ricoclime

2009-2010 Travel Schedule and Courses

2009-08-16T11:28:00.000-07:00

Visit my website to view my updated schedule for the next year. Click here.

FOUR MONTH COMPREHENSIVE LAND APPRENTICESHIP

2008-11-24T08:43:00.000-08:00

FOUR MONTH COMPREHENSIVE LAND APPRENTICESHIP
SUMMER 2009, Lama Foundation, Taos, New Mexico, USA
SPACES AVAILABLE: 4
FEE: us $2,200

WITH PERMACULTURE AS THE TOOLBOX THIS IN-DEPTH AND COMPREHENSIVE PROGRAM PROVIDES HANDS-ON EXPERIENCES TO BUILD THE MULTITUDE OF UNDERSTANDINGS AND SKILLS NECESSARY FOR SUSTAINABLE HUMAN HABITATION

FOOD PRODUCTION SYSTEMS; WATER HARVESTING, SYSTEMS AND CYCLING; SOIL; APPROPRIATE TECH; INTEGRATING STRUCTURES WITH SITE; SYSTEMS DESIGN; HELPING OTHERS LEARN; CREATING REGIONAL LINKS; INTERACTING WITH OTHER SITES; AND MUCH MORE

HOSTED BY LAMA FOUNDATION, A LAND BASED WILDERNESS COMMUNITY NORTH OF TAOS, NEW MEXICO

FACILITATED BY INT'L PERMACULTURALIST RICHARD RICO ZOOK

FOR a more thorough description click here.

For Application and More Information about the Lama Foundation go to
www.lamafoundation.org.

heaven on earth

2008-09-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

2007-12-14T03:33:00.000-08:00

it has been a busy few weeks. since i last wrote. fortunately the centre postponed voting on the sixth schedule and sent it to committee for more study (or something like that). so there was no bandh. so i was able to get into and out of town easy enough. rohin, myself and jesse (a volunteer from the two week pdc in oct.) went out to the singalila area for an initial assessment on five forest villages we are soon to be working with. i am working on a longer posting about this project, but will hold it back for a very specific reason (to be given later). this project is part of a large international bio-conservation project called Critical Ecosystem Protection Fund (CEPF). the area covered by CEPF starts in the middle of nepal, moves east through here, bhutan, and into the rest of india's northeastern states. CEPF's focus is the protection of critical, threatened and endangered species and habitat. a part of this is the recognition of the need for bio-corridors to link critical habitats so specie populations can mix and bred in the necessary numbers for sustainable long term survival. the singalila area is considered such a corridor linking the high himalayas with the plains, as well as being habitat for several critical species (red panda and cloud leopard being the best known). our project within the larger framework of CEPF is working with these forest villages, which are located in the buffer zone of the singalila wildlife sanctuary, to create sustainable livelihood that does not impact the jungle around them. our approach will be both participatory and permacultural.

firstly, we are not going to go in and tell them what they should do, nor are we going to just 'give' them things. we intend to engage them as part of the process so that they make choices about what and how this transition to a sustainable village will take place. we will provide training's, information, and resources so they can make the most informed and appropriate decisions. and yes, it is a fine line between empowering them and directing them. it is a process i have full confidence we, dlr prerna and myself, can do.

secondly, we will be using permaculture ideas, understandings, and strategies to design our approaches and interactions with these communities. likewise, the training's and resources we will be providing them will permacultural. i won't go into specifics here, that's for the later more in-depth posting. what the outcome will be, very simplistically put, is an internalizing and cycling of resources with the result of minimizing the villages impacts upon the environment around them. what we really hoping for and working towards, which i believe quite possible, is that these communities will actually become beneficial in multiple ways to the preservation of the critical, threatened and endangered species and habitats that are around them.

pretty exciting.

as far as i know this is the first time this approach has been taken anywhere. if you know of any other projects like or similar to ours i'd very much appreciate any information or contacts you can send me.

now the qualifier. it's a classic. we've been awarded the grant from CEPF. this being an int'l project implemented in india (in our case) we have had to jump through many hoops and get multiple signatures. all of which was no more a problem than the minor bureaucratic shuffle. and all was sweet and complete we thought. however, a couple weeks ago we received word from CEPF that one more signature was needed. with this signature the money would finally be released, deposited into our account, the project really happening, nothing more to wait for, go for it, do the needful. well, we've met the bureaucrat and it was not good. i'm very tempted to describe this person and what happened, though not unkindly. however, this being a public space with the need to be sensitive and politically conscious i am not doing so. they do not have my address, but who's to say who will stumble across these writings. it's strange this balancing that i'm having to do for the first time in my life. anyway, we are now having to do the political dancing. we don't know the outcome. however, this project will happen. we've come this far with an idea that is good, necessary, doable and has received support, some enthusiastic, from everyone.

so i'll hold the in-depth writing till i can tell you all that we are doing the needful.

have a bandh day

2007-11-28T05:06:00.000-08:00

the hills are alive with the sounds of bandh. a bandh is a favorite indian political pass-time. and indian politics is nothing if not confusing, corrupt, conflictive and criminal. right now the darjeeling hills finds itself ripe for the latter two to manifest, with the former easy enough without some history.

darjeeling is part of west bengal state. it is a very small slice at its northern boundary. however, darjeeling has as much in common with bengal and bengalis as it has in relation to their comparative sizes. as such it has been generally ignored and given little money or resources by the state government. this lead to what is referred to as 'the agitation' of the late '80's. this was a widely supported guerrilla uprising by the hills to create the state of gorkhaland. what resulted was not a state, but, a semi autonomous region that receives money from the national government. it was to have a regionally elected council, the 'darjeeling gorkha hill council', that functioned as local authority. in india there is the way things are suppose to be, by law, agreements, tellings, etc., and there is the way things are. the money that was allocated for the hills still passed through west bengal state budget where mysterious and unknown occurrences happen along the lines of the bermuda triangle. the council elections were never held (i'm unsure what the stated reasons were) and a single man politically maneuvered to become, basically, a dictator, 'the man'. and so it has remained since. anyone that began to politically oppose 'the man' received a late night visit with talk. if they still persisted, well nothing beens proven, but one or two mysterious deaths are only superficially so. it is this way in indian politics. there are much more than several convicted felons in parliament, more than one of them for murder. when you get to the state level, well.........

today serious opposition has emerged. this sadly and perfectly grew out of the Indian Idol tv competition. i say sadly because of the millions of rupees that went to large corporations and that it required this commercial exploitive manipulation for a population to realize its unity. this is what happened. the young man who won was a local boy. the final weeks saw this community, from nepal to sikkim to the Diaspora spread throughout india and the world, unite to send sms's (each one costing rupees) to vote for him. on the final night, dragged out for maximum commercial income, when he won the euphoria lasted over a week. and within a very short time. a man left 'the man's' political party (GNLF) to form his own new one (GJMM). with the new unity and high spirits this party has had many people joining and supporting it. this is particularly true in the urban centers and with the youth. it is not overwhelming so, with many rural ares still backing 'the man'. with this a late night visit is no longer possible. a mysterious happening would only draw much attention. a martyr is not what ' the man' wants. what is to happen?

