Early Involvements in Eugene
Early in my living in Eugene, I became involved with a vegetarian group that organized monthly meetings advocating a vegetarian lifestyle. We showed the video “Diet For A New America” and put on the ever popular turkey free Thanksgiving dinners for many years. We organized a big event featuring John Robbins, author of “Diet For A New America” that packed a 1000 person capacity high school auditorium.
I also became involved with forest activism. Although most of the old growth Douglas Fir forest in this region had been devastated years ago, there were still appreciable areas of old growth on BLM managed areas and Forest Service property with a high level of protected status. A large fire in 1995, known as Warner Creek, burned almost nine thousand acres in the Cascade foothills just east of Eugene. That area was designated as “late successional reserve.” That's not wilderness but one level of protection less. The Forest Service wanted to salvage log the area but also determined the fire was caused by arson.
Forest activists, and there were many activist actions in the Northwest those several years in the mid and later 1990’s, rose up against the salvage logging idea saying cutting the trees would reward the arson. To prevent the logging, dozens of people came together to construct a camp on the logging road leading to the burn area. Over the months of occupation, there were teepees constructed, tents, trenched roads and even a stockade fortification with a small drawbridge, right over the top of a multi foot deep trench excavated across the road. The National Geographic had an issue about the Pacific Northwest at that time that featured a great photo of the activist crew posing on top of and in front of the fortification. An image reminiscent of the wild west.
The campaign to stop the logging was an inspirational effort with lots of moving parts. Part of the blockade was during the winter, the location on a north facing slope so snow accumulated up to 6 feet deep. Some people stayed almost the entire winter, others rotated at the camp, others organized food, supplies, transportation, publicity and moral support. My task was ride coordinator from Eugene up to the site.
One activist camped out in front of the Federal Courthouse on a juice fast for 75 days to bring the protest into urban Eugene. Finally, in the summer of 1996, the blockade was broken but the salvage logging plan was abandoned by the “Freddies.” Warner Creek would be left alone, a very colorful story.
Yet another activist campaign in the late ‘90’s was intended to stop the construction of a large computer chip factory in the west Eugene wetlands. The development plan was hatched out with no public input and would require many financial, utility and infrastructure giveaways from the city of Eugene to multinational Hyundai Corporation in exchange for new jobs. At full buildout over several years, the plant would employ 3000 workers. Phase one, at the start, would create about a thousand jobs.
Citizens For Public Accountability was born to push back against the plan citing the public give aways, tax breaks, stress on community infrastructure and water, risk of hazardous chemicals trucked around Eugene, damage to protected wetlands and the whole deal made with minimal public involvement.
CPA met weekly for well over a year with meetings that typically attracted 50 to 60 people. There was an impressive brain trust that included a Harvard trained public interest environmental attorney, professors from the University of Oregon in the fields of chemistry and sociology. A highly experienced professional environmental scientist and there were dozens of people with different skills from the community including the writer of the Primer.
The short story. We did a lot of education to the public about the issue. We sued Hyundai for clean water violations during construction [no chemicals involved with the lawsuit,,, only muddy water] and settled out of court for $150,000. Money from the suit went to grants for various non profits and initiatives in Eugene that benefited water and wetlands wellbeing.
Phase one was completed and did create 1000 jobs but ten years later, the 1.5 million square foot factory was closed. Markets change, tax breaks end, business plans move on. The building has been empty for over 15 years with various nibbles of interest from various potential owners. Still waiting, a massive, sprawling hulk in the wetlands. A testament to the magic of the market place.
Another outcome of the efforts against Hyundai is that CPA raised a lot of consciousness and many wonderful friendships were made. CPA crafted a Eugene specific, community public right to know law which now requires local businesses to report hazardous chemicals they use and how much they use in amounts that go far beyond what the government requires.
One more involvement during this time. Many members of CPA were part of the opposition to the so called West Eugene Parkway. The Parkway would be a divided, but not Interstate grade, by pass, parallel and near to the admittedly congested West 11th Street. The entire reason for the highway would be to indulge more cars, spread out land use development and easier commutes into Eugene from nearby Veneta and Elmira, home to many people who commute to Eugene for work.
The Parkway was eventually scuttled, brought down by various issues like 4[f], funding, segmentation and public opposition. Plus, the gusher of money to support new highway construction has been in decline for years. Meanwhile, one landowner threatened to sue the City of Eugene for theoretical lost investment income on its 200 acre property near the proposed highway route because no parkway meant no surge in property value from being near the proposed Parkway. That failed law suit took a lot of nerve.
So these were all important, highly educational and formative collaborations during my early years in Eugene. A vegetarian diet remains a smarter food choice than ever. Forest protection, a huge chip factory, a new highway were all about facilitating development and turning nature into money. They were all efforts to diminish the consumer culture lurching forward.
During this time, many of the people involved with CPA crafted an alternative to the mayor’s yearly State of The City Speech. We addressed traffic, environmental, ethical and development issues in a far more progressive way than the middle of the road [so to speak] mayor. We had very good media coverage during several years producing The Citizen’s State of Eugene.
My first eight or nine years in Eugene were full. There was plenty of recreation but also involvement in community affairs. During this time, I rented a room in several different places. One location for four years was in a large house with intentional cooperation. We bought basic food together and took turns cooking dinner. This was a great experience with 7 or 8 people.
The shared house came to an end. I rented another house with a fellow I knew, but not well enough. We both ended up almost at blows. The guy was dealing pot from the house. Both of us had to move out. I took a break and went to Europe for several months and was witness to how the Italians fretted and worried about being unprepared for the Y2K computer changeover. Italy did survive, I had a wonderful time biking and exploring and made my first acquaintance with Sardegna.
Interestingly, I made several work trades for accommodation. I painted murals for wonderful places to stay I would never have managed if I had to pay money. I enjoyed local cuisine and made a lot of friends on the Amalfi Coast; Avola, Sicilia and Cala Gonone, Sardegna for a dive business, where I not only had a spectacular place with a view of the Med to hang my hammock but I also did a lot of scuba diving.
Be The Change - Anecdotes From Jan's "Paradigm Shift Lifestyle"
One Earth Lifestyle?
I will describe my own lifestyle and how it relates to paradigm shift. Earlier in the Primer, I shared a good bit of my autobiography. What follows is more specific to paradigm shift and be the change in recent years. My activism over the years has included nuclear power, food choices - go veggie, salvage logging, inappropriate economic development, opposing highway construction.
More recently, my activism has followed my own learning curve to put more attention on the consumer culture, to me, the cause of just about every problem we have including all the issues I and many others opposed. At the same time, I do have a focus and that is urban land use, even more specifically, suburbia and transportation while I always frame those interests as examples of the many problems produced by the consumer culture. My own suburban property is core to my platform of activism, an experiential tool and asset for my own activism. Every day my place is a reminder of what paradigm shift can look like.
Not everyone has the same access to time or assets for devoting to activism. Still, everyone has some capacity to help move paradigm shift forward. I am grateful for what I have to work with - good luck but also good management. The Primer is here to share with the reader, aspects of what I have learned from personal discovery and from others that have been very useful for me. I hope they are useful for you.
Please share what you learn about paradigm shift with others.
Below is a duplicate to Be The Change - Anecdotes from Jan's paradigm shift lifestyle.
Jan’s Short Bio
My own back ground is totally middle class. During those Wonder Years, I was a good student, secure family life, interest in geography, living in suburban homes in a rural subdivision near Fishkill, New York State, Dallas and another rural subdivision near Denison, Texas. Ecological concerns came to my attention in high school where I also had some interactions with the authorities that left me skeptical of the “System.” That was the late 1960’s.
In college years I was introduced to organic gardening and was drifting towards a vegetarian diet while low skill summer jobs left me keen to avoid conventional employment. A few years after college, I lived for two years in an Arkansas Ozark back to the land intentional community with an assorted group of older hipsters, idealistic drop outs and peaceniks. The iconic self improvement book “I’m Ok, You’re Ok” gave us a set of terms and behavior to structure our discussions to work out our "issues" in our weekly interpersonal meetings.
After Sassafras ended, a year in New Zealand included some political activism with focus on New Zealand environmental issues and pushing back on the American global military footprint.
All my life, I always seemed to fall in with the “right” kinds of people. I never had a fixation on a career and my parents were not overbearing. One brother had a Phd in biochemistry and post doc research at Yale and my other brother, both older, had a career as an MD with specialty in radiology. My BA in Geography was very modest in comparison.
More low budget travel in the 1980’s included adventures all over Europe and then Kenya overland to South Africa, back to Kenya and return to Europe, all told, almost 4 years. I learned very little of the world lived in a society dominated by cars, suburbia and freeways. All that American consumer culture did not seem to make Americans happier than people in other parts of the world with far less stuff.
Back in the US, never married, no kids, I was able to accommodate my own interests which lead me towards a low cost way of life, self employment painting murals and a high level of self determination and time for personal exploratio
I was never heavy into drugs. Certainly plenty of pot although I was never a frequent user. Several times LSD, several times mushrooms. My worst drug experiences, maybe 3, were too much pot in edible form. Full recovery. I think the respectful and “sober” use of cannabis and mushrooms has value.
Activism during the 80’s included protesting nuclear power, organizing and participating in Earth Days, hanging out at Pacifica radio station KPFT when I lived in Houston, taking a Permaculture Design Course in Austin about 1990 and making bike powered political statements in Houston’s infamous Road Side Attractions Parade.
In 1991, after my mother died, I moved to Eugene, not knowing anyone but well aware the diverse geography and the well known counter culture of the Pacific Northwest was likely a better fit for me than Texas.
The move to Eugene has turned out well. With mural painting jobs paying the modest bills of an intentionally modest solo lifestyle, there has been time for involvements with groups advocating vegetarian food choices, opposing the construction of a huge computer chip factory, the campaign to stop proposed salvage logging on thousands of acres of protected forest land that had been burned by an arson fire and a group I was involved with helped stop a local highway project.
Civic Engagement
Immediately upon moving into this River Road Neighborhood, I was drafted to run for a position on our neighborhood association’s executive board. Before then, I didn’t know what a neighborhood association [NA] was.
Many cities have neighborhood programs that support NAs which are made up of residents of the neighborhood and exist to make the neighborhood a better places to live. NAs are a nursery for building civic culture and learning skills for working with others.
Typically, an NA has an elected board. It usually meets once a month with programs of value to the neighborhood. It can have committees to address different issues. An NA communicates with the neighborhood, interacts with the city, it can organize events, its agenda is made up by those who participate.
We have had meetings that included food storage, neighborhood preparedness and resilience, permaculture, traffic issues, homeless and zoning changes. Our NA organized a wonderful event this past fall in the Greenway along the Willamette River. There were neighborhood groups, bike safety check up, apple cider making; kids and water biology; produce exchange, habitat restoration tours, permaculture, song circle and a lot more.
Engaging with our neighborhood association has been one of the most enriching social experiences of my life. NAs offer many opportunities to learn civic skills and reach out to the wider community.
Basic Lifestyle Ideals
The wisdom of the world’s great spiritual traditions is inspirational and practical. Here are 5 examples of that wisdom and note, they all support each other.
1] Modesty of lifestyle – a modest lifestyle – a small eco footprint is good for home economics, the planet, the spirit and paradigm shift. It can free up time for personal positive actions and with others.
2] Care for the natural world – we can protect and restore the natural world by how we manage our own time and money, guided by care for the planet and selective disengagement from the consumer culture.
