permaculture

[Marimike6@cs.com]

One wishes the best for the designers of the New Valley Canal Project. In the 
past century there have been many projects like this to "make the desert 
bloom". Most of them have repeated many of the mistakes their predecessors 
made. 
The lower Sacramento Valley is a good example of damaged, waterlogged soils 
so 
heavily salinated they are, in practical terms, almost beyond repair.

They could learn from the Indira Gandhi Canal project, in the Thar Desert of 
India. It also created a major agricultural "boom" area. Years later, the 
legacy is one of damaged lands and a pervasive malarial infestation. It's a 
vast 
subject, but these two sites are a good starting place:

http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-64480-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&;
list_uids=14732244&dopt=Abstract

What turns this ill-advised mega project into a tragedy is the fact that 
there were always people who understood this desert, and who brought it to 
its 
highest use-- the Bisnoi. Centuries ago they developed the 29 Principles of 
life 
on the desert-- the most important of which was the protection of trees like 
the khejiri and the zizyphus bushes that provide the base of the local chain 
of 
life. 

Nearly all of this world has now been swept aside to make more room for 
"modern" mechanized farming. 

The Bisnoi are worth a good google. And if you're curious for more on them, 
look for an old book called The Law of the Mother: Protecting indigenous 
peoples in protected areas. They are one of thirty tribes profiled in this 
overview 
of pre-industrial sustainable agriculture. Which is, to them, synonymous with 
the caretaker role they embody in keeping the world alive. The book is an 
inspiration, and worth looking for.