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Permaculture
Laura Rieber
No Spray Hawaii Staff Writer
What is Permaculture?
With all the hype of “Organic” gardening, you may hear the word permaculture thrown around here and there. Permaculture is the future of farming. It is the only way that we humans will be able to feed ourselves while at the same time promoting soil health, fixing what we have done in the past, and allow more people the ability and confidence to garden and grow their own food. But understanding the past and present is key to understanding and applying permaculture.
It is also not something that people can tangibly see and touch. There are no easy “step by step” instructions, which makes it difficult to understand. Permaculture is concepts, principles, and more like guidelines than they are rules in agriculture. Every location and garden is different and therefore what works in one place may not work in another in permaculture.
According to Gais’s Garden, the author, Toby Hemenway writes that “permaculture uses a set of principles and practices to design sustainable human settlements. The word, a contraction of both “permanent culture” and “permanent agriculture”… “a set of tools for designing landscapes that are modeled after nature, yet include humans”… “permaculture is not a discipline in itself, but rather a design approach based on connecting different disciplines, strategies, and techniques.”
I find the best way to describe permaculture is in nature itself. When I look into nature (land that has been untouched by humans for more than 5 years) I see permaculture principles everywhere. I see life! I see lots of different plants. I see birds, insects, spiders, and maybe even a wild animal. I see tall trees, short trees, shrubs, and grasses. I see the soil protected from the harmful sun’s rays by all the trees.
Mimic nature. Copy what works. Nature doesn’t need help. If left alone, nature will take control, fix what has been done, provide for the life around and even a little extra for the next human. Nature does this by doing certain things. Nature always protects its soil. You never see soil exposed to the sun, ever. It is always protected by plant life, leaf litter, or thick branches that block the sun. (Learn more about SOIL)
Nature has life and death. (Learn More Natural Agriculture Concepts) Nature has lots of different plants. Nature has landscapes that are different depending on the geographic region. Nature prevents diseases by encouraging healthy microbe populations. In Nature, pest outbreaks do not occur because there are natural checks and balances.
Permaculture is understanding nature and working with it, in order to live amongst it.
Currently, people are use to step by step agriculture. Being told what to do, what to plant, when, where and exactly what to feed it. People don’t have to think. We are told to spray this, spray that, kill this, kill that. We have been t
old to “till” the soil, expose the microbes to the sun. We even have seeds from all over the world to plant in our backyard (that could be located anywhere) and package will state “Guarantee to Grow” and we expect it to grow the exact same as it did in its native lands.
It is almost like we have been taught that nature is ignorant in growing plants itself and needs human attention to thrive.
ATTENTION!
Nature has been supplying itself with all the “fertilizers” and “pesticides” that it needed from day one. Forests have been growing, thriving and living for millions of years without the help of a single human. No one fertilizes the forest, yet millions and millions of organisms, both small and large, feed directly from a forest everyday.
The most common response I get when I begin to explain the difference between natural agriculture and modern agriculture is:
“This is the only way to feed the abundance of people on this earth.”
“We would starve if left up to nature.”
REALLY!?!
That is what we have been taught to think. YES, TAUGHT to think. These statements are false. We humans have been coerced to think that way through propaganda in the form of books, tv commercials, and advertisements. Coerced because no one showed you the difference and allowed you the choice to choose. Someone, something, made a lot of decisions affecting the population as a whole, and didn’t say much about it.
Those someone, somethings are corporations. Corporations are not human, although ran by them. They can not physically go to jail. Corporations can not be be held accountable for the damages they cause. Corporations have no soul or heart. They have no compassion, which is what makes a human a human. When they are no longer successful, and cause harm, they don’t “dis-corporate”. Nothing happens. They are still words printed on paper. Their harm still there.
Our human decisions are guided by corporate policies. These policies lack the human compassion needed to protect our Earth. Instead, the policies are solely provided to make the most profit and to ensure humans to uphold those decisions accordingly.
Humans are good at following directions and will do what the policy states. I believe that the majority of humans would not allow millions and millions of pounds of pesticides sprayed on the vegetables that you want to feed to your baby. BUT as employees of a corporation, they have to, it’s their job. And no one wants to lose that.
