Permaculture

What is Permaculture?

The Permaculture Institute defines it, of course. They define permaculture as an “ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor.”The word itself comes from “permanent agriculture” and “permanent culture,” and at its foundation is developing agricultural and other systems that are interconnected and dependent on one another. In other words, they mimic the natural ecologies found in nature. The focus is not on any one element of the system, rather the focus is on the relationships between animals, plants, insects, soil, water and habitat -- and how to use these relationships to create synergistic, self-supporting ecosystems.“Though the problems of the world are increasingly more complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple,” said Bill Mollison, co-founder of the world-wide permaculture movement.

I'll get back to this. It's a/the proposed solution to the food crisis.

Okay, the founder's model farm (in the American southwest) is described as: "Fruit trees’ bloom, native and honey bees, medley of medicinal herbs, milk goats, heirloom chickens and turkeys, a gang of loud guinea fowl, a restored wetlands teeming with fish, dragonflies, bugs and native waterfowl; rich gardens, pastures and orchards surround our natural home with its cutting edge energy and water management design. It is truly beautiful and rewarding to be alive in a permaculture oasis!"

If I may add my own bit, I think we should open our borders, and intensively work our land with more people (it seems small farms and people are replaced by big farms using machines) and ideas like this, in addition to/instead of the huge mechanized industrial farms we have now, that I would think are possibly producing only a fraction of their true potential. Basically, I'm thinking of rice farmers in Asia doing their back-breaking work, and if we had that kind of intensiveness in America, combined with a permaculture sensibility, wouldn't that be the best of all worlds? We have all this good land; Shouldn't we have lots of farmers doing sustainable practice, sharing ideas in a thriving permaculture.

I of course am not a farmer, and don't know what the hell I'm talking about, really.
I'm just throwing this out there.
I'm just intuitively guessing that more people with more education would equal better farming.