Paul Martin (BS/MS-Texas A&M Univ., Ph.D.-Univ. Florida) was raised with 5 younger siblings (and worked with migrant labor crews) during the drought of the 1950s on a very small south Texas (hog) farm near Devine, Texas—a farm which always possessed a large garden, fruit trees, chickens and a milk cow. While in Florida during the “Energy Crisis of the 1970s”, Martin researched population dynamics of natural enemies of key lepidopteran pests in a “model north Florida agroecosystem” (involving vegetable crops and wild hosts, and including studies of Trichogramma and lacewings).
Martin was significantly influenced by ecologists like E.J. Dyksterhuis (TAMU), Archie Carr & H.T. Odum (Univ. Florida) and David Pimentel (Cornell). Moreover, a considerable amount of applied ecological knowledge was developed in sessions with Miguel Altieri (UC Berkeley) and during years as a pasture entomologist in Georgia and Brazil. Martin learned/manipulated to the best of his abilities as sustainable agriculture coordinator, in Jim Hightower’s Texas Department Agriculture, and later taught biology/ecology at St. Philip’s College.
Martin’s wife taught science at Seguin High School and they are currently involved with various organizations and efforts toward researching, developing and promoting Positively Ethical Applied Community Ecology, including volunteer work with Siempre Sustainable Network, Ogallala Commons, Kids On the Land & the Seguin Outdoor Learning Center, Teatro de Artes de Juan Seguin, Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church-Seguin, Dos Pueblos-NY/Tipitapa & Episcopalian Latin American projects, Generations Indigenous Ways-Pine Ridge Reservation and other international programs, & LULAC and local community gardens … and for/with their children and grandchildren on small “family farms” near Stockdale & Rio Medina, TX.
http://marikasculptures.com/tag/siempre-sustainable-network/
Commonwealth – Ogallala Commons
http://tipitapa.org/2013/02/a-great-sense-of-community-in-tipitapa/