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KPFK Fund Drive Day 10

This Land is Our Land: The Fight To Reclaim the Commons

Everywhere we look there is corporate control of American lives, from the private stranglehold of our food systems, to the privatization of the internet. A brand new documentary released earlier this month by the Media Education Foundation called “This Land is Our Land”, makes the case for reclaiming The Commons, and awakens audiences to what we are losing as ideas, and even the air we breathe and the water we drink, become the private property of corporations. This Land is Our Land: The Fight to Reclaim the Commons, is narrated by David Bollier author, blogger, and activist for commons based policy. The film gives a history of the commons in the United States and explains how values shifted and a movement to privatize everything from medical research to natural resources overtook our nation. Finally, the film offers examples of ways people around the world, and here at home, are reclaiming the commons.

Permaculture

In the 1970s, Australian ecologists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren pioneered the idea of permaculture at the University of Tasmania. Permaculture, a combination of the words “permanent” and “agriculture”, focuses on the relationships between deep ecology, landscape architecture and agriculture. Permaculture practitioners try to minimize their ecological impact by living on farms and in homes that produce zero waste, do not depend on fossil fuels or toxic chemicals to function, and often mimic surrounding ecosystems in form and function. Since its inception thirty years ago, permaculture has skyrocketed in popularity in Los Angeles. The LA Eco-Village, founded in 1993, is an example of a community that has radically been transformed by the principles of permaculture. The Village, which spans across areas in East Hollywood and Koreatown, is a working-class neighborhood that participates in food co-ops and provides classes on green gardening and sustainable business practices.

Larry Santoyo, a land-use planner, business consultant and protégé of Bill Mollison, has been teaching courses since the 1980s at universities and in communities around the world. Santoyo is currently Vice President of the Permaculture Institute, Co-Director of the Terra Foundation and the founder of the Microvillage Network. His forthcoming book is called “Permaculture for Humanity”.

Find out more about Santoyo’s work at www.earthflow.com.

Special thanks to Larry Santoyo for donating courses in Permaculture Design to KPFK!

Thank You Gifts:

This Land is Our Land DVD – $120

Call 818-985-KPFK (5735) or visit www.kpfk.org to make a pledge.