Ok so I was in Africa, and maybe looking at things through a slightly different perspective, an insecure food supply is more commonplace over there and labour much more plentiful. Small scale production without machines and without economies of scale might make sense in rural Africa but not in the over developed West. We fly in our kumquats in from Israel and Brazil, our grain from America our beef from Australia – the global supermarket is ours for the choosing, whilst poor underdeveloped nations have to produce their own food locally and seasonally, the whole world is our supermarket.

US Oil production peak

My first encounters with permaculture were also back in the day when Climate Change was not on the radar as a pressing concern and fears over the energy supply were consigned to the 1970′s; A time when US oil production had just peaked as predicted, in 1971 and was followed by that period when the Arabs got difficult and we experienced a dip in our energy supply for the first time and prices rocketed. Concerns about energy in the late 70′s we so strong even then US President  Jimmy Carter put solar panels on the roof of the White House, and the family friend who used to run us to school in Wolverhampton every morning in his flash Jaguar went out and bought a Cintroen 2CV energy efficient car. Extreme times and a distant memory.

It was shortly after that moment that North Sea Oil first came on supply, as did Alaskan oil, there was growth in the big Mexican oil fields and Canada got going on production as well. The world fell asleep, in came Ronald Reagan to the White House who promptly removed the solar panaels, calling them ‘un-American’ and Britiain went on a consumer spending spree and road building programme funded by North Sea oil and gas. From that day we started travelling in the wrong direction, at an accelerating pace and we forgot all our concerms over energy and sustainability.

Fossil fuel energy supply model

Right now, all our economic models for consumer led capitalism rely on an expanding energy frontier. All the evidence suggests that we are now entering a new phase in the world’s history, one of a diminishing energy supply,  we have passed the peak. I have written a lot about Peak Oil already, anyone needing more evidence needs to go to the Oil Drum or check out some of the resources at Die Off or a visit to the Post Carbon Institute in California.  There is an Association for the Study of Peak Oil and numerous other resources out there if you still need convincing.

A quick note here… a friend told me off yesterday, in the context of my making a negative remark about her stopping by a McDonalds food outlet.  ‘Your lot are so judgemental/ critical/ smug etc..’ it left me wondering what ‘your lot’ meant. When it comes to the study of Peak Oil it is the senior oil geologists who are sounding the alarm bells. Some of the least radical people around, people who have spent their lives studying geological formations rather than engaging with the global media. What they are all quick to point out is that oil discoveries worldwide peaked in 1961. With the advent of computer modelling, satellite imaging, all the 21st century technology and the amount of oil they are finding is only going down, not only that but the finds are smaller and smaller and further and further afield, under the sea, the ice at the poles and a long long way from market. This means that the net energy yield is also declining, in other words we are using more energy to find less… that is why the curve in the graph falls so sharply. It is this energy descent that we have to prepare for, and the first part of our economy to suffer from the shortage of energy will be farming. Food producion has become a global business, consuming vast amounts of energy to bring produce to market – infact the stat is 10 calories of oil is consumed for each calory of food produced. (Read eating oil)

This new reality is the biggest challenge humanity has yet had to face… many commentators are saying this, maybe climate change or nucelar proliferation may be as bad, but who is keeping score? the point is our food supply has never been more precarious, and this is why I am concentrating on relocalising food production as  a key focus for my work this decade. A key focus for Permaculture design work currently has to be centred around relocalising food production.

I apologise to my friend for critiscising her visit to the Golden Arches, we are all caught up in the globalized food supply chain, every time we enter a supermarket or a fast food outlet we are feeding the global oil addiction, its going to be a hard habit to break.

The community garden at Cwm Harry in Newtown is a small part of that work towards relocalising food supply as well as devising and running Permaculture Design Courses, which i do with my project partners Ian and Leslie et al at Sector39. I also have a long involvement in housing co-operatives and fairtrade and development education.

New Project at Pen Y Garnedd.

Its only at proposal stage but I see our next key step is to establish what I am calling the Pen Y Garnedd Permaculture Research Institute, where we are aiming to take on a 24 acre plot where we can scale up some of our ideas and develop a working model for permaculture food production for our area, here in Wales. It is a couple of miles from  the village where myself and key colleagues live and we intend it to become a hub for food production and permaculture teaching in our own local food economy.

I will be writing a lot more about this project soon and am keen to hear from anyone who is interested in finding out more or even investing in the loanstock issue. We need to create an many working examples that we can, working with the permaculture principles to build the case studies and examples to tackle the key issue of regional food security.

