The idea of permaculture is to turn the waste
created within a system to the nutriment of something else. Everything is in the same circle; nothing is linear. (Nothing about this is new; it just is based on knowledge that was discarded and how has to be dug up again from our past.) Applied to New York life, is this at all possible?
In a big city, people tend to live in a matrix of dependencies. While big-bad New Yorkers are certainly individualists, nobody in New York is anywhere close to self-sufficient. Nobody has sufficient garden space to feed themselves, let along garden space with uncontaminated earth and enough direct sunlight. People rent and cannot alter their homes freely (thus rooftop gardens, water catchment systems, beehives and chicken coops are not necessarily easy additions) have strict city codes to follow. How do we even begin to think about the ideals of permaculture? Well, viewed as an ideal to strive for rather than an absolute, you can absolutely adapt it to the reality of New York. The idea of permaculture is to turn the waste created within a system to the nutriment of something else.
- Dumpster Diving. Not only will you save money and become a more inventive cook, you are diverting from the waste-stream! Food in the landfill=> anaerobic decomposition=>bad. Food in my belly with scraps in my compost=>very, very good!
- Support a local market. What you do not dumpster, you can purchase from a local health food market. They make more of an effort to get local food than Whole Foods or Trader Joe's (nearly impossible on a Whole Foods scale), and you know that you are supporting small-scales and local business owners. You may pay a little more...but dumpster diving supplements it. :-)
- Purchase from a local farmer through farmer's markets and community supported agricultures. If you cannot produce yourself, at least you can help support someone locally who does.
- Kitchen Compost. Vermiculture and Bokashi systems are extremely easy to set up and extremely easy. I had my vermiculture bin under our kitchen counter for four months without a single roommate realizing. Honest.
- Public Transportation. Ditch the car, ditch the taxi, and jump on the train! One of the best class equalizers there is: everyone spends the same $2.25 to sit on the subway, everybody arrives at the same time, and everyone must share the same space.
- Biking. Public transportation is great, but get outside and be your own power source! Buses and trains will still be running, but you won't have to turn on a elliptical machine over the weekend to stay healthy!
- Utilizing Craig's List, Freecycle, second-hand stores, and the furniture that people put out on the street for grabs. Who needs Ikea? There are plenty of already made versions of everything that you need--furniture with stories are always better than Chinese assembly line produced furniture, anyway. Same for clothing: New York has fabulous second hand stores.
- Entertainment. Make use of the daylight hours and outdoors!
That was a short, non-exhaustive list. I'm sure I will have more to come.
In a big city, people tend to live in a matrix of dependencies. While big-bad New Yorkers are certainly individualists, nobody in New York is anywhere close to self-sufficient. Nobody has sufficient garden space to feed themselves, let along garden space with uncontaminated earth and enough direct sunlight. People rent and cannot alter their homes freely (thus rooftop gardens, water catchment systems, beehives and chicken coops are not necessarily easy additions) have strict city codes to follow. How do we even begin to think about the ideals of permaculture? Well, viewed as an ideal to strive for rather than an absolute, you can absolutely adapt it to the reality of New York. The idea of permaculture is to turn the waste created within a system to the nutriment of something else.
- Dumpster Diving. Not only will you save money and become a more inventive cook, you are diverting from the waste-stream! Food in the landfill=> anaerobic decomposition=>bad. Food in my belly with scraps in my compost=>very, very good!
- Support a local market. What you do not dumpster, you can purchase from a local health food market. They make more of an effort to get local food than Whole Foods or Trader Joe's (nearly impossible on a Whole Foods scale), and you know that you are supporting small-scales and local business owners. You may pay a little more...but dumpster diving supplements it. :-)
- Purchase from a local farmer through farmer's markets and community supported agricultures. If you cannot produce yourself, at least you can help support someone locally who does.
- Kitchen Compost. Vermiculture and Bokashi systems are extremely easy to set up and extremely easy. I had my vermiculture bin under our kitchen counter for four months without a single roommate realizing. Honest.
- Public Transportation. Ditch the car, ditch the taxi, and jump on the train! One of the best class equalizers there is: everyone spends the same $2.25 to sit on the subway, everybody arrives at the same time, and everyone must share the same space.
- Biking. Public transportation is great, but get outside and be your own power source! Buses and trains will still be running, but you won't have to turn on a elliptical machine over the weekend to stay healthy!
- Utilizing Craig's List, Freecycle, second-hand stores, and the furniture that people put out on the street for grabs. Who needs Ikea? There are plenty of already made versions of everything that you need--furniture with stories are always better than Chinese assembly line produced furniture, anyway. Same for clothing: New York has fabulous second hand stores.
- Entertainment. Make use of the daylight hours and outdoors!
That was a short, non-exhaustive list. I'm sure I will have more to come.
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