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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Permaculture
  • Date: Sun, 13 Jan 2008 19:27:14 -0500



Permaculture Defined:

1. From Michael Pilarksi (Friends of the Trees) in
INTERNATIONAL GREEN FRONT REPORT (1988):

Permaculture is: the design of land use systems that are
sustainable and environmentally sound; the design of
culturally appropriate systems which lead to social stability;
a design system characterized by an integrated application of
ecological principles in land use; an international movement
for land use planning and design; an ethical system stressing
positivism and cooperation.

In the broadest sense, permaculture refers to land use systems
which promote stability in society, utilize resources in a
sustainable way and preserve wildlife habitat and the genetic
diversity of wild and domestic plants and animals. It is a
synthesis of ecology and geography, of observation and design.
Permaculture involves ethics of earth care because the
sustainable use of land cannot be separated from life-styles
and philosophical issues.

2. From Lee Barnes (Katuah Journal and Permaculture Connections),
Waynesville, North Carolina:

Permaculture ("Perm"anent "agri"culture and "Perma"nent "culture")
is a sustainable design system stressing the harmonious
interrelationship of humans, plants, animals and the Earth. To
paraphrase the founder of Permaculture, designer Bill Mollison:

"Permaculture principles focus on thoughtful designs for small-scale
intensive systems which are labor efficient and which use biological
resources instead of fossil fuels. Designs stress ecological
connections and closed energy and material loops. The core of
permaculture is design and the working relationships and connections
between all things. Each component in a system performs multiple
functions, and each function is supported by many elements. Key to
efficient design is observation and replication of natural ecosystems,
where designers maximize diversity with polycultures, stress
efficient energy planning for houses and settlement, using and
accelerating natural plant succession, and increasing the highly
productive "edge-zones" within the system."

Permaculture designs have been successfully and widely implemented
in third-world countries, but there is current need to expand these
principles in temperate climates, and especially urban areas to
create more enjoyable and sustainable human habitats.



An Introduction to
Permaculture
at Sweetwater Farm CSA
Sebastopol, CA
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, What Is Permaculture?

Permaculture (permanent culture) is the conscious design and maintenance
of cultivated ecosystems that mimic the diversity, stability and
resilience of natural ecosystems. It harmoniously integrates
landscape, people and technologies to provide food, shelter, energy, and
other needs in a way that will sustain present and future generations.
It also supports community structures such as economic systems, finance
and trade systems, as well as land access and cultural concerns. It can
provide you with the techniques and tools for transforming
even badly damaged land into beautiful, ecological, high-yield,
low-maintenance oases.


From warwick@bettong.eepo.dialix.oz.auTue Mar 14 11:21:00 1995
Date: Tue, 14 Mar 1995 10:51:14 WST
From: Warwick Rowell <warwick@bettong.eepo.dialix.oz.au>
Reply to: homestead@world.std.com
To: Homestead list <HOMESTEAD@world.std.com>
Subject: A definition of Permaculture

After the last spate of stuff about food systems there seems
to be some confusion about what Permaculture is. In an attempt
to clarify this, I have enclose below a one page definition
with some characteristics that I have built over eight years
of dealing with people's requests for information about
Permaculture.

We are all moving in the same direction and have different and
overlapping mental frameworks for doing it. Arguing that "my theory
contains yours" is not very fruitful. But one of the fundamental issues
we face is the order in which we come across ideas, and what we do with
new stuff.

Most times we fit subsequent material into the first framework
we receive. Very occasionally we find a new framework that fits
our experience of the world so well we go through the huge mental
effort of changing.

Permaculture seems to me to be a comprehensive framework that is
system based, that is positive, personal, and pragmatic. For me,
it is a framework that contains organic gardening, sustainable agriculture,
homesteading, solar design, alternative power, frugal living,
alternative economics, independence/interdependence issues, and so on..


Here is the text of the handout:

Permaculture is applied integrated design.

Permaculture started as a strategy for designing systems for Permanent
or Perennial Agriculture. It has developed to include other systems
where carefully integrated design is desperately needed; houses and
factories, as well as economic and community structures. Permaculture
has drawn together a wide range of techniques, old and new, but it is
different from most of them, because it is concerned about the >placement<
of >elements< within the >system<.


Permaculture is about deliberately designing systems that
are resilient and meet the needs of all their members.


Characteristics of Permaculture systems:

1. The designed system uses and complements the natural systems that
are present. eg: water control by planted swales not concrete drains.

2. Each element performs many functions in the system. eg: A fruit
tree can provide a crop, wind shelter, trellis, soil conditioning,
shade, roosting.

3. Every function needed in the system is provided by many elements.
eg: To keep warm: clothes, hats, gloves, food, exercise, find a sunny
spot, before lighting a fire.

