Local government and permaculture principles

Welcome Looby!

I work in State Government in Virginia in we are looking for innovative policies or perhaps even relaxation of current policies that would encourage permaculture principles and more widely the locavore movement in our state. We would love to have you come for a visit and perhaps speak about your book and thoughts on how local governments can aid/hinder this process.

I would of course also love a copy of your book to share with others working toward the same goals here in the commonwealth.

Hope to meet you in person some time.

Jay C. Ford
jaycford@gmail.com

Hi Jay,
I live in the UK so a visit would be a challenge!
However I do think you will find lots of useful things in my book to help you to understand how the permaculture principles can be used in local government. In the 4th part of my book I have written about -living in society - where we are now - where we want to be - and how do we get there. In the how do we get there chapter I explore governance and facilitating cultural shifts. This would be relevant to your situation. Throughout the book I also look at the design process (with a new design framework that I created called the design web) - this design process is a useful framework for you to use with colleagues to engage them in change.
Looby

i would like to see state and local governments making suggestions of food forest in parks and cityscapes, planting fruit bearing bushes and plants around fruit or nut trees and maybe on earth or arbor day giving away food bearing plants to families..

I think it's unlikely to expect governments to make innovations like that, I think it's up to non-government people to spearhead these efforts and if they are able, to get government support. But I don't think we can expect governments on any level to be proactive in appropriate change. Projects such as Seattle's Beacon Food Forest seem to start at the community volunteer level, not the governmental level.

Detailed information about how to approach local governments for support in projects like food forests would be extremely helpful!