3
1
Re-Enchanting Agriculture
Farming with the Hidden
Half of Nature
Julia Wright
Coventry University
PRELUDE: SOMETHING HAPPENED IN A HOT TENT IN TELANGANA
It looked unlikely that anyone was going to come to the workshop. Buses had jolted us for three
hours from the conference centre in Hyderabad to a farm in the Telangana hinterland, land that
was dry and dusty those November days and adjacent to a river where signs warned to ‘ beware of
crocodiles’. Now all were busy pitching their tents and queuing for some late lunch that hot afternoon. Thus was the transition from the first formal part of the 13th International Permaculture
Conference, in India, at which government ministers and keynote speakers had held forth, to the
more informal and interactive, tented Convergence, and we were all tired and drowsy. A volunteer
led me to the tent where I was scheduled to give the workshop one of seven rectangular structures
arranged in a semicircle to one side of the encampment and adorned with deep gold and purple bunting. It wasn’t only the heat and fatigue that were serving as potential deterrents. ‘ Quantum-inspired
agriculture: is it time for permaculturalists to embrace the invisible?’ was the title of the workshop,
and I was mindful that ( the late) Bill Mollison, the co-founder of permaculture, had stressed many
times, and most vehemently, that belief systems, or ‘ woo-woo’ as he and many practitioners put it,
should be kept out of permaculture.
As I have often been accused of lacking that set of credulity, mystification, modern myth and hogwash
that passes today for New Age Spirituality, I cheerfully plead guilty. Unqualified belief, of any breed,
dis-empowers any individuals by restricting their information. Thus, permaculture is not biodynamics, nor does it deal in fairies, devas, elves, after-life, apparitions or phenomena not verifiable by every
CONTENTS
Prelude: Something Happened in a Hot Tent in Telangana ............................................................... 3
Introduction: The Stranglehold of the Industrial Worldview ............................................................. 4
Towards Understanding the Cognitive Factors behind the Industrial Worldview .............................. 6
The Blind Spot of Contemporary, Ecologically Based Farming Systems ......................................... 8
Harmony and Balance: The Indigenous Relationship of People, Land and Nature ...................... 8
Do Ecologically Based Farming Systems Fully Embrace Indigenous Praxis? ........................... 10
Introducing Subtle Agroecologies: Farming with the Hidden Half of Nature ................................. 12
The State-of-the Art of Subtle Agroecologies ............................................................................. 13
Towards a Definition of Subtle Agroecologies ............................................................................ 15
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 16
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... 16
References ........................................................................................................................................ 16
DOI: 10.1201/9780429440939-2
1
Re-Enchanting Agriculture
Farming with the Hidden
Half of Nature
Julia Wright
Coventry University
PRELUDE: SOMETHING HAPPENED IN A HOT TENT IN TELANGANA
It looked unlikely that anyone was going to come to the workshop. Buses had jolted us for three
hours from the conference centre in Hyderabad to a farm in the Telangana hinterland, land that
was dry and dusty those November days and adjacent to a river where signs warned to ‘ beware of
crocodiles’. Now all were busy pitching their tents and queuing for some late lunch that hot afternoon. Thus was the transition from the first formal part of the 13th International Permaculture
Conference, in India, at which government ministers and keynote speakers had held forth, to the
more informal and interactive, tented Convergence, and we were all tired and drowsy. A volunteer
led me to the tent where I was scheduled to give the workshop one of seven rectangular structures
arranged in a semicircle to one side of the encampment and adorned with deep gold and purple bunting. It wasn’t only the heat and fatigue that were serving as potential deterrents. ‘ Quantum-inspired
agriculture: is it time for permaculturalists to embrace the invisible?’ was the title of the workshop,
and I was mindful that ( the late) Bill Mollison, the co-founder of permaculture, had stressed many
times, and most vehemently, that belief systems, or ‘ woo-woo’ as he and many practitioners put it,
should be kept out of permaculture.
As I have often been accused of lacking that set of credulity, mystification, modern myth and hogwash
that passes today for New Age Spirituality, I cheerfully plead guilty. Unqualified belief, of any breed,
dis-empowers any individuals by restricting their information. Thus, permaculture is not biodynamics, nor does it deal in fairies, devas, elves, after-life, apparitions or phenomena not verifiable by every
CONTENTS
Prelude: Something Happened in a Hot Tent in Telangana ............................................................... 3
Introduction: The Stranglehold of the Industrial Worldview ............................................................. 4
Towards Understanding the Cognitive Factors behind the Industrial Worldview .............................. 6
The Blind Spot of Contemporary, Ecologically Based Farming Systems ......................................... 8
Harmony and Balance: The Indigenous Relationship of People, Land and Nature ...................... 8
Do Ecologically Based Farming Systems Fully Embrace Indigenous Praxis? ........................... 10
Introducing Subtle Agroecologies: Farming with the Hidden Half of Nature ................................. 12
The State-of-the Art of Subtle Agroecologies ............................................................................. 13
Towards a Definition of Subtle Agroecologies ............................................................................ 15
Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................... 16
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... 16
References ........................................................................................................................................ 16
DOI: 10.1201/9780429440939-2