Green Wood working and yurt making courses

We are planning our next green wood working and yurt making course at the moment. The plan is to go back to North Staffordshire, to Farm2Grow, where they are making a yurt for their project and to run our popular three day course there again.

Ian has been busy in the Sector39 office designing some new posters and general publicity materials, so I was using this an excuse to display some of them. Expect lots more artwork in the next few days,

The dates for the next Yurt Making course are likely to be 25th, 26th and 27th of October. The details for the course are on the main website here.

permaculture design course poster

Meanwhile we are busy making preparations for the October PDC, which I have to say I am very exicted about. Its to be held on a 100 acre farm in the Welsh borders, and I think being there for the 2 weeks will certainly focus our thoughts on the challenges for food production in the 21st century.

Treflach farm itself is already involved in making that journey from a centralised marketing, monocultural, high-input farming to a much more diverse and potentially more sustainable mix. As part or our practical work we will be engaged in green wood working and charcoal making, so gain some practical hands on experience of energy alternatives and into working with natural materials in general.

Endangered species?

http://www.celsias.com/article/dishing-dirt-with-david-montgomery/

David Montgomery is professor of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. His new book, “Dirt; The Erosion of Civilizations”, is a very readable geologic history of agriculture and soil erosion.

Here is the key point..

LB: You talk about Rome not as much collapsing as consuming itself. That really struck me. Are we consuming ourselves?

DM: Well you know, if we put aside the questions about consumer culture and think just in terms of soil, given that we are eroding soil on an order of magnitude that’s faster than it’s being created — that is, modern agricultural soil erosion rates are as many as 10 – 100 times faster than soil creation — a minority of farms are a net soil source, but very few, so we are consuming ourselves to death. It’s like a bank account. If you spend money 10 times faster than you make it, you go broke. Soil is no different. You produce it, you use it and then it’s lost. If erosion is faster then production, we’re running out.”

It reminds me of one of the first Bill Mollison quotes that really really resonated with me, and first really made me sit and listen to what Permaculture was all about.  Simply that soil is the most tangible and visible measure of sustainability. Bluntly any society or civilization, no matter how clever or sophisticated it thinks it is can survive without good healthy topsoil. If you are not accumulating soils then you have no chance of long term survival.

Jared Diamond explored this idea in his brilliant book Collapse, mapping environmental factors that might explain the sudden dissapearance of once great civilizations. Actually what he found was that it was oftena combination of factors that bought about these events, however it is still a very important point well made. Complex issues, but underpinned by our ability to live within the carrying capacity of an environment without degrading it and eroding it away at its base. It was this measurable, visible aspect of what is truly sustainable might look like that really connected me to what permaculture is all about.

Permaculture guru, Bill Mollison, once said:

“Today we have more soil scientists than at any other time in history. If you plot the rise of soil scientists against the loss of soil, you see that the more of them you have, the more soil you lose”

Or as David Montgomery says in the interview linked above… “We know how to take care of soil. It’s just that we’re not doing it”.

Here is some more from the interview that leapt off the page at ..

“We need to redefine the fundamental ethos underlying agriculture,”

…….sort of like the Hippocratic Oath of do no harm in medicine, we need an oath that says preserve the soil fertility.

Growing large amounts of crops in a way that decreases our ability to do so in the future invites disaster. One of the things I was not aware of when I started writing but became convinced of is that the arguments that organic agriculture can’t feed the world are false.

Well there is a bold statement to end with.. and one of course I couldn’t agree more with. For what has always felt like a fringe, edge issue, permaculture and the ideas it contains are now penetrating..well as least as far as to the science department of Washington University and hopefully a whole lot deeper as well.

If you have not seen the Farm for a Future documentary then I strongly suggest you take the time to see it. It is a great introduction to Permaculture thinking and maps out the dilemma that all farms are having to face up to. As the cost of oil and diesel rises the ever smaller profit margins in agriculture are eroded away, exposing the absolute reliance our food production systems have on cheap energy.

So what is the way forward? Many farms are being pushed into ever more capital intensive systems, bigger fields, more inputs, bigger machines and fewer workers, less room for nature and wildlife and much more debt. The movie, FOOD INC, which came out last year paints a pretty terrifying picture of corporate large scale agriculture – its impacts on landscapes, soil, animals and the farmers themselves. It is not surprising that so few people want to be involved in agriculture – and a surprising stat that comes out of farm for a future is that the average age of a British farmer is 60!. So the average farmer is 4 years from retirement age, a great many carry on into their 70′s not least becasue the next generation is not keen to take on the mantel.

