----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2000 6:52
PM
Subject: Permaculture principles
Dear friends,
I was fumbling around looking for that little
document that I wrote so many years ago, when I discovered that my colleague
had put it on our homepage (in Portuguese..) Reading it now I am not at all
satisfied-- lacks coherence (Each principle was accompanied with
examples...) Really should work it into some more coherent body... Toby?
Today I would consider cooperation with
others and Nature, and creating interconnected systems which imitate
ecosystems to be fundamental ideas in our work (I even wrote once
a bit about the city being a great body , with organs ( liver and heart,
etc), circulatory systems, nerve system, drawing parallels between city
ailments and physical diseases ( traffic jams being blood clots, lack of
money in some areas as a form of anemia, etc.etc.)
But back to my first analysis of principles. Here
is what I wrote:
1. The more you approximate nature, the less you
work.
2. Substitute capital and work for planning and
creativity.
3. The problem is the solution.
4. Diversification guarantees
stability.
5. Closing loops brings
stability.
6. We must be responsible for our
grandchildren.
7. The problems are basically domestic and
can be solved at the domestic level.
8. All systems should produce more energy than
they consume.
9. We aim at cooperation and not competition,
integration instead of fragmentation.
10. It's cheaper to avoid emergencies than to
face them.
Today they look more like rules of thumb than
principles to me... Will have to think about this...
Marsha
