VRDP principles

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

 

Whilst the body of the discusson has moved to the GBC

meeting, I would like to keep moving the VRDP on the

next stage of HOW, which is principles.

 

The latest vision could end reading like this:

 

VISION

.....managed according to sustainable principles and

practices of land use, which provides for the quality

of life aspirations of the participants.

 

If the environmental, social and economic factors are

assessed principaly on the grounds of lanscape (env),

quality of life (soc) and production (econ) then there

should be in place solid principles that any

management tool can refer to to assess if the

management practice is in line with meeting the

principles. Such principles need to be broad based and

must reflect all environmental, social and economic

scenarios. Any practice that can be envisaged would

need to be refered to the principles, and they in turn

must stand up to the practice as a guiding light,

otherwise they are not principles but

time/place/scenario variables.

 

Again, to reiterate on past writings and to make

clearer the point, Prabhupada has shown these

absolutes so there is no need to speculate what they

are. In Rohita's book on Holistic Resource Management

there is talk that it could be a long time in bringing

forth "quality of life aspirations" form the

participants. If we look at Prabhupada's absolutes

then we see we do not need that, he has shown the

absolute picture of the landsape and has shown the

absolute needs of society - eating, sleeping, mating

and defending - to be animal-human, plus life

education to be spiritual-human, plus how the economic

production process should meet the criteria of self

sufficiency from the landscape within the social

framework of meeting basic needs. Everything else is

the paraphenalia of phantasmagoria unless it is truly

spirtual whereby it is the paraphenalia of true

spirtuality.

 

So, I write this again to show that the principles are

there for us, it is in the practices, the management

tools that we must look for keys, solutions, to lead

us to that goal that has been set. When we can truly

say that the landscape is an abundant agroecological

cornocpia, that the basic human needs are met from

this landscape and the social paraphenalia is directed

at life education, and that the economic activities,

the production, are only to serve the social and

environmental goals, then we can say we have reached

the epitome of the principles laid out in the outlined

vision.

 

That is my picture of the principles as taken from

Prabhupada. It is then to look at management tools,

practices to take us there, the first one being to set

intermediate goals to take us from the present

position to the epitome. How, for example, to secure

land so that we can "own" the landscape upon which we

live. How to turn the land from a 2D to a 3D

landscape. How to provide our diet, medicine, housing,

warmth, lighting, clothing from said landscape. How to

protect our land from individual and collective

threats. How to protect our family both physically and

educationally, including ethics.

 

In agroforestry there are, as in most sciences, a few

key words to look at when analysing the society that

is going through development. Sustainability is the

prime word. Secondary is stability; but it does not

equate that for a system to be or become sustainable

it has to be stable, major changes can rock the boat

and change its direction as long as the goal is

primarily sustainabilty.

 

Many farms in a market economy will set their

production goals as sustained profitability, in a

subsistent economy it will be sustained production.

This is where Rohita's Holistic Resource Management

rings in harmony, that a sustainable farming system is

the goal, but to achieve it all other factors -

stability, production, productivity, feasibility,

flexibility, adaptability, adoptability,

profitability, equity, equitability, liquidity, etc.,

must be seen as flexible, as variable, so as to

achieve the ultimate goal - that of a establishing a

world-wide farming system utilising lifetime-protected

farm animals managed according to sustainable

principles and practices of land use, which provides

for the quality of life aspirations of the

participants.

 

 

Mark

 

 

 

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