What is “permaculture” exactly? According to Bill Mollison, the Tasmanian son of a fisherman who first coined the term 1978, “permaculture” is:
“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.”
Based upon this, we can define permaculture as a holistic worldview of living in harmony with nature, combined with an aligned technical approach, such as the way we farm and produce food.
Here are other definitions from those considered “elders” or permaculture. They also shed insight as to why permaculture is important.
“Permaculture is the use of ecology as the basis for designing integrated systems of food production, housing appropriate technology and community development. It offers a practical, creative approach to the problems of diminishing resources and threatened life support systems now facing the world. “
~ Simon Henderson, Cortez IS, BC
“Permaculture is the conscious design of ‘cultivated’ ecosystems that have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is a harmonious integration of people into the landscape in such a way that the land grows in richness, productivity and aesthetic beauty.”
~ Washburn TN PDC
“Patterned after the natural and diverse systems of nature, permaculture is a design science that weaves together our individual human needs with the microclimates, plants, animals, micro-organisms, water and soil management, thus allowing us as individuals to take responsibility for our life-styles & design our way out of unsustainable cultural patterns while meeting the realities of the 20th Century.”
~ Dawn Shiner
5 Ways Farms are Integrating Permaculture
Closed Loop Systems
Being a closed loop system means the system itself provides for its own energy needs. This creates sustainability. Biofuels, solar power, and creating fertilizer from livestock manure versus importing it, are some examples of potential closed loop systems. In closed loop systems, waste is turned into resources and problems become solutions.
Perennial Crops
Instead of constantly tilling the ground, which is not good for the soil long-term, perennial crops are planted just once. Popular examples are shade-grown coffee or cacao plantations in South America. Although few crops we regularly consume are perennials, industries such as agroforestry are advancing the cause and our understanding for potential local farm applications.
Water Conservation
Water conservation for sustainable farming can be achieved by strategically sculpting the land to maximize every drop of rain for purpose and productivity. This may include terraces, broad shallow ditches called swales, or systems of canals.
Working With (Rather than Against) Nature
Using thoughtful observation of nature can prevent thoughtless labour against it. This is where innovation in permaculture really shines. For example, have you heard of a chicken tractor?
A chicken tractor (sometimes called an ark) is a movable chicken coop lacking a floor. Chicken tractors allow free ranging along with shelter, allowing chickens fresh forage such as grass, weeds and bugs which widens their diet and lowers their feed needs. Chicken tractors do not have floors so there is no need to clean them out. They echo a natural, symbiotic cycle of foraging through which the birds eat down vegetation, deposit fertilizing manure, then go on to a new area.
The term chicken tractor comes from the chickens performing many functions normally performed using a modern farm tractor: functions like digging and weeding the soil in preparation for planting trees or crops or fertilizing and weeding to enhance the growth of crops and trees already planted.
The chicken coop is just one fantastic example of permaculture in action. The more we support permaculture and other forms of sustainability, the greater ecological impact we can have together.
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