PERMACULTURE
EVALUATION
CENTRE
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55 Principle 3: Obtain A Yield
We need to recognise that the systems that tend to prevail are those that most effectively obtain a yield and use it to meet the needs of survival
57 Need to design systems and organise our lives to maximise the power of useful work from whatever we do.
Odum: how successful and persisting self organised systems maximise power to meet survival needs - list
58 There is a natural tendency to focus on the most important yield, particularly high yielding carbohydrate rich crops which give energy when consumed
59 Net energy gain from staples provided people with sustenance that allowed them to use other resources needed for other reasons
Hardy self reliant species are important in any low energy sustainable system especially those with a competitive advantage on poor soils, over fertility dependent species. Vigorous self reproducing plants are seldom allowed to flourish, but natural regeneration produces stronger, better adapted stock than planting does
61 Giving children exposure to food growing and harvesting leads to interest later in growing food
Permaculture design leads to regaining control over our own sustenance and to a realistic understanding of what it means to live with and from nature
62 People need to be educated out of the supermarket culture eg cook for yourself, use what’s in season
63 The scale of waste on farms is shocking eg discard undersized but edible produce
Guard against collecting discarded stiff for the sake of it – it has to be used effectively to really obtain a yield
64 Failure of financial accounting effectively to consider environmental and social costs has contributed to an undermining of faith in the value of numeracy. But the problem is what is being measured and what ignored. Measures of inputs and outputs are necessary to assess what’s really useful.
65 Ecological footprint/ EMERGY accounting method
66 Biomass: EMERGY yield rations for different fuels
67 Sometimes the most apparently productive and rich yielding sources of energy involve a lot of activity for little return, while longer term investments in naturally grown forests give a better yield. It may be better to rely on modest use of fossil fuels than to allocate fertile farmland to intensively managed annual or short rotation biomass fuel crops.
Voluntary frugality is preferable to real poverty resulting from a sense of no choice and constant self comparison with others in society
68 One disadvantage is that the accumulated knowledge cannot be applied beyond small scale self reliant systems. But capabilities developed can help to steer large scale economic systems towards better outcomes
‘Rebound’: design and behaviour changes resulting in energy and resource savings tend to be immediately spent or invested in other sections of the economy
Conventional measures of outcome mean that creative ethically driven people in large organisations tend to get co-opted and corrupted by the large scale forces within which they must work.
69 Possible solutions: success in meeting one environmental objective could lead to stimulation of other progressively more integrated low energy alternatives. Also a slight blip in sales of products from large scale systems can have a big effect. Consider buying second hand stuff.
Conclusion: replacement of inedible suburban landscapes hasn’t happened yet but the vision could be employed to transform dependent/ demanding consumers to interdependent / responsible producers. A global consensus about the reality of fossil fuel depletion and need for constructive change could emerge quickly. Permaculture is for those who already understand this and want to get on with it now.