What is Permaculture
Permaculture: the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable
and self-sufficient.
"Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system." - Bill Mollison
The term Permaculture was originally coined by David Holmgren a student of Bill Mollison in the 1970’s. The term was originally a combination of the words “permanent agriculture” but has since been changed “permanent culture” in order to encompass more than just agriculture. It became apparent in the later years of Permaculture that this creative methodology can apply to many more systems including social structures and business. Geoff Lawton of the Permaculture Research Institute in Australia often deservingly refers to Permaculture as a “design science.” In designing we make observations of natural systems and use the conclusions of our observations to assist (or create new) the natural system in becoming more productive, regenerative, self-sufficient, and useful.
This philosophy of design science is built on a foundation of these three core ethics:
- Care of the earth
- Care of people
- Return of surplus
The first ethic “Care of the Earth” is ahead of the second simply because it is apparent that it is a requirement for the health and survival of people. The earth provides us with everything, and if it is unhealthy, so are we. The second is to be expected, we place it above surplus because ultimately surplus does us no good unless the people are here to manage it. And finally the third ethic refers to surplus. That is returning it to the system from which it came, in order to regenerate and grow that system.
It is not easy to say which of the ethics is most important. Ultimately two and three are not possible without the first, however the third is required if the first is to be fulfilled , and one and three really don’t matter (to us) without the second. For what then would be our intent for caring for our planet if we were not likewise taken care of. It is most pragmatic to say that each are of equal importance. These three principles are what mold the philosophy of Permaculture. In the future we will right another post in detail on each.
The design of a Permaculture system traditionally takes into account twelve principles set in place by David Holmgren. In many circles, wording has been changed and ideas have been altered. This is not necessarily a bad thing according to Holmgren’s last principle, but for the sake of a solid foundation of what permaculture design is we will stick with the original.
Permaculture Principles
- Observe and Interact
- Catch and Store Energy
- Obtain a Yield
- Apply Self-Regulation
- Use and Value Renewable Recourses
- Produce No Waste
- Pay Attention to Patterns and Detail
- Integration over Segregation
- Implement Small Slow Solutions
- Use and Value Diversity
- Use Edges
- Creativity and Response to Change
Each of these Principles will be further explored in Future posts.
Permaculture has been a steadily growing practice since its fruition in the 1970’s. Geoff Lawton, a student of Mollison, has brought Permaculture to one of the most beaten down pieces of land in the world, Jordan, and helped spawn the greening the desert movement by creating a forest of food in a place that was considered to be completely dead due to overgrazing, poor agricultural practices, lack of water, and salted soil. Watch a video on this particular project here.
There are several other notable examples of Permaculture in practice. A couple of which include:
Beacon Food Forest: In Seattle Washington a community project is under way called “The Beacon Food Forest.” It is currently the most notable public food park in the continental U.S. at present time.
Miracle Farm: In Quebec there is an Orchard that recently converted from traditionally monocrop organic to Permaculture. They do not spray anything there, including organic products, and have an incredibly high harvest of a variety of fruits with a very very small pest population. You would have to spend several hours in this orchard in order to spot a fruit worm.
Designing with the ethics in mind and using zones and sectors(discussed in a later post) to implement principles. Permaculture is a promising solution to destructive agriculture as well as many other non-sustainable systems. Humanity is smart, and has lots of potential. Imagine what we could accomplish if we put that potential towards intelligent and well thought out productive designing as opposed to systems that force the earth into a breaking point. We are meant to be stewards of Earth.
“All of the worlds problems can be solved in a garden.” - Geoff Lawton
Hey,
tthanks for sharing this, but are you the same author as on this blog? : http://sustainablebynature.blogspot.co.at/2015/09/what-is-permaculture.html
Because it looks like the same article, did u wrote it yourself? (no offence tho)
cheers
Hi rimann,
Content theft is rampant in this space and we want to make sure content creators get properly rewarded/compensated for their work. If you could mention your steemit account (rimann) on your blogspot blog it would authenticate this content as yours and many more will be comfortable upvoting.
Thank you,
James.
Ok awesome of course I can do that
Yes that is my blog. I just Posted a link on the blog to verify. Hey nice catch though! good work
Hey,
nice to know that’s you and also great that this verification is so easy. I never thought my comment would be worth something but it seems like this steemit really does what it should :D
This was my first contribution so now i am really looking forward to stay and help to make this thing awesome and hopefully bypassing Facebook soon :)
I will follow you, because i also love the permaculture idea and i love to design gardens, so that it perfectly fits in nature, where the only 'work' will be harvesting .
Lets make our planet great again :D
this must've been before the cheetah got introduced on here to auto-google sources. but it must be annoying for so many people trying to bring their original content over here to the Blockchain.
Verified!
http://sustainablebynature.blogspot.co.at/
Thank so much for posting about Permaculture! I am very interested in this topic, I'm following you so please post more. I'm a Permaculture newbie but an avid gardener with a passion for helping others grow food, check out my current article! https://steemit.com/gardening/@brownsgreens/just-grow-food-garden-site-prep
Hey man, I saw your post earlier gave you an upvote and a comment, I love what you are doing. I actually do something very similar. That post i sent you to on your thread has some links at the bottom you should check out. We are in Missouri. I definitely plan on posting more about Permaculture.
