The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia

Steve Moring is an educator, farmer and land steward who has training and experience as a botanist, herbalist, and natural products chemist. He serves the community as a activist, community organizer, permaculture design and land management consultant. He has worked for decades in the industry and has extensive experience in project management, professional training and academic teaching. He is a self-taught herbalist and having studied medicinal botany and pharmacognosy for over 30 years. He has many years of experience cultivating medicinal plants on a garden scale and has worked as a consultant for quality assurance for numerous herb manufactures and organizations. He and his partner, Nancy, own and manage Vajra Farm, LLC, a 45 acre permaculture farmstead near Oskaloosa, KS, (www.vajrafarm.com).

Steve currently works as an instructor at local community college, and as a farmstead business owner. He is teaches chemistry, biology and environmental science at various area colleges. He is the founder of the Kaw Permaculture Collaborative and independently teaches permaculture design certification courses in the Kansas City area. On the farm and in the community, he is engaged as a regional land consultant, specializing in the cultivation of alternative crop systems, medicinal herbs, permaculture system design, prairie and woodland restoration. Steve has studied engineering, aquatic biology, ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Maryland (BS), and plant systematics ecology, biochemistry and natural products chemistry at the University of Kansas (MA). He is certified in permaculture design, author of 30 scientific publications and an inventor with 13 patents..

Steve is an active member of several organizations supporting the development of alternative agriculture and sustainability in the Midwest. He is also an activist for the mitigation of energy depletion, creating sustainable environments and communities. He serves on the board of directors of the Sustainability Action Network, Inc., and is the director of the Kansas Permaculture Institute.