Hi Gavin! I'm finally getting around to reading this. Lol, you apologize and then share this lengthy meaty post, all while working 7 days a week. I can't even seem to find time to sit down and write and I just have my little Mystery Garden to tend to! I did make a wonderful oil and a tincture from the beautiful White Pine that came down here. :) Also, I'm busy picking off ticks because they're monstrous this year. Oh, wait! Aren't they coming out with a Lyme Disease jab?? My mind just can't help going there. Or, maybe it's nothing more than our environment is so out of balance. IDK.
Thx for all of the wonderful book recommendations! And the memes, of course, are right on target. I'll never forget in 2020 when two friends attacked me for posting/comparing what was happening to Nazi Germany. They were livid. What can I say? It all seemed so clear then and even more so now.
Hello my friend! I really appreciate the thoughtful comment as I am likely gonna be doing a 60 day plus work day marathon before I get a day off next month (so writing/posting is next to impossible and I often feel bad for not providing more substance for my subscribers right now).
Taking the time to just observe a "mystery garden" as it is growing naturally for a season or two before planting is actually a really wise approach as it allows the plants to serve as 'translators' for the living soil and if you get to know them and what they are saying, those plants (and fungi or lack thereof) can communicate much about the composition of the soil and what it may appreciate having added in the way of nourishment and or companions.
I love that you made a tincture from the gifts offered by your fallen friend, to recognize and accept gifts that such generous beings offer is a great way to connect oneself to the ancient gift economy of the living Earth.
No ticks here so far here thankfully, and I am not sure about the Lyme disease injection (but it would not surprise me).
You are most welcome for the book recommendations and yes I feel you on the programmed responses of people treating the holocaust like some "untouchable" subject. It is a really effective piece of psychological warfare the oligarchs have constructed regarding that subject, getting people to tip toe around it rather than face it honestly and discuss it openly as to avoid it (or anything like it) happening again. Speaking of which, did you see that documentary made by a holocaust survivor called "Never Again Is Now"?
Wishing you a peaceful and nourishing remainder of June.
Hi Gavin! Before we know it, we'll be storing empty pots and tools back in the shed, and getting ready for winter. I will not miss the ticks. Or the biting flies. I will miss wandering the land and watching in amazement as all the beloved "weeds" begin another season of growing. I feel like I'm in kindergarten again. So much to learn. Unlike some places, we've had a fair amount of rain this spring and everything is looking pretty darn healthy. The Milkweed is flourishing, ready and waiting for the Monarchs. Nature is miraculous, isn't it?
I hope the fires aren't affecting you. My suspicious spidey senses are up, as I imagine yours are, too. I will check out that documentary.
Love back at you from the (sort of) south! I hope you at least take time in your busy day to stop and smell the Roses and all the other plants. I'm guessing you do! 💚
Knowledge, skills and experience related to food cultivation, foraging and preservation cannot be stolen from you however, and thus it has intrinsic value as it is applicable and accessible in any and all situations.
Hello my friend :) You are most welcome and thanks for re-sharing that sentence from my post that essentially serves as a synthesis/distillation of the entire post (and a large portion of my book too really).
Given that the word "Crypto" is a combining form meaning “hidden,” “secret,” (used in the formation of compound words such as: cryptograph) and the world/future many of us are striving to co-create is intended to be based in honesty, integrity, openness, generosity, equality, compassion, gift economics, abundance, courage and love perhaps all it takes is a look at the first part of the word used to describe such things to see that it is not compatible with that vision (at least not in it's current format).
Going from hidden and secret bank accounts on the Cayman islands and hidden vaults filled with gold or hard assets to hidden and secret digital wallets (where people can, and are likely to similarly scheme to horde currency of some type, in order to be able to engage in materialistic addictions and/or attempt to control others) even if it were truly secure, providing anonymity and it was non-inflationary, perhaps the designers and promoters of such systems are missing the point all together? The mentality that drives one to horde, compete and engage in "survival of the fittest" programmed behavior paths (attempting to do what ever it takes to gather more currency in one's secret wallet than the other people out of fear or greed) is still present in the hypothetical future many Crypto enthusiasts envision.
It feels analogous to going from a petroleum based transportation/energy infrastructure to a lithium and cobalt based transportation/energy infrastructure to me, even if we succeeded at doing that, would it really be that much of an improvement?
Then there are the logistical concerns about the inherent fragility of the technology that allows for cryptocurrencies to be stored, verified and exchanged so there is that to consider as well.
Those are some of the thoughts I currently have whirling around in my head regarding Cryptocurrency.
How about you? If you were to choose one, what aspect/characteristic of cryptocurrencies is the thing that most makes them a deal breaker (aka unappealing or not a viable option) for you?
I'm not well educated on cryptocurrencies to be honest. But your comment about the meaning of the world is interesting!
At this point in my life I'm very much doubtful that any money I might have saved or invested will be there for when I really need it. Very much influenced by working in the US for a few years and my boss at one stage was still working well past retirement stage because he'd lost most of his retirement fund in the previous stock market crash. Invest in skills and simple, good tools!
Thank you for holding the line in Germany (and holding the line in people's hearts and minds) while we were doing our best to hold the line in Canada... And when globo-cap's vacant eyed jackbooted thugs broke through our lines in Ottawa, thanks for illuminating the true nature of what happened there (with wit, humor and brutal honesty). Your writing has provided much needed laughter, motivation to stand up to tyranny (even when it is not easy) and impetus for introspection.
I am holding the intent and hope that your next book can be titled something like The Fall of the New Normal Reich.
Thanks, you too! And I hope no one underestimates what the protesters achieved in Ottawa, i.e., forcing the authorities to drop their Mask of Beneficence and expose themselves as fascists at a key moment. I was, and remain, grateful for their courage.
I am deeply honored to be included in this magnificent roundup. Thank you for your moving words, Gavin, as well as your own valiant defense of freedom, truth, and humanity 🙌
Thanks to the hard work, meticulous research and eloquently expressed writing of people like yourself (Tessa Lena, Charles Eisenstein, James Corbett, Catherine Austin Fitts, Meredith Miller, James Evan Pilato, Igor Chudov, CJ Hopkins and others) I stand on the shoulders of giants, empowered by the wisdom, compelled to take action by the brutal honesty, hard facts and unrelenting integrity and motivated by the love, hope and fierce courage you all embody.
As I have gathered books, essays, ideas, poems and soulful nuggets of wisdom from all your works this has enabled me to become more effective in remediating and regenerating the soils that exist in the landscapes of the minds and hearts of those around me and plant the seeds for integrity, courage and humility to one day take root in many I interact with. Some of those people chose to dig deep and make use of those seeds, which have now taken root and I see beautiful things beginning to flourish where there was once compliance, cowardice, Stockholm syndrome and fear. Thank you for that.
Thus, as I said elsewhere, I see your noble work in exposing the truth, inviting people to take an honest look in the mirror as a way to share and plant the seeds for courage in people’s hearts and minds empowers many to cultivate the fruits of integrity, hope, solidarity, perseverance and clarity of perception. This is just as important as cultivating medicine and food for the body in the garden. Thank you for doing this sacred work in cultivating beautiful and nurturing things in the collective consciousness of our family of humanity through your work.
I am honored to walk this path towards freedom, resilience and truth along side of you.
I'm going to try and get back to you on this... I'm so slammed right now, my family is in crisis, my work is sapping/zapping me, and I have to work, so... no time! But hopefully there will a lull soon! xo Believe me, I WANT to read all those books! xo xo
Knowledge, skills and experience related to food cultivation, foraging and preservation cannot be stolen from you however, and thus it has intrinsic value as it is applicable and accessible in any and all situations. - Article in a nutshell.
