PDC Homework - 1.2 Guidance for Tutor

HOMEWORK (Guidance for your tutor)

We hope to implement what we learn from this design course in our daily lives and teach the principles and techniques to others. We bought 51 acres of land in Northeastern New Mexico, which has been traditionally used as grazing land for cattle. We need to develop a Permaculture design for the land, and are eager to apply Permaculture techniques, making it a practical learning site and eventually, a demonstration site for teaching and development. 

We are focusing on a specialist field within Permaculture, where its practice is linked to the religious teachings and lifestyle of Islam. Permaculture is an integral part of our way of life. We will look at the various practices within Permaculture to ensure that they are religiously compliant, and for those that aren’t, we will look for suitable alternatives. One example is from the soils video made by Geoff Lawton, where various types of animal waste were used to make compost. One of them was pig waste, and as pigs and their by-products are considered unclean in Islam unless they’ve gone through a chemical change where they are no longer in their original form and no longer considered pig, we must look for a suitable alternative to see if the compost can be made just as well without it.  If we do find a successful alternative, this information will be passed on to other Islamic organizations and Jewish organizations, as they both hold the same restrictions with regards to pigs.

In the meantime, we plan to use as many techniques as we can here in Saudi Arabia. It is not only good practice for us, but also beneficial to our lives and practice of Islam here. We have a small planted area and chicken run, which we hope to continually improve upon and make more efficient with Permaculture techniques.