I am a green prepper. I am close to nature as a permaculturist but also a naturalist. I am repairing my local ecosystem of 500 acres in the MO Ozarks with native species but also managing invasives as the new natives. I avoid chemicals and mechanized management technics but use them when the system gets too far from balance. I also have a small multi-species grazing operation of goats and cattle who work together to manage pasture on 100 acres of 10 paddocks on these 500 acres. I have small stocking rates so this covers cost but does not pay my labor. Large stocking rates are needed to make a living in farming but then you naturally drift into industrial tendencies. Yet, I have a food store. I harvest solar energy through animals and plants. I also have 3600 watt solar system with batteries. I have a heating system for space heat and water that uses wood which my local has plenty of. I sustainably manage my forests. I also have a garden, orchard, and grapes. Now all I need is more labor because I am at my limit. This is a hybrid effort but one that attempts to go local in a delocalized world.
I am hopeful that this viral attack on globalism will also be an attack on delocalization so to speak. I think it is important now to reflect on how brittle globalism is leaving locals massively exposed to healthcare issues and food issues. That said a whole scale retreat from globalism is not advisable unless you want an extremism of death and destruction from cascading failures of important nodes of systematic support. This is now the Anthropocene trap so complete deviation is not an option except if an extreme reset is desired. Some want this but they have not thought it through. They are emotional not rational. It is better to adapt and mitigate just like what will need to be done with climate issues.
My point here of course is with two levels of honest science. The first being honesty about the problem then honesty about the solutions. Traps don’t get fixed they get adapted to. Modern greens pride themselves on honest science with the problems but fail miserably with the solutions. A solution with local farming will be a recognition that permaculture is a less affluent pathway not in regards to natural systems but in regards to market based economics. A permaculture enthusiast will have to be poorer. Those seeking subsidies need to recognize the world post pandemic is poorer. That said governments can promote localism as they try to salvage their markets and safety-nets.
The biggest help would be getting out of the way of passionate people who seek this life. The way they would do this is stop unfair markets and taxation for people that are at the grass roots level supporting the greater good. Stop allowing big business that is hyper efficient because of economies of scale and specialization from out competing small communities and farms. Locals maybe now can be helped to be buffers for areas what are densely populated and require constant energy inputs at high levels. Small farms and communities can go intermittent with energy and more self-sufficient with food if promoted. This then becomes an abstract battery or storage strategy in relation to what renewables are seeking.
Instead of being so concerned with techno optimism like the rich modern green is the REAL Green needs to consider behavioral changes of decline in place with dignity that yields a spiritual counterbalance to decreased comforts. A hybrid of the modern and the poorer past is then combined to leverage best “things”, practices, and lifestyles of the modern and the old. To top the list is stay local. Make it easier for locals to stay in place. Reduce consumerism that naturally delocalizes by whatever means is best for that local. This must be done relatively in regards to the realistic. The Anthropocene has changed the human and natural ecosystem so much that a proper level will need some delocalization tendencies by necessity. This virus was an event but now a process of change can begin if we as a modern people summons the will.
Realgreenadaptation.blog
REAL Green Adaptation 