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  • From: kevin s <k.skvorak@verizon.net>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] what does a permaculture based politics look like?
  • Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:30:04 -0400

hi all,

i have a habit of following, with some curiosity, the various threads about "politics" on this list when they pop up. usually they sputter out, often in a similar way, with people finally telling others to "keep the politics off the list..." or other less polite things

i, for one at least, am regularly a little surprised and disappointed that these conversations don't go deeper in the Permaculture community. Of course it is obvious that the current global "political", social, and economic relationships and (visible and invisible) power structures will require huge transformations if we are to achieve a sustainable human presence on the planet (of any population size). i think all Permaculturalists agree on this.

The same Political struggles look the same all over the world: so called Democratic institutions are under the attack, or complete control of corporate, capitalist forces. The media, the global military complex, the food supply, financial institutions, etc all under the dominant control (or in the few free areas left, under severe attack) by the same power structures.

There is a global war going on, on more levels and on more fronts than just the "middle" east.

This is our global reality.

And, at the same time we have all over the world the most sophisticated, organized, knowledgable, and committed social movements human society has yet developed. Led by indigenous activists, farmers, poor people, anarchists....

Where is Permacultures place in these growing social movements?

In the face of all of this, one would think that these clearly "political" issues and opportunities would and should be on the forefront of Permaculturalists lives and practice....

and yet, some 30 years into the Permaculture "movement" it still too often appears that there remains some quaint (often white, often male, often priviledged) idea that "Politics is not part of Permaculture"

????

is it only me that feels some disturbing disconnect in this?

In any case i am wondering, in the spirit of positive example, what are the ways that folks are incorporating their values and Permaculture practice into their "political" lives right now?

Are there real examples out there that people can offer as models?

I'll start. We are working our butts off for the last couple of seasons growing food for people using a CSA model based in Permaculture practices. We use lots and lots of sheet mulch beds, and so far we are growing a good amount of vegetables. It remains to be seen whether we can be economically viable, growing real food for real people, in competition with all the tractor farmers out there, organic and conventional.

We don't own land yet, and are not particularly interested in engaging in "investing" in land, where our debt only goes to fund the same international financial corporations running this destructive machine. So we are starting a Community Land Trust to hopefully engage in a more healthy community based relationship with the land, that has the added benefits, for instance, of allowing those residents of the CLT land to create sustainable livelyhoods for themselves and even do war tax resistance if they so desire because they are not burdened with the fear and insecurity that comes with "ownership". (they can't take it away from you if you don't "own" it)

It is a start anyway.

Lately I see more and more politically active folks drawn to, and then become disappointed by the Permaculture "movement", as they come to see it rightly or wrongly as strictly aligned with libertarian or green capitalist or other seemingly "selfish" political and social orientations and motives. and it seems true that there is not often a lot in Permaculture circles for people to connect their higher needs for community, cooperations, etc with yet.

and yet there is a lot of change going on, in Permaculture circles just as there is everywhere else, and this list, i feel, doesn't always represent the full range of Permaculture expression going on....

anyway, thanks for the time,

eager, in the true permaculture spirit, for positive solutions

kevin
Regeneration CSA in High Falls NY











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