Category: Permaculture Info & Resources

Whole systems design in permaculture begins with the recognition that human systems are already embedded within living systems. Food, energy, water, land use, economics, and social organization are not separate domains. They are interacting processes that shape one another over time. Design, in this context, is the deliberate act of shaping those interactions so that meeting human needs improves, rather than degrades, the conditions for life. This goes beyond sustainability. Sustainability aims to reduce harm or slow decline. Whole systems design in permaculture is regenerative: it seeks to create systems that actively restore ecological health, strengthen social coherence, and increase the capacity of living systems to support life into the future.

This is a list of neutral, non-commercial links to public tools, references, and resources commonly used in permaculture study, design, and land stewardship. Inclusion here does not imply endorsement. These links are provided as starting points for exploration and observation.

Selected permaculture info, news, resources, and opportunities.

Permaculture is the art and science of designing human beings’ place in the environment. Permaculture design teaches you to understand and mirror the patterns found in healthy natural environments. You can then build profitable, productive, sustainable, cultivated ecosystems, which include people, and have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. Permaculture designs can be applied to households, major agricultural enterprises, and even entire bioregions. Permaculture integrates disciplines relating to food, shelter, energy, water, trees/plants, wildlife, livestock, weather, waste management, economics and social sciences. These integrated designs create systems capable of yielding far more than the output of conventional systems. Permaculture can reclaim devastated lands, roll back deserts, build just social/economic systems, and design planet-based livelihoods.

—By David Blume. I wrote this in response to post to the bioregional listserve from a woman at ATTRA who said something like “Of course you couldn’t feed the world with such a hippy-dippy, hunter-gatherer, landscape system like permaculture.” Well that got me a little steamed so this is what I wrote. Dear Folks, I would like to inject some real world experience into this otherwise abstract discussion of food and permaculture….