Darren Bender
Senior Seminar
Trent Smith
19 November 2001
Permaculture: An Ecosystems Approach to Agriculture
"Without agriculture there will be immediate mass starvation, but with agriculture there will be a continual eroding away of the productive basis of human livelihood."
-Wes
Jackson (23)
With
the exception of some indigenous cultures where hunting and gathering is
practiced, agriculture has been humans' primary source of food production for
thousands of years. As time has passed, humans have furthered their knowledge
of how agricultural systems work. This
has resulted in a modern agriculture backed by hundreds of years of scientific
research that seeks to ever increase the amount of food produced by a given
acreage of land. Yet while modern
agriculture is becoming more focused on efficiently producing food, it is not
being followed with sensitivity to how it affects the environment and even the
health of soils under its own feet.
Since food production is in essence a focused natural process (growth of
specific plants and animals), it is intrinsically dependent on the natural
world and its systems. Thus, as Jackson
points out in the above quote, an agricultural system unconcerned with
environmental health is ignoring its very foundations.
A
majority of the world's food needs are currently being met by the modern
production-focused agricultural system mentioned above. However, as the scientific community is
finding more and more evidence of a link between environmental degradation and
this type of agriculture, new methods of agriculture are being developed and
practiced that focus equal attention to both environmental health and food
production. One such model,
permaculture, is rapidly gaining attention throughout the world due to its foundational
proposal: intelligent and ecologically
sensitive design of agricultural systems should naturally be more efficient and
productive than the ecologically destructive conventional systems.
Permaculture's main
critiques of conventional industrialized agriculture are that it is
ecologically degrading and also extremely wasteful and inefficient in its use
of energy and resources. Conventional
industrialized agriculture is defined here as all agricultural systems that
rely on the intensive input of petroleum-based energy, synthetic fertilizers,
and synthetic pesticides for food production.
In the model proposed by permaculture, none of these are necessary except
possibly in the establishment stage.
Problems
with conventional industrialized agriculture are many. Jackson believes that the geological impact
of agriculture "surely stands as the most significant and explosive event
on the face of the earth." He
states that while other geological processes have dramatically changed the
physical qualities of the earth, changes resulting from agriculture have
occurred so rapidly that living systems have not had ample time to change in
response. The question according to
Jackson is whether humans can survive the resulting deterioration of these
systems. (2)
Conventional
industrialized agriculture adversely affects the environment in many ways. G. Tyler Miller divides these effects into
five different categories: soil, water,
air, biodiversity, and human health (291).
Soil
degradation is the most commonly recognized problem with agriculture. Erosion of topsoil is a worldwide problem
associated with disturbance of land.
According to Miller, approximately one-third of United States' original
topsoil has been washed or blown away from its original land, largely due to
agriculture and forestry practices.
This is estimated to cost the US forty-four billion dollars annually
(Miller 356). Soil fertility is
decreased through conventional agriculture by a combination of intensive
cropping, low buildup and decay of organic matter, and death of soil organisms
through application of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. In arid regions, conventional agriculture
can also lead to salinization of the soil from excessive irrigation. This can eventually lead to desertification.
Water
systems are also affected in a number of ways.
Sedimentation from erosion of agricultural land can eventually fill in
streams. Increased turbidity from
erosion combined with increased nutrients from fertilizer runoff (and/or
livestock wastes) can also lead to algae blooms which decrease the dissolved
oxygen content of ponds and lakes downstream.
These low oxygen levels may cause mass deaths of fish and other
vertebrates. Drawing from groundwater
for irrigation can also lead to aquifer depletion. Runoff containing noxious pesticides may pollute surface water
and can even seep into groundwater supplies.
Production of greenhouse
gases and other petroleum-based pollutants from the heavy use of machinery is
the main way that conventional industrialized agriculture affects the air. Some drift of aerial pesticide application
may also occur which can affect elements of surrounding ecosystems. Human health is endangered through increased
nitrates and disease organisms (from livestock wastes) in drinking water. Pesticide residues in water, food, and air
may also negatively affect human health.
Finally, biodiversity is
generally decreased as a result of conventional agriculture. The main source of biodiversity loss is from
habitat degradation, both directly on the cultivated land and indirectly in
surrounding ecosystems that experience degradation. Genetic diversity is lowered on land used for conventional
agriculture. Instead of thousands of
flora and fauna species, conventional industrialized agriculture strives to
host one or a few species of crop or livestock and prevent most other organisms
from living there. Wild species such as
coyotes that threaten production are sometimes killed in large numbers.
From this list, conventional
industrialized agriculture does not seem like a healthy endeavor. However, even though soil is eroded and
decreased in fertility, this type of agriculture is producing more food each year
(Jackson 14). Jackson believes this
increase is due mostly to replacing declining soil fertility with
petroleum-based fertilizers. Jackson
calls this "chemotherapy which has given us all a false sense of the
health of the agricultural system…"(16).
This chemotherapy is not cheap, and it is the reason that conventional
industrialized agriculture relies so heavily on capital to produce food.