what is to happen?

yes, this is the question that is jumping around the hills like a fat ankle in a rattlesnake pit. (to be aptly descriptively if culturally out of place) you see there is not a functioning system by which this new party can challenge 'the man'. elections have not happened in almost 30 years. there is no elected council. added to this is the situation of the sixth schedule. (we've covered everything else so we're building up the confusion)

o.k. the sixth schedule. this is the amendment or process within the indian constitution that became necessary for the nat'l gov't to appease it's vast and diverse populations of tribals. it recognizes their traditional ways and allows them some political self determination and structure. there's more involved, but for our little conversation this sets the mood. in the darjeeling hills there are several groups of tribals. these are the lepchas, tamangs, and limboos, which, by the way, already have the sixth schedule. the majority in the hills are nepali.

and guess what. the stage is set with the parliament voting soon on giving all the people in these hills the sixth schedule. good? maybe? doubtful? the thing is that the nepali do not consider themselves tribal. they do not have any of the political structures nor the sense of separateness from the mainstream that is an aspect of the tribals here. the people here who this applies to already have it. but, the GNLF and its supporters want the sixth schedule. the GJMM do not. they want gorkhaland. the parliament will decide within a couple of weeks. and either way it goes will probably cause trouble.

a bandh. that's where we started. to understand a bandh you need a bit to hold onto. a bandh is a strike. it is different than a strike in u.s. where a section, usually labour, stops work. india is nothing if not full blown (goes with previous 4 c's). when a strike is called here, usually by a political party, the whole town, region, or state closes down. stores, schools, factories, day laborers, trains, trucks, cars, business, restaurants, etc., etc., etc,....... i once was on a train that stopped from 6am to 6pm in a podunk village because of a state wide bandh. to not close down or to even be seen driving about can lead to broken windows, broken bones, burnt vehicles and businesses. bandhs will vary in size and intensities, and they are not things to be misjudged. they can last hours or weeks. during the agitation there was a 40 day bandh. as you can see, this can cause serious challenge to income and sustenance.

six days ago i was sitting in sonam's kitchen (a restaurant) enjoying my morning filter coffee when suddenly all the metal roll up store coverings were being pulled down. it happened that a GNLF leader, not "the man", was attacked with a kukuri, the traditional nepali knife/machete. word spread very quickly and down came the protection. tension was flitting about, with everyone wondering what was going to happen. the man turned out to be not that badly injured, but, wanting to capitalize on the situation, GNLF moved him to a nursing home in the plains as if it was a much more serious thing. they also called an indefinite bandh until his opponent and 20 of the top GJMM leaders were arrested. so darjeeling was closed down til today. yesterday there was a large peace march to demand a more civilized process and an end to the bandh. over 9,000 people marched. that's from a population of 50,000. pretty good numbers. and it seems the politicians are listening. for now. today there was a semblance of day to day life. but it will not stay this way. everything is conspiring otherwise.

all that was to say i've been unable to get on line. tomorrow i go to a busty for a 3 day farmer training. when i get back i hope to put some photos up of the peace march.

if there isn't a bandh.

2007-11-14T06:19:00.000-08:00

greetings to all my friends, know and unknown. life here is picking up speed. i have recently returned from the kalimpong area east of darjeeling. for several days i visited a students/friends native village. this friend works for a ngo (one affiliated with prerna) and goes to various villages to teach and promote organic agriculture. in the last few years this ngo has started to include sustainable ideas, techniques and strategies in this. so as i am their teacher and they wish to put some strength behind some of these teachings a meeting/planning session occurred where i was the featured speaker. a sad truth that must be acknowledge here is that if a white guy gets up in front of these people and says, "blah, blah, blah", these people will accept these blahs as having more truth and strength than if one of their own says it. while there is a limit to this it is nonetheless a reality. there is also the somewhat conflicting reality, particularly strong in india, of our neocolonial world where some white guy stands in front of a bunch of nonwhite people telling them the way it is. this latter one is a common situation for me, one which i deal with with direct acknowledgment, liberal doses of humor, and specific and pointed comments that it is up to them to decide the type of india they what to create. However, the situation of this village meeting was a little bit newer for me, as well as being a little scarier in that these people had one of their own, whom they respected and trusted, telling them that i was some type of insightful teacher who was going to give them the answers to their problems. this last part i don't think was directly told to them (though i have some suspicion), but the situation was definitely setup in this way. well, in permaculture we have a principle, 'the problem is the solution'. it is a most favorite principle of mine and is very powerful when you are able to realize it to it fullest extent. so what to do when people look to you for brilliant insights and answers to their 'problems'? you give these right back to them. to often we are taught that the answers are outside of ourselves. i think this is one of the most disempowering aspects of the industrial model. we are taught to look to scientist, specialists, academics, governments, transnationals, and all other forms of suspicious characters for solutions, magic elixirs, or products to put a smile on our faces. it is no joke that we in the 'developed world' are the most disadvantaged and underprivileged in this regard. we have had our self confidence and self determination advertised right out of us. this is one of the unspoken processes that are now currently at work in the majority world under the banner of 'development'. what i am concerned about is not 'development' in and of itself (though i have issue with the usage of the word and what it implies), it is the neocolonial aspects and extractive practices that use this word as camouflage that concern me. so when i stand in front of people who even have a passing suspicion, hope, or desire that i can answer their problems i give it right back to them. i tell them that they know more about their land, people, and situation than anyone from the outside. that they are intelligent people who are fully capable and have far better understandings to create solutions and to deal with whatever situations they are presented with. what i have to offer are ideas, and techniques. it is up to them to decide what to do and how to do it. at this meeting i encouraged them to see the gifts and strengths that their culture, traditions, and ancestors have passed on to them. that without these to guide and ground them in their move into this globalized world they would become lost and weakened. i pointed out that the transnationals recognize this and if they did not preserve and protect these they could be lost to these global interests. i expressed my belief that by protecting and keeping their culture and traditions alive they were contributing to the vitality and richness of our whole planet. that in the not to distant future the world would recognise the gift they were giving use by keeping these things alive.

tea, tourism, and sustainable culture

2007-10-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

TEA, TOURISM, AND SUSTAINABLE CULTURE

23rd to 27th November, 2007

AT MINERAL SPRINGS, DARJEELING
An INTERNATIONALLY CERTIFIED ORGANIC SMALL FARMERS TEA CO-OP
10 KM OUTSIDE DARJEELING TOWN

Homestay, All Meals, Transportation to and from,
Picnic, Day trek through the larger busty

meet and interact with the local women's group, help construct a passive solar water heater or a greywater system, learn about tea production: it's history, social challenges, and alternative models to centralized mono-cropping, and help in the creation of a more sustainable model of tourism, one that engages and supports local culture. last night will be a celebration of new friends and relations with thungpa and traditional food.

This is a fundraiser to support DLR Prerna's work in creating sustainable human communities in the Darjeeling hills through community participation, gender equality, and harmonious relationships with the environment.

