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Gaia

Gaia

United Kingdom

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August 13, 2007

Seeds, seeds and more seeds everywhere!

I am now working with a group in Uganda and have set up a web page for them here http://www.gaianlife.co.uk/organicperspectives/

so now its seed trials time.... and I have spent days carefully labelling and preparing several hundred different kinds of medicinal and edible plant. Actually i'm kind of interested to see what some of them are like, especially the 'miracle plant'.....if you eat one of the berries, then for the next hour or so, everything else you eat tastes really sweet even lemons! Hmmmm we shall see! I'll let you know how it goes on the lemon front but it will take many months yet to get a fruit harvest unless by another miracle the plant grows really fast!

Hopefully I will be getting a teaching farm in the UK in the next month or so and then I can bring people to me in groups to teach rather than me having to travel around all over the world.......oh, hang on a minute, I LIKE travelling! ha ha.

As always, my apologies to folks here that I haven't managed to contact much recently, I hope you forgive me and know that I am so busy otherwise i would write more often!

January 20, 2007

I am a strong follower of permaculture. Not just in the sense of sustainable agriculture but also sustainability of human culture and society. Although it's thought to be a new idea, permaculture isn't so different from the way cultures such as the American Indians or Australian Aborigines thought about life and their relation to each other and the world around them. Permaculture however is also about technology and actually using all of our brainpower in order to plan and make the most of things. It is about productive connections and that could be anything from a solar powered crop watering system to a group of people co-operating to work together or create together. Its also about using good sense....how do we live a healthy and happy life if we have destroyed the world around us?

04:49 AM Feb 28 2007

Bruce.Zhang
China

i think that must be about sustainable development. Not only for the agriculture, but for everything related to human being, no matter which country.

06:14 AM Jan 26 2007

Gaia

Gaia
United Kingdom

The reason I choose to use permaculture in developing countries is because I believe everyone should have the same opportunities and quality of life as I have in the UK, but if everyone in the world lived like people do in the UK or USA...we would destroy the world with our pollution. We need to learn the lessons of the West and use them to bring all humans to a better life without destroying our planet.

06:06 AM Jan 26 2007

Gaia

Gaia
United Kingdom

http://www.gaianlife.co.uk/permaculture.htm

This article may also make things clearer. Smile

06:03 AM Jan 26 2007

Gaia

Gaia
United Kingdom

A very good point Boriska, and one that many people share. Perhaps I should give an example that doesn't involve farming? The idea of permaculture is to find links between as many processes as possible. Another idea of permaculture is that anything that is not used is wasted. In industrial cultures, there is competition between businesses and people are not quick to share. Many factories are built away from other buildings and so have to have roads and vehicles for transport. But this leads to waste and the use of a lot of energy/money which could have been avoided.

Maybe a good example for industrialised nations would be:

A refinery makes petrol from oil. As a waste product it creates a chemical which can be used to make soap (glycerides). If a soap factory is built next to the oil refinery, the chemical can be transferred easily through pipes saving money on transport and the oil refinery can make extra money from selling it's waste products.

A lot of the idea of permaculture is about building things which have connections near to each other, and using every waste product to make a profit. The computer industry is very important to permaculture as it is a way for people to share information and products. An article I have written on this is here.. http://www.gaianlife.co.uk/technology_for_a_green_future.htm

Perhaps I should also say that permaculture is about planning and design. No matter who we are or where we live, if we plan things better and use good layout design we can save money and make life easier. The aim of permaculture is not to make people work harder, it is to take any job and make it easier by planning it out properly. A very simple example would be the layout of a kitchen. If the storage is arranged so that things that will be used together are stored together, it saves a lot of time running around finding all the cooking tools and ingredients, and makes cooking faster and more relaxing. If you decided to have a herb garden to use in the kitchen, it would be best to build it so that it is close to the kitchen and is quick to get the herbs for cooking. If the herb garden was a 2 minute walk away, that is bad design and many people would probably not bother going to get herbs from the garden and it would become useless.

I hope my explanation makes sense. Permaculture is such a big subject that it is hard to describe it all at once!

An example from my own business would be 'shop sharing'. This is where I allow other people to sell goods on my market stall. In return they run the stall sometimes, meaning that I don't have to work every day and also other people get a chance to make money selling their goods. I save money as the other people contribute money to the stall rent, and also because we have a wider range of products it attracts more customers so we all make more money than we could on our own. Now I only have to run the stall for one day a month, so using planning and co-operation I have cut my work hugely, and also cut fuel bills for travel to the market!

01:09 PM Jan 24 2007

boriska
Israel

   It seems to me that Permanent Culture is still relevant only for not highly developed agrarian countries - exactly as you mention: Nepal, some areas of China, some other east-asian and african countries...

   Actually I respect people in industrial countries that work in this area though I'm very far of plants and chickens but I think that it doesn't fit to most of the people in developed countries - it doesn't bring too much money, people need to work hard in bad conditions (relatevely, of course; let's say comparing to hi-tech personnel), there is no fixed working hours - many farmers should work round the clock without long vacations, etc. So eventually I don't beleive that you'll find many adherents in these countries. On the other hand, let's assume that most of the people do like it - who'll build tractors, create new technologies, etc.? Tongue out

   Again - I'm not against this approach, just wondering if there are many people adopt it.

09:03 AM Jan 22 2007

Gaia

Gaia
United Kingdom

It is very big subject like you say. At its heart it is about finding as many useful connections between things/people/animals/plants as possible.

An example is:

A chicken farmer can connect with someone who grows crops. The chickens can be used to eat weeds before planting and fertilise the ground with their droppings. They can also eat pests like caterpillars and so be very good for the crop farmer and save much money in fertiliser and pesticide. The chickens get all their food from the fields and so the chicken keeper doesnt have to pay (or take time) to feed them any more, and they have good, varied food and exercise so they are healthier and make more eggs and better meat. If the crop farmer grows bushes or trees that will not be harmed by the chickens, they can stay out in the field all year. Of course as well as the money savings of both farmers, there is also saving in energy (as they don't need to go out with a tractor, or go out to feed the chickens), and a saving to the environment as no chemicals are used. The chickens are also happier so less animal cruelty. This particular example is called a 'chicken tractor' and the chickens are kept in with nets, which can be moved to wherever the crop farmer needs them or where there is good food for the chickens.

Of course if someone else arrives who wants to make solid fuel from the chicken droppings, then they can all work together and they can make 3 times the income from one small piece of land!

They could also team up with someone who wants to use the chicken feathers to make pillows....that would be 4 times the income from the same piece of land!

It is all about finding as many connections as possible between things so that together they work better, cheaper and benefit more people.

This can be a farming system but it can also be used in any other part of life. 'Permaculture' is a new word, but poorer people all over the world have been using similar ideas for many generations (wasting nothing and making the best use of what they have). It is industry and greed in wealthier nations which has changed things, so I believe we need to think again of many of these ideas and we need to do this by learning from as many different people and cultures as possible.

This is why I am here on eBaby, I am learning Nepalese, Mandarin as well as practising my French & Spanish. I hope to be working in Nepal soon setting up permaculture villages and after that maybe similar work in China.

01:42 AM Jan 22 2007

nugroho

nugroho
Indonesia

Gaia, would you please explain more specific about permaculture. It's difficult to me to understand, because it covers all kinds of cultures that you mentioned like technology, health, communication and so on.