permaculture

[Pacific Edge Permaculture + Media <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

Title: Re: Pc slammed in Whole Earth Review

> > ----- Original Message ----- 
> > From: Toby Hemenway <mailto:hemenway@jeffnet.org>  
> > To: permaculture <mailto:permaculture@franklin.oit.unc.edu>  
> > Sent: Saturday, January 05, 2002 9:06 PM
> > Subject: Pc slammed in Whole Earth Review
> >
> > Those of you who can get Whole Earth Review may want to look at the new Winter 2001 issue. WER sent a copy of Gaia's Garden for review to Greg Williams, a one-time agroforestry guy who publishes the HortIdeas newsletter. Turns out Williams absolutely hates permaculture, thinks its mostly bull...
> >  
> > But his most damning points were about the absence of data... Permaculturists, he writes, "have neglected the scientific approach to determining the worth of their ideas . . . and instead have argued for and against particular gardening techniques on the basis of (at best) incomplete theoretical notions and (at worst) pure intuition. This is worse than glossing over the details; it is misconstruing the details. . . . It is completely unacceptable when their claims are made to the general public...
> >
> > The problem is, it's hard to find data to refute his claims... We just don't collect data. 
> This came up at last year's permaculture gathering in Nimbin, Australia, which was attended by many who had been in permaculture for quite some time, indicating that the lack of data might be acknowledged as a problem that has been troubling people but has not been voiced much.
>
> In fact, a book ('Organic Gardening') by the avid Australian seed saving promoter and biologist, David Murray, has questioned permaculture practice in another aspect. Murray, a respected biologist, asked how can a 72 hour Permaculture Design Course possible train anybody adequately in all the areas covered? 
>
> It seems that professionals are starting to question the principles and practice of permaculture in a number of areas, and, unfortunatey, I find no evidence to deflect their claims... not because their claims are untrue (just the opposite in some cases) but because nobody has compiled the data.
> > If anyone's got any hard numbers, or other reputable data, please share them. If not, it points to a huge lack in permaculture, and we should get busy setting up trials and getting reliable data instead of just banking on Bill's wild claims. 
> With all respect to Bill, some of his figures and facts have been described as... well...  a bit rubbery. Bill tends to generalise, to approximate, to round-off, and that not all that useful to people who ask   'where's the evidence?'.
> > Without data, more folks like Williams will erode permaculture's credibility.
> When I worked in overseas aid  with its continued monitoring and evaluation of projects, production of regular reports and accountability to donors, government and other stakeholders, it occurred to me that, in comparison, permaculture was largely unmonitored and was seldom evaluated to identify results such as what worked and why and what could be done better.
>
> Then, midway through last  year, a permaculture aid consultant - Rick Coleman from Southern Cross Permaculture Institute in Victoria, Australia - visited the same territory when he called for evidence proving permaculture was a workable technology so he could present it to decision makers in the aid industry who wanted evidence of its usefullness. Why, they asked, should they support an approach which could provide no evidence of its effectiveness?
>
> And that's  a fair question and one I've heard from others in that industry (a consultant to the Australian government's AusAID - from the CGIAR - once described permaculture to a meeting as 'a technology with no role in development assistance').
>
> At issue here is hard evidence - and by 'hard' I mean verifiable facts and figures - not undocumented observations and personal experience  - of how well permaculture is at doing its job. 
>
> That would call for studies and the problem here is that such studies call for funding, and that is something in short supply when it comes to monitoring, measuring and evaluating permaculture projects and claims. Unless it is done, however, permaculture is likely to be increasingly disregarded by  decision makers and, as the writer suggests, is likely to become discredited.
>
> ...Russ Grayson