Sustainable Orcas Island

“What is Permaculture?”

By Kate Sims
Introduction to Permaculture
Fall 2007
Merritt College


I usually try and be as succinct as possible when someone asks me "What is Permaculture?". 

“A philosophy that includes all the ways that humans live, and attempts to integrate them into ecological systems in a sustainable way.”  ...or 

“The attempt to create a culture of permanence with regard to the relationships between humans and the rest of the planet.”  ...or maybe

“A theoretical and practical framework for how to produce food, build shelter, and approach all other aspects of life in a way that gives back to the planet as much as it takes out.” 

These are "sound bites"; using more or less big words depending on how much I  think the person asking will be able to follow what I’m saying, or appreciate.
    
For the purposes of this assignment, let’s look at these "sound bites".  What do they have in common? 

First, using the umbrella of “theoretical framework”; the fact that we are talking about an all-encompassing set of ideologies that extends to how we grow or harvest food, how we prepare or preserve it, how we build shelter, how we clothe ourselves, how we consume energy, how we use land, how we design our settlements, what we produce,  recycle, and what, if anything, we discard.  And it’s not just theoretical, it’s practical.  Down to all the smallest details, down to the health of the micro-organisms that live in the soil under our feet. 

From how to conserve and recycle our communal water and energy, down to how we treat and re-use our own bodily wastes.  It gives you a manual for almost every decision you might need to make and it focuses on using the resources available in the most efficient way possible. 

A brief word about food and shelter (the two subjects most likely to feature in my "soundbites".  Food is an essential element of our daily lives. We must address how we produce it, harvest it, prepare and preserve it for it is our most direct relationship with our mother.  While modern life has done much to divorce food  from the earth, it is not difficult to re-connect something we consume every day with its source, or to acknowledge how important that connection is.  What is more amazing is that a population as large as ours has been able to disconnect them at all, and still function and grow! 

Permaculture strives to re-position and honor that connection at all times by making sure that we are only consuming what we are able to replenish.  Luckily, nature shows us how, with its own perfected systems of nutrient cycling.  All we have to do is observe and then act without taking more than our fair share.  Some of the ways in which permaculture asks us to accomplish this are through mulching, creating plant communities, maintaining wild space, encouraging biodiversity, and remembering that there is no such thing as waste—only fuel for another part of the cycle.
    
Shelter is as much if not more, a psychological need as a physical one.  Even in the tropics, where it doesn’t get cold, where the breeze is a relief, we want something over our heads to keep the rain out.  And in community, we want walls to close us in—or to keep others out. Permaculture shows us how to use the materials at hand to create shelter that could have almost grown itself, or been created by nature, and that does not disrupt the health of the creatures that share the space- large or small. 

Nature gives us materials that are efficient and plentiful, and that feel good to use and to inhabit. It shows us "patterns" to follow in our building so that we are not taking more than our fair share—of space, of energy, of resources.  These materials are either renewable or very long lasting and they have qualities of "place" such as the thermal mass of clay or the resistance to rot of straw. These qualities make them appropriate for the place in which they are being used. 

Other ways in which permaculture applies to our shelters include designing them to harvest as much or more energy than they consume in a way that conserves, protects and recycles water and other crucial natural resources.

The "sound bite" usually concludes with terms such as: sustainability, permanence, "equal give and take".  Let us consider the relationship between these three things in this manner: "equal give and take" can be considered to be a  sustainable behavior, and sustainability creates the opportunity for permanence.   

It’s hard not to think about this proposition without contrasting it to the situation in our dominant culture—which is almost exactly the opposite.  But let us not focus on what is not permaculture. 

While it may have been articulated out of a need for an alternative, aspects of permaculture is are not unique; humans have practised it to varying degrees for much of human history before large-scale agriculture, urbanization, and industrialization became the prevailing trends. 

Indigenous societies have been developing and refining their cultures over thousands of years; I assert that they have practiced permaculture out of necessity.  The societies that didn’t have long since ceased to exist. It would seem to me that our industrialized society is following their example.  

Permaculture encompasses many of the practices employed by indigenous people, some specifically, and some generally, because those practices reveal a relationship with nature that our mainstream culture has let lapse and can no longer access. Permaculture places human beings firmly back inside the cycles of nature and its ecological systems and dispels the view of humans as separate or superior beings.

And finally, putting all larger philosophies aside, permaculture makes sense:  it saves money, it saves labour, it sustains health in both body and mind, it creates beauty, and it’s fun!