2014 CONVERSATIONS ON LOCAL AGRICULTURE
Hosted by Work in Beauty, a local Gallup 501(c)3 organization

Date: Saturday, October 18, 2014
Time: 11 am – 4 pm

Venue: UNM-Gallup Student Services Building, Room 200
Cost: Free

PROGRAM TO INCLUDE THE FOLLOWING:

**Brad’s presentation on Harnessing Free Water from Streets, Dirt Roads, and Driveways to Grow Abundance:
Local Harvests and Enhancements in Our Community Commons
In populated environments, streetscapes are part of our public land, our commons. They are abundant—one-third of a typical city’s footprint is pavement for motor vehicles. These streetscapes are usually designed as drains, rapidly ridding a community of such perceived “problems” as rainwater, stormwater, organic matter, fertility, and obstructions to traffic flow. This design often leads to ever-increasing costs for importation of water, flood control, pollution control, heat-island abatement, climate-change mitigation, and health problems.
But a simple shift in perception and design can enable us to see and utilize rainwater, stormwater, organic matter, fertility, and even some obstructions to traffic flow as free, local resources, which can be passively harvested to enhance local water supplies, control flooding, filter pollutants, grow cool-islands, mitigate the effects of climate change, and improve health—while generating more resources and more life.
The key is to see and enhance the free abundance that we already have in a way that transforms more of our built systems into living systems that can regenerate themselves and our communities.
Numerous successful examples will be featured.
**Walking tour of campus with Brad to learn to see through a lens of possibility
**Three Sisters Potluck Lunch with Presentation of Awards to winning Demonstration Projects
**Brad’s presentation on Water Harvesting for Food Production:
Food is virtual water—originating from the source of irrigation. Local, sustainable food is all the rage, but we can take it further by growing that food with local, sustainable water. This talk covers the growing of food using rainwater, stormwater, and greywater for irrigation. Case studies include rain-fed greenhouses, dryfarming, backyard market gardens, granada greywater groves, and climate-appropriate traditional and appropriate plantings.
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>>Attendees are encouraged to check out the following resources before the Conversations:
Let the Water Do the Work, by Bill Zeedyk & Van Clothier (available for purchase)
Water Harvesting from Low-Standard Rural Roads, by Bill Zeedyk (available as free download)