BD Now! Podcast Episode 025, Toby Hemenway, Permaculturist, Author of "Permaculture City"

Biodynamics Now! Investigative Farming and Restorative Nutrition Podcast

Welcome to episode 25 of the Biodynamics Now! Podcast. Our guest today is Toby Hemenway, one of the leading practitioners and teachers of permaculture design in America.

Toby Hemenway is the author of Gaia’s Garden the first major North American book on permaculture, which was published by Chelsea Green in 2009. His most recent book is The Permaculture City, is also published by Chelsea Green.

The Permaculture City provides a new way of thinking about urban living, with practical examples for creating abundant food, energy security, close-knit communities, local and meaningful livelihoods, and sustainable policies in our cities and towns. The same nature-based approach that a good permaculturist uses so beautifully for growing food—connecting the pieces of the landscape together in harmonious ways—applies perfectly to many of our other needs. Toby illuminates a new way forward through examples of edge-pushing innovations, along with a deeply holistic conceptual framework for our cities, towns, and suburbs.

The show notes for today's conversation are at bdnow.org

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Toby Hemenway

After obtaining a degree in biology from Tufts University, Toby worked for many years as a researcher in genetics and immunology, first in academic laboratories at Harvard and the University of Washington in Seattle, and then at Immunex, a major medical biotech company. At about the time he was growing dissatisfied with the direction biotechnology was taking, he discovered permaculture, a design approach based on ecological principles that creates sustainable landscapes, homes, and workplaces. A career change followed, and Toby and his wife spent ten years creating a rural permaculture site in southern Oregon. He was associate editor of Permaculture Activist, a journal of ecological design and sustainable culture, from 1999 to 2004. He teaches permaculture and consults and lectures on ecological design throughout the country. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Whole Earth Review, Natural Home, and Kitchen Gardener. He is available for workshops, lectures, and consulting in ecological design.

Visit his web site at www.patternliteracy.com