Lankas Debate Fim-de-Semana de Visitas

"The new Citizen Farmers" "Os novos Cidadãos Agricultor"

It's inspired by a pitch I gave at the Social Innovation Summer School, you can see the text here: http://supergreenme.blogspot.com/2009/08/everything-gardens-we-garden-lets.html

Main thrust:
- The bottom line of a healthy ecosystem is food.
- The concept of the citizen farmer was central to the rhetoric of the French revolution, already then some thinkers realised economy and society, and even politics, should be tied to sound management of the land and its resources.
- A holistic perspective on community would place the farmer back at the centre of activities. A farmer in the broadest sense is a producer, a gardener, a craftsman/woman, a forester, a tailor, a cook, a herder, a beekeeper, a healer, a carpenter, even an engineer or an architect.
- If we could train people to become farmers again, in this broad sense, we we can heal not only the damaged ecosystems that we live in but also the social systems.

Questions up for debate:
- How can permaculture assist in innovating our social systems so that farming becomes the main activity again?
- How can we train all kinds of people to become farmers / gardeners again, in spirit but also in skills?
- How do we avoid going back to farming being seen as a step back?
- ... send in your questions :-)