====================================================================== the S U S T A I N A B L E A G R I C U L T U R E hyper-faq ========================================================================= There is a text version of this document, which is the sustainable agriculture FAQ, as seen on various newsgroups and gopher holes, etc. Colophon 0.1 QUESTIONS ------------------ + 0.2 What is sustainable agriculture? + 0.2a What's so special about it being 'sustainable' anyways? + 0.2b What's the difference between sustainable agriculture and normal agriculture? + 0.3 Is there much information available on the net? + 0.3a World Wide Web hypertext documents + 0.3b Gopher sites + 0.3c FTP sites + 0.3d newsgroups + 0.3d(i) FAQs for newsgroups + 0.3e telnettable databases + 0.3f telnettable library catalogues + 0.4 Is there much info available off the net? + 0.5 Organisations devoted to or related to sustainable agriculture + 0.5a -- on the net + 0.5b -- off the net + 0.9 Questions for which I don't have an answer as yet (Other than all of the above, of course) Try mailing me with your questions, and I'll put 'em in here. If you do get a reply via email, as opposed to someone mailing me with the info, do be nice and let me know what you've found out, so I can remove your question and put the info in here. Or there. Somewhere. You know how it is. + 0.0 Other related information. This is a work in progress. Not much info in here as yet. What is sustainable agriculture? For the moment, I'll throw in my own definition. Seeing as how I'm not an expert on sustainable agriculture, this may or may not be accurate. However: Sustainable agriculture is agriculture which attempts to provide crops (flora, fauna) in such a way that as few as possible external energy inputs are required, be that chemical fertilisers, soil conditioners, etc. What's so special about it being 'sustainable' anyway? Well, anyone who isn't blinkered or stupid can see that the world is rapidly running out of resources(1). There's too many humans, and we're gobbling up resources faster than they can be renewed. Given this, and given the failure of population control methods, something needs to be done. Sustainable agriculture attempts to feed us without placing too great a strain on the earth's resources. Will it work? Well, there's an easy way to tell: when thie earth collapses into a poisoned, putrid hole, then we'll know that our efforts weren't good enough. Personally, I'd rather that didn't happen. What's the difference between sustainable agriculture and normal agriculture? Sustainable agriculture attempts to provide crops without straining the environment on which it depends. Mainstream, western agriculture attempts to produce as much output at as low a cost as possible. The paradigms and motivating factors are different. Sure, sustainable agriculture attempts to provide crops at as low a cost as possible, but it takes into account the cost placed on the earth by the practise of agriculture Resources on the internet: World Wide Web Hypertext documents This will eventually be sorted according to content, but until I actually amass enough guff to make it worth my bother, I'll just present you with a huge list (well, a pifflingly small list) of links. Enjoy. + I've made up a hypertext document listing the directory structure and showing some of the resources available on the SunSITE sustainable agriculture archive, based on a message sent to me by Larry London. It's fairly accurate, I think. + My very own wizz-bang permaculture page. I really hope there's more than this on the net as far as permaculture goes, but until I find more info, this is it, I'm afraid. I did get some mail from someone saying that they had a permaculture page, but they didn't reply with a URL. I might put the guy's email address here to guilt him into actually sharing the info, but until I get frustrated enough, he's safe. + Urban Agriculture Notes. From Canada, provides resources to 17 years of urban agricultural work. Includes a link to the: + Econet, well, a top-level web site, anyways. + The International Standards Organisation now has a web site. + International Urban Agriculture page. + There is info on construction on the internet. It's just started, so there's a dearth of info on it as yet. However, check this out: From: terragroup@aol.com (TERRAgroup) Newsgroups: alt.architecture.alternative Date: 23 Jan 1995 13:35:57 -0500 We are a company in northern California involved in sustainable building and construction technologies. Specifically we design and build structures of stabilized soil cement (rammed earth and pneumatically impacted stabilized earth- PISE TM). We have completed works in Mexico, Brazil, Nicaragua and over 100 in the U.S. We are interested in communicating with others sharing our interest in resource conservation, sustainable development and earth construction. Bryan Miller, TERRA Group, Napa CA, 707-224-2532. terragroup free or cheap energy + check out the MRA homepage Gopher holes: + The Central European Environmental Data Request Facility's gopher hole has a number of UN databases. + The Sustainable Development Information Network's gopher hole. No information as yet. + The Communitarian Network: 1. FAQ 2. platform 3. Mailing list information 4. Insitute for a i Sustainable Future... from their README file in this gopher: CSF was founded on the idea that computer networking should be used to enhance communications with the objective of working through disparate views and ideologies to secure a more promising future. The contents of the archives and the quality of communications on the CSF lists are intended to reflect this purpose. FTP sites: newsgroups: FAQs for newsgroups: telnettable databases: telnettable library catalogues: Information available off the net: Organisations devoted to or related to sustainable agriculture: + Organisations on the net: + Organisations off the net: Back up to the permaculture page Back up to the NEXUS-Australia homepage. Dwayne Jones-Evans.