Kaleb Hanshaw explains the difference between permitted and forced functions in agriculture. Caged chickens forced to produce eggs require chemicals and create disease; free-range chickens lay eggs naturally in a good habitat. Forcing outcomes in farming, business, and relationships costs more and burns people out.
Chapters
Hey everyone, I'm here at Zaytuna Farm in Australia. I've received my design certification years ago. This is more of sharpening some tools, continuing to learn from the best that there is as I give my first PDC in August in West Virginia. There was something that Jeff said, it was a highlight of the day for me. He started talking about permitted versus forced function, basically functions that happen naturally in nature that we get to benefit from versus us forcing our way to get the result that we want. And I so related to this because my first few years in Reclamation, I tried to do just that. Force things to happen, fix things the way that I thought they should be fixed and at the speed that I thought it should go. Jeff and Sam used the example of a chicken. If the purpose of chicken is for the egg, we can force its function by putting it in a cage, force-feed it, you make it lay eggs. You take away its space, it's confined, where its only purpose is to provide that egg. Then you deal with the consequences. You deal with disease, chemicals, with waste, bird flu. Those are all downstream problems from forcing this function. Then you take the other chicken that lives in paradise. They have trees for shade, insects for food, they can forage around, can eat herbs that are beneficial for their health. And then that chicken also lays eggs. Because that's what chickens do. You just collect what the chicken naturally produces. Jeff and Sam call it permitted functions versus forced functions, and then they drop the truth bomb. Modern agriculture forces every function that it touches, and that's why it's the most destructive activity on the planet. And here's why this matters. It's not just about chickens. It's about every homestead, every business, every relationship. You're either building an environment that permits the thing to do what it naturally does, or you are forcing it. Forcing it gets really expensive. And I've seen people force things and burn out. Homesteads that try to operate the way that they think it should go, they burn out. Not putting in the right systems that create permission just to be. My first year of reclamation, I tried to force the landscape to do what I wanted it to do, and that ultimately failed. It wasn't until I became a better designer, looking at natural functions, that the land started to respond the right way. I've learned that permitted systems get more productive over time and forced systems get more expensive over time. That's the whole game, guys. It's just day 1. I'm gonna bring you along the remaining 14, sharing some highlights, showing you the farm. This struck a nerve in you, share it with somebody. Maybe you know a homesteader that can benefit from going with the grain than against it. Let's create systems that give permission and not forcing our will. I'll see you tomorrow.
