Hey Steemit! Below our my thoughts about how we can create food sovereignty for ourselves during a time of a violent, dangerous global food regime. These are thoughts from my senior capstone. To view the whole paper you can access it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16_v5BCdZ5sBUwcDGA3pROewBZrjGLG3f1e_hspJZ7JA/pub
What Is Wrong With Our Current Food System
When food is simply viewed as a commodity that can be bought and sold rather than the means to a deeper connection to society and the environment, we need to reevaluate our food system. When the increase of profits and control over means of production for agribusinesses results in a destruction of the smallholder life, we need to reevaluate our food system. When consumers and smallholders no longer have the right of choice over their own food, and when one billion people are hungry, we need to reevaluate our food system. There is something missing in the way the current food regime seeks to feed the world. The thing that is missing is people.
From the crusade to change the psychology of the peasant, to the increased agricultural mechanization that ends rural lifestyles, to the constant food advertisements meant to change the way consumers view food, there is a strange lack of humanity in our food system.
However, in the midst of all of this, rises resistance and alternatives. There is a growing awareness of the unsustainability, both socially and environmentally, of our food system. From this awareness comes movements like food sovereignty or agroecological practices like permaculture. These movements are fairly new but may offer great potential solutions to revolutionize how we grow food.
What is Permaculture?
The Foundations of permaculture rest on these principles:
- the problem is the solution
- the yield is theoretically unlimited
- work with nature not against
- everything gardens
- least change for the greatest effect
What is Food Sovereignty?
“Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems…Food sovereignty implies new social relations free of oppression and inequality between men and women, peoples, racial groups, social classes and generations” - La Via Campesina
How Will Permaculture Create Food Sovereignty?
Permaculture is a sustainable design method that copies systems found in nature. It looks at the whole system and creates a design in which each part of the system contributes to the long term sustainability of the whole. It is meant to be a closed-loop system and self-sustaining once implemented that contributes to rather than destroys the surrounding environment and society. It utilizes crop rotation, polyculture, integrated water management, and perennial crops to create such a system.
It is a method that returns control of resources to communities and breaks dependency on external resources, which are key factors in food sovereignty.
I'm a big fan of permaculture and I also believe it's a movement that will keep growing in the future. When I lived in France I used to dream of having my own permaculture garden but had to make do with my balcony, one day I'll make my own permaculture garden though :)
Here's a very interesting documentary about how Cuba applied permaculture principles to deal with their oil crisis following the collapse of the Soviet Union:
Another good starting point for more information about permaculture is any of the books by Bill Mollison, considered the "father" of permaculture.
hi @witness.svk, please check my latest post out. I wrote it to you and the other whales. Maybe you will agree with it :)
https://steemit.com/steemit/@steemitpolitics/6rqxnc-to-the-whales-get-your-head-out-of-your-ass-and-vote-good-content-up-you-are-harming-steemit
IM ALL FOR THIS !
you possess global management theory?
Awesome! Good luck with your future permaculture garden :-)
Thanks for sharing the resources, Im looking forward to watching the documentary, also great great book by Mollison
You are right on. Here on The Big Island of Hawaii most locals grow there own organic food and sell the excess at the farmer's markets. Its awesome being where the growing season is all year long.
How can we speed this Process?
This is something I've been wanting to learn more about, as I become more aware of what I am eating and where it comes from. I had been seeing the term "permaculture" around here, but had no clue what it meant! Now I'm a little better educated, thanks! Next quest, to figure out what polyculture is!
If you like to understand more of the problems in our food system and want to know more about permaculture, this are great movies to start with. (If someone have a steemit link, let me know please)
(farm of the future)( film soil is a living organism)
(back to Eden, a bit religious and long, but a great movie)
Im glad that you found it informative! Polyculture is a type of permaculture that plants multiple crops together (and sometimes involves multiple farm animals), versus monoculture of having large fields with just one crop.
Ok got it; thanks for your answer!
I hope people learn to really care about what they eat.
I hope so too, it's such a big part of our lives and the planet!
I agree food sovereignty is incredibly important...
It would be great to bring back homesteading rights on public land so more people can create permaculture farms and be self-sufficient.
BTW How do you think technology fits in? It seems to me that oftentimes technology runs counter to nature. It's especially true with big agribusinesses that use big tractors and artificial seeds. On the other hand maybe there is potential for a lot of tech innovation in small scale farming. At the very least technologies that can help growers leverage best practices/info/knowledge, esp. holistically, would seem to be important...
Great question! I think that there is a false binary between technology and nature. I dont think that technology inherently goes against permaculture, but rather governments and agribusinesses have exploited and monopolized technology for their own benefit.
Good to hear. Hopefully we'll see more advanced small scale farming tech soon...every once in a while I see aquaponic/hydroponic products, but haven't kept up. I do like seeing low tech methods as well...
I started following you immediately, this is a great post and close to my own vision.
Let me suggest a Permaculture project I'm trying to crowdfound here on Steemit https://steemit.com/politics/@anwenbaumeister/why-i-believe-that-permaculture-can-save-our-food-system-and-foster-food-sovereignty-#@witness.svk/re-anwenbaumeister-why-i-believe-that-permaculture-can-save-our-food-system-and-foster-food-sovereignty--20160621t051405243z
I would really appreciate your feedback on this.
Cheers!
Thank you for sharing this. I am currently designing my own permaculture project in rural Minas Gerais, Brazil and hope to post about this soon!
Where in Minas Gerais are you? Estou morando em Paraty fazendo um doutorado sobre as PANCs, mas estou conhecendo bastante a cena de agroecologia e permacultura etc., é muito bacana.
Hey Kate! I´ve just seen your profile, so will respond in English if that is OK.
First of all, PANCs - Way to go! Excellent about the Doctorate and that you are doing it in wonderful Brazil.
We are near a very small and mystic town called São Thomé das Letras. It´s north of Paraty at the end of the Serra de mantiqueira and is known to have a bit of a hippy following. Sadly, it´s also on the old Estrada Real, which you probably know was the slave route from Paraty up to Diamantina.
Anyway, with our immediate neighbours, we are trying to live on the land along permaculture principles and losely form an eco-villa.
If you would be interesting in volunteering, that would be wonderful. If not, just come and visit!
Great! Yes I have heard of São Thomé das Letras. I sort of need to focus on writing now and basically be a boring recluse until I hand in my PhD, but I really want to come back to Brazil next year when I will be gloriously free from annoying commitments looming above my head and maybe spend some time at various projects. In which case that could maybe be awesome to visit and volunteer and see what you are up to!
I am featuring this post on an article I am doing today, if you are interested it is called "Three Pillars of Enlightenment." I am a permaculture designer, working on getting our place transformed. Thank you so much for this EXCELLENT post!
@anwenbaumeister Great write up! Love to see Permaculture info here on Steem. I am new to steem but have been in the permaculture world for a while. We have a farm, Atitlan Organics, on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. I am going to start becoming more active here on steem and looking to connect to the permaculture community. Looking forward to more quality posts from you and other permie folks. Cheers for now.