Subject: [permaculture] Land use and the availability of space (fwd)
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2012 20:15:05 -0400
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [fukuoka_farming] Re: "Land use and the availability of
space"
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2012 08:54:19 +1000
From: Linda Shewan <linda_shewan@yahoo.com.au>
To: <fukuoka_farming@yahoogroups.com>
I agree Alan, there is a movement in Russia and surrounding areas (also
in a tiny way in many other countries) based on the Ringing Cedars
series. In Russia, many largely abandoned towns are giving land freely
to people wanting to start Anastasia based eco-villages because they are
rapt that new people are coming to the area instead of leaving it.
Apparently it was enshrined in law that every person is entitled to 1
hectare of land which is not subject to any taxes, and the produce etc
grown or manufactured on these sites are also not taxed. This is in
addition to the dachas situation which has been in action for many
decades. In reality a lot of states are not allowing people to do that
but there is a definite movement back to the land being supported by
abandoned town councils.
I believe there is a potential in all countries to do this. It will
require a massive movement as they had in Russia (apparently 10 million
people read the series). But in a lot of countries there is a lot of
land that is considered worthless as industrial farming has completely
killed the soil.
We know natural farming could rehabilitate it, with perhaps a little
'outside' help in the first few years. There may be land around that the
older generation still owns but is useless and they may be convinced to
go into a share to get it back productive, as their children etc have
moved to the city. I am just rambling but I do believe there is
potential but we need to make it happen, not sit around waiting for it
too. It will require huge commitment and an outside income for a few
years - as we see from some of our Indian members that are doing just
that - and many in the Anastasia eco-villages are doing the same thing.
Good on you!!!
It is difficult because we are entrenched in our current way of thinking
and our current way of living.
Cheers, Linda
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [fukuoka_farming] Re: "Land use and the availability of space"
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2012 12:29:33 +0100
From: Alan Sloan <alan851603@gmail.com>
To: fukuoka_farming@yahoogroups.com
Hi,
The average age of "farmers" in Japan is said to be 66, up from 51 in
1980. UK arable per capita is a bit more (I think about 0.1 ha) but
there are areas of degraded land in the west of the islands, (often
peversely labelled Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty!)
UK average age per farmer is around 60, the youngsters being more in
livestock.....but inheritance laws and the way we define a farmer will
probably be distorting much of the true picture
The UK, has similar issues to Japan. There is a very reasonable but
un-articulated argument for allowing land-based settlement by unemployed
or mis-employed young peoples wanting productive contact with nature and
a place to uild their own house and life. Such a thing is "rightly"
(righteously) restricted (in effect prohibited) by the planning system,
but those same laws could be adapted (perhaps in conjunction with the
benefit system) in such a way to discourage or eliminate property
speculation and encourage carbon trapping forms of cultivation which are
designed to be sustainable. The need to reduce carbon emissions and
sequester carbon is already recognised. A major drawback is the lack of
knowledge on scaleable and appropriate farming practices - this would be
needed to support such a scheme.
I'd like to know more details of the Japanese Government "giveaway"
scheme to encourage recovery of the the forest uplands - what was it
called and what was/is the outcome?
If you have in japan 0.0003 km2 for each person to cultivate the land
we should see the source of these assertions, see if it's true or not),
here in Argentina there is much more land available for each inhabitant.
The source was FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) and the figure
down from twice that in 1961.
In fairness, it was the figure for "arable land" and so would not
include other possibilities such as domestic and forest gardening etc. I
think it also did not include adjustments for double harvesting.
I'm very interested in land use and find the current changes, and
ongoing eco-cide (or rather ecocaust) deeply saddening. Rice field by
rice field is being sold off to families who sold mock American dream
nuclear family homes that are not even worth the poor materials they are
built from.
What is the point of packing crate home if you cannot produce food to
eat? It seems the Japanese government are going to deliver the Japanese
people into the servitude of the American agro-industrial conglomerates
and, hence, its politics.
That's why in the early twentieth century Spanish immigrants, Italians
and others who were starving in Europe came to this land and cultivated.
As did the starving Japanese to South America too; Brazil, Chile and
elsewhere. They should leave their land and go to cultivate larger land
which are everywhere. That would be a resilient or sustainable solution.
They did tried that. The Koreans and Manchurians were 50:50 about the
experiment and ultimately the British-American Imperialists took such an
offence to an Asia nation successfully challenging them that they put a
stop to it. One current trend now though is for large Japanese
companies to go back into China and peacefully lease large swathes of
agricultural land.
You're right, sustainability could be done. Forests could be re-grown
and marginal lands recovered. Unfortunately, the current trend of global
geo-politics stand in our way from doing so. I suspect we will have
to wait until the collapse of the oil economy until people are forced to
do so. I only hope that we have not lost all the skills and seedbanks
and impaired the land by the time it happens.
[permaculture] Land use and the availability of space (fwd),
venaurafarm, 09/18/2012