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May 2009 
Massive returns on investment!
Posted on Jul 26th, 2007
by 
Chris
Chris
I recently cashed in on various investments I made in the past. Here are the results:
1. >10,000% return after five months.
2. >200,000% return after 15 years.
3. In excess of >1,000,000% after 21 years.
Here are the details.
1. A single Brettonian dwarf bean (courtesy of Steve Read, Yogic/Aikido permaculture designer from Brittany: http://www.permaculture.be/), planted at the beginning of April 2006 produced over 100 beans by the end of August in the same year. Of course I planted more than one, ate loads and still had dozens to plant again this year. This is not unusual for beans of various types. Runner beans can give even greater returns.
2. A larch tree I grew from seed in 1992 and felled this spring at age 15 years. By weight, the return is in the region of 0.1 gram (overestimated) to 1000 Kg (underestimated). Of course we need to factor in some of my time, say five minutes to sow the seed, fifteen minutes to plant and mulch the sapling and maybe three maintenance periods of about ten minutes each over the first few years until it was big enough to start shading out the grass by itself. The figure of 200,000% is a rough underestimate after taking these factors into account. Again, I planted more than one.
3. This refers to natural regeneration begun in 1986. The investment was one of time as I simply repositioned an existing fence to exclude grazing animals from a two thirds acre patch of rough grazing and then stood back. This equated to so say one day's work (overestimated). The figure given here cannot hope to convey the vastness and huge complexity of the annual returns:
(see www.konsk.co.uk/web/penrhos/design/argelacs.htm for yields after five years)
This site now absorbs something like three tons of CO2 per year, measured as tree growth, stores thousands of litres of additional water in the increased humus as well as providing me with a perfect classroom for teaching the ecological principles of permaculture design. If we accept the premise of carbon offsetting (which I think is debatable) it also makes me better than carbon neutral.
The point here is that investment in nature provides huge opportunities that dwarf anything a bank or the financial industry can offer. Get those seeds in now peeps and prepare to reap rewards in five months, five years or annually for life.
1. >10,000% return after five months.
2. >200,000% return after 15 years.
3. In excess of >1,000,000% after 21 years.
Here are the details.
1. A single Brettonian dwarf bean (courtesy of Steve Read, Yogic/Aikido permaculture designer from Brittany: http://www.permaculture.be/), planted at the beginning of April 2006 produced over 100 beans by the end of August in the same year. Of course I planted more than one, ate loads and still had dozens to plant again this year. This is not unusual for beans of various types. Runner beans can give even greater returns.
2. A larch tree I grew from seed in 1992 and felled this spring at age 15 years. By weight, the return is in the region of 0.1 gram (overestimated) to 1000 Kg (underestimated). Of course we need to factor in some of my time, say five minutes to sow the seed, fifteen minutes to plant and mulch the sapling and maybe three maintenance periods of about ten minutes each over the first few years until it was big enough to start shading out the grass by itself. The figure of 200,000% is a rough underestimate after taking these factors into account. Again, I planted more than one.
3. This refers to natural regeneration begun in 1986. The investment was one of time as I simply repositioned an existing fence to exclude grazing animals from a two thirds acre patch of rough grazing and then stood back. This equated to so say one day's work (overestimated). The figure given here cannot hope to convey the vastness and huge complexity of the annual returns:
(see www.konsk.co.uk/web/penrhos/design/argelacs.htm for yields after five years)
This site now absorbs something like three tons of CO2 per year, measured as tree growth, stores thousands of litres of additional water in the increased humus as well as providing me with a perfect classroom for teaching the ecological principles of permaculture design. If we accept the premise of carbon offsetting (which I think is debatable) it also makes me better than carbon neutral.
The point here is that investment in nature provides huge opportunities that dwarf anything a bank or the financial industry can offer. Get those seeds in now peeps and prepare to reap rewards in five months, five years or annually for life.
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As much as I'm curious about the fantastic percentage returns, I don't know if that's a good way to properly plan for say, your retirement, or your kid's education………drought, floods, storms, pests, uncertainty, etc…….can have a significant impact on what you're doing.
jt
Hi John,
Many thanks for the comment- but what? So the sort of events you mention don't have a significant impact on economies and livlihoods anyway? The resilient landscapes possible through conscious design are far more robust than any conventional economic system. Witness the turbulent markets of the last week- didn't effect my potatoes (2800% return in five months) in the slightest!
Learning about sustainable development through the study of natural systems like forests and knowing how to grow your own food may well turn out to be the most valuable education you can give your “kid”. I plan to spend my retirement being looked after by a hoard of youngsters eager to learn from my ancient wisdom (!) through actively engaging in managing the complex productive plant systems that are sprouting up around me now.
It's hard to tell exactly what you're proposing……..doing the right thing with our human/land relationships, or making money……
Given your returns, can I send you $10,000, and then you can send me my millions to my villa on my island?
All kidding aside, I suppose if I have a handful of seeds, I can turn that into a fantastic rate of return, but it's hard for people to bank on that.
jt
Many thanks again for the comment, John. Its great to get some interaction after making progressively more outlandish entries on my blog in an attempt to generate feedback.
I make no proposals and really I should begin every entry with “Don't believe anything I say!” or rather, “Don't just believe what I say…listen with an open but questioning mind and check it out for yourself”.
Kidding aside my only proposal would be that studying the ethics and principles of permaculture design and employing them through design tools to our individual and collective lives could bring great benefits to our selves, our communities and our environments, wherever we and they me be.
Permaculture design is an integral methodology so money generation is an essential component of any design. For myself, in my own context, I have found it highly satisfying to reduce my monetary requirements by setting my own limits to my consumption and by generating many of the resources that I do need through interactions with my environment.
Regarding banking on seed (note the term, bank; where do you think that came from if not gardening?), sow more than one and more than one variety. Also, plant perennials- plants that survive for more than one season and just get bigger and bigger, like trees.
Now if you want to send me an interesting or unusual seed, I could have a go at turning that into a profit that we could both share!
Hi Chris
I had great fun reading the conversations. What would be the ROI on that ?
I parted ways with my batch mates in finance, long ago. Many of them went into investment banking and some of them walked out from the bailed out ships with their bonuses. It would be very difficult for them to connect to what you are pointing at.
I was familiarizing with zero budget farming yet another application of what you are suggesting. We could as well have zero-budget IT zero budget consulting and much much more if we are ready to escape from the clutches of our own tools. We are so caught up in the noise that we fail to connect to the really significant
Thank you so much Chris for being here, breaking your silence once again
JM