Reciprocal Relationships - Part 2

               Back last year I wrote about Reciprocal Relationships as they pertained to our interactions with the Kindred, the Outdwellers, and even each other. Over the years I have been researching sustainable living and permaculture. It has led me to another personal insight when it comes to reciprocal relationships. I never really thought too heavy about in the past but now it seems to stand out like bright neon sign. That is the one we have with our environment.

               In permaculture the idea is to farm and garden in such a way that we are using the natural growth cycles and patterns to create an environment that adds to the land, not destroying it like modern farming practices. To do this we have to observe nature, the cycles of the seasons, interactions of animals with the environment, and weather patterns. All this knowledge allows us to plan our gardens and farms in such a way that it grows naturally through well-established methods of life and death within nature.

               But to do this we have to create a reciprocal relationship with the earth, our environment, and with all the animals living near us. When we work to create a farming system that mimics the natural environment it can feed and fertilize itself. It creates an environment with natural predator and prey cycles that that allows us to be free from the use of harmful toxic chemicals. All of this generates increasing fertility in the world around us. It allows for we humans to mitigate and restore the damage we do to the world through the belief that we our ‘outside’ the nature world. Making these changes puts us into a position so that we can receive the full benefit and fertility of the land.

 

               So through being good stewards of the land, changing our ways of farming and gardening, and being full participate in our environments health, we create reciprocal relations with our planet in which all of nature benefits.







 The following images are what can be achieved with permaculture that other nations have seen. It is the restoration of human damage by human care.















 













 














Here is a prime example of this reciprocal relationship with the land and not only support themselves but they are able to sell food for income as well... IN the city!You can learn more about their farm and organization at: Food Abundance International