Graham Burnett

An activist for social and environmental justice since leaving school in the late 1970s, Graham Burnett first came across the word 'permaculture' in an issue of Peace News magazine in 1981, and mentally filed it away for future reference. At some point during the mid 1990s he decided that he needed to focus his energies on positive solutions rather than 'the problems', and in the autumn of 1995 attended a Permaculture Introductory course led by the late Carl Smith, followed by a full 72 hour Design Course run by the north London based 'Naturewise'. Since 1998 he has regularly co- organised and taught permaculture workshops and courses, working with projects and organisations including Comic Relief, Bioregional, Permorganics, Plan-It Earth, Naturewise, OrganicLea, Green Adventure, the Vegan Organic Network, Designed Visions, Thrive, Brixton ABUNDANCE, Ars Terra (Los Angeles), Ekosense Ecovillage (Croatia) and Birmingham Decoy.

As well as cultivating his own garden and plots, he is actively involved with his local community, including membership of his allotment committee and setting up a LETS scheme, and has extensive experience of working with adults with learning disabilities in horticultural settings. Graham has held the Diploma in Permaculture Design since 2001, and is a member of the Council of Management of the Permaculture Association (Britain). He is a regular contributor to publications as diverse as Permaculture Magazine, Permaculture Activist, New Leaves, The Raven, Growing Green, The Vegan and The Idler, and has contributed to books including ‘The Permaculture Plot’, ‘Do It Yourself - A Handbook For Changing Our World‘, ‘ Growing Green’, ”The Day The Country Died’, ‘Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes‘, ‘Allotment Folk‘, ‘How to be Free‘, The Transition Local Food Handbook and others.

Graham founded 'Spiralseed' in 2001 in order to publish his own work and strive
towards seeking a 'right livelihood'. He is currently retrofitting the terraced Victorian house he where he lives with his family in order to minimise its ecological impacts, and is part of Southend in Transition, an exploration of how his local community can develop an Energy Descent Action Plan in order to survive and thrive in the coming Low Carbon era.