Earth Care-People Care-Future Care. First time I've read the third ethic expressed in this manner. My teacher used return of the surplus as in back to the growing system. The manual has something quite different, which is why most everyone uses something else. I've had a lot of thought about it.
There was a faction of peasantry that didn't heed the prince, they not only took care of themselves much like the results of permaculture design, but they provided for those in the hierarchy that took as they pleased. But the princes killed off a large amount of the peasants and the rest fled to other countries as modern technology took their place.
Now the prince in an actor's voice is saying, I'm back!
With as much understanding as you have exhibited in this article your garden must be at least an acre and have planted thousands of trees!
Thank you for the generous and thoughtful comment Rick
I first heard Matt Powers coin the term "Future Care" (rather than "Fair Share" or "Return of Surplus" as some of the original permaculture people said). Matt explains some of the thinking behind this in the following timestamped section of this video : https://youtu.be/KfQlVJzFQDg?t=589
That is a very interesting and illuminating allegory of the prince and the peasants, thanks for sharing that.
While I have indeed planted thousands of trees, the majority of those were on other people's properties (I do regenerative agriculture/soil regeneration consultations, landscape design and installation).
I wish my young forest garden was spanning an acre! Alas, we live on a small urban suburban lot for the time being, but this limitation of space has fostered some innovation (spurred by necessity) to stack many functions in our design (which in turn helped me in writing my book and helping others in similar living situations to grow lots of food and medicine with limited space) so there is that blessing in disguise to be grateful for!
We do plan on moving to a plot with at least 15 acres to scale up our food forest and ecological regeneration efforts in the near future.
How about you? What form does your garden currently take? :)
Thanks for swinging by and engaging in the enriching discussion below, I very much enjoyed reading your comments.
Happy you asked about the state of my permaculture affairs!
I'm not a regenerative promoter, I think we should all become peasants of a sort. Ha!
I grow more food than I can eat and continue to construct beds made from the aerobic compost that I learned from the same permaculture teacher as Matt. This is now my 11th year. I also own a 40 acre mostly swamp but about seven sticks up as a tight high acid boulder strewn clay and am successfully rehabilitating the soil with various earthworks and planting schemes. Planted thousands of trees as seedlings on this land I recently speculated about 15% made the trip. Learned a lot and now the results are inching up. This spring I noted quite a few blossoming for the first time.
I have lots of stories about this piece.
Good for you to make a consulting business from the information.
When you say "I'm not a regenerative promoter", what exactly does "Regenerative" mean to you?
I explain some of the ways in which that word is being weaponized (and used by various institutions, individuals and oligarchs in ways that do not align with what my definition and intended use of the term in this article: https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/globalized-greenwashing-the-oligarchs?
40 acres of mostly swamp with high acid, hmm, have you tried creating any "cold climate Chinampas"? I have been wanting to try creating 'Blueberry-centric Chinampas' in the peat bogs north of where we live for some time but have not had the opportunity to experiment yet.
I would not really describe by soil assessment, remediation and regenerative ag consultation as a 'business' per say, as I have mostly done this work pro-bono in the hopes of helping young beginner farmers transition their parent's property from conventional agriculture ( decimated soil and totally lacking biodiversity) into living soil and a growing space that has the potential to support a diverse polyculture. I have done this to help the living Earth, my local community and future generations, so finding ways to charge people (that are already often under financial stress) for these services is not common for me. Most of the fiat currency I generate comes from my landscape design and installation day job (the majority of which is currently going into getting rare heirloom seeds into people's hands and my book printed and out into the world in the physical). Thus, I would more describe my regenerative efforts (whether they be in a farmer's field or in the garden) as a passion and something I feel called to engage with on a soul level, and less of a "business".
I look forward to reading more about your property, garden designs and learning from your extensive experience and experimentation with earth works and tree planting as time allows.
Wishing you excellent germination rates, not only in the garden outside, but also with the seeds you plant in hearts and minds through your words and actions outside the garden.
Regenerative, regenerate, regenerating are words in your context in conjunction with humans is a means to continue the action of agriculture, or in other words, taking people off the land. Sure these promoted regenerative methods can rehabilitate the soil, but not humanity.
I like to use the word successional, try it instead of regenerate.
Yep, I've fashioned various forms of small experimental chinampas, mostly to grow wild rice. The blueberries have not been successful in other plantings but maybe on the chinampas they would, I'll try it. Thanks for the idea.
Actually when I use the word Regenerate or "regenerative" I am not talking about "taking people off the land". Where did you get that impression?
While I understand the history of the process of "agriculture" to be 99% destructive, imperialistic, anthropocentric and involving the dispossession of many indigenous peoples, the mass killing of myriad non-human beings and the deforestation of large sections of Earth (as I have read "Dirt : The Erosion Of Civilizations", "Bright Green Lies" and other books that offer extensive data in that arena of knowledge), when I am talking about helping farmers transition to regenerative practices I am talking about working with currently degraded land/soil and giving people the tools to accelerate the succession of that ecosystem back into a state where it can support greater biodiversity, providing food and medicine for humans, as well as habitat for non-human beings, and other important roles such as slowing the flow of rain water and stabilizing rain cycles.
I have made it clear in a number of my essays (and in my book) that when I say "Earth care" and "Future Care" this necessitates halting the destruction of ecosystems in the name of "progress" (whether that be for "agriculture" or creating more cities and suburban sprawl or any other anthropocentric reason).
The literal definition of "Regenerate" is pretty clear and the way I use the word regenerative is clearly defined in my book so I have no interest is walking on egg shells or playing "find the new more popular or socially accepted term of the week" and I will continue to use the word regenerative (in the context that I have always used the term, and not in the context of how various shills, parasites, institutions and misinformed individuals are using the term). Successional is a great term and certainly has an established 'niche' in the ecosystem that is my vocabulary but it exists within the broader (more holistically applicable) action of regenerating. Regenerating is not just about gardens or soil or forests, it also applies in the context of social permaculture (for communities, relationships and society as a whole) and it also applies to the inner landscape (body, mind and spirit).
Ahh wild rice! I am envious, I love wild rice (so much better than that often arsenic laden white/brown/black rice from China and Cali). Do you have any material you have posted on the cultivation and harvesting process so I can learn more for when I give growing it a try?
You are most welcome for the idea, please let me know how it goes :)
I am curious to learn more about your comment on how "we should all become peasants of a sort". Could you please elaborate on that thought a bit so I can understand exactly what you mean?
The link you provided fits my ideas. I take issue with my country more than anything. Its like, whew, 70% is huge so now I won't have to actually become one!
I can't tell you exactly as its hard to put to words, too many variables. New information constantly arriving to make a firm diagnoses. I started with the Twelve Articles of the 1525 Peasants War and tracked what those who seized the land and what they have designed in the process to what we have now, which is people don't know how to take care of themselves like the peasants did.
The main reason people fled to the Americas.
Anyway, I liked a study I read about the free tenant peasants of France.
My wild rice experiments have actually attracted the attention of Native Americans, but most of them are too fat to actually do anything... They were mostly captured by the system a long time ago, and even though they have the physical and mental adaptive tools, probably won't go back. But maybe when there is no other choice.
Before I read the entirety if your post I've had this dissuasion about regenerative design before. You've invested a lot into this word and probably can't back out of it now. And that's ok, you can think what you want as not much matters because next to no one is actually trying.
