Out of the blue!
It came as a surprise to us to find that PTF’s urban homestead received a mention and listing in “Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices,” a book by Peter Newman, director of the Institute for Sustainability and Technology Policy at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.
We got wind of this mention from a fellow blogger. Of course, we got curious of what was written about our project.
When the book came yesterday, we anxiously opened it up to see what he had to say and were pleasantly surprised to read:
Conclusion of Chapter 9
page 214
An inspiring demonstration of how we can begin now to have more sustainable production and consumption at the household level, is provided by and American family that has been their suburban block to a productive garden since the mid 1980’s. The “organic permaculture garden” that the Dervaes family has created provides them with food all year round. They also run a salad green business for local restaurants which helps to fund the purchasing of solar panels, energy efficient appliances and other technologies to to reduce their dependence on nonrenewable resources. The Path to Freedom project, founded by Jules Dervaes in 2001, aims to promote a “simple and more fulling” way of life. The Path to Freedom website is full of stories, photos, and information about the Dervaes family’s journey. The opening page of the website features a stirring call to action [written by Jules Dervaes]
Let’s face it. Our world is in deep, deep trouble and we are the “troublemakers.” We have to make real, difficult changes yesterday.
Despite the obvious benefits, we are not going to recycle, compost, or talk our way out of this.
Our leaders, being politicians, are not leaders at all but are bound to be followers, who just won’t be there for us in a crisis. So, it’s up to me and you to make the choice of becoming responsible stewards of the earth.
Let’s turn the world right side up as demonstrated through this website. Join us on our journey towards a sustainable present and future. Let’s walk the path to freedom!
And in the back of the book, we were also pleased to see another nod to our extensive website:
page 267
Path to Freedom – Urban Homesteading
www.pathtofreedom.com
Thank you, Mr Newman, for the acknowledging our 20 year urban homesteading journey.
We also appreciate his recognition, especially since he took Jules Dervaes’ powerfully written intro of the PTF website, which Mr Newman so rightly called a “stirring call to action.”
We are especially gratified that after many, many years of hard work we earned such an acknowledgment.
Like copy? GreenLAgirl is giving away a free book.
Congratulation to you all! You are worthy every word. It´s so nice to see people doing something for the planet, not just talking!
/Yvonne
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That’s WONDERFUL!!! What a true reflection of your accomplishments! Omedetou gozaimasu (congrats in Japanese) now I’m off to go enter in the book give-away.
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Congratulations! That must be so exciting for you!
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