3] Service to the community means helping to make where we live a better place. That’s participating in the life of the neighborhood and creating civic culture with friends and neighbors.
4] Uplift of the spirit. We recognize animating the spirit for positive outcomes is a critical part of sustainability, paradigm shift and lifestyle. A positive spirit creates positive interactions and raises the vibe of the community and humanity.
5] Accountability for our actions – Accountability recognizes our personal impacts and connections to others and the natural world and brings us back every time to modesty of lifestyle, care for the natural world, service to the community and uplift of the spirit.
Eco Footprints
Do I buy stuff? Of course. I buy eye glasses, peanut butter, a computer, electricity, home owners insurance, skil saw, cordless drill, second hand clothes, a bike. No jewelry, no tattoos, no shelves full of nick knacks, no fancy sound system. I still use magnetic cassette tapes. No junk food. No cell phone. Two years ago, I gave away my truck to a local non profit so I am now, gratefully, car free.
Having a modest eco footprint [at least by middle class standards] is a core ideal for paradigm shift and my own lifestyle.
The Global Footprint Network calculator described in Aspects is a great way to gain more of an understanding of one’s own consumption. You can find the calculator online. HERE is the link.
The calculator. This calculator asks many questions about lifestyle - food, shelter, transportation, past times and more. One answers the questions, hits enter after all the questions and the calculator provides a score - how many planet earths would be needed for everyone in the world to have an eco footprint like yours. Of course, the same one earth eco footprint can look very different for different people.
The calculator is not perfect. One very important lifestyle feature the calculator does not address is, do you have any kids? And how many? That is an enormous omission. Children are the beginning of new chains of consumption. Those offspring and their offspring will have further impacts on the environment. Also, the calculator could ask more questions about self production of food, energy and transportation. Still, thoughtfully answering the questions is a very useful self examination.
Point by Point - Here are the questions and my short answers in order they appear in the Global Footprint Network calculator. Following this account, I will describe my own consumption in a more nuanced way.
Here we go.
Q - How often do I eat animal products?
A - Almost every day. But very little. A pound of cheese lasts me a month. Wild salmon maybe once a year. Ice cream on occasion. Eggs, when my neighbor has extra. That’s it. No beef, lamb, pork, chicken.
Q - Do you eat food that's been packaged, processed, locally produced?
A - A small amount of packaging, yes. Soy milk in the ubiquitous half gallon carton, plastic bag for chips, bulk tempeh and bulk granola arrive in plastic bags. The calculator does not ask about home food production. I produce 95% of my own fruit and veggies and store it at home in a variety of ways including freezing, dry, pickled, live in the ground, buckets of grain and beans.
Q - Housing type. What construction materials for your home.
A - Wood. No adobe, no straw, no bamboo, no brick or concrete other than the slab. My home is constructed from totally conventional materials. That said, the south side patio has been closed in purposefully with passive solar intentions. On cool sunny days, I use a fan to blow warmer air into the main house. My ADU is well insulated, includes passive solar features but is still common post and beam with framing between the 6 inch posts. The ceiling is about R 50.
Q - How many people live in the house. What’s its size? Electricity? Energy efficient? What percentage of electricity is renewable?
A - Four of us live on my property. Housemates are not a part of my footprint calculation but all of our footprints are smaller because we share house amenities instead of each having our own. I share the house kitchen and bathroom because my personal living space has neither. House size including my detached ADU, one car garage to living space and outdoor patio becoming indoor passive solar is about 1700 ft2.
Electricity, from the grid here in Eugene, is mostly wind and hydro, a bit of nuclear. Housemates use both standard electric space heaters and heat pump. The place requires multiple layers of clothes in the winter time. The calculator does not ask about solar. I have a solar hot water heater. My passive solar spaces, both in the main house and ADU, produce “significant” space heating in the cool part of the year. I use a fan to circulate the warm solar air into other spaces.
Q - How much trash do you produce? Answer by item.
A - Clothes, minimal. Appliances, minimal. Electronics/gadgets, minimal. I recycle paper. Most plastic goes in the trash. Occasional book purchased. No subscription to hard copy magazines or newspapers, reading mostly on line. Minimal household furnishings. As mentioned above, there is “some” food packaging - chips, tempeh, soy milk.
Q - Travel and Transportation.
A - I am a passenger in a car every few weeks and then mostly nearby. The calculator does not ask if you are car free. I do not have a car or motorcycle. My bike is muscle powered.
Q - Fuel Economy
A - No vehicle. The calculator does not have a choice to say no vehicle.
Q - How often Modes of Transportation
A - The calculator asks how often do you take public transportation or carpool. For me, virtually, no bus, train, metro, carpool because Eugene is small enough and I like bike riding anyway so a bike is my primary transportation all year, rain or shine. Recent out of town trips to Portland and Seattle were made by train.
Q - How many hours do you fly each year.
A - I have flown to Europe three times in the past 3 years. That's maybe 22 hours of flight each trip. My near one earth footprint score does not include trips to Italy. Flying to Europe does make a significant difference to the size of my eco footprint. My eco footprint is still a work in progress. Hard to say no to Alghero and Porto Conte Parco Regionale con la bicci.
The footprint calculator is an important educational experience. It has some shortcomings but still, it serves an important purpose - to call attention to our own lifestyle and the consumption of energy and resources it requires. And to help identify aspects of our own lifestyle we can cut down on to reduce our eco footprints.
A Bit More Detail - Lifestyle/Footprint Meets Priorities of Time and Money
I explained the idea to prioritize time and money in the chapter on Aspects of paradigm shift. Its a concept fundamental to paradigm shift. Let’s do a refresh.
“Prioritize time and money” is a concept to organize one’s actions in terms of their own goals. Priorities + time + money = actions.
I bought this quarter acre suburban property with a high priority for using this place for reducing my eco footprint, diminishing my participation in the consumer culture and producing income and significant basic needs such as food, energy, water, aesthetics here at home. I also wanted to show what a permaculture transformed suburban property could look like and encourage others to do likewise. At the time, 25 years ago, I was not using the term "paradigm shift" but my intentions at the time were to encourage alternatives to the mainstream and consumer culture. I have been counter culture oriented since high school. HERE is more of my bio that provides more context.
Here is a very brief look at my property transformation, then a bit more nuance to the footprint calculator questions.
Early on, I sheet mulched the grass, I bought water storage tanks and planted a dozen fruit trees. I helped a friend remodel the one car garage into a living space so I could have another living space to rent. Several years after moving here, I helped a friend re-build my passive solar sun room. Other projects included taking out my driveway, building a 400 ft sq detached passive solar ADU, adding a 3000 gallon water storage tank and hosting literally thousands of people over the years to show and tell what a suburban property can become.
Instead of those, and other, productive actions, I could have bought a fancy home entertainment center and spent untold hours watching TV. Home entertainment would not have helped me accomplish my goals.
The inside of the house is retro, it has never been remodeled. Same floors, fixtures and counter tops in the kitchen and bathroom as when it was built. My priorities have been function rather than fashion. A kitchen remodel, even for this small house could easily cost 30 to 40K.
Instead of granite counter tops, I have an edible landscape, 6500 gallon rain water system, garage turned into living space, solar hot water, heat pump and a large passive solar space. My detached living space was an investment that has been paid back years ago.
I have a well developed set of priorities for my time and money - from general goals to particular projects. Twenty five years later, I am enjoying many benefits from those smart choices, every day.
You can read more about my property transformation HERE.
The following is a closer look at my own lifestyle through the lens of prioritizing time and money and reducing my eco footprint. Again, I refer to the questions taken from the footprint calculator.
Food Choices - My diet is vegetarian, close to vegan. Home based food production of fruit and veggies was a primary goal here from the beginning. I love having a garden and the place does require ongoing upkeep, many tasks are seasonal and require a fair amount of time like pruning, planting, harvesting, storage. As a result, my edible landscape and veggie garden provides me with close to all my fruit and veggies. I have two freezers full of what I've grown and more food stored in ways that does not need electricity.
Here is a list of the edible landscape – 5 apple trees, 3 pear trees, 2 peach trees, 2 walnut trees, 2 fig trees, 2 varieties of grapes, mulberry, hardy kiwi - grocery store size kiwis still to come, lots of brambles - domestic blackberries and Marionberries, a dwarf nectarine, a lemon tree and several potted citrus. I have cured my own olives, in small amounts and am now beginning to produce almonds. Planted but not yet producing is a dwarf apricot.
There are culinary herbs. My food production on site exceeds my needs. Starting in late May, something is producing in seasonal sequence through January. Cherries, mulberries, marion berries, black berries, figs, peaches, apples, pear, grapes, English Walnut, hardy kiwi, nectarine. HERE is a link to my plant list.
I give away fruit and veggies I can’t use.
My veggie garden typically has tomatoes, cukes, fresh beans, summer and winter squash, onions, leeks, cabbage, leafy greens, broccoli, celery, lettuce, fava beans.
Food storage - some produce keeps at cool temperatures while I freeze a lot. Deep freezers are quite energy efficient. I make grape juice, pickles, and sauerkraut. I dry tomatoes, pears and peaches. Many veggies keep well in the ground, still alive, over the fall, winter and into the spring such as leeks, beets, carrots, celery, cabbage. I can fruit for jam on occasion with a friend.
We have a food buying club among nearby neighbors so we purchase in bulk at lower cost from a local natural food wholesaler. [we will learn about visionary Hummingbird Wholesale later] I have many months of dry beans and grains stashed in 5 gallon buckets here and there around my place. The bulk of my diet is organic: beans, rice, olive oil, oatmeal, pasta. I can buy tempeh and tofu from the local maker at costs much less than the mainstream grocery store. I also buy some items from a food co-op with a storefront.
From the regular grocery store, I buy soy and almond milk, sometimes marinara for pasta, and various sauces to add different taste to my base of rice, veggies, beans, tempeh. Nutritional supplements include nutritional yeast and ground flax. I do not buy heat and eat food. I buy raw sugar, sea salt, chips and hot sauce from the co – op. There are other odds and ends but the point for food is, I have a very healthy vegetarian diet and my priorities of time and money make that diet very economical. Eugene is well known as a great place for vegetarians and access to healthy food. There are untold local organic farms, CSAs farmer’s markets, many places to buy organic along with local manufactured foods like granola, flour, tempeh, tofu and more.
Home Life
The footprint calculator asks multiple questions about shelter. My home is mid 50's suburban. When I bought it, the house had 1050 square feet, two bedrooms and a one car garage. I have made some changes. Early on, a friend and I remodeled the one car garage into a living space making the place a three bedroom house. The south side patio, already closed in, was rebuilt with half the ceiling becoming glass to create a 350 square foot passive solar space that provides significant heating to the main house on sunny days in the cool season and serves as a thermal barrier on the south side of the house. The solar space never has a temperature below forty degrees Fahrenheit. Its a wonderful place to enjoy being inside and outside at the same time.
The inside of the house is retro, it has never been remodeled. Same floors, light fixtures and counter tops in the kitchen and bathroom as when it was built in 1955. My priorities have been function rather than fashion.
Seven years after moving in, I built a 400 square foot detached passive solar accessory structure, ADU, which is now my living space. The project was started with a contractor. Early on I took over and did most of the work myself. I still use the kitchen and bathroom in the main house. So the property now has 4 bedrooms and 4 people to increase residential density and that reduces the eco footprint for everyone who lives here.
