[permaculture] Why Bother With Permaculture? An essay by Ted Trainer

Toby Hemenway toby at patternliteracy.com
Wed Dec 19 13:57:30 EST 2007


Ditto to what Stella and Scott have said about Ted Trainer's article.

The article says
> Permaculture can easily be seen as another 'technical fix" that can 
> save industrial affluent-consumer society. I think most people see 
> things like solar energy, community supported agriculture, LETS, earth 
> building, reed bed sewage and Permaculture as new ecologically 
> friendly techniques
Trainer shows a serious misunderstanding of what permaculture is. Only 
the rawest of permaculture beginners think that it is a technique like 
composting or herb spirals. Does Trainer really not get that it can only 
be properly applied as a design system based on indicators of 
sustainability? I've never met a serious permaculturist who didn't have 
a gut understanding that our culture is completely unsustainable, and 
who hadn't adopted the "radical change in lifestyles" that Ted says is 
missing from permaculture.  On the other hand, I have seem people 
dismiss permaculture because embracing it would make them feel bad about 
driving their SUV.

How old is this article? It's listed as being from the "International 
Permaculture Journal." Do they mean PIJ? Perhaps this is a really old 
piece, from back in the days when more people thought Pc was about herb 
spirals.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com



More information about the permaculture mailing list