Italian Party with a Permaculture Twist

Hi everybody.
Don't know if you have had a look lately to Italian politics. If not, I can't blame you.
Anyway, as Italian I would like to know from permies around: How would you feel if a party led by an ex-comedian (a kind of Lenny Bruce with a pesto flavour around him) would became the first national party talking, between a lot of diverse rants, about permaculture?
Mind you, I'm not fond of political parties so I can't be objective on the subject.
Please... give me a feedback from abroad (and, by the look of Italian political scene, maybe, a ticket to came to see you)

God life to everybody!
Nicola

I can only speak for myself, but the only awareness of Italian politics I have is the funny stories we
hear about this Burlusconi guy.

But here in the USA, we have more than our fair share of strange characters in our political system.

So, who is the permaculture politician you speak of?

Ciao!

His name is Beppe Grillo. As I said, he is a former comidian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/25/beppe-grillo-italy-election-success
His party is called 'Movimento 5 stelle" (five star movement). They got some pretty ideas about direct democracy, ecology, downshift etc... but they use to shout to much and, it seems to me, that they are a little populists and demagogues... but, as I said, I like more peoples than political parties even if they are made by people.
The thing is, knowing italian ability to surf every mindbubbling theory that keep ourself out of direct responsability, it's quite disturbing, for me, to hear about permaculture in political speeches... anyway... a lot of italian permies would disagree... they voted for 'Movimento 5 stelle'

Ciao!

Hi Nicola,
Has beppe grillo actually mentioned permaculture anywhere?

That hasn't hit my radar, although I'm following the recent developments. Really a wild ride in the past few days, huh?

Best,
William

Hi William,
Here is a video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU4HnunxOHw&feature=endscreen he talks about permaculture at 26:17
and there are some posts on his blog.
I think it could be a good thing to go mainstream with permaculture even if I'm not totally happy about the 'roadmap'. The risk is just to have another Green Businness...
But, maybe, I'm just pessimistic

Ciao

Well, that's good. I really didn't have thought he would have mentioned it.

Permaculture can be a green business model, or it can be a hippy paradise. If you look at what is being done and who is being nurtured and to what extent, you get an idea of how 'good' it is regardless of where it's coming from ideologically or economically. Nature will decide who is right or wrong just by being healthy or not.

As for permaculture informing a sort of 'piano agricolo' or 'farm bill' in Italy, that would be great. Unfortunately a lot of farm stuff depends on european laws (piano agricolo comunitario - PAC) and would potentially hold back any movement in that direction.

I think their first order of business is to clean up the parliament, which has been in gridlock for the past few years at least. We'll see how that goes.
Inserting permaculture probably is an idea that will naturally have to wait.

William

He seems pretty passionate about permaculture and sustainable agriculture practices in general.

It's good he is getting the idea in front of people, though I see permaculture as a people's movement, and not something that
could be necessarily legislated through government.

Better legislation could help remove some of the obstacles that permaculturalists find when trying to do things against the grain but potentially better for the earth, so it's not entirely useless. The problem is that things rarely seem to go our way, so we give up. We'll see if M5S and Beppe Grillo can change that.

William