The place produces or conserves a useful amount of energy. Early on I had a glycol solar hot water heater installed and it has paid for itself long ago and saved a lot of electricity over the years and has put less CO2 in the atmosphere. It provides all the needed hot water for over half the year, significant amounts of hot water much of the rest of the year and in our cloudy and chilly winter time, it still preheats water from 55 degree ground temperature to 70 or 80 F before the electric tank warms it to a shower temperature.
The house has been heavily insulated. The place also has a heat pump, thanks to a financial incentives from our public utility. Heat pumps are far more energy efficient than most other forms of space heating or cooling.
In the winter time, we keep bedrooms and the kitchen cool/comfortable but the larger living room stays mostly cool. There is certainly room for improvement with energy savings but the low hanging fruit has been harvested.
I use the word we. I rent rooms to three housemates. There is no need for me to live here by myself. One way to reduce eco footprints is to share my home with others instead of building more suburbia further out into the surrounding farmland. I give a break on rent to housemates who are car free by choice. Housemates have access to garden space. We are all vegetarian. Being a landlord was a new experience 25 years ago. Overall, sharing my place has been a positive experience.
I catch and store 6500 gallons of rainwater. The rainwater is used for the garden although water from the food grade plastic 3000 gallon tank could easily be made potable if necessary. Note, one inch of rain collected from 1000 square feet of flat ground yields about 550 gallons. My tanks fill easily in the winter. With careful water management and a couple inches of summer rain, I can go without using city water through the entire dry summer although the plants would probably prefer more water. Many summers I run out and use city water for the garden. I could use another 3000 gallons of storage.
My 6500 gallon water storage would not be remotely enough to last over the summer for three peoples' domestic needs AND the garden even with more summer rain than usual. Eugene's Mediterranean climate means summers are very dry.
Like almost everything we use, water is tragically under priced so the money invested in storage tanks would take decades to repay in terms of avoiding the cost of city water. Still, my place is made far more resilient with its 6500 gallons of water storage in case there is some kind of disruption. Resilience to disruption was a high priority from the start and trends only make my water storage system look better with each passing year.
I have been vegetarian for over 40 years, no tobacco, a beer once or twice a month, occasional cannabis. Always lots of exercise and activity and a positive attitude. Creating this living book is a wonderful project. I love having projects and will keep adding to the book as long as I am able.
It's hard to quantify how a healthy lifestyle translates into money saved. Most would agree that an active lifestyle with exercise, healthy food choices, social engagement, meaningful projects and positive attitudes all benefit one's health and well being. More than likely, I have avoided a “significant” amount of medical expense over the years with a purposeful healthy lifestyle. That’s a desirable outcome that also benefits paradigm shift. Money and time saved by not needing the doctor can instead be invested in paradigm shift, home improvement projects or donated to a worthy cause, just to name a few options.
If the entire country had healthy lifestyles, our society could avoid hundreds of billions of dollars every year repairing damage to people and the planet and instead, invest that money in paradigm shift.
Life Without A Car
We live in a society dominated by cars. Our urban places, millions of jobs and the entire economic system depends on cars and their related infrastructure, services and products. There are almost as many cars, trucks and motorcycles in the US as there are people and the ecological, public health and social consequences are enormous. There are something like 8 or 10 parking places per car in the US. Multiply that figure times well over 150 million cars and trucks and you have a paved area about the size of Rhode Island and Delaware, combined.
A nationwide priority to shift from cars to sensible planning, train, transit and lifestyles would free up trillions of dollars from cars to sensible use like paradigm shift. At home scale, people can make these changes with no permission. I knew a family of five that was car free by choice and living in a more benevolent form of suburbia.
I finally gave my truck away in the summer of 2023 although for the previous decade I used it only a couple times a year and only for nearby errands. Like most of us, having a vehicle involves a great deal of inertia. I had my own car, van or truck since high school. It's a tough habit to break and for most people, living without a car is not easy. I love not having a fossil fueled vehicle.
A muscle powered bike is my primary transportation. I have two bike trailers, one for larger loads, the other for smaller. I ride the bike no matter the weather. For the US, Eugene is a good bike town and my location is near a major bike route along the Willamette River away from cars. I go months without riding in a car and far longer without driving a car at all. I would go electric with a bike if necessary.
I recently took a local bus with my bike to a town on the coast and then took another bus to another town further north on the coast. I returned by bike 20 miles with awesome views of the ocean to the first town for the early evening return bus to Eugene. A one day bike ride vacation for $20 and no car.
The footprint calculator does not account for a car free lifestyle. When I respond to the question that I rarely use public transportation, it's not because I am driving, it's because in modest sized, relatively bike friendly Eugene and my own love of bike riding, I ride a bike instead of taking transit.
My footprint splurge is flying. My three months in Europe three times over the past three years is my carbon skeleton in the closet. The trips are all very low budget. Always with a bike and low cost adventures with Italian friends or on my own. But the carbon footprint from flying is the same as someone in business class.
What Do I Buy?
I buy food as described above, subscriptions on line to the New York Times, CNN, Guardian, AP, occasional bike repair, occasional used clothes, occasional computer upgrade. I bought a used point and shoot digital camera but now use a smart phone camera my nephew gave me although I don’t use the phone as a phone but I can use other features. I still have a landline. I pay for trash pick up and recycling. I do buy some garden seeds and plant starts along with co-pays for the occasional medical need. I gratefully have Medicare.
I buy cat food, probably a slight bump to my own footprint. I bought some used furniture for the house years ago. I bought water storage tanks, two used 1600 gallons and one new 3000 gallon tank. One of my first investments was a solar hot water heater. Later a heat pump and a galvalume metal roof, the best surface for a rainwater system. I spent $25 K on building materials, some professional services and permits for this passive solar structure I live in.
I had the usual expenses of a car – insurance, occasional repairs, gasoline. I don't have those expenses anymore. The money saved gives me more freedom. What I buy is a good indicator of my priorities of time and money and there is still work to be done.
Activity
Here are several more short anecdotes of my low overhead lifestyle.
I spend a lot of time at home taking care of all the features here at my place – food, water, solar. I maintain all the permaculture stuff but also am the land lord and property manager for my housemates. If the washing machine doesn’t work, I have to fix it. If a drain gets clogged, I have to fix it. I have to pay the bills, taxes, and insurance.
I garden, prune lots of fruit trees, process and store food. I spend a lot of time writing about paradigm shift. I do periodic zoom presentations and put them on youtube. I am on the board of my neighborhood association so that means attending many neighborhood meetings. I love organizing events. HERE is more about our neighborhood association.
Food
I devote a lot of time to the kitchen. Not because I am a gourmet cook, I eat very simply but very healthy and that takes time. I have been vegetarian for 40 years. Almost all my fruit and veggies are home grown and food I buy is mostly organic and a good part of that is locally produced.
My typical dinner salad changes with the seasons but is mostly fresh even in the winter time. A lot comes from on site - cabbage, lettuce, celery, lemon, carrots, apple, beet, kale, dill pickles. Dinner always includes frozen veggies from the freezer in the cool season and fresh in the harvest season, beans, squash, tomatoes, leeks, fava beans along with dried beans, olive oil, nutritional yeast, rice and a few other items from the store.
Breakfast is typically store bought oatmeal with frozen home grown peaches, mulberries, strawberries and marionberries. I add my own dried peaches, dried pears, walnuts, filberts gleaned from a nearby grove to store bought granola. I have a solar drier. Breakfast oatmeal and granola is enhanced with store bought soy milk. Afternoon snack, apples from home and Costco Adams Natural crunchy peanut butter in the 64 ounce plastic tub when I have fresh apples during apple season or PBJ sandwich when I don’t have apples. A snack for lunch is enough. Dinner is my primary meal.
I like to correspond with friends who live in other parts of the country and world. And I love to just sit in the dark and contemplate. And of course, listening to music, mainly fusion jazz heavy on the sax and 60s/70s rock is a very enjoyable part of my life. I love to read about geography, anthropology, space, nature, language. I often listen to documentaries and news spoken in Italian to improve my comprehension and language skills. On youtube, I struggle with scrolling down past the monster, disaster and Clint Eastwood movie highlights in favor of the history, space, anthropology and science documentaries.
Educational Output
My own version of be the change includes several educational outputs, a monthly radio program for three years, production of 4 educational posters [another in the planning stages], organizing dozens of site tours, public speaking and being the primary lead for the 2015 Northwest Permaculture Convergence, a suburban permaculture convergence. And of course, A Primer For Paradigm Shift. Here’s a look.
For three years, I had a radio show on our local Pacifica Network station. The program’s title was “Creating A Preferred Future.” The show was monthly and focused on paradigm shift. There were interviews and my own thoughts about the condition of our society, permaculture, urban land use, pushing back on cars and describing eco villages. The program pointed to people and projects actively creating alternatives to the consumer culture. HERE are some podcasts.
I stopped the program because it was simply taking too much time to produce multiple versions of the show. The radio production was a great experience! Non commercial community radio has a big part to play for paradigm shift. I still produce one 50 minute radio program once every three months for Spirit In Action Radio in Minnesota. HERE are productions for Spirit in Action.
Over the years, I have helped organize dozens of site tours of permaculture properties in Eugene. Literally thousands of people have visited my place to see what suburbia can become. Our neighborhood hosted the 2015 Northwest Permaculture Convergence at our neighborhood rec center. We figure close to 700 people participated.
I have self organized speaking tours on the West Coast and Northeast, making presentations in far flung places from Oakridge and Coos Bay to Yale and MIT. I have made other presentations in Seattle, Ventura, Spokane, Salt Lake City, Green Mountain College, Santa Cruz; Lawrence, Kansas; Long Island Post University, Sacramento; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Oxnard, California and more locations.
Our neighborhood was the site for the 2015 Northwest Permaculture Convergence, the largest permaculture event of the year in the Northwest. Our neighborhood recreation center was a “Permaculture University” for the weekend. Our neighborhood association was a big help. We had site tours, plenary sessions, workshops, outdoor expo and much more. Out of town visitors camped in the back yards of people in the neighborhood. We figure about 700 people participated one way or another. I was the lead organizer.
We hosted a tour group that came to Eugene for the Neighborhoods USA conference several years ago. We did a show and tell of permaculture sites in the neighborhood with many visitors from out of town. A frequent comment we heard was, “I had no idea people were doing all this re working to suburban properties.”
Not All Activism
One of my favorite pastimes is biking. Sometimes to the University of Oregon to throw the frisbee. My level of skill is advanced. I love simply playing catch, heaving the frisbee for throws over fifty yards with all kinds of acrobatic curves and drops, often wind assisted. Eugene and the University of Oregon are known as frisbee hot spots. Plus, the ride to UO is on a paved bikeway almost entirely along the river with no cars for the majority of the 3 miles and I love it. The bike way passes through parks, open space, there's a big rose garden, playgrounds, habitat, community gardens, even a grassy beach by the River. I also go for modest rides outside Eugene's city limits into the nearby hills. I love to climb hills on my recumbent.
Trips to Europe are all very low cost. I have biked and camped along the French Riviera, south Germany, biked all around Lago di Como, made a 5000 foot descent from Bernina Pass, Switzerland to Tirano, Italy; camped and biked in Croatia, Latvia and Toscana. Visits to Ostia Antica, ancient Rome’s port city and Pompeii have stretched my imagination by gaining an idea of what life was like in those remarkable places 2000 years ago.
I lingered for an hour in a thermopolium in Ostia Antica, basically, a fast food outlet open to the street for the common people as few people at that time had their own kitchen. There was a counter to order what you wanted, have a drink, places to sit. This thermopolium was spacious, had vaulted ceilings, it would have had art work, all in a residential area of multi story insulae - apartment buildings. One could just imagine friends meeting and talking about current news or gossiping about people they knew. I love anthropology.
