Nick Heyming's Posts - Urgent Evoke2024-03-29T14:28:35ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyminghttp://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2209208802?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=2p6lv4973vkir&xn_auth=noEvokation: Gratitude Gardenstag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-08-10:4871302:BlogPost:1535802010-08-10T00:27:06.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
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<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Papyrus;">Gratitude Gardens: Discovering Our Global Heritage</span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The Gratitude Gardens is a global collaborative…</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Papyrus;">Gratitude Gardens: Discovering Our Global Heritage</span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">The Gratitude Gardens is a global collaborative project that will redefine people’s connection with their food, with their culture, with their homes, and with each other. Using online tools such as social networks, wikis, games, apps, widgets, and more, participants will be challenged on multiple levels. They will learn about sustainable growth, explore their culture and their heritage, and compete to share the most inspiring information and create the most exciting projects in their community. <br/></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">For more insight into what a Gratitude Garden can be, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7E3TQ5kOYuI">click on this link to view a short video</a>.<br/></p>
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<p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Papyrus;">The Place:</span></b></p>
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<p>The Gratitude Gardens will be a global network, so much of the 'place' will be virtual. We have already registered <a href="http://www.gratitudegardens.org/">www.gratitudegardens.org</a>, and that will be the location for our online network. This network will be free to use, and will provide mapping functionality for sharing locations, links to resources organized globally, regionally, nationally, and locally, and a seed database through a partnership with groups like <a href="http://www.pfaf.org/">Plants for a Future</a>, <a href="http://www.nativeseeds.org/">Native Seed SEARCH</a>, and <a href="http://www.seedsavers.org/">Seed Savers Exchange</a>. It will also provide participants with profiles that will be linked with widgets to other social networking sites, and will use games and competitions in the form of cross-platform apps to engage new users and generate and rate content.</p>
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<p>Gratitude Gardens will also be physical locations where participants grow heirloom and landrace edible and useful plants. While any garden that a participant dedicates to the project will be a “Gratitude Garden”, members will be challenged to grow native and heirloom stable plants, as well as adapt existing cultivars to their specific climate. These gardens may start as simple vegetable beds or pots of herbs, but over time will transform into living seed banks, community spaces, and social enterprise incubators. Gratitude Gardens will provide raw materials for the enterprises of the founders and their community while safeguarding and adapting precious genetic stock for this and future generations.</p>
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<p>Anyone will be able to plant a garden of any size, but they will all be encouraged to participate online in sharing information and resources before planting so as to ensure that future Gratitude Gardeners will be able to benefit from their efforts.</p>
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<p>The first physical Gratitude Gardens are already being planted across the world:</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> The Growcology Learning Center in Riverside, California, USA</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> OUR Farm in Mexico City, Mexico</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Earthsong Organic Farm in Stuart, Virginia, USA</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Tierra de los Ninos in Lima, Cuzco, and Puerto Maldonado, Peru</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Indlovu, Monwabisi Park, South Africa</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Las Gidi and Lagos, Nigeria</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Kampala, Uganda</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Hangzhou, China</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Nairobi, Kenya</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Taipei, Taiwan</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Edmonton, Alberta, Canada</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> New York City, New York, USA</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Guadalupe Canyon, Mexico</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Butare, Rwanda</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> New Delhi, India</p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·</span></span> Fernando de la Mora, Paraguay</p>
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<p>Some of these are in partnership with existing organizations, many of them are Evokers who are gardening, farming, or just interested in learning more about their culture. Each will provide a glimpse into a completely unique way of cultivating life on this planet.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Papyrus;">The Challenge</span></b></p>
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<p>There are many huge issues facing the world’s food supply, such as the <a href="http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/921">loss of biodiversity in our food production</a> system and piracy or the <a href="http://www.globalissues.org/article/191/food-patents-stealing-indigenous-knowledge">theft of indigenous knowledge</a>. The <a href="http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/geff4.html">long term effects</a> of genetically modified foods have yet to be established, particularly <a href="http://www.globalissues.org/article/194/terminator-technology">terminator genes</a> and traits produced with cellular invasion methods.</p>
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<p>There are many advocates for these issues already, and the Gratitude Gardens don't claim to know the full extent of the problem or replace the efforts of those working on it. However, the one thing that is clear is not enough people are farming sustainably, and many plant cultivars are in danger of dying out. In response to this we've decided to crowd-source the solution and create a global network of people who research their agricultural heritage and then put it into practice.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;" align="center"><b style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt; font-family: Papyrus;">The Idea</span></b></p>
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<p>The project will create a global competition, inspired by Urgent Evoke. There will be several stages to the competition.</p>
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<p><b style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Phase 1</span></b></p>
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<p>Initially, participants will log onto the Gratitude Garden website and create a profile. They will be awarded badges for filling out basic information, but once they start researching local seeds and organizations they will be begin periodic contests.</p>
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<p>Those who find and share information about new strains of plants will share them with the community. Pictures and wiki entries will document their discoveries. Partners at Seed Savers Exchange will help ensure that these valuable genetics will be safeguarded and there will be strict recognition of indigenous intellectual property rights so that their heritage seeds are not patented by third parties.</p>
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<p>Participants will also be encouraged to identify local, national, and regional organizations that support these type of conservation and sustainable agriculture projects. They will post links to websites, addresses and phone numbers so that future aspiring gratitude gardeners can access that information and support and be supported by these groups. Some competitions will involve translating guides and videos into new languages to provide increased access to important information.</p>
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<p>All of this information will be open source, and the quantity and quality of information provided will be assessed by the community in a manner similar to how Urgent Evoke functions. The highest rated content will earn periodic prizes, such as heirloom seeds, books, or seed saving equipment, or cash grants.</p>
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<p><b style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Phase 2</span></b></p>
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<p>While the Beta testing for the first phase is being completed, programmers and game designers will create an online game. This game will be available as an application on leading social networking sites and as a standalone flash game available through the GG website, and will share many design elements with Farmville(FV), Urgent Evoke(UE), and 3<sup>rd</sup> World Farmer(3WF).</p>
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<p>Just as 3WF was designed to “make people think”, the Gratitude Garden game will challenge its players to both think and to <i style="">learn</i>. Challenges will range from planning and planting a “guild” garden to posting pictures of specific varieties growing in one’s community. Much like how UE called upon its participants to find real world collaborators to get points in its game, the GG game will reward players that find inspiring local heroes. In the same way that FV sends status updates to friends on social networking sites, the GG game will share the information that players are learning and generating so that their colleagues and family can take genuine pride in their participation and not just be made aware of their addiction. <span style=""><br/></span></p>
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<p>As challenges are surmounted and prizes awarded, players of the GG game will be creating their profiles on the GG website. The participants in Phase 1 and Phase 2 will be combined into one cohesive virtual community competing for prizes and eventually transitioning to Phase 3.</p>
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<p><b style=""><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Phase 3</span></b></p>
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<p>After doing some research and helping create a resource directory in the virtual community, participants will be challenged to plant individual or community gardens. Not all of the garden must be dedicated to heirloom and landrace seeds, but at least 25% of it must be to qualify for the garden competition.</p>
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<p>On a monthly basis, gardeners will compete for grants from a large grantmaking institution concerned about global and regional hunger. Particularly, areas at risk of losing huge quantities of genetic material such as South Asia and Africa will be eligible to grants from organizations like the Gates or MacArthur Foundations. Monthly cash prizes will go to the best projects to encourage more participation and expansion and outreach. Efforts will be made to make it as meritorious and equitable a system as possible, but participants will be made aware that some targeted grants are only available to certain regions due to the magnitude of their need.</p>
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<p>The process for evaluating projects will be a combination of the rating system of Urgent Evoke and the microfinance system of KIVA. This is where partnerships with local institutions will be essential, as grantmaking and loanmaking institutions are much less likely to support projects that are not tied into their local community. Fortunately, participants in the GG competition will be coached from an early stage on how to identify, share, and support the existing organizations in their region.</p>
<br/>The domain has been registered, and we have a wiki up, but to move forward with the project we need to purchase a professional Ning account and contract a web designer to create the Gratitude Garden website and game. A team of student developers will do much of the back end programming while being coordinated by an experienced application designer. <br/><br/>A portion of initial donations will be set aside for prizes to ensure that even the founding members will be incentivized to participate.
