Pomegranate versus Heroin : Muslims Getting a Wholesome High on Nature with Permaculture consultant Rhamis Kent 8pm Monday 13 January 2014 at Serai, KL Life Centre, Jalan Sultan Ismail – Click Here for Map.
Click here for his article, Restoring Restoring the Amanah Through Earth Repair: Islam, Permaculture, and Ecosystem Restoration Work. An excerpt from his interview on Beyond Halal on Islam & Earth Repair:
Krystina Friedlander: You’ve worked on a number of different Permaculture projects across the Muslim world from Somalia and Yemen to Jordan. Could you tell us what your objectives were, as well as some of the successes and challenges of working in those communities?
Rhamis Kent: What makes working in the Muslim world so interesting is that, by and large, a lot of the places that I’ve found myself working in—and usually I’ve been working pretty closely with Geoff Lawton, director of the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia—is that these are the places that are really the most in need of the kind of work that we do. Typically these are going to be places that are the most water-stressed, and by virtue of being water-stressed they’re going to be challenged in terms of their ability to produce food. …
You’re seeing a lot of similar situations throughout the region. I’m continuing to work on a project in Afghanistan where we hope to encourage the establishment of horticultural systems, tree crop systems, that can provide an income for folks in Afghanistan aside from those things that are used to feed the drug economy. Interestingly enough, they make more money growing pomegranates than they do growing poppies because you’re able to produce more pomegranates in weight per unit area.