permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

- if anyone can add to this please do...LL
I was asked to comment on this:
'Crop rotation vs Food labs'
https://ello.co/maartenpkappert/post/z90PWLGXMdjnE7bS1EPS5w
and this is my reply:
@ecoponderosa <https://ello.co/ecoponderosa>
@maartenpkappert <https://ello.co/maartenpkappert> That is a very
interesting post and raises several legitimate questions.

Option #1
We need to feed lots of people. If you can grow nutritious (taste good too
but that is second priority) food without any category of pesticides and
with natural, organic fertilizer and full use of permaculture systems and
biocontrol, and do so on a scale of mass production, that would be dream
come true. Reasons: people will be healthier, be more productive in the
workplace, impact the national healthcare infrastructure less and live and
work longer (no reason why an 80 year old be can't be happy working in some
aspect of food production like they have in China and elsewhere in the East
for millenia). Add to this owner-built Tiny Houses, mass produced offsite
tiny houses or tiny co-housing (infinite possibilities). Young people in
the USA like this kind of thing. They are no longer driven to Keep Up With
The Joneses. Salaries are much higher now than ever before while inflation
has crept up over the past ten years.
Option #2
Produce food as cheap as you can, use chemicals and gmos and don't worry
about nutritional quality or chemical residues...and sell it cheap so lower
income people can afford it.

I don't see why nations can't begin to use Option #1 and build such
production systems over the long term to the point where overhead is less
and less and pest problems are less or non existent. Farms like this could
become focal points for the ecotourism industry providing additional
income. They could even offer work trade plans for visiting customers,
bypassing middlemen. Cooperative farms could be set up that combine
marketing coops with agrarian communes. They do this in Japan. Japan is a
world treasure and that is an understatement. Another thing, the rich are
bailing out of China and moving to other countries to live and are taking
their money with them. Where does this leave the rest of the people in
China? Answer: they need to combine modern industrial production of goods
with their worldclass traditional ways wherein sustainability and low or no
pollution is an accomplished fact.

Crop rotation is very important as are diversified agricultural systems
using livestock, food forests, field crops, biointensive gardens,
greenhousing, aquaponics, hydroponics and much more. Crop rotation is just
part of the picture and integral to such systems. All of this fits under
the umbrella of permaculture. You start there and design systems to fit
your needs that are to scale for the production levels desired.

Hydroponic and aquaponic production can produce high quality nutritious
food if
natural, organic methods and materials are used. It is all about good
design and proper maintenance. Hydroponics production using synthetics
might be OK to grow seedlings or ornamentals but not so good for table food
as it will be lacking in nutrition. Good farming is about a balance of
mineral nutrients (natural ones, like rock dusts) with natural organic
macronutrients, N,P & K and calcium derived from N2 fixing crops, manures,
waste food, and composts combined with cropping systems that are the result
of the best permaculture design. With this, concern about all categories of
pests could disappear.

We are back at the need for Naturalness in our lives and in the production
of the things that sustain us. I used the word permaculture too many times
perhaps but I wanted to drive the point home, like eating too many apples
and less candy bars (unless it is Dutch chocolate!).

I could go on about this for hours and many pages. :-) Let me know if you
have any questions or suggestions.

LL


-- 
Lawrence F. London
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared/