Why Permaculture?
by PJ Barton
2019 Apprentice
During our Apprenticeship at Rancho Mastatal we spend a year immersed in a working example of how Permaculture can work on a practical level. We take several workshops throughout the year including the annual Permaculture Design Certification (PDC).
Presentation at the PDC
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is the design system for creating sustainable human environments. In a modern society, which is not sustainable could permaculture hold a solution?
Permaculture was coined in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, the word is a contraction of permanent agriculture and permanent culture which are intertwined in our history as a society. By pulling both culture and agriculture into our attention we a focusing on what the relationship is between them, how they function together as a whole. Permaculture looks at meeting the needs of the present in harmony with our environment. Although it is designed as a agricultural practices it also can be applied socially. The broad framework means it can include multiple parts of our society linking things together and how they function as a whole.
The 3 Core Ethics of Permaculture
1. Care of the Earth
Care of all living and non living things. By applying this ethic we can appreciate all organisms on earth. Invisible to the naked eye are all the mico-organisms upon which life is built; everything is alive. It is not obvious at first that a plant is breathing and under its roots there's an incredible network of organisms working together. If we view all things as beings our attitude and relationship will change towards them, developing respect for what we interact with.
2. Care of the People
As a society/ individual we need to meet our basic needs as humans: food, water and shelter. Considering our basic needs while creating systems that can sustain us in the long term. Permaculture uses these basic needs to design systems that can hold solutions for the growing inequality that is gathering pace on a global scale. Modern systems don't focus on care instead they're driven through profit. Many of our social programs designed to care for the less fortunate are being dismantled in an effort to create more profit; looking after one another and care are given little time into our busy society.
3. Contribution of Surplus
This ethic is a way of circulating the wealth back into the system. In a our conditioned society, rather than circulating wealth it is common to hoard it - the idea of spending all of your wealth is a radical idea, when is enough money or wealth enough to have surplus? By reinvesting surplus, it self perpetuates the movement. The system would be regenerative constantly sustaining itself. Like any system if you continually extract resources without replenishing them it will eventually collapse. When the needs of a society are not met from within the system we look to extra energy inputs and ultimately pay the price in increasing energy consumption and its resulting pollution.
The ethics of permaculture give us another way to view the world which is perhaps different from modern, conventional society. Observing and approaching situations guided by these ethics permaculture can be applied to help us steward the earth and guide our activities in a better direction. Our fragmented society often misses the connection that helps it function as a whole seeing only the tip of a large iceberg. Sometimes we make connections but fail as a whole. Moving together, finding patterns that work and what needs to be improved. We are surrounded by nature who we can observe and mimic. She becomes our inspiration helping us establish sustainable systems. Perhaps that is why we should use permaculture.
For more information about Permaculture check out some of the excellent free resources on David Holmgrens website get involved in you local permaculture movement and consider taking a Permaculture Design Certification near you or with us!