[permaculture] Trends in America
Marjory
forestgarden at gvtc.com
Fri Oct 31 10:37:11 EDT 2008
Hello everyone,
Well, this thread has gotten long since I've had a chance to write
back. Toby, I don't want to sound harsh (as text can often be), but
yes, if you do not have the skills to grow food and manage your water,
then yes, I think you and most of the other p.d.c. teachers should stop
teaching until you do. The last century with its luxury of fossil fuels
has allowed our populace to lose the basic skills of providing for
ourselves. Throughout pre-fossil fuel history, at least 95% of people
primarily worked to produce food. There has always been lots of room
for diversity, sharing and exchange; goat herders, vegetable growers,
herbalists, orchardists, beekeepers, and hunters - all require different
skill sets and abilities. As fossil fuels decline, humanity will have
to turn back to the land or it will starve. Permaculture offers the
best potential for an easier transition, but only if it's teachers can
offer something of real value.
Marjory
Toby Hemenway wrote:
> Marjory wrote:
>
>> The absolute best thing you can do for your community is to quit
>> teaching until you have implemented a design that provides at least half
>> of your food and income needs, and all of your shelter and water needs.
>>
> Guess I better stop teaching, then. So should most of us.
>
> Pardon my continuing curmudgeonliness, but formulas like that are not
> permaculture--they are blanket prescriptions done without assessment of
> individual needs or resources. Nothing in permaculture suggests that you
> need to grow food yourself. Instead, we need to make sure that our food
> needs are taken care of in a sustainable, ethical manner, and there are
> many ways to do that. Same with shelter, water, and all the invisible
> needs too. A permaculturist always has multiple ways of meeting
> important functions. If someone is a great builder and a lousy gardener,
> it would be foolish for them to beat their head against the wall trying
> to grow food. They'd quickly abandon the whole effort, saying
> "permaculture doesn't work for me!" Or they could build wonderful
> shelter for others and trade or use the income to pay for local, healthy
> food.
>
> Permaculture is not about taking care of your own needs by yourself.
> It's about creating relationships among the parts of a community so that
> the community meets its needs in a sustainable way. And that community
> can be a household, a village, a bioregion, or planet.
>
> Toby
> http://patternliteracy.com
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