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Forests for the People: Resisting Neoliberalism Through Permaculture Design

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Forests for the People: Resisting Neoliberalism Through Permaculture Design Forests For The People: Resisting Neoliberalism Through Permaculture Design by Chris Bisson A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Post Doctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Geography Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario ©2013 Chris Bisson Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du 1+1 Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-94665-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-94665-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada Abstract Permaculture Ottawa (PO) is a local community group in the process of designing a Community Urban Food Forest (CUFF) in the Ottawa Greenbelt. This research engaged directly with PO to explore the experience of community groups resisting neoliberal land use management of public land owned by the National Capital Commission (NCC). This research investigates cases of wetland conservation in the Ottawa Greenbelt, which are analyzed and compared to PO’s current work. Such historical cases demonstrate how institutions like the NCC (operating under neoliberal ideologies) advance causes such as wetland protection through market-based mechanisms, causing new injustices such as the dispossession of farmland. This research explored how effectively the CUFF in particular and permaculture design in general, resists such processes through the restoration of the communal use of public property. Both my field work and the historical case studies suggest that permaculture design projects like CUFF are vulnerable to neoliberal co-optation, unless they adopt a radical direction for social justice. Acknowledgements This thesis was a the work of an entire community of passionate individuals dedicated to social justice, and honour for our Mother Earth. I owe the greatest thanks to the family and friends I work with on this pathway towards a better world. Thank you to my wife Kim Bisson who has offered friendship and emotional support throughout the challenge of producing this thesis. Thank you Patricia Ballamingie and Jill Wigle for your guidance, wisdom, support, and patience throughout the research and writing process of this research. I owe the improvement in my quality of writing to your dedicated instruction and feedback. Thank you to Simon Dalby who challenged my understanding of social theory, and led me and my colleagues to recognize the scholars we have the potential of becoming. Thank you to Nathalie Pressburger, and the Department of Geography and Environmental Studies for supporting my research, and being there to guide me through the administrative aspects of producing this thesis. Thank you to the Ottawa permaculture community for having the courage and dedication to organize to see our wildest dreams become reality. Thank you to Moe Garahan, and Erin O’Manique at Just Food for the tireless work you do to create the Food Hub, and your generous support of Permaculture Ottawa. Thank you to my good friends Dorn Morneau, Eileen Conboy, Mike Laughton, Sarah M.L. Walker, and Steph Kittmer for the mutual support we provided one another in order to get through graduate school. Finally, I give respect and honour to Mother Earth, all my ancestors, and future generations who bring life, magic and inspiration into creation. All my struggles for a better world are in your honour. iii Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction- An Experiment in Social Permaculture .................... 1 1.1 Case Study: Community Urban Food Forest ...........................................4 1.2 Research Problem: Food Forests in Ottawa’s Public Spaces ................10 1.3 Research Question and Theoretical Framework .................................... 13 1.4 Organization of Thesis .................................................................... 15 Chapter 2: Urban Political Ecology: Neoliberalism in the Ecological City..... 17 2.1 Variegated Processes of Actually Existing Neoliberalism ................... 17 2.2 Marx and Urban Metabolism ............................................................... 25 2.3 Hybrid Nature and Urban Environments ............................................. 30 2.4 Neoliberal Urban Metabolism of Successive Hybrid Natures ............. 32 Chapter 3: Doing Radical Research: Social Justice Through Permaculture ................................................................................................ 34 3.1 Radical Activist Research ..................................................................... 35 3.2 Doing Permaculture Research ............................................................. 42 3.3 Participant Observation and Social Media .......................................... 50 3.4 In-Depth, Semi-Structured Interviews .................................................. 60 3.5 Literature Review ................................................................................. 64 3.6 Digital Coding Software and Critical Discourse Analysis .................... 65 3.7 Critical, Radical, Digital: A New Direction for CBR .............................. 69 Chapter 4: Class Struggle History of Land Use in the Ottawa Greenbelt 70 4.1 Antecedent: (1700-1857) Liberal Colonization ................................... 72 4.2 Formation: (1875-1945) Nationalist Central Planning ........................ 78 4.3 Expropriation: (1945-1975) Gr6ber’s Greenbelt ................................. 82 4.4 Marketization: (1975-2004) Neo-Liberal Conservation ....................... 86 4.5 Stony Swamp: (1975-1991) Conservation Through Expropriation 89 4.6 Mer Bleue: (1990-2004) Conservation Through Speculation ............. 96 4.7 Neoliberal Land Use Management: A Cautionary Tale ....................... 105 Chapter 5: Permaculture’s Cultural Turn: (1978-2012) A Literary Genealogy 105 5.1 (Pre-1978): Literary Origins of Permaculture ...................................... 107 5.2 Permaculture’s Literary Cultural Turn .................................................. 109 5.3 A Literary Genealogy of Permaculture in Three Phases ..................... 113 5.4 (1978-1988) Mollison and Permanent Agriculture .............................. 114 5.5 (1989-2002) Universalizing Permaculture Design ............................. 116 5.6 (2003-2012) Holmgren and Permanent Culture ................................. 121 5.7 Where is the Permaculture Literature Going? .................................... 130 Chapter 6: Permaculture Ottawa and the Community Urban Food Forest.... 133 6.1 Just Food ............................................................................................. 134 6.2 Community Food and Sustainable Agriculture Hub ............................. 135 iv 6.3 Permaculture Institute of Eastern Ontario ......................................... 138 6.4 Permaculture Ottawa ........................................................................... 141 6.5 Community Urban Food Forest ........................................................... 144 6.6 Structure and Process ......................................................................... 148 6.7 Liberation Permaculture ....................................................................... 150 6.8 Non-Profit and For-Profit Relations ...................................................... 154 6.9 Incorporation and Insurance ................................................................ 157 6.10 Organizational Dilemmas of Designing a Food Forest ...................... 159 Chapter 7: A Forest For The People Through Post-Capitalist Permaculture. 161 7.1 Actually Existing Neoliberalism and The Ottawa Greenbelt ............... 162 7.2 Neoliberalism and the Community Urban Food Forest ...................... 169 7.3 Post-Capitalist Permaculture Design .................................................. 175 7.4 Theoretical Limitations .......................................................................
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