http://www.allselfsustained.com/permaculture-zone-planning-winter-coming/

On – 14 Nov, 2017 By R. Ann Parris

The Mindset of Monoculture

Since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, it has been fairly easy to fall into the mindset of monoculture. The lure of big machines offering us power and control; making our lives easier in some senses, but more complicated in others; has led us into an all-encompassing embrace of the mindset and paradigm that made the modern-day world possible.

For thousands of years, we collectively labored away at a lifestyle that was completely vulnerable to the elements of nature. Months of hard work growing the crops we needed to survive could be wiped out in one fell swoop by an extended drought or an unmanageable pest problem. A simple bacterial infection could lead to death and citywide plagues were a common occurrence.

When the Industrial Revolution rolled around, we began to find that our vulnerability could be reduced through trusting in a paradigm that promised to control the natural world and direct it for our own use. All we had to do was trust that the masters of capital and wealth would continue to find ways to keep us on the path of progress and growth.

While the spoils of that growth have hardly been fairly shared and distributed, the vast majority of us have come to believe wholeheartedly in the industrial-capitalist growth paradigm which has reached every corner of the globe. From downtown Manhattan to the tiniest villages in Malawi, many of us have come to believe that the only viable path forward is through embracing a worldview and lifestyle that originated in Europe and has reached its most powerful manifestations in the United States.

Having access to antibiotics and the internet might be considered universally as beneficial and good, but we rarely pause to consider what comes alongside these apparent advantages. The arrival of Penicillin and Google to the furthest reaches of the globe have also brought Shakira, Walmart, and Monsanto as well. The Western civilizational paradigm is by nature broad, large-scale and all-inclusive. Very rarely do communities and cultures around the world have the freedom to autonomously decide what aspects of western civilization will be incorporated into their lifestyles and livelihoods. More commonly it´s a “my way or the highway” imposition of economic, political, and social norms.

Helena Norberg-Hodge is the author of the book “Ancient Futures” which looks at how the imposition of foreign, Western norms has negatively affected the culture and lifestyle of the Ladakh people of Central Asia. According to Norberg-Hodge, “the old (Ladakh) culture reflected fundamental human needs while respecting natural limits. And it worked. It worked for nature, and it worked for people. The various connecting relationships in the traditional system were mutually reinforcing, encouraging harmony and stability.”

As the western monocultural mindset began to replace that harmonious cultural paradigm that had been worked and reworked over thousands of years of continued existence in one place, the Ladakh cultural fundamentally changed. By our western, capitalist instruments of measure, the Ladakh people were “richer” monetarily. However, the introduction into the monetary economy also brought a host of other problems that upset the stability of the community and ecosystem.

Industrial-capitalist globalization requires our full allegiance and as more and more people have been convinced and forced into accepting that paradigm, our world has lost the richness of epistemological diversity. The mindset of monoculture has effectively robbed us of thousands of different ways of seeing and understanding the world and our place in it.

According to the Indian author Vandana Shiva “we’ve moved from wisdom to knowledge, and now we’re moving from knowledge to information, and that information is so partial – that we’re creating incomplete human beings.” The loss of our cultural and epistemological diversity to the Western monocultural mindset is as much a threat to our continued existence as is climate change or any other of the numerous perils we collectively face.

The Way We Grow our Food Today

Nowhere is this mindset of monoculture more evident and clearly seen than in what we eat and how we produce the foods that nourish us. Only sixty years ago, small farmers around the world produced thousands of diverse crops from heirloom seeds handed down over generations. Traditional agricultural methods that sought to preserve the continued fertility of the places where they lived were implemented with great care.

While droughts and excessive rains did cause famines from time to time, people overall were well fed and lived lives of decent subsistence. As our world´s population began to geometrically increase starting about 200 years ago, however, the burgeoning capitalist/industrialist class began to try to convince us that the only way to feed the world was through dependence on an agricultural system that sought to maximize productivity through the use of massive amounts of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

At first, the Green Revolution did bring a surprising increase in agricultural production. The fertile fields that had been cared for by generations of traditional agricultural practices accepted the abuse of the synthetic inputs offered by agro-corporations. The influx of added nutrients through chemical fertilizers increased yields. Herbicides and pesticides made it easier for small farmers to control the weeds and pests that for centuries had been manually controlled.