I love using new words in Italian. I am in love with Sardegna and have biked and camped all over that island. I rented an apartment in seaside Alghero for 3 months in the fall and winter of 2024 - 25. Alghero’s lungomare [along the sea] is one of my favorite places in the world, a 3 kilometer long promenade where people simply are out walking, seeing friends and enjoying the awesome views of the sun setting into the Med out past Capo Caccia.
In past years, I have surfed in many places including South Africa, Raglan in New Zealand, Baja California, Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, the Canary Islands and many places in Oregon. Several of the closest times to my own death have occurred while surfing. Years ago, I paddled a hard shell kayak through the Grand Canyon. Eighteen days with friends in the Canyon was a lifetime highlight. We were like a nomadic group setting up a new camp every night. I biked the Shafer Trail near Moab and rode my recumbent from Tucson to El Paso on back roads and over Onion Saddle in the Chiricahuas.
I have a very high quality of life and no question, it leans heavily on the affluence I am surrounded by. Would I have had all these experiences in a sustainable society? Certainly not so much distant traveI. I think even idealistic downsizing advocates like myself have only a vague idea of what sustainability would be like even if by enormous luck, our society actually made the transition to sustainability. On the other hand, I think it's a fair guess, sustainability would offer other experiences that could be just as memorable, perhaps even better, without so much damage to the planet and loss of civic culture.
A Day In The Life Of Jan and Friendly Neighborhood
The following is an account of a recent day of be the change activism, a site tour in another Eugene neighborhood. Certainly, this was an exceptional day. I have organized lots of 20 or 30 site tours over the years so a tour like this is unusual. Here is a description of the day at home and then the tour. Friendly Neighborhood is, perhaps, Eugene's most progressive neighborhood. The tour visited several impressive neighborhood initiatives.
The morning of the Saturday tour, I had to water my back yard garden. I water by hand. The garden is not large enough to set up a drip irrigation system. I tried that long ago. Setting up the system and keeping it adjusted took more time than it was worth. I use three different rain water tanks for different parts of the garden. This is the back yard of a ¼ acre property, its not tiny but its not huge either. Its a big home garden with multiple odd shaped beds plus what’s inside the greenhouse, which is covered in the winter and cover removed in the summer time.
One source of water is the 3000 gallon tank. That water flows to a 55 gal barrel in the green house. I dip a 2 gallon metal water can into to the barrel and then take it to where I am watering, back and forth 20 or 30 times. Another source is a 1600 gallon tank, I use a garden house for another area. The flow is nowhere near the pressure of city water but its enough to simply let the water flow onto the veggies. The last source is a 55 gal barrel that takes water from the roof that is stranded from the parts of the roof that flow into the larger tanks. Again, dipping the watering can into the barrel. I enjoy the watering and can make sure everything has a good soaking.
I finished watering and had time for breakfast. Oatmeal with egg from a neighbor and lots of freshly picked mulberries and marion berries.
Time to go.
It's a 25 minute bike ride to Friendly Neighborhood, the tour site. I passed by Eugene’s very colorful Pride march and event at the fairgrounds. On to Common Ground Garden, in the midst of a 60’s era suburban neighborhood. Friendly Neighborhood is very green, very well maintained, some gentle hills and an unusually large number of front yard gardens. Maybe half the homes have some edibles, either gardens, fig trees, peaches, apples.
Lots of people are out walking and biking on a nice weekend morning. I think Friendly is Eugene’s greenest neighborhood. That's why we are here for the site tour - to see several impressive small cooperative projects that completely fit in with paradigm shift.
Common Ground Garden was having its weekly work party. The garden is part raised beds and part ground level although the garden surface is probably well over a foot above the original soil level. Fifteen years ago, several Friendly neighbors illuminated on the idea of turning an unused city street right of way into a garden. The street in this suburban area was simply never built. Maybe because the slope includes a basically slow motion stream. The original surface before the garden was very soggy coming off a hillside.
The neighbors went to the city with the garden idea, the city was receptive and provided a few reasonable hoops to jump through and within 6 months, ground was broken with a big work party. Fifteen years later, the garden is going strong. Beautiful veggies! So lush. The garden is cooperative, there are no private plots. It is self managed, independent from Eugene’s very successful community garden system.
The garden work party was animated, seven or eight people. A couple work party people shared some history of the gardens. I provided some context for the tour explaining this and other site tours point the way towards a preferred future of sustainability and civic culture, saying we see that right here at Common Ground Garden. Mention was made of a wetlands restoration project nearby and also two acres of open space in another part of the neighborhood that was saved from suburban development when neighbors came together to buy the property and leave it as it is.
Such a nice setting. We left for our next destination several blocks away, a corner residential property densely planted with both veggies but also many useful shrubs and small trees. Jake is very much a plant enthusiast. We had a great look around his corner garden with his friendly little black cat joining the tour. Jake pointed out all the unusual and healthy plants. We all agreed one of the benefits of such a nice place is its simply fun to do the work and the self made environment is good for one’s personal well being such as a nice table and chairs in the shade to have breakfast or to take a break.
Time to go. Our next destination was the Friendly Toolbox Project. Located in a small wooden structure with several solar panels above, on the edge of a church parking lot, the Toolbox Project is another great story. Neighbors have organized a small but robust tool lending library. It's all very well organized, all volunteer. Users simply pay a small amount to check out all kinds of tools with the focus on home do it yourself projects. We saw a sump pump, lawn mowers, ladders, chop saws, drills, extension cords. Our neighborhood association will rent two apple presses for our own event by the river in September.
A tool library builds community and reduces costs. There is no need to buy tools that one needs only a few times a year. While we were there, half a dozen people came in to check out tools or to return what they had borrowed.
Our final destination was a residential home on a very leafy street where all the 1960's era homes are well taken care of. Some with a grassy front yard, many with native plants, some gardens, some ornamental. Those of us left for the site tour were brought into the tidy back yard and outdoor table on the porch. Our host described the organization she had with nearby neighbors to enhance their collective preparedness in the event of a disaster or disruption.
She had multiple weeks of food stored, a go bag, a couple hundred gallons of water in closed barrels. Most interesting is her planning with neighbors. She and nearby neighbors have an inventory of what tools people in the network have in case of an emergency, where are the pets, who has special needs. They have a place, next door, to meet and hunker down if necessary. Nearby streets have similar networks. Not all the neighbors are part of the planning but they will all be included if they like, if there is disruption.
There are many benefits to disaster planning. Perhaps the most important is just knowing our neighbors. As explained in other parts of the Primer, once neighbors know each other, they can cook up any kinds of collaborations they like, using preparedness as their point of departure.
So we ended our site tour. What fun! During our visit, another aspect of Friendly was the many people out in the suburban streets walking, biking, out in their front yards, there were yard sales. A look at a day in the life of Friendly Neighborhood.
So I returned home, did some reading. Then with the sun lower and temperature cooler, I harvested veggies from my garden. This is a vital part of my life here at home. I store food I produce for later use. For veggies, that usually means freezing. I picked beans, squash, peas and broccoli. I steam them lightly, put them on a cookie sheet to cool to room temperature, then into the deep freeze overnight. Out they come the next day, I put the frozen veggies in freezer bags for the winter time. My two freezers are loaded.
I am not religious or particularly spiritual. No “practice” of any kind. But I do believe in positive human potential. We are very influenced by our surroundings. The consumer culture simply does not encourage the best in people. Humans can do better and they deserve better.
To be the change is to help bring about a society that can exist within the boundaries of the natural world and a society where bringing out the best in positive human potential is a high priority. Again, the wisdom of the world’s great spiritual traditions points the way towards that preferred present and future and permaculture is a big help.
Posters
Another educational project. Years ago, I had the idea to make educational posters. By that time, I had made many presentations, some still on youtube and lots of experience from my own projects, so I had a good deal of content to share. I designed and had printed three different 24 by 36 inch posters. They are basically slide shows on paper. Images of the posters are on my website. HERE are the posters. They all have photos and graphics with captions explaining the ideas and images. The posters are colorful and very informative.
The three posters are Transforming A Suburban Property, Front Yard Gardens and Creating Safer and More Secure Neighborhoods. I had thousands of copies made. Costs for printing go way down when you use offset printing. Photo copies would be prohibitively expensive. The quality of offset for images and text is remarkable.
About six years ago, my thinking had evolved further into the realm of paradigm shift so I produced another single poster, 18 by 24. The newer poster is more political and economic - “Creating Green and Resilient Homes, Neighborhoods Economy and Culture.” I have both sold and given posters away. Thousands have gone out to most states in the US, South America, many dozens in Europe, Taiwan, some places in Africa. HERE is the newer poster.
Summary - Thoughts About Be The Change
Paradigm shift and be the change is not about a total abandoning of our current society and lifestyles. As mentioned elsewhere in the Primer, the mainstream society provides many products, services and assets that can assist paradigm shift. There are a wide range of environmental and social public interest organizations who are already allies to paradigm shift. We take a closer look at that topic later in the Primer. Tools as diverse as the internet and cement saws have an important role to play for paradigm shift.
There is no shortage of time and money. Paradigm shift comes down to our personal choices and how we prioritize our own time and money. Paradigm shift means we overcome the social engineering we all grew up in that diminishes our capacity to imagine alternatives to the consumer culture and instead calls out for the best in positive human potential.
Being the change is what our own personal actions look like on behalf of paradigm shift, ourselves, friends, famiies, communities and planet. When we combine our actions with others with similar interests, the scale of social, economic, environmental and even political transformation can expand further into the mainstream.
Every individual's "be the change" story will be unique. Paradigm shift is called for in every conceivable location - school, at work, at play, at home, in the neighborhood, waiting in a line. Everywhere. Being the change makes visible our own choices of what paradigm shift can look like. We learn from others and we share what we learn with others.
We have an enormous movement in waiting.
Key words and actions - reduce eco footprints, prioritize our own time and money, discover allies and assets, resensitize, offer encouragement. What are our own capacities that can serve paradigm shift? Check out the footprint calculator. Organize a site tour.
Idealistic? Yes. Do we deserve a healthy society and healthy planet? Yes. Idealism can become reality. Do we have time to reach sustainability and uplift? A good case can be made we need to move a lot faster than what we see at the present time.
To be the change is paradigm shift at the personal level with many benefits starting with our first efforts. One thought for sure, the more people being the change, the better. Positive human potential is our greatest renewable recourse.
High Tide and Subsidized
With affluence and the consumer culture, at present, still close to its historic high point, one might suppose downsizing lifestyles by choice makes no sense. This is the best of times for many millions, including myself. Just live it up. But pushing back on inertia makes a lot of sense. Making paradigm shift changes to lifestyle are likely easier and smarter amidst the high tide then in the potential social, economic, political and lifestyle disruption that seems all but unavoidable, given the trends.
So is it ok to buy the cheap tools and complete the sustainability projects with cheap materials now while we still can to help prepare ourselves for turbulent times when much of what we take for granted now may not be so easily available? That could be an ethical question with a difficult answer or a practical question with an easy answer.
My own suburban transformation project makes my choice clear. Just about everything I have described about my own suburban transformation has been made possible by the availability and the affordability of inputs to accomplish making this place far more resilient, prepared and moving towards sustainability.
We do have many allies, assets, tools and opportunities to work with for helping to create a positive movement towards sustainability at home and in our communities while we can. All that starts with how we manage our own time and money. We all deserve far better than the consumer culture and so does Planet Earth.