COST
sliding scale: Rs. 2,300 to 3,200 (all inclusive)

FACILITATORS
Rico Zook: certified permaculture designer, consultant, instructor
Rohin D'souza: project manager dlr prerna, permaculture practioner
Navin Tamang: project manager dlr prerna, permaculture practioner
Sailesh Sharma: project incharge small farmers tea co-op

For more info on Prerna
www.darjeelingprerna.org

For more info on Permaculture and Rico
www.ricoclime.com

for further information about course kindly contact
Rico 9800045580
Roshan 9932024812
Ashesh 99320 55025
Darjeeling Ladenla Road Prerna
RCDC, c/o Hayden Hall Complex 42 Ladenla Road, Darjeeling 734 101,
Phone Number 91 354 2255894
email: rcdcdorg@sancharnet.in, dlrprerna@yahoo.com
website: www.darjeelingprerna.org

2007-10-28T05:08:00.000-07:00

the pdc course that just finished went extremely well. it was a dynamic mix and very rewarding as many questions and thoughts were shared. we had much knowledge contained in this group that allowed close to half the class presenting different ideas and subjects. tea: history, social impacts and the tea industry today, bamboo as building material, ecovillage, nutrition, alternate economic models, as well as several projects were presented. anyone who doubts that a major part of teaching/facilitating , at it best, is a process of learning and letting go need only to have been in this course to realize this truth. this reality is one of the great rewards of teaching/facilitating.

this course also was one of meeting new friends. i am hoping to keep in contact with several of these beautiful people. in particular is one young tamil man who was sponsored by several of the foreigners who came up from auroville. karthik is intelligent (he taught himself the english language, both spoken and written), hard working and earnest. because of him, as well as a couple of other reasons, i have decided to include a visit to auroville during the second half of february. with some guidance and encouragement he could become an invaluable gift for his community. i am hoping to work with him over the coming years and look forward to learning along side this great young man.

this coming month will be a busy time as i am in and out of darjeeling at least three times, with a fourth in the works. first is a week trek with two friends, one a long time student, to visit their native villages. after this rohin and i trek to singalila so i can visit the five villages that are part of the food jungle component of this critical bio-corridor. this is part of a large international project working to conserve threatened plant and animal species and the habitats necessary for their survival. what prerna will be doing is to train local villagers and than to provide support as they create a food jungle to supply their fuel, fodder, food, medicine, craft material and an economic income. this will be done in such a way that they will become an integrated aspect of this bio-corridor with minimal impacts on the species that they share this environment with. this will be my first visit to the area. i am very excited of this opportunity to demonstrate a strategy that has great potential to be replicated in many threatened environments.

my third absence from darj will be for the 'tea, tourism, and sustainable culture' course. i am hoping that this happens as it is a fund raiser for prerna and should be a easy as well as fun. below you will see our local advert for this course.

at the end of nov. i may be teaching a course for local tea workers again. this one, however, would be sponsored and run by 'the chai project'. this is an ngo that is support by tazo tea. for those of you who may not know, tazo is owned by starbucks. (did i hear some groans out there) i have been in conversation with them about pc and did a one day presentation recently for their office crew. the director is an american while the rest are local darjeeling folks. they are all sweet and committed people. while there is no doubt some corporate image advantage to this funding, they are also doing some good work. and as far as i can tell, tazo funds mercy corp (of which chai project is a program) with little influence on actual projects or programs. (having said this i will inquire further to ascertain how true a statement this is) within the ngo world, with precious little money to do some very important, necessary and immense work, funding can become a question of how much of your soul to sell. it is not always this way, and it is all to often a challenge many sincere, good hearted people are forced to face. for me, within the consulting framework, it is a dance that i am willing to do. what the question becomes is about actual work done and the physical reality of what is accomplished.

inbetween these excursions i have a couple or three days in town. these will be immersed in this digital world that has become a strange and very important part of my work. crazy, is it not, that my work, so focused on physical reality and the natural world, would become so influenced and supported by this digitalized communication. at least i can have my veg wrap and hot lemon while doing so.

PDC in Dabipani

2007-10-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

today i and the participants go down to dabipani. this one looks to be a great group, and thus, course. there will be 15-17 people, 7 or 8 of them foreigners. (one is never sure of things here till they actually happen.) we have an environmental science professor, a man who works at a power plant (not nuclear,i think), a women who has built an organic farm product distribution system into delhi, and some farmers. many of the foreigners have some to more experiences in organic farming, building with bamboo, sustainability, social issues and have been exploring these in india. i'll definetely be having these folks sharing their knowledge and experiences with us all. one of the things i love about doing these courses is how much i learn. with indians, americans, british, kiwi, and finish people this course has lots of edge. it will be a great time.

i have been trying to get my mobile internet connection to work with my apple. the service works as i can get it through the phone, however, with cable or bluetooth my mac cannot find the server. my phone co. here is who i get the service from. they have not been able to get it to work either, despite several hours of trying. apple is very rare here and perhaps the motorla sets here are not set to work with macs. the bluetooth does connect between the two. anyone have any ideas? if so, please place a comment to this writing. i'll be calling both companies soon.

with this situation and my time in dabaipani my next posting will be in just over two weeks.

much peace

consider this

2007-10-01T22:59:00.000-07:00

i sit here in glenary's, a westernized bakery/cafe/bar in darjeeling. wireless connection and hot lemon drink at my beckon call. i am fond of this hill city for its easier and slightly more familiar ways. as a mountain person myself i find a bit more ease here as well as the people being more relaxed. i am not the only one of the opinion that hill people are, in general, more easy going. i think it partially due to the terrain. it takes longer and more energy to move from one place to the next. this relaxed atmosphere is complimented by a somewhat cleaner environment. the monsoon rains are just about over. days are starting with a clarity that gives way to clouds and sporadic rains. a week earlier we had three days of crisp, clear days. the type of days where the air grabs your psyche and the boundaries between yourself and the world are thinned. the air itself is a place of beauty, a place filled with possibilities just beyond our grasp. yet it's there. it is more than feeling. it is other than visceral. beyond yet part of this world. it is this air, this effect, this reality that hints at what is possible if we but listen to what is around us. these days, where the air is a vehicle of spirit as well as physical, strengthen and sadden me. it is a strange brew. i wonder how many days will there be of this potential in the future? how many other people have the opportunity to be reminded by and to exsist in this air? there is a great concern in me that these days of clarity are growing fewer. that our children will rarely, if at all, know this experience, this reality. we have been gifted an amazing world. these are easy words to say. the thing i wonder is, how many of you have experienced a time, a place, a knowing where these are not mere words? i pray that you have. if so, you'll understand what is at stake. i like that phrase for this is what i describe. for we are literally burning this world. do you understand this? excuse me if sound as a preacher. the thing is, as fewer and fewer of us experience a day where the air is beyond crisp, where we are pulled to a place not described, both of and beyond our understanding, what than? what of our children who will never know these days? what are we taking from them? what i am asking is for us to think beyond our selves. to be like a day where the air seems to exsist as a rememberance. and to consider, what will we truly lose if the air never again takes us to a place beyond the boundaries of self?

what is home?