But all was not as good as it seemed. As small farmers began to depend completely on the new inputs and technologies offered by the mega agro-corporations, they also simultaneously abandoned those traditional practices that maintained the fertility of their lands. Instead of diversified farms for subsistence and local markets, more and more farms began to grow monocultures of crops that the global commodity market deemed as the most important.

Corn, soy, wheat, and rice now make up the vast majority of crops grown around the world. To grow these monocultures for any sort of profit requires small farmers to become bigger. Instead of farming 40 acres, you now needed 5,000 acres and huge machinery such as combines and tractors. Traditional knowledge was lost as was the fertility of the fields. Topsoil today is washed away with every rain as the hypoxic “dead” zone in the Gulf of Mexico continues to grow. Small farms with diversified production gave way to massive monocultures of genetically modified crops grown with the “help” of GPS controlled combines and tons of agrochemicals.

Dangers of Monocultures

There are a whole host of dangers associated with monocultures. The annual tilling of the soil for nutrient hungry crops has pretty much decimated the life of the soil that brings natural fertility. Synthetic, oil-based fertilizers now give offer the basic nutrients that plants need to grow, though the lack of the various micronutrients provided by healthy soil has led to nutrient deficient crops. When oil becomes scarcer, we will collectively face the challenge of how to provide fertility to our depleted soils in order to feed our growing population.

Nature has no monocultures. If you look around a natural ecosystem, you will find a diversity of plants growing together in one place. Each plant serves a particular function in that ecosystem together with the fungi, insects, animals, etc. A greater diversity allows for more resilience within the ecosystem itself. “Don´t put all your eggs in one basket” is a piece of wisdom you probably heard from your grandmother when you were younger. With industrialized monoculture agriculture, not only have we placed all our eggs in one basket, but we´ve also placed that basket of eggs at the very edge of the table where any unexpected movement will surely cause them to fall.

By going against the patterns of nature that design for diversity, we have effectively accentuated our vulnerability. The concentration of one type of plant in large proportions invites disaster. Whereas diversity allows for natural predators to control one another, monocultures allow for a proliferation of troublesome pests and plagues that can ruin crops. Industrial agriculture has “solved” that problem by continually inventing stronger and stronger pesticides, fungicides, and every imaginable type of poison to try and control the natural world. Genetically modified crops have genes from certain types of bacteria spliced into them to keep those crops safe from certain types of disease.

Though it may comfort us to believe that agro-scientists are being successful in their quest to control the natural world, the reality is that for every problem they “solve”, two more problems arise. The natural world simply does not tolerate monocultures and will do all it can to reverse back to diversity.

Bayer-Monsanto Merger

After 60 or so years of the Green Revolution, it is becoming ever clearer that the promises of abundance and control of nature are not unraveling the way we hoped. Our soils are less fertile, our crops are ever more vulnerable to pests and disease, and we have lost countless numbers of heirloom genetic material. One would think that these problems would lead us into seeking out a new path on how to grow our food. But when faced with an increasing vulnerability, unfortunately, our tendency has been to bunker down and continue to blindly believe in the promises of the agro-giants that control the food and farming industries.

Recently, Monsanto and Bayer, two of the largest agro-chemical corporations in the world, merged together in a 66 billion dollar deal to form a massive company that effectively controls a huge part of our agricultural future. Monsanto is best known for its production of genetically modified seed while Bayer is a specialist in agro-chemicals including pesticides, fungicides, and synthetic fertilizers. Together, they will effectively dominate the agricultural industry and through their lobbying efforts continue to make sure that agricultural policies continue to benefit their pockets.

Once the merger is completed, only three companies will own 60% of the seed sold around the world and 64% of all pesticides. Is it really a safe and sane idea to entrust our future to a company that was a Nazi contractor (Bayer) or a company that manufactured Agent Orange (Monsanto)?

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On – 15 Nov, 2017 By Tobias Roberts

Assessing a Property Before Designing It

For the purpose of this article and the scope of which I’m looking to explore, we are going to begin by assuming a hypothetical property is already bought and paid for. In short, we won’t be going into all of the legal assessment ideas that might be involved when buying a property, though many of these thoughts could help in choosing one to buy. Instead, we’ll be looking at assessing properties from a design perspective, gathering a checklist of things to identify when implementing a permaculture project seems to be in the near future.

