Confrontation of the criminal class responsible for the corporate coup of the US, is vital and long overdue. But there is also a need to take responsibility and design intelligent, local strategies, to prevent the same problems of scale from repeating themselves. The notion of self sufficiency is key. We can only properly protest something, when we have reduced our dependancy on it. Permaculture offers a vast resource of practical solutions for sustainable, self sufficient living. Permies were sure not to miss the exciting opportunity to share their knowledge with those who can use it most.
Mobile Design Lab (mobiledesignlab.org) is on the ground at Occupy Wall Street, where they have built working systems, offer Permaculture workshops and share their knowledge… all for free! They are doing great service, simply by being on the ground at the Occupy Movement, but especially for making it more self sufficient and for sharing their knowledge!
The plan to evict the 99% from Zuccotti Park, which was heroically resisted on the 14th of October, was proposed by Bloomberg under the premise of ‘cleanup.’ The 99% correctly recognized the hidden tactic, and thousands poured into the park in the early hours of last Friday morning, to make a stand. The ‘cleanup’ in question was meant, in part, to allow Bloomberg to destroy the Greywater systems that have been installed by Mobile Design Lab.
Greywater
Greywater is water that has been used, then discarded by human households and businesses. Instead of letting it run down the drain, it can easily be filtered onsite. It can then be used immediately, for example for irrigation. If Greywater is not separated and filtered, it is combined with other sewage (blackwater), where it becomes exposed to 
contaminants which can no longer easily be filtered onsite (Greywater is created by doing the dishes, taking a bath or doing laundry. Water used to flush the toilet is not greywater!)
The benefits of ‘recycling’ greywater onsite are far reaching. Every household can take advantage, by collecting greywater seperately. It is a huge waste, that 70 – 90 % of water used by households is effectively contaminated after it is disposed of, by combining it with sewage. Thanks to Mobile Design Lab, the OWS kitchens at Zuccotti feauture a greywater system.
In the image to the left, a drum is being prepared for a biofilter, using wood chips to separate food and oil from the greywater produced by the OWS kitchen. The biofilter can be seen at work in the image above.
Seed Bombs! Looking for a way to combine Taking a Walk / Beautifying your area / Promoting biodiversity? Seed Bombs away! Below are a few images of the totally free seed bomb workshops Mobile Design Lab are offering. For a guide to Seed Bombs, visit: guerrillagardening.org
Below is a map of Zuccotti, with a design for the park encampment. Mobile Design Lab have been in contact with a lawyer, concerning the legality of collecting human fecal matter at the park, for composting purposes (humanure)! They report the lawyer has confirmed the legality of the proposal. This great initiative will be another concrete way to reduce the encampment’s foot print, and produce some rich soil!
Time’s Up (times-up.org), a NYC based group for promoting sustainability and reducing toxicity in the City, has provided OWS with a peddle powered battery recharging station. Many more to come! Thank you Time’s Up!
The OWS Sustainability Group Table, hand built with materials supplied by the NYC trash network.
Updated for October 29 2011, in response to the great article published by CampusProgress.org
I can’t express how happy it makes me to learn that the implementation of sustainability and permaculture principles is spreading to many Occupy encampments –and spreading with the same momentum as the Occupy Movement itself.
Many of the Occupy encampments have set up committees to analyze their own environmental impact, and conceive of practical solutions. Since Mobile Design Lab first installed a grey water system (more below), sustainability committees in different parts of the country have introduced peddle powered generators, solar panels, bike sharing programs and permaculture workshops. There are also pottery classes, as part of an effort to reduce waste in the form of discarded Styrofoam. There are even long term projects, such as composting and gardening.
What is happening is bigger than Permaculture, even bigger than Sustainability: it is real Democracy. OWS is proving that we, the 99%, are perfectly capable of creating our own, truly democratic systems. We are very efficient when it comes to getting things done, when we decide to take care of business ourselves. We are proving that horizontal organization works great. Change doesn’t need to be squeezed through a hierarchical bottleneck; nor does it need to trickle down to us, we can do it together.
The way in which OWS is organizing itself renders the notion of helplessly depending on elected officials, to take care of matters on our behalf, simply laughable. A month and a half ago, the impediments to democracy – the lobbying and beaurocracy – were a maddening quagmire. Just 6 weeks later, the wind in our sails, we are putting that impasse behind us. We have discovered how to inspire each other internationally, while creating pockets of local democracy.