2007-09-19T02:37:00.001-07:00

what is it to be a person not at home? i am once again back in darjeeling, at the beginning of another tour that will have me not at home for eight months. i guess this begs the question, 'what is home?'. for now it is a small piece of earth in northern new mexico. And than, it is so much more. you will have to give me some room here as last night i had a dream where sadness roamed. for me, emotions experienced in dreams are broader and deeper than what i experience in a waking state. i think that awake there is a distance we need to bridge to connect to this core. a distance that consciousness creates to allow our being in this world of doing. while we sleep we are in this place that i am calling core. it is a place of communion with our self. a place where emotions are not shrouded by reality or doing. a place of being. as such, emotions i experience in this place, upon awakening, drape across my doing as a scent. lingering, drifting in and out, and slowly thinning into a memory of indeterminate meaning. awaking here, away from my garden, separate from family, immersed in a culture and language not my native, this sadness questions who i am, what it is that i do, where it is that i am going. it reminds me that life is separation. it is this separation that allows us to experience what we call reality. it is how we are able to conceive ourselves as unique from others. it is a separateness that is necessary for life to occur. I believe also that it is this separateness that drives us to create, to desire, to search, to conquer, to forgive, to hate, to love. it is, perhaps, the opposite of what we call home. And though we will find refuge in people, places, and things that we call home, these are truly only temporary experiences. it is in our dreaming that we approach what is nearer to our true home. thus, when we return to consciousness with emotions of this core we realize what it is that we lack here, now. in traveling there is a heightened since of engagement with reality. a weight is lent to experience and in this way our separateness is draped in a sense of adventure. it is like moving further from something so we seem closer to it. however, it is also such that when a thing occurs to remind us of this distance the experience is even more acute, more real, and more encompassing. so i sit here drinking filter coffee at sonam's in darjeeling typing away my sadness so that, for the moment, i can continue this doing in an attempt to once again return home.

Ruth

2007-09-19T02:33:00.001-07:00

we move through this world leaving tales of our doings as directions to who we are. it is not a question of authenticity or accuracy. it is not about intentions. the world is filled with destructions of good intent. this is not to say that intent is unimportant. it is that there is a difference between what we intend and that which results. it is like communication. there is what we say and that which is heard. i ask the question, if you wish to communicate a thought, an idea, or a belief so that it is truly understood which is more important, the said or the heard? the question really is, what do you leave behind? when we meet saint peter at the gates of heaven, whether in metaphor or actuality, it is what we have done, not what we intended to do that is his interest. these thoughts come to me as i sit here on a beach thinking of friends and loved ones on the other side of the world. what are they doing? How are they? when will i see them again? life is a very fine thread that we follow blinded by insurmountable opportunities. at any moment it could break and we would be in a place not here. what prints do you leave? what markers are left to tell others of your life? i have found myself wondering at the way in which we live and how we die. there is not really a difference in these. it is more about how present we are to that which is around us. Each step we take, each word we utter, each look to the side is an expression of who we are. there is not a moment that we are not living nor in which we do not die. i ask you, with whom do you converse? at this very moment a dialog is raging around you. life is desperately telling you secrets. it is giving you gifts that without you would die. And regardless of your intent it is not a one way conversation. what do you tell it when people crowd around? what does it hear when you are unaware of it? these thoughts are with me because a friend has past and i am on the other side of the world. ruth was a person of great passion who lived and died with utter conviction. hers was not a life of compromise nor retreat. i know little of the details of her life. i knew but a brief moment of her story. yet, it was enough to realize that a person of beauty and strength was before me. these are not the easiest of friends, but often they are the most precious. what is it that we cherish? what voices do we hear when no one else is around? when death is near what scrap of paper is left for others to find? even when ruth's voice was weak and the words precious there was furiousity and desire that moved them. this is what i heard when last i spoke with her, a passion not even a phone could conceal. i always will remember that though my intent was to visit her this past summer i did not. i always had things to do and places to go. what is it that we deem important? for much of my life i was filled with good intentions, so much so that i believe it distanced me from what resulted. intent, while important, is not a thing of the physical. for those of us raised in an industrial, linear culture intent is of the mind. This is perhaps part of what has contributed to its distancing from the physical. while intent itself is not physical its distance, or relationship if you will, to actuality directly affects how this intent is expressed. i believe that intent is better held in the heart. various cultures believe that this is the true place of consciousness and it is beneficial to remember that the heart contains a patch of cells that are like those of the brain. ruth was a person who related to the world from her heart. it was her strength and her pain. our world is in need of heart and ruth gave all she had, willing and freely. for all its pains and missteps i have no doubt that hers was a life well lived. where does your intent reside? from where does your mind arise? ruth's gift, and it was no small giving, was her heart. my life was enriched and uplifted by it. what is it that at this very moment is whispering in your ear? what scraps of paper do you leave behind for others to read? the few pieces i have of ruth's i will cherish for the rest of my life. they will give me strength and a conviction. her heart is now a part of mine. It whispers in my ear and a world of beauty and secrets swirl around me.

Where to now India?

2007-09-19T02:31:00.001-07:00

reprinted with permission of permaculture activist magazine.

A man walks through the puddles and mud of an empty rice paddy. In one hand is a thin wispy branch he uses with sounds and calls to direct the bullocks in front of him. The other hand grips the simple, strong handhewn tiller that the animals pull. Overhead the high tension wires crackle as lower, silent ones crisscross through the landscape. All around coconut, banana, papaya, neem, cowpeas, pulses, ladyfinger, sorgum, ragi, fodder, medicines, fuel and more create a complex green pattern. Three bajans (sacred chants) compete distortedly from loudspeakers atop different temples in a nearby village. Amongst these a distant train and somewhat nearer tractor refuse to allow any stillness. India today, as she has been for many thousands of years past, is a many layered thing. When considering any part of this vast country and people it is impossible not to find many fascinating and involved stories. This is especially true when considering her incredibly varied landscape and the cultures that are a part of them. With agriculture going back at least 7000 years and the waves of influences (Muhgals, British, Globalization, etc) that have swept over, through, and in her, it is well beyond the scope of this article to give even an introduction to all the land systems that were used. What is important to note is that up till colonization even though India faced many challenges, both human and environmental, in many varied and linked systems Indians lived within their land such that over time it and they were sustained.

What follows is then the briefest of introductions to some of the layers that were and are a part of the traditional, complex weave of land use in India.

TRADITIONAL
In land systems water is a key in many ways, a node upon which much else is created and designed. In the Thar Desert of Rajastan it is said that rain is so precious that it is measured not by volume, but rather, by drops. There are places in this desert that receive one or two brief rain showers every year, with some years not a drop. Yet, it is the highest and most densely populated desert of its kind in the world. This was possible because of the cultures deep understanding and creative interaction with their water cycle. These systems scaled from family to village size. Every drop that lands on a dwelling or hard surface is carefully caught and ingeniously channeled into an underground tank (tanka). These were effective enough that one good rain would give enough water to last a family several months, two or three rains enough to last till next years rain. In Gujarat, there are ancient wells of ingenious design that are an engineering marvel. These wells are quite a few meters in diameter, descend many stories into the ground and have a downward spiraling walkway. There are adjoining areas where people can relax in the sheltered cool moist air. Some of these still contain water of fresh clarity with no known water source. In Karnataka (South India), there were an estimated 39,000 tanks(ponds), one as large as 64 kms. in circumference.

