Far Beyond Organic - It Reduces Fuss and Increases Harmony with
Nature
Story at-a-glance
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Documentary illustrates how permaculture harnesses
natures synergistic relationships to create efficient,
self-supporting ecosystems
A five-zone model, designed for maximal output with
minimal input, shows how permaculture can optimize
energy efficiency and sustainability
In Brazil, pigs are the center of an integrated farming
system in which they roam freely through and sustain
their own food forests
By Dr. Mercola
Modern industrial farming, deforestation, overfishing, and other
unsustainable practices are exhausting Earth's resources at an
alarming rate. More than a billion people have no access to safe
drinking water, while 70 percent of the world's fresh water is going
to agriculture.
One organization putting forth a valiant effort to turn this
around is the Permaculture Association,1
a national charity whose mission is to promote permaculture across
the globe.
Every year, the Permaculture Association holds an International
Permaculture Convergence (IPC), where experts from dozens of
countries unite with the common goal of preparing for and mitigating
our looming ecological crisis.
Their primary goal is clear: creating sustainability through
self-reliance. The film "Permaculture A Quiet Revolution" covers the
eighth IPC (IPC8), spanning across rural and urban Brazil.
The film illustrates permaculture's basic design principles,
centering on the concept of zones, and the proper placement of
elements in a way that ensures maximal output for minimal input.
What Is Permaculture?
Permaculture epitomizes sustainability by harnessing mutually
beneficial relationships to create synergistic, self-supporting
ecosystems. Its principles incorporate the best of
organic,
biodynamic, and
regenerative agriculture.
"Permaculture is an ecological design system for
sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor.
It teaches us how to design natural homes and abundant
food production systems, regenerate degraded landscapes and
ecosystems, develop ethical economies and communities, and much
more."
Permaculture is an agricultural system in which the parts of the
system are all interconnected, working with nature as
opposed to against it. The word "permaculture" derives from
"permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture."
The focus is not on any one element of the system but on the
relationships among them animals, plants, insects, microorganisms,
water, soil, and habitat and how to use these relationships to
create self-supporting ecosystems.
According to an article in Rodales's Organic Life,3
the ultimate purpose of permaculture is to "develop a site until it
meets all the needs of its inhabitants, including food, water,
shelter, fuel, and entertainment."
Every part of the system plays multiple roles. Permaculture is
based on design it's not just organic. If the design element isn't
there, it may be green, it may be organic and environmentally sound,
but it isn't permaculture.
Designing by Zone
According to the Permaculture Association, permaculture design is
defined as "a system of assembling conceptual, material, and
strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in
all its forms.
It seeks to provide a sustainable and secure place for living
things on this earth. The system that accomplishes this is called
"zoning," as illustrated in the following diagram.
Permaculture is much more than a garden or landscape. At its
center are you and your house, but its outermost zone is untamed
wilderness. Zones are organized in a way that maximizes energy
efficiency activities are sorted by frequency of use, tending,
visits, etc.
Without making the colloquial value judgment here you are "high
maintenance!" Meaning, you require the most energy input and
cultivation, so you're the center of the zones, but permaculture
unites you with the entire ecological system around you.
Working the Zones Maximizes Efficiency
The film illustrates examples of how permaculture can be used in
each of these zones, which are organized as concentric rings
progressing outward.
The activities for Zone 0 would include things such as energy
efficiency for your home, biological sanitation, rainwater
collection, solar panels, and
heliotherapy (natural sunlight therapy). If you need moisture or
temperature regulation, you could implement additional measures such
as attaching a greenhouse or a "glass house" to your dwelling.
The next is Zone 1, reserved for your frequently visited,
relatively high maintenance garden essentials such as vegetables,
herbs, and
medicinal plants. The documentary emphasizes that medicinal
gardens are a key component of the Brazilian lifestyle, as they
don't rely on Western medicine their garden IS their medicine.
Crops in Zone 2 are slightly less intensively cultivated,
including foods for home consumption as well as foods going to
market. The permaculture model encourages the sharing and selling of
goods to your local community, which helps promote sustainability.
Zones 2 and 3 include orchards, food forests, pastured poultry, and
livestock.
A major focus of permaculture is composting and recycling, with
the concept being "compostingwith nature rather
than imposing on nature." Both plant and animal waste are
recycled.