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<p>Our mentor for this project is Nicolas Gorjestani, who pioneered and was Program Director of the World Bank’s Indigenous Knowledge for Development Program. A global thought leader on organizational knowledge and development learning themes Mr. Gorjestani now devotes his time to advising, lecturing and writing on development strategy, knowledge ecology, learning, and innovation<br/>
issues. He is currently a Senior Adviser/Consultant at the World Bank and an Adjunct Professor in Knowledge Ecology at the Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. He is also Director of the Global Indigenous Knowledge and Innovation Partnership’s Secretariat, a recently established advocacy group of former Heads of State and other eminent global personalities to promote the integration of traditional knowledge systems and grassroots innovation in development programs. Mr. Gorjestani's experience will be invaluable in incorporating the Gratitude Gardens into the existing Indigenous Knowledge movements.<br/></p>
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<p><span style="">Thanks to Urgent Evoke and the World Bank for selecting the Gratitude Gardens as a finalist and connecting us with our mentor!<br/></span></p>
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<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/"><img alt="Creative Commons License" style="border-width: 0pt;" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/88x31.png"/></a><br/><span>Gratitude Gardens</span> by <a href="http://www.growcology.com" rel="cc:attributionURL">Growcology</a> is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License</a>.Act 9, Dark Sitetag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-17:4871302:BlogPost:1519222010-05-17T02:08:10.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<p style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211942?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="721"></img></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/riversideemergencydark/">http://sites.google.com/site/riversideemergencydark/</a></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">Here is the site I designed. I'd like to do more with it. I've actually created networking sites for volunteers after disasters, such as Hurricane Camp for alumni of Hands On Disaster Response in Mississippi after Katrina, and helped…</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211942?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://sites.google.com/site/riversideemergencydark/">http://sites.google.com/site/riversideemergencydark/</a></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Here is the site I designed. I'd like to do more with it. I've actually created networking sites for volunteers after disasters, such as Hurricane Camp for alumni of Hands On Disaster Response in Mississippi after Katrina, and helped Burners Without Borders, Grass Roots Disaster Response, and the East Biloxi Coordination and Relief Center. <br/></p>
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<p style="text-align: left;">I think I could do more with the above site, and may work on it some more. The existing Emergency site for the county, <a href="http://www.rvcfire.org/opencms/functions/oes/">http://www.rvcfire.org/opencms/functions/oes/</a> , has some good info, but not as much as it could.<br/></p>Act 8, Indigenous Knowledgetag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-17:4871302:BlogPost:1518992010-05-17T01:38:48.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
I've left this mission till almost last, because traditionally I'm not much of a maker. A doer, yes, but my carpentry, pottery, woodsmithing, and metalworking skills are all sub-par. The best thing I can do is build a computer from component parts, or grow plants.<br></br><br></br>Building a computer didn't seem like an appropriate way of representing indigenous technology, but maybe growing a plant would. Obviously a plant itself isn't durable, but a pot sure is!<br></br><br></br>So I took one of our nicer…
I've left this mission till almost last, because traditionally I'm not much of a maker. A doer, yes, but my carpentry, pottery, woodsmithing, and metalworking skills are all sub-par. The best thing I can do is build a computer from component parts, or grow plants.<br/><br/>Building a computer didn't seem like an appropriate way of representing indigenous technology, but maybe growing a plant would. Obviously a plant itself isn't durable, but a pot sure is!<br/><br/>So I took one of our nicer empty pots and painted some knowledge that I've learned recently: the three sisters guild actually had one more sister - <a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=gxW0MGXha6cC&pg=PA186&lpg=PA186&dq=four+sisters+amaranth&source=bl&ots=w_vf8__cS5&sig=ZrCBMxs4yKLYqIWeNOcTZbVVZ9s&hl=en&ei=Ep3wS7PMO4yksgPSwfTaCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCgQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=four%20sisters%20amaranth&f=false">Amaranth</a>! So I painted the names and drew the seeds next to them on the pot, and planted amaranth in it. I also spread three heirloom varieties of amaranth around our three sisters guild plot, and figured that was the best thing I could do for future generations...<br/><br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2146485928?profile=original"/></p>
<br/>"Third World" Farmertag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-15:4871302:BlogPost:1511572010-05-15T07:59:18.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
Have any of you ever played the game <a href="http://www.3rdworldfarmer.com/">3rd World Farmer</a>? Its a little game someone made "to make you think". In it, you play a poor African family with a few bucks, a barren patch of land, and four options for what to grow (not counting livestock). Your goal is to get "educated", buy off a politician, make money, get a cell phone, and buy a bunch of machines and livestock.<br></br><br></br>And "make you think". Thats why they made the game. Want to know what I…
Have any of you ever played the game <a href="http://www.3rdworldfarmer.com/">3rd World Farmer</a>? Its a little game someone made "to make you think". In it, you play a poor African family with a few bucks, a barren patch of land, and four options for what to grow (not counting livestock). Your goal is to get "educated", buy off a politician, make money, get a cell phone, and buy a bunch of machines and livestock.<br/><br/>And "make you think". Thats why they made the game. Want to know what I think?<br/><br/>What a f-ing joke. <br/><br/>I can't stand that game, even though I've played it all the way through a dozen times and feel dirty each time. The gamer in me can't stand leaving a challenge unbeaten; the rest of me just rankles at every disgusting assumption they make.<br/><br/>For starters, the paternalistic concept. "3rd World" is a BS term from the Cold War.<br/><br/>Its an anachronism. Calling a country "3rd World" is like calling the Czech Republic or Armenia the USSR. Its not accurate, and even back when they were a part of it, they didn't like it and would have rather NOT been called it.<br/><br/>It also implies that we in the "1st World" somehow know better. That because of our gaudy lifestyles, we're happier, or at least have a higher "standard of living". <br/><br/>The whole concept behind 3rd World Farmer is BS. We Westerners look at "poor" subsistence farmers and think we're so superior. Because we've figured out a trick of mother nature, how we can squeeze a few years of unbelievable crop yields out of genetically violated seeds grown with petrochemical fertilizers and systemic poisons. But at what cost? It murders the topsoil, mutilates the genetic biodiversity, and kills off birds, bees, and beneficial insects. We end up with weaker ecosystems, fewer farmers, less options in the store.<br/><br/>So instead of a game that implies the best thing farmers can do is imitate the dying breed of industrial farmers, why not create a game that rediscovers the way that people worked the land around the world in sustainable ways. How is it that the Chinampas and Milpas of Mexico were continuously cultivated for thousands of years with a diverse group of plants and never lost fertility? How were the Inca and Q'ero and Wari and Tiwanaku cultures able to feed more people with more variety of food 500 to 1000 years ago ON THE SAME LAND where they struggle to eke an existence out today with modern agricultural methods? How do rice paddies in China and Japan use closed loop, indigenous technology to stay productive year after year, century after century...?<br/><br/>What traditional crops are in danger of being lost as generations cut off from their ancestral wisdom opt to play the losing, insulting game of "3rd World Farmer", either in real life, or online?<br/><br/>We need a game that provides a real way to win, not just for the players, but for farmers worldwide.<br/>EVOKATION: Gratitude Garden Outlinetag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-14:4871302:BlogPost:1509962010-05-14T21:35:51.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">The Place: <br></br></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br></br></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The Gratitude Gardens will be a global network, so much of the 'place' will be virtual. We have already registered <a href="http://www.gratitudegardens.org">www.gratitudegardens.org</a>, and that will be the location for our online network. This network will be free to use, and will provide mapping functionality for sharing locations, links to resources organized…</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote><p style="text-align: left;">The Place: <br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">The Gratitude Gardens will be a global network, so much of the 'place' will be virtual. We have already registered <a href="http://www.gratitudegardens.org">www.gratitudegardens.org</a>, and that will be the location for our online network. This network will be free to use, and will provide mapping functionality for sharing locations, links to resources organized globally, regionally, nationally, and locally, and a seed database through a partnership with <a href="http://www.pfaf.org">plants for the future</a> and <a href="http://www.seedsavers.org">seed savers.org</a>.<br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Gratitude Gardens will also be physical locations where participants grow heirloom and landrace edible and useful plants. They will be living seed banks, community spaces, and social enterprise incubators, providing raw materials for the enterprises of the founders and their community while safeguarding and adapting precious genetic stock for this and future generations.</p>
<p style="text-align: left;"><br/></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">Anyone will be able to plant a garden of any size, but they will all be encouraged to participate online in sharing information and resources before planting so as to ensure that future Gratitude Gardeners will be able to benefit from their efforts.<br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Challenge. What will you aim to change, and for whom? Highlight what is the need that you perceive and who will benefit from
this change.</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>There are huge issues facing the world, both for the <a href="http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/921">loss of biodiversity in our food production</a> system and piracy and <a href="http://www.globalissues.org/article/191/food-patents-stealing-indigenous-knowledge">theft of indigenous knowledge</a>. The <a href="http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/geff4.html">long term effects</a> of genetically modified foods have yet to be established, particularly <a href="http://www.globalissues.org/article/194/terminator-technology">terminator genes</a> and traits produced with cellular invasion methods.<br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>There are many advocates for these issues already, and the Gratitude Gardens don't claim to solve the problem or replace their efforts. However, the one thing that is clear is not enough people are farming sustainably, and many plant cultivars are in danger of dying out. In response to this we've decided to crowdsource the problem, and create a global network of people who research their agricultural heritage and then put it into practice.<br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Idea. Your solution – what is the action, product, service, project, change that you will initiate? Tell us how will your idea will
