Summary In this paper we will look at permaculture as an ethical solution to the ecological crisis. In doing so, we will utilize many topics from the course as well as additional bodies of knowledge to aid in broadening the scope of our central theme. We will explore how permaculture can propagate itself across disciplines from ecology, urban development, social and environmental justice, consumerism, the commons, localism or bioregionalism, and sustainable food. In addition, we will analyze current case studies on permaculture and its practical applications.
Introduction The story begins and ends in a garden. From the first seeds that were planted in the ground by humans who had shifted from foraging and collecting, agriculture was born.
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Furthermore, this permanence gave birth to villages, then cities, states, countries and also war (perhaps this is why לחם and מלחמה come from the same root). With the rise of civilization came the written word and first religious texts. In this story of creation we can see that the idea of mans ownership of the land is already evident. Adam was created from the dust of the earth “And the LORD God took the Adam, and put him into the garden of Eden to till and to tend it” (Genesis1 –פרק א The Second Account). Poetically the seed of our ecological crisis is just that, a …show more content…
Once this lens was fixed it set non mutually beneficial relationships (with the earth and one another) as the norm. This manipulation and demanding consumption is opposite of what we see in the natural world. In nature there is no input other than the sun and there is no waste because all the organisms reach their maximum efficiency through mutually beneficial relationships with one another. What I mean by this is that in one ecosystem each niche is occupied by a different organism and each organism has adapted to have slightly different behavior and diets so they can coexist, consume everything, and return the nutrients to the ground. It is a closed system in which the animals eating, peeing, pooping, reproducing, and killing each other are creating new soil and driving the growth and dispersion of plants. By viewing ourselves as better than nature we are spitting in the face of organic technological systems that have proven efficient since the beginning of time. This has lead to the birth of systems that accumulate at the cost of other humans and natural resources such as capitalism, systems that produce nothing but waste such as consumerism, system that support life un-proportionately leading to over population and depleted soils, systems that are industrial in place of the commons of shared biodiverse
Our system today is inherently opposed to developing a relationship with the land because it depends on evidence in terms of monetary worth. “One basic weakness in a conservationist system based wholly on economic motives is that most members of the land community have no economic value” (246). How much is a wildflower or a songbird worth? Therefore, this infinitely complex ecological system, which depends upon an unforeseeable amount of community-shaping mechanisms, tends to become increasingly diseased. “It tends to ignore, and thus eventually to eliminate, many elements in the land community that lack commercial values, but that are (as we know) essential to its healthy functioning” (252).
History provides the opportunity to explore the origins of a topic or problem. The information from Agriculture and rural society after the Black Death provides an overview of agricultural and rural society’s agrarian issues; during the Middle-Ages these issues were centered around depopulation and social conflict (Dodds & Britnell, 2008, pp.3-50). Problems in the economics of society in the medieval fourteenth century involved the decline of social status and labor services (Dodds & Britnell, 2008, pp.73-132). Other examples are seen in change and growth describe of that in 1870, the Great Plains only had 127,000 people; six decades later in 1930, there were 6.8 million people; 74 percent of the population lived in non-metropolitan areas; from 1930 to 1940, there was a loss of 200,000 people; 75 percent of these counties lost populations from the Great Depression and severe drought, which had caused the abandonment of farms (Kandel & Brown, 2006, p.431). To understand these past experiences, the door to hindering issues must be opened to determine how agricultural sustainability forges change.
Today we live in an urban society and individualism, in which sense can we to talk about of a communitarian way of living? Is the decay of the rural world an accelerated process that can be reversed with natural resources of the commons as a lever? With the exodus of villages will the commons also be extinguished? What is challenging the future of the commons? ... These are just some issues that reflect the need to adaptation of management of the commons to new realities.
In his 2009 article “The Omnivore’s Delusion”, Blake Hurst takes a stand against the numerous non-farmers who are attempting, and in some cases succeeding, to degrade and ‘clean’ the farming industry. Hurst’s main points of contention are the lack of true knowledge these intellectuals have on the inner workings of today’s farms and their insistent belief that the farmers themselves “…are too stupid to farm sustainably, too cruel to treat their animals well, and too careless to worry about their communities, their health, and their families” (24).
“The discovery of agriculture was the first big step toward a civilized life.” (Arthur Keith)
The blessing and curse of the Agricultural Revolution is advocated with its augmentation and dissemination. Taking the stipulative definition of “blessing” and “curse” from the original premise, one can only superimpose the layman’s terms of “negative” and “positive”. Upon examination of the two classifications within the Neolithic Period and ancient Mesopotamian civilization one can confirm the premise. Therefore, the agriculture revolution was a blessing and a curse for humanity. Human society began to emerge in the Neolithic Period or the New Stone Age. This new age began around 9,000 B.C.E. by the development of agriculture in the region surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and what is commonly referred to as “The Fertile Crescent” located in West Asia.1 The very development of agriculture had benefited humans by no longer having to move about in search of wild game and plants. Unencumbered by nomadic life humans found little need to limit family size and possessions and settled in a single location for many years. One negative aspect of this settling is that the population increased so much so that wild food sources were no longer sufficient to support large groups. Forced to survive by any means necessary they discovered using seeds of the most productive plants and clearing weeds enhanced their yield.2 This also lead humans to develop a wider array of tools far superior to the tools previously used in the Paleolithic Period or Old Stone Age. The spread of the Agricultural Revolution in the Neolithic Period also cultivated positive aspects by creating connections with other cultures and societies. Through these connections they exchanged knowledge, goods, and ideas on herding and farming.3 Another major positive aspec...
