"For decades, beavers were considered pests – trapped & shot on sight. Now the attitude towards nature's best engineers is changing, & farmers are working to bring them back. #Beavers are vital to #ecosystems, as their dam building habits spread water through parched landscapes. This can not only help to regulate the flow of water, it provides another important service – keeping fires under control. Beavers are nature's firefighters.
In northern New Mexico, Darr has seen farmers "drastically" change their perception of beavers. "They were pretty hesitant, but they saw first-hand how the beavers provided sustained, reliable #water sources throughout the year, even during the hot dry summer we had. To see it is to believe it. We just have to show people what beavers can do for other wildlife, & humans." #permaculture#climate#drought#floodhttps://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240111-the-us-is-bringing-back-beavers-because-theyre-natures-best-firefighters
Hi all, I just joined Mastodon and wanted to share an #introduction. I’m Catie, a #gradstudent studying the #posthumanities in the US. I joined Mastodon bc a friend shared that I’d likely find some like-minded folx here online, since my small suburban town is pretty limited when it comes to anything “post.” Looking for fun or intriguing conversations and connects! I somewhat recently moved off the #permaculture homestead I was developing, so I’ve got that background too. I’ve been examining intersections of #posthumanism and permaculture related to patterning… lots there! Reach out if you’re looking to connect!
I made water-drinking stations for bees. They love it!
During the hot, dry part of the year, you can really help your local bee population by providing water. Fill a large bowl with stones of different sizes and water. Float a few sticks or corks on the surface. Refill the water when it evaporates. #permaculture#nature#gardening#bees
"Your city is a scab on the landscape: sidewalks, roads, parking lots, rooftops—the built environment repels water into sewers & then into the environment. Urban planners have been doing it for centuries, treating stormwater as a nuisance to be diverted away as quickly as possible to avoid flooding. Not only is that a waste of free water, it’s an increasingly precarious strategy, as #climate change worsens #droughts but also supercharges storms, dumping ever more #rainfall on impervious cities.
We are very happy to announce that the citizen science and open data platform One Million Voices of Agroecology has been listed on the EU-Citizen.Science Platform.
EU-Citizen.Science is an online platform for sharing knowledge, tools, training and resources for citizen science – by the community, for the community.
#ClimateDiary more on #UK harvest disaster this year. Particularly heartbreaking to read about struggles of an #agroecology farmer, who fears her veg box business might go bust. These are people who are trying to provide alternatives, pathways to transition - it worries me deeply that climate change is making this impossible.
Reminded again of Roger Hallam’s trajectory (founder of XR): it was his struggles as a #permaculture farmer that brought him to protest.
Hi! This is my #introduction post. I'm new to mastodon and currently #adhd hyperfixating on #gardening and #permaculture. I have a lot of revolving interests, though!
Contrary to popular dogma, industrial agriculture cannot "feed the world." Below are seven key takeaways from a report comparing the industrial food chain to the smallholder peasant food web.
Peasants are the main or sole food providers to more than 70% of the world’s people, and peasants produce this food with often much less than 25% of the resources — including land, water, fossil fuels — used to get all of the world’s food to the table.
The industrial food chain uses at least 75% of the world’s agricultural resources and is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, but provides food to less than 30% of the world’s people.
For every $1 consumers pay to industrial food chain retailers, society pays another $2 for the industrial food chain’s health and environmental damages. The total bill for the industrial food chain's direct and indirect cost is 5 times governments’ annual military expenditure.
The industrial food chain lacks the agility to respond to climate change. Its research and development is not only distorted but also declining as it concentrates the global food market.
The peasant food web nurtures 9-100 times the biodiversity used by the industrial food chain, across plants, livestock, fish, and forests. Peasants have the knowledge, innovative energy and networks needed to respond to climate change; they have the operational scope and scale; and they are closest to the hungry and malnourished.
