Eric Toensmeier - Writing the Carbon Farming Toolkit

He joins us to talk about his next book, which he is seeking to support with a crowd-funding campaign via Kickstarter. That book Eric is working on, and needs your help with, examines perennial solutions to stabilizing and reducing the impacts of climate change, and to help bolster a reduction of fossil fuels, including an eventual transition to a petro-chemical free future.

Our conversation, though a bit nerdy at times, expands the thinking on potential yields in a system, and how we can creatively respond to change. I find his decision to use crowd-funding as a model fascinating because of how it connects authors and producers with their audience, allowing them to combine efforts to create works of value in a way equitable to everyone involved. Here is the idea of collaboration, not competition, being used in a horizontal way.

His kickstarter campaign runs until April 30th. At this point he's not quite halfway to his goal, but making steady climbs, including my own donation to his cause. He and I got a little geeky on the industrial perennial possibilities, but I keep turning over all those yields, many of which I didn't know about. Milkweed (Asclepias L.) is of particular interest because it grows readily here in central Pennsylvania and is the host species for the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippu). What other creative or novel solutions exist we haven't begun to consider yet? What ways have you thought of to make a difference with permaculture that's new to you?

I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below.

The two articles that form the genesis of Eric's book can be found here:
Perennial Staple Crops of the World
Stabilizing the Climate with Permanent Agriculture

Resources:
Eric Toensmeier
Perennial Solutions
Kickstarter Campaign for Writing the Carbon Farming Toolkit.