12wonderY
I didn't realize this group lacked a thread on Permaculture.
Starting it here with an obituary for Bill Mollison:
http://www.themercury.com.au/lifestyle/visionary-bill-mollison-inspired-global-p...
Visionary Bill Mollison inspired the global permaculture movement.
He died September 24th. The PlantAFruitTree social media campaign started at the request of Bill Mollison’s family, who put out the word that he wanted everyone to plant a tree when he died.
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple,” he said.
Starting it here with an obituary for Bill Mollison:
http://www.themercury.com.au/lifestyle/visionary-bill-mollison-inspired-global-p...
Visionary Bill Mollison inspired the global permaculture movement.
He died September 24th. The PlantAFruitTree social media campaign started at the request of Bill Mollison’s family, who put out the word that he wanted everyone to plant a tree when he died.
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex, the solutions remain embarrassingly simple,” he said.
22wonderY
What is permaculture?
Permaculture defies simple definition and understanding. The term began as a fusion of “permanent” and “agriculture”. Even back in the 1970s, Mollison and David Holmgren could see how destructive industrial agriculture was to natural habitats and topsoils, and how dependent it was on finite fossil fuels.
It was clear that these systems were unsustainable, a position ratified by scientific reports today which expose the alarming effects industrial agriculture has on biodiversity and climate stability. The two pioneering ecologists began to wonder what a “permanent agriculture” would look like. Thus permaculture was born.
In the broadest terms, permaculture is a design system that seeks to work with the laws of nature rather than against them. It aims to efficiently meet human needs without degrading the ecosystems we all rely on to flourish.
Put otherwise, permaculture is an attempt to design human systems and practices in ways that mimic the cycles of nature to eliminate waste, increase resilience and allow for the just and harmonious co-existence of human beings with other species.
A wide range of design principles were developed to help put these broad ideas and values into practice. This practical application and experimentation is what really defines permaculture. Before all else, participants in the movement get their hands in the soil and seek to walk the talk.
There is now a vast array of excellent books detailing the practice of permaculture, as well as outstanding websites such as the Permaculture Research Institute for those wanting to learn, share, explore and connect.
Although permaculture was initially focused on sustainable methods of organic food production, the concept soon evolved to embrace the broader design challenges of sustainable living – not just “permanent agriculture”, but “permanent culture”.
Today we face profound environmental and social challenges: ecological overshoot, climate instability, looming resource scarcity, and inequitable concentrations of wealth. In such a world the permaculture ethics of “care of people, care of planet, and fair share” imply radical changes to the way we live with each other and on the planet.
As well as transitioning away from fossil-fuel-dependent agriculture toward local organic production, permaculture implies the embrace of renewable energy systems, “simple living” lifestyles of modest consumption, as well as retrofitting the suburbs for sustainability and energy efficiency.
From a grassroots or community perspective, the transition towns and ecovillage movements acknowledge their profound debts to permaculture.
From a macroeconomic perspective, permaculture implies a degrowth transition to a steady-state economy that operates within the sustainable limits of the planet. Permaculture even has implications for what alternative forms of global development might look like.
So, in answer to the complex question “what is permaculture?”, perhaps the most concise response is to say with others that “permaculture is a revolution disguised as organic gardening”.
-Samuel Alexander
Permaculture defies simple definition and understanding. The term began as a fusion of “permanent” and “agriculture”. Even back in the 1970s, Mollison and David Holmgren could see how destructive industrial agriculture was to natural habitats and topsoils, and how dependent it was on finite fossil fuels.
It was clear that these systems were unsustainable, a position ratified by scientific reports today which expose the alarming effects industrial agriculture has on biodiversity and climate stability. The two pioneering ecologists began to wonder what a “permanent agriculture” would look like. Thus permaculture was born.
In the broadest terms, permaculture is a design system that seeks to work with the laws of nature rather than against them. It aims to efficiently meet human needs without degrading the ecosystems we all rely on to flourish.
Put otherwise, permaculture is an attempt to design human systems and practices in ways that mimic the cycles of nature to eliminate waste, increase resilience and allow for the just and harmonious co-existence of human beings with other species.
A wide range of design principles were developed to help put these broad ideas and values into practice. This practical application and experimentation is what really defines permaculture. Before all else, participants in the movement get their hands in the soil and seek to walk the talk.
There is now a vast array of excellent books detailing the practice of permaculture, as well as outstanding websites such as the Permaculture Research Institute for those wanting to learn, share, explore and connect.
Although permaculture was initially focused on sustainable methods of organic food production, the concept soon evolved to embrace the broader design challenges of sustainable living – not just “permanent agriculture”, but “permanent culture”.
Today we face profound environmental and social challenges: ecological overshoot, climate instability, looming resource scarcity, and inequitable concentrations of wealth. In such a world the permaculture ethics of “care of people, care of planet, and fair share” imply radical changes to the way we live with each other and on the planet.
