversations (especially in the developed world).

THE POSSIBILITY

At that point I decided to do something about it. I understood immediately, that this was not a task about building only my own capacity to survive in this world. We and everything else are completely and intricately connected. We are part of a system. When the system is sick and getting worst, no part of it will survive. And I wanted to thrive. That meant that the system had to thrive. So I committed to this mission, you can call it an enlightened self interest - to contribute to creating a different type of world for all to thrive.

In my studies I learned that there were people and organizations out there that were talking about and taking action to regenerate what was degraded and through education and training helping people put systems in place conducive to a regenerative and sustainability based future. Education, training and community learning that provided knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, courage, confidence and hope to create health, abundance, peace, to meet human needs while also healing, enhancing and sustaining ecosystems health. I knew immediately that through this type of approach, engaging in conscious, intentional and continuous learning and doing in community, a more beautiful world was possible.

July 22nd, 2019

7/22/2019

PERMACULTURE GRADUATE SPOTLIGHT: MACKENZIE
by Lucian Toma

"Opportunities matter, commitment is key." ~ Author Unknown

Meet Mackenzie our new Permaculture Course Coordinator at the San Clemente Homestead. It has been so amazing to see her fast and beautiful growth since we met her first. She graduated our Permaculture Design Certification Course in Summer of 2018. She followed up with completing our Bee Guardians Apprenticeship that Winter. Since then she stepped right into regenerative entrepreneurship and leadership in the community. Currently, Mackenzie is rescuing and relocating bees and creating small batches of homemade bee and herbal based medicine with her new adventure that she named Bee Happy Botanicals. Besides being an avid beekeeper, Mackenzie is a stellar vegan chef and events designer.

July 12th, 2019

7/12/2019

THE NEW FARM, A FEW PERMACULTURE PRINCIPLES AND A SCHOLARSHIP AWARDED
by Lucian Toma

"All for one and one for all." ~ Alexandre Dumas

A NEW SPACE TO EXPERIENCE REGENERATION
OF NATURE AND PEOPLE IN ACTION

At the beginning of 2019, after a good while of searching, we found a new and bigger space to expand and improve our work with permaculture, regenerative farming and sustainability education and practice. Together, Anna Maria and I, have been envisioning this space as a “Permaculture and Regenerative Research and Education Farm” since the beginning of 2018. We actually discovered, since being together, that individually we have been dreaming and calling this space and situation into existence for a decade, possibly even more. Once we visited the new space, a 40 acres old ranch in Anza California, we loved it.

What Permaculture is, Who is it for, and What one learns in a design certification course.

1/28/2019

WHAT PERMACULTURE IS, WHO IS IT FOR, AND WHAT ONE LEARNS IN A DESIGN CERTIFICATION COURSE.

An Intro by Lucian Toma - founder of About And For Sustainability & Main Permaculture Course Instructor

In our work, with About And For Sustainability, reEarth Consulting, The Honey Bee Hub, Terra Livre, Cultivate Together, Sustridge Sustainability Consulting, at The Ecology Center, and with many other businesses and organizations we are involved with, we design, develop and implement regenerative solutions for complex problems in our shared environments and communities.

December 21st, 2018

12/21/2018

OUR 2018 IMPACT REPORT
WITH A VISION TO REGENERATE AND BUILD SUSTAINABILITY
IN OUR SHARED ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNITY

CREATING POSIBILLITIES WITH PERMACULTURE

8/15/2018

ALL COMMUNITY INVITED
PERMACULTURE DESIGN CERTIFICATION COURSE
GRADUATES PRESENTATIONS

We believe that a regenerative and sustainable future for all to enjoy is possible. We believe that we can achieve a healthy, abundant, resilient, peaceful, equitable and beautiful world together. We believe we can achieve this through education about and for sustainability, about how our nature and shared environment works, and about how we can work with it as a community. We believe that permaculture is a big part of that education.