permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <hemenway@jeffnet.org>]

Skye! Delighted to see that you are on this list . . . Many people have been
wondering "What ever happened to Skye?"

Skye wrote:
> we are now down to 7%
> of the original cover - and dropping fast, thanks mainly to beef ranchers
> and now soja monocultures

Agreed, the beef industry is insane. Forests are for browsing
animals--stupid to clear them for grazers (or for any other reason).

> Obviously modern beef ranching here is
> really just a large scale, predatory version of the ancient slash and burn
> process. 

True slash and burn (aka swidden and fallow) was a marvelously sustainable
practice that bears no resemblance to the permanent clearing of forest for
grazing. It is rotational agroforestry--a brief period of annual cropping
followed by 20-40 years of forest culture and fallow. If I may be so
conceited at to recommend one of my own articles, to understand how
ingenious and ecological slash-and-burn is, read "Seeing the Garden in the
Jungle" in Permaculture Activist #51 or online at
http://www.patternliteracy.com/beyondwilderness.html


Toby
www.patternliteracy.com