From warwick@bettong.eepo.dialix.oz.auTue Mar 14 11:21:00 1995 Date: Tue, 14 Mar 1995 10:51:14 WST From: Warwick Rowell Reply to: To: Homestead list Subject: A definition of Permaculture After the last spate of stuff about food systems there seems to be some confusion about what Permaculture is. In an attempt to clarify this, I have enclose below a one page definition with some characteristics that I have built over eight years of dealing with people's requests for information about Permaculture. We are all moving in the same direction and have different and overlapping mental frameworks for doing it. Arguing that "my theory contains yours" is not very fruitful. But one of the fundamental issues we face is the order in which we come across ideas, and what we do with new stuff. Most times we fit subsequent material into the first framework we receive. Very occasionally we find a new framework that fits our experience of the world so well we go through the huge mental effort of changing. Permaculture seems to me to be a comprehensive framework that is system based, that is positive, personal, and pragmatic. For me, it is a framework that contains organic gardening, sustainable agriculture, homesteading, solar design, alternative power, frugal living, alternative economics, independence/interdependence issues, and so on.. Here is the text of the handout: Permaculture is applied integrated design. Permaculture started as a strategy for designing systems for Permanent or Perennial Agriculture. It has developed to include other systems where carefully integrated design is desperately needed; houses and factories, as well as economic and community structures. Permaculture has drawn together a wide range of techniques, old and new, but it is different from most of them, because it is concerned about the >placement< of >elements< within the >system<. Permaculture is about deliberately designing systems that are resilient and meet the needs of all their members. Characteristics of Permaculture systems: 1. The designed system uses and complements the natural systems that are present. eg: water control by planted swales not concrete drains. 2. Each element performs many functions in the system. eg: A fruit tree can provide a crop, wind shelter, trellis, soil conditioning, shade, roosting. 3. Every function needed in the system is provided by many elements. eg: To keep warm: clothes, hats, gloves, food, exercise, find a sunny spot, before lighting a fire. 4. The system's size is appropriate to the resources available to design, establish and maintain it. eg: Dont spend all your money on buying a large block of land. eg: Dont look for the worlds best technique or machinery, look for something appropriate, inexpensive, that works, here. eg: Borrow a 4WD once a year.. 5. The local needs of the system and its participants are given priority over external needs. eg: Design and finance a farm so most needs can still be met if there is reduced income from exports (that is, anything going off the property). 6. In the longer term, energy is conserved and variety is maintained. eg: Producing your own food saves energy used for transport and packaging. eg: Adding predators to the system, rather than trying to kill a pest. Please feel free to distribute freely, but only with acknowledgement to Permaculture Applications, Consultancy and Education Perth, Western Australia. __________________________________________________________ | | | | | Management Consultant Permaculture Designer | |_"Helping Managers Learn"___"Helping Land Managers Learn"_|