What I see is people who want to grow food for the market, for money, by rehabilitating the land to further on agriculture at the expense of wild diversity. Any act to conform the landscape is debilitating as it ends natural succession. Chances are high these methods would prolong the soil, but not humanity in this context. We will be extinct long before we would have been otherwise, or had we stayed localized. I speculated it would take one person to feed only nine others as a reform of living systems, but still not the same as successional.
I've had a long hard physical weekend (which included more planting and garden-like bed forming, and am still tired this morning. I might have to reread once I've refreshed this aging body of mine!
I think this matter of seeing "weeds" and "invasive plants" as some adversary that we should fight against is worth exploring further. I feel that much of the programming we receive (and the resulting counter-intuitive behavior and/or futile efforts we often chose) in other areas of life are analogous to the separation (man vs nature) mentality that is build into the concept of declaring some plants as "weeds" and "invasive".
As Rick alluded to below, many "weeds" and "invasive" plants are really nature's way of communicating to us about what is lacking in a degraded ecosystem/soil structure and her way to begin the process to regenerate that landscape and soil structure.
Outside the garden, in the man-made world of politics, corporate oligarchs and megalomaniacal banksters we can see other entities popping up all over the place which one might say are analogous to these "weeds" people are always fighting with in their gardens.
If one looks at the "system" as a 'garden' and the "few psychopaths" as 'weeds' or 'pathogenic organisms' the transition to a food forest solution can be applied both literally and metaphorically (to provide a framework for actionable solutions that we as individuals can apply in our lives and communities).
The transition to a food forest design from the modern conventional gardening approach (when it comes to cultivating preferred food and medicine plants/fungi) creates a growing environment in which all the ecological niches in that growing space have been filled by choice edible and medicinal species (leaving no room for those plants that are considered by some to be "weeds" or "invasive" to set up shop). Additionally, "food forests" (which emulate the same attributes present in a mature forest ecosystem, except they contain mostly species that provide either food or medicine that is preferred by humans specifically) having such a diverse range of organisms (both microscopic and macroscopic) create conditions where pathogenic organisms are not able to thrive and over power healthy plants (because they have to compete with myriad microorganisms that are beneficial to and exist symbiotically along with plants). In essence, the diversity, decentralized self replicating nature and adaptability of the members of a food forest garden are much more resilient against competitors, parasites and diseases. The members of a functioning food forest are symbiotically connected on many levels. It begins through their roots (where they are connected via the networks of mycorrhizal fungi that allow them to exchange and share resources with those in need and warn each other about approaching threats to their community) and it extends to the way certain species develop long term mutually beneficial relationships with each other, adapting to meet the other's needs, through a process called symbiogenesis). Another characteristic of the food forest is that each member of the food forest is capable of spreading seeds that increase the abundance and medicine offered to the many organisms that call that forest home.
The modern conventional garden (or farm) on the other hand is an expression of a dominant adversarial relationship with nature that most people and institutions in the west have. It involves tearing into the living soil through constant tilling, destroying it's structure (to mine it's nutrients for short term gain at the cost of long term fertility and stability) and planting monocultures of plants in exposed soil in strait rows (fragile groups of often genetically frail domesticated species). These are in effect spaces that invite aggressive pioneering soil-repairing plant species that people often call "weeds" and create a situation that is a buffet for "pest" insects, pathogenic fungi and disease causing microorganisms, inviting them in from far and wide due to the lack of diversity present in that growing space). These are places where humans fight endless wars against "bad guys" and "enemies" of their fragile monoculture via chemical warfare, genetic modification and other detrimental and degenerative practices (which end up undermining the quality and nutritional value of the resulting harvest).
We can take the comparison of these two ways of creating growing "systems" and apply it to the relationship between everyday human beings and the few psychopaths that seek to prey upon and parasitically feed on the unsuspecting many. Those that embrace the way of the monoculture (conforming to 'social norms' and complying with what ever they are told by 'authority figures') are like the rows of hybridized tomato plants being grown in endless fields or in hydroponic greenhouses (standing along with countless others that are behaving in the same way, existing without any meaningful symbiotic connections to the community of life that allows their wild ancestors to thrive and adapt and provide the seeds for their being born). These people living in the way of the monoculture (people who embrace a role as "consumers", allow themselves to be distracted by materialism, always looking to external centralized institutions or individuals to be told what is true and what is not divisive adversarial propaganda that points fingers at "bad guys" and "enemies" which funnels their creative energy into futile artificially generated conflicts between beings of the Earth) this leaves them wide open as targets for parasites looking to feed on fragile monocultures of people.
The one who lives their life like member of a food forest however is symbiotically connected to the diverse community of life they live amongst. They are resilient against disease by the virtue that each member of the community they are intrinsically connected with offers their own unique defense against pathogens, and so the total sum of their resilience is like the bundle of sticks that cannot break (as opposed to the single stick that can be snapped in two when enough pressure is applied). Those who live their life like a member of a food forest do not have an adversarial relationship with their fellow beings, they forge alliances where ever possible and become resilience and adaptable enough to co-exist alongside those they cannot forge alliances with through their own ingenuity and through emulating their elder species. The people who choose to embody this way of being are not susceptible to the same parasites and diseases that the people who follow the way of the monoculture are, in fact, beyond being resistant against psychopathic parasites, "weeds" and societal diseases they become fractal embodiments of the change they wish to see in the world, seeds that set down roots (and begin to replace and render obsolete the parasitic systems that have built up around them). These people become the seeds that can regenerate not only the land, but the very essence of the human spirit, outcompeting the parasites by providing a framework more appealing and efficient than their monoculture machinations, inviting many to shed their monoculture ways and instead become part of a symbiotic community of life guided by integrity, courage, love and having access to perpetual abundance.
There are some people that believe if were just to get the "right" people in power that they would be able to "punish/remove the bad guys" and make everything better. I would say that this is the same attitude behind the conventional gardener or farmer (thinking if they hammer the "bad guy" plants/insects with enough punishment, in the form of manual removal of "weeds"/"invasive", chemicals and gene splicing, they can be the "good guys" and triumph over the "bad guys". This is of course a fallacious and delusional view point that only serves to degrade the quality of the end product, profit large corporations selling chemicals and breed "super-bugs" and "super-weeds" (chemical resistant organisms).
Similarly, punitive measures being applied by top town governmental systems (regardless of what ideological wrappings they have and who is sitting atop such a system) are not effective long term solutions as threatening someone to behave how you want them to only remains effective as long as the threat and ability to act on the threat does, and even then industrious and inventive people will wind a way to circumvent said punitive measures if they really want to. Incentivizing behavior that helps to regenerate the landscape is at least a step in the right direction, as perhaps after being bribed to do something for long enough by the government the people doing it will begin to see the long term intrinsic benefits offered to their own lives by engaging in said actions. Though in my opinion I think that real lasting change must be birthed from within and set down roots in how it is applied in our local communities first and foremost.
Thus, in the end, I feel that the most permanent and systemic change cannot and will not be brought about via any top down policies (whether they are punitive or incentivizing) but rather must originate from within. The societal changes that set down roots and persist through the millennia begin with seeds planted by individuals that are living and embodying the change they want to see in the world, embracing radical authenticity and starting fractal chain reactions in our collective that spread outwardly in all directions.