So what is the future for farming? Large scale industrial agriculture is not very interested in marginal hilly small farms like the one we will be studying on. You can’t fit a 80 foot wide combine in one of their fields anyway. I cant but help think that the smaller marginal farms are the edge from which a new 21st century type of agriculture will emerge from, and one that will give us all new ideas and new approaches to managing the landscape and the natural environment. If we cant have big machines in the post peak oil world, then the only choice is going to be to reintegrate people back into the system. Without having to use big machines having smaller plots with much greater diversity of production is going to make more sense. Chris Dixon, the permaculture pioneer in Dolgellau, also featured on Farm for the Future, thinks that really the garden is the most productive farm of land use, small scale, diverse and allowing a great attention to detail. Having spent 20+ years on his 7 acre small holding he is now convinced even that is too big to properly manage responsibly.

Of course there are no simple answers, and I suspect that farms in the future, the near future, will start performing and being valued for performing a much wider set of functions. Wildlife habitat protection, re-instating wetlands and improving upland water storage, carbon sequestration via no plough systems, bio char, coppice and timber production will also become key functions for farming as well as food production.

Our market driven econmy is very ready to make use of ‘free’ assets like soil air and water, and I suspect that the only way to get these fundamentals valued is to put a price on them, in some way or other. Take bees and other insects for example, treated at best as a minor annoyance, and more widely as pests and are killed in great numbers by toxins and habitat destruction yet they perform vital functions like pollination, disease control and ecosystem regulation. They dont charge and we dont value them, in fact we wage a chemical war on them, then wonder why bird numbers have plummeted over the last few decades.

It is going to be a fascinating couple of weeks and I will certainly be writing lots more about it. There are still places on the 2 week course available so I hope anyone reading this will pass on the word about to any potentially interested parties.

There is a more detailed leaflet about the course available here (Hi res 4mb, Low res 1mb), as well as a web page on my main site

Permaculture Design Course advert

Other new things we would like to try out include charcoal burning, as a way of exploring energy and value added produce, thanks to John Owen who will be leading that session. We will be visiting the garden project at Cwm Harry as well as old favourites like a trip to CAT and Sweet Loving Flowers, who have transformed an acre or so of sheep pasture into one of the most diverse and productive pieces of land I have seen. Lots more info about the course will be posted here over the next few weeks.

The thought of another winter in a huge old stone building without heat, light, running water or toilets has provoked me to rent a lovely little flat in the next village of Llanrhaeadr Ym Mochnant. It means I can work from home comfortably without distraction and can concentrate on my permaculutre teaching and other projects. I wish the Workhouse project well of course, I am sure they will continue to find their feet, but for me it became a challenge too far.. it being hard enough to develop a small business in an emerging sector like permaculutre without all the hassels and challenges of dealing with the building and its development as well.

Phew! so its a new chapter for me and one I am very excited about. Also I have a flat mate and new partner in Sector39, Ian Watt, fellow blogger and eco enthusiast Ian had cycled down from Perthshire looking for new adventutres and turned up on my doorstep just at the moment I had decided to make my move. Interesting coincidence? Maybe there is no such thing as a coincidence? whatever, it seems to have worked well for us and we both feel like we have fallen on our feet in the new location.

We are currently busy planning 2 PDC’s, a 2 week intensive and a 6 weekends over 6 months one, as well as getting stuck in at the Community garden project in Newtown where i am responsible for developing the back lot into a garden there. So happy times and new pastures to explore… watch this space for updates!

Blog themes – I was loving the Atulualpa bog theme layout, which I had been using for some months, however it has developed an annoying fault, where a new post looses its title, so I am trying out one or two new ones to see what fits best, so apologies if eeh changes are confusing or annoying, but we will get there soon. Oh its all change here at the moment!

Greening the Desert II: Greening the Middle East from Craig Mackintosh on Vimeo.

A great many people were inspired by the original Greening the Desert video, that looked at the potentials of applying permaculture design principles in one of the most challenging environments you can find.

Hyper arid, eroded, super hot and below sea level with saline soils as a result of irrigation with brackish water. Even under these harsh conditions the benefits and potentials of the system were there for all to see. The original project wasn’t properly maintained once the funding ran out and hasn’t reached its full potential, it has however survived well in the face of neglect and as a result a great many people in Jordan have in turn been inspired by the potentials of Permaculture.

This long awaited video goes back to the original site and follows the amazing developments which have happend since.

