Center for Civil Society International ([email protected])
Thu, 26 Mar 1998 16:43:12 -0800 (PST)
Sender: [email protected] (Carol Vesecky)
Subject: Biointensive for Russia, Update
Biointensive for Russia
http://www.igc.org/biointensiveforrussia/
The public is cordially invited to participate in a fundraiser evening for
Biointensive for Russia, to be held at St. Mark's Parish Hall in Palo Alto
March 29, 1998. The evening's proceeds will support environmentally sound
gardening and mini-farming workshops to be held in St. Petersburg in May
(following workshops in Uzbekistan, see below), and will feature exhibits
of Uzbek and Russian handicrafts, Russian jewelry and other objects for
sale, Russian and Uzbek songs, and Uzbek dance, as well as a delicious
meal including borsch, plov, and pirozhky!
Enabled by the Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development
and USAID, a delegation of four will fly to Tashkent on Earth Day, April
22, to present Biointensive workshops to farmer groups, a future farmers'
organization similar to our 4H, a businesswomen's group, ecologists, and
others in the Tashkent, Nukus, Chirchik, and possibly Samarkand regions of
Uzbekistan. The three-week visit, funded by USAID as part of its
Farmer-to-Farmer program, will be followed by the week of workshops in the
St. Petersburg area funded by Biointensive for Russia.
The team will include two professionals in Biointensive and organic
agriculture: Patrick Williams, co-director of the Homeless Garden in Santa
Cruz, and Dr. Maria de la Fuente, farm advisor with U.C. Cooperative
Extension in Santa Clara County. Both have years of hands-on teaching
experience. Traveling with them will be Darina Drapkin and Carol Vesecky.
Darina is a native Russian speaker with a background in Biointensive seed
production and in running a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) project.
Carol, who speaks Russian and has experience in organizing exchanges with
the Former Soviet Union, is directing this project and will help present
the introductory material on Biointensive. Joan Spannagel is offering
coordination assistance; Dr. Craig Kolodge is backup team member.
Joined in St. Petersburg by Larissa Avrorina from Novosibirsk and Albina
Kochegina and Natasha Krestiankina of St. Petersburg, the team will
co-present workshops in Pushkin at the Russian Agricultural Academy and in
St. Petersburg at the School for Young Naturalists. Interest in
Biointensive has been nurtured in Russia for years by sales of the book
Kak vyraschivat' bol'she ovoschei... (How to Grow More Vegetables...).
To fund the St. Petersburg workshops and to enable several participants
from other parts of the western FSU to attend, BfR needs to raise $5000 or
more. To reserve your space at $15 (less with work exchange), please call
Joan Spannagel at (650) 968-7925 or Susie Mader at (650) 857-0658. For
information about the fundraiser, the Uzbekistan and St. Petersburg
workshops, and/or the program in general - including illustrated
newsletters, contact Joan S. or Carol Vesecky at (650) 856-9751, fax
424-8767, e-mail <[email protected]>, and do your best to join us for
our evening in faroff lands!
Biointensive for Russia , a four-year-old project supported by Ecology
Action, was formed following the publication in 1993 in Moscow (with
support from the Peace Corps) of 50,000 Russian-language copies of the
bestselling primer by Ecology Action's executive director John Jeavons,
How to Grow More Vegetables.... The concept was to extend a helping hand
to dacha gardeners and mini-farmers in the former Soviet Union by helping
them provide the vegetables, fruits and grains to enable their families
and friends to survive their winters with more of the nutrition necessary
for health. Since then 10 Eurasians have participated in 3-day workshops
in California. We are working on a 2nd Russian edition of the Jeavons
book for publication this year.
BiointensiveSM Sustainable Mini-Farming is a program developed by Ecology
Action for the production of a sufficient global food supply using
available local resources with the potential of maintaining 100%
sustainable soil fertility.
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Carol Vesecky, Director * * * * * * Biointensive for Russia
ph 650-856-9751 * * * * * * 831 Marshall Drive
fax 650-424-8767 * * * * * Palo Alto, CA 94303-3614
<[email protected]> http://www.igc.org/biointensiveforrussia/
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