There is still much about our food systems that we don’t know we don’t know. Sometimes, the industrial food chain knows but isn’t telling. Other times, policymakers aren’t looking. Most often, we fail to consider the diverse knowledge systems in the peasant food web.
The bottom line: at least 3.9 billion people are either hungry or malnourished because the industrial food chain is too distorted, vastly too expensive, and — after 70 years of trying — just can’t scale up to feed the world.
Lost Forest Gardens of Europe
"In the hills above the Po river in N Italy, there are a handful of #farms that look almost the same today as they would have 3000 years ago.
There are rows of short pruned trees, with fruit-laden grape vines festooned between them. The trees are common natives that produce #fruit, firewood, #basketmaking materials, & #fodder for farm animals. The grapes are ancient cultivars that have been grown for millennia. Between rows of grapes & trees are diverse plots of cereals, hayfields, vegetables, & herbs. In a single field, one can find all of the staples needed to live & support the farmstead. This is a resilient system modeled on a #forest. Unlike monocultures of grapes or grain, diversity is the strength here. Disease outbreaks & unseasonable weather have a limited impact. If one crop has a bad year, there are a dozen others to pick up the slack. Designed to last millennia & that is what they have done." https://www.shelterwoodforestfarm.com/blog/the-lost-forest-gardens-of-europe#The-Continent-Wide-Orchard#permaculture#agroforestry
I baked a loaf of bread the other day, first time in years, maybe decades. Baking bread from scratch makes you feel like you can do anything! And it smells great.
The chemical industry tries to convince gardeners that dead-nettles amust be destroyed with chemicals.
But there's no need to poison them or to pull them out. They're not harmful weeds. Actually, they're edible and contain valuable mineral nutrients so you can simply treat them as volunteeer vegetables. 🙂 I like to add them to creamed soup.
"What we might call modernity, civilization, or the “world made by humans” is a layer built on top of fundamental prerequisites like air, #water, materials, and life. Humans cannot exist in ecological isolation. Our context is unfathomably deep in time & in biodiversity. The hierarchy is crystal clear: humans require ecological health rather than the reverse. This means all our constructs, which do not exist without us, cannot exist without a functioning #ecology.
The globally-dominant culture preaches the opposite hierarchy, either out of ignorance or arrogance: that humans & our constructs are of primary concern—the rest being incidental background noise. For the human supremacist (most people in our culture, unknowingly), biophysical considerations only enter in the context of #energy, materials, extraction, exploitation, & in short, market value.
1/ How to quit capitalism.
by @Daojoan "Let’s start with something controversial: Capitalism is not an economic system. It is a philosophical & ideological force that shapes our lives, environment, & perception of humanity.
It’s a behemoth that thrives on relentless growth, often at a devastating cost. Under its reign, we witness the widening chasm of inequality, where the affluent soar on the wings of wealth while the less fortunate are left to the whims of an unforgiving market.
Our planet, the cradle of life itself, is treated as a commodity, its resources extracted with reckless abandon, its delicate #ecosystems pushed to the brink for profit.
In its unbridled form, #capitalism has ushered in an era where consumerism is king, & possessions are the yardstick of success. In this relentless pursuit of more, we have lost sight of what truly matters — our connection to each other, our harmony with nature, & our sense of #purpose beyond material gains." https://joanwestenberg.com/blog/how-to-quit-capitalism #permaculture#economics
Here's an interview with a beloved friend & colleague.
The Radical Acts of Growing Diversity and Saving Seeds: An Interview with Doug Gosling
“Growing plants & saving seeds are some of the most provocative, democratic, and radical acts one can take towards reconciling the modern world’s alienation from the earth and the miracle of life.”
Question instance #mastodon :
Vous connaîtriez une instance principalement francophone orientée #permaculture, #agroforesterie, #decroissance, etc ?
Je me suis inscrit sur celle de la Quadrature un peu par défaut, mais je découvre que certaines instances sont plus adaptées que d'autres en fonction des centres d'intérêts.
Des conseils ?
Le repouet est doux et favorise la germination 😉...