succeed where others have failed.</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>We will create a global competition, inspired by Urgent Evoke. Participants will log onto the website and create a profile. They will be awarded badges for filling out basic information, but once they start researching local seeds they will be entered into monthly contests. <br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>Those who find and share information about new strains of plants will share them with the community. Pictures and wiki entries will document their discoveries. Partners at Seed Savers will help ensure that these valuable genetics will be safeguarded and not patented by greedy multinationals. <br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>Participants will also be encouraged to identify local, national, and regional organizations that support these type of conservation and sustainable agriculture projects. They will post links to websites, addresses and phone numbers, so that future aspiring gratitude gardens can access that information and support/be supported by these groups.</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>All of this information will be open source, and the quantity and quality of information provided will be assessed by the community in a manner similar to how Urgent Evoke functions. The highest rated content will earn monthly prizes, such as free seeds and equipment from Seed Savers.org.</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>Aside from the virtual community, participants will also be planting individual and community gardens. Not all of the garden must be dedicated to heirloom and landrace seeds, but at least 25% of it must be to qualify for the garden competition.</p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>On a monthly basis, gardeners in specific areas will qualify for grants from a large grantmaking institution concerned about global and regional hunger. Particularly, areas at risk of losing huge quantities of genetic material such as South Asia and Africa will be eligible to grants from organizations like the Gates Foundation. Monthly cash prizes will go to the best projects to encourage more participation and expansion and outreach. Efforts will be made to make it as meritorious and equitable a system as possible, but participants will be made aware that some targeted grants are only available to certain regions due to the magnitude of their need.<br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p></p>
<p>The Money. What would you do with your first US$1,000 given or invested in support of your vision? <br/></p>
<p><br/></p>
<p>The first $1000 will go to web development. The domain has been registered, and we have a wiki up, but purchasing a pro ning account and contracting a web designer to create the Gratitude Garden website. A portion might also be set aside for the first few prizes to ensure that even the founding members can be incentivized to participate. <br/></p>
</blockquote>Imagine 10, Evoke Manifestotag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-14:4871302:BlogPost:1509812010-05-14T20:59:05.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
What are the goals of the network? How does it work?<ul>
<li>The goals are simple: Tackle global problems using the best and brightest young minds. It works because young and old people are willing to participate in exchange for meeting other people around the world interested in similar topics and using a rating system to sort through all the content.<br></br></li>
</ul>
Who are the members? Why do they join?<ul>
<li>The members are people from all countries, all backgrounds, all ages. They join…</li>
</ul>
What are the goals of the network? How does it work?<ul>
<li>The goals are simple: Tackle global problems using the best and brightest young minds. It works because young and old people are willing to participate in exchange for meeting other people around the world interested in similar topics and using a rating system to sort through all the content.<br/></li>
</ul>
Who are the members? Why do they join?<ul>
<li>The members are people from all countries, all backgrounds, all ages. They join because they want to make the world a better place, and gain recognition for their brilliant ideas. <br/></li>
</ul>
What are the ethics of being a good EVOKE agent?<ul>
<li>A good EVOKE agent isn't in it just for the acclaim, but reads other people's content and gives constructive feedback. A good agent doesn't create unnecessary controversy, but struggles against greater injustice and inequality.<br/></li>
</ul>
Why does the EVOKE network like to create mystery and spectacle? How does creating curiosity -- and sparking awe, wonder<br />
and imagination -- help the EVOKE network achieve its goals?<ul>
<li>Because its good marketing, and serves to get people more engaged than a completely transparent system. By cultivating mystery, they're able to channel some of the creative forces that would normally be turned to destructive outlets.<br/></li>
</ul>Act 10, First Episode Evoke Season 2tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-14:4871302:BlogPost:1509782010-05-14T20:52:47.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
Setting: The headwaters of the Amazon on the borders of Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil.<br></br><br></br>A young girl, maybe 8 or 9 years old, paddles a canoe downstream with her grandfather. She sees a harpy eagle overhead.<br></br><br></br>"Grandpa, whats that?'<br></br><br></br>Her grandfather replies, "That, my daughter, is the mighty <span style="font-style: italic;">arpia</span>. It rules the skies and patrols the Madre de Dios river."<br></br><br></br>Next panel.<br></br><br></br>Their canoe rounds a bend. They come upon a huge…
Setting: The headwaters of the Amazon on the borders of Bolivia, Peru, and Brazil.<br/><br/>A young girl, maybe 8 or 9 years old, paddles a canoe downstream with her grandfather. She sees a harpy eagle overhead.<br/><br/>"Grandpa, whats that?'<br/><br/>Her grandfather replies, "That, my daughter, is the mighty <span style="font-style: italic;">arpia</span>. It rules the skies and patrols the Madre de Dios river."<br/><br/>Next panel.<br/><br/>Their canoe rounds a bend. They come upon a huge floating mass of garbage. <br/><br/>"<span style="font-style: italic;">Abuelo</span>, what is all that?"<br/><br/>Her grandfather shakes his head."That is garbage, mija."<br/><br/>Next panel, flashback.<br/><br/>A women gathering and preparing fruits and vegetables is shown, while the grandfather narrates.<br/><br/>"Years ago, we didn't have all of these plastic wrappers and metal cans."<br/><br/>Next panel, flashback.<br/><br/>A group of children are climbing fruit trees and eating fruit.<br/><br/>"We ate natural things, fruit, vegetables...<br/><br/>Next panel, flashback<br/><br/>A group of men hunting a capybara<br/><br/>Narration continues<br/><br/>"We ate animals from the forest"<br/><br/>Next panel, flashback<br/><br/>A young man in a canoe casts a spear, as a woman behind pulls a fish up in her net<br/><br/>"And fresh, healthy fish from the river".<br/><br/>End flashback, next panel back at the debris pile<br/><br/>"Then the stores began opening up, and all of these plastic and metal things started piling up."<br/><br/>Next panel, flashback.<br/><br/>A mother and child are in a shop looking at candy and soft drinks while the mom holds a piece of fruit, an angry child points at the candy..<br/><br/>"The sugars and fats in these new goods taste better to children, and the advertising makes them think its better."<br/><br/>Next panel<br/><br/>A child throws the wrapper from his candy into the river<br/><br/>"Our people still treat the 'skins' of these new products like they did the husks of fruit."<br/><br/>Next panel<br/><br/>The wrapper floats down the river and masses in the huge pile with all the other garbage.<br/><br/>"But unlike natural things, these plastics will be here for years to come."<br/><br/>Next panel, the future.<br/><br/>Futuristic archeologists unearth piles of plastic trash.<br/><br/>"Will future generations look at all of this garbage we've left behind?"<br/><br/>Next panel, Alchemy is looking at the debris pile through a satellite image.<br/><br/>"This has gone on long enough. We need to act. Get me Ember.<br/><br/>Next panel, Ember is on a phone in South America.<br/><br/>"Alchemy, how can I help you."<br/><br/>On the phone, Alchemy: "We need to come up with a market based solution for all this trash thats piling up. How can we replace these plastics without losing their functionality?"<br/>Learn 10tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1503702010-05-13T23:54:14.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<p>WHICH great challenges and social problems should the EVOKE Network tackle next?</p>
<ul>
<li>Waste disposal, green manufacturing, transportation, nutrition, medicine vs. health, education in an age of distraction</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p>WHERE in the world should the network try to build up new EVOKE communities?</p>
<ul>
<li>Schools. Get a version of Evoke in classrooms, on college campuses, and into corporate board rooms as they discuss corporate social…</li>
</ul>
<p>WHICH great challenges and social problems should the EVOKE Network tackle next?</p>
<ul>
<li>Waste disposal, green manufacturing, transportation, nutrition, medicine vs. health, education in an age of distraction</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p>WHERE in the world should the network try to build up new EVOKE communities?</p>
<ul>
<li>Schools. Get a version of Evoke in classrooms, on college campuses, and into corporate board rooms as they discuss corporate social responsibility</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p>WHO would you encourage to play Season 2?</p>
<ul>
<li>Students, idealists, optimists, recent graduates, concerned parents</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p>HOW would you change the game for Season 2?</p>
<ul>
<li>Keep the leader cloud, have more regular prizes, support successful evokations from season 1 with links and online communities</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p>WHAT new tools would you want as an EVOKE agent?</p>
<ul>
<li>Community response and democratic discussion of problem agents, integrated chat tool, more transparency from leadership and who the modmins are.</li>
</ul>
<p></p>
<p>WHY would you come back for a second Season? What more would you want from the experience?</p>
<ul>
<li>To meet more amazing people.</li>
</ul>Imagine 9, Pandemic without the Panictag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1503202010-05-13T23:32:26.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></p>
<p>Its 2011. Our worst fears have been realized, the H1N1 and H5N1 flus have mutated and combined, creating the deadliest outbreak in 100 years. Our global transportation grid has worsened the situation, causing it to spread like wildfire before anyone can stem the tide of infections.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Here in Southern California, a small group of citizens has taken action to mitigate this disaster. Knowing that the biggest danger to those infected is dehydration…</p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></p>
<p>Its 2011. Our worst fears have been realized, the H1N1 and H5N1 flus have mutated and combined, creating the deadliest outbreak in 100 years. Our global transportation grid has worsened the situation, causing it to spread like wildfire before anyone can stem the tide of infections.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Here in Southern California, a small group of citizens has taken action to mitigate this disaster. Knowing that the biggest danger to those infected is dehydration and inability to take in nutrients, we've partnered with a local bottling plant to get hundreds of thousands of bottles of electrolyte enhanced water delivered to areas where outbreaks occur. <br/></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img src="http://www.medicalsupplybiz.com/images/T/Pedialyte%20unflavored.jpg"/></p>
<p>When news breaks of a neighborhood in the grips of the epidemic, a truck of emergency hydration salts and water is deployed to key points such as schools and hospitals to make sure that people waiting in over-crowded nurses offices and emergency rooms don't die of malnutrion or dehydration while waiting for the professionals to see them. Using cell phones and social networking sites such as facebook, twitter, and Ushahidi, the word gets out, and so do the supplies.</p>
<p><img src="http://www.tacticalresponsegear.com/catalog/images/1-ORS.jpg"/></p>
<p>It may not stop the spread or prevent the outbreak, but it's saving lives.</p>Learn 9, Crisis Communicationtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1502572010-05-13T22:49:13.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<p>When I read the title, I thought, "Awesome, I got this one!". I've got so much to say about crisis communication, as I experienced firsthand what happens when it is deficient or breaks down after the tsunami in Thailand and Hurricane Katrina.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Then I read the article on the five secrets of crisis communication, and it was both boring and just about how irresponsibly the press inflate the risk of pandemics and cause panics. Which is obvious, and not what I can offer any insight…</p>
<p>When I read the title, I thought, "Awesome, I got this one!". I've got so much to say about crisis communication, as I experienced firsthand what happens when it is deficient or breaks down after the tsunami in Thailand and Hurricane Katrina.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Then I read the article on the five secrets of crisis communication, and it was both boring and just about how irresponsibly the press inflate the risk of pandemics and cause panics. Which is obvious, and not what I can offer any insight on.</p>
