Permaculture

Five Ways Permaculture Must Change

July 22, 2024 The Last Farm, Resilience. Create! Environment, Food Security, Invasive species, Permaculture, Science

I’ve been a permaculture enthusiast for over 25 years. It has influenced my thinking about ecology, subsistence, and the role of human beings in our biosphere. I have experimented with countless techniques, read dozens of books, and learned a wealth of things from other practitioners. I regard it as an overwhelmingly positive experience. That said, there have always been aspects of permaculture that haven’t sat right with me. This is made somewhat complicated by the fact that there are different strains of permaculture which lean in different directions; some I have more affinity with than others (I’m oriented towards science rather than mysticism.)

Transforming Suburbia

October 6, 2023 Jan Spencer, Resilience. Create! Permaculture, Suburbia, Sustainability, Transformation

From the street, anyone would notice something different about these two properties in the middle of this bi focal suburban block in Eugene, Oregon. The houses on one side of the street date from the mid 50’s, the other side, larger and two stories, have replaced a wholesale nursery over the past 15 years. The two quarter acre properties of interest here, are green all the way to the street with food producing trees, brambles, vines. One place, notably, does not have a driveway. My property is a permaculture landmark in the Pacific Northwest. Literally, thousands of people have visited over the years to see what a nothing special suburban property can become.

Picture The Future: The Shift

April 15, 2023 Anita Roy, Resilience. Create! Permaculture, Sustainability, Transition Town, United Kingdom (UK)

If you are interested in learning about permaculture, about green energy, about ecology and the environment, the range of courses out there can be a little overwhelming. From the flexible, free and online variety to the two or three year long, in-person degree courses offered by many institutes of higher education. For example, the BA (Hons) Sustainable Futures: Arts, Ecology and Systems Change degree at the Black Mountains college in Wales. In 2010, two women, Sarah Pugh and Laura Corfield co-founded Shift Bristol, fired up by the idea that what people needed in order to make that shift – to a more sustainable, eco-friendly, viable and happy existence – was some hands-on training.

How Permaculture Can Build Resilience And Meet Basic Needs

May 10, 2020 Marina Martinez, Waging Nonviolence. Create! Food and Agriculture, Food Security, Pandemic, Permaculture

Despite their urgency, coronavirus outbreaks, health crises and failing institutions are just some of the problems our global society is facing today. Billions of people worldwide still lack access to healthy food, clean water and sanitation services — being unable to properly wash hands and stay safe in the midst of a pandemic. And we are still trapped in an economic system that fuels environmental damage, from biodiversity loss to climate change, which is threatening the quality and sustainability of life on Earth. Now, more than ever, it is crucial that we rethink and redesign our modes of living and doing things in society. Permaculture, or “permanent culture” systems thinking, a set of ethical principles and DIY techniques, conceptualized by Australian scientist Bill Mollison, provides a way forward to address those issues.

Grow Heathrow Combines Resistance And Creation

January 26, 2014 Staff, www.theoccupiedtimes.org Create! Permaculture, Sustainability

In the three and a half years we’ve lived on this site whole areas of life opened up to me which I just didn’t even begin to factor in. The largest factor has been our Wellbeing Group. We knew we were going to be into using non-fossil fuels and DIY, skill sharing, building and growing food and so on. These ideas were all present at the start of the project. But the idea of having to learn how to cope with living in a collective where one person’s emotional trauma from their childhood starts fucking up your life and everyone else’s interactions on a daily level… how do you begin to deal with that? You have to learn a whole load of stuff, around psychology, psychotherapy, group dynamics, stuff that none of us who started the project had a clue about. Stuff that we’ve had to learn in order to survive. So that all becomes part of what it means to be resilient, how do you do that as a collective?

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