permaculture

[Judith Hanna <jehanna@gn.apc.org>]

Dear Joel

Once you venture into the economics how cash relates to value, you've got a
can of worms in a minefield. All sorts of fascinating philosphical
questions arise.

My hobbyhorse -- which I get paid for riding -- is valuing unpaid work,
particularly by people definable as 'volunteers'. I won't go further into
that at present -- various policy briefings posted on
www.volunteering.org.uk/campaigns

Another aspect, that Peter Harper of the Centre for Alternative Technology
in Wales, keeps proselytising, is the importance of recording both inputs
and outputs of your system, in order to evaluate its efficiency. Obviously,
identifiable costs are an important element of this.

In doing this, it is equally important to start off by clarifying your
objectives -- what sort of things the system is for. When it comes, for
instance, to the average permaculture home garden, 'outputs' are likely to
be not just lbs/kilos of edible produce (valued at seasonal shop prices) --
but also exercise (set against health club fees?), relaxation/aesthetics
(value of quality time?) etc. Set composting against municipal
collection/disposal costs?

Gathering together some cost/value balance case studies would be a valuable
exercise -- anyone on the list interested in taking this on?







At 22:52 25/04/00 -0400, you wrote:
>On Tue, 25 Apr 2000 03:43:56 GMT, in alt.permaculture
>woodvine@netidea.com (Joel) wrote:
>
>Hi
>
>I live in a rural area, and have done so for over 25 years.  I'm a
>gardener, fruit-tree grower, and sometimes a builder -- perpetually a
>maintainer.
>
>In the Permaculture "textbooks" (e.g., by Mollison) that I've seen,
>many important matters of design are treated, such as water flows,
>storage, etc, plant stacking, placement of plantings, multiple
>functions (mimicing natural ecology), home and utility building
>design, and so forth.  Great stuff.
>
>The one element that I haven't run across is cost.  Granted that the
>land owner will do much of the work her- himself, perhaps with the
>help of friends and cohorts, there is still a need for cash
>investment, obviously.  Clearly there is sometimes the need to hire
>heavy equipment, in some strategies.
>
>Has anyone brought these considerations (and thus their effect on the
>phases of design actualization) into the dialogue, into the framework
>of design?
>
>I believe this is something that most conventional landscape
>designers, architects, and urban planners would have to do.
>Professional Permaculture designers must have had to come to grips
>with this, no?
>
>Thanks for your repsonses.
>
>Joel Russ
>Canada
>
><><><>
>
>
>Lawrence F. London, Jr. Venaura Farm ICQ#27930345
>lflondon@mindspring.com  london@metalab.unc.edu
>metalab.unc.edu/intergarden InterGarden
>metalab.unc.edu/permaculture PermaSphere
>metalab.unc.edu/intergarden/orgfarm AGINFO
>
>
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Judith Hanna
jehanna@gn.apc.org
15 Jansons Rd, Tottenham, London N15 4JU