permaculture

[Marjory <forestgarden@gvtc.com>]

Hello everyone,

Well, this thread has gotten long since I've had a chance to write 
back.  Toby, I don't want to sound harsh (as text can often be), but 
yes, if you do not have the skills to grow food and manage your water, 
then yes, I think you and most of the other p.d.c. teachers should stop 
teaching until you do.  The last century with its luxury of fossil fuels 
has allowed our populace to lose the basic skills of providing for 
ourselves.  Throughout  pre-fossil fuel history, at least 95% of people 
primarily worked to produce food.  There has always been lots of room 
for diversity, sharing and exchange; goat herders, vegetable growers, 
herbalists, orchardists, beekeepers, and hunters - all require different 
skill sets and abilities.  As fossil fuels decline, humanity will have 
to turn back to the land or it will starve.  Permaculture offers the 
best potential for an easier transition, but only if it's teachers can 
offer something of real value. 

Marjory




Toby Hemenway wrote:
> Marjory wrote:
>   
> > The absolute best thing you can do for your community is to quit 
> > teaching until you have implemented a design that provides at least half 
> > of your food and income needs, and all of your shelter and water needs.  
> >     
> Guess I better stop teaching, then. So should most of us.
>
> Pardon my continuing curmudgeonliness, but formulas like that are not 
> permaculture--they are blanket prescriptions done without assessment of 
> individual needs or resources. Nothing in permaculture suggests that you 
> need to grow food yourself. Instead, we need to make sure that our food 
> needs are taken care of in a sustainable, ethical manner, and there are 
> many ways to do that. Same with shelter, water, and all the invisible 
> needs too. A permaculturist always has multiple ways of meeting 
> important functions. If someone is a great builder and a lousy gardener, 
> it would be foolish for them to beat their head against the wall trying 
> to grow food. They'd quickly abandon the whole effort, saying 
> "permaculture doesn't work for me!" Or they could build wonderful 
> shelter for others and trade or use the income to pay for local, healthy 
> food.
>
> Permaculture is not about taking care of your own needs by yourself. 
> It's about creating relationships among the parts of a community so that 
> the community meets its needs in a sustainable way. And that community 
> can be a household, a village, a bioregion, or planet.
>
> Toby
> http://patternliteracy.com
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