ANother thing occurred to me at my 3:00 am hour of insomnia that I see a lot in environmentalists going about this the wrong way. Many times their focus is to get us to get our governments to organize and enact change. The problem being that our governments, unless you're in the "right" part of the country, New York, California, Oregon, or (a surprise to me!) Montana aren't moving fast enough. I see a lot of individual effort in Kansas City, but our city council tried to outlaw front lawn vegetable gardens. As if!
Most governments are either ignorant of permaculture, or they move too slowly to make appreciable change. Corporations on the other hand have the ability to move quickly and concisely, if they see a dollar soon enough at the end of their action. I'm sorry, from reading the permie forums, I don't see a lot of money happening right away. And not that making money at this isn't a fine goal, but there's a certain point of expansion in which your business stops being profitable for everyone, including the planet, and starts being a hinderance to everyone except you. So, I think, hoping to enlist some corporate god to spread this is catching a tiger by the tail.
The thing I like about homesteading and permaculture in general is the "rugged individualism" aspect of the whole thing. If I want something, I can set myself up to make it on my own, without having to rely on some else's work to get it. I also live in fear of when governments finally do get it together, and come up with some "one fits all plan" to try and help solve problems like climate change, colony collapse disorder, or complications stemming from GM crops. Generally those kinds of plans don't have the subtlety necessary to actually fix issues and a whole new slew of problems arise.
So, my point is that we need to be encouraging people to take ownership of the problem themselves. I have a neighbor, who is constantly trying to mow my lawn, he's even scalped parts of it a couple of time in the spirit of "being helpful". He is actually the landlord of the property next door to mine, so he's not around to see me in the yard everyday, knocking out spent dandelion stems, picking the mullein and wildflowers, collecting seed, and gingerly mowing around patches of clover. He doesn't see me going next door to mow the neighbor's lawn for their mulch. Point being, he is so used to what I call "sidewalk" lawns that it didn't occur to him that I have a purpose. I mean, he's a gardener and he took out some potato plants that I had. But because we as a society turn staying in between the lines into a fine art, he just chugs along in that line, not thinking that he has options.
In fact, most people don't realize they have options. That they don't have to live in HOA communities, or if they do, then they can form successful arguments against bans on dandelions, clover, wild violets, creeping charlie, mock strawberries. Or even growing corn in your front yard. I read somewhere that a person didn't need their neighbors seeing them flinging dandelion seed around, so they only did it in their back yard. Why shouldn't they see you? Dandelions are delicious, pretty, useful plants. Also, dandelions only grow in my front yard, so that's where they will stay feeding bees, butterflies, the ground and my family.
We have to appeal directly to people's needs in order for them to get on board. Talk about their dinner plates, talk about their water bills, talk about their electric bills, talk about their gas tanks, talk about the medication they take and the health care they get, about the clothes they wear, talk about how burning through natural resources is the real threat to their children's future, not some political plan cooked up by the jokers in the capital. All of these things are directly impacted by how we live on the planet. Then, give them a tomato plant, a couple of onion starts, and a cilantro plant in a self-watering pot, and tell to make salsa.
We need to stop waiting for some shining politician on his white horse to come down and save them. WE are the white knights that need to be doing the saving, and then teaching our neighbors to save others. If things don't work out, it's nobody's fault but our own.
