Social Environmental Entrepreneurship (SEE) (士農工商 + 志)

Social Environmental Entrepreneurs SEE (this is to really see) both the threats and opportunities presented by the Generation-E (Environment, Energy, Equity, Enterprise and E-commerce), irrespective of whether they individually are the Baby-Boomers (now generally retired, born 1946 - 1961), or the Gen-X (Hip-Hop and MTV, born 1961- 1981) or the Gen-Y (E-mail, IM , YouTube, born 1981 - 2003) and to some extent, even the Gen-Z (MP3, Cell-phone and high digital connectivity).

Today, let us explore the route taken by Mr. Naoki Shiomi, the author of the book “Half-Farmer, Half-X” (半農半X) and his promotion of associated lifestyle which I would described as TransFarmers (transforming themselves, the earth and the world) or Culturvators (Cultural Innovator, both cultivating the Earth and Culture). This is real (Agri)Culture / Permaculture (Permanent Agriculture or Permanent Culture).

Mr. Naoki Shiomi, is the originator of the "Half-Farmer, Half-X" (半農半X) Concept and authored the book carrying the same title, and founded the "Half-Farmer, Half-X Research Center” at Ayabe, Kyoto, Japan. Half-Farming, Half-X Research Center Official Website http://www.towanoe.jp/xseed/

The phrase, "Half-Farmer, Half-X" (半農半X) is drawing much attention as the new key phrase for a lifestyle, a way of life, for the 21st century. "Half-Farmer" refers to "a lifestyle with a touch of farming," and the X in "Half-X"(半農半X) refers to an individual's profession / passion / purpose or social mission or natural calling. The synergy is inspiring / enlightening to the individual’s pursuit of wealth / health / happiness, while making real contributions to the world, making good while doing good or Triple-Bottom-Line (Profit-People-Planet).

This concept can form an excellent alliance with Permaculture (the most famous Australian cultural export, courtesy of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren). By the way, someone once said, to the effect, that if you do not know anything about Permaculture or Biochar (biological char-coal), it is high time you get interested, in the coming convergence of three crises: Food / Fuel / Finance!

A true Social Environmental Entrepreneurs integrate the Primary (Farming) / Secondary (Manufacturing) / Tertiary (Service) / 4th Sector (Experiential) / 5th Sector (Transformative) into a holistic whole, covering much more than what the Chinese used to call “Official / Farmer / Worker / Trader” (士農工商 + 志) or (志農工商).

Further details on Permaculture / TransFarmer / Culturvator are available here (ppt) or here (pdf) for download. They are, however, draft documents only subject to further revisions.

Grass-Root-Philosophy & Global-Business-Plan

Wanting to meet or becoming Philosopher-Businessperson? Here is your wonderful opportunity....

SOHO-TECHNOLOGY-3 consists of two principal parts:
• Grass-Root-Philosophy (GRP) in which I will dwell into Soil, Sun and Soul (serious issues) vs. Sun, Sea, Sand and Sauna (fun issues).
• Global-Business-Plan (GBP) in which I will promote a business model that advocates the Triple-Bottom-Line (Profit-Planet-People).

I think it will be interesting to see how each and everyone of us can be a philosopher and businessman at the same time.This will also be the site to meet similarly-inclined business-persons, both locally and globally.

The GRP is a very grass-root approach in philosophical search, commencing with a business start-up from Small-Office-Home-Office (SOHO-1), while having some spare time engaged in Astronomy studying the Solar Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO-2) which further extends our investigation into the Self-Organizing Holarchi Open (SOHO-3) system that helps to answer the questions, such as “Why there is life?”, “What is the purpose of life?” etc. etc. Sound very much like searching for Soil, Sun and Soul.

The GBP, on the other hand, involves having an “Office-In-Every-Home” for each and every one of us as a launch-pad for a business venture that will eventually turn us into full-fledged Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE) promoting "Home-In-Every-Office" concept in businesses, while receiving necessary back-up from centralized locations. Hopefully this will lead many of us to financial independence. Sound very much like having a lifestyle of Sun, Sea, Sand and Sauna.

For the impatient lots, you might want to have a preliminary glimpse of the GRP and the GBP by downloading the draft documents here (ppt)or here (pdf) and here (ppt) or here (pdf) respectively. These are draft documents only, more details will appear on this site. So, please stay tuned or subscribe to the RSS of this site.

Please join me in this exciting journey of Cultural Innovation and be counted amongst the very first batch of Culturvators.