permaculture

[Graham Unangst-Rufenacht <graham.rufenacht@gmail.com>]

[To continue... sorry for the early send:]

"Which brings us back to sustainability. What we need to be talking about,
one soil expert told me, is, “Can we continue agriculture the way we’ve
been doing it the past fifty years for the next two hundred years? The
answer is almost certainly no.”  [it could also be said that we can't
continue to
keep doing ag. in many of the subsistence ways it has been done for
thousands
of years]

Right!  But no where do they indicate what this looks like? And they just
told the reader that soil is a "nonrenewable resource"!?

Lastly, I am concerned whenever I see the position in an article that we
need to feed the world.  This is an argument commonly used to push
industrial and gmo agriculture and operates under the false assumption that
we need *more food* vs. a more equitable distribution of food and
resources, and justice and empowerment of local and regional populations to
feed themselves and govern the use of their land.  It also belies the fact
that the policies and practices of most western nations' governments and
industries have been interrupting indigenous food systems and agroecology
for hundreds of years of colonialism, slavery, and other forms of
oppression; telling them that we know what's best, and that we will provide
for them.  This paternalism is also a false presentation of the problem /
opportunity.

It would be great if we - as a global regenerative agroecology,
permaculture, etc. movement and body of practitioners, researchers, etc. -
could mobilize to write oped responses to, and articles for, journals such
as this and work to educate readers, researchers, and others as to the work
we are doing.  This article rightly points to many crises we are facing -
but then grossly misrepresents the facts and leaves the reader with very
little for practical, achievable, solutions.

Thanks and take care,
Graham

On Sun, Mar 26, 2017 at 11:20 AM, Graham Unangst-Rufenacht <
graham.rufenacht@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I find this paragraph in the article highly problematic and indicative of
> the general ignorance of - and the opportunity for us to radicaly educate -
> many in the scientific and conservation communities to the real and
> potential impacts of regenerative agroecology and land management:
>
> "All this might not matter so much if we could just find more soil, or just
> make soil ourselves. *But for all practical purposes soil is a
> nonrenewable*
> *resource.* The recipe for soil is incredibly complex, requiring an
> intricate
> mix of the right chemistry, biology, and physics. And it simply takes a
> long time to form. The rule of thumb? *Between five hundred and several*
> *thousand years for an inch of topsoil*."
>
> These statements - made as if fact, and left unchecked - can, does, and
> will lead people to pursue truly untenable "solutions" (such as
> geoengineering, gmo foods and biofuels, etc.) to climate change, the
> disruption of the water cycles, the depletion and killing of our soils,
> etc. as their understanding will be based on false premises.
>
> This paragraph is followed by:
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Mar 25, 2017 at 8:43 PM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, Mar 25, 2017 at 7:56 PM, Gene Monaco <efmonaco@comcast.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > Everything is here:
>> > http://www.soilfoodweb.com/
>> >
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>>
>> --
>> Lawrence F. London, Jr.
>> lfljvenaura@gmail.com
>> https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared
>> permaculture mailing list
>> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
>> subscribe/unsubscribe|user config|list info:
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Graham Unangst-Rufenacht
>
> RobinsonHillBeef.com
> WalkingOnion.com
> RuralVermont.org
>



-- 
Graham Unangst-Rufenacht

RobinsonHillBeef.com
WalkingOnion.com
RuralVermont.org