Early in my living in Eugene, I became involved with a vegetarian group that organized monthly meetings advocating a vegetarian lifestyle. We showed the video “Diet For A New America” and put on the ever popular turkey free Thanksgiving dinners for many years. We organized a big event featuring John Robbins, author of “Diet For A New America” that packed a 1000 person capacity high school auditorium.
I also became involved with forest activism. Although most of the old growth Douglas Fir forest in this region had been devastated years ago, there were still appreciable areas of old growth on BLM managed areas and Forest Service property with a high level of protected status. A large fire in 1995, known as Warner Creek, burned almost nine thousand acres in the Cascade foothills just east of Eugene. That area was designated as “late successional reserve.” That's not wilderness but one level of protection less. The Forest Service wanted to salvage log the area but also determined the fire was caused by arson.
Forest activists, and there were many activist actions in the Northwest those several years in the mid and later 1990’s, rose up against the salvage logging idea saying cutting the trees would reward the arson. To prevent the logging, dozens of people came together to construct a camp on the logging road leading to the burn area. Over the months of occupation, there were teepees constructed, tents, trenched roads and even a stockade fortification with a small drawbridge, right over the top of a multi foot deep trench excavated across the road. The National Geographic had an issue about the Pacific Northwest at that time that featured a great photo of the activist crew posing on top of and in front of the fortification. An image reminiscent of the wild west.
The campaign to stop the logging was an inspirational effort with lots of moving parts. Part of the blockade was during the winter, the location on a north facing slope so snow accumulated up to 6 feet deep. Some people stayed almost the entire winter, others rotated at the camp, others organized food, supplies, transportation, publicity and moral support. My task was ride coordinator from Eugene up to the site.
One activist camped out in front of the Federal Courthouse on a juice fast for 75 days to bring the protest into urban Eugene. Finally, in the summer of 1996, the blockade was broken but the salvage logging plan was abandoned by the “Freddies.” Warner Creek would be left alone, a very colorful story.
Yet another activist campaign in the late ‘90’s was intended to stop the construction of a large computer chip factory in the west Eugene wetlands. The development plan was hatched out with no public input and would require many financial, utility and infrastructure giveaways from the city of Eugene to multinational Hyundai Corporation in exchange for new jobs. At full buildout over several years, the plant would employ 3000 workers. Phase one, at the start, would create about a thousand jobs.
Citizens For Public Accountability was born to push back against the plan citing the public give aways, tax breaks, stress on community infrastructure and water, risk of hazardous chemicals trucked around Eugene, damage to protected wetlands and the whole deal made with minimal public involvement.
CPA met weekly for well over a year with meetings that typically attracted 50 to 60 people. There was an impressive brain trust that included a Harvard trained public interest environmental attorney, professors from the University of Oregon in the fields of chemistry and sociology. A highly experienced professional environmental scientist and there were dozens of people with different skills from the community including the writer of the Primer.
The short story. We did a lot of education to the public about the issue. We sued Hyundai for clean water violations during construction [no chemicals involved with the lawsuit,,, only muddy water] and settled out of court for $150,000. Money from the suit went to grants for various non profits and initiatives in Eugene that benefited water and wetlands wellbeing.
Phase one was completed and did create 1000 jobs but ten years later, the 1.5 million square foot factory was closed. Markets change, tax breaks end, business plans move on. The building has been empty for over 15 years with various nibbles of interest from various potential owners. Still waiting, a massive, sprawling hulk in the wetlands. A testament to the magic of the market place.
Another outcome of the efforts against Hyundai is that CPA raised a lot of consciousness and many wonderful friendships were made. CPA crafted a Eugene specific, community public right to know law which now requires local businesses to report hazardous chemicals they use and how much they use in amounts that go far beyond what the government requires.
One more involvement during this time. Many members of CPA were part of the opposition to the so called West Eugene Parkway. The Parkway would be a divided, but not Interstate grade, by pass, parallel and near to the admittedly congested West 11th Street. The entire reason for the highway would be to indulge more cars, spread out land use development and easier commutes into Eugene from nearby Veneta and Elmira, home to many people who commute to Eugene for work.
The Parkway was eventually scuttled, brought down by various issues like 4[f], funding, segmentation and public opposition. Plus, the gusher of money to support new highway construction has been in decline for years. Meanwhile, one landowner threatened to sue the City of Eugene for theoretical lost investment income on its 200 acre property near the proposed highway route because no parkway meant no surge in property value from being near the proposed Parkway. That failed law suit took a lot of nerve.
So these were all important, highly educational and formative collaborations during my early years in Eugene. A vegetarian diet remains a smarter food choice than ever. Forest protection, a huge chip factory, a new highway were all about facilitating development and turning nature into money. They were all efforts to diminish the consumer culture lurching forward.
During this time, many of the people involved with CPA crafted an alternative to the mayor’s yearly State of The City Speech. We addressed traffic, environmental, ethical and development issues in a far more progressive way than the middle of the road [so to speak] mayor. We had very good media coverage during several years producing The Citizen’s State of Eugene.
My first eight or nine years in Eugene were full. There was plenty of recreation but also involvement in community affairs. During this time, I rented a room in several different places. One location for four years was in a large house with intentional cooperation. We bought basic food together and took turns cooking dinner. This was a great experience with 7 or 8 people.
The shared house came to an end. I rented another house with a fellow I knew, but not well enough. We both ended up almost at blows. The guy was dealing pot from the house. Both of us had to move out. I took a break and went to Europe for several months and was witness to how the Italians fretted and worried about being unprepared for the Y2K computer changeover. Italy did survive, I had a wonderful time biking and exploring and made my first acquaintance with Sardegna.
Interestingly, I made several work trades for accommodation. I painted murals for wonderful places to stay I would never have managed if I had to pay money. I enjoyed local cuisine and made a lot of friends on the Amalfi Coast; Avola, Sicilia and Cala Gonone, Sardegna for a dive business, where I not only had a spectacular place with a view of the Med to hang my hammock but I also did a lot of scuba diving.
Be The Change - Anecdotes From Jan's "Paradigm Shift Lifestyle"
One Earth Lifestyle?
I will describe my own lifestyle and how it relates to paradigm shift. Earlier in the Primer, I shared a good bit of my autobiography. What follows is more specific to paradigm shift and be the change in recent years. My activism over the years has included nuclear power, food choices - go veggie, salvage logging, inappropriate economic development, opposing highway construction.
More recently, my activism has followed my own learning curve to put more attention on the consumer culture, to me, the cause of just about every problem we have including all the issues I and many others opposed. At the same time, I do have a focus and that is urban land use, even more specifically, suburbia and transportation while I always frame those interests as examples of the many problems produced by the consumer culture. My own suburban property is core to my platform of activism, an experiential tool and asset for my own activism. Every day my place is a reminder of what paradigm shift can look like.
Not everyone has the same access to time or assets for devoting to activism. Still, everyone has some capacity to help move paradigm shift forward. I am grateful for what I have to work with - good luck but also good management. The Primer is here to share with the reader, aspects of what I have learned from personal discovery and from others that have been very useful for me. I hope they are useful for you.
Please share what you learn about paradigm shift with others.
Below is a duplicate to Be The Change - Anecdotes from Jan's paradigm shift lifestyle.
Jan’s Short Bio
My own back ground is totally middle class. During those Wonder Years, I was a good student, secure family life, interest in geography, living in suburban homes in a rural subdivision near Fishkill, New York State, Dallas and another rural subdivision near Denison, Texas. Ecological concerns came to my attention in high school where I also had some interactions with the authorities that left me skeptical of the “System.” That was the late 1960’s.
In college years I was introduced to organic gardening and was drifting towards a vegetarian diet while low skill summer jobs left me keen to avoid conventional employment. A few years after college, I lived for two years in an Arkansas Ozark back to the land intentional community with an assorted group of older hipsters, idealistic drop outs and peaceniks. The iconic self improvement book “I’m Ok, You’re Ok” gave us a set of terms and behavior to structure our discussions to work out our "issues" in our weekly interpersonal meetings.
After Sassafras ended, a year in New Zealand included some political activism with focus on New Zealand environmental issues and pushing back on the American global military footprint.
All my life, I always seemed to fall in with the “right” kinds of people. I never had a fixation on a career and my parents were not overbearing. One brother had a Phd in biochemistry and post doc research at Yale and my other brother, both older, had a career as an MD with specialty in radiology. My BA in Geography was very modest in comparison.
More low budget travel in the 1980’s included adventures all over Europe and then Kenya overland to South Africa, back to Kenya and return to Europe, all told, almost 4 years. I learned very little of the world lived in a society dominated by cars, suburbia and freeways. All that American consumer culture did not seem to make Americans happier than people in other parts of the world with far less stuff.
Back in the US, never married, no kids, I was able to accommodate my own interests which lead me towards a low cost way of life, self employment painting murals and a high level of self determination and time for personal exploratio
I was never heavy into drugs. Certainly plenty of pot although I was never a frequent user. Several times LSD, several times mushrooms. My worst drug experiences, maybe 3, were too much pot in edible form. Full recovery. I think the respectful and “sober” use of cannabis and mushrooms has value.
Activism during the 80’s included protesting nuclear power, organizing and participating in Earth Days, hanging out at Pacifica radio station KPFT when I lived in Houston, taking a Permaculture Design Course in Austin about 1990 and making bike powered political statements in Houston’s infamous Road Side Attractions Parade.
In 1991, after my mother died, I moved to Eugene, not knowing anyone but well aware the diverse geography and the well known counter culture of the Pacific Northwest was likely a better fit for me than Texas.
The move to Eugene has turned out well. With mural painting jobs paying the modest bills of an intentionally modest solo lifestyle, there has been time for involvements with groups advocating vegetarian food choices, opposing the construction of a huge computer chip factory, the campaign to stop proposed salvage logging on thousands of acres of protected forest land that had been burned by an arson fire and a group I was involved with helped stop a local highway project.
Civic Engagement
Immediately upon moving into this River Road Neighborhood, I was drafted to run for a position on our neighborhood association’s executive board. Before then, I didn’t know what a neighborhood association [NA] was.
Many cities have neighborhood programs that support NAs which are made up of residents of the neighborhood and exist to make the neighborhood a better places to live. NAs are a nursery for building civic culture and learning skills for working with others.
Typically, an NA has an elected board. It usually meets once a month with programs of value to the neighborhood. It can have committees to address different issues. An NA communicates with the neighborhood, interacts with the city, it can organize events, its agenda is made up by those who participate.
We have had meetings that included food storage, neighborhood preparedness and resilience, permaculture, traffic issues, homeless and zoning changes. Our NA organized a wonderful event this past fall in the Greenway along the Willamette River. There were neighborhood groups, bike safety check up, apple cider making; kids and water biology; produce exchange, habitat restoration tours, permaculture, song circle and a lot more.
Engaging with our neighborhood association has been one of the most enriching social experiences of my life. NAs offer many opportunities to learn civic skills and reach out to the wider community.
Basic Lifestyle Ideals
The wisdom of the world’s great spiritual traditions is inspirational and practical. Here are 5 examples of that wisdom and note, they all support each other.
1] Modesty of lifestyle – a modest lifestyle – a small eco footprint is good for home economics, the planet, the spirit and paradigm shift. It can free up time for personal positive actions and with others.
2] Care for the natural world – we can protect and restore the natural world by how we manage our own time and money, guided by care for the planet and selective disengagement from the consumer culture.
3] Service to the community means helping to make where we live a better place. That’s participating in the life of the neighborhood and creating civic culture with friends and neighbors.
