Difference between revisions of "Permaculture"

Revision as of 08:05, 14 January 2015

Permaculture is a farm-organizing principle and design system that was developed in Australia by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren starting in 1978.

Name and origins

Bill Mollison and David Holmgren claimed to have coined the term "Permaculture" as a portmanteau of "Permanent Agriculture" - and Mollison has attempted to control use of the word by claiming copyrights over the word. Nevertheless the two men clearly piggybacked on an older set of ideas and discussions around "permanent agriculture".

{{#invoke:main|main}} was coined by Cyril G. Hopkins in his 1910 book Soil Fertility and Permanent Agriculture and used by Franklin Hiram King in his classic 1911 book, Farmers of Forty Centuries: Or Permanent Agriculture in China, Korea and Japan].

The concern for the ability of an agriculture system to be "permanent", or continue indefinitely, grew out of the young discipline of soil science The promoters of permanant agriculture, despite their official repression[1] at the hands of the bureaucrats of the USDA became arguably the world's first sustainability movement

and the observation that the Roman Empire's decline may have had a lot to do with the depletion of the soils

J. Russell Smith's excellent 1929 book Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture. This book, a profound vision for a productive agricultural system incorporating biodiversity, silvopasture and tree cropping systems, displays many of the key ideas of Permaculture, long before Mollison and Holmgren articulated the Twelve Design Principles.

Main Ideas

Ethics>Principles>Strategies>Techniques

Twelve Design Principles

Twelve Permaculture design principles articulated by David Holmgren in his Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability

1. Observe and interact: By taking time to engage with nature we can design solutions that suit our particular situation.
2. Catch and store energy: By developing systems that collect resources at peak abundance, we can use them in times of need.
3. Obtain a yield: Ensure that the system is productive.
4. Apply self-regulation and accept feedback: We need to discourage inappropriate activity to ensure that systems can continue to function well.
5. Use and value renewable resources and services: Make the best use of nature's abundance to reduce our consumptive behavior and dependence on non-renewable resources.
6. Produce no waste: By valuing and making use of all the resources that are available to us, nothing goes to waste.
7. Design from patterns to details: By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go.
8. Integrate rather than segregate: By putting the right things in the right place, relationships develop between those things and they work together to support each other.
9. Use small and slow solutions: Small and slow systems are easier to maintain than big ones, making better use of local resources and producing more sustainable outcomes.
10. Use and value diversity: Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.
11. Use edges and value the marginal: The interface between things is where the most interesting events take place. These are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.
12. Creatively use and respond to change: We can have a positive impact on inevitable change by carefully observing, and then intervening at the right time.

Common Techniques Used

Limitations and Critique