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My Experience of Permaculture in Guatemala
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Plant Systems, Project Positions, Rehabilitation, Trees, Water Harvesting — by Kevin Mascarenhas February 7, 2010
The Ijatz cooperative is possibly the best demonstration of the transformative power of permaculture in Guatemala. The site, in San Lucas Toliman near Lake Atitlan, was purchased at low cost since the parish council considered the land to be of low value. Previously, it was a swampy bog inundated with refuse and flood water from the surrounding hills.
In classic permaculture style, within the problem lay the seeds of the solution. The deforestation due to conventional agriculture in these surrounding hills has caused soil erosion and during the rainy season much of this rich volcanic black top soil is washed downstream. This annual bounty has been redirected through the Ijatz site using a sequence of channels and sink holes, which in turn slows the water flow enabling the nutrient rich humus to be captured and stored on site. The earth has been moulded to create slopes, edges and contours essential for increased growing opportunity.
Comments (15)World On Fire
Musical Interlude — by Craig Mackintosh
A music video, sung by Sarah McLachlan, that has its priorities right!
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Jawaseri School Garden Project, Jordan
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Conservation, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Developments, Eco-Villages, Education Centres, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Irrigation, Land, Nurseries & Propogation, People Systems, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Trees, Urban Projects, Village Development, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh February 6, 2010
Just as I was leaving Jordan, after making the Greening the Desert II update video, another little project was just getting underway – the Jawaseri School Garden project. A few people have emailed pictures of progress over the last few months and I’ve combined these with Geoff’s narration from the PRI home base in Australia, to give you all a bit of an idea what’s happening there. May it inspire you to do similar where you are!
Permaculture education should be in every school, everywhere. If it was, I believe most of the world’s problems could be solved within a decade.
Comments (5)Letters from Sri Lanka – Sarvodaya Builds Sri Lanka’s First Eco-Village
Aid Projects, Biological Cleaning, Building, Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Eco-Villages, People Systems, Potable Water, Society, Village Development, Waste Systems & Recycling, Waste Water, Water Harvesting — by Craig Mackintosh February 4, 2010
Part VII of a series – If you haven’t already, please read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V and Part VI before continuing. This series is part of my work for the Sustainable (R)evolution book project.
One of 55 eco-friendly homes nestled amongst newly established gardens
An hour or so south of the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo is the fishing district of Kalutara. Although only one of many regions hit by the 2004 Tsunami, post-disaster relief efforts here were unique in that Sarvodaya determined to use the situation to create Sri Lanka’s first eco-village.
Comments (9)Democracy for Sale by the Corporate Citizen
Alternatives to Political Systems, Comedy Break, Society — by Craig Mackintosh February 2, 2010
Should corporations have the same rights as individuals? Should corporations, many of which have a greater turnover than entire countries, be free to finance the politicians they favour – in direct competition against little ‘ol you and me? Well, the Supreme Court of the United States thinks so, and has ruled this into law. This means the term ‘Corporate America’ is now completely accurate. Corporations now effectively own the U.S. (We already knew this, but now it’s law.)
Comments (7)Resources for Herbs, Sprouts and Survival Foods
Consumerism, DVDs/Books, Food Forests, Food Plants - Annual, Food Plants - Perennial, Food Shortages, Medicinal Plants, peak oil — by Isabell Shipard
When Derrick, Isabell, and children Angela, Vicky and RIcky, shifted to Nambour in the hinterland of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast over 30 years ago, our desire was have land to grow our own food and be as self-sufficient as possible. We bought an acre of land and soon realized that a bigger block of land would be the way to go, so that we could have our own milk, meat and eggs. We purchased a larger 20 acre block, with approximately 10 acres of cleared land on the outskirts of Nambour.
It was about this time, that we heard Bill Mollison speak on Permaculture, with zones, to encourage a design plan that integrates the environment, plants and people with a vision of possibilities.
Vegetable and herb gardens were started and fruit trees were planted. Poultry, dairy goats, pigs and milking cows were added. Derrick being very gifted with skills of building fences, sheds, and as ‘a fix-it man’ was able to do many and varied tasks on the farm. Derrick, being a butcher by trade, was also able to turn the animals into cuts of meat for the freezer, mince into sausages, meat into smoked hams.
Comments (6)Robin Hood Moved to Somalia?
Economics, Society — by Craig Mackintosh
Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor?
Last year Johann Hari wrote an interesting piece entitled You Are Being Lied to About Pirates. It gives some excellent background on yet another example of how there are always two sides to a story – and the mainstream media can never be counted on to tell both:
Comments (4)Scientologists in Haitian Disaster Relief – Some Questions
Aid Projects, People Systems, Society — by Craig Mackintosh February 1, 2010
Does Scientology and permaculture’s People Care ethic conflict? And, if so, should this matter to permaculturists?
Preliminary Note: Comments from people who sound like they haven’t read all of this post in its entirety will not be moderated through. I want no ill-thought-out, off-the-cuff comments here. Thank you.
