NOTE: We now have six people with relevant skills interested in working on the website and database.
08/08/2008
Two people have expressed an interest in working on the Plants for a Future (PFAF) website and plants database, and we have written to them to say we would like to explore this possibility with [them], either jointly or separately. The following is a version of the text of that letter:
PFAF would like to have a formal contract with an organisation or one or more individuals to:
(a) manage all technical aspects of the website and database; and
(b) update and improve the content by encouraging and examining/ moderating input from contributors, both known experts and occasional website users.
On the face of it you (the two people who have expressed an interest) have complementary skills and knowledge, and you may like to work together on a proposal covering both (a) and (b) above. In principle PFAF would prefer to have one contract for both elements, but, alternatively, please feel free to submit your own proposals for either or both elements.
The proposal for (a) should include a description of the activities necessary to keep the website and database viable and available on the internet, any assumptions you are making, and the estimated costs of all the elements involved, including administration, technical support and hosting services.
The proposal for (b) should include sourcing and adding whatever additional information is proposed to enhance the content, organising an expert group of contributors/ moderators, managing a discussion forum or equivalent, updating the database regularly with whatever material has been approved for inclusion, and responding to queries from database/ website users.
You may wish to incorporate into your proposal improvements to the database, such as the addition of scientific information, and photographs of the plants. There should be a facility to enable database users to suggest additions or changes to the content, for consideration by an expert panel prior to inclusion. It should also be possible, as now, for customers to purchase copies of the database for their own use, and for database users to make voluntary donations. Ideally, in future the database should be available for Windows, Linux and Mac users.
In order to work up a proposal you will need to obtain from [the current web author] an understanding of current procedures, costs and revenues, and technical requirements. I have sent a copy of this letter to him; I am sure he will provide everything you need.
We are prepared to pay you [a small fee] to undertake this initial piece of work. It would be helpful to receive your proposal/s for consideration by mid September, please let me know if this is possible.
If your proposal is acceptable, we would want you to start providing services as soon as possible. However at this stage PFAF must reserve the right not to accept your proposal, and to seek proposals from alternative suppliers if necessary.
If you have any queries, please get in touch.
Yours sincerely
Chris Marsh, Trustee
Tuesday, 26 August 2008
Tuesday, 19 August 2008
What is the ‘New’ PFAF?
What is the ‘New’ PFAF?
Quite a number of people have already come forward in response to my requests for help with the new phase of Plants For A Future (PFAF), and they have asked quite a lot of questions, so it seems important to say what we’re about and where we hope to go.
Origins and Aims of PFAF
- The first thing to say is that the ‘new’ PFAF is no different from the original PFAF. In the first piece in ‘World Change Visionaries’, which is by Ken Fern, he says: “We aim to become self-sufficient in food, fuel etc; and to show others that these can be derived from the plant world without recourse to animal exploitation or environmental damaging methods. We feel that human survival depends on this, and on the use of a wide variety of plant species, especially when there is a threat of rapid climatic change.”
- It is equally important to understand that PFAF came out of the permaculture stable. See the second piece in ‘World Change Visionaries’, which is by Bill Mollison, and it becomes clear that Ken was aiming for a practical solution to two of Mollison’s points: “Establishment of plant systems for our own use on the least amount of land we can use for our existence” and “create our own complex living environment with as many species as we can save, or have need for, from wherever on earth they come.”
- Lastly, PFAF is about addressing ‘human greed’ (which is not our fault really; an excellent book on this subject is Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives, by Carolyn Steel ( London: Chatto & Windus, 2008)). The final, short but crucially important, piece in ‘World Change Visionaries’, is a quote from Rabindranath Tagore, who says: “Mother Earth has enough for the real needs of all her children … but she has not nearly enough for a whole generation of greedy children who know no limit to their desires.” The Quaker Gandhian, the late Marjorie Sykes, wrote that quotation in my copy of her book, and she told me that by ‘greedy children’ Tagore meant the human species as a whole, and for Tagore, the solution was local self-reliance, which he put into practice in his work on rural reconstruction.
