permaculture

[Paul Cross <charybda@newmex.com>]

Thank you to all who took time to respond to these questions with so 
many good points. I pretty much agree with everything that was stated. I 
certainly would like to echo LL's sentiment that permaculture ought to 
spend a lot more attention on food production, at not only the home and 
neighborhood scale, but also the community scale. And yes, 
permaculture's ability to awaken people to their connection to the 
ecosphere might be one of its biggest impacts, as Jason stated.

Joel, you wrote, "I think that the real potential of PC is designing 
change efforts if we
would use it in that way. It is (n)ot about designing a farm but 
designing the
process for the self-creation of farms...or economies, or communities. This
is why observation of the forces is so critical. We are not trying to
decide the best array but the smallest changes that will result in the best
array. This is where we have failed in shifting larger systems: we have not
been thinking about or designing these as essential portions of every
physical design we do."

I'd be happy to read more if you'd like to elaborate. I didn't 
understand what you meant by the best array. I'm not sure what's in this 
array.


Re: farms
I pulled out Bill's big black book today and there it is, right on the 
first page of the preface:

"Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and 
maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the 
diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems."

If farmers are going to start using permaculture, there might be some 
obstacles to overcome. It's ideal to take the PDC within your own 
ecozone. But typically the PDC is offered during the growing season, 
which is exactly when farmers can't take a PDC because they're too busy 
farming. It's good that there is a diversity of options for taking a 
PDC. For many farmers, a PDC during the depths of winter would be easier 
to attend.

It seems like the place to start is with the beginning market farmers 
working on the micro scale, say the $5K - $15K annual sales. These 
growers typically do 100% direct marketing of diverse offerings. If 
successful at that scale, it's not long before sales are $30K, then 50K, 
then within a few more years up at 100k. Existing $100k+ market farms 
have working systems in place and may be more reluctant to redesign, as 
Toby pointed out. So Koreen is at an advantage by starting small! And 
not crazy at all to have those goals. There is a huge growth in micro 
farms happening right now. Every one I've seen is annual row crops.

[Just for the record, I do have a six-figure certified organic farm and 
have never taken a PDC. But I'm a critical thinker and self-directed 
learner by nature. I do a good deal of independent study on PC.]

Paul