Vision
The high institutional and population density of urban areas promotes labor-intensive production methods, community regeneration through alternative methods of employment. The ability to have more farmers per acre permits the kind of management-intensive system that maximizes productivity through close monitoring and good timing throughout the growing season. Increased headcount allows a division of labor to manage diversified production integrated into one system.
Board members: Brian Twyman, George Davis, Dara Clon, Aaron Thomas, Stan Cooper
Mission
The Mission of our organization is demonstration, education, add beautification through New Age methods of Natural Sustainability in the City of Reading.
- Methods that save 90 percent of water compared to the 89 percent loss using soil.
- Methods that don’t use a nutrient solution that has to be dumped every week adding to the pollution of the planet.
We promote a Natural method that uses plain water that never needs to be replaced just added on to. Our Natural methods that allow any regionalized fruit tree or fruiting bush to this area to live through winter in a plain bucket of water. Sunlight is used to move the water in each container without the use of pumps.
Demonstration
- Showing use of Sustainability in Aquaponics:
- 2-2000 gallon Aquaponics systems
- 1000 breeding tilapia fish
- Over 100 fruiting trees and 60 fruiting bushes demonstrating Edible forest garden
- New Age planting systems using recycled plastic containers
Why Food Forest?
The City Park food forests are designed to meet several goals that are universal, and that are specific to us:
- to produce a diverse variety of tropical and local food crops for our co-community members like coffee, banana, papayas and the hottest peppers
- to create wildlife habitat for beneficial insects, pollinators, and song birds
- to provide information of Natural medicines and herb unknown here but commonly grown in our Latian community
- to create places of Spiritual relaxation and visual pleasure ambient humidity and reconnection to Nature
What is Aquaponics?
The most simple definition of Aquaponics is the combination of aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (the soil-less growing of plants) that grows fish and plants together in one integrated system. The fish waste provides an organic food source for the plants, and the plants naturally filter the water for the fish.
The third participants are microbes (nitrifying bacteria). These bacteria convert ammonia from the fish waste first into nitrites, and then into nitrates. Nitrates are the form of nitrogen that plants can uptake and use to grow. Solid fish waste is turned into vermicompost that also acts as food for the plants. In combining both hydroponic and aquaculture systems, aquaponics capitalizes on their benefits, and eliminates the drawbacks of each.
Education
In order to engage, inform, and expose residents to New Age forms of Agriculture possible in our Urban Municipal Environment. Permacultivate’s education model will demonstrate to our residents their economic resilience through the creation of food systems. Community resilience is a measure of the sustained ability of a community to utilize available resources to respond to, withstand, and recover from adverse situations.
Economics
Apart from food security, the stimulus to the local economy and the provision of fresh, superior quality food are good reasons to produce as much food locally as possible. A local food shed system also allows for barter and exchange between involved Community members.
Foodshed
A Foodshed is the geographic location that produces the food for a particular population. The term describes a region where food flows from the area that it is produced to the place where it is consumed, including the land it grows on, the route it travels, the markets it passes through, and the tables it ends up on. Beautification Permacultivate creates programming in the Community that involves and engages them.
Consultation
Permacultivate has demonstrated the ability to direct businesses, municipalities and Communities toward a more comprehensive understanding of sustainability as it impacts their daily lives. Through Permaculture and analysis of natural systems, Permacultivate can direct the best design for our consumers.
Public private partnerships
Community initiated improvement projectsSTAR and certification requirements.
Summer 2017
The Community has come together to improve our public spaces. Three impact points were identified; The Police statue, and 2 locations on the newly established Twilight Boulevard. All plots were cleaned, mulched and flowers were planted in the designated areas. On May 27 2017 over 300 youth were engaged in working on improving City Park. The volunteer group Voice Up organized the engagement of 300 youth volunteers to execute improvement areas in the park. The tree were mulched, the roses were prepped and cleaned out. The 100 year old brick was cleaned and exposed.
Biowarriors Summer Camp Program
This program is free to all Reading City Youth who wish to attend. Every Wednesday Biowarriors will be introduced to Urban Agriculture and taught the basics of Sustainability practices in their environment. Instruction includes the web of food systems, aquaponics and soilless plant systems, economic commerce through food production, history of food production, food justice, food security, Victory Gardens, Rain Water diversion and catchment systems, Composting, soil building, recycling, and food waste collections.
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