In permaculture we learn a truly remarkable arsenal of techniques, strategies, and patterning that is at our disposal for permaculture consulting and design. It would probably lift a few eyebrows if I said that if a farmer truly needed a chemical such as fungicide to save a crop which will provide money and food for his family (because he has not already adopted a permaculture strategy), to go ahead and do it (very sparingly). But then immediately get on a holistic design strategy. We do have chemicals at our disposal in our tool bags. However, note that these toxins ends up being a very long term (and I mean long term) problem in the dry lands. The dry lands, unlike the tropics, do not have the aquatic plant species necessary to properly break down chemicals such as artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and the worst of all them them – herbicides. We must take great care not to use these in the dry lands as they will continue to stay in the soil and kill thousands of plants and insect species over their extended lengthy lifetimes. They will eventually permeate the ground water and there is almost nothing we can do about it in a foreseeable human time scale. These toxins are at their most effective in the dry lands and proper design should 100% be used as an alternative.
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