1/ I've read tons of permaculture stuff, and I'm quite suspicious of half of it. It's often driven ideologically, not pragmatically, and the books usually don't balance...in very specific ways, and lots of costs (both material and labor) are glossed over e.g. in this article >https://twitter.com/robinhanson/status/1329167235542290433 …
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3/ now, some of this is positive sum stuff - I strongly agree that microorganisms can improve soil, and proper low-till techniques can encourage their spread and improve the tilth (texture) of the soil HOWEVER >>>
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4/ when you import compost and animal droppings, this isn't necessarily positive sum math, but may be zero sum. Where does the animal manure come from? Animals. Who eat what? Grains. Grown where? On artifically fertilized fields. So permaculture guy isn't IMPROVING his soil >
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5/ he's just OUTSOURCING the use of artificial fertilizers to someone else, having them grow biomass for him, and then bringing THAT in and piling it on top of his adobe farming was very much in zero sum mode up until the late 1880s, when artificial fertilizers were invented
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6/ The discovery of nitrogen rich islands where centuries of bat guano had been deposited was front page news, because that was a net addition to the economy of nitrogen. Anyway, that's the soil rant. Re the quantity of food raised: I agree that co-cropping multiple things can
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7/ have synergistic effects, and eek out slight increases. HOWEVER, permaculture folks also like to pretend that they're the first people to ever look at maximizing productivity, instead of hobbyists entering a 200+ year old academic field.
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10/ Yes, I dig Joel's style. I'm glad he doesn't curse so much.https://twitter.com/expatnouveau/status/1329178458472280066 …
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12/ Permaculture folks often have decent insights, but they ignore trade offs. "Soil mycology is good, tilth is important" My dude, farmers have known this for thousands of years. "Therefore you shouldn't till" but then seeds don't contact soil ?https://twitter.com/teodesian/status/1329180206331031553 …
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13/ "ok, yes, so what I mean when I say 'no till' is till just a little bit, so that seeds can contact the soil" ah...so it's like "defund the police doesn't actually MEAN defund the police?" <angry silence>
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