permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:

> Those who can should prepare for future by building a local economy through the development of 
> neighborhood/local/regional production & services marketing network and barter system. Barn raising on a large scale.
> Build secure neighborhoods and network with others in a region. Work with and 
> in addition the existing system.
>
> Chicken Little was too busy watching the sky to get any real work done.

Or, the grand benevolent manager of the asychronous multiverse helps those 
who help themselves.

YAPITSP Dept.
Just curious, how would it be to create a national, possibly global mail order and online production and services 
network? Each element (person offering services or products) in the system would have a presence accessable on the web 
or by smail catalog. Essentially a big online barter system or BBSBBS. For example, if I wanted a copy of Toby's "Gaia's 
Garden" and he needed some of the garden tools I make in my shop, we could establish relative values on our offerings 
and make an exchange, giving store credit to account for any discrepancies (the reverse of debt; you are investing in 
future offerings from that person). If I needed a landscape design for my yard or a permaculture design for my homestead 
food production system I could seek the appropriate person(s) in the system and propose exchanges of goods for services.
Website design, photography, publication editing, information management and research, computer programming, even 
procurement of goods or services for someone unfamiliar with the market for certain items would be high value things to 
swap for other products. Farm products could be exchanged, rice for apples, herbs for dried fruit or nuts, miso for 
Jerusalem artichokes, vegetable seelings for fig bushes, bamboo starts for eleagnus. Used or new equipment for urban or 
rural homesteading would be great things to swap or exchange. This would be a kind of modified, no money version of 
Craigslist and Ebay, though participants could offer cash plus goods when exchanging items of unequal value. The Web end 
of things could be a combined website, blog and wiki, maybe even webforum and/or mailing list. The Web end of things 
could be a combined website, blog and wiki, maybe even webforum and/or mailing list.

Could this be set up and would it work?

LL
--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://market-farming.com/venaurafarm
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech