I’ve known for some time that the mode of operations that humans have embarked on for a few hundred years has been really rough on the natural world. I’ve known since before I had words to put to it. There are many people who still argue, even though climate chaos is becoming more and more apparent, that humans aren’t a problem and that the climate of earth isn’t static but has changed throughout geologic history. They aren’t wrong, necessarily, but those people can’t see the complexity in the problem. They can’t see that the drought and the flood and the fire are all one in the same.
There is little doubt that things are changing. The evidence is beginning to press down upon communities in the US where we have had, and in some ways still have, a type of insulation of affluence from the impacts of climate extremes. We’re a big enough landmass that many of the natural disasters that befall our fellow citizens never reach the bulk of the population, and most definitely they never effect all of us at once. Those of us paying attention though, we feel it. Those of us who have been immersed in permaculture for a while know that this late in the game, although we could have invested in jobs revolving around restoration of ecology for the past 60 years as a matter of national security, our collective actions will now have to be based on cleaning up the mess and hoping that regulatory bodies get out of the way for rebuilding communities that can withstand the bulk of the potential force of an unstable climate. We know there are solutions, they are community scale solutions, for creating resilience. We are seeing them work in places that have been desertified for so long that the people living in those places can’t remember when the landscape wasn’t a barren wasteland, when they accidentally stopped the rain. Those solutions are widely adaptable and highly effective, but here it’s business as usual. We are screaming the solutions. We feel like they are falling on deaf ears. I feel like they are falling on deaf ears.
No doubt we’ve made mistakes. Unlimited growth as a goal for humanity has not been kind to planetary systems. We have managed to disturb every cycle on the globe from the water cycle, to the salt cycle…yep, there’s a salt cycle. If we could get to the bottom of the ocean easily, we’d disturb those cycles too. We are like perpetual toddlers who still haven’t learned to have any self control.
All of this is very daunting. As a human that is currently feeling like a grain of sand blown from dune to dune I know there is little that I can do to influence the full scale of our problems. It’s easy to fall into despair and even depression. Where do we go?
We have to begin to reframe our focus. Focus on what we can influence in our homes, in our communities, with our neighbors, with our friends, with our local government. This is why I teach. Giving instruction, helping people gain skills, this is within my locus of control. Focusing on my community, this is within my locus of control. Making sure that all the animals that live with me are cared for, that is within my locus of control. Sometimes, in order to not feel crushed by all that is happening in the world, we need to shift our attention closer to home, to the actions and steps we can take.
A systems design science whereby regenerative actions are taken to build human habitat within a natural context rather than opposed to it.
Peregrination [ per-i-gruh–ney-shuhn ] noun
travel from one place to another, especially on foot.
a course of travel; journey.
I am longing for spring. This winter has been long and cold. To be fair winters are generally cold in Colorado, but we are lucky, the cold spells usually give way to sunny days in between where, even when the temperature is in the 30’s, the sun helps to make it feel much warmer. This winter though seems not to have gotten that memo.
In my desire for spring I have been thinking about seeds, perfect little packets of life just waiting for the right conditions to express their potential. Over time I have become a bit of a seed horde, buying or trading more than I can realistically plant out each year. There was a time when I didn’t worry about the seeds I was planting; before I learned about seed lobbying, and trademarks, and patents, and hybridization.
I recent years I have learned more and more about how the future of our food is in danger of being controlled by large corporations. The American Seed Trade Alliance (ASTA), established in 1883, has around 650 members who believe in company controlled seeds for profit. A look at their strategic goals shows that they want to influence policy at local, state and federal levels, and advance the use and respect of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection for the seed sector globally. These companies restrict the use and distribution of both genetically modified patented seeds as well as seed they have bred that falls under Plant Variety Protection laws. I genuinely don’t believe any of the people in these companies are evil or bad. I believe they think that using science for seed development and utilizing their legal right to intellectual property for that seed is the way forward, that it fosters innovation, but I fear they don’t have the imagination for unintended outcomes. This industry is all based on the green revolution mentality of the need to feed the whole world. A consequence of the industrial revolution is that we have sought to make everything at scale to take care of the world. A consequence of scaling and allowing large or mega corporations to supply all our needs is that food, energy, education, communication, healthcare, and entertainment are now no longer perceived as achievable on a local community scale. This includes the growing, harvesting, saving, trading, and then regrowing of seeds from the plants that make up our diets.
Scale is a dangerous design paradigm.
