What Is Permaculture? - by Starhawk

Permaculture is ecological design aimed at creating systems that meet human needs while regenerating and healing the environment around us. It does this by applying a set of ethics and principles that guide us in designing connections, flows, and beneficial relationships among various elements, whether in a garden, a building or an organization, and mimicking the way that nature works. Permaculture is no one technique or process, but rather weaves together multiple approaches, technologies and solutions to problems of sustainability. Instead of designing separate things, we design connections and beneficial relationships.

The word ‘permaculture’ was coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970’s, from ‘permanent agriculture’, but has come to encompass many sorts of systems: ‘permanent culture.’

We see permaculture as a vitally important set of ideas and practices in this crucial time. We have a very narrow window of time left in which to respond to climate change and environmental degradation. If we don’t, we face ecological and human catastrophes that are beyond imagining. No one solution or technology can save us: in fact, applying single or simplistic solutions generally will create new, unforeseen and possibly worse problems. One example is biofuels—When rainforests are cut down and new land is plowed for biofuel cultivation, when human food supplies are diminished in favor of growing fuel, biofuels simply worsen the problem. When ‘wastes’ such as used restaurant grease are turned into biofuels—as the city of San Francisco now does to run its busses—they can be part of the solution. Only an integrated systems approach can find effective solutions to environmental and social ills.

Permaculture has three basic ethics: Care for the earth, care for people, and care for the future—sometimes framed as “return the surplus” or “limit consumption”. It has a set of principles that direct us to observe natural systems and mimic the way they work, catching and storing the sun’s energy, using biological and local resources, with minimal inputs of fossil fuel energy, and getting multiple uses out of each element. Permaculture favors low-tech solutions that empower ordinary people to take responsibility for their own needs and impacts. Our goal is more than sustainability: we work for abundance, regeneration and healing.

Permaculture is also a global movement and network. A permaculture design course includes a seventy-two hour basic curriculum that introduces the principles, practices, techniques, and spectrum of solutions available for food growing, building, energy and economics. Permaculture practitioners are involved in projects all over the world—we have more on-the-ground projects in the third world than the U.N. Vietnam adopted permaculture as its core agricultural system, and increased production over 15%. Cuba turned to permaculture after the Soviet Union collapsed, taking with it their major oil supplies and markets, and now feeds its people with organic crops, many of which are grown in and around cities.

Permaculture is a set of tools for shifting our thinking—from separation to connection, isolation to interdependence.

Earth Activist Training is Starhawk’s organization that teaches permaculture design with a grounding in spirit and a focus on organizing and activism. For course information, see: www.earthactivisttraining.org

Permaculture Resources

Besides the online resources for those interviewed in the film, there are dozens of other online resources for permaculture. We can't possibly list them all, but here are some important additional informational sites:

Starhawk’s Common Sense Permaculture Principles

Everything is connected.

Abundance, health and happiness come not from things, but relationships. Money can’t buy me love!

As designers, we look at connections in space and time. If we put things in the right place, do things in the right order and at the right time, we save work, money and energy.

“To every thing, there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

We look at flows between things—flows of water, energy, nutrients, information. Every time we link things together, we create more abundance than when they are separated.

Nature Moves in Circles.

Birth, growth, death and regeneration—everything in nature is part of a cycle.

Waste is food—one thing’s waste is another things’ resource. So—produce no waste, re-use, recycle, and look for places where we can close loops—find a use for a former waste product. Pollution is an unused resource.

To maintain the cycle, we must give back. If we use a resource, we must replenish it.

Energy is abundant but not unlimited.

Every day the sun shines down on the earth, showering us with energy. The sun’s energy gives us our solar budget—that extra that creates growth and abundance. But we must use it wisely. So—catch and store energy. Cycle energy and resources multiple times. Use renewable energy.

Do more with less.

Make a way out of no way. Kill two birds with one stone (sorry for that!). Every element serves more than one function—so choose and place it carefully. A climbing rose, in the right place, might produce a bouquet, filter the wind, and keep out intruders.

Use on-site and local resources whenever possible.

Let nature do the work—if you can use a biological resource, chances are it will be cheaper, easier and more effective than chemical or mechanical means.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Work smarter, not harder! Use your eyes and your brains more, and your money, your muscles and your fossil fuels less. Look before you leap. Observing, thinking, designing and planning can save you time, sweat and money.

Resilience is true security.

Value diversity—for diversity creates resilience. This is true for ecosystems, gardens and humans! Give your plants the right companions in guilds, polycultures and crop rotations.

Edges and margins, where two things meet, are often more dynamic and creative than either one alone, so make use of them.

Have more than one way to fill a need—don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Have more than one source for food, energy, income, etc.

Make mistakes—carefully! Start slow and small so you can try new things and tweak what doesn’t work.

Weak links and constraints—design for the limiting factors. Design for catastrophe—the hundred year flood could come tomorrow!

Small-scale, intensive systems are more diverse, creative and resilient than giant megasystems.
Build from the ground up.

First things first. Prepare the soil before you plant the seeds. Respect the roots of culture, place, and people as well as plants.

In nature, there’s a succession of evolution—pioneer plants prepare the ground, grasses move in, then trees….work with those patterns to speed them up or hold them back.

Take responsibility:

Feed what you want to grow. Create the conditions that will favor the things or behaviors you want, rather than making war on what you don’t want. Trying to kill the pests simply breeds resistance.

You break it—you bought it. If you change something, you become responsible for the consequences.

Monitor and maintain what you create. Permaculture systems rarely work perfectly at first—they are living things that need adjustment.

Get some! Obtain a yield.

You’ve got to get back for what you put in. You have a right to a life of health, abundance, joy and beauty—and that’s why we’re doing this.

Grow what you want to eat. Decide what yield you want, and plan for it.

Get the biggest bang for the buck—observation, creativity and planning will let you use the least amount of time, money and energy to get the benefits you desire. Don’t use a chainsaw to cut your cheese.

The gift multiplies. Nature is generous—when we give freely, we create more abundance for everyone.

Creativity is an unlimited resource.

Nurture creativity in nature and in people, and you will reap rich rewards.

Focus on solutions rather than just complaining about problems. The problem is the solution.
Look for ways to add creativity and you will add value.