<p></p>
<p>So I'm going to ignore that and talk about REAL crises like disasters and the breakdowns in communication that occur.</p>
<p></p>
<p>For starters, the media screws it up every time. They go with the most bombastic, headline grabbing aspect of the disaster, but do a TERRIBLE job of conveying the actual needs of people being affected. It is essential that first responders communicate more effectively to the media about the needs of people, and regularly update those needs as the situation changes.</p>
<p></p>
<p>All it takes is one reference to the need for water, and then all of a sudden there are millions of bottles of water. Lord help the people in the disaster zone if they ask for clothes or canned food. Before they know it, a bunch of people in a sweltering heat wave will get a load of used parkas and snow jackets from the Midwest, or hungry people will get a bunch of spoiled canned food with no can openers.</p>
<p></p>
<p>You might think I'm just being cynical, but I personally witnessed and had to dispose of truckloads of unwanted used clothing and spoiled canned goods. Its absolutely essential in crises that the real needs of people on the ground are communicated to well intentioned donors so that what is sent reflects what is requested.</p>Imagine 8, Me at 100tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1502132010-05-13T22:25:30.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">Gather around grand-children, I'd like to tell you a story.</p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img src="http://www.kestrelsnest.net/fnm/graphics/fredsavagepeterfalk.jpg"></img></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></p>
<p>Many years ago, when I was your age, the world was very different. We used to think that man and our environment were separate. We glorified mankind, thinking we were chosen by God to hold dominion over the earth. We were right on one count. We dominated the planet.…</p>
<p></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">Gather around grand-children, I'd like to tell you a story.</p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img src="http://www.kestrelsnest.net/fnm/graphics/fredsavagepeterfalk.jpg"/></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></p>
<p>Many years ago, when I was your age, the world was very different. We used to think that man and our environment were separate. We glorified mankind, thinking we were chosen by God to hold dominion over the earth. We were right on one count. We dominated the planet.</p>
<p></p>
<a href="http://www.geekologie.com/2008/08/19/trencher-1.jpg"></a><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img src="http://www.geekologie.com/2008/08/19/trencher-1.jpg"/></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></p>
<p>But in so doing, much was lost. We forgot our heritage, we lost connection with our ancestors. We worshipped technology and ourselves, instead of expressing gratitude for our heritage and for the gift of God's creation. That loss of connection almost cost us everything.</p>
<p></p>
<p><img src="http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/images/2009-04/toxic-trash.jpg"/></p>
<p></p>
<p>We trashed Mother Earth. We filled the oceans with garbage, we filled the valleys with garbage, we sprayed our crops with poisons, and we blew up ancient mountains.</p>
<p></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img src="http://isiria.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/mountaintop-removal-jj-001.jpg"/></p>
<p></p>
<p>We thought we were so smart. We thought we were so powerful. We were, but powerful like a rebellious toddler breaking his toys and throwing his food onto the floor, smart like the sting of a fire ant between your toes.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Fortunately, we started to wake up. Around 70 years ago, indigenous people around the world started speaking up. The food wasn't nourishing us, the medicines weren't curing us, and the economy wasn't fulfilling us. We looked to the grandparents, and even though there were few left, they were happy to share what knowledge remained.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Thousands of young people around the world started documenting this ancient wisdom, sharing that knowledge over the internet and planting living seed banks in gratitude to their elders. As the old forms of energy, money, and water started running out, and the systems dependent on them started to crumble, people scrambled for a solution.</p>
<p></p>
<p>And all that time, it was right there under our feet.</p>
<p></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img src="http://www.ideachampions.com/heart/GOI%20seedling.jpg"/></p>
<p></p>
<p>Plants saved us. Our grandparents saved us. The global economy couldn't feed us anymore, fossil fuels couldn't power us. But plants, using the energy of the sun, could still nourish us, purify the air and the water, and provide abundant fuel.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Not everyone awoke, not everyone adopted the new system. But those who failed to were so obvious in their destructive ways, in their unhealthy attitudes and physical form, that their message of waste and exploitation no longer resonated with people. Gradually, town by town, country by country, the people of the world rededicated themselves to a healing, nurturing relationship with the earth.</p>
<p></p>
<p>So don't forget children, that even though you were created in God's image and are his children, so too are all the trees in the forest, the fish in the sea, and the animals that walk and crawl on the earth. We are all in this together, don't forget...</p>Learn 8, Indigenous Knowledge of Oaxacatag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1501852010-05-13T22:00:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<p>From <a href="http://www.kivu.com/wbbook/casestudies.html">Kivu</a>:</p>
<p>"<strong><font color="#003300" face="Verdana" size="2">INDIGENOUS WOMEN HEALERS FORMED GROUPS TO PRACTICE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN OAXACA (MEXICO)<br></br></font></strong></p>
<p><font color="#003300" face="Verdana" size="2">After bitter struggles with official associations of physicians, traditional medicine people, mostly women, finally were able to organize joint meetings in which they shared their experiences and set…</font></p>
<p>From <a href="http://www.kivu.com/wbbook/casestudies.html">Kivu</a>:</p>
<p>"<strong><font color="#003300" size="2" face="Verdana">INDIGENOUS WOMEN HEALERS FORMED GROUPS TO PRACTICE TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IN OAXACA (MEXICO)<br/></font></strong></p>
<p><font color="#003300" size="2" face="Verdana">After bitter struggles with official associations of physicians, traditional medicine people, mostly women, finally were able to organize joint meetings in which they shared their experiences and set up plans for collaboration. As a direct result, indigenous women benefitted immensely. Their involvement has been a key factor in cataloguing the plants, herbs, and practices, and in promoting the conservation and availability of curative products and practices. With the support of the National Indigenist Institute, UNICEF, and NGOs, an overall health program has been established. Recognized medicine people and healers train interested indigenous villagers as health promoters through courses and workshops, focussing on the recovery of communal knowledge about medicinal plants and traditional healing practices. The status of indigenous women has been enhanced through the creation of a council of traditional medicine where their knowledge is recognized, and through the opening of community clinics. Not only can they make wide use of their traditional knowledge in medicine, but also the exercise of their practice has been greatly improved."</font></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><font color="#003300" size="2" face="Verdana"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211720?profile=original"/></font></p>
<p></p>
<p><font color="#003300" size="2" face="Verdana">I think this is a fantastic study, as indigenous healers have access to a modality of curing diseases that has almost been completely forgotten. Dismissed by many as superstition and witchcraft, plant medicine is experiencing a resurgence in the 21st century because it addresses the cause of the disease, an imbalance in the body or a lack of health, and gives the body the tools it needs to address that unhealthy situation.</font></p>
<p></p>
<p><font color="#003300" size="2" face="Verdana">Contrasted with 'western' medicine, which prescribes pain-killers and symptom supressing pills that merely reduce the fealing of dis-ease but don't cure the disease, causing contagious people to infect more as they proceed with their daily lives before they are cured. In the cases where they actually treat the illness with antibiotics, this opens up pandora's box as bacteria and other pathogens develop resistance to the medicine and become virtually untreatable.</font></p>
<p></p>
<p><font color="#003300" size="2" face="Verdana">It is very important that more cultures follow the lead of Mexico and hte women of Oaxaca who are training interested neighbors on these important healing plants that give the body the tools it needs to cure itself. By networking these women are refining their knowledge, and by sharing it they're keeping it alive for future generations.</font></p>Imagine 7, Riverside Urban Resilience in 2020tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1501262010-05-13T21:00:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<p><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110055939857581397279.000486736e3c8e8a967b1&z=12">Here is my map</a> of Riverside's Urban Resilience plan for 2020. Fortunately, there is already alot of progress towards this with <a href="http://www.riversideca.gov/utilities/pdf/gp/Green%20Action%20Plan%20-%20Emerald%20City%20Update.pdf">Riverside's Green Action Plan</a>. With enough partners, there will be Gratitude Gardens and Resourceful Gardens all across…</p>
<p><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=110055939857581397279.000486736e3c8e8a967b1&z=12">Here is my map</a> of Riverside's Urban Resilience plan for 2020. Fortunately, there is already alot of progress towards this with <a href="http://www.riversideca.gov/utilities/pdf/gp/Green%20Action%20Plan%20-%20Emerald%20City%20Update.pdf">Riverside's Green Action Plan</a>. With enough partners, there will be Gratitude Gardens and Resourceful Gardens all across Riverside by 2020.</p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211412?profile=original"/></p>
<p></p>
<p>For me, the key to a resilient city is for there to be as many local sources for food and raw materials as possible. I placed a green waste management facility by the river, which will operate on Cradle to Cradle principles to liberate raw materials from all the cities waste, be it compost or minerals or petrochemicals. I placed community gardens in urban areas and areas currently dealing with homeless issues, and rededicated part of our agricultural 'green belt' to a local CSA.</p>
<p></p>
<p>Check it out, let me know what you think!</p>Act 7, Urban Resiliencetag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1494262010-05-13T05:51:12.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
Well, I checked for a resilience plan, a disaster plan, and a green plan for my city. I already knew we had the last two, but from my searches I was unable to find a resilience plan. The disaster plan is pretty comprehensive:<br></br><br></br><a href="http://www.riversideca.gov/fire/pages/disaster.aspx">Riverside Disaster Plan</a>.<br></br><br></br>Our <a href="http://www.riversideca.gov/utilities/pdf/gp/Green%20Action%20Plan%20-%20Emerald%20City%20Update.pdf">Green Action Plan</a> (or Emerald City…
Well, I checked for a resilience plan, a disaster plan, and a green plan for my city. I already knew we had the last two, but from my searches I was unable to find a resilience plan. The disaster plan is pretty comprehensive:<br/><br/><a href="http://www.riversideca.gov/fire/pages/disaster.aspx">Riverside Disaster Plan</a>.<br/><br/>Our <a href="http://www.riversideca.gov/utilities/pdf/gp/Green%20Action%20Plan%20-%20Emerald%20City%20Update.pdf">Green Action Plan</a> (or Emerald City Initiative), is also pretty all encompassing. The one thing it doesn't do much of is Grass Roots coordination, so my non-profit decided to create it. We made <a href="http://mygreenriverside.ning.com">MyGreenRiverside</a> as a response to the need for a citizen focused green clearinghouse.<br/><br/>From this challenge, I decided to ask if any of the almost 300 participants on MyGreenRiverside are familiar with the Emerald City Plan. We'll see what they say!<br/>Learn 7, Urban Resiliencetag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-13:4871302:BlogPost:1493452010-05-13T04:52:24.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<ul>
<li>What are the most likely natural disasters, food shortages, power outages, political crises, health outbreaks, or other social disruptions that YOU should be prepared to face with resilience?
