pcplantdb

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Stephanie Gerson wrote:

> 3.  feature creep, crop-rotation program, and WSF - yes, this may be 
> feature creep, but it's fun to dream ;)  

It is NOT feature creep. It IS part of any plant and PC DB that deals with 
cultural (growing preferences) information.

> With respect to replacing human thought/skill with automation, Johns 
> writes “Yeah, that was my original argument against this very project.”  

PIW is a tool, automation or not, useful in the hands of people who think.
An operating system is representative of automation, DB's, shell scripts, 
cron jobs,
Procmail recipes and batch files as well. If automation gives one a rash then 
try
networking with the telephone, face-face contact and snail mail.

> I definitely hear that. How can PIW not encourage the latter, but help 
> facilitate the former?

It is neither and issue or a problem.

> And how can we respond to this sentiment on our 
> website, make it explicit that we are aware of this? Maybe initiate a 
> discussion about this on our listserv once we have a critical mass of 
> folks?  Definitely something to be discussed with our 'audience.'

Not necessary. Again, PIW is a tool, not a robot trying to to impose an 
automated lifestyle on people;
leave that to the chemical/conventional/pesticide-mongering multinationals 
trying to control the World's
food supply and the religious fanatics trying to control and automate wwhat's 
left of their minds.

> Also in response to Johns, maybe WSF needs a lesson in Pc, but we need $ 
> – so how do we tailor what we write to their mission/vision?

They need to know that permaculture is the missing link in most commonly-used 
agriculture systems and methodology;
it is a tool to solve problems and create robustness, diversity and bounty 
and PIW is the tool used to deliver that
vast body of information to them to use when they get around to incorporating 
permaculture in their agricultural toolkits.

> Jonhns writes “What's this nonsense about applicability to larger-scale 
> ag when they themselves say it's clearly unsustainable?”  But that's 

What's the point of that comment? The message rings of negativity, apathy and 
wild goose chases.
I thought we were looking for solutions and alternatives to things that don't 
work; I think most of us are here
to help make that happen.

> their point exactly.  Which is why they are trying to render it 
> sustainable.  They are not saying that large-scale in itself is 

Permaculture will render it sustainable.

> unsustainable, just that modern large-scale ag is.  How can we - Pc and 
> PIW - help render modern large-scale ag sustainable?

By getting people on all levels of society to use PIW to learn more about 
permaculture and in turn agriculture
so that they can begin to make it work for them each day, and work better as 
each day passes.

LL
--
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech