permaculture

["Thomas Paul Jahn" <tpj@life.ku.dk>]

Hey,
finally I got the book from David Blume and watched the DVD. I must admit 
that David has a very good story here. And from all he says about alcohol as 
a solar liquid energy and the surplus of assimilates contributing to carbon 
sequestration when growing crops for alcohol production makes great sense to 
me.
Also with regard to the ecological economics he has a very strong case, 
because he tells from his own experience (at low scale) and a fair lot about 
history, were alcohol in fact did serve as fuel such as USA, Brazil, Germany 
prior 1945 etc. And he makes the point that we definitely have to use less 
fuel in the future!!! That is good. And here I come back to my former concern 
that our cars, which David says could simply keep running on ethanol, are far 
too heavy and do use too much energy. Anyway….

The other very useful thing about David's book is, that he makes a clear 
distinction between sugar and starch on the on hand and cellulose on the 
other. That is the key point for me. As long as we use sugar and starch (or: 
water soluble carbohydrates) for alcohol production, we really do not 
interfere with ecology but rather promote growth (as long as we do it in a 
permaculture type system and at low scale). The nice thing is (and I don't 
mean to be ironic), that by using sugar and starch, alcohol production will 
simply compete with production for our food. And doing this at small scale, 
say directly at the permaculture farm, it is up to everybody's personal 
ecological economy and ability to practice permaculture and consequently 
achieve proper harvests to either eat or heat or drive. There will be no need 
for speculations, calculations and legislations. Rather everybody has the 
freedom to judge himself what is feasible and is responsible.

Finally, however, when David goes further to suggest, that we could use e.g. 
lawn clippings and other cellulose residues for alcohol production to boost 
the production, I am very skeptical. And in fact, here David is entering 
foreign territory. That is, that this has not been tested in a permaculture 
way of production. And in fact, it does not quite fit, because we need our 
residues for green manure. This is the lesson from amany permaculturists.
Whenever David in his book advocates large-scale cooperation type of 
productions, I become rather cautious.


Otherwise the book is great!
cheers
Thomas


>>> "Thomas Paul Jahn" <tpj@life.ku.dk> 21-10-09 22:38 >>>
It's true. I didn't read the book and should probably do so before I judge. 
Though I think it is remarkable that he - in his video just as on the 
frontpage of his book - tries to please us regarding our biggest concern: the 
car.
The more rational approach towards a sustainable transport system in my eyes 
would be first to shave off 98% of the weight of our cars. Why would we carry 
tons of steel and a sofa around every morning when going to work, ... or to 
the fitness centre.
But enough of that, Dave may be a real expert in alcohol production. Fair 
enough.

>>> Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com> 21-10-09 20:28 >>>


Thomas Paul Jahn wrote:
> Sorry, but in my eyes this is not permaculture at all. As long as he 
> wants us make believe that we will be driving our cars and lorries on 
> alcohol in substitution for oil this is insane.
It doesn't sound like you've read the book, as he is generally not 
advocating large scale use, and suggests that we won't continue to drive 
cars en masse much longer. The book is primarily about on-farm and 
small-scale ethanol production for very specific uses.

Dave sometimes overstates his case and uses more best-case numbers than 
I like, but he definitely knows his stuff when it comes to ethanol. I 
don't think he sees it as "the" solution, just part of a multi-fold set 
of solutions. He grasps permaculture pretty well.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com

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