Obviously, at the foundation of all permaculture design, we rely on the famous three Permaculture ethics of earth care, people care, and return of surplus, but when assessing a property, we need to focus more on the minutiae of maintaining these ethics. This is the time we pay attention to the less easily packaged permaculture principles. This is the time when we observe and interact, when look to utilize natural patterns, when we discover opportunistic edges, and when we sniff out ways to integrate things rather than segregate them.

As amazing as all that sounds, we’ll also need to start whittling these principles down from grand theories to applicable data. Once we step into a project or onto a property with the intention of designing it, all the good ideas and positive ethics become a matter of physical application. This is the moment just before the pencil goes to drawing board, before the shovel plunges into the soil, the moment before the hammer hits the nail, and we need a good start. So, in terms of assessing a property, where do we begin?

Before the First Footprint

Even before we first step onto the property, there is a lot we can learn, and that starts both with the intentions of the client, the infrastructure surrounding the project, and the general climatic information of the region. These are things that the property itself can’t tell us but that are, nevertheless, integral to what is going to happen in our design.

What the client wants, even if that client is the designer, needs to be fully realize. Goals need to be establish, be them grand or small, and they need to be prioritized. Limitations, such as budget, ability, and regulation, have to be realized. It doesn’t make sense to be in the mindset of animal husbandry or rice production if that doesn’t work towards the desired effect of the design, nor does it serve the design to work outside of realistic financial means.

The infrastructure surrounding a project both includes what is there, which becomes more relevant in the observation phase, and what is meant to be there. It’s important to know what the client wants—roads, dams, home, etc.—prior to getting onsite and imagining it there. There’s no point in considering where to put the glasshouse if there isn’t going to be one, no point in plotting out an access road to the back of the property if a footpath suffices.

Finally, there is a lot of information to be gathered before visiting the site. We need to know about the climatic zone, the coordinates, the boundaries, the size, and the contour, all of which can be accessed via the internet. We need to know about weather averages as well as the extremes. We need to know about the location itself, particularly what’s around in terms of settlements, landscapes, and large bodies of water, not to mention its history.

Gathering this information puts us in the right frame of mind for looking at what is actually there and needs to be accomplished. Before we arrive, we already know things that are and aren’t possible, and we are able to focus on what tasks are actually at hand. To assess a property without knowing these things can be a serious waste of time and lead to a lot of frustration, both for the designer and the client.

What to Look for When Observing

Once on site, the game changes from conceptual to actual. Trees are or aren’t there. We can feel the slope underfoot, spot animal tracks, hear the wind through the grass, smell the soil, and sit in the shade. This is where we see what is really there to work with and compile lists based on reality of the space rather than general information. Both of these things—the specific site and the regional data—have to factor into the design.

The land itself is going to be hugely important to what is possible. We have to figure the slope and all of its changes, and we have to do the same with aspect, which will tell a lot about the way the sun interacts with the land. We have to look at how water moves across it, as well as where that water congregates, if it does. We have to get to know the soil, its content and pH balance. We have to be aware of what native plants and animals are there and how these behave on the property.

We also have to be aware of what infrastructure exists and in what state, including both that which is on the land itself and that which is near it. Obviously, any existing structures, including buildings, roads, and smaller things, will both create designing opportunities to improve them, as well as eliminate the need to invent them anew. Buildings and roads near the property are also relevant, as they may come with pollution, be that noise, chemical, or visual, and they may provide opportunity, such as harvest rain runoff from streets.

Energy flows, too, are going to really factor in to design choices. These flows include the angles of the sun, as well as elements that create shade. They include the aforementioned movement of water across the property, both during rain events as well as permanent waterways. The wind, too, will factor in, so we need to know its direction, where it’s at its fiercest and perhaps where it peters out. We need to be aware of other energy that might affect what we are doing: mudslides, volcanic activity, human interaction, etc.

Gathering all of this information puts us in the right mindset for designing based on site specific information rather than the general data alone. Before we design, it’s important that we become personally familiar with a space, and only then will we be able to take advantage of what is already there and address any obstacles. To assess a property without meeting it in person will surely result in incomplete information that could cause lapses in judgment when designing.

