Permaculture

Permaculture is variously practiced and defined around the world. In a sense, permaculture is being practiced in any relatively self-reliant community or home. However, it was in the mid-1970s that the term was explicitly coined and explained by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. In their first book on the subject, Mollison and Holmgren outlined a system designed to create sustainable human settlements inspired by observations of the patterns within natural systems. The term permaculture was understood as a combination of the words permanent and agriculture and was described further as a means of evolving a system of plants and animals to meet human needs. Since its initial definition, the term has been elaborated and expanded (e.g., by including cultures as well as agricultures, finances as well as foods). At its most basic, though, the purpose of permaculture design remains the same. Permaculture design is a way of thinking about, creating, and supporting interrelationships of various elements (house, garden, chicken, etc.) to form sustainable human settlements.

Permaculture, though expressly about design and engaging in landscapes, has underlying ethical principles that cannot be ignored in its application. The ethical guidelines of permaculture can be divided into four main principles. The first is referred to as care of the Earth. This means that within permaculture systems, living and nonliving elements and their needs must be not only considered but also given support and opportunities to thrive within the system. The second ethical principle is care of people. This means that the system designed should provide for the basic needs of the people within the system, expanding from the individual to wider communities, including considerations such as food and shelter, but also social contact, satisfying work, and so on. This principle suggests that although permaculture systems may be human-centered (i.e., they serve human needs), people's use should be careful and frugal (and in accordance with the first ethical principle). The third and fourth principles are the limitation of consumption and population and the redistribution of resource surpluses (time, energy, materials, etc.). These two principles are really elaborations of how to achieve the first two ideals, but they are important nonetheless. In applying these broad principles, one might (for example) limit the use of fossil fuels, designing a low-energy system using renewable energy sources (solar, wind, water, bio-energy, etc.) or waste whenever possible. By doing this, consumption would be limited (low-energy, no fossil fuels), and care of the Earth would be furthered (less overall negative environmental impact and interference), while still meeting the needs of the people within the system for energy. Sharing the stored energy surplus, your knowledge about the systems, or any extra materials from the project with your community would reflect the fourth principle. Although the ethical underpinnings of permaculture, and its relations with environmental ethics more broadly, remains a limited area of exploration, these four ethical guidelines do provide a starting point for the main concentration of permaculture writings: design.

Permaculture design focuses on the connections between various elements within a system. So, in designing a system, one might ask, “How does this bee interact with the buckwheat or pears?” or “How does that black walnut tree relate to the vegetable garden?” or “How do the algae and water lilies in the pond relate, and what does this have to do with my water use?” Permaculture design can be broken down into principles and techniques. Although design principles are held to be universally applicable, techniques vary depending on the particulars of a system. In other words, the design principles guide thinking and action, but how those principles are applied and achieved is site specific. Similar to the definition of permaculture, the principles of design vary somewhat in the literature, both in specificity and in content, but these differences do not necessarily result in the contradiction [Page 350]of various approaches. Bill Mollison and Reny Mia Slay outline several design principles that relate to elements and energy within a system under consideration. In general, they state that each element should be placed in the best possible relation with other elements and should perform many functions within the system; each system function should be supported by many elements; species diversity should be built into the system; cooperation with natural patterns (such as succession) will enhance the system; and energy should be efficiently used, recycled where possible, and emphasize biological resources (vs. fossil fuels). More recently, David Holmgren has suggested a set of 12 design

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