In essence, it is the seed that rises from within that is born from living the way one wants the world to be, which readily self sows and sets down roots far and wide. Individuals embodying the intrinsic abundance, developing their unique gifts with purpose and embodying the joy that results from living with integrity, compassion, courage and generosity provides an incentive more enticing than any government bribe (or threat) for others to follow suit. These are people living like a member of a functioning ecosystem, each embracing their own unique gifts and offering them in service to better their community. They show other people a way of living that heals the broken parts within us, heals the land around us, begins to bind our shattered, artificially homogenized communities of unique individuals together again and offering True Wealth for all and creating an societal, economic, agricultural and psychological environment in those communities that is inhospitable to parasites that thrive on our dependence on centralized systems.
Ok I am done ranting about the metaphorical implications of the concept of "weeds" now :)
Japanese knotweed is considered as "invasive" here and yet , when seen from another perspective, it offers abundant food, early season pollinator forage and it's roots are one of the best sources of Resveratrol (the compound that many attribute to the health benefits of enjoying a glass of organic red wine with a meal).
Just for fun, here are a couple fun videos on Japanese Knotweed:
"Japanese Knotweed, Invasive Plant or Wild Food and Medicine..?"
May 6, 2023·edited May 6, 2023Liked by Gavin Mounsey
Ok. Its already proved that the local plants are getting use to the garlic mustard chemical attack and are fighting back. The buckthorn can't compete with the climax forest trees, but *gasp* humans cut most of those down. So, the invasive simply are filling a niche that was produced for them. Yes' I like to eat garlic mustard too, almost every day now. They are easy to pull out and work well with other uses I employ on the landscape. The problem with a war against invasives is it as a marketing tool of the chemicals manufacturers to promote governments and all sorts of people to buy their products and spray them on the landscape. Of course, what all else these chemicals kill is conveniently overlooked. I'm not being emotional here, just pointing out another idea about all this. Its Ok, you can think what you want.
Hand pulling invasives tends to be the best and how I was taught. Putting a black plastic bag over buckthorn stumps or small sprouts works better is what I learned more recently.
Buckthorn filled a niche where water buffalo of some sort would graze and keep it down, speculation based on how it grows. US wildlife find it inedible and it takes over choking out waterways. There are many ills and blessings in life.
I was not being political or looking at the bigger use of herbicides for plant control. Yes, too much is used, especially bad on aquatic areas.
I use the weeds and as thus are an asset. Invasive plants are simply exhibiting a will to live in a degraded environment. Plenty of examples of how the normally adapted plants come back as the degradation is being repaired by these pioneering species. But that's another subject.
I was just trying to be funny about the idea of weeding the wild - it is an impossible task with ornamental species out of place. Buckthorn is a nemesis not an asset.
I have returned after 40 years to my childhood forested home and flower beds gone wild are pretty. The buckthorn and some ornamental vine-y thing now taking over the underbrush is invasive.
My reply was a hat-tip to Gavin's wildcrafting knowledge. It encouraged me to get out and gather garlic mustard greens which are quite tasty and spread far too well and too far, too fast. Blown seed patterns, not root spread at least. I am not really a wildcrafter but I have known a few.
I do not know much about Buckthorn, but I see your comment as an invitation to discover and familiarize myself with the gifts it offers us (and the gifts it offers to the broader ecosystems that invited it to take up residence).
Thank you again for the kind words and for sharing your experiences and perspectives.
Agreed! I feel it is also worth acknowledging that this lens through which we view and interact with the world called "Permaculture" has its roots in many more ancient indigenous scientific methods and traditions. So in reality, to live by the permaculture ethical compass and apply permaculture design principles in our lives is really a path that involves embracing wisdom such as the 7th generation principle that was brought forward by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy ( https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/values/ ) and what is suggested in the Prophecy Of The Seventh Fire ( https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/the-three-sisters-and-the-time-of ) and then augmenting that wisdom with the precision and scalability of modern scientific methods.
I ascribe to localism being the most effective and tangible way to flourish outside the coming system.
Get local, learn who is in your community (really get to know them, know their names, faces, wave!), what skills you/they have and what infrastructure there is locally.
Ensure the local food chain supply is protected (That there is enough food in the ground), the hospital, power etc.
Connect with and create a community.
Share skills, share food, and you have a source of wealth/wellth that is untouchable and tangible.🤗
PS- As I continue to read (and-re-read) "Rooted" by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (which is one of the books I listed above) I am noticing how much of an emphasis she puts on the healing power of walking barefoot in the woods. In a way, I suppose that allows the community of life that is the human body, to connect with other communities of life (soil life) and this offers a sort of exchange between communities as well.
I concur with your thoughts on localism when it comes to how we produce food, medicine, clothing, building materials, pathways to medicinal care, energy generation infrastructures, utilities and road maintenance, educational systems and some other things. However, I do value integrating a wide range of perspectives and techniques with their roots in cultures from all over (existing in past and present) so perhaps my form of "localism" is not the same as some (who prioritize only seeing from and living from localized traditions and perspectives in an effort to "preserve a cultural identity"). I do my best to integrate many different cultural, scientific and spiritual perspectives and ways of knowing which I feel guided to embrace as I strive to optimize my permaculture designs locally. I do this with the intent of fully unlocking, nurturing and augmenting my own unique gifts in a way in which I am able to most effectively (and joyfully) contribute towards the resilience and symbiosis in my community.
I really appreciate your wise suggestion to "learn who is in your community (really get to know them, know their names, faces, wave!), what skills you/they have and what infrastructure there is locally." This is something I attempted to invite people to do in the Regenerating Communities and Nurturing The Gift Economy chapter in my book.
I also really love the part of your comment where you wrote "Share skills, share food, and you have a source of wealth/wealth that is untouchable and tangible."
Well said! :)
Are you familiar with the "Food Is Free Project" and/or the "Grow Free" movement?
Perhaps "the coming system" (the system the billionaires, banksters and corporate cartels are working to lure people into and push onto the world, which will in essence be a new sort of technocratic totalitarianism) will fail to materialize and will stumble, crumble, fail and or be dismantled before it reaches it's intended goals of creating "digital concentration camps" (with CBDCs, social credit scores etc) or, perhaps they will manage to build out, activate and enforce that abomination for a time before it implodes (as it is inherently unnatural, antithetical to life and unsustainable) but either way, focusing our energy locally will improve our quality of life, our resilience as individuals, households and neighborhoods and help leave this place a little bit more beautiful than it was when we got here for future generations, so I see it as a win win.
Thanks for reading and for the comment.
I am wishing you many peaceful, inspiring and invigorating barefoot walks in the forests, on the beach and in the garden.
Hi Gavin! I'm finally getting around to reading this. Lol, you apologize and then share this lengthy meaty post, all while working 7 days a week. I can't even seem to find time to sit down and write and I just have my little Mystery Garden to tend to! I did make a wonderful oil and a tincture from the beautiful White Pine that came down here. :) Also, I'm busy picking off ticks because they're monstrous this year. Oh, wait! Aren't they coming out with a Lyme Disease jab?? My mind just can't help going there. Or, maybe it's nothing more than our environment is so out of balance. IDK.
Thx for all of the wonderful book recommendations! And the memes, of course, are right on target. I'll never forget in 2020 when two friends attacked me for posting/comparing what was happening to Nazi Germany. They were livid. What can I say? It all seemed so clear then and even more so now.
Take care and thanks for the meaty article! 💚
Hello my friend! I really appreciate the thoughtful comment as I am likely gonna be doing a 60 day plus work day marathon before I get a day off next month (so writing/posting is next to impossible and I often feel bad for not providing more substance for my subscribers right now).