Pick one.</li>
</ul>
I live in Southern California, so the most likely crisis for us to face is an earthquake with the associated transportation, power, and water infrastructure damage.<br></br><ul>
<li>What different kinds of data would you track in the crisis?</li>
</ul>
For disaster relief workers,…
<ul>
<li>What are the most likely natural disasters, food shortages, power outages, political crises, health outbreaks, or other social
disruptions that YOU should be prepared to face with resilience?<br />
Pick one.</li>
</ul>
I live in Southern California, so the most likely crisis for us to face is an earthquake with the associated transportation, power, and water infrastructure damage.<br/><ul>
<li>What different kinds of data would you track in the crisis?</li>
</ul>
For disaster relief workers, tracking downed buildings, trees, power lines, and damaged roads would be invaluable. By crowd-sourcing the damage reports, they could greatly expedite recovery efforts.<br/><br/><ul>
<li>What different kinds of urgent information and resources would you need to collect and share?</li>
</ul>
From the citizen level, updating people on what roads still function, where power outages are suffered, whether they need to boil water in<br />
their area or save the water in their toilet tanks, if there will be any<br />
evacuations, that sort of data would be useful. <br/><br/>I worry a bit about technologies like this because sometime power outages and damage to cell phone towers limits the availability to both post and receive this information. Safe, smart grids would be essential to effectively deploying them<br/>Imagine 6, Ladies of the Futuretag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-10:4871302:BlogPost:1453342010-05-10T22:30:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<p class="MsoNormal">The shaking of the plane stops as we descend out of a huge bank of clouds, rapidly approaching the tiny runway that is a strip of grey in a sea of green. The tiny airport at Puerto Maldonado doesn’t look any different from when I came here ten years ago, but the jungle surrounding it definitely does. Healthier, more vibrant.</p>
<br></br>
<p class="MsoNormal">I came here over a dozen years ago to help empower the local youth to reimagine their communities. We also learned about…</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The shaking of the plane stops as we descend out of a huge bank of clouds, rapidly approaching the tiny runway that is a strip of grey in a sea of green. The tiny airport at Puerto Maldonado doesn’t look any different from when I came here ten years ago, but the jungle surrounding it definitely does. Healthier, more vibrant.</p>
<br/>
<p class="MsoNormal">I came here over a dozen years ago to help empower the local youth to reimagine their communities. We also learned about composting, gardening, and recycling, sometimes the hard way. Their laughter didn’t stop for days after the time I tried to build a Western-style compost pile and found out in the rainforest they call those “fire ant hills”.</p>
<br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234210310?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<br/>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now its 2020, and those 7-12 year old kids are grown up. Some of them have already finished college, but their impact has already been felt. By helping them take leadership in their neighborhoods before they even reached high school, we awakened in them the ability to take charge and implement ideas that successful adults couldn’t even imagine.</p>
<br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211392?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p>
<br/>
<p class="MsoNormal">One of the girls, Flor, took the lessons we shared about recycling and founded a business before she graduated high school. They started a sorting program for all the local schools and universities, separating green waste and then processing it in a sustainable facility here in the rainforest. Now the high-grade, compostable polymers they produce are the packaging for all of the crackers and food distributed<br/> throughout Peru, Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and their model of eco-plastics is spreading like wildfire in the West as well. No longer does Flor cry when she sees her friends and family throw<br/>
packaging into the headwaters of the Amazon; now, she knows it will just nourish plants and animals downstream.</p>
<br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img width="721" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234211583?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" alt=""/></p>
<br />
<br />
<br/>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another of the Ninos from ANIA, Briseth, is finishing a degree in agroforestry at the local university. In high school she helped introduce the Green Ambassadors, a program to empower youth to educate<br/> their peers about sustainable technologies. She helped translate the program to Spanish and adopt tropically relevant innovations that created food forests and eco-corridors throughout the jungle. Now she’s a Rhode’s scholar, just about to go to Yale to get her post-graduate degree so she can go work for the IMF to help more girls like her create regenerative systems in their communities around the globe.</p>
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Those two young women are creating a new future. I'm coming to connect to my past. As the plane taxis around the tarmac and we step into the sweltering heat of the jungle, I peek through the terminal and see a group of<br/>
college age kids jumping up and down. I had no idea they’d be here to welcome me, but there they are. Its an honor to give the commencement address at their college graduation, but they were the ones who inspired me to start down this path 13 years ago in the first place…Act 6, Organic Seed Saving in Nepal for Womentag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-10:4871302:BlogPost:1452752010-05-10T21:32:11.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
Of all the projects I saw on Global Giving, the one to <a href="http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/train-women-farmers-organic-agriculture-nepal/">support Nepalese women in rediscovering organic agriculture techniques</a> appeals to me the most. I feel like this is a global issue: in the last 50 years, the so called "Green Revolution" has meant that billions of people have forgotten how to employ locally appropriate, sustainable farming practices.<br></br><br></br>I posted it to my facebook, and will…
Of all the projects I saw on Global Giving, the one to <a href="http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/train-women-farmers-organic-agriculture-nepal/">support Nepalese women in rediscovering organic agriculture techniques</a> appeals to me the most. I feel like this is a global issue: in the last 50 years, the so called "Green Revolution" has meant that billions of people have forgotten how to employ locally appropriate, sustainable farming practices.<br/><br/>I posted it to my facebook, and will be contributing a donation to them so that they can educate more women on seed saving. I'm hoping to use the Global Gratitude Gardens project to encourage and network efforts like this worldwide...<br/>Learn 6, Women Watchtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-10:4871302:BlogPost:1452102010-05-10T20:19:43.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
I read <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34624&Cr=clark&Cr1=">an article about UN buying generators</a> for women in Burkina Faso so that they can save dozens of hours a week that they spend pounding rice and other grain by hand.<br></br><br></br>I have two different opinions on it. On one hand, I totally support freeing women from menial tasks so they can reprioritize and devote their time to other tasks. On the other hand, I wish that it wasn't just introducing fossil fuel…
I read <a href="http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=34624&Cr=clark&Cr1=">an article about UN buying generators</a> for women in Burkina Faso so that they can save dozens of hours a week that they spend pounding rice and other grain by hand.<br/><br/>I have two different opinions on it. On one hand, I totally support freeing women from menial tasks so they can reprioritize and devote their time to other tasks. On the other hand, I wish that it wasn't just introducing fossil fuel generators, but instead solar generators, wind or water mills, or bicycle powered grinders like Maya Pedal creates. Wind and water mills are some of the oldest machines in existence, and might even be more affordable than the generators, while bicycles are affordable and multiply the women's power tremendously.<br/><br/>At the end of the day, these women are better off, but I wish they'd been empowered to come up with solutions not reliant on external inputs but instead using locally available, sustainable resources. Hopefully the UN will figure out that they can do more than just provide handouts...<br/>Imagine 5, Real Moneytag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-10:4871302:BlogPost:1450432010-05-10T17:30:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
Its January 1st, 2020, and a revolution is quietly happening around the world. Local, reserve currencies, backed by grain and other stored food reserves, have finally been opened in every country on earth. The "Real Money Bank", a not for profit dedicated to starting local reserve currency banks across the globe, has finally realized its goal of providing access to "Real Money" for all the world's peoples.<br></br><br></br>It wasn't easy. At first, all the national banks and federal reserves opposed…
Its January 1st, 2020, and a revolution is quietly happening around the world. Local, reserve currencies, backed by grain and other stored food reserves, have finally been opened in every country on earth. The "Real Money Bank", a not for profit dedicated to starting local reserve currency banks across the globe, has finally realized its goal of providing access to "Real Money" for all the world's peoples.<br/><br/>It wasn't easy. At first, all the national banks and federal reserves opposed it. However, their model of inflationary fiat currency and their extractive financial industries had created a cancerous growth mechanism at the root of all capitalism. Instead of depending on natural abundance, their model relied on scarcity and inorganic growth. The pressures of having to constantly expand forced companies to make poor decisions, forced governments to keep investing and investing and investing into the financial sector, hoping to prop up struggling banks unable to meet earnings forecasts.<br/><br/>Eventually, the system collapsed. Panic spread at first, until people woke up and realized that those empty dollars and euros didn't actually have any inherent value. Instead, they rediscovered real value, the food, the energy, the goods and services people created. Instead of enslaving and exploiting people and the planet to meet unnatural expectations, they needed a system that could allow people to conduct business and invest without kowtowing to a leechlike financial sector.<br/><br/>That was when the "Real Money Bank" emerged. They partnered with a global network of time banks that were allowing people to exchange services for services, and supplied the much needed missing link of allowing people to exchange goods as well. The Federal Reserve tried to stop them, but when banks gladly exchanged their "real money" for hyper-inflated dollars so that taxes could be paid, discerning civil servants decided to support instead of attack this important movement.<br/><br/>Before long, "Real Money" had been adopted throughout the Americas. Businesses liked it because it meant higher velocity of trade; with no incentive for people to sit on money, they reinvested it and spent it on goods as quickly as they could. Economies that adopted "Real Money" saw huge gains in investment in all sectors outside of the already collapsed financial sector, and quickly other countries adopted similar plans to keep up and stay competitive.<br/><br/>Now all world citizens have access to a currency that has real value, just not permanent value. Use it or lose it!<br/>Act 5, Micro-loantag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-10:4871302:BlogPost:1450292010-05-10T17:29:32.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
I've heard about micro-finance and admired organizations like Kiva that make it accessible across the globe, but never actually participated in it. When I read about Act 5, my initial desire was to participate in a time bank, but unfortunately none currently exist in my neighborhood. So I figured I should try to do a micro-loan, and see how that goes.<br></br><br></br>I logged into Kiva and browsed through ten pages of entrepreneurs. Many of them were getting into retail and animal sales, or cosmetics…
I've heard about micro-finance and admired organizations like Kiva that make it accessible across the globe, but never actually participated in it. When I read about Act 5, my initial desire was to participate in a time bank, but unfortunately none currently exist in my neighborhood. So I figured I should try to do a micro-loan, and see how that goes.<br/><br/>I logged into Kiva and browsed through ten pages of entrepreneurs. Many of them were getting into retail and animal sales, or cosmetics or the repair industry. I wanted my loan to support people dedicated to a sustainable industry. While I appreciate the gumption of people wanting to sell candy, soft drinks, and cows, I don't personally want my money to support that.<br/><br/>The organization on the front page, the <a href="http://www.kiva.org/lend/199049?_tpos=1&_tpg=1">Tessito Group</a>, ended up being the one most appealing to me. They're making brooms and oil from palm trees, and while the palm industry isn't the most sustainable in the world as it has caused much deforestation, it is one of the most productive forms of agriculture for making oil and fiber and CAN be done sustainably.<br/><br/>So I made a loan to Tessito, and am looking forward to see what happens now. The money has already been disbursed, my dollars just back filled it. Now the 8 lady entrepreneurs will repay the loan over a year or so. <br/><br/>I'm excited to participate in something like this. Hopefully loans like this will encourage more and more entrepreneurs worldwide to take their future into their own hands.<br/>Imagine 4, Global Water Daytag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-05-09:4871302:BlogPost:1433372010-05-09T06:51:11.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