Current Plans
What is ‘new’ about the current phase of PFAF is that we are taking advantage of a windfall. Ten years ago, PFAF embarked on an eco-village initiative, which sadly ultimately failed, but which resulted in us currently having some money in the bank from the sale of a plot of land acquired for that project. With those resources, we aim to develop the following activity strands:
- research surveys of sites with self-reliance aims, starting with the one on The Field, see http://www.plantsforafuture.org.uk/researchTOR.htm ;
- website and plants database development, along the lines of the proposal we've asked for: http://www.plantsforafuture.org.uk/websitedatabaseproposal.htm ; and
- the office admin and membership function; we have no firm plans on that as yet but people are coming forward with offers and ideas.
We are at the planning stage of the Research and Survey project focussed on The Field, Ken Fern’s experimental site in Cornwall, and a team of people is being assembled. It would be good to get started on similar projects focussed on other alternative land use sites. What we need for that is for people to come forward who have plants expertise and experience of conducting field trials, and we also need suggestions of interesting sites we could study.
We’ve had quite a number of people with very relevant experience come forward with offers to help out with the website and plants database. We have asked two people with complementary skills to draw up a proposal, and we have offered a small fee to each of them to develop a proposal, and they have accepted. But if anyone else thinks they could assist with redesign, or potentially take over the running of the website and database, do please email me. This is a big job and will require a team of people with different areas of expertise so having alternative proposals to consider would be welcome.
Frequently Asked Questions
People who have got in touch have had some questions about getting involved, one of which is ‘Do I have to be vegan?’ Linked to that is the question: ‘Why is the PFAF Charity about “vegan-organic” (stock-free) horticulture?’ My answer to the first question is ‘No, you don’t have to be vegan,’ and to people who are vegan I’d say they are welcome to become involved as long as they are not fundamentalist about veganism or animal rights, wanting to convert everyone to their view.
But to be part of PFAF you do have to be committed to the promotion of wider adoption of vegan-organics, which we see as a vitally important practice if we’re serious about food security, in Britain in particular. Probably it is possible to feed 60 million people eating exclusively vegetable foods (maybe with a tiny amount of dairy, meat or fish) from 60 million acres of land, but there isn’t enough land to feed 10 million cattle – the size of the UK herd – and goodness knows how many other domestic livestock as well. The idea that these animals obligingly turn grass and food waste into fertiliser is, of course, a myth: the myth that sustains the ‘all muck and magic’ kind of organic growing. UK livestock consume grains and oil seeds in vast and unsustainable quantities, sourced from all around the world, which is exploitative and a largely hidden threat to our food security.
The other question that’s often asked is: ‘Do I have to live near you to be involved?’ and my response is to say that the new PFAF is moving beyond the South West, and needs to have a Britain-wide focus, so people living anywhere in Britain are very welcome to become involved. In fact, via the plants database, PFAF is already international, and Ken Fern is actually working on a tropical plants database. PFAF has always had a local and a global perspective, but we do want to encourage rootedness, where the message is: ‘Wherever you are, know the land around and under your feet, live on and by it, nurture it and love it, and become part of the human, plant and (mainly) wild animal community which shares that land with you.’ I don’t mean to sound preachy but I do believe that this is the only reliably sustainable future, and that piecemeal fixes like fair-trade, and carbon footprint jiggery-pokery will just be swamped by capitalism, supermarkets and pressures to maintain business-as-usual.
It can be argued that food flown in from, say, Kenya, can release less CO2 than food grown in heated greenhouses here (see Confessions of an Eco Sinner: Travels to Find Where My Stuff Comes From, by Fred Pearce (London: Transworld, 2008), pp. 100-113). For me though, that’s not the point. People in the developed world are alienated from the land, and have been for centuries, as Steel and others explain (suggested reading list on request), and we have to address that, because living from the land and resources around us is the only way to be sure we’re not abusing them; it’s the only total solution to the ‘greedy children’ problem.