Taking the time to just observe a "mystery garden" as it is growing naturally for a season or two before planting is actually a really wise approach as it allows the plants to serve as 'translators' for the living soil and if you get to know them and what they are saying, those plants (and fungi or lack thereof) can communicate much about the composition of the soil and what it may appreciate having added in the way of nourishment and or companions.
I love that you made a tincture from the gifts offered by your fallen friend, to recognize and accept gifts that such generous beings offer is a great way to connect oneself to the ancient gift economy of the living Earth.
No ticks here so far here thankfully, and I am not sure about the Lyme disease injection (but it would not surprise me).
You are most welcome for the book recommendations and yes I feel you on the programmed responses of people treating the holocaust like some "untouchable" subject. It is a really effective piece of psychological warfare the oligarchs have constructed regarding that subject, getting people to tip toe around it rather than face it honestly and discuss it openly as to avoid it (or anything like it) happening again. Speaking of which, did you see that documentary made by a holocaust survivor called "Never Again Is Now"?
Wishing you a peaceful and nourishing remainder of June.
Much love from the north
Hi Gavin! Before we know it, we'll be storing empty pots and tools back in the shed, and getting ready for winter. I will not miss the ticks. Or the biting flies. I will miss wandering the land and watching in amazement as all the beloved "weeds" begin another season of growing. I feel like I'm in kindergarten again. So much to learn. Unlike some places, we've had a fair amount of rain this spring and everything is looking pretty darn healthy. The Milkweed is flourishing, ready and waiting for the Monarchs. Nature is miraculous, isn't it?
I hope the fires aren't affecting you. My suspicious spidey senses are up, as I imagine yours are, too. I will check out that documentary.
Love back at you from the (sort of) south! I hope you at least take time in your busy day to stop and smell the Roses and all the other plants. I'm guessing you do! 💚
Lots of good stuff Gavin as always! Thank you.
Knowledge, skills and experience related to food cultivation, foraging and preservation cannot be stolen from you however, and thus it has intrinsic value as it is applicable and accessible in any and all situations.
Boom! Yeah
Agree about the cryptocurrencies.
Community community community!
Hello my friend :) You are most welcome and thanks for re-sharing that sentence from my post that essentially serves as a synthesis/distillation of the entire post (and a large portion of my book too really).
Given that the word "Crypto" is a combining form meaning “hidden,” “secret,” (used in the formation of compound words such as: cryptograph) and the world/future many of us are striving to co-create is intended to be based in honesty, integrity, openness, generosity, equality, compassion, gift economics, abundance, courage and love perhaps all it takes is a look at the first part of the word used to describe such things to see that it is not compatible with that vision (at least not in it's current format).
Going from hidden and secret bank accounts on the Cayman islands and hidden vaults filled with gold or hard assets to hidden and secret digital wallets (where people can, and are likely to similarly scheme to horde currency of some type, in order to be able to engage in materialistic addictions and/or attempt to control others) even if it were truly secure, providing anonymity and it was non-inflationary, perhaps the designers and promoters of such systems are missing the point all together? The mentality that drives one to horde, compete and engage in "survival of the fittest" programmed behavior paths (attempting to do what ever it takes to gather more currency in one's secret wallet than the other people out of fear or greed) is still present in the hypothetical future many Crypto enthusiasts envision.
It feels analogous to going from a petroleum based transportation/energy infrastructure to a lithium and cobalt based transportation/energy infrastructure to me, even if we succeeded at doing that, would it really be that much of an improvement?
Then there are the logistical concerns about the inherent fragility of the technology that allows for cryptocurrencies to be stored, verified and exchanged so there is that to consider as well.
Those are some of the thoughts I currently have whirling around in my head regarding Cryptocurrency.
How about you? If you were to choose one, what aspect/characteristic of cryptocurrencies is the thing that most makes them a deal breaker (aka unappealing or not a viable option) for you?
Thanks for the comment brother.
I'm not well educated on cryptocurrencies to be honest. But your comment about the meaning of the world is interesting!
At this point in my life I'm very much doubtful that any money I might have saved or invested will be there for when I really need it. Very much influenced by working in the US for a few years and my boss at one stage was still working well past retirement stage because he'd lost most of his retirement fund in the previous stock market crash. Invest in skills and simple, good tools!
Many thanks for the review!
Thank you for holding the line in Germany (and holding the line in people's hearts and minds) while we were doing our best to hold the line in Canada... And when globo-cap's vacant eyed jackbooted thugs broke through our lines in Ottawa, thanks for illuminating the true nature of what happened there (with wit, humor and brutal honesty). Your writing has provided much needed laughter, motivation to stand up to tyranny (even when it is not easy) and impetus for introspection.
I am holding the intent and hope that your next book can be titled something like The Fall of the New Normal Reich.
Keep up the great work!
Thanks, you too! And I hope no one underestimates what the protesters achieved in Ottawa, i.e., forcing the authorities to drop their Mask of Beneficence and expose themselves as fascists at a key moment. I was, and remain, grateful for their courage.
I am deeply honored to be included in this magnificent roundup. Thank you for your moving words, Gavin, as well as your own valiant defense of freedom, truth, and humanity 🙌
Thank you for the kind words my friend.
Thanks to the hard work, meticulous research and eloquently expressed writing of people like yourself (Tessa Lena, Charles Eisenstein, James Corbett, Catherine Austin Fitts, Meredith Miller, James Evan Pilato, Igor Chudov, CJ Hopkins and others) I stand on the shoulders of giants, empowered by the wisdom, compelled to take action by the brutal honesty, hard facts and unrelenting integrity and motivated by the love, hope and fierce courage you all embody.
As I have gathered books, essays, ideas, poems and soulful nuggets of wisdom from all your works this has enabled me to become more effective in remediating and regenerating the soils that exist in the landscapes of the minds and hearts of those around me and plant the seeds for integrity, courage and humility to one day take root in many I interact with. Some of those people chose to dig deep and make use of those seeds, which have now taken root and I see beautiful things beginning to flourish where there was once compliance, cowardice, Stockholm syndrome and fear. Thank you for that.
Thus, as I said elsewhere, I see your noble work in exposing the truth, inviting people to take an honest look in the mirror as a way to share and plant the seeds for courage in people’s hearts and minds empowers many to cultivate the fruits of integrity, hope, solidarity, perseverance and clarity of perception. This is just as important as cultivating medicine and food for the body in the garden. Thank you for doing this sacred work in cultivating beautiful and nurturing things in the collective consciousness of our family of humanity through your work.
I am honored to walk this path towards freedom, resilience and truth along side of you.
🤗
Thanks!! ^_^
Your most welcome :) I look forward to hearing what you think of the books I suggested if you get a chance to read some of them.
I'm going to try and get back to you on this... I'm so slammed right now, my family is in crisis, my work is sapping/zapping me, and I have to work, so... no time! But hopefully there will a lull soon! xo Believe me, I WANT to read all those books! xo xo
Knowledge, skills and experience related to food cultivation, foraging and preservation cannot be stolen from you however, and thus it has intrinsic value as it is applicable and accessible in any and all situations. - Article in a nutshell.
Earth Care-People Care-Future Care. First time I've read the third ethic expressed in this manner. My teacher used return of the surplus as in back to the growing system. The manual has something quite different, which is why most everyone uses something else. I've had a lot of thought about it.
There was a faction of peasantry that didn't heed the prince, they not only took care of themselves much like the results of permaculture design, but they provided for those in the hierarchy that took as they pleased. But the princes killed off a large amount of the peasants and the rest fled to other countries as modern technology took their place.
