permaculture

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

Jonathan Storvick wrote:

Jon Storvick
Autonomy Without Tears
http://autonomywotears.blogspot.com

"Polycultural systems also value and protect indigenous and traditional 
farming methods, knowledge (especially that of rural women), and unique 
varieties of crops, which contribute to agricultural progress worldwide 
(Francis, et al., 2003; Thrupp, 2000, 2004). Altieri and Rosset (1996) 
elaborate:

  ""…Sustainability is not possible without preserving the cultural 
diversity that nurtures local agriculture… Peasant knowledge about 
ecosystems usually results in multidimensional land-use productive 
strategies, which generate, within certain ecological and technical 
limits, the food self-sufficiency of communities in particular regions. 
For agroecologists there are several aspects of traditional knowledge 
systems that are relevant: knowledge of farming practices and the 
physical environment, biological folk taxonomic systems, use of 
low-input technologies, etc. By understanding ecological features of 
traditional agriculture, such as the ability to bear risk, production 
efficiencies of symbiotic crop mixtures, recycling of materials, 
reliance on local resources and germplasm, exploitation of full range of 
micro-environments, etc., it is possible to obtain important information 
that may be used for developing appropriate agricultural strategies 
tailored to the needs, preferences and resource base of specific farmer 
groups and regional agroecosystems (p. 169).""

In an interview (Kawell, 2002), agroecologist Miguel Altieri takes this 
concept one step further: “Agroecology is not just a development method, 
but also a resistance to globalization, a tool for social movements to 
become much more autonomous… it is the technological flag of the 
resistance movement.” (p. 33)"

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My idea for a global permaculture database with plant-animal 
relationships and guild identification and documentation included
the ability to serve people around the world, in their own language,
so that they could enter data about their own area and endeavors
into the database; this data would be integrated with input from 
everyone else around the globe, everyone would benefit from any and all 
input. I see a need to locate, identify, document and preserve all 
indigenous global cultures, their foods, architecture, community,
tools, agriculture and knowledgebase. As this list serves the world
as an efficient communication tool, an online permaculture knowledgebase
would provide extended, long term benefits. It could become a huge
project lasting indefinitely, helped along in a big way by all Google 
and Wolfram/Alpha offers.