Permaculture needs to be alot more then just on steemit! Your back and front yards need permaculture! Even on the smallest of levels.
Great post rimann
I couldn't agree more! I feel that it relates to steemit because they share the concept of decentralization of resources. But yes, it should be in everyone's yard, that's why my wife brother and I built a business to start accomplishing that, even on the smallest of levels
The ideas and principles of Permaculture need to be more widespread across the world and every post like this here on Steemit and elsewhere can make that happen. Thank-you for spreading the message!
Permaculture should be a thing here. (Been making my yard into food for people and other animals for years.) I do wonder how well the SLOW thinking that goes into gradually cultivating healthy soil will interact with the compressed time and instant-gratification-tailored thinking so common to internet land.
who know's maybe they will balance eachother out. The internet can take people's mind off the waiting. I believe our future is one of permaculture and technology living side by side
Mm....hmmm....
The earth is polluted 24/7, this has to change. Let's hear the advice of the wise and stop this maddness. Our planet is our only home, we need to take better care of it!
i'm really liked this post:)
Thank you @rimann
No problem! I enjoyed writing it. I figured I should contribute to this place in my own way.
I'm looking forward to the day that "permaculture" is a top-level tag on steemit!
I'm motivated to do my part to make that happen
Thanks for the information. I will check out your blog.
Yup, definitely needs permaculture. The world at large needs it even more than steem.it =)
Welcome Rimann,
I have been a Permaculture afficianado for many years. A friend of mine and I had 2.5 acres of land in Tucson, AZ where we bult a very large swale and practiced Permaculture on the land. I consider myself to be at Ground Zero, the spiritual aspects of permaculture.
Did you get the opportunity to meet Brad Lancaster in AZ?
i am very grateful to come across this, and hold really dear to my heart that this is a place where I can learn and grow this element of my learning which I have only heard mentioned by my far out and so awesome grandma. Look forward to what's to come...thanx!
Decentro has been actively permaculturing for years and on different types of geography. Living by the ocean with plenty of fish to catch reduces land requirements for permaculture exponentially. Fish, both source of protein and nutrients for veggies reduces our land needs by at least ten fold.
Have you seen the guy that is farming muscles in the ocean?
thank you for your share.
More farming method : biodynamic-farming
https://steemit.com/biodynamic/@chamviet/biodynamic-farming
I love it. I am a Permaculture Designer myself. Although never really did anything with it.
It is so great that you started this topic. Yesterday I was thinking on bringing more health related topic to steem because they seem so scarce. Now there it is! Keep on creating!
I very much like and admire this concept because it is holistic in approach and always incorporates so many good and sound principles. :)
I find this write-up fascinating. Really feel like there's a coming together of minds on Steemit. Everyone's interests are somehow aligned.. it's all about a better tomorrow ain't it?
Yes it is. And I couldn't agree more! There really is a coming together of minds
Block chain applications are a good example of permaculture principles in action. If he could have imagined the technology, I highly suspect Mollison would have featured it heavily when discussing the Alternative Global Nation.
@rimann I found your article interesting and believe that permaculture needs to be a thing in steemit. But why didnt you make 'permaculture' as a tag? I'm new to this steemit platform so I'm clueless on how to create a new tag.. I would love to find some more permaculture posts here on steemit and im sure lots of people would too :)
At the time I didn't realize you could make tags that weren't topics. But now I know am wrong and have tagged permaculture on all of my permaculture posts sense
I love the idea of permaculture. For me I see it as the future of agriculture, food shortages are on the horizon. If you look at what Curtis Stone is doing, he turned his passion into a business.
Every town around the world needs to promote this type of lifestyle, too much food has more air miles than a rockstar.
Curtis Stone: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BlDCX__nCLs_ZF9meYQbw
Thank you for this post rimann! I agree, Steemit needs more Permaculture posts, and such a great introduction is the best start. I want to publish some related ones as well, but I think I'd share yours first.
Nice to see this post on here and I couldn't agree more! Thanks for sharing this @rimann it looks like you were one of the first people to get permaculture going on here. I am a permaculturist that studied with Geoff Lawton of PRI (PDC and 10 week Internship) I also took a Mycoremediation course with Paul Stamets and have traveled the world visiting various demonstration, organic and permaculture farms. My hope is to grow and develop the Permaculture Movement by using Steemit to empower people who have great information to share, courses to offer, and maybe goods and services to sell. Steemit looks like it might be capable of all those things simultaneously. Growing your own food is like printing your own money, blogging about it at the same time is like gaining interest and extra sources of income from the same activity. I tried to reach out to the people at Permies.com but I think it is threatening for their platform to have to compete for attention,users and content. If they could do the same thing with a blockchain technology and cryptopermie dollars (backed by books, tools, volunteer hours, seeds, trees and cultures held in trust by all members). THEN we could really get things going. But so far, there seem to only be a few early adopters. Shout out to all the Permaculture People!!!!! If you googled this article or are new to steemit, reach out to others on Fb, instagram, twitter and the like to come to steemit and start nourishing this platform with our content and merry community!!! Now let's see if this works.............. thanks all, @ecoknowme