Another question that’s been put to me is: ‘What has permaculture been doing for twenty years?’, this in the course of a discussion on how to achieve food security in Britain. I didn’t actually answer that question when it was put, because it’s a tricky one, and somewhat sensitive. Given that the aims of PFAF can be considered as a sub-set of permaculture ethics and principles, it is relevant to take stock of where permaculture is, particularly in relation to alternative land use: its ‘permanent agriculture’ aspect. I can tell you something about that from my own experience.
Chris Marsh, Trustee
About the Author
My own history on all this is that I ‘discovered’ worldwide land degradation and its historic link with urban living twenty five years ago, and I gave talks and workshops on the subject during a period of eight years in the late 1980s and early 90s. Part way through that I heard about permaculture, and latched onto the side of permaculture expressed so neatly in the piece by Mollison I included in the three extracts in ‘world change visionaries’. Then I discovered that the early adopters of permaculture in Britain were engaged in giving courses in permaculture design, in teaching design course teachers, and in community-building amongst disadvantaged people and in inner cities. Some were engaged in land-based projects, particularly on small-holdings in the Celtic fringes, and later in campaigning to get planning consent to live on such sites. But it concerned me that they were not in any thoroughgoing way promoting permaculture gardening, which I hoped would have focussed on the one million or so acres of home gardens in this country, so that by now ‘permaculture’ would have been a household word. That sounds critical of the early adopters, and it is, but not in a negative way, more as an observation. What they were doing was valuable.
However, the time has come to put more effort into research into alternative land use methods and models, and different kinds and approaches to plants and plants assemblages. That is not because there is anything fundamentally wrong with conventional organic horticulture and agriculture, with their dependence on animal manure. Such systems can be very productive and are fine on a small scale. But they cannot be a total solution, because there is not room for all the livestock to produce the manure unless we exploit land elsewhere in the world to produce the fodder crops they require – and then we wouldn’t be self-reliant; we’d still be ‘greedy children’.
Finally, I’ve written this piece and set up the PFAF in Transition website, and organised the recent ‘next steps’ meeting in Cornwall, and issued requests for people to get involved, and prior to that I wrote the Terms of Reference for the Research project. I did all those things because I was involved in rescuing the PFAF Charity when it was in financial difficulties, and I could see that the income from the sale of our plot of land provided new opportunities. It is already becoming clear that other people are going to be getting involved, and I shall be able to take a back seat, which is what I’ve been hoping for because I’m about to embark on some academic research for three years: on Rabindranath Tagore.
One further thing I should like to do before I retreat to the back room (I’ll still be Treasurer and Secretary and a Trustee) is start up some kind of magazine or newsletter, probably on-line, with a printable download. So please, those of you who like to write, do send me news, articles, book reviews, or whatever, and let’s see if we can get the first issue together.
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Progress Report
Open or Anonymous email list?
Hi everyone,
I’ve had some responses already to my query about whether we should have an open or an anonymous or Bcc email list. One of you made the following, very pertinent, comment:
“I have found that it’s not the people on the ‘open’ list who do the damage but the people to whom they forward the email because ‘you’ll find this interesting’, who then forward it to someone else for the same reason, and so on, ad infinitum. As dealing with spam represents a huge waste of my time, I go to some considerable lengths not to be its recipient!”
I’ve had that kind of thing happen, so maybe it’s best to keep the list Bcc for now. With this concern in mind, I’ve prepared a progress report which doesn’t name anyone – apart from me.
Plants For A Future Charity – Progress Report
We had what I think everyone there agreed was a very successful meeting at The Field at Penpol in Cornwall on 20 July. I took notes in the morning and someone else took over in the afternoon. I wrote up our notes afterwards and used them to draw up the Next Steps, an analysis of the outcome of the meeting, and then used the analysis to identify a set of Agreed Priorities, which were:
Priorities
1. Initiate the research project (see TOR: http://www.plantsforafuture.org.uk/researchTOR.htm ) by asking for a scoping study to be carried out.
2. Looking at what the Charity might do to facilitate our founder’s planned move abroad, where he plans to extend his research into tropical plants with a view to creating a tropical plants database.
3. Seeking someone to take over management of the PFAF website and database.
4. Investigating the legal status and future development of the PFAF Land Club.
5. Resurrecting and managing the PFAF membership scheme.
6. Pursuing the possibility of getting planning permission for people to stay longer than is currently allowed on The Field, PFAF’s experimental site in Cornwall.
