The Permaculture Presidential Platform (PPP) will makes its debut at INPC 2017. The PPP will be a co-created platform of policies for a presidential candidate. A set of ecological and social policies to achieve the three permaculture principles of Care of Earth, Care of People and Fair Share. Hundreds (and eventually thousands) of people can add to this PPP. It will cover all facets of government and society.
Our goal is to get the PPP proposals on-line where people can vote for the policies that they support. You don’t have to swallow the whole package.
To get you in the mood to set policy you can play the game; Pretend you’re President. What would you do if you were President of the United States?
Here is a list of policies I came up with when I played Pretend you’re President.
What policies would you like to add? We will be soliciting policy proposals at the INPC 2017. Make your list up ahead of time or write them up at the INPC.
Michael Pilarski’s submissions to the Permaculture Presidential Platform:
Just to get things going, This is the first draft of the first thoughts.
Go to a four-day work-week with more job sharing
Full employment.
Abolish the Federal Reserve.
Close the CIA
Repeal NAFTA.
ENERGY
Encourage solar, wind and renewable energy sources.
Ban fracking.
Close all nuclear power plants.
More regulations on coal mining.
Mining operations need to put up sufficient bond funds to pay for clean up and restoration.
AGRICULTURE AND LAND USE
Increase the farming and gardening programs for military veterans.
Ban GMOs.
More restrictions on pesticides and herbicides.
New subsidies and education programs to help farmers switch to organic.
Incentives for more humane treatment of livestock
More emphasis on organic and sustainable agriculture at all County Extension Services and all land grant colleges .
Double the funding for Soil Conservation Districts every four years for 3 funding cycles.
Gardens at elder care facilities
Encourage farmers to do crop diversification.
Make permaculture design audits available to homeowners and landowners. Similar to an energy audit.
Make water audits available to homeowners and landowners. Design and subsidize rooftop catchment, utilize other impermeable surface runoff areas. Rain gardens, Increase self-reliance in water.
Promote rooftop gardens, solar panels and rooftop hot water heaters.
Encourage small-scale farms
Research policies that will lead to a healthier food supply (hence healthier people and less health care costs)
Encourage wildcrafting cooperatives that harvest weeds for food, medicine or other economic needs while achieving weed control objectives.
Expand CCC and WPA type programs that employ people to do restoration work, soil erosion control, tree planting, trail building, etc.
Develop earth repair communities, camps and programs.
Citizens’ land restoration councils in every county (Land Care example from Australia).
For the Palouse and grain growing farmers in the Pacific Northwest, incentives for contour cropping, broad base terraces, swales and keylining. Plant the Palouse eyebrows with trees and shrubs. Plant grassed waterways to economic crops such as nettles.
Plant biodiversity strips along roadways and highways with an emphasis on native plants. Design for economic yield, beauty and ecological functions. This was successfully done on a large scale in Australia’s wheat districts and they became travel corridors for native biota.
EDUCATION
No more standardized testing.
Add more curriculum to public education on home economics, arts, trades, gardening and ecology.
School gardens at every school.
MILITARY
Close down all overseas military bases. (This alone will release enough funds for all the PPP programs.)
Dismantle all nuclear weapons. Reduce nuclear weapons in tandem with other countries.
HOUSING
Maintain buildings in good shape. They last longer and this is a good investment and will gainfully employ a fair amount of people.
More rent to own programs.
Provide healthy house audits to homeowners and renters to identify toxicity in the home and ways they can reduce it.
Cost sharing for adding sunrooms and greenhouses to buildings.
Increase the network of hostels in the US.
HEALTH CARE
Integrate herbalists and natural health practitioners into hospitals.
POLICE, PRISONS
Demilitarize the police. More citizen overview.
Free Leonard Peltier
Review all prison cases. Free political prisoners and non-violent marijuana offenses.
Horticulture, restoration and other green trainings in prisons.
IMMIGRATION REFORM
Come up with ways for current illegal agricultural workers to stay and work or get citizenship. Make it harder for them to be exploited by employers.
INDIAN AFFAIRS (FIRST NATIONS)
Review all treaties between the US and Native Tribes. What needs to be rectified?
Reform the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). The tribes will know how to do this.
ECONOMIC
A higher percentage of tax money is kept local and allocated locally rather than by federal or state governments. Reduce big government. More democratic control of tax money.
Investigate and prosecute illegal criminal activity in banking and speculation sectors.
OTHER
Longer and better maternity leave/care for mothers and fathers.
BRING YOUR IDEAS TO INPC AND LET’S GROW THIS PLATFORM