permaculture

["robscott@freeshell.org" <robscott@freeshell.org>]

To Dylan, and others who must be having the same thoughts,

I agree with you
A small-scale farmer, running a solar still, could be viable 
micro-enterprise. As a single component of a diverse farm, re-using all 
outputs for multiple on farm uses, and creating a variety of products, its 
a way to keep fueled vehicles in the equasion. Good point.

The portrait Fortune magazine paints is a very different one, and that's 
what I'm referring to. The gas stations here in Illinois have "10% 
Ethanol" in every pump, and we may soon see that go 20%, 30% and more as 
the mentality sets in. And this flies in the face of the environmental 
scientists in the midwest who designed these systems - they're the ones 
saying NO because it's just PR and handouts to giant landlords, not 
environmentalism.

The USDA is primed to promote ethanol as a major U.S. corn-belt product.
Remember the original mixed enthusiasm for USDA Organic Certification?
That's what I'm trying to point out.

There are often calls to mainstream Permaculture, and I've begun to 
undersand mainstreaming to mean "commercial mainstreaming" -- in other 
words: understanding the significance of hard numbers isn't mainstream 
activity...

Until micro-farming is a way to be in the mainstream,
scientific data can be used to fight the mainstreaming.

Rob Scott
Urbana, IL