WHAT IS PERMACULTURE?
The world Permaculture is was first coined by Billy Mollison in 1978. He defined Permaculture as:
The conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive systems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of the landscape with people providing their food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.
The word is a contraction of permanent and agriculture. Permaculture it’s self does not have an official definition, over the years more than 50 definitions of Permaculture have been engineered.
Permaculture has been widely critiqued for its scientific validity, as well as the followers of Permaculture — Permaculturists or Permies — who bore the brunt of criticism due to their insurgent culture and inaptitude to expound a clear definition of Permaculture.
THE ETHICAL PRINCIPLES OF PERMACULTURE
There are 12 ethical principles of Permaculture that make it possible, Here are 5 of them:
Observe and Interact
“Being observant and responding to what we see is really important in moving towards a more ethical and sustainable way of life. We can learn from nature,and from other people, observing how others have moved to a greener and more ethical approach, and working with the world around us to succeed in our goals.”
Catch and Store Energy
“Energy is abundant on our planet. Learning how to catch and store that energy – in plants, with renewable energy infrastructure, or in other ways, is key to living a sustainable way of life. Growing your own food at home is a great way to catch and store energy from our sun. Passive solar design also offers opportunities for architects, engineers and designers to make further use of this abundant energy source.”
Obtain a Yield
“Taking the three core ethics of permaculture into account, we can work with nature to get all the things we need. Obtaining a yield can be as simple as using organic gardening techniques to provide food for our families – but it can also be about obtaining a non-tangible yield: happiness, health… or mental well-being. Living a sustainable lifestyle that sticks to permaculture principles can allow us to obtain all sorts of more intangible yields as well as the obvious tangible ones.”
Apply Self-Regulation and Feedback
“Understanding where we’ve succeeded and where we’ve gone wrong is vitally important to creating real and lasting change. For example, by analysing and evaluating all the things that we bring into our homes, we can make better purchasing decisions moving forwards: reducing, reusing, recycling and regulating our worst consumerist tendencies.”
Use and Value Renewables
“By using the power of the sun, the wind, or the water, we can power our homes, grow our food, and regenerate our environments. Rather than relying on finite and polluting fossil fuels, we should make full use of renewable sources of energy: for example, switching to a green energy supplier – or even generating our own power with solar panels or other renewable infrastructure at home – is something many of us can do to move to a more sustainable way of life”
BENEFITS OF PERMACULTURE
Less Waste
In a Permacultural system, everything is put to good use. Utilizing waste and by-productions is what keeps Permaculture sustainable.
Saves Water
Permaculture utilizes both rain and waste water, increasing efficiency and keeping expenses low.
Economically Feasible
Most Permaculture systems require less maintenance. The reason for this is that you do not have to spend money on pesticides and many other farming chemicals that are commonly used in farming practices.
SUSTAINABILITY
http://www.aidforum.org/topics/food-security/the-future-of-permaculture-a-sustainable-way-to-grow/
Permaculture systems are very sustainable and easy to work with. Many small communities within different countries have benefitted greatly from Permaculture practices. According to the Huffington Post, Kristof and Stacia Nordin, former U.S. Peace Corps volunteers sent to Malawi in 1997. The Nordin’s are permaculturalists with a thriving 3.7-acre garden that boasts a 10-month growing season and produces over 200 types of crops.
A three-year study conducted by the INRA on a large Permaculture farm in Normandy and other small farming locations concluded that permaculture farms maintained entirely by hand are capable of being both efficient and competitive.
“Despite our inexperience, the farm was transformed in barely 10 years from a bare field to a rich eco-agro system,” says Charles Hervé-Gruyer. “This capacity for repairing the planet more rapidly than one might think is possible from reading scientific papers, gives a lot of hope for the generations to come.”
Although there aren’t many studies that have been conducted on Permaculture, the diminutive amount of data we have already proved that it is beneficial and it is something we should all embrace.
Blog by: Tracy Franklin