As well as transitioning away from fossil-fuel-dependent agriculture toward local organic production, permaculture implies the embrace of renewable energy systems, “simple living” lifestyles of modest consumption, as well as retrofitting the suburbs for sustainability and energy efficiency.
From a grassroots or community perspective, the transition towns and ecovillage movements acknowledge their profound debts to permaculture.
From a macroeconomic perspective, permaculture implies a degrowth transition to a steady-state economy that operates within the sustainable limits of the planet. Permaculture even has implications for what alternative forms of global development might look like.
So, in answer to the complex question “what is permaculture?”, perhaps the most concise response is to say with others that “permaculture is a revolution disguised as organic gardening”.
-Samuel Alexander
3MaureenRoy
Thanks for this entry. Early on with the LT Sustainability group, I wondered whether a Permaculture thread should be started. Since we rapidly accumulated a great many threads anyway, I decided to list various permaculture titles in our Zeitgeist thread and then leave it up to our LT group members to decide what they want to discuss from there.
So it's "Hail and Farewell" to Bill Mollison? Such a life! Plant a tree, they say? My family and I live in a forest in Northern California, so we already have many coast redwoods, Doug firs, tanoaks, madrone, manzanita, etc. The previous owner had planted an apple tree which is still going strong, but his pear tree was heavily damaged by bears, plum trees ditto. I hear there's a 3-year wait for rot-resistant chestnut saplings. I think I will settle for buying a bay laurel tree we can place in an indoor planter in a sunny room.
So it's "Hail and Farewell" to Bill Mollison? Such a life! Plant a tree, they say? My family and I live in a forest in Northern California, so we already have many coast redwoods, Doug firs, tanoaks, madrone, manzanita, etc. The previous owner had planted an apple tree which is still going strong, but his pear tree was heavily damaged by bears, plum trees ditto. I hear there's a 3-year wait for rot-resistant chestnut saplings. I think I will settle for buying a bay laurel tree we can place in an indoor planter in a sunny room.
42wonderY
I'm hoping to introduce one or a few caterpillar resistant cherry trees to my ridgetop meadow this weekend.
5MaureenRoy
In the Spring 2017 issue of Permaculture magazine, there is a long article on permaculture coursework available in North American universities. Course credits range as high as 4 or 5 credits. Some have required lab time, some do not.
http://www.permaculturemag.org
http://www.permaculturemag.org
6John5918
Climate-friendly farming solution fizzles in Zimbabwe (IRIN)
Not really sure whether this fits into this thread or not, but it is an example of the practical challenges facing sustainable agriculture.
Not really sure whether this fits into this thread or not, but it is an example of the practical challenges facing sustainable agriculture.
7MaureenRoy
Thanks, John. Sure, many methods must be tried. Here is an April 2019 magazine article on other new agricultural strategies being recommended:
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/04/green-new-deal-agriculture-farm-workers
https://jacobinmag.com/2019/04/green-new-deal-agriculture-farm-workers
8MaureenRoy
Permaculture may have to be viewed, at least in the short term, as an incomplete field of study. For example, almost all permaculture books use zero references. The same is true, unfortunately, with all the permaculture magazines I have seen so far.
I have warned some US reference librarians about that problem. When I contacted one magazine editor about two dangerous health mistakes in a recent edition of her US permaculture magazine, she was surprised, and then shrugged it off. She explained to me that the responsibility is on the authors of the magazine's articles to do their own fact-checking. Apparently, she has never taken a management class: Managers (and Editors) can delegate authority, but they can never delegate responsibility.
I have warned some US reference librarians about that problem. When I contacted one magazine editor about two dangerous health mistakes in a recent edition of her US permaculture magazine, she was surprised, and then shrugged it off. She explained to me that the responsibility is on the authors of the magazine's articles to do their own fact-checking. Apparently, she has never taken a management class: Managers (and Editors) can delegate authority, but they can never delegate responsibility.
92wonderY
The Amazon Is Not a Wilderness, It’s an Advanced Permaculture Food Forest
https://www.pastemagazine.com/science/superfoods/earthrxthe-amazon-is-not-a-wild...
The original article:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170302143939.htm
Also explained and described in
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
and
The Discovery of the Amazon
https://www.pastemagazine.com/science/superfoods/earthrxthe-amazon-is-not-a-wild...
The original article:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170302143939.htm
Also explained and described in
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
and
The Discovery of the Amazon
10John5918
>9 2wonderY:
I think we often forget how much of what we now consider to be avant garde agriculture - organic, mixed farming, rotating crops, permaculture, natural manure and compost, etc - was actually the norm for centuries if not millennia, and is still practised as a matter of course by some of the poorer and more isolated subsistence farmers.
I think we often forget how much of what we now consider to be avant garde agriculture - organic, mixed farming, rotating crops, permaculture, natural manure and compost, etc - was actually the norm for centuries if not millennia, and is still practised as a matter of course by some of the poorer and more isolated subsistence farmers.
Únete para publicar