Lucky for us there have been people who understand the importance of seed to every earthly being. While some companies have been trying to make seed less accessible by creating paywalls for every step of a seeds lifecycle, groups of individuals and small organizations have been working to ensure the rights of people to grow, harvest, save, trade, and regrow seed.
When we choose to buy, barter, trade and grow seeds that are heirloom and open pollinated, then save those seeds to plant the following season we are not only actively providing sustenance for ourselves and our communities we are expressing our desire for food independence and allowing the sovereignty of seed. So what exactly is seed sovereignty?
Seed Sovereignty is the right of a grower or farmer to save, use, trade or sell their own seeds. It applies for every seed we grow and collect. The grower or famer passes seed on to others with no restrictions for the end user to save, use, trade or sell. Due to the ASTA and companies trying to control all facets of seed, and therefore food, the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) was born. Inspired by the open source software movement OSSI was created to ensure that some seed genetics do not ever fall under large corporate control. Seed distributors that take the OSSI pledge pass open source seed on with the pledge. It is like a grassroots type of contract. The pledge reads:
You have the freedom to use these OSSI- Pledged seeds in any way you choose. In return, you pledge not to restrict others’ use of these seeds or their derivatives by patents or other means, and to include this Pledge with any transfer of these seeds or their derivatives.
This type of grassroots effort has been spreading, with new organizations being formed in countries all over the world. Participation in these efforts is paramount. So how do we, gardeners, growers, farmers of all sizes participate?
Buy seed from smaller seed suppliers who hold value in our human right to save, use, trade and sell seeds without restriction
Save seed from the plants you have grown to maturity. Keep some seed for yourself and share some with friends, neighbors, and at seed swaps.
Talk to the people in your life who are growers about the importance of buying seeds that have no patents, intellectual property restrictions, or protections.
Buy open pollinated seed rather than hybrid seed.
This last one is a tricky one. There are many reputable seed companies that sell hybrid seed (the result of crossing two varieties of the same species through pollination) developed for disease resistance, added vigor, or desirable qualities. The result of hybridization is that the seed cannot be saved and regrown. The plants that are grown from fruit of hybrid seed can be unpredictable. It frequently fails to take on the characteristics from the parent plant producing sometimes unrecognizable offspring. When you find a hybrid type you like you must return to the seed purveyor yearly to purchase seed. There are generally no restrictions placed on the seed as the developer knows that the subsequent seed is unpredictable.
Hybridization to create plants that are disease resistant, vigorous, and have desirable qualities can be bypassed. Humans domesticated plants through selection. We selected seed based on flavor, vigor and which types survived the best. We spread the seed from these plants with intention. With each iteration of collecting and spreading the seeds we chose the characteristics that made plants more desirable. When the USDA was established in 1862 one third of their yearly budget was designated for seed distribution. Through the free seed program seed was acquired by growers and grown in various bioregions. The seed was saved for planting the next year and each subsequent year as long as it was successful. This created bioregionally stable seed. When we save seed this way it is called a landrace.
A landrace is a plant or animal that has been developed by selecting stable offspring over time to be suited to a specific area. This means a cherry tomato, grown at a high altitude over several seasons and selected for the best food and plant traits, becomes accustomed to and will perform better at a high altitude than buying seed for the same cherry tomato type that was grown over several seasons at a lower altitude and selected for different traits. We end up with plants that are healthier in our context, regionally adapted and likely to perform under the strains our specific environment presents. Landrace development makes community food systems stronger. It allows us to have more reliable seed that grows into reliable plants with reliable harvests. When we share our landrace seeds with each other we strengthen our community food shed by ensuring that the types of seed our friends and neighbors are growing are well suited to where we live.
We can also improve our own crops this way.
Wind or insect pollinated plants can become stronger or weaker depending on what is planted within the pollination zone. Inferior plants can spread their genetics to the crops we save seed from. When we share seed from our landrace of strong, disease resistant, great tasting fruits and vegetables within the pollination zone we benefit by having the opportunity of pollination from strong healthy plants. Landrace development also lends to genetic diversity. A landrace in my garden, although it may be of the same named variety, will have differing genetics than a commercial seed. This means that if an issue arises, such as disease susceptibility in the variety, my landrace may not be affected. Highly commercial types of seed are genetically the same and can suffer globally if there is an issue causing famine similar to how blight created the Irish potato famine.
There are other ways that landraces strengthen our communities.
