permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

Lion Kuntz on Permaculture | RE: Permaculture design systems
LIONKUNTZ/lionkuntz-plenty-3/
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RE: Permaculture design systems*From:* Lion Kuntz (*lionkuntz@email.com*
<lionkuntz@email.com?Subject=RE:%20Permaculture%20design%20systems&In-Reply-To=%3C384696432.956278258141.JavaMail.root@web08.pub01%3E>
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*Date:* Thu Apr 20 2000 - 20:50:58 EDT


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------------------------------

<A.LEE> ------Original Message------
<A.LEE> From: "Andy Lee & Pat Foreman"
<mailto:goodearth@rockbridge.net?Subject=RE:
Permaculture design
systems&In-Reply-To=<384696432.956278258141.JavaMail.root@web08.pub01>
<goodearth@rockbridge.net?Subject=RE:%20Permaculture%20design%20systems&In-Reply-To=%3C384696432.956278258141.JavaMail.root@web08.pub01%3E>>

<A.LEE> To: mailto:sanet-mg@cals.ncsu.edu?Subject=RE: Permaculture design
systems&In-Reply-To=<384696432.956278258141.JavaMail.root@web08.pub01>
<sanet-mg@cals.ncsu.edu?Subject=RE:%20Permaculture%20design%20systems&In-Reply-To=%3C384696432.956278258141.JavaMail.root@web08.pub01%3E>
<A.LEE> Sent: April 18, 2000 9:15:56 PM GMT
<A.LEE> Subject: Permaculture design systems

<old> > Permaculture is most noted as being a
<old> > system designed to sell very-high-priced seminars on how
<old> >to permaculture. Each
<old> > owner of a permaculture course graduatation certificate
<old> > becomes a new sales
<old> > pitchman for permaculture without necessarily ever having
<old> > sold one tomato ever
<old> > to anyone. Agriculture is more than private home subsistance
<old> > gardening. Agriculture
<old> > is the feeding of the population who is not farmer/gardeners.
<old> > Permaculture has made
<old> > no contributions to agriculture which did not already
<old> > previously exist in
<old> > the public
<old> > domain, and which already public property did not require
<old> > expensive seminars or a
<old> > cutesy name to use.

<old> > Signed by Lion Kuntz

<A.LEE> Dear Lion, the above could not be farther from the truth. Indeed,
<A.LEE> Permaculture (and yes I am one who holds a design certificate
<A.LEE> as well as a graduate certificate from the Permaculture Institute)
<A.LEE> is the basis for your so-called micro-farming scheme. The
<A.LEE> difference is, that there are tens of thousands of permaculture
<A.LEE> practitioners around the world, and so far as I can tell, based
<A.LEE> on your bashing of everyone else, you are the only
<A.LEE> micro-farmer. That alone speaks volumes as to which system
<A.LEE> is most sustainable thereby most attractive to
<A.LEE> small-scale agriculturists.

<A.LEE> Your tirades are becoming a bit tiring. We are all willing to
<A.LEE> learn, but your message is getting lost in your spew.

<A.LEE> With all due respect,
<A.LEE> Andy Lee

Thank you for making public a previously undisclosed fiduciary relationship
offering a profit-minded
motive for you prior criticisms of my writings. Had you mentioned that you
were a "Permaculturist" I
might have realized that you would not have enjoyed my ranking of
Permaculture in my
comparisons.html webpage:
http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/comparisons.html

My very first microfarm essays had the address to the gateway page, and
there near the very top is a
comparisons (from my point of view) of major small-mini-micro farming
brand-names. Other systems are
ranked higher than Permaculture from a species salvation viewpoint. There
is some justifiable
criticism of "Permaculture" recorded there.

I like Bill Mollison's writings. I have read several of his Permaculture
books, and would recommend
them to people. But I do not think this is a species-saving concept, and in
fact it is very forward
in it's selfishness. The first book I picked up made a point that one
should be self-sufficient
before being a commercial producer.

I don't believe in self-sufficiency, and I have never met the man or woman
who can smelt their own
ores and bake their own ceramics to make their own sparkplugs. What
"permaculture" graduate can do
their own open-heart surgery? Self-sufficiency is not a requirement for
micro-farming, and I have
said I would buy your milk and beef in the stores because it doesn't make
sense to me to buy the
land and equipment needed to raise my own beef and milk.

Because there is a profit-motive associated with your attachment to the
Permaculture paradigm, which
I have criticised, you do not have clean hands and pure heart when your
choices of adjectives
pointed at me are reviewed.

I have made some inventions. Microfarming is not actually one of them.
According to two books on the
market by authors of systems of competitors to "Permaculture" (and whom
could also be considered to
be competitors to "Ecological Synergy(tm)"), most of the subsystems were
developed and perfected by
the Chinese over 3,000 years ago. I will pay homage to the Chinese
ancestors ingenuity, as does
Leandre Poisson author of the "American Intensive" growing system, and as
does John Jeavon's author
of the "Bio-Intensive" growing system. The "French Intensive" growing
system is also mentioned by
both authors, and whom I too will credit with discovering the highest-yield
farming system ever
discovered up to that time.

"Permaculture" did not provide the basis for the "so-called microfarming"
because I cannot find a
replicable system within "Permaculture". If anything, Permaculture is a
do-your-own-thing system. As
such it can (try to) lay claim on anything and everything which has any
resemblence or similarity to
the design principles of Permaculture.

However, my record on microfilm in public and university libraries around
the country dated 1972 to
1974 show that I was writing essays, reporting news, and reviewing books on
alternative energy,
solar orientations, gardening and back to the land. The published record
shows I was exposed to
these ideas long before Mollison wrote his first book. Lucky for me I have
such microfilm evidence,
so I can survive an attack on my credibility by a financial competitor in
the marketplace of ideas.
My record is probably in the Library of Congress, and I will shortly check
to see if the microfilm
by Bell & Howell Corporation was ever converted to computer accessable form
on the web or ftp
archives. I am more than happy to give credit where credit is due, but
Permaculture really did not
bring forth anything new to me.

It also does not have the virtures of some of its competitors, like
"Biodynamics", "MOA" and
"Kyusei" Nature Farming, or J.I.Rodale's "organic" systems. All of these
have books, videos,
seminars, classes, etc., just like Permaculture. I chose to rank them
higher than permaculture based
on the five questions of part 2 of the microfarming essay series partially
published on SANET-MG.
Archived at URLs: http://www.efn.org/~lkuntz/microfarm2.txt
http://lifesaviors.nav.to/microfarming/microfarm2.txt

These are my criteria for ranking a system, and they speak more to what
preserves the most habitat
for endangered species the quickest, than they speak for personal profit by
promoting any
competitive agriculture regime or system.
Sincerely, Lion Kuntz
Currently in Eugene, Oregon, USA.
http://lifesaviors/nav.to/microfarming/