Many see OWS as nothing more than a platform from which to negotiate. As if we have taken the streets and squares hostage, to be released as soon as our demands are met. This is why so many people keep suggesting that OWS should define it’s demands. I think this mentality lacks vision. Worse yet, it somewhat legitimizes the SWAT team style raids we just witnessed in Oakland. OWS is not about negotiating the terms of partial inclusion, in exchange for our silence and invisibility. It’s about refusing to be complicit in a corrupt system, and proving that we can organize ourselves, to create viable alternatives. It is about creating our own democracy, not about cutting a deal with criminals – no matter what they offer.
The goal of OWS should be to grow, while reducing dependency on destructive institutions. The goal should be to create a sustainable, permanent, parallel economy, for us by us. To create an alternative, in which it’s possible to exist without automatically being complicit – because the truth is, most of the 99% has been overwhelmingly complicit. We have fed our money to the Zombie Banks, to the Pharma Drug Lords, to the GMO Mafia, to the Insurance Cartels, to the Walmarts, the McDonalds – we allow the corporate media to cast it’s spell on us. Even before we realized we were in crisis, the 99% had a long standing negative savings rate.
There is no need to limit ourselves to making demands, and there never should be. Of course we should put all the pressure we can on those who are stealing and destroying our Commons. But we should also continue to build on the alternative that is emerging, by establishing our own local, democratic organizations. We can certainly put pressure on unsustainable industries – by protesting and sanctioning them – but we don’t need to focus exclusively on negotiating with them. After all it is not us, it is the criminal class of corporatists who have gradually occupied our society. The stronger, and more independent our networks are, the stronger our negotiating position, the greater our leverage.
The permaculture movement has been developing the strategies needed to become self-sufficient since the 70′s, and is of immeasurable value to those who are ready to stop waiting for politicians to solve the problems they have either created or allowed, and take back control.
♥
Bill Mollison Permaculture Design Course 1983
“Hunger is rising, absolute hunger is rising, food’s badly distributed, not distributed at all often. The waste of food, the whole deal of it….its eh, a shocking situation, it’s just inhuman. It’s what nobody would intend, and somehow what we’ve arrived at, and we arrived at it by the erection of financial structures, totally divorced from resources. So that the fiscal economy has been a runaway system. We’ve gotta tackle that head on. That is, what I’m trying to tell you, it’s no good any longer just being an organic gardener or farmer, we have to be effective financial and political units. And we’re gonna have to face that. Just as it was very hard for us to learn to garden, then hard for us to learn to collect seeds, once the multinationals took over the open-pollinated seed market; we had to become seed growers. Now its very difficult, we have to become bankers.There’s no good trying to pretend we don’t have to. We can run away to the bush, build a mud hut and grow ducks in the garden, it’s not gonna do it. The coals will still be burnt, the land will still be eroded, and the forests will still be cleared for newsprint if we run away to the bush. So, there’s no escape, we’ve just gotta stop running away, stay where we are and start to face up and fight.”
Permaculture is the Set of Tools we will Need for, during, and after the Great Transition. Let Mother Nature find You Again, Plant a Tree, Compost and Recycle!
Go Urban Permaculture!!!!
Pingback: » Permaculture at Occupy Wall Street The 99% Economy
The three sisters are hard corn, shelling beans and winter squash. These are the survival guild or group of plants that can hep you live through times without freezing, canning, dehydrating, etc. You just bring the finished plants inside and keep dry, in shade, hung up or stored and eat them as needed. See ThreeSistersPlanting.info
Feed ALL children Educate ALL people FOOD CEREMONIES generate PEACEFUL COMMUNICATION Gather in fields: the congregation. Plant seeds: the ceremony. PRAY during the growing/watering. Share WORLDWIDE: the communion.
Our right is to establish ideal human habitat; our DUTY for 7 generations. ALL kept as PUBLIC BENEFIT controlled only by real HUMANS, on GAIA our living planet. peace and planting our true way of life. JOIN EACH OTHER !
WE fo’ward in dis generation, triumphantly!
Dear Stella Jane,
Thank you, sister. This is exactly the constructive, concrete guidance I needed.
in Unity,
ktb
We wish to support Occupy Wall Street with a donation. How can we do it, please.
Well… bless you both David and Jeannie
! I personally am not involved with any aspect of fundraising, but if you follow this link you will find several options: http://occupywallst.org/donate/
As you posted the question on the permaculture page, I assume the possibility you may want to support sustainability oriented aspects of OWS? In that case you may want to make contact with the Sustainability working group of Occupy Wall Street: http://www.nycga.net/groups/sustainability/
Here is another page about different ways to help: http://www.nycga.net/how-to-help/
I will do some more research on the ways to support OWS, and will add links to the homepage.