These local water strategies were also linked with wider flows of humans, animals, and resources. There were many seasonal nomadic peoples in India. When the rains ended they would leave their home villages to roam through less used areas and routes of passage. In this way resource use was spread out leaving valuable and limited grazing areas to those remaining in the village. This pattern also spread out a resource long recognized as essential for a vibrant agriculture. These nomadic herders were welcomed, often honored, guests at the farms and villages they passed by. With enough animals and days a farmer could receive enough manure from the herd grazing his harvested field to enrich that soil for the next three to five seasons. In turn these nomads often received food, gifts and at times money for this blessing of the herd. In this way cattle from Rajastan reached Madhya Pradesh while some from Punjab found their way into Orissa or Assam. The nomads were just one way that cultivated and uncultivated areas were linked. All over India very evolved relationships between farms, commons and wild were a deeply integrated part of land use.

The common fields usages were often overseen by a village elder or group of elders. Their cropping and grazing was rotated to maintain fertility as well as some fields being rotated among village members. Often these fields were allocated such that every family had good, average, and poor sections equally amongst themselves. It was often through this allocation and use of common areas that a leveling of burdens and benefits could be achieved. The wild areas were also what allowed people to survive during lean years and crop failures.

There was also an awareness of maintaining the health of the wild. The insight and skill of the harvesting patterns used was obvious by the health and biodiversity that was sustained in these areas for many generations. From these forests and jungles thousands of species provided food, fuel, fodder, fertility for cropping, timber, medicine and an immense variety of craft materials.

Indians were not just interested or concerned with extracting from these wild areas. There was a deeper understanding and respect for what these wild areas meant and provided for them. Throughout India many different cultures held certain species, and often areas, to be sacred and thus protected. The Bishnois (Rajastan) took this to the extent of willing giving their lives (and many have) to stop the forest from being cut. Today many of these species are recognized as Keystone species having links and relationships with a high number of other species in their environment. By protecting these environments and species Indians integrated another layer of diversity, with its accompanying gene pool and links, into a wholistic land system. In traditional Indian land culture it would have been impossible to disentangle this complex web of cycling and connections between the cultivated and uncultivated.

As would be expected this diversity of sites and interactions gave rise to an incredibly diverse biosphere. Many thousands of species were known to be of value to the traditional cultures of India. Domestic cropping methods, strategies and patterns were similar in style to those of other long enduring traditional systems. Locally focused, resource cycling, high integration of animals, a highly varietal mix of annuals, varied perennial strategies, multiple source inputs, and a continually diverse set of yields.

Again, exactly how these generalities were articulated was very site specific as continual generations of farmers observed, selected, experimented, created, and adapted to their very specific situation. From the Thar Desert to Meghalaya (home of the wettest spot on earth), from the Himalayas and the Northeast to the Kerala coast Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, tribal and nomadic peoples were in a continuous conversation with their world. This incredible mix of cultures overlaid an immense variation of landscapes creating a complex diversity that is India's foundation and strength.

COLONIAL ERA

It is not insignificant that the British entered India via the East India Company, a commercial enterprise. It was this focus on commerce and value that underlay almost all of the British policies that related to land use. To extract this value they had to alter many aspects of the traditional land use system as well as impose concepts and philosophies that had never been a part of traditional Indian agriculture.

A foundational concept they imposed was the idea of private property and private ownership of land. Thus owners of land were identified or created and held responsible for revenue payments. Where previously tax or duties were only imposed on products of the land, now the land itself was taxed. It was also deemed that if the value of the land was not being extracted well enough the land could be seized and auctioned (money lenders, traders and large land holders being the primary buyers). The legal policies and acts generated from this idea of value and private property led to the creation of a landed aristocracy, landlords, and a vast number of small marginal farmers and landless peasants (Permanent Settlement of 1793 being the most famous).

Related with this was the enclosing of the commons and the forests. Seeing the commons as unproductive, a cardinal sin in the market economy, people were settled into them, village boundaries were defined, nomads were restricted, and access to the forests and jungles was stopped. (These forests became public property to be exploited for timber and other raw materials.) This meant a significant loss of food, fodder, fuel, etc. This loss also included the ability to utilize strategies and options based on access to these areas, such as grazing and the seasonal movement of people and animals. Thus there was an overall reduction in livestock as its support base had been dramatically reduced. These losses put more pressure on cultivated lands to produce as well as reducing the local resource base for agricultural inputs. This led to a decrease in soil fertility and the increased need for external inputs. Thus the importance of money to acquire these external inputs started its rise. Another core aspect of colonization was the fundamental importance of export. The farmers were encouraged to go this way with incentives (need to purchase external inputs, loans and guaranteed selling prices) and threats (loan defaulting, evictions, physical violence). With this conversion from subsistence farming and local market to cash cropping for export less food and products are grown for local consumption along with the concurrent loss of jobs, commerce, and culture associated with these abandoned crops. It cannot be emphasized enough the deep layering of work and culture that were a part of Indian agriculture. Whole towns and villages had economic bases related to a particular plant or agricultural product. The loss of such an agricultural product often had widespread and devastating effects.

Cash cropping created greater insecurity for the farmers and their communities. With increased input costs, from seed to fertilizers to labor, export cropping often leaves little room for profit and security. If the cash crop fails or if the selling price drops the farmer suffers. When this failure is coupled with drought, flood, or such than the suffering and loss accelerates and spreads.

It should be understood that when you export crops you are exporting land, fertility, health, and culture. The exploitation of these crops affects jobs, resource use/sharing, economic cycling, and yield diversity, which in turn are associated with hunger, disease, migration, and poverty.

The importance of the export market was linked to the increased need to move water into areas where cropping patterns were out of sync with or expanded past the capacity of the local water cycle. The British had one basic uniform approach to these situations. They sought to build extensive canal systems in various parts of India which would move water from major rivers to drier or higher use areas. These canals led to the destruction of long enduring traditional irrigation systems, be they well or catchment. Canals from the Ganges and Yamuna rivers caused the collapse of the traditional well-irrigation system that had supported some 1,470,000 acres. Canals, however, provided an uncertain supply of water that was often twice as expensive. This further pushed the farmer to grow cash crops (sugar cane, indigo, opium, etc) and to abandon traditional semi-dry production (millets and pulses).

Debt and debt cycling became the core concern of the farmer. Even with successful harvests income could still be less than expenses (money lender payments, water, seed, infrastructure, labor, land taxes, crop duties). If it was a bad harvest then the farmer was another year deeper in debt, most often to the village money lender whose rates could be 35-50% annually. Consolidation of land into larger corporate or private holdings was the result of debt and supported by British policies. Such policies encouraged or mandated the consolidations of small holdings into a larger 'viable economic unit'. In some areas land transfer reached 25-50% (of total land) within a 20 year period. The purchasers were most often money lenders, traders and large land holders.

