permaculture

[Permaculture Extension Services <permaext@magna.com.au>]

UrbanHarve@aol.com wrote:
> 
> One policy issue that interests me is the construction of locally 
> appropriate
> manuals and information collections for sustainable food production. Here in
> Metro Houston, we have a growing library of gardening books and information,
> a seed bank, a quarterly 16 page newsletter, a number of pamphlets and three
> books/booklets we have written (my general book Year Round Vegetables, 
> Fruits
> and Flowers for Metro-Houston, a Natural Organic Approach using Ecology; How
> to Grow Tomatoes in Metro Houston; and Mark Cotham's The Urban Harvest Guide
> to School and Youth Gardening.
> 
> These differ from what would otherwise be available in that they focus
> particularly on what works in Houston adapted to local ecological 
> conditions.
> Due to publishing economics, most commercial materials focus on megamarkets
> such as the Southern United States, and create materials that rapidly go out
> of date unless they stay away from quickly outdated material (such as the
> location of supplies). We publish in much smaller numbers, and update very
> frequently.
> 
> What I wonder is, how do others deal with this problem-- locally appropriate
> information distribution--

The WWW offers an avenue if you have a home page. Then you don't have 
the expense and work of publishing.

Problem is, most people - at least in Austraila - don't have access to 
WWW or email even though the use of these media is growing fast. So, 
the most accessible form of communication of locally relevant 
information remains printed media in its various forms.

Until recently we published a permaculture journal for the Sydney 
bioregion which carried useful, locally relevant information. This was 
a successful media for the transmission of information.

We have found that printed matter is an accessible media for passing 
on information in the Solomon Islands where we are involved in a 
village agriculture project.

There, access to the internet is virtually zero - it is largely a 
media restricted to people in affluent nations and of only marginal 
accessibility to people in developing countries (ie four-fifths of 
humanity). There's not only the issue of access in countries with poor 
telecommunications facilities, there's the big issue of affordability 
and skills. 

One media which has proven useful there is video. This gets around the 
problem of illiteracy and there is often a video machine in many of 
the villages and, of course, video's are portable.

I guess the strategy for maximun information penetration is to 
simultaneously publish both in print and on the web.

I would be interested in finding out what you people at Urban Harvest 
do and how you do it. Are you into urban agriculture? Urban 
agriculture - in the form of community gardens and community supported 
agriculture - is fairly new in Australia. In Sydney, we're involved in 
a couple community gardens and train people in relevant skills and 
assist with design.

We're also contacts for a community garden/ city farm network covering 
most of the country. So, we're eager to learn what other groups are 
doing.

Thanks...

...Russ Grayson


-- 
PERMACULTURE EXTENSION SERVICES
Russ Grayson and Fiona Campbell
PO Box 446, Kogarah NSW 2217 AUSTRALIA

Phone   02-9588 6931    (IDD-61+2+9588 6931)
Fax     02 330 2611 (Mark fax: ATTN: RUSS GRAYSON - APACE) 
        (IDD-61+2+330 2611)
Email: permaext@magna.com.au

Permaculture education, publishing, design. 
NSW co-ordinator, Australian City Farms and Gardens Network.