Linda Perrine has provided the following for the Post Carbon Santa Clara Valley (aka Silicon Valley) outpost:
Post Carbon Santa Clara Valley started in April 2005. We meet the first Thursday of each month at St. Lawrence Academy High School in Santa Clara (2000 Lawrence Ct., on the corner of Lawrence Expressway and Cabrillo Avenue), 7:00-9:00pm. We also maintain an email list on Yahoo Groups called "SCCPeakOil" which you can join to find out more on our activities (link above).
Our focus has been:
- To help educate each other and the residents of Silicon Valley on the basics of Peak Oil. This has included a PCSCV Peak Oil table at local farmers' markets and various guest speakers including David Fridley (June 2007) on "The Myths of Biofuels."
- To offer informal workshops on sustainable living skills such as BioIntensive Gardening.
- Educating the residents of Silicon Valley on the need to preserve farmland for future food relocalization and education purposes. See more on this below.
August 2007 update:
Upcoming Conferences:
Community Transformation Convergence Conference, San Francisco - planned for June 2008, The Convergence is based on building healthy communities by supporting community solutions for healthy families through sustainability, regeneration, civic engagement and localization of culture, economy and decision-making. The focus of the convergence is the youth. More details coming soon.
Farmland Preservation:
The cities of Silicon Valley are slowly waking to the need to preserve the few remaining parcels of farmland in the urban part of Santa Clara Valley, once known as "The Valley of Heart's Delight." We are educating the people on these projects about Peak Oil as part of their many reasons why these parcels need to be saved. Here is a short summary with links on where to read more for each project:
Full Circle Farm, Sunnyvale (www.fullcirclesunnyvale.org) - This project is underway to convert 11 acres of excess Santa Clara Unified School District land to an organic educational farm. The farm will have an educational focus in healthy food, nutrition, human ecology and sustainable living. FCF hopes to begin a full growing season in 2008.
Bay Area Research and Extension Center (BAREC), Santa Clara - The future of this 17 acre piece of land has been debated since 2002. In June 2007, Santa Clara City Council voted to approve the Final Environmental Impact Report and change the zoning of BAREC from agriculture to medium density housing. The SaveBAREC group led a group of Santa Clara residents to seek a referendum on these two decisions by the city council and secured over 5000 resident signatures to put these two issues on the February 2008 ballot in Santa Clara. For more details, see: www.savebarec.org.
Mountain View Farmlands Group (www.mvfarmland.org) - Mountain View City Council voted in June 2007 to allow development of the Grant Rd. farm, the last working farm in Mountain View. However, this group of residents is now working with the City to locate another property to create a small sustainable urban farm.
Martial Cottle Park, San Jose (www.parkhere.org) - This nearly 300 acre property (near Branham Ave.) was deeded to the County of Santa Clara to be preserved as agricultural land. The County will be starting public meetings in April 2007 to debate the future planned "Master Plan" for this property which will include agriculture and education. The County of Santa Clara is seeking public participation in the plan for this park. Task Force Committee applications are due August 31, 2007.
San Felipe Rd., San Jose - Another 110 acres exist on San Felipe Road deeded as agricultural preserve. More investigation is needed on this property.
We are always looking for new members for our Post Carbon group. Please join us! You can contact us at You can contact us at pcscv@sfbayoil.org.