When we share seeds we develop relationships. We may not know our neighbors, but sharing is an easy way to say “Hi, I thought you might like to try these out. They have done really well for me.” Other than some time in growing and harvesting there is nothing to lose and plants are generous in their giving of seed. Sharing seeds that are built on a foundation of strength and health transfers health to those who consume the plants that grow from our well intentioned seeds. Plants grown from seeds with excellent genetics, in living soil, have more phytonutrients. They taste better which makes humans want to eat them more. They help our livestock in the same ways, which in turn benefits us.
So, are you interested in developing a landrace of your own?
If you already have a variety of fruit or vegetable that you love and grow every year you are already taking one step toward landrace development. Landraces require several plants of the same variety to be grown and allowed to produce seed. Select seed from the plants that have the highest vigor, show disease resistance, and are the best tasting. Plant the seed you saved the next season. Again, select seeds from the plants that meet your criteria, and repeat. Around the 7th generation you will have plants that are adapted to your bioregion. Some traits to select for are:
Cold tolerance
Heat tolerance
Disease resistance
Flavor
Vigor
High yields
Drought tolerance
Recovery from damage
Germination time and rate
Once you have your landrace share your seeds! Help to strengthen your community food shed.
A systems design science whereby regenerative actions are taken to build human habitat within a natural context rather than opposed to it.
Peregrination [ per-i-gruh–ney-shuhn ] noun
travel from one place to another, especially on foot.
a course of travel; journey.
I hear it all the time, whenever an event happens that appears to be driven by more chaotic, less predictable weather. People shrug their shoulders and repeat the words………Climate Change. Now whether you agree or not that humans are a catalyst for the climate chaos we are beginning to see more and more frequently, there is no denying that weather related events are occurring more rapidly and more severely. We have written records of pattern to back it up. Wildfires burning hotter and faster through forests and the bush. Atmospheric rivers dumping historic rainfalls…..every year. Hurricanes that are stronger and extending their expected season. Tornadoes making landfall as larger, more powerful systems and staying grounded longer before dissipating. Longer dry periods between rain in the drylands. Deluges of rain cresting river banks and dams. Sea ice melting earlier and earlier in the summer.
More and more of these events displacing people with the destruction they are causing.
And still…..
We’ve been warned that if we don’t change the way we operate these are the things that will happen. Not exactly these things. First it was ‘global warming’ where we were warned that the greenhouse effect would create warmer overall temperatures which would melt sea ice and make sea level rise. It would warm and we would see more drought. Some people cheered for shorter warmer Northern winters, I heard them.
Folks jeered at the idea of an overall warmer climate. “Look”, they said “this is one of the coldest winters we have ever experienced.” in reference to one of the now well known polar vortex weather events that is becoming a normal phenomena. These occurrences are so foreign that we have to make up new names for them as we go. Polar vortex. Bomb Cyclone. Atmospheric River. Megadrought. Then there are the terms we already had but have dusted the dictionary off for. Derecho. Haboob.
With these events came a new term, Climate Change. This seems to be more inclusive terminology. It no longer suggests that we will only experience warming of the planet, but that things will change, are changing. And we are not keeping up with the change. Not with our policy. Not with our actions. In fact, now, it’s climate change as an excuse. An excuse to sit idle and do nothing, as if the situation we are in now is completely out of our hands. We, as a species, will sit idly by while the world crumbles down around us; we will shrug our shoulders and proclaim “Climate Change!”. Collectively we have sadness when we see the destruction of yet another storm that blows through our environment, we wonder who will foot the bill, and we sit idle. In just a few days we will be back to business as usual buying out of season vegetables at Walmart that were flown by plane from places around the globe to big warehouses, then trucked from the big warehouses to the oodles of chain stores where we obtain the tasteless, and nutritionally deficit, foods that were bred to look exactly the same and to hold up to being shipped around the world. We think we are doing ourselves a favor buying “fresh” vegetables, but we never take into account the embodied cost to get “fresh” tomatoes in January. How much CO2, NO2, methane, N2O and H2O were released into the atmosphere for that tomato to be sitting at the store waiting to be purchased? How much nitrification of a fresh water source occurred? We aren’t only in a carbon dioxide crises, our practices release many tons of other greenhouse gasses and chemicals as well.
And still…..
We lack initiative to live our lives differently, to make different choices, to hold companies and governments accountable for their actions and inaction. How many extreme events need to impact our lives personally for us to become catalysts for the changes needed to slow the melting of the ice caps, to create economy around planetary regeneration, to hold those who will do the literal dirty work in the highest esteem?
