Forager life ways inform our hopes for the post-industrial emergence of earth-based human communities, but not exclusively. Early horticultural practices that were (and still are in some places) used in the period between foraging and agriculture blend elements of both agriculture and foraging. On a bioregional scale, and outside of any commercial context, they provide a clear model of a possibility of earth-based living that is more tangible in the short term. For even this type of existence, we need knowledge that has been lost to industrial culture. Permaculture is a modern adaptation of early horticultural methods used around the world. It is a useful method and outlook that can inform an earth-based existence, but the difference between it and foraging should not be overlooked. They are distinctly different in motivation. While permaculture is appropriate in many ways given the ecological crisis we are facing (population and people's alienated desires for convenience), any practice that involves the manipulation and control of wildness should be questioned - not only for its long term effect on ecological stability, but also for the psychic and psychological patterns they imprint on us that can reproduce social imbalances.
A foraging lifestyle allows one the freedom to gather what is needed for the short-term, with the expectation that more can be gathered when needed. This existence is often seen as a "starvation diet" because of its uncertainty, yet the abundance of diversity in our surroundings actually provides a high level of "food security." If oak trees skip a year of dropping acorns, hickories or walnuts will likely produce some nuts in their place. If you trek into the forest to hunt a deer, you may not see one, but you may come across a grouse or turkey instead. To maintain the knowledge of the forager is an activity that is even more fundamental to our physical survival and our freedom from domination than growing our own food. In contrast, the sedentary lifestyle required by agricultural systems sets a stage for more rigid territorial disputes and the erosion of continuously worked soils. The storage of the surplus of crop production creates unhealthy power-dynamics by the owners and managers who control those surpluses. As they become more dependent on the success of a smaller diversity of foods, agricultural systems often justify the exploitation of nature's resources in order to secure a supply. The dependency on crop success can tie horticultural communities to disempowering social relations: when a group's food supply depends on agricultural crop production, it is less likely to voluntarily split off and form a different one, as is common with forager groups.
Even with permaculture and small-scale gardening, dynamics of domestication are at work. A small space is claimed by a human, cleared of a multitude of species that are seen as competition to a small number of species desired by the human, but which are growing in that spot by the chaotic order of wild nature. With permaculture, these spaces are planted in a way that mimics wild nature in the garden, by providing a diverse arrangement of multi-storied plants, and creating a closed cycle of water and other nutrients. The practices of edible landscaping and native medicinal plant preservation can complement the cultivation of garden vegetables as well. These methods are definitely attempts to move away from what has been called "totalitarian agriculture", and they are useful in the present context. But we shouldn't forget that the unmediated forager experience that dominates our history as a species is where our wild roots are truly located. The primitive landscape was itself influenced by humans, who often burned areas to make it easier to see game and to encourage the growth of berries and other under-story plants. The line of human influence in nature is a fuzzy one, and one that to be truly examined must be explored with experience.
Subjects Which Bridge Cultivation and Foraging:
PERMACULTURE - a holistic approach to food cultivation that emphasizes working with the patterns and resources in nature rather than controlling them with external energy and inputs. Permaculture Activist magazine, Gaia's Garden, and The Permaculture Garden by Graham Bell. Check out: www.permaculture.org
FOREST GARDENING - Forest gardens usually have a diverse collection of plants arranged in multiple layers above a deep mulch. These plants produce flowers, food, and other products for human use. The plants function together, along with the insects and other animals that come to inhabit them, as an ecological system. Indigenous peoples throughout the tropics have created similar gardens for centuries. These gardens, known as tropical home gardens, include a diversity of crops arranged in multiple layers, and in many ways mimic the structure and ecological function of the surrounding natural forests. Robert Hart and others have applied the same principles to the design of gardens modeled after temperate deciduous forests. Forest Gardening by Robert DeHart and How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield.
FUKUOKA - A Japanese agro-philosopher who developed a farming practice called "Natural Farming", in response to modern organic agricultural methods that degrade soil. He encourages "no till" methods of grain cultivation, and the idea of letting nature do the farming work for you. He wrote an important book called One Straw Revolution (hard to find), and introduced the idea of "seed balls", self propagating balls of clay containing hundreds of seeds, to the world: The Natural Way of Farming by Masanobu Fukuoka.
Check out: www.seedballs.com
EDIBLE LANDSCAPING - The practice of planting self-seeding perennials such as fruits, nuts, tubers and greens, in and around your garden spaces to provide you with a constant supply of food with little to no work. Especially important are the knowledge and use of wild edibles native to your area. Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape by Robert Kourik, Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy, and Forest Gardening by Robert DeHart.
NATIVE PLANTS - Plants that grow and have evolved naturally in the wild ecosystems found in your region, whether it be prairie, desert or forest, which can be cultivated and encouraged within your garden or in the wild areas around your inhabitation.
Check out: www.nativeseeds.org and www.unitedplantsavers.org | 
