Jamie Shepherd’s
Food Forestry for the Desert and Famine Belt Training Program
“plantations are not forests”
150 2nd Road, Chartwell, Fourways, Gauteng
P.O. Box 3567, Dainfern, 2055
Jamie: 081 448 4516 sms only email: foodforester@gmail.com
Permaculture Training Manager, Eco-hydrological Designer
Ash: 083 324 2434 email: ash@colourworks.co.za
Micro-environment Incubator, Storm Water Contour Artist
This program is a Permaculture Design Course with a difference.
What difference?
Well:
1. Bill Mollison set a precedent of delivering the permaculture design course over 12 consecutive days at a venue. This makes it very difficult for the vast majority of citizens to attend, which also makes organising such a PDC expensive. In terms of training and motivating participants there are advantages to getting a group of people together in the same place for 2 weeks. There are also advantages to guiding people through their own voyage of discovery and then getting them together to discuss what they have learned and to practice important practical skills.
The learning experience can go a whole lot deeper this way. I have been told that prophets are not trained in seminaries; they are trained in the wilderness. Prepare to encounter the real you; to run against yourself and to leave competition behind; to be transformed into a person who will make a difference. So just in case anyone feels that a PDC is supposed to be done the traditional way this is my own training system which covers the PDC syllabus and more in my own way.
2. PDC’s as I know them typically deliver inadequate training in eco-hydrology and the results show. A sound comprehension of eco-hydrological management is essential for authentically sustainable results in the desert and famine belt, in which South Africa is situated. This concurs with a much greater emphasis on listening to nature than on design.
3. Sustained community adoption: It doesn’t help to come up with a whole lot of viable practices if they are not going to go on being applied. This starts with you. Working on your own for much of the program may have its challenges; but it is these challenges that will mutate you into a vector of the bug; because you are going to have your own cognitions about the meaning of “permaculture” and that will light the spark in your heart; like this for example:
A Journey into Food Forests
By Ashley Lurie
A journey always begins with inspiration, inspiration to see or learn something new. Sometimes the journey itself is the lesson. As a child I was always fascinated by nature and how such a complex system just managed to flourish with no effort at all! Being human I felt that my input into a natural system could improve or control it somehow. Much to my dismay I found that with all my best intentions and efforts nature just didn't seem to want my help! This “mysterious” nature always managed to do what it wanted and so my reaction was that I just needed more knowledge and understanding in order to control the system.
With time came experience and a new wisdom that I had learnt not at school or from my parents but from within me. I had come to a point in my life (a “midlife-crisis” or an awakening whatever you want to call it) where I started to question the things that where important to me in my life and what was the point in what I was doing! This is no easy question to answer and in fact just asking myself the question was depressing for me, as I felt that there was no point.
At this point life seemed to throw every challenge it could muster at me. It all seemed too overwhelming and too much for me to cope with until I got to the point where I just let go! It’s funny now to look back and see that I was repeating the same mistake that I had made when I was so young! Trying to control and understand a complex system, that has a natural balance and order too complicated for one to understand. I started to look at my life just like a natural system and that the more I question and try control the more the natural system would change and adapt leaving me confused and lost. It was at this point when I started to just let go a bit, almost comparable to surfing, if you think about it too much you will fall, but just have a little faith and just go with it you find you can ride the wave!
So I started to just do the things I felt passionate about and suddenly things just started to fall into place! It was at this point I was given a gift, (funny how it all seems to come together when you just let it) to attend a workshop on permaculture. The workshop taught me the basic principles of permaculture, and amazingly enough there was a huge similarity to my new way of thinking! It seemed to be a message to me that I need to trust nature to do its thing!
We as humans seem to have forgotten that we are just as much part of nature and the natural system as anything else on this planet. In fact we’ve done a great job of separating ourselves from nature. From the way our food is grown, packaged and presented as some sort of processed product created by a machine to the medicines we make from chemical concoctions created in a lab and even the cities we build that ship out all our “waste” products to huge unproductive landfills. In almost all aspects of modern life we have successfully removed the natural solution to our problems completely.
We just need to realize that nature is trying to respond to our needs and we need to work with nature to solve our current problems. Just like I had done with minimal success as a child I realize that as a species, through traditional farming techniques, we are trying to control the system we live in (against the will of nature) and that is not only hard work but also unsustainable as we require a huge amount of energy (we are currently using fossil fuels at an alarming rate that are quickly running out) to combat natures force.
