permaculture

[Marsha Hanzi <mhanzi@yahoo.com>]

 

It seems to me that the basic probelm with population explosion is when people still think that "there is somewhere to go" , a characteristic of farmers in general.  What is the "last  agriculturual fronteir" as they say here in Brazil, if not the invasion of farms (rather, ranches) into  already-occupied ecosystems. 

 

And even out in the country(Brazil), whereas the last generation had fifteen kids- and there was still a lot of "empty " land about-- this generation is stopping at three or four...

which, of course still is population growth, but slowing, as the last census showed- Brazil´s population growth was well below the expected...And when they hit the city, they begin to reduce more, especially now that all have access to birth control information.

 

At the same time, as I travel around the world, I see such empty space-- even in India, to my surprise... So, on the one hand, people have to wake up to the fact that "there is nowhere to go", and live within their geographical limits  ( which will make them immediately limit the number of children, as tribes now do- there are great anti-conceptional plants in Amazon and they are regularly used..) but there is also the question of  re-vegetating the vast part of this planet, working with vertical rather than horizontal food-producing systems.   This planet is capable of producing many times over what it does today, as everyone on this list certainly knows and practices...

 

When I lived in Switzerland, space was so hard to come by that you would have to make a 50-year mortgage to buy a family house.  Result: as I last heard, Switzerland has a negative population growth...

 

So I guess that my argument here is that when you see there is nowhere to go, you immediately start limiting your population or fixing up your agriculture.  Until now the "place to go" , once empty land is gobbled up, has been the big cities.  This is quickly becoming clear that it is not a solution...I am sincerely impressed how many of the families I meet here have sons and daughters working in factories in São Paulo (population 15 milllion).  Some still dream of going there, but most of the young people I know are perfectly aware that their brothers/ uncles, etc. are living in misery there...

 

So where do they have to go?  Some look for the better middle-size towns... But it is quickly becoming clear that there is nowhere to go.  This leads to depression and panic and vandalism in young people- but it is also our opportunity.  If we get our show together, they can discover that HERE is where we have to go..

 

In the case of the America, it seems that their " somewhere to go" is the whole world, without leaving home, sort of like television...And that, vaguely, there is an inkling that this may not continue to be the case...That there are OTHER people in those places, who might be wanting to use those resources...

 

A colleague raised the question once about when you "throw something away" - where exactly is this "away"...It is always somewhere...Very good point...

 

Marsha Hanzi

Instituto de Permacultura da Bahia

www.permacultura-bahia.org.br

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