I have a friend who farms organic walnuts, and who turned me on to all of these ideas. I agree with you (and him) that all of this should be done at scale. The obstacle, as I understand it, is that yields aren't as high as "conventional" farming, so while it is possible to scale perma-culture ag, meeting world food requirements will require more land under cultivation. Food prices will rise. That's probably still not enough to grow enough for everyone, so we'd have to significantly reduce food waste, and / or reduce meat production and consumption, as well.

Those are all good ideas! If I had a magic wand to wave to create that world, I would. But, in the world as it exists, it's really, really difficult to persuade enough people to change behavior (and legislation) enough to make all that happen quickly.

Barring disaster, of course. Which may be where "conventional" agriculture is taking us.

I find the whole subject, and many others of modernity, depressing: we know what has to be done, but see no way of achieving it.

Anyone have anything cheerful to tell me?