Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Re: Re: Succession

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
  • To: permaculture list <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Re: Re: Succession
  • Date: Wed, 09 Mar 2005 09:42:08 -0800

On 3/7/05 8:59 PM, "Michael Kramer" <MKramer@hawaii.rr.com> wrote:

>in this country these rules
> are not recognized by many people,
[snip]
> And at this point I'm not sure we should insist on
> maintaining a nonexistent standard simply because some of us are very
> comfortable teaching it.

I've been on board with most of what Michael has been saying but here I'll
disagree. I've taught with a lot of people, and everyone I've worked with
feels a strong obligation to adhere to Mollison's format as laid down in the
old Pc handbook; most teachers' curricula cover a nearly identical group of
subjects. The principal exception I know of is Penny Livingston's Earth
Activist Training done with Starhawk, which some students have commented
gives Pc short shrift to make room for activist training and Earth
spirituality. But in general Mollison's guidelines are adhered to pretty
strictly in the US. I maintain the PDC standard because I find it effective
at introducing a particular set of people to the ideas of Pc. I am
definitely not "comfortable" with it; I hate zooming through so many
subjects so quickly.

Where I think Michael is spot on is:
> my primary point is that we have a design
> course that would definitely not work for the Navy or a corporation or a
> local government or a school,

The PDC as configured now appeals to activists, back-to-the-landers,
gardeners, and a few other limited groups. It's laughable to think that
businesses, architects, government, developers, or most of the people who
wield power and make decisions that affect most resource use in the world,
would be interested in a course that focuses on tree crops, herb spirals,
and mud buildings. And those are people we need to influence. So in this
sense I do agree that permaculturists need to find ways of presenting the
ideas of Pc without focusing so heavily on food production. Yes, we know
that permanent agriculture is a key to sustainability, but when farming in
the US is done by less than 2% of the population, a course that expresses
many of its ideas through agriculture is not going to appeal to many. So the
challenge is to offer permaculture courses that introduce the basic ideas in
other ways than by garden imagery.

Toby
www.patternliteracy.com






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page