Food production has many challenges to address: CO2 emissions, which are projected to increase by two-thirds in the next 20 years, as the global food production increases so does the number of people going hungry, with the number of urban hungry soaring. The environmental issues are not the only ones to face; politics and economic globalization take also the big part in the food world. These days agriculture and food politics has been going through many changes but mostly under the influence of its consumers; back in the days people wanted as little as safety, variety and low costs of food. Now consumers demanding way more – greater freshness, nutritional value, less synthetic chemicals, smaller carbon footprint and less harm to animals. And that’s the time when urban agriculture emerged quite rapidly delivering locally grown and healthy food. Within the political arena, there are a few still in charge of defending the conventional food industries and commercial farms to retain the upper level. Against the hopes of nutrition activists, farm animal welfare defenders, and organic food promoters, the food and agriculture sector is moving towards greater consolidation and better sustainability. Although in social and local terms, food-growing activists know their role is under attack. Caught two words in the middle, is it possible to satisfy both?
Only five thousand years ago, the first instances of an organized agricultural system were developing in the fertile lands of Mesopotamia (Gezzehei, lecture).
...ot be a good thing. It would cost a lot of money to buy soil strengthening materials for a large piece of property. It takes a lot of space. It’s not very water efficient because of spaces between plants. Although one does not spend money on buying a frame or soil, they spend a lot on maintenance, water etc…. this concludes the comparison of two effective techniques of growing crops
They indeed promote biodiversity, avoiding the use of any chemicals, while producing year-round yields. Agroecology recognizes the successfulness, proven over centuries, of community-based local agriculture, and thus serves as a bridge between modern scientific agricultural knowledge and local ones. The local management of resources and knowledge systems is elaborated upon social institutions. It is then of primal importance to identify and assess this local knowledge framework through agroecological and ethno ecological methodologies. This will help determine the factors upon which the famers perceive and modify their environment to finally translate into practical management schemes promoting the dynamic conservation of local agroecosystems. The combination of western science and ethno science provides then the principles to design and manage sustainable farming systems. Participation of farmers in testing, evaluating and disseminating the best agroecological practices is needed to ensure that the specific technologies put into places are really relevant to their needs and situation (Altieri,
Sustainable agriculture integrates three main goals--environmental health, economic profitability, and social and economic equity. A variety of philosophies, policies and practices have contributed to these goals. People in many different capacities, from farmers to consumers, have shared this vision and contributed to it.
Agriculture has been around for about 11,000 years. Around 9.500 BC, the first signs of crops began to show up around the coastlines of the Mediterranean. Emmer and einkorn wheat were the first crops that started to show up in this area, with barley, peas, lentils, chick peas, and flax following shortly. For the most part, everyone was a nomad and just travelled along with where a herd went. This went on until around 7.000 BC, and then the first signs of sowing and harvesting appeared in Mesopotamia. In the first ...
People have depended on agriculture for years as the primary source of getting food. We have developed all kinds of ways to manipulate nature so what we can produce higher yield crops, more nutritious crops, bigger crops, crops that withstand cold, and farming equipment that allows us to manufacture these crops with relative ease. Why then are there five billion people being malnourished and forty thousand children dying each day from hunger? It seems as though world hunger is more a result of the lack of distributing the food properly than the lack of quantity. agriculture has turned into a high profit business and biotech companies like Monsanto are constantly trying to come up with better and more efficient ways of farming. Are they doing this to try to solve the world hunger crisis, or merely to make a profit?
Agriculture is one of the most ancient forms of art and science that ties human development and well-being to natural resources and ecosystems. (Fritz J. Häni, 2007) Sustainable Agriculture is the production of food, fibre, plant and animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities and animal welfare. (Sustainable Agriculture - The Basics, 2015) Sustainable agriculture is an integrated system of plant and animal production practices having a site – specific application that over the long term will:
Farming has been an occupation since 8,500 B.C. On that year in the Fertile Crescent farming first began when people grew plants instead of picking them in the wild. Then nearly 5,000 years later oxen, horses, pigs, and dogs were domesticated. During the middle ages, the nobles divide their land into three fields. The reasoning for this was to plant two and leave one to recover. This was the start of crop rotation which is a big part of farming today. Burning down forest and then moving to another area is a farming technique used by the Mayans called Slash and burn. Mayan farmers also were able to drain swampy areas to farm them buy building canals. In 1701 Jethro Tull invented the seed drill and a horse drawn how that tilled the land. In Denmark they would plant turnips in the previously unplanted field. The turnips help restore the nutrients in the ground thus crop rotation is born. In England people began moving there fields closer to each other for a more efficient way of planting. Later in the 18th century selective breeding was introduce which made bigger, stronger, and more milk producing livestock. In the mid 1800’s a steam plough was invented. By the 1950 tractors, milking machines, and combines were used by almost farmers. The latest f...