permaculture

[Mark <mpludwig@facstaff.wisc.edu>]

At 07:43 AM 8/28/02 -0500, you wrote:
> Jamie,
>
> >>  While many of us, myself included, wander our 'acre' feeling a diffuse,
> warm glow at the successful integration of PC, nature-centered ideas, the
> large farms that produce nearly all the food consumed in the West and have
> so damaged their environments, remain largely untouched (and possibly
> untouchable) by PC in its current guise.  <<
>
> Right, well before we toss aside our ethics (which still hold in my opinion,
> no matter the scale) consider, that perhaps industrial agriculture as we
> know it is untouchable because it is anathema to permaculture.  Industrial
> ag is more the result of politics, designing around machines and influence
> peddling on the part of corporations.
>
> Perhaps the only change we should be worried about is taking care of
> ourselves.

IMHO this is totally wrong, at least for most of north America for two 
reasons - first the analisys is flawed, agriculture is one of the most 
dynamic and productive sectors in the modern economy.  When viewed on a 
economic productivity basis (which is incomplete, but a good place to 
start) it is phenomenal how much food is produced by so few people.  though 
there is a grain of truth to the idea that we are designing around 
machines, the better way to understand it is that there is a steady 
adapting of the machine to the modern reality of the farm.  IMO these 
machines are rapidly reaching functional perfection except for the pesky 
infernal combustion engines. As for the crack about corporations, so 
what?  They run all manner of things world wide, ag is no exception.  I 
have more to say on the modern corp and how they need us more than we need 
them, but thats for another day.  Second - plenty of solutions are out 
there, read on...

> >>  How do we reach out and begin to make a change on these farms when
> farmers are so squeezed for time and money as it is.  <<
>
> Personally, I think it's too late, unless one wants to go into politics.
> The aggies are the ones relentlessly destroying the land and will no doubt
> continue to do so until some sort of crisis reaches a head.

I truly despise phrases like "destroying the land" in contexts like this, 
of forest fires etc.  It isn't being destroyed.  Degraded, imperiled 
yes.  But it's almost always salvageable with simple changes or 
actions.  This kind of talk is defeatist claptrap, breeding more cynicism 
and learned helplessness; not what we need.

> Does anyone out there actually devote their time to influencing commercial /
> industrial farmers?

Whats this list for if not that?!  What is the whole organic movement but 
that?  I've worked on this in the private sector as well with Midwestern 
Bio Ag.  The thing farmers need is solutions, not whiners and law suit 
happy eco nuts.

> The one area that could use our attention includes all of the family farms
> going out of business and turning to CSA's for a new source of income.

ethanol
soy diesel
Biological farming
forage based farming
Bio mass production
direct subsidy for watershed protection (ie paying for your urban water 
supply)
no till farming
co-ops - old and new

All the solutions are there.  Action trumps whine every time.

> >> Is PC a precious, suburban, faintly elitist movement that has much to say
> but little practical to give these larger farms?  <<
>
> Quite the contrary, the Pc movement is best suited for the rural, southern
> hemisphere where people are the poorest.  It's not elitist at all.  As a
> matter of fact, last time I spoke with Bill Mollison, North Vietnam was
> working to make permaculture its national form of agriculture.
>
>
> Kirby Fry

PC is seen by some as shangrala, the shiny future at the end of some 
peoples revolution.  Good luck!  I see it as little steps on a continuum, 
every step in the right direction helps.  A quick example...

take a standard 1000 cow dairy with an adequate land base
Problem - Lots of manure, methane off gasing, stink
solution - bio gas digester and electric generator.  also used to run tractors

problem - unhealthy cattle, expensive feed and lots of machines
solution - graze the cattle, all these problems will be lessened, profits 
will rise with lower producer costs

problem - Cattle have to walk too far to be milked
solution - build another parlor on the farm

IS all this PC?, don't really care.  It's moving in the right direction 
which is what my goal is.  And I also have my precious fancy stone garden 
and take fine care of myself.



Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin -Madison
608-262-1730 WK
608-846-7125 HM