Permanent Agriculture: A Little Bit of History

The term, permaculture, was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in Australia, following years of research, experimentation, and writing.  In its origin – before being associated with permanent culture – the term permaculture was meant to represent the idea of permanent agriculture, a concept that dates back to 1910.  At that time, Cyril Hopkins and Franklin King wrote four books on the subject, which was quite significant, as it was the first time in the United States that a type of agriculture was qualified and differentiated from the conventional agriculture supported by the USDA.  Although King was author to only one of the three books, Farmers of Forty Centuries or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan, and died before its completion, its popularity superseded all three of Hopkins’ publications.  In the book, King describes a form of permanent agriculture, based on labour-intensive agricultural production, the use of local materials, and the recycling of all waste products in order to sustain yields and soil fertility over centuries. In King’s introduction to agricultural production in the three countries, he surmises: 

Almost every foot of land is made to contribute material for food, fuel or fabric. Everything which can be made edible serves as food for man or domestic animals. Whatever cannot be eaten or worn is used for fuel. The wastes of the body, of fuel and of fabric worn beyond other use are taken back to the field; before doing so they are housed against waste from weather, compounded with intelligence and forethought and patiently labored with through one, three or even six months, to bring them into the most efficient form to serve as manure for the soil or as feed for the crop. 

Since its first publication in 1911, there have been, at minimum, 26 English impressions or editions of Farmers of Forty Centuries and King’s work had great influence in the creation of   what is now called organic agriculture.

In 1929, Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russell Smith was published, proposing the planting of tree crops for the United States on hillsides, steep slopes, rocky areas, and dry regions.  Smith’s observations in China, Syria, Greece, Italy, Guatemala, and the United States lead him to warn against the inevitable one-way trajectory of plow agriculture: “Forest – field – plow – desert”.  His book, Tree Crops, was a plea for investment into the necessary research and experimentation it would take before the government would be ready to come on board.  He was looking for someone to literally buy into his vision of a permanent agriculture:   

We will have small plowed fields on the level hilltops.  The level valleys will also be plowed, but the slopes will be productive through crops trees and protected by them – a permanent form of agriculture.”  Smith also suggested a “two-story agriculture” incorporating both annual crops and trees, such as the intercropping now found in agroforestry.  He thought of this as another form of permanent agriculture.  Yet, Smith’s work is a singular example of the use of the term permanent agriculture since the work of King and Hopkins.  Until the work of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren was published in 1978, there is little mention of permanent agriculture as a sustainable form of agriculture.

Bill Mollison presents three forms of permanent agriculture in Permaculture: A Designers’ Manual.  The first refers to King’s seminal work in China, Japan, and Korea, describing this form of permanent agriculture, “feudal permanence” in that people were in service to the state or a landlord, relentlessly working the land, without escape.  Mollison felt that this form of agriculture was unsustainable, due to the probability of revolt or famine.  The second form is permanent pasture, such as the prairies, pampas, or western farms – large landscapes of few people and often a single animal species.  This “baronial permanence” is considered by Mollison to be the least productive use of land, and once mechanized ruin the soil and landscape.  Mollison is probably most in line with the vision set out by Smith in 1929, as he describes the third form of permanent agriculture – forests – as a “communal permanence”.  A permanence that “requires generations of care and knowledge, and hence a tribal or communal reverence only found in stable communities”.  It is the desire for communal permanence, found in forests, that permaculture was born out of.           

Hopkins, C.G.  (1910).  Soil fertility and permanent agriculture.  Ginn and Company, Boston.

Hopkins, C.G.  (1911).  The story of the soil: From the basis of absolute science and real science. The Gorham Press, Boston.

Hopkins, C.G.  (1913).  The farm that won’t wear out.  Cyril G. Hopkins, Champaign.

King, F. H.  (1911).  Farmers of forty centuries, or permanent agriculture in Korea, China, and Japan.  Mrs. F. H. King, Madison

Mollison, B.  (1992).  Permaculture: A designers manual.  Tyalgum, Australia: Tagari Publishing. 

Smith, J. R.  (1929).  Tree crops: A permanent agriculture.  Rahway, NJ: Quinn & Boden Company, Inc.  

The Great Divide

Last night I went to the screening of Black Gold at Planet Bean in downtown Guelph.  The event was held as an information session to gather support (a.k.a. volunteers) to help turn Guelph into a Fair Trade Town.  Something that Toronto just became last Friday.

