Testimonials

As a wide-eyed 20 year old on a gap year before I started my undergraduate studies at Mount Holyoke College, I found myself interning for Lonnie Gamble during the summer of 2000. My experience has deeply impacted my life in ways that I cannot fully explain but I'm going to try. Offering a combination of hands-on experiential learning and opportunities for intern directed research, my time on the farm challenged and nurtured me. I was exposed to so many new concepts, ideas and thoughts. Furthermore, I was able to experience most of them on a practical level and in lived sense. In short, I was able to really connect with a sense of purpose and hope that has an continues to sustain me. I returned two years later to conduct my senior project research, I also went on to receive a Permaculture Design Certificate from La'akea Gardens in Hawai'i. I am currently working as an outreach coordinator with the nation's largest community gardening program called Greenthumb in NYC. I am currently in the process of working with a group of partners to create an urban farm school right here in the city. This project reflects the depths and reach of my time in Fairfield. For that and more, I am truly grateful. 
-- Bilen “Beej”  Berhanu, Ethiopia, Intern Class of 2000 
 

Once...[you take a permaculture] course, there's no going back. Learning about Permaculture is like having children. You're pretty much the same, it's just that your entire viewpoint is turned a few degrees toward really wanting a different and better future. It also gives you the the tools you need to shape that future. Thankfully you can do small things every day until they become a big thing. Brian's yard taught me that. You don't have to have a million dollars and a year free just to make a huge positive change in the world, little things done constantly create the greatest impact. Just know that having the knowledge to change the world is risky, because you're going to want to. I can never look at grass the same way again.
-- Alex Hogg, Davenport, IA, PDC Class of 2008 
 

Being an intern here in Fairfield has made an incredible difference in my life. I feel more at home in the world, more in my place, than I ever have. I can no longer see the world as a place of scarcity, where resources are jealously coveted. I now see abundance everywhere; in the sun, wind, waters, forests, and in each other. I no longer see work as something apart from life; as toil or drudgery. I now see vocations, life works; where people express who they are within the greater circle of life. Through the unending support and enthusiasm of the friends and teachers that I've met here, education has taken on a new significance in my life. Through studying the knowledge and skills to harvest energy from the sun, wind, and plantlife around us, establishing gardens and nut trees, and plumbing up rainwater and solar hot water systems, a new world is opening up before me. It really is amazing to imagine how these ways could easily apply in our towns and cities.Imagine schools where students grow gardens together and eat nutritious food for lunch time, and water the garden with rainwater caught off the roof. Imagine they are taught that their leftover food is not waste, but nourishment for the soil and future food. What will this teach them about things like working together, food and nutrition, and what they can accomplish with a little effort? I can see towns that grow their own timber in well stewarded food, medicine, and fuel forests and harvest electricity from the sun's rays.  When the the different areas of study I have engaged in during this internship combine and work together, I see an alchemy for transforming our world into a very, very nice place. And I now see that creating an abundant, creative society that lives in harmony with the natural world is not only possible, but truly quite an easy transition if we just choose it to be. This internship has definitely given me a great vision.
-- Brian Robbins, Intern 2004-05

Before coming down to Fairfield for the Big Green Summer Program I had not a clue as to what I was going to do after college. For three years now I have been studying environmental related issues, volunteering, gaining experience in community activism, and teaching people about their responsibility to the environment. Not wanting a career in politics, or a life dependent upon transportation and corporate America, but still wanting to pursue my passion with helping the environment and making social change, I decided that I needed to empower myself with the knowledge of permaculture and the vast realm of topics that it encompasses. Looking to BGS for help, everything that I could have ever imagined, and much, much more has been provided to me. Some people are lucky to have one life changing experience by my age, but this summer, I’ve had countless experiences that have opened my eyes and expanded my mind.   Who would have thought that all the things that one needs to life a happy, healthy life can be obtained by simply harnessing the abundance of the Earth? Who would have thought that it’s possible to live a meaningful life on the land in Iowa when the landscape is dominated and raped by conventional monoculture? By learning how to make shelter out of local, natural materials, growing my own fresh, organic food in my backyard, catching the abundant rainfall off my roof, and by harnessing the sun and wind for all my electrical needs, and by experiencing and being exposed to all the artisan craft and food markets that exist in Iowa, I know have the foundation and inspiration to escape the cyclic materialistic culture of today, and to design and create a life that blows sustainability out of the water. This summer I’ve been surrounded by amazing people that have grown to become my close friends as well as mentors that have become akin to family.  So what’s next for me? After I finish my last year at the University of Iowa I plan not to go into graduate school as I once thought, but rather begin a new life that full of trades and vocations. Starting with either Oregon or Colorado, I plan to study natural building so that I can help people in Iowa build affordable homes under $10,000. When winter rolls around, I will link up with my teachers in either Mexico, Costa Rica, or Nicaragua to work on evolving permaculture projects. Then as the years pass, I will continue to work and live in Iowa with like minded individuals in organic farming, while still having time to travel in the cold season to help others around the world. As you can see, I have been exposed to a vast world of possibilities, and the beautiful thing about it is that anyone can have the experience as I. The world is changing and the time to empower yourself is now, the education and experience you will gain with the folks as Big Green Summer is priceless. Take a summer off from work, put off your vacation, and get yourself down to Fairfield!
-- Kyle Sieck, PDC Class of 2007

I feel permaculture design is the most important idea to have arisen in the last century in response to humanity’s abuse of fossil fuels and exploitation of plants and animals. Although the term permaculture is a recent invention - the concepts have existed for millenia. For most of human history small scale societies have practiced Permaculture by using common sense. Permaculture relies on an ethic of: care for the earth, care for people and sharing of surplus. Although many scholars are not comfortable with the idea of the “ecological savage” - the vast majority of our ancestry lived with an intimate knowledge of their surroundings, a deep connection to the earth as well as knowledge of their place with in the biome.

Permaculture is a discipline that strives to apply an intimate knowledge of nature to modern human lives in order to live in balance with nature. Permaculture is the creation of human habitats that have the stability, diversity, and resilience of natural systems. As threads in the web of life, our species must return to a balanced way of living so that human life will continue for future generations.

Permaculture exists where humans strive to create regenerative, often edible, landscapes. William McDonough further illuminates Permaculture principles with the ideas of: “eliminating the concept of waste” and “living off of current solar income.”  In a practical sense, this means that the by-products of one system are an inputs to another: waste is food for other creatures.  Kitchen scraps can become fertile soil -- bath water can be used for gardening. Living on current solar income means designing habitats that take advantage of the solar energy delivered to our planet every day. Using current solar energy as opposed to fossil fuels is feasible, economical and effective. With current technology and science, permaculture offers solutions for how humanity can enjoy an abundant life on our mother earth.

Imagine: all the food you eat, year round, could be grown or raised in yours own garden -- or a neighbor’s garden using well designed green houses.  Imagine public parks filled with fruit and nut trees, vegetables, medicinal herbs and berry bushes. Each home can receive all of the energy it needs from the sun and wind.  Each home could treat its own waste water.  If such a vision were manifest, every small town in America could be a re-creation of the Garden of Eden. There would be no need to support tyrants or wage war for oil in the Middle East.  United States industry could be used to build energy efficient cars, solar panels and other tools to sell abroad. Local energy industries would provide thousands of jobs and prevent both the loss of U.S. jobs as they are sent overseas with capital leaving the communities which produced it.  Applying permaculture principles, this vision could become reality -- the above examples are all practical, easily accomplished and profitable.
 
 -- Avi Pogel, Intern 2006