permaculture

[Fiona Campbell <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

On Monday, June 2, 2003, at 04:31  PM, Bob Howard wrote:

> Permaculture as Education - A polemic

> If PC is about design then it is not something that is simply contained in the private sphere but also something that exists in the public sphere. 

One reason why I proposed the development of an 'open source Permaculture' in the last edition of the PIL's Planet newsletter.

> PC is about town planning, grass roots democracy, neighbourhood  committees and rescuing ourselves. This is a call to action. PC IMHO seems to have not considered it's social and political side as important as it's private side.

Agreed. Mollison eschewed conventional politics and this stuck on his followers. As much as I find the conventional political parties the dead wood of the world, Mollison's anti-politics has resulted in Permaculture people avoiding involvement in politics where they could do good - primarily, at the local government level. 

And, yes, the social side. For me, this has become the most important side because it is only through addressing the reasonable needs of people that natural systems will be saved. I now describe Permaculture as a technology for community development.

> Let's not kid ourselves though - if PC means anything beyond a middle class wank about trees - then it belongs to the poor, serves the needy, and defends the weak The second weapon is compassion.

This makes Permacuture a viable framework for development aid work, as many Permaculturists have discovered. But Permaculture needs to lift its game here and not run from crisis to crisis (Permaculture is not a technology for humanitarian aid) and learn from the participatory knowledge base used by aid workers - stuff like Participatory Appraisal, Technology Development with Farmers and- not least - the need to develop political savvy.
> We need to teach/learn about the local plants in our neighbourhood that were indigneous sources of food (I've made a sort of start for s.w of W.A.)  We need to encourage the creation of farmer's markets and local economies. 

The good news is that farmer's markets are really taking off in Australia. Local economies had their run in the '90s, such as LETS, but have faded away to a great extent. Why? Don't know. Can someone explain it to me?

> In Australia, we need to start to educate people about our backyards, the resource that is going to save most of us when the crunch comes.

Yes, where we have backyards. I don't know abut Western Australia, where you live, but you need a lot of money to own a backyard in Sydney, where I live. More and more people are choosing to live in apartments and town houses (that have only a small courtyard), so what I suggest Permaulture needs is a set of ideas about Permaculture for apartment dwellers. Anyone got any ideas? A place to start thinking about this? (Has to do with more than food).
> We need to create "compleat idiot" guides to backyard farming and survival for the suburbs. 

Jeff Hodges wrote it in the '80s, I think. Now out of print. I suggest referring to relevant literature from the 1970s on.

> From time to time, local governments or the Ag dept wipe out some fruit or nut tree from an area to control some disease or pest. PC applied over a council area would be a definitive answer to this simply by increasing the complexity of the environment you would reduce the risk of spread etc. (fill in the arguments).

Arguments... well, I suggested the role of Permaculture folk in local  government before. I would also add overcoming political naievity, learning to lobby (that would be necessary to get councils to do what you suggest) and having documented case studies about successful precenents.

> We need to start now establishing establishng alternative food webs within our community. 

By expanding food coops, farmer's markets, organic home delivery and retail, perhaps. As for community gardens, see: www.magna.com.au/~pacedge/garden
> We need to start working on a manifesto about how our town, or neighbourhood could be and we need to start a revolution of hope.

Done by Dr Ted Trainer, UNSW Social Work school.

Thanks for your email.

...Russ Grayson