Now the prince in an actor's voice is saying, I'm back!
With as much understanding as you have exhibited in this article your garden must be at least an acre and have planted thousands of trees!
Thank you for the generous and thoughtful comment Rick
I first heard Matt Powers coin the term "Future Care" (rather than "Fair Share" or "Return of Surplus" as some of the original permaculture people said). Matt explains some of the thinking behind this in the following timestamped section of this video : https://youtu.be/KfQlVJzFQDg?t=589
That is a very interesting and illuminating allegory of the prince and the peasants, thanks for sharing that.
While I have indeed planted thousands of trees, the majority of those were on other people's properties (I do regenerative agriculture/soil regeneration consultations, landscape design and installation).
I wish my young forest garden was spanning an acre! Alas, we live on a small urban suburban lot for the time being, but this limitation of space has fostered some innovation (spurred by necessity) to stack many functions in our design (which in turn helped me in writing my book and helping others in similar living situations to grow lots of food and medicine with limited space) so there is that blessing in disguise to be grateful for!
We do plan on moving to a plot with at least 15 acres to scale up our food forest and ecological regeneration efforts in the near future.
How about you? What form does your garden currently take? :)
Thanks for swinging by and engaging in the enriching discussion below, I very much enjoyed reading your comments.
Happy you asked about the state of my permaculture affairs!
I'm not a regenerative promoter, I think we should all become peasants of a sort. Ha!
I grow more food than I can eat and continue to construct beds made from the aerobic compost that I learned from the same permaculture teacher as Matt. This is now my 11th year. I also own a 40 acre mostly swamp but about seven sticks up as a tight high acid boulder strewn clay and am successfully rehabilitating the soil with various earthworks and planting schemes. Planted thousands of trees as seedlings on this land I recently speculated about 15% made the trip. Learned a lot and now the results are inching up. This spring I noted quite a few blossoming for the first time.
I have lots of stories about this piece.
Good for you to make a consulting business from the information.
When you say "I'm not a regenerative promoter", what exactly does "Regenerative" mean to you?
I explain some of the ways in which that word is being weaponized (and used by various institutions, individuals and oligarchs in ways that do not align with what my definition and intended use of the term in this article: https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/globalized-greenwashing-the-oligarchs?
40 acres of mostly swamp with high acid, hmm, have you tried creating any "cold climate Chinampas"? I have been wanting to try creating 'Blueberry-centric Chinampas' in the peat bogs north of where we live for some time but have not had the opportunity to experiment yet.
(I touch on the concept of 'cold climate chinampas' at the end of this post if you are not familiar with the term : https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/mole-polbano-dry-spice-mix-and-sauce? )
I would not really describe by soil assessment, remediation and regenerative ag consultation as a 'business' per say, as I have mostly done this work pro-bono in the hopes of helping young beginner farmers transition their parent's property from conventional agriculture ( decimated soil and totally lacking biodiversity) into living soil and a growing space that has the potential to support a diverse polyculture. I have done this to help the living Earth, my local community and future generations, so finding ways to charge people (that are already often under financial stress) for these services is not common for me. Most of the fiat currency I generate comes from my landscape design and installation day job (the majority of which is currently going into getting rare heirloom seeds into people's hands and my book printed and out into the world in the physical). Thus, I would more describe my regenerative efforts (whether they be in a farmer's field or in the garden) as a passion and something I feel called to engage with on a soul level, and less of a "business".
I look forward to reading more about your property, garden designs and learning from your extensive experience and experimentation with earth works and tree planting as time allows.
Wishing you excellent germination rates, not only in the garden outside, but also with the seeds you plant in hearts and minds through your words and actions outside the garden.
Regenerative, regenerate, regenerating are words in your context in conjunction with humans is a means to continue the action of agriculture, or in other words, taking people off the land. Sure these promoted regenerative methods can rehabilitate the soil, but not humanity.
I like to use the word successional, try it instead of regenerate.
Yep, I've fashioned various forms of small experimental chinampas, mostly to grow wild rice. The blueberries have not been successful in other plantings but maybe on the chinampas they would, I'll try it. Thanks for the idea.
Actually when I use the word Regenerate or "regenerative" I am not talking about "taking people off the land". Where did you get that impression?
While I understand the history of the process of "agriculture" to be 99% destructive, imperialistic, anthropocentric and involving the dispossession of many indigenous peoples, the mass killing of myriad non-human beings and the deforestation of large sections of Earth (as I have read "Dirt : The Erosion Of Civilizations", "Bright Green Lies" and other books that offer extensive data in that arena of knowledge), when I am talking about helping farmers transition to regenerative practices I am talking about working with currently degraded land/soil and giving people the tools to accelerate the succession of that ecosystem back into a state where it can support greater biodiversity, providing food and medicine for humans, as well as habitat for non-human beings, and other important roles such as slowing the flow of rain water and stabilizing rain cycles.
I have made it clear in a number of my essays (and in my book) that when I say "Earth care" and "Future Care" this necessitates halting the destruction of ecosystems in the name of "progress" (whether that be for "agriculture" or creating more cities and suburban sprawl or any other anthropocentric reason).
The literal definition of "Regenerate" is pretty clear and the way I use the word regenerative is clearly defined in my book so I have no interest is walking on egg shells or playing "find the new more popular or socially accepted term of the week" and I will continue to use the word regenerative (in the context that I have always used the term, and not in the context of how various shills, parasites, institutions and misinformed individuals are using the term). Successional is a great term and certainly has an established 'niche' in the ecosystem that is my vocabulary but it exists within the broader (more holistically applicable) action of regenerating. Regenerating is not just about gardens or soil or forests, it also applies in the context of social permaculture (for communities, relationships and society as a whole) and it also applies to the inner landscape (body, mind and spirit).
Ahh wild rice! I am envious, I love wild rice (so much better than that often arsenic laden white/brown/black rice from China and Cali). Do you have any material you have posted on the cultivation and harvesting process so I can learn more for when I give growing it a try?
You are most welcome for the idea, please let me know how it goes :)
I am curious to learn more about your comment on how "we should all become peasants of a sort". Could you please elaborate on that thought a bit so I can understand exactly what you mean?
Would your usage of the term have it roots in articles / movements like this https://www.etcgroup.org/content/who-will-feed-us-industrial-food-chain-vs-peasant-food-web perhaps?
Hope you have a beautiful day Rick, thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Ok, here you go, my wild rice experiences: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDCRYtmkDsX8ZwuZNdnalOmgZfix4zJVP
The link you provided fits my ideas. I take issue with my country more than anything. Its like, whew, 70% is huge so now I won't have to actually become one!
I can't tell you exactly as its hard to put to words, too many variables. New information constantly arriving to make a firm diagnoses. I started with the Twelve Articles of the 1525 Peasants War and tracked what those who seized the land and what they have designed in the process to what we have now, which is people don't know how to take care of themselves like the peasants did.
The main reason people fled to the Americas.
Anyway, I liked a study I read about the free tenant peasants of France.
My wild rice experiments have actually attracted the attention of Native Americans, but most of them are too fat to actually do anything... They were mostly captured by the system a long time ago, and even though they have the physical and mental adaptive tools, probably won't go back. But maybe when there is no other choice.
Envy is a bad word.
envy
ĕn′vē
noun
A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
The object of such feeling.
Malevolence.
Regenerate human development without wild diversity is what I see.
Before I read the entirety if your post I've had this dissuasion about regenerative design before. You've invested a lot into this word and probably can't back out of it now. And that's ok, you can think what you want as not much matters because next to no one is actually trying.