4] Uplift of the spirit. We recognize animating the spirit for positive outcomes is a critical part of sustainability, paradigm shift and lifestyle. A positive spirit creates positive interactions and raises the vibe of the community and humanity.
5] Accountability for our actions – Accountability recognizes our personal impacts and connections to others and the natural world and brings us back every time to modesty of lifestyle, care for the natural world, service to the community and uplift of the spirit.
Eco Footprints
Do I buy stuff? Of course. I buy eye glasses, peanut butter, a computer, electricity, home owners insurance, skil saw, cordless drill, second hand clothes, a bike. No jewelry, no tattoos, no shelves full of nick knacks, no fancy sound system. I still use magnetic cassette tapes. No junk food. No cell phone. Two years ago, I gave away my truck to a local non profit so I am now, gratefully, car free.
Having a modest eco footprint [at least by middle class standards] is a core ideal for paradigm shift and my own lifestyle.
The Global Footprint Network calculator described in Aspects is a great way to gain more of an understanding of one’s own consumption. You can find the calculator online. HERE is the link.
The calculator. This calculator asks many questions about lifestyle - food, shelter, transportation, past times and more. One answers the questions, hits enter after all the questions and the calculator provides a score - how many planet earths would be needed for everyone in the world to have an eco footprint like yours. Of course, the same one earth eco footprint can look very different for different people.
The calculator is not perfect. One very important lifestyle feature the calculator does not address is, do you have any kids? And how many? That is an enormous omission. Children are the beginning of new chains of consumption. Those offspring and their offspring will have further impacts on the environment. Also, the calculator could ask more questions about self production of food, energy and transportation. Still, thoughtfully answering the questions is a very useful self examination.
Point by Point - Here are the questions and my short answers in order they appear in the Global Footprint Network calculator. Following this account, I will describe my own consumption in a more nuanced way.
Here we go.
Q - How often do I eat animal products?
A - Almost every day. But very little. A pound of cheese lasts me a month. Wild salmon maybe once a year. Ice cream on occasion. Eggs, when my neighbor has extra. That’s it. No beef, lamb, pork, chicken.
Q - Do you eat food that's been packaged, processed, locally produced?
A - A small amount of packaging, yes. Soy milk in the ubiquitous half gallon carton, plastic bag for chips, bulk tempeh and bulk granola arrive in plastic bags. The calculator does not ask about home food production. I produce 95% of my own fruit and veggies and store it at home in a variety of ways including freezing, dry, pickled, live in the ground, buckets of grain and beans.
Q - Housing type. What construction materials for your home.
A - Wood. No adobe, no straw, no bamboo, no brick or concrete other than the slab. My home is constructed from totally conventional materials. That said, the south side patio has been closed in purposefully with passive solar intentions. On cool sunny days, I use a fan to blow warmer air into the main house. My ADU is well insulated, includes passive solar features but is still common post and beam with framing between the 6 inch posts. The ceiling is about R 50.
Q - How many people live in the house. What’s its size? Electricity? Energy efficient? What percentage of electricity is renewable?
A - Four of us live on my property. Housemates are not a part of my footprint calculation but all of our footprints are smaller because we share house amenities instead of each having our own. I share the house kitchen and bathroom because my personal living space has neither. House size including my detached ADU, one car garage to living space and outdoor patio becoming indoor passive solar is about 1700 ft2.
Electricity, from the grid here in Eugene, is mostly wind and hydro, a bit of nuclear. Housemates use both standard electric space heaters and heat pump. The place requires multiple layers of clothes in the winter time. The calculator does not ask about solar. I have a solar hot water heater. My passive solar spaces, both in the main house and ADU, produce “significant” space heating in the cool part of the year. I use a fan to circulate the warm solar air into other spaces.
Q - How much trash do you produce? Answer by item.
A - Clothes, minimal. Appliances, minimal. Electronics/gadgets, minimal. I recycle paper. Most plastic goes in the trash. Occasional book purchased. No subscription to hard copy magazines or newspapers, reading mostly on line. Minimal household furnishings. As mentioned above, there is “some” food packaging - chips, tempeh, soy milk.
Q - Travel and Transportation.
A - I am a passenger in a car every few weeks and then mostly nearby. The calculator does not ask if you are car free. I do not have a car or motorcycle. My bike is muscle powered.
Q - Fuel Economy
A - No vehicle. The calculator does not have a choice to say no vehicle.
Q - How often Modes of Transportation
A - The calculator asks how often do you take public transportation or carpool. For me, virtually, no bus, train, metro, carpool because Eugene is small enough and I like bike riding anyway so a bike is my primary transportation all year, rain or shine. Recent out of town trips to Portland and Seattle were made by train.
Q - How many hours do you fly each year.
A - I have flown to Europe three times in the past 3 years. That's maybe 22 hours of flight each trip. My near one earth footprint score does not include trips to Italy. Flying to Europe does make a significant difference to the size of my eco footprint. My eco footprint is still a work in progress. Hard to say no to Alghero and Porto Conte Parco Regionale con la bicci.
The footprint calculator is an important educational experience. It has some shortcomings but still, it serves an important purpose - to call attention to our own lifestyle and the consumption of energy and resources it requires. And to help identify aspects of our own lifestyle we can cut down on to reduce our eco footprints.
A Bit More Detail - Lifestyle/Footprint Meets Priorities of Time and Money
I explained the idea to prioritize time and money in the chapter on Aspects of paradigm shift. Its a concept fundamental to paradigm shift. Let’s do a refresh.
“Prioritize time and money” is a concept to organize one’s actions in terms of their own goals. Priorities + time + money = actions.
I bought this quarter acre suburban property with a high priority for using this place for reducing my eco footprint, diminishing my participation in the consumer culture and producing income and significant basic needs such as food, energy, water, aesthetics here at home. I also wanted to show what a permaculture transformed suburban property could look like and encourage others to do likewise. At the time, 25 years ago, I was not using the term "paradigm shift" but my intentions at the time were to encourage alternatives to the mainstream and consumer culture. I have been counter culture oriented since high school. HERE is more of my bio that provides more context.
Here is a very brief look at my property transformation, then a bit more nuance to the footprint calculator questions.
Early on, I sheet mulched the grass, I bought water storage tanks and planted a dozen fruit trees. I helped a friend remodel the one car garage into a living space so I could have another living space to rent. Several years after moving here, I helped a friend re-build my passive solar sun room. Other projects included taking out my driveway, building a 400 ft sq detached passive solar ADU, adding a 3000 gallon water storage tank and hosting literally thousands of people over the years to show and tell what a suburban property can become.
Instead of those, and other, productive actions, I could have bought a fancy home entertainment center and spent untold hours watching TV. Home entertainment would not have helped me accomplish my goals.
The inside of the house is retro, it has never been remodeled. Same floors, fixtures and counter tops in the kitchen and bathroom as when it was built. My priorities have been function rather than fashion. A kitchen remodel, even for this small house could easily cost 30 to 40K.
Instead of granite counter tops, I have an edible landscape, 6500 gallon rain water system, garage turned into living space, solar hot water, heat pump and a large passive solar space. My detached living space was an investment that has been paid back years ago.
I have a well developed set of priorities for my time and money - from general goals to particular projects. Twenty five years later, I am enjoying many benefits from those smart choices, every day.
You can read more about my property transformation HERE.
The following is a closer look at my own lifestyle through the lens of prioritizing time and money and reducing my eco footprint. Again, I refer to the questions taken from the footprint calculator.
Food Choices - My diet is vegetarian, close to vegan. Home based food production of fruit and veggies was a primary goal here from the beginning. I love having a garden and the place does require ongoing upkeep, many tasks are seasonal and require a fair amount of time like pruning, planting, harvesting, storage. As a result, my edible landscape and veggie garden provides me with close to all my fruit and veggies. I have two freezers full of what I've grown and more food stored in ways that does not need electricity.
Here is a list of the edible landscape – 5 apple trees, 3 pear trees, 2 peach trees, 2 walnut trees, 2 fig trees, 2 varieties of grapes, mulberry, hardy kiwi - grocery store size kiwis still to come, lots of brambles - domestic blackberries and Marionberries, a dwarf nectarine, a lemon tree and several potted citrus. I have cured my own olives, in small amounts and am now beginning to produce almonds. Planted but not yet producing is a dwarf apricot.
There are culinary herbs. My food production on site exceeds my needs. Starting in late May, something is producing in seasonal sequence through January. Cherries, mulberries, marion berries, black berries, figs, peaches, apples, pear, grapes, English Walnut, hardy kiwi, nectarine. HERE is a link to my plant list.
I give away fruit and veggies I can’t use.
My veggie garden typically has tomatoes, cukes, fresh beans, summer and winter squash, onions, leeks, cabbage, leafy greens, broccoli, celery, lettuce, fava beans.
Food storage - some produce keeps at cool temperatures while I freeze a lot. Deep freezers are quite energy efficient. I make grape juice, pickles, and sauerkraut. I dry tomatoes, pears and peaches. Many veggies keep well in the ground, still alive, over the fall, winter and into the spring such as leeks, beets, carrots, celery, cabbage. I can fruit for jam on occasion with a friend.
We have a food buying club among nearby neighbors so we purchase in bulk at lower cost from a local natural food wholesaler. [we will learn about visionary Hummingbird Wholesale later] I have many months of dry beans and grains stashed in 5 gallon buckets here and there around my place. The bulk of my diet is organic: beans, rice, olive oil, oatmeal, pasta. I can buy tempeh and tofu from the local maker at costs much less than the mainstream grocery store. I also buy some items from a food co-op with a storefront.
From the regular grocery store, I buy soy and almond milk, sometimes marinara for pasta, and various sauces to add different taste to my base of rice, veggies, beans, tempeh. Nutritional supplements include nutritional yeast and ground flax. I do not buy heat and eat food. I buy raw sugar, sea salt, chips and hot sauce from the co – op. There are other odds and ends but the point for food is, I have a very healthy vegetarian diet and my priorities of time and money make that diet very economical. Eugene is well known as a great place for vegetarians and access to healthy food. There are untold local organic farms, CSAs farmer’s markets, many places to buy organic along with local manufactured foods like granola, flour, tempeh, tofu and more.
Home Life
The footprint calculator asks multiple questions about shelter. My home is mid 50's suburban. When I bought it, the house had 1050 square feet, two bedrooms and a one car garage. I have made some changes. Early on, a friend and I remodeled the one car garage into a living space making the place a three bedroom house. The south side patio, already closed in, was rebuilt with half the ceiling becoming glass to create a 350 square foot passive solar space that provides significant heating to the main house on sunny days in the cool season and serves as a thermal barrier on the south side of the house. The solar space never has a temperature below forty degrees Fahrenheit. Its a wonderful place to enjoy being inside and outside at the same time.
The inside of the house is retro, it has never been remodeled. Same floors, light fixtures and counter tops in the kitchen and bathroom as when it was built in 1955. My priorities have been function rather than fashion.
Seven years after moving in, I built a 400 square foot detached passive solar accessory structure, ADU, which is now my living space. The project was started with a contractor. Early on I took over and did most of the work myself. I still use the kitchen and bathroom in the main house. So the property now has 4 bedrooms and 4 people to increase residential density and that reduces the eco footprint for everyone who lives here.
The place produces or conserves a useful amount of energy. Early on I had a glycol solar hot water heater installed and it has paid for itself long ago and saved a lot of electricity over the years and has put less CO2 in the atmosphere. It provides all the needed hot water for over half the year, significant amounts of hot water much of the rest of the year and in our cloudy and chilly winter time, it still preheats water from 55 degree ground temperature to 70 or 80 F before the electric tank warms it to a shower temperature.
