Permaculture is a set of practices, agricultural and otherwise, for living in harmony with natural ecosystems. It first appeared in an EU legislative text on 14.2.19, when the European Parliament’s ENVI committee gave its opinion on the proposal for a regulation laying down rules on support for strategic plans under the common agricultural policy.
This locution was later mentioned in additional texts developed within the European institutions as part of the preparatory work on CAP reform for the post-2020 period with specific reference to the agroecological paradigm in agribusiness. (1)
What is permaculture
The term ‘permaculture’ was coined by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the mid-1970s to describe “an evolving integrated system of perennial or spontaneously spreading animal and plant species useful to humans.” (2)
The English ‘permaculture‘ has posed some translation problems over time as it takes on a double meaning in the original language that is lost in transposition into the Italian language. On the one hand, it has a meaning limited to the agricultural context (permacOlture) and, on the other hand, a much more general and philosophical meaning that goes beyond the agricultural context (permacUlture).
A more recent definition of permaculture, reflecting the broadening content of the concept itself, is proposed by Mollison and Holmgren themselves, who shifted the focus to the cultural perspective of the term, defining it as follows:
“consciously designed landscapes that mimic patterns and relationships found in nature and provide food, fiber, and energy to meet local needs.” (3)
A conceptual framework
Permaculture should be understood today as a way of thinking. It is a conceptual framework, created as a response to the environmental crisis, with the goal of designing self-sufficient human settlements capable of adopting production, procurement and construction techniques that limit waste production and pollution while preserving and naturally increasing soil fertility and biodiversity in the system.
The principles of permaculture are general, ethical and design principles. These are short statements or slogans that can be used to summarize the complex options one faces when it comes to designing and implementing an ecological system marked by sustainability criteria.
The ‘permaculture flower’
The above principles constitute the conceptual compass that should guide humanity’s actions within the following permacultural application areas, which are represented by Holmgren with the illustration of the “permaculture flower” (4):
– Environmental constructions (bio architecture, passive solar houses);
– tools and technology (renewable energy, recycling);
– culture and education (social ecology, Steinerian pedagogy);
– health and spiritual well-being (holistic medicine, yoga);
– economics and finance (community supported agriculture, LETS) (5);
– Land ownership and community governance (eco-villages, cooperatives and associations);
– Land and nature management (organic and biodynamic farming, harvesting of wild products).
Three general rules
The ethical principles of permaculture can be defined as culturally evolved mechanisms that tend to guide human behavior toward ecologically sotenible choices designed to mitigate the negative impact of individuals’ selfish choices.
They are summarized in three general ground rules (6):
– Taking care of the earth (soberly managing soil, forests and water);
– Taking care of people (caring for oneself, relatives and the community);
– Share fairly (set limits on consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surpluses);
Such rules of conduct are considered common to all indigenous tribal peoples, and permaculture’s focus on learning from such groups of individuals is based on evidence of the ability of such individuals to exist in balance with the environment while surviving far longer than any more recent experiment in civilization. (7)
Design principles
Design principles are derived from a way of perceiving the world that can be called “systems thinking.”
Systemic thinking is characterized by an understanding of the mechanisms that govern the interaction between the elements of reality and is essential to curb the side effects of analytical and linear thinking.
In the pre-industrial era, when the lives of most individuals were close to and dependent on nature, the systemic thinking mechanism was probably more spontaneous, as the direct relationship between natural events and the effect they had on life made it necessary for survival to develop a mental process articulated around the concatenations of factors.
The recovery of systems thinking
As we have gradually moved away from nature this direct relationship between elements has gradually been lost, leaving us today often unable to untangle the complexity of things or allowing us to see only parts of the whole.
Adopting a circular vision, where each element of a system is intimately connected to all the others, is not spontaneous for those who grew up in the modern world and detached from the reality of nature, but it is not alien to the working mechanism of our brains and is a part that would be extremely useful to bring back to the surface and apply in everyday reality.
The basic principles in 12 points
David Holmgren summarizes the basic principles of permaculture in 12 points (8):
1 – Observe and interact (beauty is in the eye of the beholder). One needs to understand how nature works if one is to be able to work with it. Observation should be accompanied by personal interaction.
2 – Gather and conserve energy (make hay while the sun is out). Harvesting and conserving energy is the basis of all human and nonhuman cultures. Energy is defined as anything that can be stored and/or maintained in good condition and is essential for the survival of a community/culture (examples: food, trees, seeds, solar energy).
3 – Ensure a harvest (no working on an empty stomach). Permaculture places special emphasis on self-sufficiency and the ability to meet many of our needs from our own resources. We should no longer depend on the global food system.
4 – Applies self-regulation and accepts feedback (sins of fathers fall on sons until the seventh generation). Nature tends toward balance and implements systems to control what happens and thus regulate it. In permaculture, inappropriate actions must be limited, circumscribed and discouraged. Feedback is the system’s response to our actions. It can be positive or negative. It is our job to analyze it and operate accordingly, with an eye aimed not so much at eliminating or reducing this symptom, but at the root of the problem, the primary cause.
