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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Natural hydroponics, aquatic foodweb & quality food

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  • From: Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Natural hydroponics, aquatic foodweb & quality food
  • Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:57:00 -0700

On Apr 13, 2013, at 1:46 PM, Douglas Hinds wrote:

> Now I get it - You HAVE to take these positions (that aren't really yours),
> as an EXPERT on Permaculture

Ah, we've degenerated to personal insults.

> perhaps you believe that hydroponics recreates life in the sea


And here I thought we could make an effort to understand and converse rather
than twist words to score debating points. Sigh.

> That's what the Pro-GMO people say.

Next you'll compare me to Hitler and then we can invoke Godwin's law, and
that will end it.

> it's (what I write here) is about ... ME! My life, my food.

I've figured out what works well for me, too, and with that done, my interest
is to help others where things are obviously not working well for them, like
that neighborhood in Denver. If that looks to you like taking positions that
aren't really mine, then you are welcome to your judgment. I have access to
soil and gardens. They don't. So I help them look at their options, even if I
don't need that particular solution right now.

Some people (not Douglas, perhaps) feel that rainwater harvesting using
galvanized metal roofing with baked enamel paint, plastic or metal pipes,
metal, plastic, or concrete cisterns, and usually a pump and pressure tank
constitutes permaculture design, while the same materials used to grow fish
and plants in a closed loop system do not. I think, understandably, that we
are comfortable with systems already in place even when they are tech-heavy,
but we don't like to see new systems emerge that are tech heavy.

What I like about aquaponics is that it produces high yields of both plant
and animal food in a tiny footprint, has low maintenance inputs once
established (like any good Pc system), can be set up as an intensive, small
scale system, and is a very clear, easily graspable way to demonstrate a
closed-loop, whole system, which is something most people have a very hard
time understanding. The food tastes good to me, but perhaps I don't vibrate
on as pure an etheric plane as others.

To move away from obviously fruitless opinionating about whether we like
aquaponics or not, I offer something from one of my mentors, Tom Ward, that
helps me see where some technologies fit. Tom classes our designs in 3
categories, quick fix, retrofit, and ultimate permaculture. Let's say we are
in a place with a leaky gutter and droughty plants. First we do:

The quick fix: put a bucket under the leak and dump the stored water on dry
plants.

But also plan to do

The retrofit: repair the gutter and direct the downspout toward the dry
plants, which maybe you have mulched, too.

And when you have time and resources, do

Ultimate permaculture: build a rainwater harvesting system, build the soil to
hold water, mulch, swale, etc, etc. so we minimize long-term inputs, etc. etc.

Most design work is retrofit, since there is so much to fix. But often a
crummy quick fix is needed fast, while ultimate Pc is where we want to go. I
see aquaponics as part of the retrofit stage in a broken culture. A relevant
solution at a certain point, but in the long run we want ultimate
permaculture, when urban soils are remediated so we can grow food on them,
everyone has land, money, and the education to do critical thinking about
food issues, everyone has the freedom to leave the US or go wherever when
they want, and all that. Meanwhile, I see a role for techs and activities
that are less than perfect if they increase quality of life in easily
measured ways like providing alternatives to industrial food.

Toby
http://patternliteracy.com





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