The house has been heavily insulated. The place also has a heat pump, thanks to a financial incentives from our public utility. Heat pumps are far more energy efficient than most other forms of space heating or cooling.
In the winter time, we keep bedrooms and the kitchen cool/comfortable but the larger living room stays mostly cool. There is certainly room for improvement with energy savings but the low hanging fruit has been harvested.
I use the word we. I rent rooms to three housemates. There is no need for me to live here by myself. One way to reduce eco footprints is to share my home with others instead of building more suburbia further out into the surrounding farmland. I give a break on rent to housemates who are car free by choice. Housemates have access to garden space. We are all vegetarian. Being a landlord was a new experience 25 years ago. Overall, sharing my place has been a positive experience.
I catch and store 6500 gallons of rainwater. The rainwater is used for the garden although water from the food grade plastic 3000 gallon tank could easily be made potable if necessary. Note, one inch of rain collected from 1000 square feet of flat ground yields about 550 gallons. My tanks fill easily in the winter. With careful water management and a couple inches of summer rain, I can go without using city water through the entire dry summer although the plants would probably prefer more water. Many summers I run out and use city water for the garden. I could use another 3000 gallons of storage.
My 6500 gallon water storage would not be remotely enough to last over the summer for three peoples' domestic needs AND the garden even with more summer rain than usual. Eugene's Mediterranean climate means summers are very dry.
Like almost everything we use, water is tragically under priced so the money invested in storage tanks would take decades to repay in terms of avoiding the cost of city water. Still, my place is made far more resilient with its 6500 gallons of water storage in case there is some kind of disruption. Resilience to disruption was a high priority from the start and trends only make my water storage system look better with each passing year.
I have been vegetarian for over 40 years, no tobacco, a beer once or twice a month, occasional cannabis. Always lots of exercise and activity and a positive attitude. Creating this living book is a wonderful project. I love having projects and will keep adding to the book as long as I am able.
It's hard to quantify how a healthy lifestyle translates into money saved. Most would agree that an active lifestyle with exercise, healthy food choices, social engagement, meaningful projects and positive attitudes all benefit one's health and well being. More than likely, I have avoided a “significant” amount of medical expense over the years with a purposeful healthy lifestyle. That’s a desirable outcome that also benefits paradigm shift. Money and time saved by not needing the doctor can instead be invested in paradigm shift, home improvement projects or donated to a worthy cause, just to name a few options.
If the entire country had healthy lifestyles, our society could avoid hundreds of billions of dollars every year repairing damage to people and the planet and instead, invest that money in paradigm shift.
Life Without A Car
We live in a society dominated by cars. Our urban places, millions of jobs and the entire economic system depends on cars and their related infrastructure, services and products. There are almost as many cars, trucks and motorcycles in the US as there are people and the ecological, public health and social consequences are enormous. There are something like 8 or 10 parking places per car in the US. Multiply that figure times well over 150 million cars and trucks and you have a paved area about the size of Rhode Island and Delaware, combined.
A nationwide priority to shift from cars to sensible planning, train, transit and lifestyles would free up trillions of dollars from cars to sensible use like paradigm shift. At home scale, people can make these changes with no permission. I knew a family of five that was car free by choice and living in a more benevolent form of suburbia.
I finally gave my truck away in the summer of 2023 although for the previous decade I used it only a couple times a year and only for nearby errands. Like most of us, having a vehicle involves a great deal of inertia. I had my own car, van or truck since high school. It's a tough habit to break and for most people, living without a car is not easy. I love not having a fossil fueled vehicle.
A muscle powered bike is my primary transportation. I have two bike trailers, one for larger loads, the other for smaller. I ride the bike no matter the weather. For the US, Eugene is a good bike town and my location is near a major bike route along the Willamette River away from cars. I go months without riding in a car and far longer without driving a car at all. I would go electric with a bike if necessary.
I recently took a local bus with my bike to a town on the coast and then took another bus to another town further north on the coast. I returned by bike 20 miles with awesome views of the ocean to the first town for the early evening return bus to Eugene. A one day bike ride vacation for $20 and no car.
The footprint calculator does not account for a car free lifestyle. When I respond to the question that I rarely use public transportation, it's not because I am driving, it's because in modest sized, relatively bike friendly Eugene and my own love of bike riding, I ride a bike instead of taking transit.
My footprint splurge is flying. My three months in Europe three times over the past three years is my carbon skeleton in the closet. The trips are all very low budget. Always with a bike and low cost adventures with Italian friends or on my own. But the carbon footprint from flying is the same as someone in business class.
What Do I Buy?
I buy food as described above, subscriptions on line to the New York Times, CNN, Guardian, AP, occasional bike repair, occasional used clothes, occasional computer upgrade. I bought a used point and shoot digital camera but now use a smart phone camera my nephew gave me although I don’t use the phone as a phone but I can use other features. I still have a landline. I pay for trash pick up and recycling. I do buy some garden seeds and plant starts along with co-pays for the occasional medical need. I gratefully have Medicare.
I buy cat food, probably a slight bump to my own footprint. I bought some used furniture for the house years ago. I bought water storage tanks, two used 1600 gallons and one new 3000 gallon tank. One of my first investments was a solar hot water heater. Later a heat pump and a galvalume metal roof, the best surface for a rainwater system. I spent $25 K on building materials, some professional services and permits for this passive solar structure I live in.
I had the usual expenses of a car – insurance, occasional repairs, gasoline. I don't have those expenses anymore. The money saved gives me more freedom. What I buy is a good indicator of my priorities of time and money and there is still work to be done.
Activity
Here are several more short anecdotes of my low overhead lifestyle.
I spend a lot of time at home taking care of all the features here at my place – food, water, solar. I maintain all the permaculture stuff but also am the land lord and property manager for my housemates. If the washing machine doesn’t work, I have to fix it. If a drain gets clogged, I have to fix it. I have to pay the bills, taxes, and insurance.
I garden, prune lots of fruit trees, process and store food. I spend a lot of time writing about paradigm shift. I do periodic zoom presentations and put them on youtube. I am on the board of my neighborhood association so that means attending many neighborhood meetings. I love organizing events. HERE is more about our neighborhood association.
Food
I devote a lot of time to the kitchen. Not because I am a gourmet cook, I eat very simply but very healthy and that takes time. I have been vegetarian for 40 years. Almost all my fruit and veggies are home grown and food I buy is mostly organic and a good part of that is locally produced.
My typical dinner salad changes with the seasons but is mostly fresh even in the winter time. A lot comes from on site - cabbage, lettuce, celery, lemon, carrots, apple, beet, kale, dill pickles. Dinner always includes frozen veggies from the freezer in the cool season and fresh in the harvest season, beans, squash, tomatoes, leeks, fava beans along with dried beans, olive oil, nutritional yeast, rice and a few other items from the store.
Breakfast is typically store bought oatmeal with frozen home grown peaches, mulberries, strawberries and marionberries. I add my own dried peaches, dried pears, walnuts, filberts gleaned from a nearby grove to store bought granola. I have a solar drier. Breakfast oatmeal and granola is enhanced with store bought soy milk. Afternoon snack, apples from home and Costco Adams Natural crunchy peanut butter in the 64 ounce plastic tub when I have fresh apples during apple season or PBJ sandwich when I don’t have apples. A snack for lunch is enough. Dinner is my primary meal.
I like to correspond with friends who live in other parts of the country and world. And I love to just sit in the dark and contemplate. And of course, listening to music, mainly fusion jazz heavy on the sax and 60s/70s rock is a very enjoyable part of my life. I love to read about geography, anthropology, space, nature, language. I often listen to documentaries and news spoken in Italian to improve my comprehension and language skills. On youtube, I struggle with scrolling down past the monster, disaster and Clint Eastwood movie highlights in favor of the history, space, anthropology and science documentaries.
Educational Output
My own version of be the change includes several educational outputs, a monthly radio program for three years, production of 4 educational posters [another in the planning stages], organizing dozens of site tours, public speaking and being the primary lead for the 2015 Northwest Permaculture Convergence, a suburban permaculture convergence. And of course, A Primer For Paradigm Shift. Here’s a look.
For three years, I had a radio show on our local Pacifica Network station. The program’s title was “Creating A Preferred Future.” The show was monthly and focused on paradigm shift. There were interviews and my own thoughts about the condition of our society, permaculture, urban land use, pushing back on cars and describing eco villages. The program pointed to people and projects actively creating alternatives to the consumer culture. HERE are some podcasts.
I stopped the program because it was simply taking too much time to produce multiple versions of the show. The radio production was a great experience! Non commercial community radio has a big part to play for paradigm shift. I still produce one 50 minute radio program once every three months for Spirit In Action Radio in Minnesota. HERE are productions for Spirit in Action.
Over the years, I have helped organize dozens of site tours of permaculture properties in Eugene. Literally thousands of people have visited my place to see what suburbia can become. Our neighborhood hosted the 2015 Northwest Permaculture Convergence at our neighborhood rec center. We figure close to 700 people participated.
I have self organized speaking tours on the West Coast and Northeast, making presentations in far flung places from Oakridge and Coos Bay to Yale and MIT. I have made other presentations in Seattle, Ventura, Spokane, Salt Lake City, Green Mountain College, Santa Cruz; Lawrence, Kansas; Long Island Post University, Sacramento; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Oxnard, California and more locations.
Our neighborhood was the site for the 2015 Northwest Permaculture Convergence, the largest permaculture event of the year in the Northwest. Our neighborhood recreation center was a “Permaculture University” for the weekend. Our neighborhood association was a big help. We had site tours, plenary sessions, workshops, outdoor expo and much more. Out of town visitors camped in the back yards of people in the neighborhood. We figure about 700 people participated one way or another. I was the lead organizer.
We hosted a tour group that came to Eugene for the Neighborhoods USA conference several years ago. We did a show and tell of permaculture sites in the neighborhood with many visitors from out of town. A frequent comment we heard was, “I had no idea people were doing all this re working to suburban properties.”
Not All Activism
One of my favorite pastimes is biking. Sometimes to the University of Oregon to throw the frisbee. My level of skill is advanced. I love simply playing catch, heaving the frisbee for throws over fifty yards with all kinds of acrobatic curves and drops, often wind assisted. Eugene and the University of Oregon are known as frisbee hot spots. Plus, the ride to UO is on a paved bikeway almost entirely along the river with no cars for the majority of the 3 miles and I love it. The bike way passes through parks, open space, there's a big rose garden, playgrounds, habitat, community gardens, even a grassy beach by the River. I also go for modest rides outside Eugene's city limits into the nearby hills. I love to climb hills on my recumbent.
Trips to Europe are all very low cost. I have biked and camped along the French Riviera, south Germany, biked all around Lago di Como, made a 5000 foot descent from Bernina Pass, Switzerland to Tirano, Italy; camped and biked in Croatia, Latvia and Toscana. Visits to Ostia Antica, ancient Rome’s port city and Pompeii have stretched my imagination by gaining an idea of what life was like in those remarkable places 2000 years ago.
I lingered for an hour in a thermopolium in Ostia Antica, basically, a fast food outlet open to the street for the common people as few people at that time had their own kitchen. There was a counter to order what you wanted, have a drink, places to sit. This thermopolium was spacious, had vaulted ceilings, it would have had art work, all in a residential area of multi story insulae - apartment buildings. One could just imagine friends meeting and talking about current news or gossiping about people they knew. I love anthropology.
