Thanks for the reply Steve. A week ago I knew almost nothing about Permaculture. Never mind doing it myself, I don't think I'll even develop into a "groupie", but there is a very good probability that we have an enthusiastic card carrying "arm-chair" supporter in the making. I really love the concept.
But then, that's if I had free will. My wife is already planning "our" Permaculture vegetable garden. On Sat, 22 May 2021 at 17:05, Steve Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > Pieter - > > As Kathryn surely offered you, the field of "Permaculture" has experienced > a serious resurgence with a lot of practical demonstrations of how > *intense* multi-use land/animal/plant "husbandry" can be in terms of > production if careful thought and patience and respect for the land, > animals, plants, air, water, neighbors are practiced. A great bit of > background to the spirit of the movement is Masanobu Fukouka's story. > Holmgren and Mollison are the "founders" of modern permaculture but Fukouka > is the Patron Saint IMO. > > https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/one-straw-revolutionary/ > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Holmgren > > The mainstream dialogue (if we must call it that) seems to be a highly > polarized tension between the devil-may-care pedal-to-the-metal > damn-the-torpedoes neoliberal/industrialist/extractionist ideal that we > just need to charge forward as fast as possible vs a sometimes blindly > idealistic draw to "wishing and hoping" that putting down our manic > hypercapitalism in disgust would yield instant utopia. > > The Permaculture people ( I am at best a groupie ) "do the work" as they > say. But in counterpoint to your point about it being labor intensive, > they make a very strong point of "productive laziness". For example the > principle that every thing one does or makes or has should have at least 3 > purposes. A fruit/nut tree offers fruit/nuts in season, shade in the > summer, wind-screen in the windy season, shelter and food for birds, etc. > A pond provides ... , ... , ... and ... ... ... > > Permaculture *first* appealed to my optimizing/satisficing awareness > developed through my practices in science/engineering. I *grew* to > appreciate the gentleness and reciprocity with nature that it inspires > (requires) as well as the slow-patience. > > Permaculture Design *principles* > > Catch and store energy: Develop systems that collect resources at peak > abundance for use in times of need. Obtain a yield: Emphasize projects that > generate meaningful rewards. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: > Discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems function well. > > Here is a more elaborated, popularly accessible review: > > https://ethical.net/ethical/permaculture-principles/ > > I strongly believe that the "choice between hurting the environment and > letting people starve" is a false dichotomy, though it is fair to notice > that it is "hard to get from here to there", especially if we aspire to do > it quickly and without any discomforts and inconveniences. > > I don't have a specific reference on the tip of my fingers but I believe > that Permaculture honestly aspires to address (holistically) all levels of > Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, with *food* being an easy/obvious one for many > to focus on. > > - Steve > On 5/22/21 4:51 AM, Pieter Steenekamp wrote: > > I think there is broad consensus that modern farming is bad for the earth. > I was always under the impression that it's one of those very difficult > problems to solve. I always implicitly assumed that the yield of modern > farming is just so much higher than ecologically friendly farming that it's > impossible to feed 7 billion people without resorting to ecologically > harmful farming. > > So I always assumed that the choice was between hurting the environment or > letting people starve. > > I got a wake-up call this week. We visited a nearby Permaculture farm ( > https://numbivalley.webs.com) and it's just amazing the yield in terms of > healthy food that they produce on a ridiculously small area of land. They > farm in a very sustainable and eco-friendly way that produces more food > (and it's very tasty, we had lunch with them and healthy too) per land area > than modern farming. That's what they claim in any case, I have not > independently verified that. The co-owner Kathryn says she challenges any > farmer that uses modern farming methods to match their yield in terms of > food production per area of land. > > I asked the other co-owner, Ross if a global disaster happens and they > become totally isolated from the rest of the world if they would be able to > survive. Jokingly he answered that they would not, because they won't be > able to buy tennis balls. Tennis balls? I wondered what part > of Permaculture depends on tennis balls. Yes, he said, I regularly go to > the nearby town to play tennis and I won't survive without that. But on a > serious note he thought about it and speculated that he reckons that they > will survive. > > The possible draw-back is that Permaculture is extremely labor intensive. > But then, working and living like that could be very good for the soul and > the body, it's not like working in a factory. > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe <http://bit.ly/virtualfriamun/subscribe> > http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > > - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam > un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >
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