permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

Rain,
Please read Toby's article  **Is Sustainable Agriculture an Oxymoron? 
<http://patternliteracy.com/sustag.html> ,from the Permaculture 
Activist, in which he defines what he means.
Keith


Rain Tenaqiya wrote:
> Hi Toby,
>    
>   Could you please define what you mean by horticultural society?  The sociology textbook I read in the early 90's did not characterize any cultures in the Americas as agricultural.  The closest thing was "advanced horticultural society."  As I recall, the definition hinged on the use of the plow, which never occured in the Americas due to the lack of domesticated animals suitable for pulling one.  Many cultures in the Americas seemed just as sophisticated and screwed up as early agricultural societies in Eurasia, such as in Egypt and Southeast Asia, particularly the Maya.  The Maya, of course, deforested and eroded the land they depended on without using a plow, so it seems you are referring to what this book called "simple horticultural societies."  Many, or most, of these cultures practice swidden, or slash and burn, which can be sustainable and even promote biological diversity if the population density is low enough.  However, it seems that we are a long, long way away
>  from getting the humun population down to that level, and it would probably 
> require giving up all or most of the modern electronics and other industrial 
> goods which most of us cherish (such as solar photovoltaics, plastic pipe, 
> pumps, telephones, etc).  A society with such as low population density 
> probably could not support the kind of economy required to produce such 
> things.  Are you just describing the kind of farming that you think we should 
> be doing, or the entire culture?  Is it possible to separate the two?  Is it 
> possible to produce enough food with horticulture to support the people 
> producing other things?  I am really interested in the answers to these 
> questions.  What do you think?
>    
>   Rain
>
>  
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--
Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47408
(812) 335-0383
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
Switch to Solar Power the Easy Way
http://www.jointhesolution.com/KeithJ-SunPower
http://www.PowUr.com/KeithJ-SunPower
also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
http://www.permacultureactivist.net/design/Designconsult.html
also Association for Regenerative Culture
also APPLE-Bloomington (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy) It's a 
small world after oil.
http://www.relocalize.net/groups/applebloomington
also Bloomington Permaculture Guild