Nature uses complex systems of living organisms that cycle energy, minerals and nutrients within the system to feed and expand the system. In nature one doesn't need to add anything but just go about your daily life and the system will thrive. What we don’t realize is that for all the “waste” products that we create there is a natural use for within the system.
This brings me to the point of something called “progressive anthropogenic succession”. This is a term I learnt on the first workshop I attended. It basically means that by simply living in an area, humans will have an impact on the immediate environment that will eventually allow for a more productive species to take the place of what grew there before. Basically just by existing and living we are changing our immediate environment into one that can sustain us. Examples of this are obvious when you look at the homes we live in:
1. Grey water and washing machine discharge
2. Sewage
3. Roof and road runoff
4. Organic waste
All of the above are examples of “waste” products created by the average household. By keeping the “waste” products in the local system it can be used to increase the productivity of the surrounding land to produce food for the occupants of the house. So with this knowledge I have realized that as humans we are at the point where we need to change our view on the world. We need to accept that we are part of a complex natural system that is trying to accommodate us. In fact we are the greatest achievement of our system thus far, we just need to realize that nature is far too intricate and constantly adapting for us to completely understand. The great news is that nature is on our side! We just need to learn from nature’s example and use the power of the natural system to meet our true productive potential. In other words
we need to reconnect with nature and be part of the system instead of trying to control it.
Reading Ash’s journey brought the following quotes to my mind:
“The purpose of farming is not the growing of crops. The purpose of farming is the development and perfection of human beings” Masanobu Fukuoka.
“Without faith it is impossible to please God” Hebrews 11:6.
“Cursed is the man whose heart departs from the Lord for he shall not see when good comes”
“Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God” Matthew 5:8
His journey was for him an enlightening experience which brought the meaning of his life and of the whole living system together.
And what is “Permaculture”?
The term “Permaculture” was coined by Bill Mollison before the term “sustainability” became commonly adopted to refer to the long term maintenance of our quality of life.
“Permaculture” means both permanent agriculture and permanent culture and embraces the interconnections between these two meanings.
This simple definition raises a multitude of questions; but first:
And what is a design course?
The difference between a design course and a method course is that it is supposed to teach you how to come up with appropriate methods yourself. Whenever you are sleeping your subconscious is processing the questions in the forefront of your conscious mind. When you wake up in the morning the answers come to you one way or another. The most effective way that I can train you to design is to give you the right questions because the answers will come to you in ways that they will be part of you.
Program Outline:
By the end of this program everything in the internationally recognized PDC curriculum will be a part of you and so will everything you need to know and be able to do to help establish a sustainable future for all of us who live in the desert and famine belt be a part of you too. Key to this is sustained community adoption. Key to community adoption is that the people must own the idea; and that starts with you. To own the idea you need to work for that a little and that is why this program requires a bit more effort on your part than watching a 12 day show. For those of you for whom a certificate is important it will state that you have a sound foundation training in permaculture design, food forest ecosystem incubation and sustained community adoption. This is a training process and not a barrel of information. Here is the outline:
Module.1 – Using images to Cultivate Rapid Intuitive Logic:
For each composition:
1st Exercise:
Download the image compilations on the bottom of this page, which you should scroll through and sleep on for a few days. Every night while you are falling asleep repeat the definition of permaculture over and over in your mind as well as all and any questions arising from it. Do not try to rationalize answers to these questions. The answers will come to you spontaneously in the days that follow.
2nd Exercise:
After a few days scroll through the images again and type out all and any thoughts that come to mind. Do not try to compose a structured essay or point form summary. Just write down what spontaneously comes to mind as it comes without thinking about it. The image scrolls include text. If your eyes fall on some of the text inadvertently that’s OK Just don’t try to read it.
Ash used my image combinations before he came on my weekend practical workshop. His story shows how the overall experience became so meaningful to him. This is a learning process that is clear and alive; that brings out the best in you and becomes you at your next level of awareness, clarity and ability.
Module.2 – Logical Organisation of Text:
3rd Exercise:
This is when you read the text associated with the image scrolls and reduce it to point form summaries. Do this after the spontaneous impression exercises for each flash card composition / image scroll. You will also be receiving additional lectures during this phase to fill in important information that is not covered in the picture scrolls. This will give you background information relevant to the development of your understanding of the implications of the term “Permaculture”. Module.2 concludes with the composition of your own amplified definition of “Permaculture”; a definition which should embrace the key implications of permanent agriculture and culture.
