permaculture

[venaurafarm <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Re: [permaculture] Permaculture standards.
Date: Sat, 28 Jul 2012 21:10:22 -0600
From: Scott Pittman <scott@permaculture.org>
To: 'venaurafarm' <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>

Well said Darren!

"Another world is not only possible, she is on her way.
On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing."
~Arundhati Roy



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Permaculture standards.
Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2012 19:30:12 +1000
From: Heenan Doherty <heenandoherty@gmail.com>
Reply-To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>

G'day,

My feeling is that Permaculture the brand will invariably become tainted as
an inevitable function of becoming mainstreamed, something that in some
markets has already occurred unfortunately. To certify Permaculture
training as per the originally mooted Mollisonian model has proved a little
funky and a bit flaky in some circumstances however very well done by
others.

To us it has always been about the model (of ethics and design principles)
and not the brand hence our 1993 statement that, "we wish to move
Permaculture from being a marginal methodology to an unconscious practice",
something we as as a species are not even remotely close to. Applying
certification (controls) particularly nationally and internationally we
would suggest is playing the game of the dominant degenerative paradigm,
however applied regionally and locally provides the applied potential to
exert standards and ethics but even then it is difficult when free will
reigns!

Our response has been to all of this, especially post 'The Permaculture
Institute' (AU) Teacher Registration closure, has been to progressively
delaminate ourselves from the layers of attachment that we have had to
certification of any kind, quite a reaction that some would see as going to
the other side of the pendulum. However for us it is an expression of the
'uncertified rational (*e)' position we have come to where one's own
actions, results & reputation along with the immediate relationships one
holds is all you can exert any modicum of control over, particularly
important when it comes to the branding you represent yourself with in the
wild wonderful world we live in.

So I agree with Scott in that we have to apply some caution with regards
the rapid growth of the movement under some cookie cutter model of success
or express PDC>Teacher models that I have never agreed with. These are
seductive models that I have fell for from time to time as many of us have
however there is an inevitable negative result that happens when anything
operates outside of the true economy of nature itself. Again the free will
and poor judgement of many, often noisy and attention seeking humans will
likely continue and they will increasingly find Permaculture an attractive
vehicle and 'void' to pollute. Those with integrity however will always
stand tall and rise above the morass of others who have little difficulty
sleeping at night despite their actions.

All the best,

Darren J. Doherty