What I see is people who want to grow food for the market, for money, by rehabilitating the land to further on agriculture at the expense of wild diversity. Any act to conform the landscape is debilitating as it ends natural succession. Chances are high these methods would prolong the soil, but not humanity in this context. We will be extinct long before we would have been otherwise, or had we stayed localized. I speculated it would take one person to feed only nine others as a reform of living systems, but still not the same as successional.
I've had a long hard physical weekend (which included more planting and garden-like bed forming, and am still tired this morning. I might have to reread once I've refreshed this aging body of mine!
Wildcrafters, like Gavin, have the world as a garden. Stewards of the Earth. Of course the weeding is a chore 🤔 *invasive plant control
Thank you for the kind words Jennifer.
I think this matter of seeing "weeds" and "invasive plants" as some adversary that we should fight against is worth exploring further. I feel that much of the programming we receive (and the resulting counter-intuitive behavior and/or futile efforts we often chose) in other areas of life are analogous to the separation (man vs nature) mentality that is build into the concept of declaring some plants as "weeds" and "invasive".
As Rick alluded to below, many "weeds" and "invasive" plants are really nature's way of communicating to us about what is lacking in a degraded ecosystem/soil structure and her way to begin the process to regenerate that landscape and soil structure.
Outside the garden, in the man-made world of politics, corporate oligarchs and megalomaniacal banksters we can see other entities popping up all over the place which one might say are analogous to these "weeds" people are always fighting with in their gardens.
If one looks at the "system" as a 'garden' and the "few psychopaths" as 'weeds' or 'pathogenic organisms' the transition to a food forest solution can be applied both literally and metaphorically (to provide a framework for actionable solutions that we as individuals can apply in our lives and communities).
The transition to a food forest design from the modern conventional gardening approach (when it comes to cultivating preferred food and medicine plants/fungi) creates a growing environment in which all the ecological niches in that growing space have been filled by choice edible and medicinal species (leaving no room for those plants that are considered by some to be "weeds" or "invasive" to set up shop). Additionally, "food forests" (which emulate the same attributes present in a mature forest ecosystem, except they contain mostly species that provide either food or medicine that is preferred by humans specifically) having such a diverse range of organisms (both microscopic and macroscopic) create conditions where pathogenic organisms are not able to thrive and over power healthy plants (because they have to compete with myriad microorganisms that are beneficial to and exist symbiotically along with plants). In essence, the diversity, decentralized self replicating nature and adaptability of the members of a food forest garden are much more resilient against competitors, parasites and diseases. The members of a functioning food forest are symbiotically connected on many levels. It begins through their roots (where they are connected via the networks of mycorrhizal fungi that allow them to exchange and share resources with those in need and warn each other about approaching threats to their community) and it extends to the way certain species develop long term mutually beneficial relationships with each other, adapting to meet the other's needs, through a process called symbiogenesis). Another characteristic of the food forest is that each member of the food forest is capable of spreading seeds that increase the abundance and medicine offered to the many organisms that call that forest home.
The modern conventional garden (or farm) on the other hand is an expression of a dominant adversarial relationship with nature that most people and institutions in the west have. It involves tearing into the living soil through constant tilling, destroying it's structure (to mine it's nutrients for short term gain at the cost of long term fertility and stability) and planting monocultures of plants in exposed soil in strait rows (fragile groups of often genetically frail domesticated species). These are in effect spaces that invite aggressive pioneering soil-repairing plant species that people often call "weeds" and create a situation that is a buffet for "pest" insects, pathogenic fungi and disease causing microorganisms, inviting them in from far and wide due to the lack of diversity present in that growing space). These are places where humans fight endless wars against "bad guys" and "enemies" of their fragile monoculture via chemical warfare, genetic modification and other detrimental and degenerative practices (which end up undermining the quality and nutritional value of the resulting harvest).
We can take the comparison of these two ways of creating growing "systems" and apply it to the relationship between everyday human beings and the few psychopaths that seek to prey upon and parasitically feed on the unsuspecting many. Those that embrace the way of the monoculture (conforming to 'social norms' and complying with what ever they are told by 'authority figures') are like the rows of hybridized tomato plants being grown in endless fields or in hydroponic greenhouses (standing along with countless others that are behaving in the same way, existing without any meaningful symbiotic connections to the community of life that allows their wild ancestors to thrive and adapt and provide the seeds for their being born). These people living in the way of the monoculture (people who embrace a role as "consumers", allow themselves to be distracted by materialism, always looking to external centralized institutions or individuals to be told what is true and what is not divisive adversarial propaganda that points fingers at "bad guys" and "enemies" which funnels their creative energy into futile artificially generated conflicts between beings of the Earth) this leaves them wide open as targets for parasites looking to feed on fragile monocultures of people.
(continued..)
The one who lives their life like member of a food forest however is symbiotically connected to the diverse community of life they live amongst. They are resilient against disease by the virtue that each member of the community they are intrinsically connected with offers their own unique defense against pathogens, and so the total sum of their resilience is like the bundle of sticks that cannot break (as opposed to the single stick that can be snapped in two when enough pressure is applied). Those who live their life like a member of a food forest do not have an adversarial relationship with their fellow beings, they forge alliances where ever possible and become resilience and adaptable enough to co-exist alongside those they cannot forge alliances with through their own ingenuity and through emulating their elder species. The people who choose to embody this way of being are not susceptible to the same parasites and diseases that the people who follow the way of the monoculture are, in fact, beyond being resistant against psychopathic parasites, "weeds" and societal diseases they become fractal embodiments of the change they wish to see in the world, seeds that set down roots (and begin to replace and render obsolete the parasitic systems that have built up around them). These people become the seeds that can regenerate not only the land, but the very essence of the human spirit, outcompeting the parasites by providing a framework more appealing and efficient than their monoculture machinations, inviting many to shed their monoculture ways and instead become part of a symbiotic community of life guided by integrity, courage, love and having access to perpetual abundance.
There are some people that believe if were just to get the "right" people in power that they would be able to "punish/remove the bad guys" and make everything better. I would say that this is the same attitude behind the conventional gardener or farmer (thinking if they hammer the "bad guy" plants/insects with enough punishment, in the form of manual removal of "weeds"/"invasive", chemicals and gene splicing, they can be the "good guys" and triumph over the "bad guys". This is of course a fallacious and delusional view point that only serves to degrade the quality of the end product, profit large corporations selling chemicals and breed "super-bugs" and "super-weeds" (chemical resistant organisms).
Similarly, punitive measures being applied by top town governmental systems (regardless of what ideological wrappings they have and who is sitting atop such a system) are not effective long term solutions as threatening someone to behave how you want them to only remains effective as long as the threat and ability to act on the threat does, and even then industrious and inventive people will wind a way to circumvent said punitive measures if they really want to. Incentivizing behavior that helps to regenerate the landscape is at least a step in the right direction, as perhaps after being bribed to do something for long enough by the government the people doing it will begin to see the long term intrinsic benefits offered to their own lives by engaging in said actions. Though in my opinion I think that real lasting change must be birthed from within and set down roots in how it is applied in our local communities first and foremost.
Thus, in the end, I feel that the most permanent and systemic change cannot and will not be brought about via any top down policies (whether they are punitive or incentivizing) but rather must originate from within. The societal changes that set down roots and persist through the millennia begin with seeds planted by individuals that are living and embodying the change they want to see in the world, embracing radical authenticity and starting fractal chain reactions in our collective that spread outwardly in all directions.