We have the ability to be a force for good… for regeneration. We can be good stewards of our home. We just have to start.
Stop spraying chemicals in your yard or garden including synthetic fertilizers. Let the bugs and snakes and spiders live. Learn how to grow soil. Take on an HOA board position in your community and get bylaws changed to stop the requirement for a turf lawn.
Find your local permaculture organization and show up. Attend meetings and events, take a PDC, be part of the community. If there isn’t a local organization pull some folks together and start one.
Look into Ecosystem Restoration Camps. Start one or join one.
A systems design science whereby regenerative actions are taken to build human habitat within a natural context rather than opposed to it.
Peregrination [ per-i-gruh–ney-shuhn ] noun
travel from one place to another, especially on foot.
a course of travel; journey.
Here in the American west summer has become synonymous with wild fire. Places where fires were relatively rare and small events now experience fires that char tens of thousands of acres and fill the atmosphere with haze over many states. The landscape becomes a barren scene, foreign to those who lived there pre fire. These fires are burning hotter and moving faster than they did in the past. The heat moving ahead of the flames can create combustion before the fire ever reaches the next place. This is mostly possible due to our mismanagement of forests.
Our mismanagement goes back to the advent of Smoky the Bear.
When we decided all fire is bad fire we set ourselves up for exactly this circumstance.
There are forests, and especially specific species of trees, that require fire. These trees actually have a mineral makeup that attracts lightning. Fire is needed in order to “clean up” the forest floor to make space for seeds to germinate. Fire also signals those seeds that it is time to sprout. Ground fires burn the small and weak trees and only allow the largest and healthiest to continue to stand. These fires have tended to be slow moving “cold” fires because the forests were healthy ecosystems with a high diversity of plants among the trees. High plant diversity makes healthy soils, healthy soils make healthy plants, healthy plants make more healthy soil, healthy soil holds massive quantities of water. It’s a symbiotic relationship that is so complex we will never understand the intricacies of how it really works.
I don’t suppose we need to understand it we just need to be able to respect it and not destroy it.
What we have done by stopping fire altogether is that we have allowed trees to crowd together blocking the sun from hitting the forest floor. In addition the forest litter has built up to smother out the understory plants that contribute to feeding the microbiome in the soil. The soil microbiome hates monoculture and favors diversity. It begins to compete for resources and makes the trees weak. The trees become susceptible to insect attacks and diseases, which in turn makes tinder for fires that burn hot and fast and are completely destructive. Now the trees are gone. Now there is no wind break or buffer. This gives the perception of it being MORE windy when actually the wind has always been just the way it is, it was just buffered. Without the forest the wind has a drying effect. Rain that falls washes away the parched soil because there are no plants, no roots, and no soil microbiome to catch it and hold the water to soak it in. In these circumstances we have just inadvertently created the perfect conditions for flash flooding.
Fire is one way nature works, setting back succession to the beginning. Once a forest is gone the landscape returns to grassland for a time (geologically speaking this can be hundreds or thousands of years) to begin the process of rebuilding the soil microbiome. From grasslands we move into savanna, and then into new growth forest, then into old growth forest. Each time the area can be completely different than previously. Knowing this we can take steps to help it along so that the new grasslands (usually ‘weeds’ first) can begin to hold water sooner than what would happen in a natural succession. Holding water is one of the ways we can help build the microbiome of the soil to get to the next step of succession.
Human planted forest so far doesn’t work well because we tend to think of forests as single species and therefore plant it into single species. This will always create a problem that nature will ultimately resolve, usually in seemingly harsh ways, like more and hotter fires. If we can learn to support the growth of hundreds of species within a forest we will be successful at replanting.
An important aspect is to have a hydrated landscape. In a hydrated landscape, whether it is forested or it is grassland/prairie we have more opportunities for hydration. The hydration on the prairie contributes to the hydration of the forest, the hydration of the forest contributes to the hydration of the prairie. The wind is the vector for carrying that hydration to both and the microbiology is the condensation nuclei that organizes water droplets into rain. Bottom line, we can mitigate the effects of forest fire. We can grow the biology and plant consciously into new forest. We can build better management practices that include selective clearing of understory growth for the benefit of the people and the benefit of the forest and in years where we have good landscape hydration we can have intentional fire to clear what needs to be cleared. And…..we need to consult with and adhere to indigenous practices of land care on a broad scale if we want to fix the mistakes we have made over the last hundred and fifty years.
