Permaculture

It’s surprising how often I meet people who have no idea what permaculture is. I wouldn’t expect people to have heard of it if it were just some unconventional farming method – which it is. But beyond that, it’s also an outlook on life, and in my opinion, our only hope of repairing our ecological diversity, reversing climate change and sustainably managing our population on earth.

Growing up in Alaska, Oregon and Washington exposed me to the importance of sustainability and protecting our environment from a young age. Firstly my sense of interdependence with nature was formed by the rugged environment of Alaska, and then living among the hippies of Oregon. As an adult, I graduated to survival trekking and working on organic farms (WWOOFing). These experiences have come together to mould my view of the growing concern about our wasteful, economically shortsighted societies and deteriorating environment and also revealed what I believe to be the solution to all those growing concerns…which is…permaculture. The philosophies of permaculture are not only for designing homesteads, but also a way of redesigning our entire agricultural system. And beyond the agricultural applications, permaculture philosophy can also be used for everything from city planning to creating better team workflows and even managing our daily chores.

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: Permaculture is an agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems.

As outlined by Bill Mollison, he refers to the permaculture philosophy as “turning problems into solutions” which can be applied far beyond the realm of agriculture. It’s one of those brilliant bits of wisdom that when put in words sound seemingly obvious and familiar, but when put in to practice feels revolutionary with every application.

Here’s a simple example of how this could apply to everyday living…

The perceived problem: A constantly messy bedroom because you or a loved one hates putting away laundry.

Change required: In this case, you should firstly consider the perceived problem as it exists within the ecosystem of your lifestyle and in your specific setting. With this framework in place, it’s easy to start to connect the dots of how the problem relates to the other aspects of your life that will eventually point to the change that will turn the problem into the solution.

Using myself in this example, when the perceived problem is seen within its larger framework, I can identify that the reason for hating to put away my laundry is that my closet and drawers are so full that it’s challenging to stuff everything in. The change required is that I need to create more space by getting rid of some old/unused clothing. So now the initially perceived problem is actually the catalyst that inspires me to organize and declutter my environment. So the problem isn’t really that I hate putting away laundry, it’s that there’s an over-abundance of clothing caused by too much consumerism and hoarding. The solution being a clearing out of unused items and less consumerism going forward, which puts many aspects of my personal ecosystem back into better alignment with the larger ecosystem that I live in. The ecosystem of earth being the ultimate system that all others must align with.