Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@dotnet.com>]

> At the risk of being thought 
> romantic or utopian, I assert that the solutions to these and most of 
> the world's dramatic crises rests in a rather simple shift of our 
> awareness and our behavior. We must care for the Earth and for people, 
> and share that which is surplus to our needs so that others may meet 
> their own. We must also consciously limit our consumption and 
> population. These ethics are central to permaculture: they belong to no 
> nation or creed but to all of humanity. It's time to garden the planet.
>
> /Peter Bane publishes /Permaculture Activist,/ the world's 
> longest-running journal of permaculture design. He lives in Bloomington, 
> Indiana.
>   
Paul wrote:
> Simple shift? What planet is he on? Changing human nature is a simple
> shift? Human nature is even  commercializing permaculture to swindle
> hundreds of dollars out of well-meaning individuals with dilletante
> seminars.
If you look at the supposed ethics of permaculture, you will find many 
of the ethics of incorporation. "No nation or creed but all of humanity 
('s cash)" indeed. The flow of capital knows no borders, no ethics, and 
does a fine job of gardening human labor, including using pesticides 
(drug wars), fertilizer (low interest rates), and stimulating 
biologicals (sex sells).

Nature already has version 1.0 of permaculture. We just have to figure 
out what we can do to assist it or live within it. There is no single 
method which will always be the 'right' way, because the species that 
survive in the long run are the species that survive in the Long Run. 
There can be no real compromise, no 'ethical' sales pitches which will 
ensure that some politically correct system is better than any 
particular individual's husbandry of animals and fences. All the 
different individuals create diversity for the long haul. What if Nature 
creates a disease that kills everyone who reads permaculture books?
Permaculture without the seminars and grant-sucking leeches would be a 
Crime Against the Economy, Paul. Don't you know that?

Personally, I'd rather be a criminal.

My apologies. It's Christmastime and the air is filled with bulls__t. 
Whenever I look at permaculture literature, it reminds me of the seed 
packets that always say "plant in well-drained soil".  Not gonna happen. 
There is no PRACTICAL way to turn my 50 acres of clay into some kind of 
perfect little south-facing slope with pine trees, grapes, artesian 
wells, and pretty little ponds (at least without first bribing the DNR 
to look the other way). It will be whatever I can afford it to be, 
depending on the size of bulldozers available at the auctions.

Bah humbug.

Dan