Why We Do All of This Assessing

So much assessing will later lead us to design possibilities and solutions we wouldn’t otherwise be aware of, but it can’t do that if we don’t take the time to research and observe. Even if some of the information seems too minute to be concerned with at such an early stage, it is precisely because we are aware, even at the early stages, that we can create a more effective design. This attentiveness is how we begin taking advantage of what nature has to offer, working with the planet rather than imposing our blind will upon it.

Feature Photo: Courtesy of Kim Carpenter

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https://permaculturenews.org/2017/11/03/assessing-property-designing/

On – 03 Nov, 2017 By Jonathon Engels

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2017-11-07/dialogue-ben-falk/

On – 07 Nov, 2017 By Dan Palmer

https://www.familyfoodgarden.com/permaculture-backyard-permaculture-design/

On – 08 Nov, 2017 By

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Eat your hedge!

This hedge is delicious!

Today we harvested kilos of fruit from one of the berry plants we hedge. Jaboticaba (Plinia cauliflora), otherwise known as the Brazilian grapetree, has fruit like grapes – sweet, round, juicy and delicious!

Jaboticaba is great as a hedge but also in a pot, in a food forest, on a verge, in community garden or school garden – a neat, hardy and delicious tree.

I have a few Jaboticabas in my home garden. They are slow growing and reasonably small still, just a couple of metres tall, but that’s as big as I want them to get otherwise the fruits are out of reach. It will be getting a haircut soon.

Other fruit trees I hedge are things like Acerola Cherry (Malpighia emarginata), Grumichama (Eugenia brasiliensis) and Riberry (Syzygium luehmannii). Their dense foliage, shiny leaves, interesting flowers make a great hedge and it means I can better access the fruit.

I really love the idea of making every part of the garden productive and delicious. There are a lot of hedge plants that provide nothing but a screen.  It’s such a great idea to add extra value to it – food, habitat, mulch ….



I really like to eat the fruit of Jaboticaba fresh. I like the pop it makes when you bite into it followed by the burst of sweetness. I typically spit out the thickish skin, which is a little tart tasting, but sometimes I eat that too.

After harvesting the fruit only lasts a few days so depending on the harvest size, it could be necessary to make jam, cordial, wine, tarts or liquer. 

Jaboticaba as a small hedge:

• Jaboticaba responds well to being trimmed.
• Jaboticaba keeps it’s leaves right down to the ground.
• Jaboticaba’s leaves stay looking shiny and welcoming in both the wet and dry seasons.
• It has anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

I like Jaboticaba at the entrance to my garden because:

• The plant delineates where the footpath to my house is.
• I see it everyday and can and keep watch for when the flowers are forming – it reminds me to keep an eye out for the fruit.
• I see when the fruit is ripe so I can harvest it before the birds get to it.

What edible hedges do you/could you eat?

• What plants work best for this in your climate? 
• What is your favourite edible hedge?

Happy gardening. Feel free to share this post.

Subscribe to Morag Gamble’s Newsletter to receive my PDF – 12 Tips for a Thriving Edible Garden:

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On – 14 Nov, 2017 By Morag Gamble

http://thehomesteadsurvival.com/install-fresh-air-intake-homesteading-wood-stoves/

On – 23 Nov, 2017 By

Agroecology and Permaculture Design: Same but Different?

Maddy Harland

Monday, 20th November 2017

Dr Immo Fiebrig interviewed Maddy Harland about how Permaculture Design can enhance the design of Agroecology systems. What are its differences and what are its similarities?

What elements of design in permaculture can be linked to agroecological practices and to what extent are they functional in terms of sustainable or regenerative farm productivity and in what context?

Agroecology works well with permaculture design: it uses stacking to create multi-functional yields, microclimates, greater edges, biodiversity, integration of crops rather than monocultural systems, utilizes niches, designing from patterns to details, minimizing waste, using renewable resources, and it is creative and open to experiment and adaptation and– for instance, Moringa is being trailed in Africa, Central and South America as a nitrogen fixer that yields a highly nutritious crop.

