permaculture

[Cory Brennan <cory8570@yahoo.com>]

I hear you Nicholas, I'm aware of all of this. In no way do I feel army 
occupation is a sustainable activity. Historically, it's often been 
disastrous for the occupied country. 

It's interesting that McGaia groups generally do not call what they do 
permaculture.  This could change, but usually when these groups co-opt ideas 
they alter them and rename them into "corporate-speak." Which is why I wonder 
if permaculture as a subject will be compromised even if they do corrupt it. 

I feel one of the best remedies for the below is to focus on how ecosystems 
operate when educating people on permaculture, and to focus on the damage 
done by heavy interventions into local systems, human or non-human. 
Broadscale permaculture often involves engineering but it is done with a 
thorough understanding of and alignment with how ecosystems work. The Loess 
plateau is an example of heavy government/bureacratic intervention which 
improved the situation. There are a few like that as well. 

There is no doubt that we need to reach people on a deep level if we want 
real paradigm change. That is a worthy challenge and one we really don't have 
much choice about, if we want liveable habitats. Again, there are inspiring 
stories about how just one person was able to make a substantial change in 
large, unweildy systems through persistence, eloquence and passion.  

Cory

--- On Thu, 8/19/10, Nicholas Roberts, Permaculture.coop 
<permaculturecoop@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Nicholas Roberts, Permaculture.coop <permaculturecoop@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] The soils of war (and PEACE)
> To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Thursday, August 19, 2010, 2:01 PM
> sorry, website crashed due to traffic
> and now McGaia now online again
> 
> http://gaiapermaculture.com/projects/climatewar/blog/2009/08/15/mcgaia-corporate-permaculture-family-friendly-geo-genetic-socially-engineered-organic-perennial-polyculture/
> 
>  McGaia - corporate permaculture - family friendly geo-,
> genetic & socially
> engineered organic perennial
> polyculture<http://gaiapermaculture.com/projects/climatewar/blog/2009/08/15/mcgaia-corporate-permaculture-family-friendly-geo-genetic-socially-engineered-organic-perennial-polyculture/>
> by Nicholas Roberts <http://gaiapermaculture.com/people/niccolo/profile>
> 
> [image: faces-600.JPG]
> 
> The WSJ - once a bastion of climate change deniers -
> recently published a
> feature lift-out explicitly acknowledging the threat of
> global warming and
> environmental crisis: The Need for
> Geoengineering<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204771304574181522575503150.html>
> .
> 
>  The authors solution is global, corporate,
> geo-engineering. The problem
> isn’t that we have not “engineered” too much, we have
> not “engineered”
> enough.
> 
> You can hear the same arguments from the far-right - and
> increasingly
> liberals and blue-greens - on all kinds of issues.
> 
> The problem isn’t with capitalism, or conservatism. The
> problem is that we
> haven’t engineered the planet enough. We haven’t been
> conservative enough,
> capitalist enough. The problem isn’t that we shouldn’t
> be fighting in Iraq
> of AfPak, the problem is that we are not fighting harder
> with more troops.
> 
> The corporate geo-engineers are co-opting the momentum
> created by the
> climate change campaigners (with Al Gore the self-appointed
> saviour) and
> justifying a further expansion of human domination of the
> living planet.
> 
> Radical historian of science David F
> Noble<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_F._Noble> calls
> this the Corporate Climate Coup
> <http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/15472> (audio
> from Vancouver Cooperative Radio and and text from ZNET in
> a mashup at
> Permaculture
> TV) <http://permaculture.tv/?p=322>
> 
>    1. Corporate Climate Campaigns: Denial vs
> Trade - Corporate Climate Coup
>    - Part 1 <http://permaculture.tv/?p=322>
>    2. Anti-Globalisation - Corporate Climate
> Coup - Part
> 2<http://permaculture.tv/?p=324>
>    3. Climate Commisars & Community
> Climate Campaigns - Corporate Climate
>    Coup - Part 3 <http://permaculture.tv/?p=330>
> 
> RAND corporation had a military analyst research and
> publish a couple of
> papers on the potential for perennial polyculture to be
> used to save the
> environment and create employment. *Seeds of
> Another*Agricultural. *
> Revolution*?<http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/2007/RAND_OP179.pdf>
> .
> 
> His conclusion was that it might be difficult to find a
> place for perennial
> polyculture in todays market place.
> 
> However, with the growth of corporate “fair-trade”
> branding such as Mc
> Donalds fair-trade
> coffee<http://www.beveragedaily.com/Products/Who-s-lovin-it-McDonald-s-splits-opinion-with-fair-trade-coffee>,
> and the awareness raising of such movies as Food
> Inc<http://permaculture.tv/?p=136>,
> perennial polyculture will become a value-add for
> corporations looking for
> environmental sustainability and better branding.
> 
> A recent book, by University of Davis couple, have managed
> to “marry their
> separate fields to argue logically for the use of GM
