permaculture

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

Toby Hemenway wrote:

> But there has gotten to be a fairly strong link between Pc and Earth-based
> or New Age spirituality. <.....> So why has Pc become linked with New Age 
> beliefs?

Because Permaculture encourages observation and thinking about natural systems
and the Natural Sciences in a new way. Eventually permaculturists begin to 
discover
things new to them, new relationships, new connections, new function and the 
mysteries and marvel
of the Universe and Nature begin to unfold and be revealed to them. New Age 
beliefs dwell in this are
as do ancient belief systems. Think about the origins of Buddhism embodied in 
the life of Gautama Buddha,
Hinduism, Islam (the first university, the first library, in Spain under the 
Moors of North Africa),
the origins of Christianity. The roots of agrarian societies are likely spirituality based. Look at the Shakers, ascetic 
and celibate, strongly agrarian, they were a major supplier of farm and garden seeds in the USA.

> horticulture/agriculture theme: Horticultural societies, according to
> anthropologists, tend to view all of nature as imbued with spirit. For them,
> God is in the rocks, the water, the plants. In most cases, a different (but
> ultimately interlinked) spirit is responsible for each place, each element,
> each plant. Agricultural societies, on the other hand, tend to see spirit as
> coming from someplace out of this physical world, usually a sky god or set
> of gods not connected with a particular place on Earth. Permaculture is an
> attempt to create a contemporary horticultural society; at least that how
> I'm thinking of it these days. 

Why can't proponents of mainstream permaculture apply their knowledge, 
practice and theories
(does anyone "theorize" about permaculture?) to agriculture? There is a lot 
of fertile ground there.
Isn't it challenging to think of making major changes in the practice of 
large scale broadacre farming
by integrating the best of permaculture methodology and design with it and 
causing a multitude of farmers
to see the sense of doing this. Starting small and working up could 
eventually effect major and possitive
changes in the way modern conventional agriculture is carried out.



--
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