Permaculture

The theme of April's Link-up is Sustainable Agriculture with a slide presentation by Keith Johnson on permaculture. As an introduction to that topic, Keith sent us the following.

The word "permaculture" was coined and popularized in the mid 70's by
David Holmgren, a young Australian ecologist, and his associate /
professor, Bill Mollison. It is a contraction of "permanent agriculture"
or "permanent culture." Permaculture is about designing ecological human
habitats and food production systems. It is a land use and community
building movement which strives for the harmonious integration of human
dwellings, microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils,
and water into stable, productive communities. The focus is not on these
elements themselves, but rather on the relationships created among them
by the way we place them in the landscape.

More recently, permaculture has expanded its purview to include economic
and social structures that support the evolution and development of more
permanent communities, such as co-housing projects and eco-villages. As
such, permaculture design concepts are applicable to urban as well as
rural settings, and are appropriate for single households as well as
whole farms and villages. "Integrated farming" and "ecological
engineering" are terms sometimes used to describe permaculture, with
"cultivated ecology" perhaps coming the closest.

"As a system of design, Permaculture provides a new vocabulary and
pattern language for observation and action, attention and listening,
that empowers people to co-design homes, neighborhoods, and communities
full of truly abundant food, energy, habitat, water, income, and yields
enough to share." Keith Johnson, editor/writer/webguy for the
Permaculture Activist, Patterns for Abundance Design / Consulting,
Director of Transition Bloomington and Alliance for a Post-Petroleum
Local Economy.

We hope you will attend our link-up to see what promises to be a fascinating presentation.