permaculture

[YankeePerm@aol.com]

In a message dated 11/29/97 2:46:12 PM, steved@ncatark.uark.edu wrote:

>I lifted a thread from Dan Hemenway's post and changed the subject 
>line to Plant Toxins.  I think the other thread on congressional testimony 
>and cancer will result in a lot of verbosity.  Why not turn this 
>discussion into something useful to permaculture? 
>
>Steve Diver

Well,Steve:

This is one of those rare times when I must disagree with you.  

1)  First, you seem to have misread my post.  Plant toxins was what I
recommended we skip as having been done to death, with exhaustive (and
exhausting) lists littering the landscape already.

2)  My interest is in plant carcinogens.  This is a topic that is, indeed,
swept under the rug by the more fervant of organic proponents.  A carcinogen
may or may not be also toxic.

3)  What is and is not valid about Congressional testimony is directly
pertinent to this list, of course.  The journalist in me notices that your
own organication, ATTRA, a fine service, gets its funding from Congress, or
did by my latest understanding.  I'd wish to be corrected if I am in error on
this.  While governments are not constituted to solve problems, their
thrashing about certainly creates them, and if we blind ourselves to the
problems created, we certainly are impotent at solving them.  Rose colored
glasses are just another way to brain dead.  The distortions inherent in
Congressional testimony certainly need to be understood by everyone who
refers to that testimony, and indeed sometimes there is a bit of wheat with
the chaff.

Obviously, you are free to start a thread on anything.  However, in my view,
anything more than a bibliography on the well documented and widely known
subject of plant toxins is way more a waste of time than considering
Congressional testimony on a subject that is very, very confused at the
moment.  If nothing else, we can determine what governmental axes are being
ground by this particular hearing, and better understand how to deal with a
group that is in fundamental opposition to the decentralism and self-reliance
that permeates permaculture.  

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
courses via email.  One is now underway.  Next Live program:  Paraguay, 8/98.
Internships available. Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52,
Sparr FL 32192 USA  YankeePerm@aol.com  

We don't have time to rush.