school assignment

Discussion in 'General chat' started by arawajo, Apr 24, 2007.

  1. arawajo

    arawajo Junior Member

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    My daughter, year 12, had a geography excursion to Crystal Waters Permaculture Village today. She has to now write 1000 words on the most appropriate use of an imaginary property in the Conondale Ranges, choosing from A. Permaculture Farm, B. Monoculture Farm or C. Organic farm.

    Isn't it great that high school kids are doing stuff like this. She was rapt that she could talk about her mum's mandala garden and the mobile chook pen and the compost toilets etc.

    But I am not sure how an Organic Farm differs from a Permaculture Farm. I'm trying to help her with this assignment. Can anyone help me by explaining the difference?
     
  2. Jez

    Jez Junior Member

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    G'day arawajo,

    I guess the simplified version for the purposes of definition would be that an organic farm *could* be very much like a typical commercial farm, except the inputs are all organic, whereas a Permaculture farm would follow Permaculture principles, of which producing organically is just one. Same for Biodynamic farming.

    There are plenty of monoculture organic farms...just to confuse the definitions even further. :lol:

    If I was writing an essay on it, I'd start with a brief definition of the typical version of each...although it may be tough in a 1000wd paper if they are sticklers about word limits.

    I hope that was some help.
     
  3. arawajo

    arawajo Junior Member

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    Thanks Jez - that clears it up a bit in my mind. I shall pass your advice on to her. I hadn't thought of the organic monoculture.

    All systems have some similar features I guess. I'm picturing them in venn diagram form.

    Permaculture is more a philosophical approach that includes a lot more than just production whereas organic farming and monoculture are about production alone.

    I agree 1000 words isn't much room to really explore the subject.

    Cheers,
    arawajo
     
  4. Jez

    Jez Junior Member

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    I think integration between various systems is a key difference between Permaculture and the others which is worth exporing in the paper arawajo.

    You could have an organic farm which buys all its inputs - just like a commercial monoculture...bought in fertilisers...organic pesticides etc...has no animals involved.

    With Permaculture (and biodynamics) you want the land and the systems you build to be as self-sustaining as possible resorting to external inputs as little as possible, so diverse systems which feed into and sustain one another is a major difference.
     
  5. Tezza

    Tezza Junior Member

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    well typed Jez

    Tezza
     
  6. arawajo

    arawajo Junior Member

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    Thank you - that's a very good way to explain it.
     

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