Rene Michalak

Activist, Designer, Environmentalist, Event planner, Foodie, Global soul, Idea generator, Project manager, Promoter, Social entrepreneur

As Project Lead with ReThink Red Deer, I've helped bring resilient community planning to the forefront of public dialogue in Central Alberta. I'm currently studying resilience theory and exploring urban ecological systems to understand the foundations of community sustainability. I'm a Marketing graduate of the Haskayne School of Business (UofC) and Red Deer's Leadership Centre, a certified Transition Towns trainer and practising permaculture designer and SPIN-Farmer. I came to be interested in permaculture after learning about sustainability and resilience - pouring over hundreds of books and videos, attending conferences, workshops and seminars. I ran into an up-and-coming permaculture trainer and then quickly registered for the first PDC in Alberta back in 2009. I came home overflowing with enthusiasm and got to work on my 2-year practicum; hosting a major regional conference on sustainability presented from a food, fuel and finance lens, and then set up an urban homestead complete with a rainwater harvesting system, hoophouse, annual garden and perennial food forest. My time pracitising permaculture is spent developing the Centre for Urban Agriculture in Alberta Urban Homestead - planting and cultivating the food forest garden, developing an aeroponic and an aquaponic growing system for four-season growing in Canada's unforgiving but beautiful northern climate (www.FoodGarage.ca), helping build community gardens throughout my home town of Red Deer, and increasing participation in the provincial Growing Food Security in Alberta Network (www.foodsecurityalberta.org) to develop and apply a framework in rural communities for Sustainable, Equitable, Local and Regenerative Systems for food (SELRS).

Regenerative economy - sharing and learning new skills for sustainable community

The Food Garage - find out how to turn a garage into a veritable organic grocery store that can feed a family of four for an entire year, produce all of the renewable energy needed to do it, learn practical skills that will amaze your friends and family, and seriously increase your property value all in the comfort of your own backyard!

Permaculture design, Transition Towns, urban agriculture

Organizing chaos.