permaculture

[Suraj Kumar <suraj@sunson.in>]

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 9:20 PM, Michael
Burns<michael@fingerlakespermaculture.org> wrote:
> If you want free, stick to the internet and you will find plenty. In fact, 
> much
> of the labor of many permaculture writers has been pirated and offered 
> online
> if you know where to look and are comfortable with theft.

Pirates attack a ship and take away "Stuff". The nature of "Stuff" is
such that if I took away  "your stuff", you will no longer have it.
However, Knowledge is not "Stuff". If I took away your knowledge, you
still have it with you. It is not lost!

Now, do you call knowledge sharing the same as "attacking a ship"?

I guess I owe an apology. I should have explained what I meant when I
said "Free Software". The "Free" in Free Software stands for Freedom,
not Free Beer.

Knowledge/Information has been the cornerstone of our species' success
thus far - via language, via writing/printing and sharing. If there is
any way our species is going to face the challenges ahead of us, it
can only be via Free (as in freedom) knowledge. Hence I question, why
make permaculture relatively inaccessible? Why not let the community
take care of spreading it? The power of exponential growth is
undeniably overwhelming.

Richard Stallman of the Free Software movement did earn a living. Not
by making everybody pay up whenever they used his knowledge. But
people did pay him willingly for the excellent services he rendered,
much like how you mentioned some students donating voluntarily for
your courses. That is indeed a sign of good will returning.

> Have you spent much time attempting to practice what you've read? Have you
> visited sites? Have you considered donating a large chunk of your time to 
> work
> on a permaculture site? You might learn a lot if that is what you seek.

I have 2 acres of land in the south indian plains that I'm slowly,
step by step, transforming into a natural farm - planted trees,
digging out a pond, etc.,. But that's all going to take a lot of time
and a lot of learning.

I also have a backyard garden - About 60 species of plants grow in a
700 sq.ft. area. I'd call it a permaculture garden, but I'm not sure
if I need to be certified to call it one (pun intended, of course). I
don't care about labeling it though, as long as I keep learning and
eating from it.

> Do you expect those who are designing and implementing permaculture sites to
> also donate their time to teach you? Regardless, they do. They bust their
> butts to organize, promote, and host dozens of strangers on their land. They
> pull themselves away from their homes, jobs, families and other obligations 
> to
> teach (often two and a half weeks straight)and usually for pay that is much
> lower than what they earn on the job or land.

Unlike folks who offer PDCs, I obviously lack the experience. As
Holmgren would put it, I fit into the "drip feed culture" as of today
and its probably easier to talk standing here and its all the more
easier to take me as an annoying negative-feedback-giver :)

No matter how hard one tries to write about, say, "soil" in a book or
show videos of it, there is nothing like touching and 'knowing' about
it. Hence, there is nothing that will beat a real course and the real
experience of learning by doing. Knowledge is merely a filling agent
to connect experiences together. Free information is vital to get
started; More vital to encourage experimentation, if you get what I
mean.

The only thing I'm "nit-picking" here is the proprietary information
bit. Why should information be proprietary? Is it because there is an
underlying element of insecurity? We actually never had a food crisis
in the 40s, if only we looked at how nature did the job of taking care
of lots of things - building soil fertility, pest control, etc., we
could have let nature take its course. But instead, humans paniced and
went in the wrong direction and created a food crisis (today). By
thinking that "my knowledge is being stolen and misused" and thereby
"protecting" it, one ends up creating that very situation!

Like I said earlier, I'm not looking for a justification as to why
some information should be withheld in return for a fee. Infact, I
don't think its a gating factor at all - those who want to share, do
share. I do my tiny weeny bit - I take photos of my garden in
explaining the importance of ground cover or how pollinators prefer
biodiversity (there is a naturally formed honey comb in a nearby tree
after I started working my garden). I'm attempting to bring awareness
to the "software techies" in my campus by growing food right there in
the campus' "ornamental garden" areas (there are about 20 software
companies in a 50 acre area that has over 2 acres of distributed small
patches of land used for ornamental plants and 'lawns') and know what?
I've learnt a lot in the process and so did a lot of fellow workers in
that area.

I ask (ask as in request, not ask a question) one last time - think
why this information should be restricted. A figment of one's
knowledge is the result of a lot of experiences. Permaculture design
consultation is different - its about using one's growing experience.

Experience is a well from which the more you draw, the more
accumulates. A fallen leaf on the well will create ripples on the
well's water surface. It really doesn't affect the well and it's
water. Someone's problem might just turn out to be that insignificant
leaf that set forth motion in the well. Sure, sharing knowledge also
has money earning potential. But if we want to go down the slippery
slope of money, a Monsanto or the likes will win us all hands down, I
bet.

Michael, no offenses meant. :)

I was thinking aloud and thought some would like to join me in the
discussion. Your arguments only went so far to reinforce my initial
concerns. I hope I've explained why why I felt what I felt. It isn't
just me or Bela in this forum who feel this - there are quite some
folks out there who have expressed these concerns.

Cheers,

  -Suraj

-- 
"The Greatest Shortcoming of the Human Race is
our Inability to Understand the Exponential Function"
Dr. Albert Bartlett