Permaculture….Paradise? Permaculture can be made very complicated or very simple. We are going to shoot for simple by going back to the beginning….of time! Lest this approach be based on Grant Curry’s credibility we will start with what is perhaps the most succinct definition ever given of Permaculture by none other than the man who coined the term Permaculture, Bill Mollison: Permaculture seeks the Garden of Eden & why not? In one short, politically incorrect phrase, Bill Mollison gave arguably the best definition of Permaculture. In it he captured the essence of the outcome aimed for in Permaculture….paradise. He addresses all the pressing issues that today’s sustainability crowd deeply ponders. 1. Is there anything more sustainable than an oasis paradise? 2. Can a food forest ever become a food desert? 3. Does one have to worry about food sovereignty in an Eden with an undisputed sovereign from whom all provision flows? 4. Is chronic health ever an issue in an environment where all the food is whole, all the water is mineral enriched spring water and days are spent “tending the garden” (Genesis 2:5). 5. Where there is total abundance do people still act in a mercenary fashion towards one another in the pursuit of crumbs? 6. Will misguided fumbles like the Gold King Mine spill ever cause real harm in an oasis in which freshwater springs flow at every home site?
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Permaculture….Paradise? Permaculture can be made very complicated or very simple. We are going to shoot for
simple by going back to the beginning….of time!
Lest this approach be based on Grant Curry’s credibility we will start with what is perhaps
the most succinct definition ever given of Permaculture by none other than the man who
coined the term Permaculture, Bill Mollison:
Permaculture seeks the Garden of Eden & why not?
In one short, politically incorrect phrase, Bill Mollison gave arguably the best definition of
Permaculture. In it he captured the essence of the outcome aimed for in
Permaculture….paradise. He addresses all the pressing issues that today’s sustainability
crowd deeply ponders.
1. Is there anything more sustainable than an oasis paradise?
2. Can a food forest ever become a food desert?
3. Does one have to worry about food sovereignty in an Eden with an undisputed
sovereign from whom all provision flows?
4. Is chronic health ever an issue in an environment where all the food is whole, all
the water is mineral enriched spring water and days are spent “tending the
garden” (Genesis 2:5).
5. Where there is total abundance do people still act in a mercenary fashion
towards one another in the pursuit of crumbs?
6. Will misguided fumbles like the Gold King Mine spill ever cause real harm in an
oasis in which freshwater springs flow at every home site?
Perhaps the most impactful means of expressing a fraction of what is possible through
Permaculture is for all concerned to watch this 2 minute video of a swale placed in a desert
and then ignored for 80 years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqKaRg3GTqg
The preceding video often provides people their first “Aha moment” about permaculture. It
suggests the Edenic quality of what results when, what is arguably the greatest gift given to
man — rain from the heavens, is valued and allowed to infiltrate into the earth instead of
being treated like garbage and shunted into the first storm sewer available.
What is our current state of affairs in the modern world however?
● Food production is based on annual crops whose roots only have enough time to
reach into the top 12 inches of the earth's surface rather than several meters
down as with most perennial plants. All aspects of this type of agriculture deplete
the soils, cause erosion, rob water from the landscape, rob humans of nutrients
deeper in the earth and cause salts to build up in the land.
● Water is treated as a necessary evil when it is not being treated like garbage. It
is accessed by extractive technologies pulling it up out of aquifers that are being
steadily depleted. See this article referencing NASA data on worldwide aquifer