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Summary
Paul, Katie and Opalyn get back together to continue their review of
Sepp Holzer’s
Desert or Paradise.
Holzer’s permaculture for the creation of ideal landscapes:
“To be a farmer is the best profession, as long as the farmer communicates and cooperates with nature. The farmstead of the future is a farmstead of diversity where plants, animals and humans thrive in harmony. Living foods are produced there, not just foodstuff, because a monoculture in food production neither supports economy nor ecology. The more diverse the food production, the larger and more diverse the yields and demand. The farmer maximises financial gain by offering unique products. This encourages a diverse agriculture which is good for nature and the wallet. Financial success is important because people can not live on the love of nature alone.” That last line is a good summary of Sepp’s philosophy, and everyone seems to like the concepts of living food and farmstead - that is a hybrid of for-profit farming and subsistence homesteading.
An offer to cooperate - trademark in the making
“We are working on our own brand of Holzer’s permaculture products at the moment. We are looking for farmers and producers interested in supporting this. The idea is to develop a standard for cultivation and marketing of organic, healthy food.” Paul made up one such higher standard in his book and called it “Vorp” for no good reason. Another good idea might be to use a numeric scale for varying degrees of goodness rather than the boolean scale of organic. Back in podcast 8, Paul basically suggested an independent organization be created to rate organizations based on the health of their food. For example: if McDonald’s was rated at 2.8 and Taco Bell 2.2, Taco Bell would be incentivised to improve the quality of its food to 2.9 so that it can advertise that it's healthier than McDonald’s. The situation would then flip into McDonalds’ court and they’d aim for 3.0 to compete. Repeat until both offer much healthier food.
Relevant Threads
Podcast 008 - Beyond Organic Innovation
Farm Income forum
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This podcast was made possible thanks to:
Dr. Hugh Gill Kultur
Eivind W. Bjørkavåg
Suleiman, Karrie, and Sasquatch
Kyle Neath
Bill Crim
anonymous
Kerry JustTooLazy
Jocelyn Campbell
Chris Sugg
Sasquatch
Bill Erickson
G Cooper
Dominic Crolius
havokeachday
Penny McLoughlin
Mehron Kugler
Julia Winter, world's slowest mosaic artist
Pasquale DeAngelis
Greg Martin
Mark
Sean Benedict
Rita Bliden
Dana Martin
Candace Dahlk
Keith Kuhnsman
Eric Tolbert
Matthew Stone
Nuno Marta
Polly Jayne Smyth
Opalyn Brenger
ellen fisher
Eliot Mason
Katie Young
Ivar Vasara
JMBlackwater226R
Nathan Hale
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