Pigs Gone Wild
Zones 2 and 3 are marked by a masterfully designed system that
integrates food forests with livestock and poultry. As an example,
pigs can be raised to sustain their own food forests. They roam
through land planted with their favorite foods, such as
sweet potatoes, daikon radish, and pumpkins, which they may or
may not choose to share with their humans. Once they've cleaned off
one plot, they're moved to the next.
When piglets are born, they live in little pig huts until they're
old enough to roam freely, until eventually they're slaughtered for
meat. Pig waste is biodigested by algae and certain weeds grown
specifically for this purpose, in pools that supply water for
irrigation. The pigs feast on these weeds as well.
The pigs are also allowed to forage into Zone 4, a semi-wild area
requiring very little input but yielding wild foods for pig foraging
as well as timber for harvest, which helps preserve native forests.
Zone 5 is pure wilderness. It's a region of non-interference where
highly evolved systems naturally operate and can be observed by
humankind. Zone 5 teaches us what processes to replicate and how to
organize the system.
Implement Permaculture in Stages, Keeping Basic Principles in Mind
While it's rare the urban gardener can implement all of the
principles of
permaculture, you can implement some of them to create a new way
of living based on purpose and efficiency. Beware of allowing your
burst of enthusiasm to result in biting off more than you can chew
start slowly.
In the above video, permaculture expert David Holmgren4
recommends easing into permaculture in small steps, as opposed to
massive projects that can end in "disaster." He lists 12 basic
principles and strategies to keep in mind when adopting a
permaculture model, which are outlined in the table that follows.
Two great ideas are discussed in the final sections of this article:
chickens and wood chips.
1. Observe and interact
2. Catch and store energy
3. Obtain a yield
4. Apply self regulation and accept feedback
5. Use and value renewable resources and services
6. Produce no waste
7. Design from patterns to details
8. Integrate rather than segregate
9. Use small and slow solutions
10. Use and value diversity
11. Use edges and value the marginal
12. Creatively use and respond to change
Poultry-Centered Regenerative Agriculture
If a drove of foraging pigs is not practical for you, consider
chickens! Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, an innovator in the field of
regenerative agriculture, has developed an ingenious blueprint for a
system that has the potential for transforming food production
around the world. Reginaldo believes sustainable agriculture needs
to be centered around livestock in order to be optimized, and he's
revolutionized a system with the use of chickens for
"poultry-centered regenerative agriculture."
Poultry connects nearly every community across the globe. The
meat and eggs are a valuable source of animal protein and can be a
solid economic platform to deal with poverty and hunger. Poultry is
also very accessible to small-scale farmers, who produce the
majority of the world's food.
In Reginaldo's system, chickens are completely cage-free and free
ranging with access to grasses and sprouts as they are rotated
between paddocks. This system significantly reduces the amount of
labor involved, compared with other models such as mobile chicken
pens. The minute you start moving a shelter for an animal, it
becomes a labor-intensive process, and automating water and feeding
becomes impossible. Pens are also not a natural habitat for
chickens.
If you want more information about this innovative system, please
refer to my prior article about
poultry-centered regenerative agriculture, which includes my
interview with Reginaldo.
Wood Chips Instead of Compost
Using
wood chips as ground cover instead of compost, or to reduce your
reliance on compost, is a cost-effective strategy for immensely
improving your growing of nutrient-dense food. Building your soil
with wood chips helps decrease your dependence on commercial
products.
Several months after putting down a deep layer of wood chips,
you'll end up with lush fertile soil beneath the chips that will
support whatever you choose to grow. Using wood chips has many
benefits, from promoting soil fertility and earthworms that create
vermicompost, to eliminating the need for irrigation and the use of
fertilizer.
Most tree trimming companies will drop a truckload (or more) of
wood chips right on your property, for free. You just lay down
uncomposted wood chips on top of your garden using whatever is
available locally typically a combination of leaves, twigs, and
branches. The chips break down gradually and are digested and
redigested by a wide variety of soil organisms, which is exactly
what happens in nature.
I have personally put down more than 300,000 pounds of woodchips
on my residential property to create a high quality soil. For more
information about wood chips, listen to my interview with Paul
Gautschi.
These are just a few suggestions about what you can do to move
yourself in the direction of a permaculture lifestyle. Regardless of
your resources or the size and style of your living space, there are
many things you can do to boost your health and happiness while at
the same time preserving the viability of our planet.
When it comes to human ingenuity, the sky's the limit, so with
some boldness and tenacity, your adventure into the world of
permaculture will surely bring health and abundance to your life!