[This list is based on an internal document with some details altered to avoid referring to people personally, so I could put the list on the website: www.plantsforafuture.org.uk/#priorities .]
I’ll report our progress to date against that list.
Progress
1. Initiate the research project (see TOR) by asking for a scoping study to be carried out.
A letter requesting the scoping study was sent on 22 July and the planning stage is underway, potential members of the study team are being contacted, and a meeting to clarify the terms of reference is pencilled in for 28 or 29 August.
2. Looking at what the Charity might do to facilitate our founder’s planned move abroad, where he plans to extend his research into tropical plants with a view to creating a tropical plants database.
There has been a very positive exchange of letters on this subject and I’m sure we shall be able to help. However, there are some personal issues involved, and so there will be no further reports until plans are more advanced.
3. Seeking someone to take over management of the PFAF website and database.
Two people are keenly interested in taking over and further developing the website and database. A letter was sent on 8 August asking them to draw up a proposal, and they have agreed. There has been a discussion forum set up to discuss this, a number of people have joined, and there have been interesting posts.
4. Investigating the legal status and future development of the PFAF Land Club.
One of the Charity trustees is liaising with the Land Club with a view to preparing a brief for a solicitor and seeking a solicitor who will understand the situation and be sympathetic.
5. Resurrecting and managing the PFAF membership scheme.
A number of people have come forward to express interest in this, and in the office administration function generally and discussions are ongoing.
6. Pursuing the possibility of getting planning permission for people to stay longer than is currently allowed on The Field, PFAF’s experimental site in Cornwall.
This would require the preparation of a business plan to make the case for the site having commercial potential, probably for plant propagation and sales, and/or for further research into unusual plants which could usefully be grown, from which it may be possible to argue that the value of the plants and special tending they need does require 24/7 care for at least part of the year.
This subject will remain on hold until people come forward with a business plan or suggestions which could form the basis of a plan.
It may be that ideas will emerge once the research study is underway, and if so an interim report could be prepared.
Other points
At the time of writing, we are still short of a trustee, but four people have expressed an interest, and the two current trustees are soon to be meeting someone who has actually said ‘I’ll do it.’
It is taking me a while to get up to speed on what I need to do as Company Secretary and Treasurer. The accounts for October 2007 (yes, really!) have just been sent to me by our accountant, and will soon be winging their way to Companies House, just ahead of the deadline of the end of August. I’ve notified the Charity Commission of the changed email address and requested a password so that I can get the various details changed and do the annual return online. There are various other accounts associated with the PFAF presence on the internet. Some of that may well change when the new team take over, and then I’ll need to get clear on what I need to do about those as Treasurer. The accounts for the current financial year need to be brought up to date and I am considering employing someone locally to assist with this.
Chris Marsh, trustee
Hi everyone,
I’ve had some responses already to my query about whether we should have an open or an anonymous or Bcc email list. One of you made the following, very pertinent, comment:
“I have found that it’s not the people on the ‘open’ list who do the damage but the people to whom they forward the email because ‘you’ll find this interesting’, who then forward it to someone else for the same reason, and so on, ad infinitum. As dealing with spam represents a huge waste of my time, I go to some considerable lengths not to be its recipient!”
I’ve had that kind of thing happen, so maybe it’s best to keep the list Bcc for now. With this concern in mind, I’ve prepared a progress report which doesn’t name anyone – apart from me.
Plants For A Future Charity – Progress Report
We had what I think everyone there agreed was a very successful meeting at The Field at Penpol in Cornwall on 20 July. I took notes in the morning and someone else took over in the afternoon. I wrote up our notes afterwards and used them to draw up the Next Steps, an analysis of the outcome of the meeting, and then used the analysis to identify a set of Agreed Priorities, which were:
Priorities
1. Initiate the research project (see TOR: http://www.plantsforafuture.org.uk/researchTOR.htm ) by asking for a scoping study to be carried out.
2. Looking at what the Charity might do to facilitate our founder’s planned move abroad, where he plans to extend his research into tropical plants with a view to creating a tropical plants database.