Churnet Valley, North Staffs moorlands

Back home after a weekend away teaching an introduction to permaculture course in North Staffs.  It can be pretty exhausting travelling around, sleeping in a tent or on a couch, and I feel it a bit this morning. However, it was another uplifiting and inspiring weekend for me too, met some lovely people and took some time to think deeply about the subject of permaculture, sustainability and energy descent.

My friend Ian Watt was along to help, having cycling a lot of the way down from Scotland. Ian is on his own Eco adventure, and has finally shed the car to move to the next stage of his low impact existence. Follow his adventures on Ian’s Eco blog.com.

It was frustrating not have had more takers on the course, but it was still very much worthwhile, not least for the feeling of having sown some seeds which hopefully will lead on to more connections being made, more projects starting.

A growing feeling of restlessness is taking hold, I have been based at the Llanfyllin Workhouse for the last 2 years and am very involved with a new housing co-operative group, Permanent Housing and we are seeking a more permanent and permaculture focussed hub to live at and work from. The Workhouse has been a great staging point, but it is finally time to be moving on to pastures new and I have handed in my notice there and will be moving out at the end of the month.

It is fantastically exciting to be contemplating the next move and what could be a huges tep forward for all of us in the group, but also unsettling to be considering up rooting and finding a new base to work from. Putting my life in storage while we wait for the next opportunities to present themselves.

The fact that increasingly we are getting requests to run courses at other people’s venues has contributed to the decision to move. I cant really justify the expense of keeping on a large studio at the Workhouse, to basically store a few books, tools and plants, so the idea is to get a caravan and go mobile- so I can turn up at a course with my little caravan in tow and everything I need in it, ready to rock.

Our next course is in Stoke again, at Farm2Grow and it is yurt making and an introduction to green wood working with the fantastic team from Pikea.org. There are places still available, to make a full Yurt wheel, or to come along and help and learn some skills at a reduced rate. Please get in tocuh if you are interested .. it is Friday, Sat, Sun on the first weekend of August on a small holding in the stunning Churnet valley, North Staffordshire Moorlands.

Peak Oil, keeps hitting the headlines and there was a Radio 4 spot on it on Sunday. Trivialised by a jokey format and undermined by a random interviewee claiming that there is plenty of oil left and eveyone should go back to sleep. The show is about getting an investigative journalist  to look at a contemporary issue, and report back th efollowing week, so before I criticise the show I should wait and see what they come up with in the report.

I found this snippett on David Stahan’s site> “…And the fact that BP was drilling for Macondo, a tiny field containing less than 12 hours’ global consumption, under a mile of water tells us all we need to know about the state of oil depletion.”

For more Peak Oil related fun check out the interactive Oil Depletion map

Airships are the future

From Guardian article

The thing about petrol is energy density. it is an incredibly compact way of storing energy, very handy for things like airplanes, which consume a lot of energy and are very weight sensitive. If you try and run a jet plane on bio diesel then the whole payload of the plane ends being the fuel, as i understand it. So it make the whole exercise pretty pointless. Aside form the environmental damge they do, and the fact that global oil supply is peaking and climate change, planes needs loads of infrastructure, like airports and runways. airships dont need any of that… and as most of lift comes from the helium all they need is a little engine to push them forward, you can run them on chip fat, with lots of possibilities for solar powered, in part anyway. It changes everything.

The Graf Zeppelin in its hayday in the 1930′s flew from Paris to New York in 20 hours.. a much more sedate speed than concord and still workable, without the noise, expense and pollution. Think about this though, no more road freight, no more trucks, or even big ships potentially. The future is airships, get on board.

permaculture rainbow serpent

The 72 hr Permaculture Design Course curriculum can just about be sqeezed into an action packed fortnight of classes, practicals, field trips and site visits. It is a truly intensive experience, an immersion in sustainability and a step change in your thinking and a chance to meet people with similar interests adn obkectives. For  many participants the course is a life changing and life reaffirming experience.

However it is not always possible to take 2 weeks out of your life to immerse yourself in this way.. so I am pleased to be able announce we are offering our first PDC spread over a series of 6 Weekends and six months. Starting in September 2010 and finishing in March 2011 – with the Dec/ new year off, of course.

This will be based in Llandrindod Wells, in the middle of Powys and we will be working with the Llandod Transition Towns group and the Mid Wales Permaculture Network to deliver the course.  Its a must for anyone in the Mid Wales or borders area who want to be part of this active and growing network and to be equipped with the knowledge and vision of permaculture design to create sustainable homes, lives and communities.