It is regenerative as well as sustainable because it can grow its own fertility (no petro-chemicals), stabilize soil, lock carbon in the soil to sequester it from the atmosphere – it is a vital climate cooling form of agriculture. Preventing soil erosion also enhances water quality, ensuring better breeding habitats for aquatic creatures. It is part of a relocalised food production saving food miles and establishing greater food security. It also models itself on indigenous, local forms of agriculture, a shift away from a western neoliberal form of commercial that seeks to export techniques and create a requirement for hybridized seed and mechanized equipment. 

Permaculture is not restricted to Earth care systems, it also has the potential to engage its other ethics: people care and fair shares/limits to growth. Agroecology is a growing system whilst permaculture design is a holistic systems based design system that can be applied to land based systems and beyond.

It is interesting to note that Agroecology and the right to food (2012) presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council is a report based on an extensive review of recent scientific literature. The report demonstrates that agroecology, if sufficiently supported, can double food production in entire regions within 10 years while mitigating climate change and alleviating rural poverty.

What elements fulfill both an aesthetic and a productive function – what elements are mostly aesthetic?

In a well designed system, all elements can be aesthetic and functional. For example, tropical flowering native trees attract pollinators. Similarly, wildflower meadows in orchard or forest garden system provide habitat, attract pollinators, and pest-predator like bats who predate on codling moths. There is no either/or.

In what respect would ‘the whole’ be more than ‘its elements’?

In respect to pest control, restabilising soils, creating habitat, fixing nitrogen. The whole provide ecosystem services if we must use that terms.

With regards to the previous questions, what farms would you propose as of ‘lighthouse character’.

My trip to Belize in March 2017 took me to Sattva Land, a three year old food forest designed with permaculture, a former citrus farm and then its ‘parent’, Maya Mountain Research Farm, which was a citrus and cattle farm 27 years ago. They both demonstrate how permaculture can regenerate landscapes using techniques like building swales, making and ultilising biochar to enhance fertility, intercropping, and designing microclimates and exploiting niches and edges, to allow a great variety of species to thrive, i.e. biodiversity.

They also demonstrate ecological building techniques, the use of renewable energy, education, people care, respect for indigenous knowledge and traditions, food security. MMRF specifically offers a scholarship programme to disseminate this knowledge both regionally and all over C and S America. It is an impressive lighthouse project.

I am also impressed by the progress of the Rainforest Saver Project, a charity promoting as a replacement for slash and burn farming in tropical rainforest areas.  They work with projects in Honduras and Cameroon and soon Ecuador. Slash and burn is an unsustainable agricultural technique practiced by 200 to 300 million tropical farmers worldwide, because that is the only way of making a living that they know. It means continuously cutting down the rainforests. Inga alley cropping is a successful alternative.

“As Inga alley cropping mimics the natural rainforest ecosystem, the soil is protected and nurtured by the cycling of the Inga tree cuttings. No further chemical inputs are required. Not only is this not a financial burden on the farmer but also it means he is not exposed to highly toxic chemicals. And further down the line, should the farmer wish to sell any of his or her produce on the open market – possibly through a fairtrade co-operative – then he/she should get a premium for organically grown produce. It enables the farmer to make a better living without cutting down more forest.”

Rainforest Saver supports local, grassroots organisations to promote this better way of farming in practical ways.

In Britain, food forest experimentation currently more on garden than farm scale systems. Well established examples are Graham and Nancy Bell in The Scottish Borders, Tim and my garden in Hampshire, Martin Crawford in Devon. These three are 25 years old or more. There are also a whole host of developing forest gardens and this is becoming a movement!

Maddy Harland is the editor and co-founder of Permaculture magazine. You can pay a visit to her forest garden via YouTube. is the author of Fertile Edges – regenerating land, culture and hope. “Breathtaking and strangely rollicking good fun.” John D Liu, Green Gold film maker.

Dr Immo Fiebrig is a post-doctoral research fellow at Coventry University. His current research focuses on Sustainability Assessment, Monitoring & Evaluation of productive permaculture systems, thus leading to the introduction of permaculture produce to the food value chain. This interview was conducted for the first Agroecology Europe Forum – 25-27 October 2017.

https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/agroecology-and-permaculture-design-same-different

On – 20 Nov, 2017 By

http://twoicefloes.com/taking-a-pass-on-gas-wood-preferred/

On – 28 Oct, 2017 By Cognitive Dissonance