permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

OK with me...
snipped from http://permacultureactivist.net/intro/PcIntro.htm

*Permaculture Defined:** ** *

*1.* From Bill Mollison:
*Permaculture is a design system for creating sustainable human 
environments*.

*2*.From the Permaculture Drylands Institute, published in The 
Permaculture Activist (Autumn 1989): *Permaculture: the use of ecology 
as the basis for designing integrated systems* of food production, 
housing, appropriate technology, and community development. Permaculture 
is built upon an ethic of caring for the earth and interacting with the 
environment in mutually beneficial ways.

*3.* "*As a system of design, Permaculture provides a new vocabulary and 
pattern language* for observation and action, attention and listening, 
that empowers people to co-design homes, neighborhoods, and communities 
full of truly abundant food, energy, habitat, water, income, and yields 
enough to share." Keith Johnson, editor/writer/webguy for the 
Permaculture Activist magazine.

*4.* From Lee Barnes (former editor of Katuah Journal and Permaculture 
Connections), Waynesville, North Carolina:
*Permaculture (PERMAnent agriCULTURE or PERMAnent 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.

*5.* From Michael Pilarski, founder of Friends of the Trees, published 
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 lifestyles and 
philosophical issues.

*6.* From a Bay Area Permaculture Group brochure, published in West 
Coast Permaculture News & Gossip and Sustainable Living Newsletter (Fall 
1995): *Permaculture is a practical concept which can be applied in the 
city, on the farm, and in the wilderness.* Its principles empower people 
to establish highly productive environments providing for food, energy, 
shelter, and other material and non-material needs, including economic. 
Carefully observing natural patterns characteristic of a particular 
site, the permaculture designer gradually discerns optimal methods for 
integrating water catchment, human shelter, and energy systems with tree 
crops, edible and useful perennial plants, domestic and wild animals and 
aquaculture. Permaculture adopts techniques and principles from ecology, 
appropriate technology, sustainable agriculture, and the wisdom of 
indigenous peoples. The ethical basis of permaculture rests upon care of 
the earth-maintaining a system in which all life can thrive. This 
includes human access to resources and provisions, but not the 
accumulation of wealth, power, or land beyond their needs.

*Characteristics of Permaculture:*

*Permaculture is one of the most holistic, integrated systems analysis 
and design methodologies found in the world.*

   * Permaculture can be applied to create productive ecosystems from
     the human- use standpoint or to help degraded ecosystems recover
     health and wildness.
   * Permaculture can be applied in any ecosystem, no matter how degraded.
   * Permaculture values and validates traditional knowledge and
     experience.
   * Permaculture incorporates sustainable agriculture practices and
     land management techniques and strategies from around the world.
   * Permaculture is a bridge between traditional cultures and emergent
     earth-tuned cultures.
   * Permaculture promotes organic agriculture which does not use
     pesticides to pollute the environment.
   * Permaculture aims to maximize symbiotic and synergistic
     relationships between site components.
   * Permaculture is urban planning as well as rural land design.
   * Permaculture design is site specific, client specific, and culture
     specific.

†Source: Pilarski, Michael (ed.) 1994. Restoration Forestry. Kivaki 
Press, Durango, CO. pp. 450.

*The Practical Application of Permaculture is not limited to plant and 
animal agriculture,* but also includes community planning and 
development, use of appropriate technologies (coupled with an adjustment 
of lifestyle), and adoption of concepts and philosophies that are both 
earth-based and people-centered, such as bioregionalism. Many of the 
appropriate technologies advocated by permaculturists are well known. 
Among these are solar and wind power, composting toilets, solar 
greenhouses, energy efficient housing, and solar food cooking and 
drying. Due to the inherent sustainability of perennial cropping 
systems, permaculture places a heavy emphasis on tree crops. Systems 
that integrate annual and perennial crops-such as alley cropping and 
agroforestry-take advantage of "the edge effect," increase biological 
diversity, and offer other characteristics missing in mono- culture 
systems. Thus, multicropping systems that blend woody perennials and 
annuals hold promise as viable techniques for large-scale farming. 
Ecological methods of production for any specific crop or farming system 
(e.g., soil building practices, biological pest control, composting) are 
central to permaculture as well as to sustainable agriculture in general.

*Since permaculture is not a production system, per se, but rather a 
land use and community planning philosophy,* it is not limited to a 
specific method of production. Furthermore, as permaculture principles 
may be adapted to farms or villages worldwide, it is site specific and 
therefore amenable to locally adapted techniques of production. As an 
example, standard organic farming and gardening techniques utilizing 
cover crops, green manures, crop rotation, and mulches are emphasized in 
permacultural systems. However, there are many other options and 
technologies available to sustainable farmers working within a 
permacultural framework (e.g., chisel plows, no-till implements, spading 
implements, compost turners, rotational grazing). The decision as to 
which "system" is employed is site-specific and management dependent.

*Farming systems and techniques commonly associated with permaculture 
include agro- forestry, swales, contour plantings, Keyline agriculture 
(soil and water management), hedgerows and windbreaks, and integrated 
farming systems such as pond-dike aquaculture, aquaponics, 
intercropping, and polyculture.* Gardening and recycling methods common 
to permaculture include edible landscaping, keyhole gardening, companion 
planting, trellising, sheet mulching, chicken tractors, solar 
greenhouses, spiral herb gardens, swales, and vermicomposting. Water 
collection, management, and reuse systems like Keyline, greywater, rain 
catchment, constructed wetlands, aquaponics (the integration of 
hydroponics with recirculating aquaculture), and solar aquatic ponds 
(also known as Living Machines) play an important role in permaculture 
designs.



Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
> Is it OK for me to publish everyone's definitions of permaculture, with 
> credits,
> somewhere in my various web resources, probably the PermacultureWiki?
> LL
>   
--
Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
Permaculture Activist Magazine
PO Box 5516, Bloomington, IN 47407
(812) 335-0383
http://www.permacultureactivist.net
http://www.PermacultureTradingPost.com
Switch to Solar Power the Easy Way
http://www.jointhesolution.com/KeithJ-SunPower
http://www.PowUr.com/KeithJ-SunPower
Blog: http://kjpermaculture.blogspot.com/
also Patterns for Abundance Design & Consulting
http://www.permacultureactivist.net/design/Designconsult.html
also Association for Regenerative Culture
http://www.ARCulture.org
also APPLE-Bloomington (Alliance for a Post-Petroleum Local Economy) It's a 
small world after oil.
http://www.relocalize.net/groups/applebloomington
also Bloomington Permaculture Guild
http://my.calendars.net/bloomingtonpccal/
and: http://bloomingtonpermacultureguild.blogspot.com/
also: Bioregional Congress
http://www.bioregional-congress.org