3. Seeking someone to take over management of the PFAF website and database.
4. Investigating the legal status and future development of the PFAF Land Club.
5. Resurrecting and managing the PFAF membership scheme.
6. Pursuing the possibility of getting planning permission for people to stay longer than is currently allowed on The Field, PFAF’s experimental site in Cornwall.
[This list is based on an internal document with some details altered to avoid referring to people personally, so I could put the list on the website: www.plantsforafuture.org.uk/#priorities .]
I’ll report our progress to date against that list.
Progress
1. Initiate the research project (see TOR) by asking for a scoping study to be carried out.
A letter requesting the scoping study was sent on 22 July and the planning stage is underway, potential members of the study team are being contacted, and a meeting to clarify the terms of reference is pencilled in for 28 or 29 August.
2. Looking at what the Charity might do to facilitate our founder’s planned move abroad, where he plans to extend his research into tropical plants with a view to creating a tropical plants database.
There has been a very positive exchange of letters on this subject and I’m sure we shall be able to help. However, there are some personal issues involved, and so there will be no further reports until plans are more advanced.
3. Seeking someone to take over management of the PFAF website and database.
Two people are keenly interested in taking over and further developing the website and database. A letter was sent on 8 August asking them to draw up a proposal, and they have agreed. There has been a discussion forum set up to discuss this, a number of people have joined, and there have been interesting posts.
4. Investigating the legal status and future development of the PFAF Land Club.
One of the Charity trustees is liaising with the Land Club with a view to preparing a brief for a solicitor and seeking a solicitor who will understand the situation and be sympathetic.
5. Resurrecting and managing the PFAF membership scheme.
A number of people have come forward to express interest in this, and in the office administration function generally and discussions are ongoing.
6. Pursuing the possibility of getting planning permission for people to stay longer than is currently allowed on The Field, PFAF’s experimental site in Cornwall.
This would require the preparation of a business plan to make the case for the site having commercial potential, probably for plant propagation and sales, and/or for further research into unusual plants which could usefully be grown, from which it may be possible to argue that the value of the plants and special tending they need does require 24/7 care for at least part of the year.
This subject will remain on hold until people come forward with a business plan or suggestions which could form the basis of a plan.
It may be that ideas will emerge once the research study is underway, and if so an interim report could be prepared.
Other points
At the time of writing, we are still short of a trustee, but four people have expressed an interest, and the two current trustees are soon to be meeting someone who has actually said ‘I’ll do it.’
It is taking me a while to get up to speed on what I need to do as Company Secretary and Treasurer. The accounts for October 2007 (yes, really!) have just been sent to me by our accountant, and will soon be winging their way to Companies House, just ahead of the deadline of the end of August. I’ve notified the Charity Commission of the changed email address and requested a password so that I can get the various details changed and do the annual return online. There are various other accounts associated with the PFAF presence on the internet. Some of that may well change when the new team take over, and then I’ll need to get clear on what I need to do about those as Treasurer. The accounts for the current financial year need to be brought up to date and I am considering employing someone locally to assist with this.
Chris Marsh, trustee
Saturday, 9 August 2008
Agreed priorities following PFAF meeting on 20 July 2008
(This list is based on an internal document with some details altered to avoid referring to people personally.)
1. Initiate the research project (see TOR) by asking for a scoping study to be carried out.
2. Looking at what the Charity might do to facilitate our founder’s planned move abroad, where he plans to extend his research into tropical plants with a view to creating a tropical plants database.
3. Seeking someone to take over management of the PFAF website and database.
4. Investigating the legal status and future development of the PFAF Land Club.
5. Resurrecting and managing the PFAF membership scheme.
6. Pursuing the possibility of getting planning permission for people to stay longer than is currently allowed on The Field, PFAF’s experimental site in Cornwall. This would require the preparation of a business plan to make the case for the site having commercial potential, probably for plant propagation and sales, and/or for further research into unusual plants which could usefully be grown, from which it may be possible to argue that the value of the plants and special tending they need does require 24/7 care for at least part of the year.
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