Ed Dowding

Design to an ideology and it will fail. Design for people and it will thrive.

It seems this list can bring wisdom and insight to pretty much everything we do.

Apart from the more specific ones (like ‘keep water high on the land’, but maybe just try to metaphor these as taoist haikus to trigger bewildering insights.)

• Relative Location Components placed in a system are viewed relatively, not in isolation. Functional Relationship between components.
• Everything is connected to everything else. Recognise functional relationships between elements.
• Every function is supported by many elements – Redundancy Good design ensures that all important functions can withstand the failure of one or more element.
• Every element is supported by many functions Each element we include is a system, chosen and placed so that it performs as many functions as possible.
• Local Focus “Think globally – Act locally” Grow your own food, cooperate with neighbours. Community efficiency not self-sufficiency.
• Diversity As a general rule, as sustainable systems mature they become increasingly diverse in both space and time. What is important is the complexity of the functional relationships that exist between elements not the number of elements.
• Biological Resources We know living things reproduce and build up their availability over time, assisted by their interaction with other compatible elements. Use and reserve biological intelligence.
• One Calorie In/One Calorie Out Do not consume or export more biomass than carbon fixed by the solar budget.
• Stocking Finding the balance of various elements to keep one from overpowering another over time. How much of an element needs to be produced in order to fulfil the need of whole system?
• Stacking Multi-level functions for single element (stacking functions). Multi-level garden design, ie., trellising, forest garden, vines, ground covers, etc.
• Succession Recognise that certain elements prepare the way for system to supports other elements in the future, i.e.: succession planting.
• Use Onsite Resources Determine what resources are available and entering the system on their own and maximise their use.
• Edge Effect Ecotones are the most diverse and fertile area in a system. Two ecosystems come together to form a third which has more diversity than either of the other two, i.e.: edges of ponds, forests, meadows, currents etc.
• Energy Recycling Yields from system designed to supply onsite needs and/or needs of local region.
• Small Scale Intensive Systems start small and create a system that is manageable and produces a high yield.
• Make Least Change for the Greatest Effect The less change that is generated, the less embedded energy is used to endow the system.
• Planting Strategy 1st-natives, 2nd-proven exotics, 3rd unproven exotics – carefully on small scale with lots of observation.
• Work Within Nature Aiding the natural cycles results in higher yield and less work. A little support goes along way.
• Appropriate Technology The same principles apply to cooking, lighting, transportation, heating, sewage treatment, water and other utilities.
• Law of Return Whatever we take, we must return Every object must responsibly provide for its replacement.
• Stress and Harmony Stress here may be defined as either prevention of natural function, or of forced function. Harmony may be defined as the integration of chosen and natural functions, and the easy supply of essential needs.
• The Problem is the solution We are the problem, we are the solution. Turn constraints into resources
• Mistakes are tools for learning
• The yield of a system is theoretically unlimited The only limit on the number of uses of a resource possible is the limit of information and imagination of designer.
• Dispersal of Yield Over Time Principal of seven generations. We can use energy to construct these systems, providing that in their lifetime, they store or conserve more energy that we use to construct them or to maintain them.
• A Policy of Responsibility (to relinquish power) The role of successful design is to create a self-managed system.
• Principle of Disorder Order and harmony produce energy for other uses. Disorder consumes energy to no useful end. Tidiness is maintained disorder.
• Chaos Has form, but is not predictable. The amplification of small fluctuations.
• Entropy In complex systems disorder is an increasing result. Entropy and lifeforce are a stable pair that maintain the universe to infinity.
• Metastability For a complex system to remain stable, there must be small pockets of disorder.
• Entelechy Principal of genetic intelligence. i.e. The rose has thorns to protect itself.
• Observation Protracted & thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor.
• We are surrounded by insurmountable opportunities
• Wait one year
• Hold water and fertility as high (in elevation) on the landscape as possible
• The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children.
• Cooperation, not competition, is the very basis of future survival and of existing life systems.

http://www.thefarm.org/permaculture/

The current system is unsustainable. It is undemocratic and unjust. We need alternatives; this is where we work towards them.What is needed is a democratic alternative to the political-state system. This alternative must be built by people’s assemblies across the country, to facilitate a new constitution guaranteeing:

• full social and political participation
• a new and popular democratic sovereignty
• a common, structured political economy that delivers social equality and wellbeing for all

It is proposed this insertion be linked to a call for the formation of people’s assemblies in neighbourhoods, workplaces and education establishments across the country, and for a day of action in  support.

via Real democracy is rising on the horizon at Occupy London

Personally I really like the sound of liquid democracy since it seems to have a lot of the biomimicry about about, and take account of some pretty fundamental human behaviours.

1. It’s too expensive (and I’ve got a family to feed.)

There are two separate issues here:

1. Is it too expensive – or does your regular shop charge too much for it?
2. Is it too expensive – or is the other food too cheap? (Or more to the point: are you just paying the extra expense in other ways?)

a) Your regular shop charges too much for it.

If you buy organic food in a supermarket it may very well be more expensive – but that’s because LOTS of things are more expensive in supermarkets: they just lure us in with the illusion of value. (And they’re good at it, too: that’s why the competition commission has to keep on slapping them down for doing things like raising prices to make the subsequent price cut more dramatic.)

If you shop at a local market, not only can you save about 50%, but you stay healthier by eating only fresh and seasonal food, have much less packaging to waste and feel terrible about throwing away, often find other good bargains, and most importantly you invest in your local community - £10 spent in your local market is worth £25 to the local economy, whereas £10 spent in a supermarket is worth only £14, because most of it zips away to head office to pay for TV adverts and expensive cars.

b) Other food is HUGELY subsidised, making it seem cheaper.

Subsidies work out at about 40 pence in every pound spent on food. Organic farmers, who don’t consume as much subsidy because they don’t use such high-input-cost methods and don’t try to maximise subsidy income, cost about 25 pence in every pound.

We are currently taxed £5.3 billion every year to subsidise current industrial farming methods (£3bn to farmers, £2.3bn on pollution cleanup). It’s been calculated that if we spend £1.2 billion every year for the next five years, all UK farms could convert to organic*.

That would mean we save £20 billion pounds in 5 years – about the same as we spend on education each year – and then free up another £5.3bn / year to invest in renewable energy. Huge.

* To be fair, I’ve not been able to corroborate that statement, but the numbers aren’t so important so long as they tend to zero, and end up delivering a system which requires less subsidy than the cost of conversion, which seems likely, especially with the ever rising cost of oil.

One definite bit of research though: In 2001 the UK pesticide market was worth about £500m per year. The cost of removing these from drinking water was £120m. That’s madness. And that’s before we even get on to the cancer rates, skin diseases, biodiversity loss, and so on.

2. It’s not any tastier.

It’s not supposed to be tastier. It’s supposed to be, and is, better.More nutrituous,

3. It’s weirdly shaped and got spots on.

Hey, cut your food some slack! That described you, once, too, and you turned out to be pretty tasty.

4. I’m concerned about animal welfare, not pesticide use.

Excellent! You probably look for the Freedom Food label, go free range, and only eat meat once or twice a week. You are wonderful! Did you know, though, that the Organic Certification includes animal welfare standards?

5. I buy local instead.

Ah, now that is interesting. Which is more important? Sustainable communities with local employment, or organic farming? Well you’re probably not going to get good organic farming without the people there to do it, so ensuring you’re buying local to keep that going is massively important. But then so is the health of your local environment. If you’re interested in local livelihoods, soils, jobs, high employment, roi,