This post won’t be an easy one to formulate so as to avoid controversy. Indeed, avoiding controversy on this topic is likely impossible. But, sometimes when you try to adhere to principle you’re given tasks that are not easy, pleasant or welcome. I’ll state right now that I write this article reluctantly. Making the decision to do so took some deliberation, and was also encouraged by the prompting of others who have emailed me privately with the same shared concern. In this post I will attempt to be objective and respectful – and I hope anyone who comments will endeavour to do this as well.
Comments (39)A Farming Model to Sustain the World
Community Projects, Eco-Villages, Economics, Food Shortages, News, People Systems, Village Development — by Devinder Sharma January 31, 2010
Ten years from now, in 2020, when we try to look back, Indian agriculture can be transformed into a healthy and vibrant system where farmer suicides have been relegated to history, where distress and despondency has been replaced by the lost pride in farming, where agriculture becomes sustainable in the long run, and does not add on to global warming.
As we enter 2010, the script for a futuristic agriculture, which brings back the smile on the face of farmers, without leaving any scar on the environment, is being rewritten.
What began as a small initiative some six years back in a non-descript village in Khamam district, has now spread to over 2 million acres in 21 districts of Andhra Pradesh. I remember when I first talked about the miracle brought about in village Pannukula in Andhra Pradesh, many thought I was simply trying to romanticise agriculture. How farming can be done without the use of chemical pesticides, I was repeatedly asked.
Pannukula dug out a lonely furrow, but eventually blazed a trail. In the next four years, more than 318,000 farmers in 21 out of the 23 districts of Andhra Pradesh have discarded the intensive chemical farming systems, and shifted to a more sustainable, economically viable and ecologically friendly agriculture. A silent revolution is in the offing. In Kharif 2009 (the monsoon season), some 1.4 million acres was covered with what is now known as Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture (CMSA).
Comments (3)Chicago’s Chicken Ordinance
Animal Housing, Bird Life, Comedy Break, Livestock — by Craig Mackintosh January 30, 2010
This is a rather amusing look at Chicago’s ‘Chicken Ordinance’.
The moral of the story is if it’s not on paper, it doesn’t exist.
Comments (4)Permaculture and the Western Syndrome
Aid Projects, Deforestation, Food Forests, General, Insects, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Society, Trees — by Warren Brush
For tens of thousands of years intact peoples from around the world have been intricately woven into the fabric of the landscape that nourishes them. Culture itself has sprung from the land through the people’s relationship with all that sustains them. This is not as esoteric as it sounds… Imagine a group of people who live in a particular watershed with a distinct mix and availability of flora and fauna, weather patterns, sun angles, sound resonance, distance to other bio-regions, etc. Everyday necessity would be provided for by these and other more subtle structures and influences that would provide unique implements for survival, foods, hunting practices, shelters, musical instruments, honoring practices, ceremonies and stories. These peoples have known the origins stories of all that give them life, this in turn became the foundation of true, intact culture where the land would express itself very tangibly through the people
PRI-De: A Detroit Story
Community Projects, Demonstration Sites, Economics, Education Centres, Urban Projects — by Killian OBrien January 28, 2010
 Detroit: time to turn the problem into the solution |
Permaculture in Detroit seems like a bit of an oxymoron, but urban agriculture is blooming all over the city. From the city-wide efforts of The Greening of Detroit in educating people on gardening techniques to the smaller-scale efforts of individuals such as Kate Devlin and her Spirit of Hope garden to groups such as the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network and their 2-acre D-Town Farm and the Georgia Street Community Gardens/Collective, community gardens are being sown on vacant lots dotting this city of nearly a million, filling the holes left by the loss of nearly half its peak auto industry-driven population. Photos of the streets of Detroit from eras long past and rusted nearly away show tightly packed, neat homes. Today, half those homes have devolved into ruins or grassy, often debris-filled, lots. Estimates on the number of lots range from 60,000 to 80,000. Those numbers don’t include the many parks now being left largely untended by the city government.
Comments (10)Mounting Stresses, Failing States
Consumerism, Economics, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, Population, Society, peak oil — by Earth Policy Institute
by Lester R. Brown, Earth Policy Institute
After a half-century of forming new states from former colonies and from the breakup of the Soviet Union, the international community is today focusing on the disintegration of states. The term “failing state” has entered our working vocabulary only during the last decade or so, but these countries are now an integral part of the international political landscape. In the past, governments have been concerned by the concentration of too much power in one state, as in Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and the Soviet Union. But today it is failing states that provide the greatest threat to global order and stability.
States fail when national governments lose control of part or all of their territory and can no longer ensure the personal security of their people. When governments lose their monopoly on power, the rule of law begins to disintegrate. When they can no longer provide basic services such as education, health care, and food security, they lose their legitimacy. A government in this position may no longer be able to collect enough revenue to finance effective governance. Societies can become so fragmented that they lack the cohesion to make decisions.
Comments (4)Michael Pollan Gives a Plant’s-Eye View
General, Society — by Craig Mackintosh January 27, 2010
Author Michael Pollan asks us to see the world from a plant’s-eye view.
Comments (0)The Impossible Hamster
Consumerism, Economics — by Craig Mackintosh
I think you’ll enjoy this little clip with a simple message – simple, but one that seems to elude almost all economists and politicians.
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