Ray Cover wrote:
As little as I know of permaculture at this point the one thing that I think woudl be the hardest sell would the the integrated planting. Not because its a bad idea but from a practical business point of view it looks as if makes harvesting on a production scale a real labor intensive pain.
Brenda
Bloom where you are planted.
http://restfultrailsfoodforestgarden.blogspot.com/
Ben Stallings wrote:It is a shame that so many permaculture classes are priced so high. The requirement of having a $$$$ PDC under your belt before you teach permaculture by that name seems to encourage qualified instructors to price classes high, to make back their investment, plus there is a tendency to try to teach everything in one course instead of breaking it down into smaller ones.
If you teach a “permaculture” course without having attended a “permaculture design certificate course” yourself and you teach within the ethics of permaculture and just call it a course on permaculture, then nobody cares. To issue a “Permaculture Design Course” certificate you would have to print it yourself and your students would have to verify that you covered the 14 chapters of “The Permaculture Designers Manual” before they would be eligible for a “Permaculture Diploma” see http://www.tagari.com for details.
If you are teaching or operating a business under the name of permaculture but outside the ethics then you will be challenged by the movement and our supporters and even the British government has been challenge and made to change the definition of permaculture within the court of law. There is every skill set and profession amongst the graduates of the PDC globally who support the movement and are prepared to protect its integrity. This was a very clever strategy created by Bill Mollison to protect the movement as it grew into its present form with 1000’s of PDC’s being taught every day.
Comment by Geoff Lawton — January 16, 2010 @ 2:14 pm
Idle dreamer
Idle dreamer
Certifiable food forest gardener, free gardening advice offered and accepted. Permaculture is the intersection of environmentalsim and agriculture.
Idle dreamer
Nick Garbarino wrote:This is a great thread. Thanks, Leila, for starting it. Here in Florida, I find that the terms "permaculture" and "food forest" are completely foriegn to almost everybody. Sure, there are some permie hotbeds here and there around the state, but it has not even come close to moving into the mainstream yet. I say yet because I believe that when peak oil happens (whenever that is), and the price of everything from fuel to food to fertilizer, etc goes way up, a lot more people are going to become unemployed, and people will be forced to find ways to eat that they can afford. Backyard gardening and community supported agriculture will be even more suited for permaculture than they are now. Both conservatives and liberals have to eat.
I think it is best to look at permaculture as an advanced form of agriculture, and avoid mixing it up with things like culture, way of life, philosphy, etc. because it does begin to sound like hippie religion to a lot of people. I don't even think the term "permaculture" is the best term for gaining broad public acceptance because it sounds too technical. "Food forest" sounds too hippie-ish. I can't come up with a better term than "sustainable gardening" or "sustainable agriculture". Even the word "sustainable" gets a lot of conservatives on guard, at least here in America's red and purple states.
The world seems to be heading into unknown territory at some point in the future, and by then the background for this discussion may be quite different. All the demographic trends that I have seen for the U.S. show that the country is moving slowly in the direction of being more progressive. Changes come about a lot like continental drift. It is excruciatingly slow, but given time, it is transformative.
Idle dreamer
No thanks. We have all the government we need. This tiny ad would like you to leave now:
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