permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@bellsouth.net>]

lbsaltzman@aol.com wrote:

> I will certainly testify that when I took the Permaculture Design Course 
> community systems were clearly discussed as the hardest and most difficult to 
> achieve.
> Marjory wrote:
> > It is dammned hard to get one of those remote
> > farms up and functioning, much less a small community, and I sincerely doubt
> > eco cities will emerge.  I think one of the major failings of permaculture
> > is the false optimism it engenders.

Try harder, work more, don't get distracted. It'll get there.

Toby Hemenway wrote:
> In what way does permaculture engender false optimism? I've never heard 
> anyone say that it's easy to set up an ecovillage. Quite the opposite. 
> Oh, Mollison and others talk about how easy it is to grow a lot of food 
> and they sound pretty optimistic about gardening, but my experience is, 
> that's true. But a community? I don't see anything in any Pc literature 
> saying communities are easy to create, and most instructors I know point 
> out how much work and luck is involved. So if you're going to accuse Pc 
> of a "major failing," I''m curious to know the basis for the accusation.
>
> Toby

Designing and building a whole community system is one thing
but a group of people on one piece of land can work separately but together 
to make
an ecovillage happen. If every individual does his task to the best of his 
ability
and works as a team member with the rest it can come together. Organize 
people according
to the skills they possess and establish work groups to get jobs done - and 
keep it organized that way. Set a
schedule working toward task completion and one for daily events such as 
sleep, meals, household, exercise,
group activities, recreation ... and time on the computer connecting with the 
Web and the people on it.

I can speak about building one person homesteads with diverse systems
and dealing with energy, buildings, land, water and food issues. Take 30 
people who have also done this and put them
together on land to build a eco community and it should happen. Stay focused 
on real, hands-on activities,
avoid distractions and the village will be built.

Just another untested theory.
LL
--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
lflj@bellsouth.net.net
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/market-farming