Assignment.1: Use your recorded spontaneous impressions and logical organisation on the text in the image scrolls to update "Key Concepts of Food Forestry fro the Desert and famine Belt". Check the 1st worksheet for more detailed instructions and send it to me for review.
Module.3 The Original PDC Curriculum:
Our intelligence is as natural as the benevolent intelligence that infuses the whole living system. It’s more about hearing the still small voice than imposing a design, but there are some design tools that help with our side of this relationship. I have repeatedly seen dried out unsustainable attempts committed in the name of Permaculture because some essential eco-hydrological layout tools were left out or glossed over or blocked by emotional noise and prior conditioning in the students head on a design course. In this module I will cover some critical eco-hydrological design tools in addition to Bill Mollison’s original text book permaculture design methods. For the original text book methods to work in the desert and famine belt there are some key considerations which require emphasis. There is more to it than zone and sector analysis all though that is part of it. The technology of sustainable eco-hydrological design will be spelt out in this module to augment and confirm your discoveries and cognitions. This will include your introduction to my species composition data base. Design exercises will also be included which you should submit to foodforestinfo@gmail.com for my evaluation.
Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: Design Principles
Chapter 3: Design Process
Chapter 4: Pattern Understanding
Chapter 5: Climatic Factors
Chapter 6: Trees and their Energy Transactions
Chapter 7: Water
Chapter 8: Soils
Chapter 9: Earth Working and Earth Resources
Chapter 10: The Humid Tropics
Chapter 11: Dryland Strategies
Chapter 12: Humid Cool to Cold Climates Chapter 13: Aquaculture
Chapter 14: The Strategies of an Alternative Global Nation
Natural Building
Fermentation
Animal Systems
Module.4 Eco-hydrology
PART.II PRACTICAL COMPONENT:
Module.5 Land design
Module 6 Implementation:
When 8 -12 students have completed modules 1, 2 and 3 to my satisfaction we will get together for 2 days to practice essentials practical skills that will get you started with applying what you have learned. This will also be an opportunity for us to discuss our learning experience. Discussion group meetings may also be arranged on demand where it is practical to do so.
PART.III COOPERATIVE COMPONENT:
Module.8 Sustained Community Adoption
The state of the environment is a function of what is in between the ears of all the humons that are running around – your environment. I have said that permaculture is a deep cultural revolution. When you return to your local neighbourhood you are highly likely to feel like a voice crying in the wilderness. Nature responds benevolently to just about anything we do. There is one exception; the exception that has reduced half the world’s land to desert. This exception is idolatry, which is connected to taxes and slavery because it can only sustain by cost transferal. Idolatry is truly parasitic in nature.
“If you serve false gods the rain of your country will turn to dust and powder” (Deuteronomy Ch 28). Some of the fiercest and most dangerous compulsive micro-environment molesters are found in the “church” because the “church” has omitted a third of Jesus’ original gospel from their teachings and added a few of their own. “Be as wise as a serpent and as gentle as a dove.” There is an exact science to managing a permaculture revolution in your local neighborhood very effectively, no matter how Orkeward the environmental sodomy has sunk and you are going to learn how to do it in this module.
Module. 9 – Species Data Base:
The species composition data base will serve as a vehicle for ongoing sharing of information and propagative resources. This is a work in progress in which the functional characteristics of food forest species are being collated with the classical species classification system.
Why Homestead Food Forest Ecosystems are Essential:
South Africa is situated in the desert and famine belt of Planet Earth, where the potential evaporation rate exceeds the rainfall. This means that its sustainable human carrying capacity is less than 0.2% of the population. However, if runoff from the built environment is used to double the effective rainfall sustainable human carrying capacity will balance human needs; and this needs to happen before we dry out the boreholes and silt up the dams. This is the natural power of progressive anthropogenic succession; that nature responds to the outputs of human existence to change the species composition of the land cover to bring its regenerative capacity into balance with human needs. We have to do little more than allow nature to do this and work with what she is already doing.
Everything else will result in unprecedented famine and desertification. Those in tune with the poorer sectors of our society say it’s here already; and that does not exclude the rest of us from very real vulnerability. Several years ago projections showed that oil shortages would push the viability ‘modern’ agriculture as we know it to the edge by 2013 and its 2013 now. In terms of the risks of political and natural resource vulnerability the solution is not to tow icebergs from the melting South Pole or to pipeline it from the Congo basin. The only stable solution is to use your roof runoff, grey water and other household outputs to grow your own food in your own backyard in an ecologically sound way. What we are demonstrating is not an alternative.
