Eric Toensmeier

Eric Toensmeier calls himself a "socially engaged plant geek." He has spent much of his adult life exploring edible and otherwise useful plants and how they can be used in designed ecosystems. He is also co-author with Dave Jacke of the two-volume permaculture design manual Edible Forest Gardens. Eric has worked as a small farm trainer at the New England Small Farm Institute (Belchertown, MA) (www.smallfarm.org) and currently manages the Tierra de Oportunidades new farmer program of Nuestras Ra�ces (www.nuestras-raices.org) in Holyoke, MA. There he is designing and installing a permaculture landscape in concert with immigrant farmers who are starting farm-based enterprises in an urban context. Eric is a graduate and former faculty member of the Institute for Social Ecology in Plainfield, VT.