A systems design science whereby regenerative actions are taken to build human habitat within a natural context rather than opposed to it.
Peregrination [ per-i-gruh–ney-shuhn ] noun
travel from one place to another, especially on foot.
a course of travel; journey.
I found permaculture late in 2013. It had been a challenging couple of years and this one wasn’t much different. There was never enough money, even though I was earning more than I ever had and maintaining a household with horses (my first love). The winter months were always hard. Then came the propane shortage. A tank of propane lasted a little under a month in my drafty mobile home and when the costs hit record highs I knew there had to be another way. I began to research ways to make heat efficiently, without the use of huge amounts of fossil fuels that also didn’t cost my entire paycheck every month.
During the research process I learned about thermal mass, and how heat can be stored, either by fire or sun, in materials that soak up the heat when it is applied over a period of time. Once the heat source is removed the retained heat is slowly released into the air space around the mass to achieve equilibrium or balancing of temperature between the mass and the air temperature. The effect of thermal mass can be felt during or after a very sunny hot day on cement or asphalt surfaces. Once the sun goes down these materials stay warm from absorbing the heat, releasing it slowly overnight. This creates a heat island effect in the paved environment (which is another conversation altogether). In a home it creates comfort on cold winter days.
In my research I found beautiful stoves from Europe that originated during what many refer to as the mini-ice age that spanned from the 1500’s to the 1700’s. These were frequently built to sleep on and used sticks gathered rather than logs. Humans had created a wood fuel shortage that required an adaptation to forestry called coppicing. Many coppiced trees are still in production today and are many hundreds of years old. The wood fuel from these trees are mere twigs when compared to the cordwood we tend to burn today.
I found clay tile stoves that had pieces that were painstakingly numbered and fit together with soft mortars so that they would be able to be disassembled and moved. These were generally smaller than many of the European models from earlier times.
I found rocket mass heaters that can be built by anyone willing to do some heavy lifting and get muddy. Utilizing cob (a mixture of sand, straw and clay) to sculpt around a long run of stovepipe to act as thermal mass, these stoves are quite interesting to behold. The fire in these stoves burns sideways into a convection chamber made with a 55 gallon steel drum where the volatile oils and ash are burned rather than released through the stovepipe and out into the atmosphere. These stoves are so efficient at burning everything that can burn and holding heat that you can touch the exit pipe without getting burned.
I began to wonder if it would be possible, somehow, to use thermal mass to heat my home. The short answer was ultimately no. Objects that have mass are very very heavy and special considerations need to be made when using them in a structure. It was time to move on to the next concept of free fuel/heat—-compost.
In the 1970’s there was a French forester named Jean Pain that needed to do something with all the materials that had been removed from the forest he was responsible for. Rather than burn the woody debris, which was customary, he started experimenting with composting. He eventually achieved 100% of his hot water and gas requirements by using shredded woodchips that surrounded a bio-digestor. The system he made was a huge compost pile comprised of only wood chips and water. Hose was carefully placed in layers in the pile that surrounded a tank full of water and organic material. The heat from the compost warmed the water in the hose that was run into his home to provide hot water and radiant heat. The tank in the middle was kept from freezing by the mass of the wood chips and provided cooking fuel via the activity of the anaerobic bacteria working to decompose the organic matter in the tank. After reading about Jean Pain I found another person doing something somewhat similar and providing all his families heat using compost and an inexpensive hoop house. I thought for sure I had found my answer…… alas, it wasn’t meant to be, but wait, what is this bio-digester thing. I found myself down another rabbit hole of research. I learned that useable gas is made by anaerobic bacteria. It can be used for cooking and fuel for driving as well as power. Why haven’t we done this on a large scale? This method is one that deals with manures as well as other organic matter and produces energy. There are some dairies that have installed biodigesters. All of their energy requirements are being met with biogas from cow manure.
During this time I also came across natural building. I learned that insulation is critical and one of the highest r-value materials to build with is straw. Whole houses are constructed using straw bales as walls. These homes are beautiful and can be built in a way that is efficient, reducing the need for heat inputs.
Eventually, with all this searching, Google made the connection for me. I had an ad put in front of me for this thing called permaculture. It took seeing this ad over and over before I started to look into permaculture. Once I did I felt like the answers to all the questions were wrapped up in this neat package that was just asking to be picked off a shelf and taken home to be unpacked. This was the start of my permaculture peregrination.