Hello Fellow Naturalist:) I’m so Happy the New Revolution is happening, and continuing! I’m a California native, who is spreading the Detailed Facts of Jets and Airplanes Spraying Harmful Emissions in our Beautiful Blue Sky’s, not only in the USA, but around the world! Start locally, with your county Board of Supervisors, for a No Fly Zone Ordinance Resolution. Citizens don’t realize, that as Rightful USA Citizens, we have the Power, and Legal Right, to not only Request this Resolution, but have done!!! Update yourself at CaliforniaSkyWatch.com. Power to the People and Wildlife!!
OMG…finally someone actually saying something about Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering (besides myself)
I have signs in my car windows and taped to the back of my truck just to let the uninformed know. It’s amazing how few ppl know what is going on right over their heads!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi M A, Only about 10% of the Earth’s population (including wildlife:), know of this slow Genocide that these jet emissions are doing to all of life. It started in 1989, in Southern California, when David B. Chang & I Fu Shih, (hhmm,I wonder where they’re from?), were granted a patent for stratospheric Welsbach seeding for reduction of global warming! I have a copy of the six page text. The materials and chemicals used are practically in all living things now! (oxides of metals, aluminum, thorium, etc.) And it even states, in the text, that a net Increase in global warming can happen! Our rights have been so violated! But remember, we still do have the Right of a No-Fly-Zone! (except of course, for passenger/commercial jets, medical/fire planes & helicopters & local pilots that just want to cruise:) The Federal Aviation Authorities must give this Ordinance Resolution for the people! Update yourself at Carnicom.com, too! Because it’s really all of the above – with weather modification, geo engineering, testing and experimenting with warfare, including radiation, probably pharmaceutical corporations, etc. Yes, a long list! My personal thoughts are to: Live Like Forever and Truth will Endeavor! Live your Life like a Never Ending Movie! It’s the enemy that makes you old…The Power of Youth! Remember the Kid’s ~ And the Godly creatures ~ Thank You for sharing *
Hi We are in the high mountains of northern spain where the crystal mountain streams tumble through our farm and the satin blue skys go on forever. We watch the sky every day as mountain weather can be harsh, changeable and dramatic. Almost every day this year starting in spring our lovely shys have been vandalized by the chemtrails in grid and criss cross patterens. They spread out join up and the tempreture drops and our sloar power shuts down ( an old system). However they have also changed in the last few months, they are heavier and lower and do not follow normal commercial flight routes. Previously we had only one or two aircraft flight paths in summer in our area, I am very sensitive to chemicals as I live in the fresh air and now do not have much to do with them, I can taste the chemicals in the air. I have also noticed that many people I know this year have suffered from a sort of rash or cold sores around thier noses sore eyes and allergies, also many many firnds have had nausia and vertigo. I belive these are symptons of toxic air when they are spaying even inside the house. I am a farmer and artist, not a scientist and this is the first mail I have ever written to anyone. What can we do I have to say I am quite frightened by the anormaty of this and the expence of the scale makes it obvious theat we are looking at a huge international plote that if it were benine would be discussed, openly debated and voted for.
Why are people not looking up! It is so big why are we just sitting down here and letting them do it? Please excuse my spelling. regards debi ginero
It’s the most natural fit in the world, but fantastic to see the concept of sustainable food as a focus for Occupy Wall Street. A huge chunk of the 99% spending goes for food and the corporate welfare plus loss of individual rights that are part of Monsanto’s stealth gmo market is a place where we can not only free ourselves from the choke hold of corporatism, but help stem the tide of illness and food allergies that these untested seeds of revenue have planted.
Kudos, thanks and big hugs to all the foodies and fact sharing advocates who are helping to encourage the awareness we need for more healthful food and bodies and planet and economy! :~)
This is fine unless you live in an apartment. And how about me? I live in the country and have always had a garden but over the last 10 years Stratospheric Aerosol Geoengineering has so limited sunlight, and caused low temperatures that I’m no longer “able” to grow enough food for just ONE person!!!!!
Not enugh sunlight…..I did everything short of knitting sweaters for my tomatoes and cucumbers this year (because the weather would dip into the 30s some nights all summer long) and still they “failed to thrive” and produced little, the (few) green tomatoes (had to be brought in green and rotted before they could ripen), and 4 small cucumbers large enough to eat, the rest were so tiny, like worms, and never grew.
http://www.agriculturedefensecoalition.org/?q=sunlight
HI MA, Great to Hear you are growing your own food! Bummer about the changing conditions, there are some strategies you can employ to increase the chances of your veggies growing in cold conditions, if you are interested there’s a great book by Darrell Frey called “Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm” Where he discusses different ways to deal with low light and cold. Hope it helps! Good Luck and Keep Doing the Good Stuff!!
