what makes permaculture different?

[Tim Bayer]

For those of you experienced in permaculture and other environmental and social movements, what is it that makes permaculture unique? I feel like it is absolutely amazing, but I also wonder if I am simply new to paying attention to the environment, and therefore unaware of what else is offered (as far as sustainability, food production, etc)

[Don Smith Moorman]

OK, I'll take the bait. :)

Permaculture addresses every aspect of living; not just waste reduction, but also food production; not just construction materials, but community economics; not a blanket industrial-scale solution, but countless small solutions, each appropriate to the place and people involved. Not continuing the war against the land with "organic" monocropping and biofueled tractors, but using the abundance of this world and learning from its patterns to integrate and sustain ourselves while enhancing life for all organisms. Trusting that people, given new ways of seeing their place and their place in it, they will figure out what works. Something like that.

Without permanent agriculture, there is no possibility of a stable social order (Mollison).

[Tim Bayer]

Very nice...so would you argue organic monocropping would in reality be a bad thing? Or maybe just not as good as we thought?

[Don Smith Moorman]

It's an improvement over toxic chemical monocropping. But still, you're effectively destroying an ecosystem every year. And probably importing resources / nutrients (compost, mulch) from elsewhere, unless you're very carefully using mulch crops and animals to cycle nutrients onsite and preserve topsoil. But the more complex the system gets, and the more it mimics a natural ecosystem, the closer to "sustainable" it is, and the more it's permaculture. IMHO. But you could still farm that way, and heat your house with propane, let rainwater flow offsite, eat old food from far away, burn weeds instead of eating or composting them, and flush poop and pee down to the Gulf of Mexico.

In a sense, to me, permaculture is just a set of really good advice. Like zone and sector analysis, polyculture guilds, leverage, starting small, matching outputs to inputs, maximizing functional connections between elements of the design, let biology do the work for you, and observe observe observe. The Permaculture Designer's Manual is both a textbook for the PDC and full of fascinating info about all sorts of climates and geographies.

And it is about autonomy. If I recall correctly, Dave Holmgren wrote somewhere that governments will never really support permaculture, because it means fostering independence from said governments. When I see Bill Mollison or Geoff Lawton in videos, helping people in some of the most barren and degraded places in the world, create systems of plants and sun and water that bootstrap themselves into local autonomous food production, that's just beautiful. Some of the most inspiring and hopeful stuff I've ever seen.

[Tim Bayer]

Thanks again...what is IMHO?

I agree with you that this is some of the most beautiful stuff I've ever seen.

[Bryce Ruddock]

I think of permaculture as a sort of patchwork quilt. A quilt that is composed of all the diverse aspects of sustainable behaviors coupled with a observation of and cooperation with those other species both animate and inanimate that we share this planet with. It is a weltanschaung of the world's soul. A worldview or ethos of understanding of our small place in the natural order. Much of my conception of permaculture comes from reading Holmgren at least in regard to the more philosophical side of permaculture.For the hands on I defer to Mollison and others. Having followed permaculture topics since I first heard of them in 1980 I have probably submersed a lot of other sustainable ideas within its framework over the years. Think of it as a unifying principle like the string theory is to physics.

[Bryce Ruddock]

IMHO- In my humble opinion.

[Tim Bayer]

Haha. Gotcha. Thanks for your input.