321: Adam Brock on Social Permaculture.
Attuning our minds to social permaculture solutions.
Adam is a facilitator, author, and designer working at the intersection of urban agriculture, sustainable business, and social change. As co-founder of The GrowHaus, Adam helped transform an abandoned half-acre greenhouse in Colorado’s most polluted zip code into an award-winning hub for urban agriculture. The GrowHaus engages thousands of low-income residents per year, grows 1500 heads of lettuce per week, and has a million-dollar annual budget.
A certified permaculture designer since 2008, he is active in the local and national permaculture communities. In May 2017, Adam released his first book, Change Here Now: Permaculture Strategies for Personal and Community Transformation (North Atlantic Books). It is a “recipe book” of solutions for social change grounded in ecological principles.Don’t miss an episode! Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
In This Podcast:
When given the opportunity to make an abandon greenhouse become useful Adam Brock and a few friends created the GrowHaus. He has traveled many places focusing on the invisible structures of permaculture design and has crafted a course that teaches how to see the needs and make a difference in your community. He tells us how this came about and why he was encouraged to write a book on a topic that is not well known. Adam helps explain many permaculture concepts that are important but often left undeveloped when discussing the stages of design.
Listen in and learn about:
- Growing up in Denver and going to New York University making up his own major
- Looking for solutions and getting a permaculture design certification for college credit
- Starting with the GrowHaus with an abandoned building, some friends, and an idea
- His definition of permaculture: Meeting human needs while restoring ecosystem health
- Teaching permaculture classes and coming up with design solutions
- Getting encouraged to write a book about social permaculture
- Invisible structures and social permaculture
- Expanding the Overton Window
- Edges in permaculture – in ecosystems, and in communities
- Regenerative systems – an important concept in permaculture
- Understanding externalities and how they have cost consequences
- What his new book on social permaculture offers
- Attuning our minds to social permaculture solutions
As well as:
- His failure – The time he applied for a job that he felt he would be great at doing and would be a perfect fit, but found out his colleague got it
- His success – Creating Growhaus and seeing that it is still doing what it was intended to do
- His drive – Curiosity, and a desire to heal
- His advice – Identify the people in your community who are engaging in the world in a similar mindset, and spend as much time with them as you can, and nurture those relationships
Books written by Adam:
Adam’s Book recommendations:
Website: AdamBrock.me
UrbanFarm.org/AdamBrock
Don’t miss an episode! Click here to sign up for weekly podcast updates
