[Chapter_Fourteen] Permaculture and Justice
Larry Korn
ldkorn at gmail.com
Thu Jan 20 14:50:29 PST 2011
Hi all. Thanks for the thoughtful responses. What is and what not
permaculture is a topic that is actively discussed throughout the movement.
I don't think there is a "right" answer to this question. When Bill first
taught the courses he taught the ethics, principles and many techniques for
achieving the goals, including the many aspects of social permaculture.
Most of this is in the Designer's Manual and the Design Course Handbook. He
also left the door open to include other things as long as they didn't
contradict the ethics and principles. Since permaculture is based on the
principles of ecology, observing and emulating natural process, and since
ecology teaches us that everything is interconnected, I suppose anything
could technically be included in what we call permaculture.
That said, each of us has our own ideas of what we think of as basic
permaculture. For example, little was known about using microorganisms for
bioremediation in the 1970's when permaculture was born. It is barely
mentioned in the early teachings. Now, thanks to the work of Paul Stamets
and others we see how useful using fungi and other microbes can be for
rehabilitating and cleansing soil, particularly those that have been damaged
by human activity. Is there anyone out there that doesn't think that we
should talk about this and develop this promising field within the umbrella
of permaculture?
Here's a trickier example. Permaculture has a lot of outstanding ideas
about aquaculture, mainly using ponds, as a way to grow food, clean and
reuse water and provide habitat for other communities of plants, animals and
microorganisms. We can go out into natural areas and see that this is what
nature does and imitate it in our designs. How about aquaculture as part of
a hydroponic system? Some would say that too should be included in
permaculture, others think the environment is just too contrived to be
considered "permaculture." They say that while hydroponic aquaculture does
include many of the characteristics we value in permaculture designs it is
just too human and not at all natural. After all, we cannot find anything
like it in the natural world. So which point of view is correct? That
depends... I think we each, or each local permaculture guild, needs to
answer questions like this for themselves.
Another example. Among other things, permaculture teaches that practicing
permaculture will help us grow as individuals and help us to achieve our
full potential as human beings. Does that mean that we should offer weekend
workshops on yoga, reflexology and crystal healing and call it
permaculture? These are great things and all of them could help us grow as
people and therefore allow us to better observe nature and so forth, but
should the workshop be billed as a Permaculture Workshop? I have my
own personal ideas about questions like this, but I'm not sure that is
relevant for an open discussion like this one.
So we come to social justice. We all know that there many horrific social
problems in the world and in our communities that need to be corrected.
Some of us work harder on these issues than others, but we all believe in
working to help create social justice. Certainly practicing permaculture
will help to solve many of these issues. Just as permaculture is
fundamentally a practice of rehabilitation for the earth it is also one that
addresses personal and social issues. But is it our primary mission to
fight to change injustice directly or is that better done by simply
practicing our craft and developing new ways of living equitable together?
We all have our personal ideas about this. Some people think it is more
effective to subvert the system by directly challenging it or by working
within it. Others think that is folly and choose simply to walk away to
create the new reality directly. I don't have *the *answer, but I thought
I'd try to give the discussion context.
Please...more thoughts. It's an interesting and important topic.
~Larry
On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 1:23 PM, Jason McDaniel <jasonamcdaniel at mac.com>wrote:
> I agree with Larry. While permaculture practices can certainly have many
> beneficial impacts on society, I think it is a mistake to focus on
> permaculture primarily as a means to achieve justice, or as a social justice
> movement. In fact, such a focus could potentially be a distraction from the
> hard, slow work of advancing justice in the political arena.
>
> I also take a slight and polite exception to Rachel's claim that
> "traditional political philosophy" and "ivory tower" philosophy defines
> justice as only related to material goods. That's simply a misreading of
> political philosophy as I know it. But the, this is academic nitpicking on
> my part, and I definitely endorse her list of great philosophers such as
> Rawls, Sen, Nussbaum, etc.
>
> Jason
>
> On Jan 20, 2011, at 1:01 PM,
> chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net-request at lists.beforebefore.net wrote:
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> > 1. Re: Permaculture and Justice (Larry Korn)
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:31:21 -0800
> > From: Larry Korn <ldkorn at gmail.com>
> > To: "Chapter Fourteen: Where abundant food and human cultures
> > intersect" <chapter_fourteen-beforebefore.net@
> lists.beforebefore.net>
> > Subject: Re: [Chapter_Fourteen] Permaculture and Justice
> > Message-ID:
> > <AANLkTimh-sFm1wJWHuBfgYJF-AuhrapNZhy6CXMa-QtF at mail.gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252"
> >
> > Hello all,
> >
> > Thank you, Rachel for this posting. It's true that by practicing
> > permaculture many of the problems leading to social injustice will
> wither.
> > I'm not sure that permaculture is the venue to directly address these
> > issues. That's just my personal opinion. I would love to hear what
> others
> > think about this.
