La Ancla ••• Ventura, California

somewhere between madmax and ecotopia is la ancla, an urban sustainability project in ventura, california's la avenida neighborhood. we have a 1/5 acre of land five minutes from the ocean, 3 cottages and an intense passion for laughter, nature, and living in harmony with each other and the earth. we believe it is possible to live well in a beautiful place with a small ecological footprint while not isolating ourselves from economic and cultural resources of the city.

Saturday, June 5, 2010

because when i hear the word permaculture, i shouldn't have to reach for my wallet


I spend a lot of time in "bad" parts of the region. Compton. Watts. Inglewood. San Fernando. East LA. Montebello. And everywhere I go there are little gardens tended by recently arrived mexican immigrants and withered old black women. There is a place in compton where there is a volunteer papaya tree 14' high with six whorls of orange papayas on it growing out of the crack of a housing project and places in south central where black men with southern drawls maintain horse corrals and grow corn a block off the 110 in between trucking company warehouses. there are little alley plots all over oxnard and ventura where people have chickens and grow epazote for dinner.

this is the past, present and future of sustainability: health, food and work without pretensions. it's too bad that most of permaculture scene in the region seems to be composed of twats selling $2,000 permaculture design courses to the type of over privileged yuppies who collect sustainable lifestyle choices like old generals collect medals.

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