Permaculture
Creating Sustainable Abundant Food Sourcing and Environmental Improvement. By Sarah Polyakov
Even though the topic of sustainability has generated widespread attention since the 1960’s, the issues that sustainability seeks to address are as old as the advent of the industrial revolution. For the past 300 years, human expansion and subsequent use of natural resources has been accelerating at such a speed that our global ecosystem cannot recover.
Still, even prior to the industrial revolution and as much as 1,000 years ago, cultural expansion and the motivation to conquer new lands were driven by the fact that many cultures had exhausted their native forests and subsequently their source of fuel and shelter.
In other words, the over-use of resources is not a new issue. But, with a growing and unsustainable global population, every natural resource from forests, to farm crops, to water sources, has come into sharp focus. Many scientists are realizing that if we do not take measures to counteract this destructive cycle, we all lose.
In the late 1970’s, the term permaculture was coined to describe a type of agriculture that fits seamlessly into an ecosystem and creates a sustainable food source for a community. During the late 1970’s, this movement gained momentum, but then quickly fizzled out as corporate agriculture became the major supplier of U.S. food sources.
Now, as scientists warn us about growing environmental concerns, acquiring sustainable food sources and finding ways to reverse environmental damage is on people’s minds again. Subsequently, permaculture is making an incredibly large comeback.
Bill Mollison, one of the people who brought permaculture into the national spotlight, describes it as thus: "Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system.”
In more practical terms, permaculture is simply a method through which to organically farm, while maximizing contribution to the surrounding ecosystem, instead of becoming a detriment. The finished product, using permaculture design, will produce both an agriculture system and an ecosystem that thrives and is much greater than the sum of its parts. In other words, it goes further than the concept of leaving no footprint since it actually enhances and grows the surrounding ecosystems, including forests and watersheds.
Permaculture also has three core tenants: caring for the earth, caring for people, and returning surplus. The premise is that as humans, we must first care for the earth in ways that create abundance. Then, we must ensure that access to necessary resources is available for all. Finally, we must find ways to reduce waste, recycle, and reinvest surplus in both communities and the earth.
However, these are not esoteric principles that are removed from our daily lives. Permaculture design can be leveraged well in both a ten-square foot patio garden as well as large-scale agriculture.
If you would like to know more about how you too can incorporate the principles of permaculture into your home garden, Oregon State University offers a free online course that anyone is able to join. Please visit their website for up to date information. I invite you to take a deeper look into permaculture since its practices, when successfully implemented, create a better world for all of us.