In essence, it is the seed that rises from within that is born from living the way one wants the world to be, which readily self sows and sets down roots far and wide. Individuals embodying the intrinsic abundance, developing their unique gifts with purpose and embodying the joy that results from living with integrity, compassion, courage and generosity provides an incentive more enticing than any government bribe (or threat) for others to follow suit. These are people living like a member of a functioning ecosystem, each embracing their own unique gifts and offering them in service to better their community. They show other people a way of living that heals the broken parts within us, heals the land around us, begins to bind our shattered, artificially homogenized communities of unique individuals together again and offering True Wealth for all and creating an societal, economic, agricultural and psychological environment in those communities that is inhospitable to parasites that thrive on our dependence on centralized systems.
Ok I am done ranting about the metaphorical implications of the concept of "weeds" now :)
Thanks again for the comment!
The problem with invasives is they just show up. Figuring out how to use them is the best type of control.
Indeed.
Japanese knotweed is considered as "invasive" here and yet , when seen from another perspective, it offers abundant food, early season pollinator forage and it's roots are one of the best sources of Resveratrol (the compound that many attribute to the health benefits of enjoying a glass of organic red wine with a meal).
Just for fun, here are a couple fun videos on Japanese Knotweed:
"Japanese Knotweed, Invasive Plant or Wild Food and Medicine..?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWus4NHrPHY
"Fermented Japanese Knotweed Pickles"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hct1xYrmdNs
Ok. Its already proved that the local plants are getting use to the garlic mustard chemical attack and are fighting back. The buckthorn can't compete with the climax forest trees, but *gasp* humans cut most of those down. So, the invasive simply are filling a niche that was produced for them. Yes' I like to eat garlic mustard too, almost every day now. They are easy to pull out and work well with other uses I employ on the landscape. The problem with a war against invasives is it as a marketing tool of the chemicals manufacturers to promote governments and all sorts of people to buy their products and spray them on the landscape. Of course, what all else these chemicals kill is conveniently overlooked. I'm not being emotional here, just pointing out another idea about all this. Its Ok, you can think what you want.
Hand pulling invasives tends to be the best and how I was taught. Putting a black plastic bag over buckthorn stumps or small sprouts works better is what I learned more recently.
Buckthorn filled a niche where water buffalo of some sort would graze and keep it down, speculation based on how it grows. US wildlife find it inedible and it takes over choking out waterways. There are many ills and blessings in life.
I was not being political or looking at the bigger use of herbicides for plant control. Yes, too much is used, especially bad on aquatic areas.
I use the weeds and as thus are an asset. Invasive plants are simply exhibiting a will to live in a degraded environment. Plenty of examples of how the normally adapted plants come back as the degradation is being repaired by these pioneering species. But that's another subject.
Thank you Rick and Jennifer for each offering your own perspectives, experiences and thoughts and enriching the discussion here.
I was just trying to be funny about the idea of weeding the wild - it is an impossible task with ornamental species out of place. Buckthorn is a nemesis not an asset.
I have returned after 40 years to my childhood forested home and flower beds gone wild are pretty. The buckthorn and some ornamental vine-y thing now taking over the underbrush is invasive.
My reply was a hat-tip to Gavin's wildcrafting knowledge. It encouraged me to get out and gather garlic mustard greens which are quite tasty and spread far too well and too far, too fast. Blown seed patterns, not root spread at least. I am not really a wildcrafter but I have known a few.
I do not know much about Buckthorn, but I see your comment as an invitation to discover and familiarize myself with the gifts it offers us (and the gifts it offers to the broader ecosystems that invited it to take up residence).
Thank you again for the kind words and for sharing your experiences and perspectives.
You're welcome and you will likely learn that buckthorn is a problem invasive, not useful.
Permaculture - this is the way!
Agreed! I feel it is also worth acknowledging that this lens through which we view and interact with the world called "Permaculture" has its roots in many more ancient indigenous scientific methods and traditions. So in reality, to live by the permaculture ethical compass and apply permaculture design principles in our lives is really a path that involves embracing wisdom such as the 7th generation principle that was brought forward by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy ( https://www.haudenosauneeconfederacy.com/values/ ) and what is suggested in the Prophecy Of The Seventh Fire ( https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/the-three-sisters-and-the-time-of ) and then augmenting that wisdom with the precision and scalability of modern scientific methods.
Thank you for the comment.
Excellent collection.
I ascribe to localism being the most effective and tangible way to flourish outside the coming system.
Get local, learn who is in your community (really get to know them, know their names, faces, wave!), what skills you/they have and what infrastructure there is locally.
Ensure the local food chain supply is protected (That there is enough food in the ground), the hospital, power etc.
Connect with and create a community.
Share skills, share food, and you have a source of wealth/wellth that is untouchable and tangible.🤗
PS- As I continue to read (and-re-read) "Rooted" by Lyanda Lynn Haupt (which is one of the books I listed above) I am noticing how much of an emphasis she puts on the healing power of walking barefoot in the woods. In a way, I suppose that allows the community of life that is the human body, to connect with other communities of life (soil life) and this offers a sort of exchange between communities as well.
I concur with your thoughts on localism when it comes to how we produce food, medicine, clothing, building materials, pathways to medicinal care, energy generation infrastructures, utilities and road maintenance, educational systems and some other things. However, I do value integrating a wide range of perspectives and techniques with their roots in cultures from all over (existing in past and present) so perhaps my form of "localism" is not the same as some (who prioritize only seeing from and living from localized traditions and perspectives in an effort to "preserve a cultural identity"). I do my best to integrate many different cultural, scientific and spiritual perspectives and ways of knowing which I feel guided to embrace as I strive to optimize my permaculture designs locally. I do this with the intent of fully unlocking, nurturing and augmenting my own unique gifts in a way in which I am able to most effectively (and joyfully) contribute towards the resilience and symbiosis in my community.
I really appreciate your wise suggestion to "learn who is in your community (really get to know them, know their names, faces, wave!), what skills you/they have and what infrastructure there is locally." This is something I attempted to invite people to do in the Regenerating Communities and Nurturing The Gift Economy chapter in my book.
I also really love the part of your comment where you wrote "Share skills, share food, and you have a source of wealth/wealth that is untouchable and tangible."
Well said! :)
Are you familiar with the "Food Is Free Project" and/or the "Grow Free" movement?
Perhaps "the coming system" (the system the billionaires, banksters and corporate cartels are working to lure people into and push onto the world, which will in essence be a new sort of technocratic totalitarianism) will fail to materialize and will stumble, crumble, fail and or be dismantled before it reaches it's intended goals of creating "digital concentration camps" (with CBDCs, social credit scores etc) or, perhaps they will manage to build out, activate and enforce that abomination for a time before it implodes (as it is inherently unnatural, antithetical to life and unsustainable) but either way, focusing our energy locally will improve our quality of life, our resilience as individuals, households and neighborhoods and help leave this place a little bit more beautiful than it was when we got here for future generations, so I see it as a win win.
Thanks for reading and for the comment.
I am wishing you many peaceful, inspiring and invigorating barefoot walks in the forests, on the beach and in the garden.
Birds of a feather flock together... Thank you for an absolutely excellent reading list... and the music was well appreciated as well.
:) Thanks for reading Anthony and I am glad you enjoyed the tunes.
If you want to hear some other tunes with a similar message and vibe...
Here is a link to a playlist of mixed styles of artists that I titled as "The Fringe Minority Playlist" : https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdCs2hNMAjjAqOTfKIhXA6zzyo-rEa_QE
Thank you!