Elijah Santoyo is the Director of the Permaculture Academy and the President of Earthflow Designs. He was raised on a farm in Stevens County, WA. He attended California Polytechnic San Luis Obispo and majored in Economics and Psychology with specializations in Macroeconomic, Psychoanalysis and Experimental Design. He also studied American Ethnomusicology under Dr. James Cushing, Greil Marcus and Michael C. Ford. While at Cal Poly he won best student director and best student production design for a short film he wrote, shot, directed and edited. Santoyo is a professional chef and trained as an apprentice under Master Toshi Suigara in Japanese Kaiseki cuisine and as a sake sommelier.  He spends his free time walking the earth.

"A moment of observation without prejudice is worth an entire lifetime of education."