EcoVersatility

EcoVersity is situated in a ten acre plot of land in southwest Santa Fe, in the barrio, which refers to the poorer area. In Buenos Aires, "barrio" is the generic word for a section of the city; here it refers to a particular section. There is a lot of spanish here - in roadsigns, names of restaurants and towns, and so on. Many people are Hispanic, especially in this area of Santa Fe. I speak spanish sometimes with classmates, but alas, my spanish is slowly fading. I think, however, that it is mostly fading only out of the forefront of my memory; everything I learned is still stored somewhere in the back reaches of my brain. Thus I trust that it will return when I really get into it again. That's what I experienced with my French when Josh and I spent two weeks in France back in October.

So these first two weeks of the program make up the permaculture course. Permaculture, standing for "Permanent Culture", is a system of principles for developing a sustainable community. There are, of course, many ways of going about this, depending on one's climate, circumstances, ideas. Basically it is about creating an efficient, durable plant/animal/structural system that supports and replenishes itself. You grow plants that create healthy soils (which harness nitrogen and other essential minerals for plants), which in turn help human-friendly plants grow (fruit/nut trees, berries, vegetables, herbs). You use animals which help the plant system and also give you food - for instance, chickens, which produce good manure for fertilizer and eggs/meat for protein. You build homes out of local products (like adobe mud, clay, and straw bales here) that are very efficient, designed strategically with south facing windows, built in air flows, and things like that.

Through systems thinking and experience, you can put all these pieces together to make a little community where many of your needs take care of themselves, and where the system replenishes itself (soils stay healthy, chickens breed, etc.) so that it long lasting - sustainable.

Thinking about and doing all this is simpler in a rural setting, of course. EcoVersity, funny enough, is quite rural in its design - there are chickens and turkeys and gardens here - although it is in the city of Santa Fe. When you don't have so much space, and you're next to lots of large buildings and many people in a truly urban setting, applying permaculture principles may be more complicated. And questions like: how long can world-wide trade last, where products travel thousands of miles to reach you? and what would a society be like where people are self-sufficient, and is that even possible? - these questions are open to discussion. Permaculture does not require people to give up everything and become back-to-the-land hippies. It is as much about making current agricultural/animal/infrastructure systems longer lasting as it is about designing new systems. Ultimately, it is about individuals taking more responsibility for their own well being.

I'm just starting to learn about all this, and I don't pretend to know everything about it. I should also make clear that permaculturists do not claim that they can save the whole world. At this point learning about permaculture is simply something that I think will be very useful for me. It is a way for me to act on ideas of sustainability in my personal life, rather than just continue to think about them.

Thoughts?