> >
> > ~Larry
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Rachel A. Buddeberg <rachel at rabe.org
> >wrote:
> >
> >> I discovered permaculture last summer. It made total sense to me. We
> need
> >> to move away from our growth-oriented, self-destructive way of living.
> We
> >> need to rethink the way we live. To me, permaculture is all about
> >> redesigning our culture. To me, that means everything - the way we
> live,
> >> the way we interact, the way we eat, etc. As i was reading more,
> though, i
> >> noticed a pattern: Most people focused on how to grow our food. Other
> >> aspects - raised in Chapter 14 - were often ignored, or sidelined. And
> that
> >> didn't seem to bother anybody. Was there nobody wondering out loud if
> we
> >> need to ask some more questions while we learn how to grow our own food?
> >> So, let me start wondering out loud: Does permaculture create a just
> >> society? How can we ensure that it does?
> >>
> >> I am troubled by the absence, within the permaculture movement, of
> actively
> >> addressing current injustices. If we repair intersections within the
> >> current neighborhoods, we do not address the fact that our neighborhoods
> are
> >> segregated. If we grow food in our backyards, we ignore that not
> everybody
> >> has backyards, nor the time to work in the backyard because they have to
> >> work 3 jobs to earn enough to even live somewhere. And then i am
> troubled
> >> by Holmgren's gender balance suggestion (in Principles & Pathways, p.
> >> 267-9). I thought we had overcome "separate but complementary culture"
> >> (274). More importantly, though, his view of the male-female dichotomy
> does
> >> not recognize that men and women are not as different as many claim.
> >>
> >> Justice, of course, is a very broad, often rather vague term. To me, a
> >> just society is one where everyone matters, where everyone is supported
> by
> >> society to reach their potential, where all voices are heard even if we
> >> don't like what they say (or how they say it). I am adding a more
> formal
> >> way of approaching it below. The questions i am pondering somehow
> reflect
> >> that definition? (Or those definitions?)
> >>
> >> So, the questions i am asking us are:
> >> ? How can we ensure that permaculture addresses all aspects of
> >> justice?
> >> ? How can we use permaculture principles to ensure just
> >> distribution of resources in a world where almost everything is
> distributed
> >> unjustly?
> >> ? How can we recognize everybody impacted by our work?
> >> ? How can we utilize everybody's skills and remove
> obstacles
> >> from our paths that prevent us from living to our fullest potential?
> >> ? How can we make sure that everybody can participate? Are
> >> we preventing some people from participating? If so, how? Can we
> overcome
> >> those obstacles?
> >> ? Are there any stories we can share that illustrate how
> >> permaculture addresses these aspects or how it doesn't?
> >> ? Could - or even should - permaculture address all this? Maybe it
> >> is enough to grow our food differently, after all agriculture had huge
> >> impacts on the way we live, so maybe by changing this one thing
> everything
> >> else will follow?
> >>
> >> I would love it if we could discuss some or all of these questions.
> Also,
> >> if you know of or are involved in permaculture projects that do
> incorporate
> >> fights for justice, please let me know! I'd love to learn how they do
> this?
> >>
> >> Looking forward to a lively discussion!
> >>
> >> Rachel
> >>
> >>
> >> And if you're really interested in the academic background, read on:
> >> Traditionally, political philosophers defined justice as the just
> >> distribution of material goods. Although that definition is still
> >> surprisingly prevalent in philosophy, those philosophers who go beyond
> the
> >> ivory tower have noticed that social justice movements define justice
> much
> >> more broadly. There's David Schlosberg, for example, who has looked at
> the
> >> environmental justice movement and argued that it defines justice more
> >> broadly, including adding aspects of recognition, capabilities, and
> >> participation. And then Iris Marion Young specifically credits social
> >> movements for helping her see the need to develop a broader definition.
> >>
> >> Let me clarify each aspect of justice a bit using environmental issues
> >> (primary philosophers are listed in parentheses):
> >> ? Distribution means that all bear an equal burden of environmental
> >> pollution and get equal benefits of natural resources. (John Rawls)
> >> ? Recognition means that people are recognized: Native Americans
> >> might have a different relationship to land or water than the
> predominant
> >> White-European view. Recognition respects this. We might need to honor
> >> recognition by giving oppressed groups special participation rights.
> (Iris
> >> Young; Nancy Fraser)
> >> ? Capabilities transform the stuff we get into fulfilling lives.
> If
> >> the soil where we live is polluted, no matter how much money is thrown
> into
> >> the schools in that area, kids won't be able to develop to their fullest
> >> potential. (Amartya Sen; Martha Nussbaum)
> >> ? Participation means that everybody can participate, that we
> ensure
> >> that barriers to participation are removed, and that
> disadvantaged/oppressed
> >> groups have particular rights. For example, the folks living downstream
> >> might need veto rights on any decisions made by the people living
> upstream.
> >> (Iris Marion Young)
> >>
> >>
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