Question: What's your take on Permaculture?

Recently a friend of mine in San Francisco asked me about Permaculture. He'll be taking classes soon and wanted my take on it.

Well, I have mixed feelings. I have never taken any formal Permaculture classes or instructions. I would say I am more of a follower of Jim Brooks than of Permaculture per se. Simply put, Permaculture promotes the idea of making any space – a yard, a home, a business, a community, etc. – into a self-contained system that supplies its own needs, creates abundance, and regenerates waste within itself. The above image depicts the ideology behind Permaculture very well: interdependence, fluidity, and the cyclical qualities of nature, of which we are a part. To me the rising popularity of the term Permaculture is due to urbanites need to classify a lost way of life. Like the "green" movement, "sustainability", and "local", Permaculture has been usurped by larger powers as a way to make sense of people's reactions to the chaos they find themselves living in. It irks me that there are websites now stating "Have a Permaculture Business" and even "Let Permaculture Design Your Kitchen." Permaculture is by far a better idea than the general mindless living we have fallen into, but in no way the sole solution. There are just too many threads running through our lives to successfully adhere to one ideology.

As a part of larger living philosophy, though, Permaculture is certainly helpful.

I have gleaned from various conversations and readings that Permaculture is a practice of sensible, logical, and thoughtful living through management of resources on available property. Instead of building a fence by driving to a box store and buying harvested rain forest wood, Permaculture suggests that we build what we in the southwest call a coyote fence out of limbs and branches from our property. Or better still, plant a living fence, maybe out of berry bushes so that we have two (or more) functions in one feature: barrier, wildlife habitat, and food source. In the southwest, water is a big issue in Permaculture circles. Again, Permaculture guides us to use our brain. Most standard building codes mandate that water be whisked away from a dwelling as quickly as possible. These houses usually have underground automated sprinkler system, too. The Permaculturist asks why pump water out of the aquifer to water a lawn when we can harvest the rain or grey water to perform the same function? And why do we have a lawn that needs to be watered in the first place?

Brad Lancaster in his indispensable book "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond, Vol. 1" makes the suggestion that in order to properly manage water on a property, we need to watch it first to learn how it flows. Yet how often do we run inside out of the rain? Simple logic like this goes against our inclinations, but I don't think it goes against our intuitions.

Like most things, we do not NEED to study Permaculture to practice it. Simply slowing down, being mindful of our surroundings, and being thoughtful in our approach to a problem or project is all that we need to do to be a successful Permaculturist.