I love using new words in Italian. I am in love with Sardegna and have biked and camped all over that island. I rented an apartment in seaside Alghero for 3 months in the fall and winter of 2024 - 25. Alghero’s lungomare [along the sea] is one of my favorite places in the world, a 3 kilometer long promenade where people simply are out walking, seeing friends and enjoying the awesome views of the sun setting into the Med out past Capo Caccia.
In past years, I have surfed in many places including South Africa, Raglan in New Zealand, Baja California, Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, the Canary Islands and many places in Oregon. Several of the closest times to my own death have occurred while surfing. Years ago, I paddled a hard shell kayak through the Grand Canyon. Eighteen days with friends in the Canyon was a lifetime highlight. We were like a nomadic group setting up a new camp every night. I biked the Shafer Trail near Moab and rode my recumbent from Tucson to El Paso on back roads and over Onion Saddle in the Chiricahuas.
I have a very high quality of life and no question, it leans heavily on the affluence I am surrounded by. Would I have had all these experiences in a sustainable society? Certainly not so much distant traveI. I think even idealistic downsizing advocates like myself have only a vague idea of what sustainability would be like even if by enormous luck, our society actually made the transition to sustainability. On the other hand, I think it's a fair guess, sustainability would offer other experiences that could be just as memorable, perhaps even better, without so much damage to the planet and loss of civic culture.
A Day In The Life Of Jan and Friendly Neighborhood
The following is an account of a recent day of be the change activism, a site tour in another Eugene neighborhood. Certainly, this was an exceptional day. I have organized lots of 20 or 30 site tours over the years so a tour like this is unusual. Here is a description of the day at home and then the tour. Friendly Neighborhood is, perhaps, Eugene's most progressive neighborhood. The tour visited several impressive neighborhood initiatives.
The morning of the Saturday tour, I had to water my back yard garden. I water by hand. The garden is not large enough to set up a drip irrigation system. I tried that long ago. Setting up the system and keeping it adjusted took more time than it was worth. I use three different rain water tanks for different parts of the garden. This is the back yard of a ¼ acre property, its not tiny but its not huge either. Its a big home garden with multiple odd shaped beds plus what’s inside the greenhouse, which is covered in the winter and cover removed in the summer time.
One source of water is the 3000 gallon tank. That water flows to a 55 gal barrel in the green house. I dip a 2 gallon metal water can into to the barrel and then take it to where I am watering, back and forth 20 or 30 times. Another source is a 1600 gallon tank, I use a garden house for another area. The flow is nowhere near the pressure of city water but its enough to simply let the water flow onto the veggies. The last source is a 55 gal barrel that takes water from the roof that is stranded from the parts of the roof that flow into the larger tanks. Again, dipping the watering can into the barrel. I enjoy the watering and can make sure everything has a good soaking.
I finished watering and had time for breakfast. Oatmeal with egg from a neighbor and lots of freshly picked mulberries and marion berries.
Time to go.
It's a 25 minute bike ride to Friendly Neighborhood, the tour site. I passed by Eugene’s very colorful Pride march and event at the fairgrounds. On to Common Ground Garden, in the midst of a 60’s era suburban neighborhood. Friendly Neighborhood is very green, very well maintained, some gentle hills and an unusually large number of front yard gardens. Maybe half the homes have some edibles, either gardens, fig trees, peaches, apples.
Lots of people are out walking and biking on a nice weekend morning. I think Friendly is Eugene’s greenest neighborhood. That's why we are here for the site tour - to see several impressive small cooperative projects that completely fit in with paradigm shift.
Common Ground Garden was having its weekly work party. The garden is part raised beds and part ground level although the garden surface is probably well over a foot above the original soil level. Fifteen years ago, several Friendly neighbors illuminated on the idea of turning an unused city street right of way into a garden. The street in this suburban area was simply never built. Maybe because the slope includes a basically slow motion stream. The original surface before the garden was very soggy coming off a hillside.
The neighbors went to the city with the garden idea, the city was receptive and provided a few reasonable hoops to jump through and within 6 months, ground was broken with a big work party. Fifteen years later, the garden is going strong. Beautiful veggies! So lush. The garden is cooperative, there are no private plots. It is self managed, independent from Eugene’s very successful community garden system.
The garden work party was animated, seven or eight people. A couple work party people shared some history of the gardens. I provided some context for the tour explaining this and other site tours point the way towards a preferred future of sustainability and civic culture, saying we see that right here at Common Ground Garden. Mention was made of a wetlands restoration project nearby and also two acres of open space in another part of the neighborhood that was saved from suburban development when neighbors came together to buy the property and leave it as it is.
Such a nice setting. We left for our next destination several blocks away, a corner residential property densely planted with both veggies but also many useful shrubs and small trees. Jake is very much a plant enthusiast. We had a great look around his corner garden with his friendly little black cat joining the tour. Jake pointed out all the unusual and healthy plants. We all agreed one of the benefits of such a nice place is its simply fun to do the work and the self made environment is good for one’s personal well being such as a nice table and chairs in the shade to have breakfast or to take a break.
Time to go. Our next destination was the Friendly Toolbox Project. Located in a small wooden structure with several solar panels above, on the edge of a church parking lot, the Toolbox Project is another great story. Neighbors have organized a small but robust tool lending library. It's all very well organized, all volunteer. Users simply pay a small amount to check out all kinds of tools with the focus on home do it yourself projects. We saw a sump pump, lawn mowers, ladders, chop saws, drills, extension cords. Our neighborhood association will rent two apple presses for our own event by the river in September.
A tool library builds community and reduces costs. There is no need to buy tools that one needs only a few times a year. While we were there, half a dozen people came in to check out tools or to return what they had borrowed.
Our final destination was a residential home on a very leafy street where all the 1960's era homes are well taken care of. Some with a grassy front yard, many with native plants, some gardens, some ornamental. Those of us left for the site tour were brought into the tidy back yard and outdoor table on the porch. Our host described the organization she had with nearby neighbors to enhance their collective preparedness in the event of a disaster or disruption.
She had multiple weeks of food stored, a go bag, a couple hundred gallons of water in closed barrels. Most interesting is her planning with neighbors. She and nearby neighbors have an inventory of what tools people in the network have in case of an emergency, where are the pets, who has special needs. They have a place, next door, to meet and hunker down if necessary. Nearby streets have similar networks. Not all the neighbors are part of the planning but they will all be included if they like, if there is disruption.
There are many benefits to disaster planning. Perhaps the most important is just knowing our neighbors. As explained in other parts of the Primer, once neighbors know each other, they can cook up any kinds of collaborations they like, using preparedness as their point of departure.
So we ended our site tour. What fun! During our visit, another aspect of Friendly was the many people out in the suburban streets walking, biking, out in their front yards, there were yard sales. A look at a day in the life of Friendly Neighborhood.
So I returned home, did some reading. Then with the sun lower and temperature cooler, I harvested veggies from my garden. This is a vital part of my life here at home. I store food I produce for later use. For veggies, that usually means freezing. I picked beans, squash, peas and broccoli. I steam them lightly, put them on a cookie sheet to cool to room temperature, then into the deep freeze overnight. Out they come the next day, I put the frozen veggies in freezer bags for the winter time. My two freezers are loaded.
I am not religious or particularly spiritual. No “practice” of any kind. But I do believe in positive human potential. We are very influenced by our surroundings. The consumer culture simply does not encourage the best in people. Humans can do better and they deserve better.
To be the change is to help bring about a society that can exist within the boundaries of the natural world and a society where bringing out the best in positive human potential is a high priority. Again, the wisdom of the world’s great spiritual traditions points the way towards that preferred present and future and permaculture is a big help.
Posters
Another educational project. Years ago, I had the idea to make educational posters. By that time, I had made many presentations, some still on youtube and lots of experience from my own projects, so I had a good deal of content to share. I designed and had printed three different 24 by 36 inch posters. They are basically slide shows on paper. Images of the posters are on my website. HERE are the posters. They all have photos and graphics with captions explaining the ideas and images. The posters are colorful and very informative.
The three posters are Transforming A Suburban Property, Front Yard Gardens and Creating Safer and More Secure Neighborhoods. I had thousands of copies made. Costs for printing go way down when you use offset printing. Photo copies would be prohibitively expensive. The quality of offset for images and text is remarkable.
About six years ago, my thinking had evolved further into the realm of paradigm shift so I produced another single poster, 18 by 24. The newer poster is more political and economic - “Creating Green and Resilient Homes, Neighborhoods Economy and Culture.” I have both sold and given posters away. Thousands have gone out to most states in the US, South America, many dozens in Europe, Taiwan, some places in Africa. HERE is the newer poster.
Summary - Thoughts About Be The Change
Paradigm shift and be the change is not about a total abandoning of our current society and lifestyles. As mentioned elsewhere in the Primer, the mainstream society provides many products, services and assets that can assist paradigm shift. There are a wide range of environmental and social public interest organizations who are already allies to paradigm shift. We take a closer look at that topic later in the Primer. Tools as diverse as the internet and cement saws have an important role to play for paradigm shift.
There is no shortage of time and money. Paradigm shift comes down to our personal choices and how we prioritize our own time and money. Paradigm shift means we overcome the social engineering we all grew up in that diminishes our capacity to imagine alternatives to the consumer culture and instead calls out for the best in positive human potential.
Being the change is what our own personal actions look like on behalf of paradigm shift, ourselves, friends, famiies, communities and planet. When we combine our actions with others with similar interests, the scale of social, economic, environmental and even political transformation can expand further into the mainstream.
Every individual's "be the change" story will be unique. Paradigm shift is called for in every conceivable location - school, at work, at play, at home, in the neighborhood, waiting in a line. Everywhere. Being the change makes visible our own choices of what paradigm shift can look like. We learn from others and we share what we learn with others.
We have an enormous movement in waiting.
Key words and actions - reduce eco footprints, prioritize our own time and money, discover allies and assets, resensitize, offer encouragement. What are our own capacities that can serve paradigm shift? Check out the footprint calculator. Organize a site tour.
Idealistic? Yes. Do we deserve a healthy society and healthy planet? Yes. Idealism can become reality. Do we have time to reach sustainability and uplift? A good case can be made we need to move a lot faster than what we see at the present time.
To be the change is paradigm shift at the personal level with many benefits starting with our first efforts. One thought for sure, the more people being the change, the better. Positive human potential is our greatest renewable recourse.
High Tide and Subsidized
With affluence and the consumer culture, at present, still close to its historic high point, one might suppose downsizing lifestyles by choice makes no sense. This is the best of times for many millions, including myself. Just live it up. But pushing back on inertia makes a lot of sense. Making paradigm shift changes to lifestyle are likely easier and smarter amidst the high tide then in the potential social, economic, political and lifestyle disruption that seems all but unavoidable, given the trends.
So is it ok to buy the cheap tools and complete the sustainability projects with cheap materials now while we still can to help prepare ourselves for turbulent times when much of what we take for granted now may not be so easily available? That could be an ethical question with a difficult answer or a practical question with an easy answer.
My own suburban transformation project makes my choice clear. Just about everything I have described about my own suburban transformation has been made possible by the availability and the affordability of inputs to accomplish making this place far more resilient, prepared and moving towards sustainability.
We do have many allies, assets, tools and opportunities to work with for helping to create a positive movement towards sustainability at home and in our communities while we can. All that starts with how we manage our own time and money. We all deserve far better than the consumer culture and so does Planet Earth.