THE PLOWBOY INTERVIEW BILL MOLLISON

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And it appears we're already making inroads into traditional thinking patterns . . . 60,000 copies of our books have been sold in Australia, and there are permaculture associations popping up in every state of that nation. The idea is also beginning to enter the establishment, it seems, through the formal educational system. One agricultural university and one technical college now offer courses in permaculture. A lot of "respectable" scientific associations are linking up with us, too . . . they're giving themselves fancy names like "Agro-Silviculture Institutes", but they're all actually edging into permaculture.

PLOWBOY: It's great to know that some minds are already being changed by the idea of permaculture . . . but how can your group convince those who may not have realized the value of your concept? That is, how do you expect people to convert the prevalent belief in high-energy, single-yield agriculture to an awareness of low-energy, diverse-yield permaculture?

MOLLISON: I believe the key word here is commitment. Self -government is the first thing each individual has got to learn. Each person must make up his or her own mind and make a commitment . . . only then is he or she ready to go out and convince others. Just before E.F. Schumacher died, he said that our duty is to get our own house in order, and I certainly couldn't put it any better than that. We all have to start within ourselves and get our own houses in order . . . and then we'll be ready to become missionaries for order.

But if your house is in chaos and your doorstep is weedy . . . well, then you can't be a very good missionary, can you? In fact, man shouldn't leave this planet if he's going to leave it in disorder, because he'll only carry his chaos along with him . . . and he'll become the garbage strewer of the universe.

PLOWBOY: OK. Assuming that our race is able to get its house in order, and we're ready to go out and make the changeover to permanent agriculture . . . what should be our first course of action?

MOLLISON: I think our main responsibility is to set up a replacement for modern agriculture before it collapses, instead of waiting for its self-destruction. And the system will certainly destroy itself . . . it's only a matter of time. In fact, the end of commercial agribusiness is foreshadowed in today's news stories. While I was in Los Angeles, I read that agricultural "experts" foresee in the near future a single crop — it will probably be the soybean — from which all other foods will be derived. We'll only need that one crop, they say. What a disaster! If that happens, the powers that be will probably level all the mountains and fill in all the rivers, just to set up the artificial monoculture . . . and we won't have any diversity to build on.

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