Core Concepts
The Permaculture Ethic
At the heart of the permaculture approach is a core three part ethic:
1. Care of the Earth:
The objective here is to care for the natural world as an extension of ourselves. Tools and techniques should work with nature rather than seeking to extract value regardless of consequences. Obviously this can be challenging, but the end result is a much healthier environment for all. Practical examples include: Conservation of biodiversity, support for clean air and water, restoration and conservation of forests, habitats, and soils, recycling and pollution reduction, conservation of energy and natural resources, appropriate technology
2. Care of People:
Here our objective is to promote an attitude of self-reliance and community responsibility where the “commons” are concerned. An important aspect of this is to insure that people have reasonable access to the resources necessary for survival. A number of creative approaches come under this category: promote health and well-being, good nutrition, lifelong learning, right livelihood and meaningful work, community belonging, open communication, trust and respect through out all communities.
3. Fair Share:
This ethic seeks to promote the equitable use of resources. It does this through encouraging wise and limited consumption. A few examples here include: giving away surplus food, etc. production, contribution of time, labor, money, information, and energy to achieve the aims of earth and people care.
Using the ethics of permaculture we can ask ourselves: “Does my project/actions care for the earth, for people, and use resources wisely and equitably?”
Beyond Capitalism and Socialism
The ethical ideal we are working for here is beyond previous models of society and commerce. Both capitalism and socialism are vulnerable to corruption at the individual, corporate, and governmental level. Current events have certainly borne witness to this. It is both rampant greed on one hand and apathy on the other that have lead to where we now find ourselves. We truly need a renewal of the human spirit to successfully meet the challenges before us.
The philosophy of permaculture asks us to take responsibility, to learn and apply life affirming skills, to voluntarily share the fruit of our labor, to teach others to do the same, and to make ourselves strong of body, clear of mind, and happy of heart in the process. In many ways, it is takes the highest ideals of our spiritual traditions and seeks to put them into practical, living practice.
Of course there are a great many challenges inherent in this path, but step by step, small project by small project, we progress, we learn, and our skills and understandings grow…
On a more technical level, consider the following principles for creating permaculture projects. They can be applied on a small scale such as a backyard garden or on a large scale such as an organic farm or a business.
The following description is borrowed from an article by Steve Diver (http://attra.ncat.org/attra-pub/perma.html#ethics)
The Principles of Permaculture Design
Whereas permaculture ethics are more akin to broad moral values or codes of behavior, the principles of permaculture provide a set of universally applicable guidelines which can be used in designing sustainable habitats. Distilled from multiple disciplines—ecology, energy conservation, landscape design, and environmental science—these principles are inherent in any permaculture design, in any climate, and at any scale.
- Relative location
- Each element performs multiple functions
- Each function is supported by many elements
- Energy efficient planning
- Using biological resources
- Energy cycling
- Small-scale intensive systems
- Natural plant succession and stacking
- Polyculture and diversity of species
- Increasing “edge” within a system
- Observe and replicate natural patterns
- Pay attention to scale
- Attitude
