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  • From: Fiona Campbell <pacedge@magna.com.au>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Money from Gates
  • Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 15:27:58 +1000

On Wednesday, October 22, 2003, at 05:41 PM, treaclemine@intranet.org wrote:
Morning,
Can we hope to teach people in third world countries to successfully
grow enough wholesome food to feed themselves and their neighbors in
adverse geological environments (deserts..) without harming the
earth?

An equally significant question: can people acquire sufficiently
secure access to the necessary land to grow food in the first place?
Many people are only one or two generations away from forebears who
were more than capable of growing their own food, and in reasonably
sustainable ways, but have had their ancestral land access stolen.

What is the permaculture solution to human greed for more land
than the fair shares?

I don't think it has a solution Amanda. Individual permaculturists might, but the nearest that Permaculture as a body of knowledge comes would be to recite the third ethic of Permaculture - that of sharing surplus. In a situation such as you describe, where greed is the motivator, this breaks down because there is no desire to share by the holder of excess land.

Permaculture people, for the most part as far as I can see, prefer to take the path of individual action on questions such as you raise, rather than collective action. Such action in this case would be essentially of a political nature - land reform, redistribution and so on. I know that a lot of people in Permaculture would agree with taking such action, however the movement as a whole has no track record in this area. Indeed, there has been a discouragement of involvement in politics. This is why Permaculture is so-often missing from fora where organisations of a reforminst political bent, such as the environment movement, are present.

It is not only where land property rights are mediated through market or colonial systems that people in developing countries may lack access to it. Land that may be under customary ownership may be allocated, through tradition, to families. It might not always be easy to negotiate access to land for newcomers or families requiring more.

...Russ Grayson






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