If you are not familiar with the Fair Trade Town concept, the goal is that a city's stores, restaurants, and cafes would start to offer and have available fair trade products for residents.  The City would source fair trade coffee and sugar for meetings and events.  Once a certain criteria is met, the city or town could become certified as a Fair Trade Town.  The reason this concept really works is that the more and more Fair Trade Towns that exist the more pressure there is for large companies that buy and sell low price commodities, such as coffee, cacao, sugar, bananas, and flowers, to change their ways (i.e. buying products at a fair price that allows farmers to send their children to school).  Already the University of Guelph is certified as a Fair Trade Campus, the first in Ontario, so Guelph is almost there!

Cacao growing in Costa Rica

The reason I'm mentioning all of this is because both the documentary and Bill Barrett of Planet Bean really brought home the reality of the divide we have in our society.  Of course we all know it, but sometimes we forget (or choose to forget).  We here in the global North have cheap access to luxury items such as coffee, chocolate, sugar, and bananas without much consideration given to how they got to us or the cost involved.  And as Bill mentioned last night, often the farmers who grow these commodities have no idea where their products go once they harvest them.  In a society that loves to think of themselves as so connected, it is crazy to think that we are so disconnected from the foods we consume or the products we help produce.  And for me to think that there is a farmer out there who cannot put shoes on his or her child's feet or feed them in lean times while we line up in cars for our morning fix before heading to the office, well, it's sickening.

Luckily there is such a thing as community, what one permaculture farmer I met in Costa Rica referred to as the "invisible structures" of permaculture that are outlined in David Holmgren's Permaculture Flower.  One of the petals of the flower is dedicated to land tenure and community governance and includes invisible structures such as cooperatives, consensus decision-making, and eco-villages - to name only a few.  It is through cooperatives that farmers in countries, such as Ethiopia, are able to take back some control over the selling of their product.  Co-operatives help to cut out the numerous middle-men that exist in the coffee trade and thus receive a higher price for their product.  Instead of relying on a truck to come by their farm and haggle a cheap price, farmers together can purchase their own truck and bring their product to market themselves.  There is strength in numbers and power in community.

Of course, buying fair trade is a bit like recycling.  You feel much better about yourself, but you're not really solving the underlying issues (such as subsidies, consumer culture, inequality) that make successful cooperatives and awesome companies like Planet Bean an anomaly at best.  The great divide that exists between the rich and the poor is only getting bigger.  A recent article from BBC News reads:

"the richest 10% of society in the 33 OECD countries received 9.5 times that of the poorest in terms of income, up from nine times in 2007."    

This is, of course, readily apparent to travellers, especially backpackers from relatively rich countries, who go to poorer countries on vacation.  It can be a shocking experience, especially the first time.  I really noticed this gap between rich and poor at the end of my trip, when I left my home stay in rural Costa Rica for a four-star resort in Cancun, Mexico to attend my very good friend's wedding.  

I went from this...

To this.

From this...

To this.

From this...

To this.

Many of us have witnessed poverty and have probably experienced a similar situation to the one I was faced with about a month ago.  I know my experiences in international development have hardened me to these stark juxtapositions.  However, that's the last thing I want.  These images need to remind us that our luxury is often in steep contrast to the majority of others.  Until we realize that we are one big community and in this together, we're going to need all the Fair Trade Towns, Planet Beans, and small-farmer cooperatives we can get.  

The home stay had one up on the resort though...piggies!

Cooking with a Conscience

Since being back home from Costa Rica I have been pretty excited about being in the kitchen and cooking up new creations.  My use of the stove, oven, slow cooker, and electric frying pan feels diverse, yet the truth is they all rely on one thing: electricity.  Not very diverse.  This made me think of the permaculture farms I recently visited.  Most of these farms have more than one energy source that they use for cooking, while one farm in particular had eight different cooking sources.  Eight!

The most ubiquitous alternative cooking method takes its energy from the sun.  Solar cookers come in all shapes and sizes, but the main functions are to concentrate sunlight onto the cooking surface using reflective materials, this converts the sunlight to heat on the non-reflective cooking surface, and then a glass lid or plastic traps heat inside, making it possible to cook in colder temperatures.  Solar cookers can be used to dehydrate, bake, and cook everything from banana bread to chicken souvlaki.

The sun is also great for making sun tea, a simple method of putting a very clean glass jar (to avoid bacteria growth) of water and herbs (or tea bags) in full sun for 3 to 5 hours.  You can then drink it - hot or cold.  Mmmm...summer in a glass!

