Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Permaculture
(Salutogenesis:- Creating Health & Wellbeing)
Permaculture
Square-Foot-Gardening
Share-Cropping
Re-Localization
Permablitz
Quotable Quotes ……
There’s a direct connection between the health
of the soil, the health of the plants, the health of
the animals, and you as eater.
Your health is inseparable from the health of
whole food chain that you’re a part of.
Your health is not bordered by your own skin,
and that you must take a broader view of it if
you’re really concerned.
An Eater’s Manifesto: “Eat Food. Not Too Much.
Mostly Plants.”
Environmental crisis is a crisis of character. It's
really about how we live.
Food Security & Permaculture
Food Security covers the following areas:
Safety: pesticide-free, Non-Genetic Modified etc
Local Availability: food-mile concept etc
Sustainability: soil fertility and ecology etc
Processing & Storage & Exchange
Permaculture
Solution for Food Security issues stated above
Bioregional & Home-scale
Environment Designs
Permablitz
Industrial Agriculture
Heavy reliance on chemical fertilizers, pesticides,
herbicides etc. These are all petroleum-based products.
High energy usage and many costs externalized /
subsidized. It is not really “low-cost and cheap”.
These are slowly but surely destroying the soil and the
ecological environment (including our own bodies).
Largely mono-cultures (and genetically modified), thus
reducing bio-diversities which are against the natural
order.
Animal husbandry has its own load of problems,
including the emission of GHG that causes global
warming.
Resultant cross-border trades and the associated food-
mile issues and income disparity etc.
Soil …. Not Oil
Modern agriculture has consumed an alarming amount of our native
top soils. These top soils were built over millions of years and are
not easily regained. The only foreseeable strategy for the future is to
stop this reckless erosion and degradation of natural soils, and to
actively build soils to ensure a viable ecological base from which we
can grow our food.
Building soil involves a process of allowing carbon and nitrogen
sources to decompose in-situ over time. Along with many forms of
life including mycelium, worms, insects, nematodes, root systems,
bacteria and others, carbon and nitrogen are converted into soil.
This process occurs naturally in the forest: leaves and other plant
matter (carbon) fall to the forest floor. Other organisms such as
mycelium (mushrooms) and deposits made from various life forms
(nitrogen) mix together and decompose, transforming into the new
life-giving soil which begins the growth process again. The great soil
deposits of the world were created over millennia of healthy
ecological systems cycling through its many life forms.
Soil ….. Not Oil …..
Leonardo da Vinci once said, "We know more about the
movement of the celestial bodies than the soil
underfoot.”
In today's high-tech society, most people keep soil out of
mind and out of context—yet what could be more
important? All living things originate from the soil, and
eventually return to it. All great civilizations, including the
Egyptians, Greeks, Mayans and Romans, depended
upon an adequate supply of fertile soil. These
civilizations also declined when soil resources became
thin due to erosion and bad management.
Organic Farming & Permaculture
Organic farming practices will eventually replace
Industrial Agriculture, if Mother Earth is to
continue providing our needs.
There are many forms of organic farming
practices, and vary both in extend and depth.
Permaculture could well be the ideal choice, as
the practice is more than mere “permanent
agriculture”. It is also “permanent culture” that
covers environment designs and other cultural
aspects.
Permaculture
The permaculture concept originated in Australia in the 1970s (Bill
Mollison and David Holmgren) to promote agro-ecological design
theory, and has since grown to include a collection of ethics and
principles that influence the wider designing of human systems that
work in harmony with natural ecosystems.
Permaculture is a design science, based on observation, that
integrates all human activities into a whole system based on natural
patterning and ecology. In a word, Permaculture=Relationship
Permaculture is a philosophy of agricultural land-use that calls for
combining plants, animals, and structures in such a way as to
maximize the number of uses for the land while increasing its self-
sufficiency and minimizing maintenance by focusing on the use of
perennial plants.
Permaculture is a design system based upon observing how
ecosystems (or any systems) interact. Its purpose is the formation of
sustainable habitats (whether human, agricultural, cultural, financial,
governmental, etc.). Permaculture principles are based upon core
values or ethics (Earthcare, Peoplecare, Fairshare).
Permaculture …..
A system for sustainable design of human culture
that focuses on both ecological mindfulness and the
provision of basic human needs in an
environmentally sustainable way.
Some specific elements addressing sustainable
societies include natural building, small-scale
agriculture, sustainable resource use, and the use of
appropriate technologies.
Permaculture is not energy- or capital-intensive,
rather it is information-intensive.
Permaculture is about "...saving the planet and living
to be a hundred, while throwing very impressive
dinner parties and organising other creatures to do
most of the work.“…. Linda Woodrow
Permaculture ……
Permaculture goes beyond realising that conventional agriculture is
the most destructive thing humans are doing on the planet: it offers
an achievable alternative in the form of sustainable small scale local
food production systems. Part of this vision is massively decreasing
the distance between where food is produced and consumed (the
food-mile concept).
As a design process, permaculture has three phases:
1) Design, where a design or pattern is made that seamlessly integrates
a landscape with the wants, needs and abilities of the people living there
2) Design implementation, where the design becomes a reality
3) Follow up and system evolution, where we learn from our successes
and mistakes, and we let the system demonstrate its own evolution
Food is just one part of the permaculture equation. Permaculture
equally addresses and integrates water, energy, waste, shelter,
community, local economy, governance and all other aspects of
sustainable living.
Permaculture Zones
The term ‘Zones’ in Permaculture are simply labels for areas that
are grouped together reflecting specific activities and
characteristics.
The zones are used to make sustainable design easy and ensure
that each area is efficient, low maintenance, produces good results
and integrates smoothly with other zones.
The zones are:
Zone 0 - Where you live, or where you spend most of your time in
relation to the place of your Permaculture Project (ie. it could be your
office or shop)
Zone 1 - Vegetable Patch and close plantings to your house (or office or
shop)
Zone 2 - The “Food Forest” or Orchard
Zone 3 - The Farming Area (whether it be crops or animals - often for
commercial use)
Zone 4 - Harvest Forests
Zone 5 - Natural Forests or Conservation Areas
Permaculture Guilds & Stacks