permaculture

["Frances and David" <fdnokes@hotmail.com>]

Very interesting to hear about your background, Dieter.
And about what interests you to hear about on 'land use lists' for want of a 
better term.
I found it fascinating to hear that all of Cuba's food became organic when 
the U.S.S.R. went down because that and the U.S. embargo left them unable to 
afford pesticides.

I think you might also agree, though, that there are further shades of 
difference between food forest styles and mono crop styles of cultivation, 
with or without machinery?

Cheers,
Frances

-----Original Message----- 
From: Rob Crook
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2012 8:34 AM
To: 'permaculture'
Subject: Re: [permaculture] fukuoka_farming mailing list needs 
aco-moderator.

Dieter,

Very well said.

Rob

-----Original Message-----
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org 
[mailto:permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Dieter Brand
Sent: Sunday, October 28, 2012 5:53 AM
To: permaculture
Subject: Re: [permaculture] fukuoka_farming mailing list needs 
aco-moderator.

Frances, I don’t have to consult a dictionary to understand the meaning of 
traditional farming.  I grew up in the 50s on a small family farm in the 
North of Europe.  I can’t remember if there was a tractor in the village at 
that time.  But we certainly didn't have the money to afford one.  Nor did 
we have money to buy fertilizers or herbicides.  My grandfather cultivated 
the land like it had always been cultivated.  Today, I live in a poor region 
in the South of Europe.  My land has never seen a tractor or any other heavy 
equipment.  The previous owner cultivated the land with a donkey like 
generations before him.

So, the meaning of traditional farming and what it was like to produce most 
of what you needed for life is still in the living memory, even though it 
seems totally incomprehensible to most contemporaries who have lived all 
their life in an industrial society.

I appreciate Permaculture for its emphasis on practical solutions, yet I 
think there is a basic approach in NF that isn't very well reflected in PC. 
As I said, it is impossible to exactly copy NF methods from the Far East, 
yet I do find inspiring the examples of some NF pioneers who have farmed 
their land for decades without mechanization and without fertilizers or any 
other external input.  Even if we cannot use their exact same methods, it 
demonstrates that we can, under certain circumstances, do without any 
external inputs, and that it should not be our first priority to soak our 
land with all kinds of amendments.

Cheers,
Dieter
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