Permi revolution dressed in a suit and tie

The end of the Financial Permaculture course in Hohenwald, TN last week was quite an event.

It is not often that you see the convergence of Finance and Permaculture
in an intentionally designed forum. More often than not the two are
butting heads and pointing fingers.

It is also not often that Permaculture enters the mainstream, dressed in a suit and tie (in the US at least), and designs are presented to State Senators, representatives from the USDA and prominent business people. Less often still is an event co-designed by a group of powerful local women who call in a group of international supporters to help pull things off (who happen to be, for the most part male). And rarest of all is a permaculture design that is lauded by those city and state officials
in attendance as a "well articulated vision for where we need to be
going". This was quite an event indeed.

Panelists in attendance included:
Sen. Doug Jackson, Tennessee State Senator
Rep. Joey Hensley, State Representative
Robbie Moore, Bank of Lewis County
Tracy Lomax, South Community Bank
Becky Newbold, Lewis County Herold
Kyle Holmberg, Dept of Agriculture
Faye Rodgers, USDA Rural Development

and a host of other local and regional leaders.

The panelists saw and heard presentations on four business plans that
focused on meeting the needs of the local community in a sustainable
and social responsible manner. Those businesses were: Green Business
Incubation, Sonnenschein Energy Farm, Community Kitchen, and a
Cooperative Building Supply store.
The business plans for all of the proposed businesses are available on the financial permaculture wiki

And now Financial Permaculture is enjoying quite the revival as it spins and echos around the Internet. Following its trail I ran across such amazing and regenerative ideas as Peer 2 Peer computing and economics, a recently won Bucky Fuller Award. These echos are really strong, independent and vibrant bids for planetary regeneration, and the overlap and interconnection shows that the world is getting smaller and even six degrees might not separate Kevin Bacon from a permaculturist for long, and small towns like Hohenwald Tennessee and Totnes England are bounding out ahead to show us a path towards grassroots solutions to our most deeply rooted environmental and social issues

ahum...well stirring (and confusing) prose aside...as one of the organizers, I am very happy with the way things turned out during our financial permaculture course. There will be re-evaluation and re-design to be sure...but what a stunning and bold success!

Kudos to the Financial Permaculture Steering Committee and all the folks involved in making it a success.

Re-published at the Financial Permaculture Blog