> technologies to improve
> organic agriculture” Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming,
> Genetics, and the
> Future of 
> Food<http://www.amazon.com/Tomorrows-Table-Organic-Farming-Genetics/dp/0195301757/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213293058&sr=1-1>
> 
> So the elements are being assembled for a McGaia future. A
> family friendly,
> geo-, genetic & socially engineered organic perennial
> polyculture planet.
> 
> Unless resistance and alternatives are created, such as
> worker-cooperatives,
> popular inquiries, community associations etc, a nested,
> fractaline
> organisation of work and community democracy, we will find
> that corporations
> are perfectly able to adapt and co-opt the techniques that
> have been
> nurtured by the permaculture and associated movements.
> 
> As Mollison says, permaculture is more than a gardening
> system. Its about
> fair share, people and earth care.
> 
> Chomsky recently spoke Noam Chomsky on the Past 10 Years:
> Seattle ‘99 to WSF
> to Climate in 
> ‘09<http://media.indypgh.org/uploads/2009/06/noam_on_10_years_seattle_99-wsf-obama_09_mp3.mp3>
> and
> said that it is up to us to decide if that extends to
> international
> solidarity and a global system of management that
> integrates and coordinates
> democracy in the community and the workplace from the
> bottom-up.
> 
> We can choose between a hellish ecocide (ecological
> disaster), a McGaia
> sustainment (military-industrial sustainability) or a
> global framework of
> Gaia Permaculture. A framework which gives rights to all of
> nature,
> including the poor, and especially the living ecologies.
> 
> 
> On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 1:13 PM, Nicholas Roberts,
> Permaculture.coop <
> permaculturecoop@gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>   3. Re: Movement thinking (was
> Designing a Movement) (Cory Brennan)
> >>
> >> Could you give an example of what you're thinking
> when you say "it might
> also be true that the military system could use
> permaculture for  purposes
> that might conflict with PmC ethics and Afghanis might
> resent PmC for  that
> reason or even attack future permaculture teachers who
> arrived in their
>  country."
> >>
> >> Like spell out a scenario? It will be easier to
> discuss ethics if we can
> narrow down differences and get into specifics. Examples
> that actually
> occurred would be the best.
> >>
> >> Cory
> >
> > hi Cory, Patrick actually already gave some detailed
> examples of
> > things that are happening now, its not a big leap to
> see that the
> > techniques and strategies of permaculture such as
> perennial
> > polyculture, organic farming etc can be stripped of
> the ethical
> > framework and embedded in a geopolitical mission with
> its own
> > neoliberal ethical framework and become a tool for
> geopolitics...
> > there is also my post on the marriage of organics and
> gmo, perennial
> > polyculture and GMO and employment prgrams etc..
> called McGaia, see
> > below
> >
> > http://www.grain.org/seedling/?id=590
> >
> > In recent decades humanitarian aid has regularly been
> > made conditional on the adoption of neoliberal
> economic policies.
> Recently,
> > however, there has been a troubling tendency in
> war-ridden countries to
> > interweave this aid, classified as ?reconstruction?,
> closely with the
> military
> > machinery of the invading powers. Afghanistan and Iraq
> have been the
> testing
> > grounds for this militarised aid. In both countries
> the distinction
> between the
> > US?s civilian and military activities has been
> completely, and
> deliberately,
> > blurred.
> >
> > The soils of war
> >
> > The real agenda of agricultural reconstruction*
> >
> > Asia has seen its fair share of disasters in recent
> years, both
> > man-made and natural – floods, cyclones, tsunamis,
> earthquakes, war.
> > After each calamity, - outside agencies have provided
> “aid” to put the
> > pieces back together. For many years this aid has come
> with the
> > unpublicised agenda of promoting neoliberal economic
> policies and
> > facilitating the entry of multinational corporations.
> This remains
> > true today. What is new in Afghanistan and Iraq is
> that US development
> > assistance has also become an intrinsic part of the US
> military
> > campaign. This is an alarming development. Aghanistan
> and Iraq are not
> > unique cases born from unusual circumstances, but
> constitute a likely
> > template for US activities overseas, as it continues
> to expand its
> > “war on terror” and to pursue US corporate
> interests.
> >
> >
> > SOILS OF PEACE
> >
> > can I suggest folks who want an honest
> permaculturalist report from
> > Afghanistan, Rosemary Morrow anyone?, check-out her
> new documentary,
> > The Garden at the End of the World... the situation
> there is worse now
> > than before the invasion, much worse... its looking
> like the best
> > thing we can do is simply leave, get out, leave them
> alone... but we
> > wont do that because of the containment strategy of
> USA against China
> > and Russia, the Great Game continues in Central Asia
> >
> http://permaculture.tv/garden-at-the-end-of-the-world-permaculture-in-afghanistan-with-rosemary-morrow/
> >
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