This loss of land often led to internal migrations. Many landless peasants migrated as seasonal agriculture labor, a growing necessity for larger land holdings. Many migrated into urban areas in hopes of finding jobs.

The shift that colonialism brought to India can generally be characterized as a movement from decentralized, locally based intensive agriculture towards a centralized, export oriented, higher input agriculture. The various policies, acts, and laws enacted to create this shift wove together in such a way as to re-enforce their individual collections of social impacts. These impacts included the erosion of sharing water and crop products, taking care of others during drought and lean years, rights of passage through fields, and under and unemployment,. These can be seen as the loss of the culture associated with traditional agriculture that bound a village together.

Export cropping, enclosing the commons, abandonment of traditional water systems, the falling apart of social structures reduced the local resource base with a concurrent loss of food security. At times these influences converged with drought and other conditions to cause broader and deeper impacts then in previous years. Throughout the 1800's famines began happening where previously there had been none, and where hunger and scarcity had occasion to happen now famines replaced these with increasing frequencies and impacts. This escalation continued until 1940-41 when crop failures coupled with a poor response from a war time government to create the famine of 1943 that killed an estimated 3.5 million people.

Uprisings, as with famines, were then a natural outcome of these situations. And like famine they increased with frequency throughout the 19th and into the 20th century. A few of the noted ones are Chuar Rebellion (1799-1800), Bhumiji Revolt (1832-33), Pabna Disturbance (1873), East Bengal Peasant Unrest (1919-33). It was through the long struggle for independence that India once again had an opportunity to determine its own relationship with the land.

INDEPENDENCE

Independence brought with it a desire to reestablish all things Indian. This included traditional land use patterns and systems. A few politicians and government ministers gave speeches about reviving traditional land and water systems. There was a massive redistribution of land to peasants and lower castes. Accompanying this were land ceiling acts that sought to limit the size of land holdings. However, as with many other places, there is the way things are said to be and how things actually are. For India it was not long before the concept of development became operative. Though many land ceiling acts remain on the books they presently appear to have indifferent effects upon what actually happens. There is currently some movement to alter these acts to match the reality of what is happening, ratherthan attempting to have reality be shaped by the act.

GLOBALISM

With 1/6th of the world population and a land rich in resources India is being courted and coerced by world powers who wish to tap both her market and resources to their advantage. Today India must deal with intense pressure to open her vast diversity and develop her resources and industries to world standards. What is essential here is to understand and work with the invisible structures that shape the landscape we are working with. For India these next few years could well be the crucial ones as world industrial powers seek to shape her with dreams of modernization and globalization that are framed with dictates, standards, and requirements.

As during the Colonial Era, development has been closely linked with cash cropping for export, the opening of markets, access to raw materials, and centralization. What is differentthis time is the scale of these processes and the structuring of international laws and agreements which justify and institutionalize it. It was just over ten years ago that for the first time agriculture became commodified with the creation of the WTO(World Trade Organization). Today India's (and the Worlds) landscape is being transformed by the labyrinth of treatises, agreements, and standards coming out of the WTO and its associated agencies. Again, it is not possible for this article to articulate even a basic rendering of these articles which are becoming the global standard that countries are supposed to follow. What follows is a very brief look at concepts and policies that are affecting India and her farmers. This is important and fundamental in that we are fast approaching a point where all land use will be affected and, perhaps, controlled at this global level.

Subsidies and tariffs have been historically used to protect and support a country's industries until it was able to withstand and profit from equal footing in the world market. In practice, this is no longer the case. Though much talk and some fancy to blatent number shuffling has been given by the developed world, the reality is that the tariffs and subsidies are continuing to have significant impacts on the developing world.

India was forced to lower her tariffs and quantitative restrictions by April 2001, which then helped dramatically push down domestic prices for coconut, rubber, coffee, pepper and other agricultural products. Subsidizing agriculture as the developed countries do, allows the farmers or their governments to dump produce into unprotected markets, like India's, at prices below what it costs local farmers to grow the same produce. Consistently the developed world has refused to lower or reduce its tariffs or subsidies while requiring developing nations to alter theirs' to WTO dictates. An outcome of this imbalance of tariffs and subsidies is the impoverishment of small farmers which then leads to the loss of small farms and migration into urban areas.

Farmers are also quickly losing their right to save, trade, and use farm grown seeds. Under many different agreements and organizations (TRIPS, Substantial Patent Treaty Law, World Intellectual Property Organization) the patenting of life is being streamlined and accelerated. Developing countries are pressured in various ways to harmonize their patent laws with these agreements. India has been doing just this (Seed Bill of 2004), requiring the registration of all seeds sold. These laws are profoundly affecting how the farmer is viewed and severely limiting the choices they have. The shift of seed propagation to transnational corporations using biotechnology is and will have immense impacts on the biodiversity of the farm and how the farmer chooses how to farm. The issue of seed sovereignty involves freedom of choice, money, and who will control agriculture.

A Stated purpose of the WTO and World Bank (WB) is to bring development to the undeveloped world. A very significant part of this development is industrialization. With agriculture this means chemical pesticides and fertilizers along with replacing animal labor with machines For the Indian farmer this means more money needed to purchase these chemicals along with more money for petrol and maintenance of these new machines. The loss of animals means the loss of a vital link to creating cycles within the farm. It is also losing another piece of Indian security (animals can be eaten or sold during lean times) and culture. What industrialization does is bind the farmer to external outputs that require money and energy to access. It also dictates shifts in cropping methods and strategies. It was once common to have trees, usually legumes, planted throughout cropping fields. However, these are being removed because it greatly simplifies machine plowing. The accumulative effect of these has been to create a reoccurring and often continual indebtedness for the Indian farmer. Industrialization, loss of seed sovereignty, unfair markets and more have impoverished the Indian farmer in ever growing numbers. It is estimated that nearly half the farm households are in debt, mostly to local private money lenders. In Andra Pradesh, 4/5ths of farmers surveyed were in debt.

India is now witnessing farmer suicides as it has never seen before. In the past ten years 25,000 farmers (some estimate it is closer to 40,000) have committed suicide. In Maharastra reports are of 2 farmers per day committing suicide. When a farmer commits suicide their family receives government compensation. For a deeply indebted farmer this compensation can appear as the only viable option by which they are able to relieve their family of the debt burden.

What these processes do is to create a shift towards centralization. Unfair markets, harmonization of patent laws, industrialization, and the debt cycle push small and marginal farmers off their land and, most often, into urban poverty. Small farms are being absorbed into bigger holdings. Corporations are taking control of the seeds. WTO and WB policies are focusing on decreasing government involvement and responsibility in pricing, production, stock holding and distribution of food. These than become aspects of the market, a market that is more and more controlled by fewer and fewer transnational corporations (6 corporations control the bulk of international trade in agriculture, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development). What this will mean and what is already happening is that land use will not be based on local resources, community health and sustainable practices, but rather, on the needs of the market as defined by a small number of extremely large global corporations.

