permaculture

[PacificEdge <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

On Friday, November 1, 2002, at 08:50  AM, Mark wrote:

> At 02:14 PM 10/31/02 -0500, you wrote:
> > The awareness training is so useful in that it develops one's ability to
> > understand the landscape, observing and knowing what is there and what the
> > land wants to be.  So much of this is brushed over in the Permaculture
> > design courses, or misinterpreted as an analytical exercise.  

Mark P. Ludwig
Poultry Research Lab
University of Wisconsin:

> At the risk of offending, this kind of quasi mystical stuff not only does very little to inspire me, if I was one of the many deeply religious people I have met through the years at organic farming functions I would likely find it out right offensive.  IF this really is a system for everyone I would strongly suggest separating the new age gloss form the main body of the design system, it is not at all necessarily to develop good designs.

In Australia, Mollison has railed against New Age/ quasi-mystical content in design courses. But as the two passages above indicate, this long-running issue has split permaculture thinking because there are some for whom any such content is anathema because it cannot be verified or demonstrated and there are those with the personal frame of reference that sees quasi-mystical aspects as realities.

I know that, when I used to teach PDCs, the notion expressed in Mark's piece about "what the land wants to be", which suggests that the land is not only conscious but has desires, would have been viewed with very little credibility by most students. 

Permaculture International here in Australia is in the process of setting up a permaculture course to be accredited by the national training authority. In such a course there is no space for quasi-mystical stuff or for anything that cannot be demonstrated as the course is assessed on the demonstration of practical skills and knowledge so people graduate as practitioners. Perhaps there is room in community-based design courses who want the esoteric content, providing potential students are notified about that particular content before they enrol. I know that there is a audience for esoteric content because Allanna Moore, who described herself as a professional geomancer (sorry if I muffed the description Allanna) goes about the Australian countryside constructing stone towers on farmland to channel some undisclosed form of energy and running workshops about it. 

My own attitude is not to get hot under the collar about esoteric content in permaculture even though my frame of reference comes from the Western scientific side of things. I think that, if people care for their land whether in the country, suburban backyards or urban community gardens, then the way they go about that can be left to their own frame of reference. Whether they construct stone towers, invoke spirals in water to prepare Biodynamic compounds or follow good soil science is immaterial to me. 

My experience in the NGO aid and development industry has taught me to focus more on qualitative and quantitative outcomes because they can, in most cases, be measured so we can discover what works and what does not. That way we can improve our projects and their management over time so that they are more effective. That's one reason I choose the more scientific approach over the esoteric.

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Russ Grayson
PacificEdge Media/ Australian Community Foods/ Australian Community Gardens Network
pacedge@magna.com.au
Phone/ fax: 02 9588 6931
PO Box 446 Kogarah NSW 2217 Australia
www.communityfoods.com.au
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