Permaculture

(from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture)

The word permaculture, coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture as well as permanent culture. Through a series of publications, Mollison, Holmgren and their associates documented an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies.

Permaculture design principles extend from the position that "The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children" (Mollison, 1990). The intent was that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals could become designers of their own environments and able to build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and systematically destroying the earth's ecosystems.

While originating as an agro-ecological design theory, permaculture has developed a large international following of individuals who have received training through intensive two week long 'permaculture design courses'. This 'permaculture community' continues to expand on the original teachings of Mollison and his associates, integrating a range of alternative cultural ideas, through a network of training, publications, permaculture gardens, and internet forums. In this way permaculture has become both a design system as well as a loosely defined philosophy or lifestyle ethic.

From Jude Hobbs (Cascadia Permaculture):

What is Permaculture?

1. An ecological science - the study of nature and natural systems
2. A design system for self-reliant living
3. Everything is connected to everything else
4. Integration of water, people, animals, land, plants, technologies , and community
productive and beautiful environments.
5. Build harmony, through cooperation with an attitude of Positivism
6. Global grass roots movement applicable on all scales and in all situations.

Goals

1. Long term self-reliance - consider seven generations
A generation is the average time interval between the
birth of parents and the birth of their offspring.
2. Work with nature rather than against it
3. Think globally act locally
4. Plan for small scale energy efficient systems - intensive rather than extensive
5. Eat a bio-regional diet-bring food growing to the cities
6. Hold water and fertility as high on the land as possible
7. The problem is the solution- - turn constraints into resources
8. Reforest - restore earth fertility
9. Emphasize native plants
10. Increase sum of yields
a.) Succession, natural ecosystems change over time giving rise to
different plants and animals
b.) Stocking, find the balance of various elements keeping one from
overpowering the other(s), number of elements in a guild
c.) Stacking, multi-level functions for each element
11. Invent and re-invent - close the loops
12. Whatever we take, we must return:
One calorie in/ One calorie out = sustainability
input = output=energy cycling
The user must pay (ie: recycling, tree tax, seed collecting, composting, energy)
13. Start small and making lots of little mistakes.
The earth, Gaia, is the super client
14. Permaculture starts at your doorstep and is a way of life.
he work of the permaculture designer is to maximise useful energy storages in any system on which they are working, be it house, urban property, rural lands, or gardens.

Permaculture Links and Contacts

NORTH AMERICA
• Permaculture Activist
• Planetary Permaculture Directory
• PermaEarth

GLOBAL
• Permaculture Interntional Listserve
• Permaculture Online - excellent alt.permaculture web site resource
• Permaculture Research Institute: pri@permaculture.org.au
Australia: Geoff Lawton

Many MORE links

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