The sun hangs low above the Pacific. Wisps of clouds begin to take on tinges of orange and red. Silhouettes, lit from behind by the setting sun, dot the horizon for miles in each direction. Each one holds in their hands a different tool, a different toy. Some hold hula hoops, some swords or staves. Some spin nunchaku, some poi, or balls on chains. <br></br><br></br>All stand in silence, waiting to hear the cue to begin. Then, as the sun touches the water, a song comes from the huge crowd on the beach.…
The sun hangs low above the Pacific. Wisps of clouds begin to take on tinges of orange and red. Silhouettes, lit from behind by the setting sun, dot the horizon for miles in each direction. Each one holds in their hands a different tool, a different toy. Some hold hula hoops, some swords or staves. Some spin nunchaku, some poi, or balls on chains. <br/><br/>All stand in silence, waiting to hear the cue to begin. Then, as the sun touches the water, a song comes from the huge crowd on the beach. Drums begin to sound from seated groups, horns and flutes and guitars from others. Voices join in thanks for water, life giving water.<br/><br/>The performers begin dancing, slowly at first, their blessings spreading like the ripples their feet make in the placid Pacific water. Then, as a gong sounds, they lower their tools into the water, and begin to spin. Sheets of water shoot up along the coastline, showering rainbows and droplets on the performers and the crowd. The music quickens, the song intensifies, and the performers lose control as they surrender to the rhythm.<br/><br/>For today is a day of gratitude, of celebration. The world had been on the verge of war a few years earlier, with energy, food, and most importantly water running out at alarming rates. So many activities that seems integral to modern existence had exhausted natural resources and polluted the food and water that all hope was almost lost.<br/><br/>But just when global war over the scarce clean water and energy sources seemed inevitable, the children came to the rescue. Using the internet and simple, ancient technologies passed down to indigenous people around the world, natural energy and food systems restored the harmony that the global economy lacked. These children planted gardens that healed the soil, and filtered water. They grew plants that nourished them, that encouraged health and not chemical dependence.<br/><br/>By reconnecting to their heritage, these children averted global war and re-awakened humanity to natural abundance. To top things off, their gardens planted the seeds for new innovations like large scale solar water filtration, salt batteries, water energy concentrators, and more. These valuable innovations gave us the opportunity to take the time to give thanks, and express that gratitude fully with our song and our dance.<br/>Act 4, Alliance with Water Visionarytag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-22:4871302:BlogPost:998902010-04-22T01:55:23.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
For a few years now I've been wanting to connect with Brad Lancaster of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond. He's got a website, <a href="http://www.harvestingrainwater.com">http://www.harvestingrainwater.com</a>, and speaks all over for people interested in greywater and rainwater harvesting. He even teaches permaculture courses around the world, and is doing one in…
For a few years now I've been wanting to connect with Brad Lancaster of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond. He's got a website, <a href="http://www.harvestingrainwater.com">http://www.harvestingrainwater.com</a>, and speaks all over for people interested in greywater and rainwater harvesting. He even teaches permaculture courses around the world, and is doing one in <a href="http://www.harvestingrainwater.com/2010/03/21/brad-lancaster-david-spicer-and-murad-al-khuffash-permaculture-design-course-june-6-17-2010-marda-west-bank-palestine/">Palestine on the west bank</a> this June! <br/><br/>I'd love to help support him in his efforts, so I've sent him an email through his website asking if my nonprofit, Growcology, can host a workshop for professionals and officials in our community or do anything to help promote their efforts in Southern California and beyond. <br/><br/>I'll let y'all know when I hear back from him!<br/>Gratitude Garden Wikitag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-20:4871302:BlogPost:982872010-04-20T23:00:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<p>Ok everyone, I've got a <a href="http://gratitude-gardens.wikispaces.com/">wiki up and running for the Gratitude Gardens</a>, <a href="http://gratitude-gardens.wikispaces.com/">http://gratitude-gardens.wikispaces.com/</a>. So far I've added my answers to the First and Second Steps, and am finishing editing some interviews with farmers and gardeners for the second section. I'll post the answers here, but please check out the <a href="http://gratitude-gardens.wikispaces.com/">wiki</a> and give…</p>
<p>Ok everyone, I've got a <a href="http://gratitude-gardens.wikispaces.com/">wiki up and running for the Gratitude Gardens</a>, <a href="http://gratitude-gardens.wikispaces.com/">http://gratitude-gardens.wikispaces.com/</a>. So far I've added my answers to the First and Second Steps, and am finishing editing some interviews with farmers and gardeners for the second section. I'll post the answers here, but please check out the <a href="http://gratitude-gardens.wikispaces.com/">wiki</a> and give me some feedback on how we could make a form, a map, and make all of this more accessible.</p>
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<p><strong><u><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Riverside, CA Gratitude Garden Information</span></u></strong></p>
<p><strong><u><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">First Step: Research</span></u></strong></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">What Climate do you live in?</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">I live in <a href="http://www.garden.org/regional/report/description/full/4">Riverside, CA USDA Hardiness Zone 9/10</a>. We are a Mediterranean climate, which means we have a year round growing season with enough frost for temperate fruit trees, but enough heat to grow subtropicals and even some tropicals. Garden.org has a good tool for people from the states to find out this information.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">2.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Find out what edible and useful plants are native to your area.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto" class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="COLOR: black"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font size="3">1.</font></span></span> <span style="COLOR: black"><font size="3">The native plants to the area are acorns from oaks crushed into meal, cactus pads/nopales and prickly pear, clover, cherries, plums, berries, sunflower seeds, pinon/pine nuts, avocado, edible roots, agave, corn, squash, chia seeds, amaranth, and beans.</font></span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">3.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Explore the food and nature-crafts that the indigenous people of your area created.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 2" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <font face="Times New Roman"><span style="COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">The natives to Southern California are the <b>Tipai-Ipai, Luiseno, Cahuilla, Gabrielino tribes.</b> There are quite a few more, but these are the ones I’m familiar with. They used corn and acorn meal in much of their cooking. They created flutes from wood, and used gourds for storage of liquids.</span></font></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">4.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Learn about any colonizers to your area and what food they introduced.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">The first colonizers were the Spanish, who brought many grains from Europe. They also introduced leafy greens like lettuce, as well as citrus grafts. These exotic citrus couldn’t grow well on their own roots, so they had to graft them onto native citrus rootstock. Later settlers brought in almost every type of food on the planet, as the mild climate allows everything from mangoes to cherries, bananas to apples, tomatoes to lettuce.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">5.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">What are some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_plant"><span style="COLOR: #788f94">heirloom</span></a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landrace"><span style="COLOR: #788f94">landrace</span></a> plants (or livestock) that grow your area?</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">We are lucky in America to have many different heirloom seed companies providing rare cultivars of almost every type of vegetable and fruit. The only landrace plants I know of would be the varieties cultivated at local biodynamic farms and CSAs or the native nopales growing wild.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">6.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">What kind of indigenous cultivation and fertilization was used in your area? How did they ensure long-term fertility, instead of short term yields?</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">The Three Sisters guild was planted by several of the local tribes, using the nitrogen fixing rizobium of the beans to fertilize the nutrient hungry corn, and the squash to shade the ground and protect the topsoil. Many native tribes practiced migratory food forestry as well, with settlements by the ocean certain times of year, inland along the river when the nopales were ripe, up in the foothills for the pine nut harves, and so on. They kept groves and crops across California and depended on seasonal harvests for food.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">7.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Does any of this appeal to you? Seem tasty, useful, interesting? What do you want to grow?</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l0 level2 lfo1; tab-stops: list 1.0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Yes! I’d love to grow three sisters, as well as some heirloom species from the seed catalogs. My favorite are the different types of lettuce, we need to find one that is heat tolerant.</span></p>
<p><strong><u><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Now can I plant the Garden?</span></u></strong></p>
<p><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">We're not ready to grow just yet. No garden should be an island (unless you live on one), we need to tie into larger networks to make sure your efforts and knowledge serve the community at large.</span></p>
<p><strong><u><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Second Step: Make Contact</span></u></strong></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Find local organizations you can team up with (don't reinvent the wheel) that support farming or gardening. It could be a government agency, a university, a nonprofit, or just a club.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">We’ve found that there are professors at UCR studying anthropology and botany that could support this program. There is also the <a href="http://www.communitygarden.org/">national community garden association</a>, <a href="http://celosangeles.ucdavis.edu/Common_Ground_Garden_Program/">Common Ground</a> in Los Angeles, local community gardens at churches, universities, and schools, and organizations like <a href="http://www.growcology.com/"><font color="#0000FF">Growcology</font></a> and the <a href="http://groups.ucanr.org/rivermg/">Master Gardeners</a>.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">2.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Interview local farmers and gardeners that still use traditional methods.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">In process</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">3.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Ask them about fertility, planting, harvesting, and seed saving.</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">In process</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 0.75in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">4.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">Working with your new contacts, find the seeds and cuttings to grow the plants that interest you. Maybe you get them from a farmer, maybe from a nursery, maybe a mail order catalog. List any that interest you:</span></p>
<p style="TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; MARGIN: 0in 0in 4.8pt 1in; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial"><span style="mso-list: Ignore">1.</span></span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 9.5pt">We love <a href="http://www.seedsofchange.org/"><font color="#0000FF">Seeds of Change</font></a>, <a href="http://www.seedsavers.org/"><font color="#0000FF">Seed Savers International</font></a>, <a href="http://www.rareseeds.org/"><font color="#0000FF">Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds</font></a>, <a href="http://www.nativeseeds.org/">Native SeedSEARCH</a>, <a href="http://www.freedomseeds.org/">Freedom Seeds</a>, and <a href="http://www.turtletreeseed.org/">Turtle Tree Biodynamic</a> Seeds. There are also a few farms around here we’re working on developing a relationship. Hope to post video soon.</span></p>
<p></p>Alternative Reality vs. Actual Realitytag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-04-08:4871302:BlogPost:851402010-04-08T06:30:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
