Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] semantics, re "peasants"

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>
  • To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group <SANET-MG@LISTS.IFAS.UFL.EDU>, permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] semantics, re "peasants"
  • Date: Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:31:22 -0500

=http://lists.ifas.ufl.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0901&L=sanet-mg&T=0&O=D&P=28555
=SANET-MG Archives -- January 2009 (#41)
=Subject: Re: semantics, re "peasants"
=From: Felicitas Flörchinger <[log in to unmask]>
=Reply-To: Sustainable Agriculture Network Discussion Group <[log in to
unmask]>, [log in to unmask]
=Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2009 01:30:15 +0100

==Good point. Choose a term in local use that signifies skill,
==perseverance and dignity. What Korean word would that be?

=I will ask them. Btw whenever you talk to korean people you will find
=skill, perseverance and dignity, lots of hurt dignity. It is wonderful
=to work with these persons but also extremely difficult.

It sounds like fertile ground for success in upgrading their ability to
produce food.
Are they concerned with cropping for local/family use or for outside sales to
other
localities or other regions? Are they part of a national food production
network
that I seem to have heard about in the media, like the old collective farm
that
produces for nationwide use, through a distribution system?

Their dignity will surely return as they gain confidence in their ability to
secure their own food supply.
A multi-faceted approach to teaching them how to do this could be a good
place to start.
1) Start with getting a group consensus about what they want to achieve and
secondly, how they
a) think they ought to go about doing this b) want to go about doing this.
2) Teach them basic soil biology, crop types and cropping methods and how to build cropping systems using permaculture methods.

Between Sanet-MG and the Permaculture mailing list we (those of us interested in this project) could deliver a distance learning course in natural, biointensive food production to you for your students. This would be a fascinating, ongoing brainstorm session.

What are conditions like in the area where you are working?
1) climate: rainfall, min/max temperatures, ratio of rainy days to sunny per
year
2) what soil types are prevalent and what are their characteristics, i.e.
ratio
of topsoil to subsoil, depth of topsoil, percolation/drainage characterists
of the soil,
levels of soil organic matter and macro and micro nutrients.
3) is their farming diversified, i.e. are livestock, dairy, draught animals
included on farm,
4) do they utilize season extension methods, i.e. row covers, high tunnels,
greenhouses, cold frames, etc.
5) do they have any motorized farm equipment for soil conditioning, crop
management, harvesting
6) what is the quality and diversity of the hand tools they have access to
7) are there any resource inputs available to them from provincial or
national governmental entities
8) can they borrow or lease equipment from outside their area
8) do they have access to fuel for tractors or other tillage machines
9) can they convert to manual and draught animal
planting/cultivation/harvesting of crops exclusive of fossil fuel
powered equipment, i.e. all work done by hand labor or draughtanimals
carried out by organized workgroups on a
schedule
10) what seeds and plant material do they have access to; they need to start
propagation nurseries and seed banking
11) they need to do site inventories and learn what lives on their land that
is valuable to them and to existing
ecosystems and how these resources can be
preserved/stabilized/utilized/enhanced

There is a lot they can learn from homestead (urban & rural) and production
farmers and gardeners in Japan.

==Korean farming and gardening methods using natural methods and
==materials are some of the best and most interesting
==in the world along with Japanese, American traditional
==organic/sustainable, European biointensive, Andean, Hunza,
==raised bed farming in the Middle East, Asian terrace farming, and many
==other prime examples scattered over the globe.

=Unfortunately all that traditional knowledge is gone or deeply buried,

I am sure it was not lost forever. It can be restored and revitalized,
with help, of course.

=or forbidden perhaps. I´m giving my korean collegues information about
=permaculture in tiny bits, and they are really getting courious about
=it. Yesterday one of them asked me to explain the concept of green
=manure and undercrops...and he said maybe we can find some farmers who
=want to try it, but they certainly rather prefer their "traditional"

Wonderful; they can build on this. Seeing that these methods are worthwhile
should spur them on to
further experiments and trials.

=methods, that is plowing, monocropping, mineral fertilizer. I would like

This is not sustainable. They need to wean themselves from as many external
inputs as possible.
Maybe some of the cropping systems that they adopt will necessitate some
changes in their diet,
minor ones perhaps like incorporating more or different grains, perennial
crops, different
and perhaps improved vegetable crops, maybe heirloom varieties or some from
out of area.

=to travel to south korea and learn about their farming methods, they
=certainly still possess those ancient skills - but it would be of
=absolutely no help to get back here and tell them how their south korean
=brothers and sisters are working. maybe they would accept some japanese
=knowledge, I might tell them some of Fukuokas experiences.

You can just tell them that you have discovered much useful cropping
information that will benefit them in big ways
without mentioning the sources; you could put together a multimedia/hardcopy presentation of Japanese farming methods and Fukuoka's techniques and methods for them. If Bill Mollison's "Permaculture Design Manual" has been translated into Korean you could aquire a copy and let them read it or read it to them as part of your coursework. You could build a library for them.

Here are some useful resources for you:

My blog - have a look at the equipment pictured here and the lists of links
to other great websites:
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com Venaura Farm
EcoLandTech
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech
Scythe Connection
http://www.scytheconnection.com/
Fukuoka Farming
http://www.fukuokafarmingol.net/
Soil & Health Library
http://www.soilandhealth.org/index.html
Journey To Forever
http://journeytoforever.org/
ATTRA
http://www.attra.org/
AFSIC - National Agricultural Library, Alternative Farming Systems
Information Center
http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/nal_display/index.php?info_center=2&tax_level=1
Society of Primitive Technology
http://www.primitive.org/
Soil Foodweb, Inc.
http://www.soilfoodweb.com/
Ecology Action
http://www.growbiointensive.org/biointensive/Ecology.html
Plants For A Future
http://www.pfaf.org/
Permaculture FAQ at ATTRA
http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/perma.html
Permaculture Activist
http://www.permacultureactivist.net/
ARS News
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/index.html
Sal's Don't Panic Eat Organic, an organic grower's website
http://www.rain.org/~sals/my.html
Pattern Literacy
http://www.patternliteracy.com
Pattern Literacy's permaculture reading list
http://www.patternliteracy.com/reading.html
Gardening Hand Tool Sourcelist
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/gardening-hand-tools.faq
Various permaculture & biological agriculture bibliographies
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/permaculture-bibliography-1.txt
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/pawa-Permaculture-books.txt
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/documents/constructed-wetlands.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/Bibliographic-References-At-EcoLandTech

=Some of my replies didn´t show on the list, our internet here is not
=too stable, sorry.
=Felicitas

Could you resend those, I'd like to read them.

LL



  • Re: [permaculture] semantics, re "peasants", Lawrence F. London, Jr., 01/08/2009

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page