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  • From: Thomas Allen <thallen@nwlink.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] permaculture as noun, verb, adjective
  • Date: Sat, 24 Feb 2007 14:27:37 -0800



On Thursday, February 22, 2007, at 10:28 AM, Toby Hemenway wrote:

I'm teaching right now in Belize with Larry Santoyo, who is drilling into
everyone's heads the mantra, "you don't DO permaculture, you USE
permaculture." In other words, an architect who learns the permaculture
approach doesn't stop doing architecture. She uses permaculture to do
architecture. It's a noun, but it's not a thing. The word used as a verb or
adverb erroneously suggests that there is a thing, permaculture, that we can
do. That's like saying, "I want to do ethics. Let's ethicize that backyard."
Just as it's near impossible to show someone some ethics, it is hard to show
someone some permaculture. Can anyone show me some permaculture sitting
around somewhere? No, because it's a process and an approach, just as ethics
is, or justice, or other words that don't lend themselves well to becoming
verbs or being described as a static thing.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com

As a has-been lurker, I'm out of the lurker closet to respond to Toby's comments above.

The discussion is getting 'round to a conceptual framework that defines permaculture. I've wrestled with that recently while producing "sustainable ag" series for KBCS news in Seattle. The term permaculture has popped up in at least half of the last dozen segments. And people ask me, "What is Permaculture?" So I finally did a "what it is" permaculture piece about a month or so ago. It's really hard to do in six minutes. I hope I got it right. Michael Pilarski and Marisha Auerbach talked about what they thought is is. (They're regional permaculture design teachers for you out-of-area folks.)

Then I did a couple of pieces on Portland's City Repair where Mark Lakeman "pointed" to some permaculture -- the cob facade of the Our United Villages building on Mississippi Ave. And Hindy Iserhott talked about the bioswales to impede rainwater runoff. I didn't identify either as examples of permaculture at work. Maybe I missed my chance.

When people ask me about permaculture, I usually stumble around for a minute and then give an example of something that uses permaculture principles but that doesn't seem to do it for them. Then I say, "Well, its a design process that uses a set of principles like "the problem is the solution" or whichever of the dozen next comes to mind. Then I try the philosophical angle and say its' a lifestyle philosophy but that makes it more confusing and the conversation thankfully moves on. Pc is a far cry from mainstream people's mental upholstery and they desperately need to know even though they don't know it. One of those things you don't know you need to know sort of things, ya know.

What I and maybe others need are some talking points to help describe "it" to lay people.

--Tom Allen
.
On 2/21/07 9:07 AM, "bwaldrop@cox.net" wrote:

Permaculture is generally used as a noun. But in english, we are always
turning nouns into verbs, and I was wondering how people felt about using
permaculture as a verb.

e.g. "Permaculture that planet!" (actually, that would be a command
imperative.)

or "you too can permaculture your yard."

Adjective

The "Permacultured Kitchen"

Adverb

I would like to work permaculturally for several years.

I am curious as to other's thoughts on this. Does this vocal evolution
detract from understanding permaculture as a whole systems approach to design?

Bob Waldrop
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