All my life I've been a gamer. From that fateful day when my young toddler self happened upon my cousin David playing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan:_Hall_of_Volta">Conan the Barbarian</a> on his Apple IIE, I was hooked. It was only a matter of time before we got an Atari, then a Nintendo, before long I was staying up until all hours of the night conquering the world on Civilization, or saving it in countless Role Playing Games. My brothers and I would also play dice and miniature…
All my life I've been a gamer. From that fateful day when my young toddler self happened upon my cousin David playing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan:_Hall_of_Volta">Conan the Barbarian</a> on his Apple IIE, I was hooked. It was only a matter of time before we got an Atari, then a Nintendo, before long I was staying up until all hours of the night conquering the world on Civilization, or saving it in countless Role Playing Games. My brothers and I would also play dice and miniature games like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_&_Dragons">D&D</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_Unlimited">Heroes Unlimited</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_Fantasy_Roleplay">Warhammer</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paranoia_%28role-playing_game%29">Paranoia</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_and_Other_Strangeness">Ninja Turtles</a>, or whatever imaginary world we could invented with a couple sticks or squirt guns in our back yard or at the tree fort by the local spring.<br/><br/>And yet, despite all this passive and active interaction with imaginary worlds, my family ensured that I was very grounded in this one. We went camping every month, lighting fires and climbing cliffs, exploring caves and mines and navigating rivers and waterfalls. Sports were also important, with each season bringing a new chance to test myself against my peers. Soccer, swimming, football, baseball, basketball, and martial arts, I was taught since I could run that if someone runs next to you it can be a competition, or that if a group of your friends band together you're a team. I constantly explored my personal physical limits as well as this world's natural limits.<br/><br/>As I grew older, I became more and more schizophrenic in my exploration of this world and imaginary ones. By day I was an eagle scout, a science fair champion, a spelling bee finalist, a national merit scholar, but by night I was battling my buddies at racing or fighting games, or questing for hours and hours to beat the next world-devouring RPG boss. I got less and less involved in physical activity as school and my gaming obsession took over. By college, without required physical fitness classes or teams, I had almost completely replaced my childhood physical outlet of sports with video games. <br/><br/>When I graduated I had a choice between testing video games (for no money) for Activision, working on toy development and promotions for Mattel, or being a junior executive at multinational food distributor. I still don't know why, but I decided on the least "fun" job with the food distributor. I spent the next three years making them millions of dollars doing every job they had from working in the warehouses in Compton to top-level sales calls in Hawaii, Las Vegas, and Central Asia.<br/><br/>All during that time, I was playing video games in my off hours. I got pretty out of shape, and though I was making lots of money and traveling I wasn't fulfilled. It was at the end of 2004 after the Asian Tsunami crisis that I decided to stop using my spare time on self-gratifying video games and instead try to help people. <br/><br/>That decision changed my life. Within a few months I was in <a href="http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=5775195&blogId=12003136">Thailand</a> helping <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inspeyere/383151223/in/set-72157594324203708/">rebuild</a> and <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/inspeyere/383148299/in/set-72157594324203708/">learning martial arts</a>. Before I knew it I was traveling across Europe <a href="http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/60/l_9b94d2b3f0eb9e56289602454867142c.jpg">practicing staff moves</a> and exploring new cultures, and then learning about sustainable redevelopment and community organizing in Mississippi and Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina. <br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/143/l_549a65d07f0b41a59668ca5c1df32746.jpg"/></p>
<br/>Whereas before my idea of a wild time was drinking a whole bunch at the bar a few blocks from my house, now I was going to full moon parties with disaster volunteers in Thailand, spinning fire on huge stages in front of thousands of onlookers at <a href="http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/121/l_24022a2977894fff94cf264c74704196.jpg">Burning Man</a>, getting sprayed with beads and confetti at Mardi Gras in New Orleans and <a href="http://c2.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/132/l_54d644c412ae43f48e588f62085fe7d1.jpg">Biloxi</a> and huge water fights for Carnival in Peru and New Years in Thailand. <br/><br/>Somehow, along the way, the life that I'd been imagining all those years playing video games became real. <br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://c4.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/85/l_336dad5e728d3918a27343dd805f9527.jpg"/></p>
<br/>Instead of leveling up some fictional character in skills and attributes, I was exchanging tricks with world class martial artists and object manipulators. Instead of trying to save a video game designer's idea of an ancient or future world, I was <a href="http://www.mundodeania.org/">learning</a> about how to practically save this one for future generations. Its gotten to the point where I get invited to teach <a href="http://naturalturn.fotki.com/bm/beach/firedrums2008/055953.html">workshops</a> on <a href="http://images22.fotki.com/v752/photos/1/168101/7211565/056626-vi.jpg">martial arts</a> at international festivals of fire dancers, creating grants to collaborate with state and city governments on Strategic Urban Greening, or get flown off to Peru to help produce documentaries and reality TV shows about ancient healing techniques and innovative modern social enterprises.<br/><br/>Which leads me to the point of this blog. How am I supposed to find time to participate in an Alternate Reality Game when those last three things are all going on at the exact same time. By the end of this month <a href="http://www.growcology.com/">Growcology</a> will be submitting a half a million dollar Urban Greening proposal with dozens of local partners, even though on the 21st of April my partner and I are flying to Peru for 2 weeks to network with <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkCOSf44fOg">Tierra de los Ninos</a> and create a documentary on how plants and plant medicine heal individuals and society. Then the weekend we get back from South America I was going to drive straight up to Santa Cruz for Fire Drums to teach a workshop on contact staff manipulation and integrating custom animal martial art styles for dancing and performing. Oh, and sometime before June 1st I have to take my real estate license exam and create a Global Gratitude Garden seed and techniques database and community gardening effort. <br/><br/>How the heck am I supposed to submit Urgent Evoke evidence while all this is going on? Should I ignore the ARG and focus on the Real Life Responsibilities...?<br/>Learn 4: SearNettag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-24:4871302:BlogPost:622102010-03-24T23:30:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
People underestimate the amount of water nature makes available to us, free of charge. Even in arid areas, quite a bit of rainwater can be cheaply harvested with appropriate technology if a little time and effort is put into setting up a catchment system. <br></br><br></br>Unfortunately, rainwater capture systems can range from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars here in the United States, and there are few architects and contractors trained in proper installation. That means its mostly the…
People underestimate the amount of water nature makes available to us, free of charge. Even in arid areas, quite a bit of rainwater can be cheaply harvested with appropriate technology if a little time and effort is put into setting up a catchment system. <br/><br/>Unfortunately, rainwater capture systems can range from a few hundred to many thousands of dollars here in the United States, and there are few architects and contractors trained in proper installation. That means its mostly the realm of well-off do-it-yourselfers. <br/><br/>Thats why I was so happy to see the work of MAIMBO MABANGA MALESU and <span class="bodyheading">ALEX RAYMONDS ODUOR, from Zambia and Kenya. They work with <a href="http://worldagroforestry.org/projects/searnet/index.php?id=23&no_cache=1">SearNet</a>, a division of the World Agroforestry Centre dedicated to spreading rainwater harvesting technologies in Southern and Eastern Africa. <br/><br/>The best part about their organization is that it is run by Africans who have knowledge of available resources and design solutions that rely on existing assets. From <a href="http://worldagroforestry.org/projects/searnet/index.php?id=75">simple plastic lined reservoirs</a> to <a href="http://worldagroforestry.org/projects/searnet/index.php?id=71">micro catchments</a> for fruit trees and <a href="http://worldagroforestry.org/projects/searnet/index.php?id=69">water pans</a> for livestock, their ideas are locally appropriate and scalable.<br/><br/><br/></span>First Steps to Create a Gratitude Gardentag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-24:4871302:BlogPost:616112010-03-24T18:00:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br />
</span><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234187247?profile=original"></img></span></p>
<p><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">This idea has been inspired by several other Agents, from Agent McLellan's</span> <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/why-i-built-hyperlocavore-a">Hyperlocavore movement</a> to <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/next-step-community-urban-1">Agent Buentrostro's Community Urban…</a></span></p>
<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br />
</span><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234187247?profile=original"/></span></p>
<p><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">This idea has been inspired by several other Agents, from Agent McLellan's</span> <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/why-i-built-hyperlocavore-a">Hyperlocavore movement</a> to <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/next-step-community-urban-1">Agent Buentrostro's Community Urban Farms</a> , <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/introduction-to-urban">Garden Earth Project</a>, and even Agent Falconer's <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/lynedoch-ecovillage-follow-up">connection with the local ecovillage</a> and his heritage as a South African.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">I think all of these agents are on the right track, so I created the Gratitude Garden Movement as a way of making this work something anyone can contribute to and create a global resource for sustainable gardening practices.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">What is a Gratitude Garden?</span><br/></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></p>
<p><br/>Gratitude Gardens will be combination <a href="http://sei.groupsite.com/main/summary"><font color="#788F94">social enterprise incubators</font></a>, <a href="http://www.primalseeds.org/bioloss.htm"><font color="#788F94">living seed banks</font></a>, and community gathering spaces. Their goal is to give thanks for the gifts of those who came before us, and to create something future generations will be grateful to us for. <br/><br/><u><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Can I plant a Gratitude Garden?</span><br/></u><br/>Yes, but the first step is not planting.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong><u>First Step: Research</u></strong></p>
<ol>
<li>Find out what grows best in your climate, where you live.</li>
<li>Find out what edible and useful plants are native to your area.</li>
<li>Explore the food and nature-crafts that the indigenous people of your area created.</li>
<li>Learn about any colonizers to your area and what food they introduced.</li>
<li>What are some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_plant"><font color="#788F94">heirloom</font></a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landrace"><font color="#788F94">landrace</font></a> plants (or livestock) that grow your area?</li>
<li>What kind of indigenous cultivation and fertilization was used in your area? How did they ensure long-term fertility, instead of short term yields?</li>
<li>Does any of this appeal to you? Seem tasty, useful, interesting? What do you want to grow?</li>
</ol>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234187417?profile=original"/></p>
<p></p>
<p>So thats step one: find out about the edible and useful plants in and from your area, discover the rich cultural and culinary heritage that you've inherited from your ancestors and predecessors.</p>
<p></p>
<p><u><strong>Now can I plant the Garden?</strong></u></p>
<p></p>
<p>We're not ready to grow just yet. No garden should be an island (unless you live on one), we need to tie into larger networks to make sure your efforts and knowledge serve the community at large.</p>
<p></p>
<p><strong><u>Second Step: Make Contact</u></strong></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234187574?profile=original"/></p>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"></p>
<ol>
<li>Find local organizations you can team up with (don't reinvent the wheel) that support farming or gardening. It could be a government agency, a university, a nonprofit, or just a club</li>
