by Julie Johnson
Julie is a recent graduate of the University of the South: Sewanee, and a biology major. Having majored in science, she always had an interest in the subject of English and in writing. She has always been concerned about and fascinated by environmental issues and, until recently, planned to go to graduate school in marine biology to "save the coral reefs".
Until a few weeks ago, the only word I knew with the prefix “perma-” was “permafrost.” Even with all the conservation articles and websites I’d read, the concept of permaculture had never once crossed my radar. This may have something to do with its scope; permaculture is difficult to compress into a sentence or two, and this prevents it from finding an easy niche in our sound bite culture.
The practice of permaculture, in its original sense, has probably been around for thousands of years. The idea was first discussed and circulated in a book by an American agricultural scientist who observed the way many farmers grew crops in Asia a hundred years ago. However, it wasn’t until the seventies that two Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, began studying and systematizing ideas about sustainable agriculture in the context of modern ecology. Their first book, Permaculture One, created a surge of interest in the topic, which waned briefly but appears to have returned quite emphatically.
Julie is a recent graduate of the University of the South: Sewanee, and a biology major. Having majored in science, she always had an interest in the subject of English and in writing. She has always been concerned about and fascinated by environmental issues and, until recently, planned to go to graduate school in marine biology to "save the coral reefs".
The practice of permaculture, in its original sense, has probably been around for thousands of years. The idea was first discussed and circulated in a book by an American agricultural scientist who observed the way many farmers grew crops in Asia a hundred years ago. However, it wasn’t until the seventies that two Australians, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, began studying and systematizing ideas about sustainable agriculture in the context of modern ecology. Their first book, Permaculture One, created a surge of interest in the topic, which waned briefly but appears to have returned quite emphatically.
The term permaculture is a fusion of the words permanent and agriculture. So why is traditional agriculture not permanent, and why do we care about permanence? Traditional agriculture is based on the idea of monocultures: vast stretches of corn, or rows and rows of tomatoes. Monocultures are convenient for growing large amounts of one crop for commercial purposes, but this arrangement is not ideal either for the plants or the soil, since monocultures do not reflect the way plants exist naturally in ecosystems. Because of this, crops grown traditionally are not permanent. They must be replanted every year, and crops of different kinds must be grown to avoid exhausting the soil of nutrients.
The philosophy behind permaculture maintains that it is possible to grow food crops in a way that does not encourage soil erosion and nutrient depletion, but which diversifies the types of plants grown and thus creatively builds communities of mutually beneficial plant and animal species. This allows topsoil to be improved through plant and animal decomposition and through nitrogen-fixing plants, making artificial fertilizer superfluous.
Permaculture is not a set of rules, but a collection of principles, which can be adapted to any house, climate, geography, or soil type. Most of these principles are not exclusive to permaculture and may seem fairly obvious, such as the admonition to reduce consumption and waste. All, however, are helpful reminders and fresh inspiration that there is always something you can do to make your lifestyle easier on the planet, and often, easier on yourself at the same time. Slow down, the philosophy of permaculture suggests, value diversity, notice and make use of patterns in nature, build communities and use natural relationships, collect and store energy and resources during times of plenty for use later on, share resources, and make sure your work is rewarded through actual yields.
Permaculture is about creatively mimicking nature to find low energy and sustainable alternatives to traditional approaches. It’s about growing a living wall of climbing plants up one side of your house to reduce heat absorption and heat loss. It’s about growing plants together that complement each other, like corn, squash, and beans. It’s about creating a variety of types of ecosystem in your yard – stands of trees, open areas, ponds. It’s about pinning your clothes on a clothesline instead of pushing ‘start’ on that enormous dryer. It’s about building a green roof. It’s about using grey water or rain water to water the garden. It’s about forest gardening. It’s about using food waste and animal manure for fertilizer. It’s about gardening in small, overlooked or unusual areas to make the most of what you have.
Permaculture is a system, a method, that can put us on the path to the responsible production and use of resources. The vague injunction to “live sustainably” doesn’t tell us much. What does living sustainably mean? Permaculture gives us concrete realities and elaborates means to achieve this goal.
For more information, please visit these web sites: The National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service and Permaculture Principles.
Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
I like it. Permaculture philosophy holds that we can grow food in a way that promotes soil erosion and depletion of nutrients, but to diversify the types of crops are grown, and so creative to build community in a mutually beneficial and plant species animals.
Posted by: תנורים תעשייתיים | July 15, 2011 at 02:49 AM