Great site Ma! thanks..
http://www.agriculturedefensecoalition.org/?q=sunlight
Pingback: Repurposing & Permaculture Ideas « The EssentiaList
Time to get off the couch and on the band wagon, teach what it takes to survive without the power grid, like how to save energy (turn off lights behind you kids), water, money, how to grow our own food and to become a self providing family/nation again. The starting gun has been shot, why are most/we still standing around? Blessings/Namaste
WHY ‘OCCUPY’ PUBLIC PARKS & SHORELINES For Honest Needs & Goals now?
We’re Cooperating Together for Our deep Healthy Needs in Stressed, ‘Poor & Polluted Neighborhoods? For Social Equality honest working to improve our health & peace.
I’ve attended 3 Occupy sites meetings in our town with dozens to 100s seeking new real democratic ways of cooperating together to fill our needs & protest the current economic corruption we all know is happening in US. Our ‘Occupy’ movement is growing so fast we can’t track it all, even with Internet connecting us in many ways from local networks to national & global reach. Many or our ‘Occupy’ places meetings, camps & co-op services are like we do at free national & Local natural ‘Rainbow Family Gatherings of living Light.
The National & Global voluntary protesting & ‘Occupy’ Public Places in cities has grown faster nationally than any movement since anti- Vietnam War movement in late 60s. Why agree & occupy because we all know that banksters are stealing the money from taxes & billions in profits to use in secret world war games & global economic control tactics. They depend on our brainwashing for needing junk food, hi tech & toxic living treats, with protection from crime (the poor, abused & angry) for the rich owners.
This new ‘Occupy’ cities a mostly ‘peaceful movement’ also stems from ‘Greenham’ Common’ women’s cooperative peaceful camping ‘occupation’ for months around a big military base in UK decades ago by mostly women agreeing on their occupying land, minimal needs, peaceful goals & tactics, with simple (imported) life-supports for camping out by cooperating daily in dozens of ways. Of course they debated & argued to reach agreements & consensus about proceeding in peace.
Each new ‘Occupy’ camp, march & protest in US cities has a local base of agreement, & many wildly creative & some conflicts, we try to agree & cooperate together. But the element of anarchy freedom pervades & becomes angry protest sometimes. 1000s of abused suffering & mad people lash out at authorities now, after suffering abuse before in families & groups. Our ‘Occupy’ demonstration & camps stem over a century of with mass protests & even shooting & killing by police, & assassins, even burning homeless & jobless camps in US 1930s depression.
Why Occupy our parks & shorelines seem obvious to us simple living, jobless & homeless people needing to cooperate, protest the current war economy & reduce our consuming, wasteful & sickening lifestyle needs. So many public parks are perfect place in our neighborhoods to meet, organize & camp out for continuing presence, grouping & cooperating together how-ever we agree on ways to reach our goals. So being in parks we simplify our natural daily needs by sharing food, space, tools & children together, like a cooperative portable village. Its fun consciously learning showing how simple we can live together with common needs, goals & respect for our innate freedoms & equality. But most American don’t know what real simple equality is here now, like civil rights’ an abstract need, or protesting for something we lost, but unaware of practicing in families, schools business & military under authority structures & orders to obey or else. Both majority & consensus work in democratic meetings making agreements to cooperate, having social equality, respect &honest feedback for changing them as needed & agreed on by our majority.
Also we’re learning how mass media from phones to TV to Internet all influence us to not cooperate face to face. But our Occupy movement is exception to meet & inspire us together, discussing, agreeing & cooperating on shared needs goals, tactics way to realize our potentials now. Were recreating the American dream of local hand, hearts & heads communicating openly, deeply trusting our truth will prevails as we recognize natural ways, needs & instincts together. So of like natural scouts camping out but more open to cooperating from organized present public dialog toward filling our needs equally.
We’re using technology to help us, but learned (thanx McLuhan) that mass media expands & restricts our natural needs for communicating together here now cooperating as we agree on needs. Technology also uses up, wastes & trashed our natural environment, so we need more simple organic ways of meting, growing food, getting water & making our shelters simple, easy, strong, portable & comfortable & healthy.
