David Blume founded the International Institute for Ecological Agriculture (IIEA) in 1993 with the mission of healing the planet while providing the human community with research, education, and the implementation of socially just, ecologically sound, resource-conserving forms of agriculture – the basis of all sustainable societies. Dave is currently Executive Director of the IIEA.
The IIEA’s early activities included creating “Our Farm,” a hugely successful CSA near San Francisco. Since its inception, IIEA has been teaching Permaculture, an ethical system of ecological land design, which incorporates the disciplines of agriculture, hydrology, energy, architecture, economics, social science, animal husbandry, forestry, etc. Permaculturally-designed land can have up to 16 times the yield of conventional single-crop agriculture. It is now taught in over 80 countries around the world. The IIEA has trained and certified over 450 participants in its two-week residential Permaculture Design Courses, and hosted Permaculture Design Courses for the Blackfeet Nation of indigenous Americans in Montana, where Dave consulted with the tribe on ecological microenterprise, improving the state of the land and the health of the people.
IIEA is working to develop partnerships to help develop and enhance programs that demonstrate the efficiency gains and multiple-benefits associated with encouraging localized appropriate-scale bioalcohol fuel production including abundant food, job and energy development in Latin America and Caribbean, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa.
Alcohol Fuel & Clean Cooking Initiatives
IIEA provides educational outreach and resources demonstrating the benefits of (and teaching how we can implement) sustainable food, fuel and localized job development programs based on the production of appropriate-scale bio-fuel energy solutions. Working with rural and urban communities around the world, IIEA is helping communities, develop sustainable alternative energy programs that utilize surplus and waste stream resources to produce bio-ethanol for cooking, refrigeration, heating, electrical generation as well as transportation needs.
IIEA advocates for bio-ethanol use to support clean fuel cookstoves usage that will prevent exposure for women and children to toxic emissions from wood and fossil fuel-based indoor cooking and heating, help lower carbon emissions and stop deforestation. IIEA is focused on designing pilot programs for clean cook stove and localized bio-ethanol fuel production implementation in countries including Haiti, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Madagascar and Nicaragua.