Cashew fruit being dehydrated

Solar Cooker

Another common alternative cooking method that many might be familiar with is the cob or adobe oven.  I've mentioned cob before without explaining it.  So what is cob?  Cob is a mixture of earth, sand and straw mixed together.  The process of cobbing is, according to the Cob Builders Handbook, "a process best described as mud daubing", the mixture is "massaged onto the foundation, creating thick load-bearing walls.  It's like hand-sculpting a giant pot to live in."  Or cook in!   Cob can generate some beautiful creations - a cob building or oven can be a work of art in and of itself.

Many of you have probably heard of or been exposed to adobe ovens, maybe for a pizza night on someone's farm, and may be asking what the difference is between cob and adobe.  Well, once again I'll defer to the Cob Builders Handbook, which gives this explanation of adobe: "Adobe is a form of building using unfired earth.  Dirt, straw, and water - the same ingredients as in cob - are made into bricks which are then sun dried and built into walls with a 'cob-like' mortar."  And so, the difference lies in the making of sun-baked bricks vs. not.  Wood, of course, is the renewable energy source used for both cob and adobe ovens.        

Next on the list of sustainable cooking methods is methane, obtained through the use of a biodigester.  I have seen this method both in Costa Rica and on one of the farms I visited in Cuba through the Permaculture Cuba! internship I did in 2010.  In a nutshell, a biodigester anaerobically (without oxygen) breaks down manure, urine, and water over a few days, with help from the natural heat of the sun.  If we're talking about human manure (often called "humanure") then when using the toilet, nothing except these three "ingredients" go into the toilet - this means toilet paper must be disposed of in another manner, such as composting.

Cob Washroom connected to biodigester

The two products of a bio-digester are sludge and methane.  Sludge is a watery substance containing nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, and small amounts of metallic acids.  It is a fabulous fertilizer.  93% of potential pathogens die off before leaving the biodigester; however to ensure no pathogens are being transferred to your crops and food, you should compost the sludge first.  The gas coming out of the biodigester at the farm I visited in Costa Rica was 65% methane and 35% carbon dioxide with a few other trace gases.  Methane is a low-pressure gas, which required the farm to create a modified stove with larger openings than the traditional propane stoves used in the country.  It is the farm's goal to completely eliminate their dependency on propane through these other sustainable methods of cooking.
            

Water is applied for 15-20 seconds afterward -
This is a necessary part of the process

The farm also brought in cow manure from a near-by farm,
which it put through its biodigester

The farm also had one stove that was run on used vegetable oil.  This was quite fitting as I had recently made a friend who traveled from British Columbia to Central America in a school bus powered by used vegetable oil.  What an adventure!  To use vegetable oil in a vehicle, the vehicle must run on diesel and the oil needs to be filtered.  There is a lot of information out there for doing this, though not so much for using using vegetable oil as an energy source for a stove.  But it can be done!  On the right of this photo is the methane stove.  The stove on the left is using used veggie oil.


Next in the diverse field of sustainable cooking methods is the Rocket Stove.  The rocket stove is an efficient alternative to traditional open fire cooking methods.  These stoves are designed to burn small pieces of wood very efficiently and thus cleanly.  Rocket stoves are being adopted in some developing countries and refugee camps because they are relatively inexpensive to make, require very little fuel, and emit less hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide.  This means they are accessible to those with little to no income, require less travel to gather firewood (usually a women's job that is not only time consuming, but in some areas quite dangerous), and is healthier.

The inner workings of the Rocket stove

Rocket stove in action - making hooch

A similar stove that an intern was in the process of fixing while I was there, is the Justa Stove, another efficient alternative for cooking indoors that is being widely adopted in Central America.  It is said to remove 100% of wood smoke and produces 35-85% less green-house gas emissions.  From what I understand it has similar technology, using the elbow shape.  I wasn't able to get any pictures of my own of this one, since it was under construction, but here are some pictures that may help you differentiate it from the rocket stove.

Finally, the last sustainable cooking method in my long list is the bio-char stove.  Bio-char really can and should be a topic onto itself, but here I will just give a quick overview.  Essentially bio-char is charcoal used for agricultural purposes that is created through a pyrolysis process - this means to heat biomass in a low-oxygen environment.  Once the process has begun it requires no external inputs and burns clean.  Aside from the bio-char, this process captures gases (H2, CO, CH4), which are the fuel for the bio-char stove.  The benefits of bio-char are numerous and I will save these for a future blog.

I'm sure there are even more sustainable cooking methods out there, but these are the ones I have encountered in my travels and during my research.  The beauty of all of these methods is that they are inexpensive and easy to build for the DIY crowd.  I hope you found them inspiring!

