permaculture

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Hi,

I haven’t followed this discussion, so I apologize if I repeat something that 
has already been said.

>... no it doesn't take hundreds or acres or miles 
> or whatever Toby said for wild harvests. 

In Japan, on highly fertile soil with more than enough rain, a quarter acre 
of intensive farming is more than enough to grow most of your own food.  On 
very poor soil in the arid climate of the South of Portugal, even 30 acres 
are hardly enough to sustain a family.  And to live on the few berries or 
mushrooms that will grow here in the wild, even 1,000 acres wouldn’t be 
enough to feed a person.

Fukuoka floated this idea about a quarter acre for every family in the early 
90s.  At the same time he also advocated doing away with the liquor tax.  As 
a farmer he was a genius, but as a social thinker he was a pure catastrophe.

Dieter Brand
Portugal