What would it take to convince you that Permaculture Works at Farm scale?

I just wondered what you, as farmers, would need to be convinced that Permaculture Works at farm/smallholding scale?





Here are a few suggestions, please add your own.





a) I don't know what Permaculture is so would need more information


b) I would need to be convinced that Permaculture works/is profitable on any scale


c) I would need research evidence


d) I would need to see demonstration projects


e) I would need to take classes


f) I would need to see my neighbouring farms using


Permaculture and it making money


g) I would need Government endorsement


h) ..... any other reason



I would probably need to be able to get manpower to make this happen. I have permaculture on less than 2 hectares and while I have some times that I do not have to work at it, I can not get all of the work done in a timely way for all products.





When we have a heavy crop of cherries, plums, we can not harvest them fast enough. But recently we have had a lot of years when early blossoming and late frost have combined to give zero crop. We have had only occasional failures with walnuts, but we have a variety suited to our climate rather than the market.





Close to 2 hectares produces profit close to what 12 hectares of land rented to cash crops gives, but I can not see any way I could handle 12 hectares of permaculture. 2 hectares also does not tax my ability to market it locally.




this question is an oxymoron...farm-scale paermaculture.





the whole idea of permaculture is a return to days of old when small communities and even down to family levels grew all their own foods in an environmentally friendly way, using no chemicals and relying on the system as a whole to function efficiently in terms of nutrient load, light water etc.





without a substantial amount of manpower, not to mention space permaculture can't work on a commercial scale. Plus the output per unit area of permaculture is far below the output of commercial monocultural practices.




I would add


"can permaculture produce enough food for an expanding population"


"Under a natural system how harmful would natural pests be to yield and quality"


I would remove "I would need Government endorsement" by the time government endorsed it most farmers would be well advanced in the practice.