These decisions though, based upon the opportunity to make more profit, more money, more success, are the very harm to our environment. Although there are (few) laws set in place to protect our land, our soils, and our future generations, these are easily manipulated by us humans to make sure that we are being profitable in our corporation.
The Point:
Our food system is corrupted. It has been for a long time. Our food is mad
e with chemicals that are harmful to you, me, the baby, the soil, the dog, the bees, the rivers, the fish, the ocean, the coral reefs, the…. it goes on and on. Millions and millions of pounds of chemicals are sprayed everyday on the earth.
Chemicals kill the soil life. Soil life is key to a sustainable future. Corporations know this and they have tried to keep it “hush hush” for as long as possible, making lots and lots of money off people’s ignorance. They have the money to pay for commercials full of false information and are protected by our human right of freedom of speech. They can pay LOTS of people to 
write countless blogs full of mis-leading information. Corporations have the cash to pay off political figures to help their business become more successful.
Most people don’t know this.
Most people believe in the good in humanity.
Most people believe that the government protects us.
Most people believe that there are agencies set to prevent this.
AWARENESS
There is not. No one cares about you. People care about money. Agencies care about money. Government…. money.
SOLUTION: Take Control
Your food is your body’s fuel to health. There is only so much watered down gas you can put in your car before it stops working all together. Same with us and our bodies. Everyone strives to be healthy, and you are only as healthy as your soil because it contains all nutrients needed for life.
The only way to change is for you and others to become aware. When one becomes aware, they will spread it to others, creating a web of awareness and support. Understand your purchasing power. You have a lot of it. Spend your hard earned money $$ to support local farming, small business, and learning to create your own garden. Grow your own food. Teach your child to do the same.
If we all provided for ourselves, our children and one another, which IS possible, we will not starve. We can do this following permaculture principles. We can do this following nature. It is possible. Humans are apart of nature and nature takes care of its inhabitants. It has for as long as we have been here, but we have to stop the corporations from destroying it so fast.
About the Author:
Laura Rieber holds a BS in Agriculture with a focus on sustainability from the University of Hawaii, Hilo, several certificates in agriculture business development and is a master gardener. The moment she realized the corporate lies that feed the world was the moment she was inspired to write about the truth about natural agriculture. She currently teaches natural agriculture principles on the Big Island of Hawaii. CONTACT
References and GREAT books / articles to read:
Denice de Oliveira Almeida, Osmar Klauberg Filho, Henrique Cesar Almeida, Luciano, Gebler, Aline Franciane, Felipe. 2010 “Soil microbial biomass under mulch types in an integrated apple orchard from Southern Brazil”. Sci. Agric. (Piracicaba, Braz.), v.68, n.2, p.217-222, March/April 2011
Denckla, Tanya L.K. 1994. “The Gardener’s A-Z Guide to Growing Organic Food”. Storey Publishing
Herms, Daniel A, Lloyd John E, and Stinner, Benjamin R. 1999. “Effects of Organic Mulches and Fertilization on Soil Microbial Activity, Nutrient Availability, and Growth of River Birch”. Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University, Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Wooster, Ohio
Hemenway, Toby. 2009. “Gaia’s Garden, A guide to home-scaled permaculture” Second edition. Chelsea Green Publishing
Hoorman, James J, and Islam, Rafiq. 2010. “Understanding Soil Microbes and Nutrient Recyling”. Ohio State University, Extension
Jean M. A., Marshall Bradley, Nick & Fern, 1994. “Growing Fruits and Vegetables Organically”. Rodale Press
Gladstone, Nancy. 1997. “Action Sheet 34: Mulching, So what is mulching?” Outreach TVE Soils Education Pack:Soil Improvement in the Tropics article on Mulching.
Lownfels, Jeff & Lewis, Wayne. 2010. “Teaming with Microbes, The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web”. Timber Press: Portland, Oregon.
Stewart Amy, 2004. “The Earth Moved, On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms”. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill: North Carolina.
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