5 – Use and value renewable resources and services (let nature take its course). The use of renewable resources is the key to creating stability: in an effort to learn from and replicate the natural world, we should consider that rarely does a natural ecosystem use all its resources to the point of leaving a depleted and unusable landscape. Wind, sun and water are the main renewable resources that can help achieve sustainability.
6 – Avoid producing waste (saving is the best gain; one point in time saves a hundred).
It is necessary to ensure that the systems in the project do not produce anything that is not usable and useful to another system.
7 – Design from model to detail (trees are not the forest). One must learn to take an overall look before diving into the detail. It is necessary to use design solutions derived from patterns observed in nature.
8 – Integrates instead of separates (many hands make the work lighter). The relationships between things are as important as the things themselves. Permaculture allows elements to be integrated in such a way that the needs of one element are met through the other elements and vice versa.
9 – Small and slow is good (the bigger they are, the louder they fall. With slowness and steadiness you win the race). Small-scale solutions and activities are more likely to adapt to local needs, are generally more nature-friendly, and able to bring out changes be more easily understood and monitored.
10 – Use and value diversity (don’t put all the eggs in one basket). Enhance animal and plant diversity. Diversity reduces risks from most threats: getting sick of one plant species is not the end of the crop. It also helps to benefit from the uniqueness of each territory.
11 – Use and value the margin (stop thinking you are on the right track just because it is busy). In ecology it is called an “ecotone”: it is a transitional environment between two ecosystems, and more generally between two homogeneous environments. Ecotones contain species peculiar to neighboring communities and species exclusive to the ecotonal area itself, and thus possess high biodiversity and richness. These peculiarities of the ecotone make it indispensable because it is through these very structures that the connection between very different environments (forests-meadows, lakes-forests, fresh water-salt water) takes place. (9)
12 – React to changes and use them creatively (one must learn to see things not only as they are, but also as they will be). By understanding how ecosystems change over time, it is possible to creatively adapt to changes in the system.
Permaculture and agriculture
According to Holmgren the discourse of “how” to take care of the soil remains a highly controversial issue as technical issues and ethical questions are interconnected since we are not given to know how far we can go in increasing soil yield to meet the needs of human communities without altering its quality and nature itself. The only sure fact is that the reckless and unethical use of land leads, over time, to the depletion of the soil’s capacity to support life. (10)
In any case, it can be argued that within permaculture, all cultivation methods used have in common the goal of protecting the soil and naturally restoring its fertility by making exclusive use of organic practices. Commonly used techniques are Fukuoka natural farming, synergistic farming and biodynamic farming. (11)
Future perspectives of permaculture
To date, permaculture has had a rather circumscribed diffusion. Holmgren says the reasons are mainly to be found in the prevalence of a scientific culture of reductionism, and thus a cautious if not hostile approach to methods of a more holistic nature, the dominance of a culture of consumerism created by a purely economic view of health and progress, and the fear on the part of global and local political authorities of losing their influence and power if people followed practices aimed at self-sufficiency and local autonomy. (12)
Despite the aforementioned difficulties, a progressive (albeit slow and gradual) takeover of permacultural ideologies is taking place in the European political arena: the European Green Deal, presented by Ursula von der Leyen on 11.12.19 could materialize into an excellent launching pad for the dissemination of such practices and theories.
Luca Borghino
Notes
1) Most recently: European Parliament amendments adopted on 23.10.20, Common agricultural policy – support for strategic plans to be drawn up by member states and financed by the EAGF and EAFRD ***, P9_TA(2020)0287
2) B. Mollison, & D. Holmgren, Permaculture One, Corgi 1978;
3) D. Holmgren, Permaculture: how to design and implement sustainable and integrated ways of living with nature, Ariane publishers, 2nd ed., 2014;
4) D. Holmgren, Permaculture: how to design and implement sustainable and nature-integrated ways of living, Ariane publishers, 2nd ed., 2014: the author defines these domains as the seven “domains” needed to sustain humanity on the energy descent;
5) Local Exchange Trading Systems: local exchange trading systems;
6) David Holmgren, Essence of Permaculture, https://www.permacultura.it/images/documenti/Essence_of_Pc_IT.pdf
7) For an exploration of the evolutionary limitations of tribalism in the modern world see the article “Tribal Conflict: Proven Pattern, Dysfunctional Inheritance” in David Holmgren: Collected Writings & Presentations 1978:2006
8) D. Holmgren, Permaculture: how to design and implement sustainable and integrated ways of living with nature, Ariane publishers, 2nd ed., 2014;
9) https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecotono
10) D. Holmgren, Permaculture: how to design and implement sustainable and integrated ways of living with nature, Ariane publishers, 2nd ed., 2014;
11) https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permacultura#Coltivazioni
12) David Holmgren, Essence of Permaculture, https://www.permacultura.it/images/documenti/Essence_of_Pc_IT.pdf
Lead Auditor in the field of agro-food and agro-technical certifications, degree in Law and II level Master in Agri-food Markets Law at the University of Turin.
