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Contents

Appropriate Technology

One of the maxims of Permaculture is the use of ‘appropriate technology’ -appropriate in scale and sophistication. The giant combine harvesters of industrial farming are considered inappropriate because they are too big:

compacting soil and needing vast hedgeless fields and only one driver when rural unemployment is high. The technology is only appropriate in terms of subsidised economics. On the other hand, cutting four acres of hedges by hand with a tiny pair of shears is also inappropriate technology: too small a scale for the job. When I do this job, I feel that a petrol driven hedge trimmer is appropriate. Several people have commented that they don’t consider this to be very permacultural. Why? Yes it consumes a cup full of finite fossil fuel depositing its CO2 into the air but the job takes only one day of labour. If I do the job by hand it will take over a week and my extra huffing and puffing will deposit far more CO2 into the air than a cup full of petrol. We tend to forget that we contribute to global warming with every breath we take.

As for resources, the hedge trimmer and shears both need metals and plastics so there is not much difference there. Add to this the fact that my time and energy are finite resources too. Once that week has gone, I cannot get it back and there are other things that are far more appropriate for my personal attention - such as Shiatsu. The hedge trimmer is also appropriate on a scale for looking out for wildlife. It does not blunder through the hedge like a tractor flail smashing all and sundry. It is hand held and can be controllable. Trimming the hedge is an act of stewardship for future generations keeping the hedge alive and thick so that more wildlife can be supported in its prickly innards. Of course the most appropriate way would use biological resources such as grazing animals so that they fed themselves while trimming the hedge (multifunctional) but this still requires support to keep the hedge in prime condition....

Permaculture is not anti-technology - not a regressive movement. We humans have amazing brains and can find numerous ways of making life easier for ourselves.

The permacultural bit is to do this in a way that minimises impact on future generations. Cindy

Contents

A good example is the aluminium drink can. Aluminium is one material that is worth recycling. The process consumes 40 times less energy than primary extraction so …recycling of drink cans is good...yes? Well, not exactly. If we must drink fizzy coloured chemicals then we should ideally drink them out of re-useable glass bottles. Glass does not need to be mined like metal, it is easily washed and reused and can then be recycled at the end of its re-use. Better still, for the environment (and hence ourselves) would be the reduction in consumption of soft fizzy drinks as this would reduce the demand on resources and energy made by its manufacture, distribution, marketing, and retail.

A similar picture is seen in medicine. The best thing to do of course is to reduce the incidence of ill health. The next best thing would be to enhance the body’s own healing ability to deal with ill health. The last resort would be to inflict strong allopathic chemicals on the system. Yet the general population are left with a last resort tactic (i.e. taking medicine) as their main weaponry against disease. The similarity between recycling and medicine got me wondering. What is it about the human psyche that mean these ‘last resorts’ are so eagerly accepted while the prevention is so actively avoided? Of course, when it is put like that, the answer becomes obvious. In both cases we can consume as much as we want, eat what we want , do what we want ….as long as we recycle stuff and take medicines when things go wrong. It takes all the personal and collective responsibility out of our actions. We are doing all we can - except that it is a bit too far down the line to be very effective.

If we are to pursue sustainable lifestyles we need to reduce consumption and pro-actively enhance our own health. Full responsibility is what sustainability is all about - being accountable to ourselves so that future generations don’t have to live in our mess.

Cindy

Situation Vacant

Livestock manager for Soil Association/Permaculture farm in East Anglia.

No experience necessary but common-sense essential. Accommodation provided.

ISBN 1 897766 44 0

Unfortunately I found it shallow and unhelpful.

Walter and Dorothy have criss-crossed the world staying with an impressively wide selection of people who are trying to find better alternatives to the global economic model.

Yet there are no conclusions, no lessons, it reads like a Sunday travel supplement article. The only "facts" seem to have been taken from brochures of organisations visited.

They make a number of repeated stereotypical observations of the people they meet "He wears boots without laces – badge of rural alternative living", "he is very lean – like all the other vegans we have met – with sunken eyes…" or asks "Why are woolly hats a uniform in Green circles?"

They report critically both the good and bad about schemes, which I appreciate, but the way it is done is unconstructive. They report in detail the disagreements, the lack of money, or too much money, the struggles all these people are having. Negatives are found even if they are outside the plan of a project for example about a co-housing project "there is no solar or wind power… no mini-flush loos and no grey water recycling." This leaves me with no positive flavour of any scheme reported.

There is also a type of implied criticism, which is put as an aside to the reader. For instance "While we talk philosophy her husband watches cricket on the television".

I felt let down by these authors that have been through so much but do not appear to have experienced it, nor to have provided any helpful analysis for us to learn from.                      Nigel

Otley College

The start of the Permaculture course delayed until January 2000 so still time to apply for that

More details when we have them.

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Last modified: November 08, 1999