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About Big Green Summer

A ten-week intensive course in ecological design, including permaculture design certification At Big Green Summer, you live in a lab for what you are learning - powered by the sun and wind, in buildings made of local, natural materials, eating fresh from your own garden every day. With your classmates you will attend national/regional conferences, do public service projects in the community, intern at farms and green businesses, design and build in our shop, play music, and lots more!

Mission

Education and practical experience in sustainable living and creating sustainable communities in the areas of

agriculture
building and community design
transportation
energy and waste treatment.

Courses

Short Permaculture Course: May 3-5, 2008. Details coming soon.

Permaculture Design Certification Course: May 31 - June 14, 2008. Details coming soon.
10-week Summer Internship: a.k.a. Big Green Summer, 2008 -- May 24 - July 27. Details coming soon.

Directions to Surya Nagar Farm, Fairfield, IA

Philosophies

Do the best you can in the place that you are, and be kind.: - Scott Nearing
We are charged with designing the future, not being victims of it.: - R. Buckminster Fuller

Testimonials

"Being an intern here in Fairfield has made an incredible difference in my life. I feel more at home in the world, more in my place, than I ever have. I can no longer see the world as a place of scarcity, where resources are jealously coveted. I now see abundance everywhere; in the sun, wind, waters, forests, and in each other."

- Brian Robbins

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About Fairfield and Surya Nagar Farm

Surya Nagar Farm, Fairfield, IA, currently hosts our permaculture courses and Big Green Summer program. A substantial grant from the Iowa Great Places project has enabled us to buy property located next to Abundance Ecovillage and begin construction on a permanent campus for our programs.

We are just a bike ride away from all that Fairfield is becoming famous for, including the Abundance Ecovillage (founded by Big Green Summer director Lonnie Gamble), cafes, bookstores, art galleries, 10 vegetarian restaurants, the best whole foods store in rural America, and a University. In 2006, Mother Earth News Magazine selected Fairfield as "One of the 10 Best Places to Live That You Have Never Heard Of" Mother Earth News Article. In 2006, Fairfield earned the Great Places designation by the state of Iowa. Fairfield has the highest concentration of solar and wind powered homes in Iowa and possibly in the entire midwest Student wiki with case studies of energy projects in Fairfield.

Fairfield, IA:

One of the 12 Great Places You've Never Heard Of, according to Mother Earth News
Recognized as one of Iowa's Great Places, 2006
Home of Maharishi University of Management and headquarters of Transcendental Meditation in the U.S.

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Interviews & Readings: Free Downloads

Introduction to Sustainable Design (a.k.a. Iowa Mayors' Sustainability Reader)
Vandana Shiva on Agriculture (audio)
Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food Movement (audio)
Wendell Berry on a local economy (audio)
David Orr on a Just Future that runs on Solar Energy (audio)
Top permaculture designer Doug Bullock on Iowa Plant and Soil Resources (audio)
2007 Powerpoint promotion for Big Green Summer ?

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Articles by Lonnie Gamble, Founder

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Related Projects

Renew Fairfield: This community-created site is a comprehensive resource for sustainable living in the Fairfield area.
Abundance Ecovillage: Just 3 miles east of Surya Nagar and just north of Fairfield is an intentional community that aims to be self-sustaining.
Professor Lonnie Gamble: Lonnie teaches at MUM and other regional colleges, and he has a wiki-powered site for his students.

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