Beside the threat from profitable & toxic waste of our economic structures & taste we’ve grown up under 100 fears of natural, instinct6ual, ope4n & deep communications, nature, people, emotions & germs & dangerous technology. But those normal fears become good habits for protection against fearing 12 epidemic fears of dangers of: bad weather, crime, enemies, accidents, insanity, bacteria, police/arrest, dirt, crying, pain & free public loving. We’ve lost site of & need for natural living in social equality, deep peace, organic health & sharing in cooperative family, schools, business & neighborhoods. So like in 1030s we get a economic disasters, multiple wars, Wall St crimes, diseases, pollution needy poverty & Occupy movement to join, share & wake up our human nature for sharing, with mutual respect now.
Back to public parks & spaces: Occupy is the most usually Peaceful voluntary community action for our civil rights, economic justice & fair & honest government, like our Constitution & Bill of Right demands, works for honest responsibility in governments based on local human need we share openly & fairly. Not the corporate interest in national security’ another double think term for total control with $ as bribe & threats of poverty, foreclosure (stealing homes), bankruptcy & crimes. There’s so many normal crimes against our honest safe & fair democracy now including parents, teachers, & politics & jails punishing people for natural needs, denying civil-rights & fair treatment. However many new Occupy movement groups are working peaceful enuf with respect, equality & agreements with most the police around them. And gaining support, sympathy & help from locals identifying with our goals, needs & ways of demonstrating peacefully, minus a few violent ragers seeking revenge against authorities we can understand, but don’t agree on or approve of hurting others with hate, threats or attacking.
One rather secret dimension is how our economy is out-sourced to China, SE Asia, Korea, Middle east & the 100 military bases in other nations, controlled by the military in those countries. We can ‘t stop that is too far away, so our Occupy movement is raising awareness of democracy in our communities & nationally & globally over the internet. We are so inspired now Occupy is growing faster locally than all the media can report on, with internet connecting us locally also!
In our local Public Parks (our Commons) is the best space for organizing our protests, healthy needs for gathering & sharing resource, even recycling & gardening there. Simple honest local dialog, debating for agreements to cooperate for trusting how gather & sharing how we need now to live in peace, harmony & doing conflict resolution as needed for peacemaking. We also like singing together in groups to opening our hearts agreeing songs as millions do daily, in church & concerts for joy & dancing together & playing with children whose heart & bodies are present with our native instincts to cooperate as we need now & change them. We learn by working & playing together & alone when relaxed in harmony with others & Nature.
Thank you for this blog! I am helping out with Occupy Eugene, OR … we have some pedal power happening, but need a greywater system badly. A big problem we have is keeping the cheese and meat out of the compost. Any thoughts on this? We are composting it off-site, but the community garden we are using for composting insists we keep it free of meat and dairy, justifiably so. Without constant compost policing I am not sure how to accomplish this, besides having a vegan camp, which would be fine with me.
Hi Jeff! Great TO Hear About your activities! To My Knowledge there is no Simple Natural Way to Seperate The MEat and DAiry. I know Meat and Dairy Products Break down more slowly than most other Organic Wastes, If you’re extremely creative you could do something with this
I would create seperate bins, with some way to ENSURE the person tossing their waste KNOWS what they are tossing and In WHich bin they toss it, perhaps this would create The incentive to construct a more elaborate Organic Waste Disposal structure, perhaps one that explains composting, the importnace of giving back to the soil and one that States your Need to Seperate the Meat and Dairy from the Rest. As far as I know antibiotics and hormones decompose and are neutralized like all else in the compost, and the meat and dairy break down into basic organic building blocks as well, what is the reasoning behind keeping the meat and dairy out? Well Hope this helps at all, Good Luck and keep the good work up!!
Not sure how practical it is at your site, but a few chickens in the compost will eliminate all of the meat and cheese very quickly.
Pingback: OWS « La ville résiliente
Pingback: Occupy Big Food
Learning about Homesteading, Permaculture and Herbal Medicine will change the world and help people become more self-sufficient. Way to go!
Pingback: Self-sufficient Wall Street: the beginning of chapter two | Reflections on a Revolution ROAR
Would you guys be interested in working on an ‘Occupy Gardens’ National Day of Action in Spring? Some ideas are already forming. If so, get in touch with OWS Arts & Culture Working Group. You guys are awesome.
Pingback: Permaculture and Wall Street -- We Must Tackle the Runaway Fiscal Economy Head On, "We Must Face Up and Fight" Permaculture Research Institute
Pingback: What We’re Reading: Permaculture at OWS |
I just skimmed through and wish I had seen this discussion when it was active. It sounds as if the grey-water and other permaculture elements were developing very fast at OWS before the city smashed the camp. I hope this activity can resume again (and the camp in general).