How the Cook and the Gardener Saved the World

     My daughter got me a book for Christmas called "Animal, Vegetable, Junk" by Mark Bittman. It is a review of the history of how agriculture became an environment destroying profit center for middle men that delivers neither a living to farmers nor nutrition to consumers.  Of course, I agree with all that.      The author points out that industrial agriculture is based on reductionist science that erroneously believes that we can manipulate complex systems by understanding their parts.  That thinking leads to believing that plants only require nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium and that humans only require carbohydrates, fats, and proteins (with a few added vitamins and minerals).   He refers to the alternative as "agroecology".  By this he means an agriculture that works with nature's processes to produce nutritious food for humans based on an understanding that sustainable food production is an emergent property of an ecological whole.      Bittman goes

The Reinhabit Cooperative the Living Systems Institute is promoting is designed to be an organization that can carry our community into the future.  We are not concerned with existing business, government and religious organizations.  We humans can belong to more than one organization.  The problem that Reinhabit Cooperative seeks to address is the needs of all those individuals who are not being adequately served by those existing organizations. In the world we want in the future every individual human will be able to obtain the things they need to thrive.  The things humans need to thrive are food, shelter, learning, health belonging and purpose.  Reinhabit Cooperative will produce those things for all those participating in it. There are three sets of ideas we want to incorporate into the cooperative in order to address these needs. The first set is the ideas about managing a common pool resource following the work of Elinor Ostrom.   We call the common pool resource available to a

As we learn to understand how the world works we can begin to have hope for a better future.  Consider that there are four main subsystems to the world that we experience.  Each of these subsystems operates through a specific function.  We are created by these subsystems and by our actions we create them.  The future of the world is determined by the choices we make.  Here is how it works.  As individual organisms we receive stimulus from the world around us and respond.  We seek to be fed, safe and loved.  This is true for every living organism.  It is true for every bacteria, every fungi, every plant and every animal. Some of the stimuli we receive comes from the energy of the sun and the materials of the earth.  This is true for every living organism.  We all need the warmth of the sun, certain minerals and the wind and the water. Some of the stimuli we receive comes from the pattern of living things in which we find ourselves.  Every living organism is doing the best it can w

We humans have a great deal more potential than we use. This is the third Comment on the Allegory of the Three Travelers The first Comment is about Coming of Age The second Comment is about Repairing the Vessel We humans have a great deal more potential than we use. We are clever creatures able to adapt to the circumstances in which we find ourselves.  Those circumstances, the pattern of interactions among the living things that share our place in the world, only requires a small part of our potential.  Perhaps each of us has a fantasy of a different pattern that allows us to flourish. The way we have structured the world is that each human needs a job that pays money.  Each job requires a different set of skills but none requires all that we can be as human beings.  The most challenging jobs that pay the most are specialties.  They require the specialist to learn in great depth a narrow band of the spectrum of human knowledge.  Most jobs pay less and require less. When ou

This is the second comment on the Allegory of the Three Travelers The first comment is Coming of Age _____ Sometimes I just want to take someone by the shoulders and shake them. "Why can't you see?" But, if you can't see you can't see . . . the shaking won't help. The vessel that carries life through time is the living system on this planet.  The vessel is running down because of the way we humans produce the things we need. The vessel is a complex pattern of interactions.  For reasons of expediency we want to simplify things.  And as we simplify things the life drains from the vessel.  It is sad to see something that could be so robust wasting away for lack of vision.  Its like watching a parent lose their vitality except that the wasting of the vessel is not inevitable.  The vessel begins to heal as individuals find new ways to interact.  New interactions increase complexity. Why is it so hard to see that the vessel requires complexity to mai

Pat the Gardener will be offering the service of converting old fashioned landscapes into thriving habitats. Most potential clients will not be able to afford a permaculture design and installation costing thousands of dollars.  More likely, people interested in healing nature and producing abundance will want Pat’s assistance on a regular basis using small and slow steps to convert their landscape. We will be able to ask potential clients to hire Pat as a way heal nature and produce the abundance.  It is a way that our community can come together to find a place for all our residents. Let’s say that Pat charged $100.00 per month for the landscaping service. For that fee Pat would spend 4 hours a month. During the spring through planting season and after the first hard frost that might be a four hour block of time each month building gardens and planting. During the growing season that might be an hour a week to keep things looking neat. If Pat were to spend half of the a