[FRIAM] Permaculture; sustainable food production

Sat May 22 14:41:39 EDT 2021

Thanks for the reply Steve.

A week ago I knew almost nothing about Permaculture. Never mind doing it
myself, I don't think I'll even develop into a "groupie", but there is a
very good probability that we have an enthusiastic card carrying
"arm-chair" supporter in the making. I really love the concept.

But then, that's if I had free will. My wife is already planning "our"
Permaculture vegetable garden.

On Sat, 22 May 2021 at 17:05, Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:

> Pieter -
>
> As Kathryn surely offered you, the field of "Permaculture" has experienced
> a serious resurgence with a lot of practical demonstrations of how
> *intense* multi-use land/animal/plant "husbandry" can be in terms of
> production if careful thought and patience and respect for the land,
> animals, plants, air, water, neighbors are practiced.   A great bit of
> background to the spirit of the movement is Masanobu Fukouka's story.
> Holmgren and Mollison are the "founders" of modern permaculture but Fukouka
> is the Patron Saint IMO.
>
> https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/one-straw-revolutionary/
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Holmgren
>
> The mainstream dialogue (if we must call it that) seems to be a highly
> polarized tension between the devil-may-care pedal-to-the-metal
> damn-the-torpedoes neoliberal/industrialist/extractionist ideal that we
> just need to charge forward as fast as possible vs a sometimes blindly
> idealistic draw to "wishing and hoping" that putting down our manic
> hypercapitalism in disgust would yield instant utopia.
>
> The Permaculture people ( I am at best a groupie ) "do the work" as they
> say.   But in counterpoint to your point about it being labor intensive,
> they make a very strong point of "productive laziness".   For example the
> principle that every thing one does or makes or has should have at least 3
> purposes.   A fruit/nut tree offers fruit/nuts in season, shade in the
> summer, wind-screen in the windy season, shelter and food for birds,  etc.
> A pond provides ... , ... , ... and ... ... ...
>
> Permaculture *first* appealed to my optimizing/satisficing awareness
> developed through my practices in science/engineering.   I *grew* to
> appreciate the gentleness and reciprocity with nature that it inspires
> (requires) as well as the slow-patience.
>
> Permaculture Design *principles*
>
> Catch and store energy: Develop systems that collect resources at peak
> abundance for use in times of need. Obtain a yield: Emphasize projects that
> generate meaningful rewards. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback:
> Discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems function well.
>
> Here is a more elaborated, popularly accessible review:
>
> https://ethical.net/ethical/permaculture-principles/
>
> I strongly believe that the "choice between hurting the environment and
> letting people starve" is a false dichotomy, though it is fair to notice
> that it is "hard to get from here to there", especially if we aspire to do
> it quickly and without any discomforts and inconveniences.
>
> I don't have a specific reference on the tip of my fingers but I believe
> that Permaculture honestly aspires to address (holistically) all levels of
> Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, with *food* being an easy/obvious one for many
> to focus on.
>
> - Steve
> On 5/22/21 4:51 AM, Pieter Steenekamp wrote:
>
> I think there is broad consensus that modern farming is bad for the earth.
> I was always under the impression that it's one of those very difficult
> problems to solve. I always implicitly assumed that the yield of modern
> farming is just so much higher than ecologically friendly farming that it's
> impossible to feed 7 billion people without resorting to ecologically
> harmful farming.
>
> So I always assumed that the choice was between hurting the environment or
> letting people starve.
>
> I got a wake-up call this week. We visited a nearby Permaculture farm (
> https://numbivalley.webs.com) and it's just amazing the yield in terms of
> healthy food that they produce on a ridiculously small area of land. They
> farm in a very sustainable and eco-friendly way that produces more food
> (and it's very tasty, we had lunch with them and healthy too) per land area
> than modern farming. That's what they claim in any case, I have not
> independently verified that. The co-owner Kathryn says she challenges any
> farmer that uses modern farming methods to match their yield in terms of
> food production per area of land.
>
> I asked the other co-owner, Ross if a global disaster happens and they
> become totally isolated from the rest of the world if they would be able to
> survive. Jokingly he answered that they would not, because they won't be
> able to buy tennis balls. Tennis balls? I wondered what part
> of Permaculture depends on tennis balls. Yes, he said, I regularly go to
> the nearby town to play tennis and I won't survive without that. But on a
> serious note he thought about it and speculated that he reckons that they
> will survive.
>
> The possible draw-back is that Permaculture is extremely labor intensive.
> But then, working and living like that could be very good for the soul and
> the body, it's not like working in a factory.
>
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