permaculture

[Sharon Gordon <gordonse@one.net>]

It seems to me that permaculture success can be measured from a
number of angles.

***Set 1***
Some of the measurements need to be the kind that traditional
researchers use --for comparison purposes.  Just to make up a
simple system.  Suppose you measure the inputs and harvest
in a traditional apple orchard.  Then in a same size apple orchard in
the area you add the rest of the permaculture forest, some annual
vegetables, some poultry.  Then you look at apple harvest plus
other harvests over the next 5 years and compare.  Do you
get the same, greater, or lesser amounts of apples?  How much of
everything else do you get?  How effective were the chickens
compared to the traditional orchard's pesticides?  How much tastier
are eggs than pesticide :-)?   Did drought affect one orchard differently
from the other?

***Set 2***
Then I think it helps to look at the permaculture system more
holistically.  To me an excellent harvest type question for the whole
system is What percentage of the people's needs were able to be
grown/made on the land?  For this I would use broad categories:
Staple calorie crops
Vegetables
Fruit
Grains
Nuts/seeds
Flavoring herbs/spices
Medical herbs/spices
Fungi
Honey/pollinators
Next years seeds, plants, shrubs, trees
Clean water
Gardening water
Cover crops/fertilizer
Animal feed
Cooking oil
Cooking fuel
Fuel efficient cooking
Heating fuel
Transportation fuel ( varied, could be gasohol or food for a horse)
Shelter materials
Fencing material
Rope fiber
Gardening/farming/fishing materials such as stakes, tool handles, baskets, 
wagons,
           boats
Food storage/preparation materials such as drying racks, pots, baskets, dishes
Clothing fibers
Dye materials
Bedding materials

and then also at what can be grown past the basics that makes life more
fun, is important to the culture, and/or are desirable luxuries such as:
Musical instruments
Paper
Animal products
Tea/coffee/chocolate
Wood/fiber for furniture and toys
Flooring and carpeting materials
Art materials

In Set 2, some health measures would also be useful as an outcome
of how healthy the people were becoming compared to previous
traditional or damaged-traditional farming.  By damaged-traditional
farming I mean either the system being used as the result of a recent
natural disaster, or the disasters created by recent teaching of
inappropriate techniques, hybrid seed, etc.


***Set 3***
The same as Set 2, but looking at whether the items missing in
Set 2 can be gotten from other growers in the village or nearby villages
by trading the family's surplus from Set 2.

***Set 4***
For this one, I am thinking of a paraphrase of Kennedy's famous quote...
Ask not what your permaculture farm is doing for you but what your
food forest farm is doing for the planet.  Here measures might be taken of
Soil health
Water cleaning
Good insect increase and diversity/ decrease in pests
Animal increase and diversity
Native plant increase and diversity
Preservation of planet plant variety
Heirloom seed saving and exchange
Number of other people learning permaculture techniques from this farm

From these immediate and long term aid questions can be answered
as well as overall ecological questions.

Sharon
gordonse@one.net