<li>Interview local farmers and gardeners that still use traditional methods.</li>
<li>Ask them about fertility, planting, harvesting, and seed saving.</li>
<li>Working with your new contacts, find the seeds and cuttings to grow the plants that interest you. Maybe you get them from a farmer, maybe from a nursery, maybe a mail order catalog. Its possible you could share some really exciting ones with the groups or individuals that you've met...</li>
</ol>
<p style="TEXT-ALIGN: left"><img width="721" alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234187818?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024"/></p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>These first two steps are the most important part of the project. This Evokation isn't just about starting a whole new global effort, but helping YOU tie into existing ones and support them with traditional and new knowledge. The Third Step is to plant your garden, either in your home, or better yet in a community location.</p>
<p></p>
<p>But lets do these first couple steps first, then we'll truly be able to plant a garden that expresses GRATITUDE to those who came before, and will inspire future generations to give us thanks for safeguarding something truly valuable.</p>
<p></p>
<p>If you would like to participate in this Evokation, add the tag GRATITUDE to your blog, video, or photo. We'll be getting all this info on the wiki.<br/></p>Global Gratitude Gardens: Possible Evokationtag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-23:4871302:BlogPost:577652010-03-23T07:09:07.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
The last few days I've been doing alot of work in my garden. We mapped it all out using Google Sketchup:<br></br><p style="text-align: left;"><img alt="" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186248?profile=original"></img></p>
Whats not included in this sketch are my compost piles, the Chefs du Potager gardens along the top right section, the barn where we hold our workshops, or the propagation house. Still, I'm excited about how much we've mapped, and its all to scale and will be uploaded to Google Earth soon.<br></br><br></br>Tomorrow we're inviting dozens of community…
The last few days I've been doing alot of work in my garden. We mapped it all out using Google Sketchup:<br/><p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2234186248?profile=original" alt=""/></p>
Whats not included in this sketch are my compost piles, the Chefs du Potager gardens along the top right section, the barn where we hold our workshops, or the propagation house. Still, I'm excited about how much we've mapped, and its all to scale and will be uploaded to Google Earth soon.<br/><br/>Tomorrow we're inviting dozens of community groups to the barn to discuss building around 24 community gardens across town. They're going to come every other week and design and build a garden here in the shape of the raincross (which is the upside down bell on the map above), and then the alternate weeks go back to their community location (a church, a school, a hospital) and design their own gardens. <br/><br/>Then next do the hardscape. First with us, then their location.<br/><br/>Then the irrigation, same learn and apply. Then the pathways and raised beds. Then planting. Then learn how to find local partners and identify volunteers and resources in their community. Then harvesting. Then replanting.<br/><br/>All in the learn, then apply style, where they'll be emboldened to do projects they would otherwise not have the spark or courage to undertake.<br/><br/>Plus they'll be networked to support each other, and there will be a complementary city-wide vegetable exchange they'll participate in that will also interface with local soup kitchens.<br/><br/>Its an ambitious plan, but we've worked on similar stuff in the past and are just trying to use all the assets the community already has. We've been asked to do this enough times, we figured its high time we embarked on a serious, integrated plan.<br/><br/>So wish us luck, we're also going to be submitting the Garden Mosaic with its Veggie Exchange, Resourceful Gardens, and Sustainable Hub to the city public utility, the state Strategic Growth Council, and the Metropolitan Water Agency. <br/><br/>I'm thinking of building on this idea for a possible Evokation. I'll contact a few of the agents currently working on food and food security, and discuss my ideas for Global Gratitude Gardens. If you're interested, send me a message.<br/>What Is a Global Gratitude Garden?tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-23:4871302:BlogPost:578032010-03-23T07:00:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
I decided that I don't want to have my Evokation be a project that I've already started. The Garden Mosaic is underway, and has been a collaborative project from the whole team at <a href="http://www.growcology.com">Growcology</a>, so me submitting that to Evoke wouldn't be fair to them.<br></br><br></br>Plus, the whole point of Evoke is for us to initiate something new! So copying and pasting our current projects wouldn't be in the spirit of things.<br></br><br></br>However, it would also be foolish to not…
I decided that I don't want to have my Evokation be a project that I've already started. The Garden Mosaic is underway, and has been a collaborative project from the whole team at <a href="http://www.growcology.com">Growcology</a>, so me submitting that to Evoke wouldn't be fair to them.<br/><br/>Plus, the whole point of Evoke is for us to initiate something new! So copying and pasting our current projects wouldn't be in the spirit of things.<br/><br/>However, it would also be foolish to not build on the momentum that we already have. It would be a disservice to my partners in Growcology, and the Evoke Agents that I partner with, for me to not make use of all the assets and resources that we've already amassed.<br/><br/>So in that light, I've decided to take the principles at the core of Growcology and our Garden Mosaic and go global. The Mosaic is very grounded in California, so some changes will need to be made to make a truly replicable, global model.<br/><br style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"/><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">What will a Gratitude Garden be?</span><br/><br/>Gratitude Gardens will be combination <a href="http://sei.groupsite.com/main/summary">social enterprise incubators</a>, <a href="http://www.primalseeds.org/bioloss.htm">living seed banks</a>, and community gathering spaces. Their goal is to give thanks for the gifts of those who came before us, and to create something future generations will be grateful to us for. <br/><br/><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Can I plant a Gratitude Garden?</span><br/><br/>Yes, but the first step is not planting. The first step is research:<br/><ul>
<li>Find out what grows best in your climate, where you live.</li>
<li>Find out what edible and useful plants are native to your area</li>
<li>Explore the food and nature-crafts that the indigenous people of your area created</li>
<li>Learn about any colonizers to your area and what food they introduced</li>
<li>What are some <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heirloom_plant">heirloom</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landrace">landrace</a> plants (or livestock) that grow your area?</li>
<li>What kind of indigenous cultivation and fertilization was used in your area?<br/></li>
</ul>
So thats step one: find out about the edible and useful plants in and from your area. <br/><br/>Step Two will involve finding local organizations you can team up with (don't reinvent the wheel), interviewing local farmers and gardeners that still use traditional methods, and finding the seeds and cuttings to grow these plants. But first, what to grow?<br/>So you want a bunch of points on Evoke?tag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-21:4871302:BlogPost:536262010-03-21T20:30:00.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
I was asked by a couple people how to get ahead on here. I'm not sure<br />
if its worth it, the points are just for fun from what I've read, the<br />
real prize is all about our <a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/01/24/the-evokation-how-to-earn-evoke-awards-scholarships-mentorships/">Evokations</a>. But if getting points is<br />
important to you, here's what I've been doing:<br></br>
<br></br>
Add as many people from all different places as friends as you can.<br></br>
<br></br>
Never add a friend without giving them…
I was asked by a couple people how to get ahead on here. I'm not sure<br />
if its worth it, the points are just for fun from what I've read, the<br />
real prize is all about our <a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/01/24/the-evokation-how-to-earn-evoke-awards-scholarships-mentorships/">Evokations</a>. But if getting points is<br />
important to you, here's what I've been doing:<br/>
<br/>
Add as many people from all different places as friends as you can.<br/>
<br/>
Never add a friend without giving them at least 2 constructive comments<br />
or questions to their blogs and photos. Power voting is nice, but<br />
doesn't get their attention. Insightful comments usually do, but<br />
mindless cheerleading doesn't usually make them go check out your<br />
posts...<br/>
<br/>
Add all the active people as friends. You can tell who is active by the<br />
green online now thing, or better yet by the fact that they're posting<br />
content.<br/>
<br/>
Read their content.<br/>
<br/>
Give them worthwhile responses, constructive criticism, not just 'good job'. Thats what mentoring is all about.<br/>
<br/>
If you do that enough, people will notice you, then check out your content.<br/>
<br/>
Post great content: inspiring blogs, photos, and videos (most of you are already doing that).<br/>
<br/>
Rate your own content if you think it deserves it.<br/>
<br/>
<a href="http://blog.urgentevoke.net/2010/03/05/challenge-the-network/">Challenge the network</a>, start a game (you could join on <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/photo3-count-your-blessings">Agent Baird's</a> Photo contest if you want, but make sure they're <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/photo-1">thought provoking images</a>).<br/>
<br/>
The best thing you can do, and you already seem to be doing it, is<br />
taking action in your own life. In Kareemveer's case, <a href="http://www.urgentevoke.com/profiles/blogs/4871302:BlogPost:42108">building his own<br />
windmill</a> was really cool...<br/>
<br/>
Take it to the next level. Now hook it up to a voltmeter or a battery<br />
and make a video or take a picture. Build a bigger one and put it<br />
somewhere windy. Get some friends to do it too. Charge your phone or<br />
computer off it. Post a link to it on Alchemy's NEXTSTEP thread.<br/>
<br/>
Another really important thing is to link to other agents in your<br />
nextsteps and posts. The more stuff you do inspired by other agents,<br />
the more big point boosts Alchemy gives you. Ripping an agent off or<br />
plagiarizing gets you nothing, linking to a post that inspired you to<br />
create something can get you a 50 point bonus, AND a boost to the<br />
Agents that inspired you.<br/>
<br/>
Keep it up, you're on the right track, it takes a time commitment and<br />
some strategy. Make sure that you keep the Evokation in mind more than<br />
anything though, thats going to be the real test. This is just a warmup. <br/><br/>Feel free to forward this post to anyone who joins up...<br/>Life imitates a Gametag:www.urgentevoke.com,2010-03-18:4871302:BlogPost:432942010-03-18T08:22:25.000ZNick Heyminghttp://www.urgentevoke.com/profile/NickHeyming
The last few hours the President of <a href="http://www.growcology.com">Growcology</a> and our CFO were going over a $250,000 <a href="http://sgc.ca.gov/funding.html">Urban Greening proposal for the Strategic Growth Council</a>. We're perfectly situated to get it, but we need to do alot of work to prepare ourselves for such a large project. We'd either be submitting a proposal for networking gardeners and organizations around a food culture for just our city, or a statewide plan starting at…
The last few hours the President of <a href="http://www.growcology.com">Growcology</a> and our CFO were going over a $250,000 <a href="http://sgc.ca.gov/funding.html">Urban Greening proposal for the Strategic Growth Council</a>. We're perfectly situated to get it, but we need to do alot of work to prepare ourselves for such a large project. We'd either be submitting a proposal for networking gardeners and organizations around a food culture for just our city, or a statewide plan starting at home and scaling across city and county lines from Mexico to Oregon.<br/><br/><br/>
I keep being struck by the parallels between the projects we've been<br />
working on for over a year now and the ideas floating around Evoke. Everyone is talking about Urban Farming, and we've got a proposal we've pitched to the city, the universities, the churches, and the hospitals that does that and more.<br/><br/>Its weird to me to be preparing something like this, it just seems unreal that we've reached this point. Our ideas are good, but there's so much work still to be done. And we don't have any money committed to the project yet. We made sure to include revenue streams into each facet, but in the end we'll need grants to make it happen.<br/> <br/>I wonder when I see these <a href="http://www.refresheverything.com/chocolate">pepsi challenges</a> and <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Pages/home.aspx">huge foundations</a> if I'm dropping the ball by not applying for them as well. Am I wasting time here on Evoke that could be better spent somewhere else? Is the World Bank even going to bother helping with a program in a rich country like USA that will cost many times more than one in Africa, South America, or Asia?<br/><br/>I love the possibilities for Evoke, but I may not be able to be on here as much as I'd like. There are things I need to do to get my company up and running, to make sure that we don't have to scrimp and scrounge for every seed packet or sprinkler head. <br/><br/>I'll try to keep giving people feedback, but the real world is beckoning...<br/>