permaculture

[Russ Grayson <pacedge@magna.com.au>]

On Tuesday, July 8, 2003, at 10:58  AM, John Schinnerer wrote:
> Aloha,
> am not interested in creating a 'profession', *as we currently live
> them*, of PC.

Agreed. People here have found, though, that they need to create a 
livelihood from permaculture if they want to continue teaching. If 
people cannot make use of permaculture as part of their livelihood or 
in a professional sense, then it forever remains a hobby on the fringes 
of life.

My understanding is that Bill never planned for permaculture to become 
a profession or for people to make a living from it (yet Bill seems to 
have managed that quite well). But the realities of teaching 
permaculture, the time and resources put into establishing the 
infrastructure and developing the course, are of a scale and take so 
much time that teachers have to view their work as a major activity.

> If I don't know and work with someone to a certain extent, I will not 
> be
> willing to 'certify' anything about them, and I would be dubious of 
> those
> who would or who were so certified.

The point of an accredited course, so the thinking goes, is to gain 
access to professional designers (landscape etc) who do not receive 
credits for attending non-accredited courses. It may also provide 
access to permaculture to people who are presently denied access to 
PDCs because they cannot afford the cost and by making training 
accessible through employment training and similar schemes.

> If I want to know more personally those who grow my food, I am 
> unlikely to want them to be certified by some national organization 
> run by people perhaps neither of us have seen or met, let
> alone gotten to know.

Yet national certification supports the development of a growing 
organic food market in this country. The NASAA (National Association 
Sustainable Agriculture Australia), Biofarm (a biodynamic certifier) 
and OHGA (Organic Herb Growers Australia, which also certifies 
vegetables and fruit) logos provide quality assurance to buyers.

...Russ Grayson