INDIA TODAY

1 in 4 farmers worldwide are Indian. 40% of a country of more than 1 billion people are farmers. Approximately 65% depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. The vast majority of farms are small, owned by an individual or a family and are connected to a local market. 2/3rds of the tilled land is done so non-mechanically, mostly by animal labor. Many small farmers have been to poor to have bought into industrial agriculture. Much of India's land heritage and knowledge still exists. The question is, for how much longer will this be true? Industrial agriculture, with its chemicals and mechanization, is being pushed by vested interests. Vast swaths of land are mono-cropped with rice, cotton, tea, coffee, wheat, etc. Indian politicians are moving towards globalization and changing or creating laws inline with WTO and World Bank dictates. Markets are being opened and farmers exposed to the inequities of global trade. Consumerism is growing, indebtedness is rising. Internal migration is overflowing the cities.

For now industrialization is attempting to dominate here and worldwide. Along side this the desire for and an understanding of the importance of their traditions is strong and widespread in India. India also has a very long and cherished tradition of service. Many people hold this sense of service as an intricate part of themselves and their culture. There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of NGO's (non-governmental organizations) that are focused on land or aspects of land use currently working throughout India. The following are some examples of what some ngo's are doing to preserve and nurture their long and deep traditions of land use.

The Deccan Development Society (DDS, Andra Pradesh) held the first permaculture workshop in India in the mid 1980's. They currently have a biodiversity festival that travels by colorful bullock carts for a few months each year to hundreds of villages celebrating the blessings of seeds, diversity, and tradition. While doing this they help educate and motivate farmers to grow a variety of traditional crops for local and market consumption. Gravis (Rajastan) is working throughout the state to revive traditional agriculture and, in particular, the traditional water harvestng structures. When a family, poor or lower caste, has a Tanka put in or revived this means that the mother no longer has to walk 5 kms 3-5 times a day for water. Now the children can go to school because they do not need to stay home to do chores and work. The family is able to have some animals, which in turn creates more benefits.

Navdanya Biodiversity and Conservation Farm (part of Vandana Shiva's Bija Vidyapeeth, Uttaranchal) is working with villages to document plants and their uses so that no one 'discovers' them. In this way they hope to protect them from patenting and commercialization. Many other ngo's are doing similar work to record, preserve and distribute the vast storehouse of information and understandings that are a part of India's traditional land systems.

The Bethany Society (Meghalaya) hosts permaculture certification courses and plans to start two permaculture demonstration sites. They have also submitted a proposal to the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) which, if accepted, will make permaculture projects and sites nationwide eligible for funding through the bank. Prerna (Darjeeling) hosts design certification courses and will soon begin work on a permaculture demonstration site that will include an elder care home.

The Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems (Tamil Nadu) is involved on many levels with saving and revitalizing indigenous sciences and practices. They run research and training programs on sustainable agriculture, work to conserve traditional seed varieties, research applications of Vrkshayurveda(traditional Indian plant science), and publish books, posters, and newsletters on traditional healthcare and traditional agriculture.

Auroville (Tamil Nadu), while not an ngo, is an international community which has various groups that are working on different aspects of sustainability. Several of their member communities farm using permaculture principles. Other projects are involved all over India with appropriate technology; wind and solar power, humanure, waste water treatment, water harvesting, quality drinking water, and compressed earth blocks for construction are some of these. There is extensive work being done to preserve and re-establish the native ecosystem know as Tropical Dry Evergreen Forest. Only one percent of this historically very restricted ecosystem remains and contains an incredible collection of medicinal plants.

There is also movement towards sustainability on some political levels. Both Sikkim and Mizoram have declared themselves organic states. This past fall the Sikkim government sponsored the first permaculture certification course in the state. The state legislature is considering declaring permaculture as state policy (with budget).

Few things are certain with India, she has the potential to go a few different ways. India in its vastness can contain alot of many things. Over the next several years India will be making decisions and formulating policies that will have significant influences on how she will grow and develop. With over a billion people she will soon become the most populated country in the world. It is not a question of if India will become a world power, rather, it is about when she will be recognized as such. Corporations and the developed world governments understand the significance of India. It is not a small thing. Slowly she is realizing it also.

roof terrace home, pondicherry, night, 14-1-05

2007-07-17T16:45:00.000-07:00

i have noticed since my arrival that indians strike their matches differently than how most americans do. it's done like this: grasping the small box on its's broad side one of the two striking surfaces is offered up. the match is held between the thumb and second finger with the index set snuggly against its tiny base. the match is generally at a slightly less than right angle with the thumb, which is somewhat aligned with the forearm. the motion is quick, hitting the boxs' surface briefly. with a new box this is done at the far end in the direction the match is following. the angle of strike is less than forty-five degrees. i am still working out a more precise figure for this. as this area becomes used the match contacts the surface a little further back and an expressive gesture may be added as it rises away from the surface. the box is flipped and rotated as it empties of matches. the quick motion is finished with the matched cupped in one or two hands depending on what it is being used for. when well executed, as it invariably is, it is a precise and beautiful gesture. it is both functional and styled. it has a very definete practicality. this is what i have come to understand, the difference between how Americans and indians strike matches is a layer of economy and societal expectations. in the u.s. we drag the match across much of the striking surface. we expect supersized portions. our country grew up on expansion into a preceived limitless land. we want bigger and better. it's what we pay for. here in india they already knew limitations of area and resources when matches came to be. i would believe that at that time their population was as large, if not larger, than our's is now. indias' land is smaller and its' civilisation vastly older than the united states. it has had much time and necessity to understand and apply the many meanings of the word economy. when i arrived i dragged my matches like all good americans do. what i found out was that this used up the striking surface faster than the matches. significantly. At first i was frustrated and vexed with indias apparent stengenous. It was only after continually watching indian men lighting matches that the genius and directness that can be a part of india became visible. it is said that communication(which preceeds understanding) is only five percent verbal. this true individually, societally, and culturally. it is important for all of us to remember this. it is by observing and considering all of what our senses are giving us do we begin to understand what the environment and culture are trying to tell us. only in this way will we not run-out of surfaces to strike our matches on.

How will Permaculture Help the Farmer?

2007-07-17T16:40:00.000-07:00

With an understanding of permaculture and an ability to use the tools it offers a farmer will be able to create and/or modify their farm to increase functionality and yields while decreasing the external inputs (time and resources) necessary to achieve these. It should be noted that these increases will likely take more than a year or two to realize. While it is important, and Permaculture teaches how, to get immediate benefits (yields) from its application, it will take a few years (depending on conditions and the farmers skill) to achieve the optimal results mentioned above. Permaculture is a relatively new approach (about 30 years old) and has a limited history from which to jumpstart a project. However, as more people apply Permaculture in a variety of conditions and cultures, document the process from the start, and share their understandings this ‘lag time’ will decrease.