Cilantro growing in bio-char at CATIE

Growing Global Citizens

The walk to my home stay

Increasingly we as a global society have become more interconnected and mobile. Globalization has enabled the cheap and efficient transfer of people, products, and information around the globe in ways that none of could have imagined a few decades ago.  It is because of globalization that I found myself amongst a group of interns, volunteers, and students from all over the world in a town not big enough to be named on any Costa Rican map or tourist guidebook.  In fact the town's first and only public pay phone is barely 5 years old.

The town, while quite small, is home to a handful of educational and family-run farms that host volunteers, interns, and university classes learning about tropical agriculture and environmental sustainability.  As you can imagine this transient, affluent, and international presence has impacted the community, both positively and negatively, causing some farmers to re-think their volunteer and internship programs.

You may be wondering what could be wrong with bringing in tourism and therefore money into a small, rural community - especially at a time when many small, rural communities are disappearing.  It's really quite simple.  Many of the volunteers and students who come through town are short-term stays.  One week to one month.  They want a different and meaningful experience...but they are on vacation and still want to party.  Late-night partying impacts the community through noise, drunken trysts between locals and foreigners, and the perpetuation of a drinking culture, which sometimes results in cases of alcoholism and domestic violence among the local population.

On the other hand, the money that comes through these farms is dispersed quite far throughout the community.  University classes, although staying at one farm, will gather and eat at the local restaurant, they will pay for tours to visit the other farms in the area, and even treat the students to a "cultural experience" by sending them to a home stay for one night - giving local women a source of income.  Interns and volunteers also support the local store, restaurant, and bar.  The fees paid to the farms for their stay are dispersed in the community through the procurement of food items and other goods and services needed to keep the farms and volunteer programs running.  These farms are part of the existing community, they are not trying to create their own.

The ever-changing menu and quote of the day

1 of 8 sustainable cooking methods on the farm

Communal Eating Area

And yet, as I volunteered and spent time at this last farm on my itinerary, I couldn't help but ask the owner if it was his initial goal to create an intentional community.  On this particular farm, I could feel and see the community spirit that so many farms I had visited over the past weeks were seeking.  But it was not his goal.  His concern was the original community that he and his family had moved into.  He talked about how their program had evolved over the years in order to counteract the negative impacts associated with the volunteer program.  The internship commitment has increased over the years, from any length of time, to 3 months, and now to 6 months.  This time frame gives people a chance to take ownership of their temporary home and therefore responsibility over their actions - both on and off the farm.  It also gives the farm a chance to teach about global citizenship.

Awesome Cobb Creativity

So what does it mean to be a global citizen?  Surely, the sheer act of travel alone does not qualify one to become a global citizen.  Instead it means understanding that we are all connected and that our actions impact those around us.  A global citizen takes the initiative to educate themselves about the world, especially the places they visit, appreciating the diversity found in humanity.  A global citizen works towards environmental sustainability and social justice, taking responsibility for their actions and those of society.  A global citizen participates in community, both locally and internationally.   

The long-term internships and conversations have made a difference.  

Projects are not abandoned by the departure of a volunteer, instead they are documented and maintained.  Interns play football with the locals at the community field.  Everyone knows where things go and takes initiative to make sure things get done.  A library has been built for the local residents by the farm over the last three years.  People have fun and the bar is frequented, but with discretion.  Interns are keenly aware of global issues, building practical skills to sustainably affect change at the local level.  Despite their temporary residence, interns are thinking long-term, designing and planting food forests for a future harvest they most likely won't taste.

The library just opened 2 weeks ago

The exterior of the library

The library will be dedicated to Spanish books

Or maybe they will, since at this farm people seem to come back year after year, becoming part-time (and in some cases full-time) residents of the farm and community.  I don't blame them.

For the Love of Chocolate

Leaving Dominical was an adventure!  My new friend, who I recruited from the hostel, and I left bright and early to catch the first of four buses that would eventually take us to the middle of nowhere, rural Costa Rica.  The first two buses were pretty much a breeze, but as we got off the second bus and retrieved our very dusty bags from underneath the bus, we noticed rain clouds.  As the bus drove away I'm pretty sure my traveling companion was starting to question his decision to blindly follow me away from the coast and the hot sandy beaches.  We were at an intersection of two dirt roads, overlooking a spectacular landscape, but it was starting to rain, it was getting cool, and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, around.  And so we hunkered down under a tiny overhang as it poured and we waited for the bus...

