pcplantdb

[Stephanie Gerson <sgerson@stanfordalumni.org>]

Yes, Lawrence, and thank you as well for keeping SARE in mind.  

(Sorry, I shouldn't respond to individual emails - I should read 'til the 
end of the thread, but I couldn't help it.  This will be my last.)

But I fear if we carve the distinction, "market-farmers" will see 
Permaculture and/or the Permaculture practiced in home gardens as 
something they cannot apply/use.  At the same time, they must see 
immediate application value, or they won't pursue it. 

How to build the bridge and cross it too...

peace
*Stephanie

 ------ Original Message ------
Received: 10:04 AM PST, 02/26/2005
From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>
To: john@eco-living.net,        Permaculture Plant Database <
pcplantdb@lists.ibiblio.org>Cc: 
Subject: Re: [pcplantdb] miscellaneous items of interest

John Schinnerer wrote:
> Aloha,
> 
> 
>>The system would have two components available to the public:
>>
>>1) for permaculture people + environmentalists, wildlife 
conservationists,
>>naturalists, farmers, homesteaders, homeowners, etc.
>>
>>2) for market farmers, market gardeners, home gardeners, farmstead
>>gardeners, homestead gardeners, kitchen gardeners,
>>    commercial growers
> 
> 
> What's the diff between a "farmer" in 1) above and a "market farmer" in 
2)

any farmer wanting to implement permaculture designs in systems on his 
property

market farmer would utilize special features (none so far discussed or 
included in
the overall software design infrastructure) offered by PIW to help him 
catalog
data about his farming systems, analyze it and produce information he can 
use in
planning his cropping - all of this information could be coprocessed by 
the permaculture
relationships database so as to produce cropping schemes that utilize 
guilds and
other basic permaculture methods such as stacked functions, integrated 
farming and land use systems
(i.e., topology, water features, drainage, habitat, companion plantings, 
etc etc

Basically I am trying to come up with some ideas Stephanie can use to 
prepare a SARE grant proposal
for PIW that would present our project as a valuable tool for market 
farmers. This would involve PIW
offering commercial farm planning tools in addition to and integrated 
with a plants or guilds database.
These extra features would put PIW in a class of unique web resources and 
software tools that farmers
(and market gardeners and home gardeners) might not want to do without, 
ones that extension agents,
permaculture designers and consultants and consultants other ag 
organizations would widely promote
and urge their constituents to use.

What are your ideas and suggestions about this? Keep in mind that 
Stephanie wants to ask for SARE funding
and needs to present PIW as a hands-on practical tool for market farmer, 
something that will help them
make a financial success of their business and create an environmental 
jewel of their land.

LL


> above?
> What has a "home gardener" got in common with a "commercial grower" 
that
> they are in the same group but not together with "homeowners" and
> "permaculture people" (whatever that means).
> Groups 1) and 2) are IMO arbitrary, inconsistent and overlapping.
> 
> Either Permaculture is a meta-design system useful to *all* the above
> folks (and more), or it is not.
> 
> If it is, then the core of what we're doing is useful to *all* the 
above
> folks.
> In that case, details of client/UI systems that will access the core
> db/data engine in different ways for more specific applications belong 
in
> phase 2 and later of the project (that is, when we actually have a DB 
and
> engine to fantasize new applications for).
> 
> If it is not, and the needs of "market farmers" etc. cannot be met by 
PC
> and in fact are not and *should not* be congruent with PC practices, 
then
> we have two separate projects.
> 
> In other words, if PC is not useful to market farmers, then a database
> that is useful to them is not a PC-centric database, and therefore it 
is a
> separate project.
> 
> If PC *is* useful to market farmers, then part of what we are doing by
> providing this DB is inviting them to notice that PC is applicable for
> them.
> 
> John S.
-- 
L.F.London
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
Market Farming Forum
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/marketfarming
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+++++++++++++++
Stephanie Gerson
sgerson@stanfordalumni.org
(c) 415.871.5683


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