richard@chook.adelaide.edu.au (Richard Siggs) (11/09/90)
In a recent post to sci.environment, I asked if there were other people interested in the broad area of 'Natural Agriculture'. I think that topic covers a vast area, but, if it 'rings a bell' to you, then I guess you can call yourself interested, I have no definition for 'Natural Agriculture' & perhaps it doesn't need one.. Anyway, here's a reply I received: From: barry@dgbt.doc.ca (Barry McLarnon DGBT/DIP) Subject: Re: Natural Agriculture.> > OK, I'm one! I'm on the coordinating committee of an organization > called Canadian Organic Growers, which consists of a sizeable number > of farmers and home gardeners who are practitioners and promotors of > {organic, natural, sustainable,...?} agricultural techniques. I would > be very interested in communicating with like-minded individuals via > the net - perhaps we could set up a mailing list? > My reply, which might as well go here was: Excellent! I think a mailing list is a great idea? How would you like to implement it? How many people do you know of? I haven't received much interest in Aust. as yet, but I'm doing some publicising (and a bit of 'stirring') to see who's interested here. One project I have in mind at the moment, is to help some of the farmers in South Australia, who are having their machinery re-possessed by Banks, due to the continual failure over the last few years to produce any reasonable 'cash-crop'. One solution I'm looking at is getting these people interested in tree growing & other natural, low-intensity argiculture. There have been some amazing developments in a university in Queensland (are you familiar with Australia's states? Queensland is the North- Eastern state of Aust.) to do with a tree derived from a fast & straight growing tree in China, but, through cloning & some genetic selection, they've managed to produce a tree that can replace the traditional softwoods & some paper pulp timbers, the best thing, is that it grows to full maturity in 5 years!! Amazing! I'm going to investigate that further, but are there people who you know who may have some comment on this kind of thing. ie: not just the tree, but the idea of getting farmers to switch from highly intensive, yearly or twice yearly 'cash-crop' farming, to other methods? Well, there you have it, anyone got ideas/comments? ============================================================== Richard Siggs Computer Science Dept., Adelaide University, South Australia. Net: richard@cs.adelaide.edu.au Q. Does Permaculture work? A. Do trees grow?