permaculture

[Jay Woods <woodsjay@cox.net>]

This forum needs no rational for permaculture. But it is 
interesting when in land use it becomes worthwhile to institute 
permaculture and at what level of concentration of use, 
permaculture no longer contributes. This is a short orientation 
that I designed for my children many years ago on "How To Use 
Land".

There are many uses for land. They can be ranked in terms of 
income in $/year/acre. The point of the ranking is that for each 
move to a higher income, the move can be done by reinvesting 
the accumulated resources from the lower income. It should be 
assumed that this is for residents on the land; the loss of 
resources is too high for market sales unless the nutrients or 
sewage is returned. The resources on land are sunlight, water, 
and minerals. They are diffuse and (other than water) not 
usable for humans directly. 

HUNTING AND GATHERING - When access to unowned or public 
land is available it is still possible to hunt for the pot and gather 
food stuffs. A full time hunter/gatherer, returns about 10. 
(Remember the $/year/acre part.) It is assumed that ownership 
is not possible. All results of the activity must be removed by 
hand. It is further assumed that the land is being used by 
others to capacity. This means that the hunting and gathering 
is in competition to others and the returns are at the 
subsistence level. The weight of returns is about 10 lbs per 
year per acre. The activity of one person will be spread over 
100 acres. No permaculture need apply. If any permaculture is 
practiced, some else will benefit. 

GRAZING - If you can get the land at a low enough price, the 
place to start is grazing.  When it is fully engaged, it returns 
about 100. It is assumed that the land is treeless, rocky or 
desert/short on water or contaminated. The land is being used 
to grow plants (a diffuse resource) not suitable for human 
consumption but can be expected to grow without tending by 
humans. The animals gather the (diffuse resource) plants and 
convert it to a concentrated form usable by human beings. 
Whether the animals are cows, sheep, goats, squirrels or 
rabbits they can be tended by humans and delivered to a 
concentration point for "harvest". The weight of animals is 
about 100 lbs per acre per year and will feed about 1 person 
per year in an area of 4 sq ft. The labor of one person will 
handle about 10 acres and can be replaced by  human salary 
man or robot labor. (A robot is a roving automaton suitable for 
handling diffuse, clumped resources.) The grazing tends to 
force the land into grass. Any standing trees will be girdled and 
killed. Any bushes will be eaten to the roots. Only plants such 
as grasses that come up from the roots each year or germinate 
from seed in disturbed ground will survive and then only if the 
grazing animals are rotated over several pastures. The housing 
will be discussed later.

ANNUAL CROPS - The next level up is annual cropping. In the 
transition the manure from the animals is used to bring up the 
soil tilth. The soil is improved by growing legumes and winter 
green manure crops such as rye. When it is fully engaged, it 
returns about 1,000. The crops as a resource are more 
concentrated by a factor of 10 and requires the full time labor 
of one person to tend and gather the crops for an increase in 
concentration of about 1000. No robots need apply. This means 
that 10 people can be fed from a storage area of 40 sq ft. The 
processing and housing will be discussed later.

PERENNIAL CROPS/TIMBER - The next level up is perennial (or 
self sowing annual) cropping. In the transition the bare land is 
still used for gardening but it is a strip of about 800 sq ft. 
When it is fully engaged, it returns about 10,000 between 
crops and timber. The crops/timber as a resource are more 
concentrated again by a factor of 10. Two people can handle 
10 acres and robot labor can substitute for about 1 of the 
people. The combination is good for feeding about 20 people 
and needs a storage area of 100 sq ft (not the 80 sq ft that 
would be needed for food only). The processing and housing 
will be discussed later

MINING/HOUSING - There are lots of things worth doing out of 
the rain and other weather (such as feeding, sex, learning and 
amusement). Now the processing and housing will be 
discussed. The next level up is a combination of timber to 
lumber conversion, mineral to construction materials 
conversion, and house building. While the limitations of the 
first three levels are well worked out, for some reason, the 
limitations of this level are not. That means the conversion 
figures are vague especially for house building. When this is 
fully engaged, it returns about 100,000. A combination of 
robot and fabber can substitute for most of the human labor 
when the lumber, the construction material, 
and the housing is designed for assembly, disassembly, and 
reuse. (A fabber is a stationary automaton suitable for handling 
concentrated resources - because it doesn't need to go get 
them.) The housing will hold the people that the land will feed. 
The waste from the timber to lumber conversion and wind to 
electricity conversion will power the robots. The space needed 
is about 10,000 sq ft but need not be at ground level. It can be 
underground or stacked.

POWER/HIGH RISE BUILDINGS- Higher levels are not sustainable 
without geothermal/fission/fusion power to supplement the 
sun. Geothermal power will work with diffuse source/sinks of 
heat and support a further return of about 1,000,000 (again 
$/acre/year) but converting electricity to food is currently 
difficult beyond the use of high intensity lighting for a factor of 
three improvement. (It is not impossible. Taking the termite 
route of living off the cellulose and lignins can be done for an 
extra factor of 10 in population density or 200 people per acre. 
This would require engineering the human gut. Currently, we 
have a lot of trouble with digesting beans, a recent addition to 
the human diet.) Fission fuels are diffuse. Fusion fuels are not 
as diffuse but are more fractious. The space needed is about 
100,000 sq ft (which implies it will be stacked and might as 
well be underground). If ever this level of technology is 
developed then space colonies make sense.

Note that there was no discussion of gas, oil, nor coal. These 
are handy when available but in the long run not to be built on. 
However, it should be pointed out that there is about 3 feet 
coal-equivalent under each acre in Nebraska or 100,000 
tonnes/acre. There is more fission fuel energy in the coal-
equivalent ash than in the coal-equivalent. This would also 
carry us to the power/high rise building level, if the food were 
available. Excitement will reign when the land level drops by 3 
feet.