Some of the immediate benefits the farmer will receive from training and applying Permaculture are as follows: First will be a deeper insight and understanding of how resources of all types flow onto, through, and out of their farm. With this knowledge they can make decisions that will help to minimize inputs and optimize the benefits form these flows. They will be able to assess how and where resources are being ‘lost’ and how and where to interact with resources to maintain them longer on the farm. Simultaneously there will be a diversification of yields. This will have several affects, yields will move towards a year round occurrence, there will be an overall decrease in the percentage of crop loss due to pests and disease, and there will be an increase in sustainability which will reflect a move towards true resiliency. The farmer with this deeper understanding of how their farm is functioning, and with the specific tools and approaches Permaculture teaches, will be able to develop a long term design that includes strategies of implementation. At the beginning of the implementation process there can be an increase in necessary inputs and resources from time and money to labor, materials, and experimentation. However, as the farmer builds on their successes, as beneficial and regenerative relationships are established between all aspects of the farm, as diversity and complexity become a foundation for the farm, the necessity for external inputs decreases and resources become internalized with less energy needed to maintain the farm. This is not to say that farming will become a lazy nap in the afternoon sun, but, when Permaculture is successfully applied much less resources and work is required to achieve the same and often greater yields. A Permaculture technique that exemplifies this is called a Guild. A Guild is a harmonious assemblage of species around a central element (often a tree). It is over simplistically like companion planting, but contains greater levels of complexity and yields. This is achieved by utilizing a multitude of spacial areas within a very confined area; tall canopy, mid canopy, bushes, smaller shrubs, herbaceous layers, climbers, and subsurface tubers and taproots. All species within this assemblage contribute to the community; from nutrient fixing, to insect repelling and attracting. Once established a well designed guild will give year around yields of various types; food, fodder, medicine, fuel or whatever specifics the farmer designs into it. This technique exemplifies Permacultures emphasis towards perennial plantings that require less continuous and reoccurring inputs (though it still has much to offer towards the annual cropping patterns inherent in much of farming).

To summarize, Permacultures offerings can be seen as multilevel. First, it teaches the farmer how to come to a deeper understanding the flows internal and external that move through their farm. Second, it assembles a wide range of techniques and strategies (from cropping methods, to waste management, to energy alternatives) that a farmer can utilize as is appropriate to their specific site and culture. Thirdly, Permaculture gives the farmer the skills and understandings to assemble these flows, techniques and strategies into a design (including the process and schedule for implementation) that is site specific, maximizes a wider variety of yields, and creates a diversity and complexity that is the hallmark of a resilient system. Included in this outcome is the decrease in the external inputs so that even if there is a drop in yields due to environmental or market factors the overall outcome is still well within the parameters of sustainability.

Brief look at Permaculture

2007-07-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

Permaculture is a design system to create sustainable, regenerative systems. For food production systems (agriculture) this means that not only will they sustain over time, but also that the system is inherently resilient to the challenges and stresses of various types and intensities, has qualities that gives it a sense of adaptability, and creates mutually beneficial linkages and relationships with other systems as well as the larger system it is a part of. How it does this is by focusing on relationships. While it is important that parts of a system be appropriate and adhere to the Ethics of Permaculture (Care for Earth, Care For People, Fair Share/Reinvest surplus) it is by the relationships that we create between them that true sustainability and resiliency occurs. Permaculture does this on several levels.

First and primary Permaculture has a set of principles that form guidelines and avenues by which we can design sustainable systems. In addition these principles can be used to look at and understand systems already in place, thus allowing us to intervene and adjust in appropriate and sustainable ways to improve (step up) the system. For a farmer this means a better understanding of resource management (from seed, to water, to manure, to time and labor) and how these move thru their farm to influence and create or reduce yields. This movement of resources as well as the movement of all parts of an environment (including the human generated ones) is referred to as flows. Permaculture creates resiliency by weaving these flows into a complexity. It is through a diverse, complex web of elements and relationships that a system is able to endure even in times of stress from disease and pests, drought and flood, as well as the fluctuations that are inherent in a market economy. On a farm one thing this means is that within a given context of space, time and the environment a greater number of species can be grown and a complexity of cropping and support systems will be created and linked. In addition, relationships beyond the farm will be optimized for the benefit of all concerned.
Another level, one of the gems of Permaculture, is Pattern Literacy and Application. This is a part of the foundation of Permaculture designing and understanding of systems, from the farm to the greater context in which the farm exists, and another level to creating sustainability and resilience. Patterning includes individual flows, how these flows interact and layer to create patterns, as well as how to apply patterns in design to match and optimize the natural patterns and flows of a specific site. A distinct advantage that will aid the farmer through Pattern Literacy will be the ability to recognize points of opportunity. These are points (nodes) within a system (pattern) where a simple intervention leads to complex and far reaching results.

Related to this is Sector Analysis, a Permaculture tool for understanding how flows move across a particular site. Again, a Flow can be physical (water, fire, manure, seeds, animals etc.), invisible (economic, information, etc.), or anything else that can be considered to move within or through a system. A flow can originate in or outside the system. With Sector analysis a map (pattern) of flows is created to get a better and deeper understanding of what is shaping and influencing the system. Sector Analysis informs how elements are or can be placed within the context of a particular site to optimize for appropriateness and sustainability. In Permaculture design this is called Right Placement.

Coupled with Sector Analysis is another Permaculture tool called Zonation. Zonation is a way by which parts (elements) of a system are placed in relationship to maximize beneficial relationships and minimize the inputs necessary to maintain and utilize them. On a farm this would involve the relationships between cowshed, garden, farmhouse, water, orchard, and all other aspects of the farm. Zonation facilitates the creation of a diverse and complex web of interactions between a set of elements that requires the minimum input of external resources. It also maximizes the functionality between the varied elements on the farm. This is called Relative Placement.

With Relative and Right Placement resiliency is designed into and becomes a natural outcome of the system. Like a web, if one or several strands (relationships) were to break the web survives. Together Sector Analysis and Zonation are another layer by which Permaculture creates these beneficial and complex relationships.

These (Ethics, Principles, Flows, Patterns, Sector Analysis, and Zonation) are all parts of the Design Process and are part of the core of Permaculture. What a permaculturalist is at heart is an opportunist. As long as the design, technique or strategy adheres to or the intervention falls within the Permaculture Ethics, and the Principles are applied, than Permaculture is being practiced. While this may sound simple, if you really understand and skillfully apply these Principles and Ethics very specific and functional outcomes occur. It should be understood that while being very specific Permaculture has great flexibility and adaptability to local conditions. Because Permaculture is about relationships and less about objects (elements) it is very site specific, taking into account not only the physical uniqueness of a place but also the culture and history as well. In fact and practice it recognizes the value of traditional indigenous knowledge. Permaculture seeks to preserve and honour this storehouse of sustainability while also coupling it with the realities of the world today. It is through this site specific approach and honouring of local culture, history, and traditional practices that Permaculture is being applied in over 120 countries worldwide, in conditions ranging from high altitude deserts to the wet tropics, from extremely cold to extremely hot climates, from small farms of less than an acre to ones of many hundreds and thousands of acres.