permaculture

["Robert Waldrop" <rmwj@soonernet.com>]

Well, I haven't permacultured a farm of any size, I'm still working on
my lawn.

But I'm also working with a farmer with 120 acres, of which about 15
acres is farmland, and this property has never had chemical
fertilizers or pesticides applied to it (it has been in his family
since 1916).  He is starting a community supported agriculture
operation, and we helped him get his first 14 subscribers (which is
about all he could supply anyway this year).  I haven't talked a lot
to him about permaculture thus far, but this winter as things calm
down a bit, I am giving him a copy of Toby's "Gaia's Garden", and then
we'll see where this goes from here.

I would suggest that small farmers, those with 160 acres or less, are
likely to be the most interested in permaculture concepts.  Nobody can
make a living these days from a 160 acre monoculture of wheat, but I
think there are some interesting possibilities for smaller acreages,
in terms of producing for a community supported agriculture operation,
pick your own farm, or farmers market/roadside stand sellers.

The proper selection and plantings of fruits, for example, could be
organized so that all summer long you would have fresh fruit to sell.
Perennial salad crops, as they become established, will have a high
yield, and an excellent "yield to effort" ratio.  Nuts would be
another commercially viable permaculture crop.

Anyway, I would certainly be interested in helping with a
"permaculture corps", although all I have to offer is what I've
learned from books and online and from just diving in and starting
(one of these daze I'll make it to a course).

Another possible application of a permaculture corps would be to help
community gardeners transform urban spaces into permaculture community
gardens.

Robert Waldrop, Oklahoma City
http://www.oklahomafood.org

-----Original Message-----
From: FranksFarm@aol.com <FranksFarm@aol.com>
>In a message dated 8/28/02 1:28:43 AM, jamie@tiscali.fr writes:
>Wouldn't it be great if there were some sort of "PC Peace Corps"
where
>farmers who desire to turn their farms into model PC holistic farms
could
>apply. Where farm plans could be worked out in detail, and then a
group of
>leaders, and volunteers would show up to implement same. Just think
of the
>synergy, the long term benefits, and the tremendous PR possibilities.
>