About 45 minutes later a kindly gentleman stopped on his motorcycle in the pouring rain to point out a shelter a ways down the road...apparently the bus was going to come from the opposite direction that we had anticipated and (of course) there was a rain shelter to wait under at the proper bus stop.  So we moved, soaking wet, and at least looked a little less like fools when the bus came a few minutes later.

By the time we arrived at the Chocolate Farm the rain had stopped, the sun was setting, and we were pretty excited.  As we walked up to the house I realized that I recognized one the of the people there - he had been at the last farm I was at and was now at the Chocolate Farm for his second time - the family has adopted him for a month or so, while their own son is away.  We had arrived on pizza night and the cobb oven was already fired up when we arrived.

Oh yeah...and there were puppies!

This was one of the first farms I can genuinely say that I wanted to stay at for much longer than I could.  The vibe was laid back, friendly, organized, and there was work to do!  This is a Tico family farm, running a local business based on growing cacao and the processing of chocolate.  It's also a mixed farm slowly implementing permaculture principles and practices.

Over the time I stayed at the farm I shelled roasted cacao beans, processed the ground cacao and sugar to make chocolate, molded chocolate, packaged cacao powder, labeled chocolate soap, and ate chocolate.  I and the other volunteers (there was six of us in total) did other jobs as well.  There was some construction, picking oranges, picking rocks and carrying them up a very big hill (for a future cobb project), and helping with dinners.

Roasting the Cacao Beans

Shelling Roasted Cacao Beans

Molding the Chocolate

So many yummy chocolate flavours!

The Construction Project (I didn't work on this)

The work day was well defined and that kept the whole experience very mellow.  We got up around 6am and watered the gardens.  We had breakfast around 7am and worked from 7:30am to 12pm, at which point it was time for lunch.  After cleaning up, we were free until dinner prep - around 5:30pm.
  

Maybe this is why I didn't want to leave!
Unfortunately it wasn't in the best shape, but it made me feel good to know it was there. 

My living quarters

This left plenty of time for volunteers to explore their own interests, whether that meant reading a book, crafting, making natural ginger ale, baking bread, or learning how to roast cashews.

Did you know that the cashew nut is toxic before being roasted?
Also, the cashew fruit can be used for all kinds of things, from juice to hooch!

It's hard to say what makes a farm seem more inviting or interesting than another.  Sometimes it's the mix of volunteers that are currently at the farm.  Other times it's the type of work available to do.  And then at times it's the atmosphere and personality of the farm and farm family.  In this case, I believe my desire to stay longer was a mix of all three.  I have to admit that although my next farm was only a twenty minute walk away, I stayed until the last possible hour before putting on my pack and heading out the gate.

Toucan!  We saw seven at once.  

Dominical Dreaming

So I've been trying to figure out why we live in such a cold climate and have come to the conclusion that we're either dumb or crazy.  Say what you will about how great Canadian summers are and how the changing of the seasons is a beautiful phenomenon, but after pondering this question at the ocean side for the last five days I'm starting to think we should all move to the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica.  And by "we", I mean the whole lot of us - friends and family.

Dominical is a special place.  A tiny little beach town with no paved roads, a cluster of restaurants and drinking holes, local craft vendors, cabins for rent, and more surf shops than grocery stores.  It's quiet and the sunsets are spectacular.

There is also a tranquil vibe at Hostel Piramys, where I've been staying.  It seems to make people stay longer than originally intended.  One person came for two days and stayed for twelve.  I was supposed to be here for three days, but have extended my stay to five days.  The real reason for my lengthened stay is that one of my farm interviews fell through and so I have had to bide my time at the beach.

It's a tough life.  I have had to spend my time lying in hammocks, reading and writing, suntanning, walking the beach, swimming in the ocean, and watching the sunset.

I've had an interesting experience though.  I met two people who volunteered on one of the farms I was recently at.  I had heard that they were coming to the farm, but I left a day or two prior to their arrival.  I decided to interview them one night about their experience on the farm and just as we were getting started amongst of the hustle and bustle of dinner preparation in the kitchen, another volunteer that we all knew from the same farm walked into the hostel looking for accommodations.  It's a small world!

And so today myself and a fellow traveler are both making our way to my next farm.  So once again I have company for my travels.  He's planning to stay one month volunteering.  I will be there for four nights doing my research.  And so it's time to get back to work for the last 10 days of my time here in Costa Rica.  I'll be visiting a total of three more farms in a very short period of time.  I promise to keep sharing my experiences.