Thriving Resilient Communities: Adapting to Climate Uncertainty from Cuba to California

The UCSC Common Ground Center is hosting an event with John Valenzuela on February 8. In the Kresge Garden at twilight, this evening event will feature a permaculture garden tour, potluck, slideshow, and discussion with internationally-renowned horticulturist John Valenzuela.

How might we have food resilience amongst climate uncertainty? What might we in California learn from Cuba's pioneering initiatives in food and farming? This November a delegation of permaculture designers, farmers, and global citizens converged in Cuba for the 11th International Permaculture Convergence to explore these questions, and discover solutions to our collective problems.

Join John and other participants of the International Permaculture Convergence in Cuba for a report-back slideshow, followed by World Cafe conversations where we discover what collective actions we might take to build thriving, abundant, and resilient food systems in the face of an uncertain climate future. With the driest year on record, and some of the coldest weather in the past 20 years, this seems like a timely conversation.

John Valenzuela is a horticulturist, consultant and educator who has returned to his home state of California after living in Hawaii for 15 years. While he has studied, practiced, and taught permaculture extensively in the Hawaiian Islands, he is also a lead or team teacher of permaculture courses at the Bullock Family Homestead in Washington State and throughout California. His special interests are home gardening, food forests, rare fruit, and other trees; traditional agriculture, ethnobotany, and native ecosystems; and plant propagation.

This event is sponsored by UCSC's Common Ground Center at Kresge College. The mission of the Common Ground Center is to “create cultural change for social justice, environmental regeneration and economic viability”. The Center hosts a series of public lectures and workshops based on this mission, as well as undergraduate courses, two themed residence halls, and a range of student-led activities. A list of subsequent talks, and more information, can be found at kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground.

“Thriving Resilient Communities: Adapting to Climate Uncertainty from Cuba to California” with John Valenzuela is Saturday, February 8, 2014. This event will be located in the Kresge Seminar Room from 5 – 8 PM. It is free and open to the public. To ensure health and safety, visit our potluck policy at http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground/about/potlucks.html Parking is $3 in the Core West Parking Garage. More parking information is online at http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground/about/parking.html

Common Ground Center, Email: commonground [at] ucsc.edu
Web: http://kresge.ucsc.edu/commonground
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/commongroundcenter
Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/592669710803314