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  • From: "Wesley Trotman" <trotmanw@bigpond.com>
  • To: <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Re: Questions of scale....
  • Date: Mon, 2 Sep 2002 07:44:40 +0930

I think what this hinted about was the need to have closed loops as per
nature. Some problems with larger scale agriculture is the difficulty in
closing the loops also the energy in distibuting the produce plus the
increase in pests and more you could probably think off.

Say you have a field of say 200 acres which could grow enough grain for 100
people. The simplest loop is the nutrient loop how do these 200 people
return their body wastes as nutirents?
Its a different matter when you only grow enough grain for your family and
your immediate family and perhaps also close neighbours,

Up to 50 years ago the Chinese managed large cities, albeit with lots of
labor, by having a complex system of return of wastes back to the farm
lands. Seems even back then their numbers were causing problems. It seems to
me the growing of small and diverse plots for local consumption is the right
way to go.

Wes
> > 1. There is a limit to the scale at which PC will work, and its not
> related
> > to size necessarily - it's when the ability to use "waste" productively
is
> > exceeded -
>
> Dear Claude,
>
> This is an interesting thought. Could you expand on it a little
further?
>
> Charlie
>
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