4. The system's size is appropriate to the resources available to
design, establish and maintain it. eg: Dont spend all your money on
buying a large block of land. eg: Dont look for the worlds best
technique or machinery, look for something appropriate, inexpensive,
that works, here. eg: Borrow a 4WD once a year..

5. The local needs of the system and its participants are given
priority over external needs. eg: Design and finance a farm so most
needs can still be met if there is reduced income from exports (that
is, anything going off the property).

6. In the longer term, energy is conserved and variety is maintained.
eg: Producing your own food saves energy used for transport and packaging.
eg: Adding predators to the system, rather than trying to kill a pest.


Please feel free to distribute freely, but only with acknowledgement to
Permaculture Applications, Consultancy and Education
Perth, Western Australia.
__________________________________________________________
| warwick.rowell@eepo.com.au |
| |
| Management Consultant Permaculture Designer |
|_"Helping Managers Learn"___"Helping Land Managers Learn"_|


Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 23:28:34 EST
From: Milogic@aol.com
To: carlyh@eagle.cc.ukans.edu
Cc: permaculture@envirolink.org
Subject: Re: "sustainable" v. permaculture

Carly,

Sure, got a few weeks?

"Sustainable agriculture," as taught by any educational institution that I
have yet to hear about, is a present day oxymoron or two buzzwords linked
together. Any monocropped system run by machinery, sustained by chemicals and
worked by fewer and fewer people is, by definition, unsustainable if the
fossil fuels, pertrochemicals and transportation economics are factored in.
Monocropping, per se, devalues land and soil and people. We are hooked on it.
It is sort of like a junkie who has gone off heroin and onto crack or speed.

"Permaculture" which is locally focused, polyculture emphasizing ordering of
natural systems organized to meet the needs of all creation within it, may be
sustainable or at least come nearer to approximations thereof.

Probably not as profitable to corporations, though, unless they succeed in
irradiating permaculture, co-opting and pre-empting it as "sustainable" has
been.

Milo Clark
Berkeley CA USA


Date: Mon, 5 Jan 1998 15:46:06 -0800 (PST)
From: swrpi@igc.apc.org
Reply-To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu
To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu, permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu
Subject: Re:

At 02:29 PM 1/4/98 -0800, Jeff Owens wrote:
>I encountered several discussions of Permaculture recently. Many
>on the net, some in magazines, and also mention in newspapers.
>Each one was different and I found it pretty confusing. My
>attempts to define Pc also resulted in some confusion and I
>wondered if others run into these same problems.


>Ideas, corrections?
>
> ----------
>Jeff Owens (kowens@teleport.com) Zone 6-7 Permaculture
> Underground house, solar energy, reduced consumption, no TV
>
Hi Jeff,

The most important description relating to permaculture is that it is a
*design* system. I use the following definition for a quick opener:

"Permaculture is an *ethical* design system based on information derived
from the study and observation of natural, or wild systems that is then used
to inform the design of domestic systems. The subject of permaculture is
all aspects of the human living situation with a goal of sustainable human
settlement in harmony with the wild environment."

Of course this simple definition then leads to a discussion of permaculture
ethics, and what is sustainable etc. But I have found that there is no
avoiding the long conversation, nor do I try if someone is truely interested.

What makes permaculture unique and not just another gardening system, or
forestry system or building system is that it is a design system.
Permaculture practicioners are designers first and foremost - I hope. At
least this is what I learned and now teach.

My greatest fear is that permaculturists are taking the easy bits of
permaculture such as gardening, animal husbandry, water harvesting,
construction and land forming and leaving out the hard stuff like ethics,
pattern, and invisible structures. When this happens permaculture is
eviserated of its power and wonder.
*************************************************************************
<swrpi@igc.apc.org>
Permaculture Institute
Scott & Arina Pittman
PO Box 3702
Pojoaque, NM 87501

Ingenio Patet Campus


[excerpt from a document defining Permaculture written by Stephanie Gerson]

Permaculture is a form of sustainable agriculture that employs nature as its
model, seeking to design landscapes which mimic
natural ecosystems. It is modular and applicable to any bioregion, therefore
bearing immense potential for satisfying basic
human needs without compromising those of the Earth. However, because it is
relationship-oriented and highly specific to
local conditions, it can be difficult to practice. Instead of discretely
selecting individual plants, relationships between
flora must be woven together carefully, in consideration of a plant’s
relationships to other plants, to the overall
ecosystem, and to the people whose needs it may satisfy. [..............]
Permaculture-centric characteristics such as
inputs, outputs, and multiple functions - critical to the practice of
Permaculture design, our understanding of ecological
processes, and ultimately, our capacity for systems thinking. People
practicing Permaculture worldwide are discovering
relevant and useful information about plant relationships [...........]








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