permaculture

[Richard Archer <permaculture@juggernaut.com.au>]

On 4/11/11 1:35 AM, Thomas Paul Jahn wrote:
> There is a sheer iron resistance to the idea that farming can be done
> without heavy machinery. Hundreds of horse powers are out their on our
> fields. And people have completely lost confidence that it can be done
> otherwise.

Hi Thomas,

You introduce your post with a criticism of modern farming practices. 
This caught my attention because integration of permaculture into 
farming is something I am keenly interested in.


> However, maintaining a healthy garden gets down to *one  simple
> method*called “chop and drop”.
> ...
> I rackon, once the physical primary work is done, I can manage 2 hectares
> and maintain them in a state of a paradies just as a single guard ...

This technique works well on a garden-scale. As you say, up to a couple 
of hectares. After the initial earthworks are complete, there isn't 
really much need for hundred-horsepower equipment at this scale.

But if instead you had 500 hectares to manage, what sort of approach 
would you take?

Would you set up a small village of 200 people to help you work this land?
Would you set up passive permaculture systems?
Could animals perform the tasks of tractors and machinery?
Would you use tractors to perform the "chop and drop"?
How would you harvest grain and hay crops for storage?
Could you grow enough oil crops to fuel a tractor to work the rest of 
the land?

Because whether we like it or not, modern agriculture is an industrial 
process on a massive scale. How can permaculture help make that process 
more efficient in a carbon-constrained world?

 ...Richard.