Though conventional
agriculture is essentially an adapted natural process of plant and animal
growth, most of the work involved fights against larger natural systems and
processes. For example, in the
temperate forested regions of the United States, there is a series of plant
community successions that will occur if disturbed land is left undisturbed. The pressure of succession is always present
in these regions since the natural tendency is towards biodiverse communities,
not the monocultures favored by conventional agriculture. Conventional agriculture must fight against
succession to grow its homogeneous communities. This is accomplished through energy-intense activities such as
weeding, cultivating, and burning to prevent succession of (and therefore
competition from) the local native plant communities (Mollison, Introduction
22).
Fighting succession is not
the only consumer of energy in conventional industrialized agriculture. Water is often pumped uphill against gravity
to irrigate crops. Also, since
conventional industrialized agriculture is based on national and global
marketing systems, food must be stored, processed and transported over long
distances before it reaches the consumer.
Miller states that "[c]onsidering the energy used to grow, store,
process, package, transport, refrigerate, and cook all plant and animal food,
an average of about 10 units of nonrenewable fossil fuel energy are needed to
put 1 unit of food energy on the table" (283).
While
it is easy to see the problems with conventional industrialized agriculture,
simply shouting for it to stop is not a viable solution. Food production must continue for our
species' survival, and this paradox calls for critical, creative thought. Permaculture is one product of this type of
thinking. It calls for an end to
ecological degradation from agricultural practices while also embracing the
notion that humans need to produce food in order to live.
According
to Bill Mollison, permaculture is "the conscious design and maintenance of
agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and
resilience of natural ecosystems" (Permaculture ix). Here is an agricultural model that has an
entirely different base from conventional industrialized agriculture. While conventional agriculture seeks to
design and maintain monocultures, permaculture seeks to design and
maintain ecosystems.
Conventional agriculture uses petroleum-based energy and synthetic
chemicals to maintain its food production, while permaculture seeks to utilize
the naturally occurring "diversity, stability, and resilience" found
in ecosystems to maintain its food production.
Permaculture has a philosophy of "working with, rather than
against, nature" unlike conventional industrialized agriculture (Mollison,
Permaculture ix).
Australians
Bill Mollison and David Holmgren developed the concept and term of permaculture
in 1974. The word permaculture is
derived from combining the words permanent agriculture since it is based
on creating permanent systems. As
interest in permaculture began to spread, Mollison and Holmgren created the
Permaculture Institute in 1979 to properly teach principles and design. The Institute closely regulates how
permaculture is taught around the world and one must be certified by the
Institute to legally teach it.
Agricultural
systems are at the base of permaculture, but it is not limited to the realm of
food production. Permaculture calls
for a whole systems approach to problems and thus models and philosophies have
been developed for governments, economic systems, and ethics. While this paper will not go into these
areas, it is important to recognize that permaculture is more than just
sustainable farming.
According
to Mollison, permaculture is essentially about design (Introduction 5). He also believes that creating hard and fast
rules for guiding design is not beneficial for exploring new concepts and
ideas. Instead, Mollison urges the
development of "flexible principles and directives" that do not
punish for errors and are open to change (Permaculture 11-12). He lays out a set of eleven principles that
can be used as tools in designing permaculture sites (Introduction 5-32). These principles will be listed and
described here to illustrate the critical thinking involved in permaculture
design. All principles and concepts
below are from Mollison's Introduction to Permaculture, pages 5-32.
Relative Location: This
principle involves finding the proper place for each element relative to other
elements in a site. Elements are simply
the individual components that make up a site, such as a chicken, greenhouse,
or windmill. Permaculture seeks to
locate elements in relationship to each other in such a way that they
complement each other. Complex and
intricate connections of elements are a characteristic of ecosystems and
relative location is one way that permaculture uses the ecosystems as a model
for food production.
Each Element Performs Many Functions: This and the next principle are complements of the relative
location principle. Mollison states
that every element in a site should be located in such a way "that it
performs as many functions as possible" (Introduction 6). Instead of thinking solely about one product
of an element, thought must be put into discovering all the products of an
element. An example is seeing chickens
not only for egg production, but also as a source of body heat, manure,
feathers, meat, scratching, etc. (Mollison, Introduction 6-7). Limiting characteristics of each element
must also be taken into consideration.
Each Important Function is Supported by Many
Elements: In a way this is the inverse
of the last principle. Here all the
needs of a particular element must be determined. Once this is accomplished, the needs of one element can be linked
to the products/functions of other elements.
Thus a support network is established where elements begin to rely on
each other instead of totally on the human worker.
Efficient Energy Planning: A system of zonation is used to locate elements in a site
relative to how often they will need to be used or serviced. The zones range from Zone 0 which is the
center of activity and thus the most frequently used (usually the house or
barn) to Zone V which is intentionally let alone as an undisturbed place where
natural processes are allowed free reign.
The idea of the zone planning system is to prevent the waste of energy
incurred from traveling often to elements located far away.
Slope
aspects and sector planning are grouped under the efficient energy planning
principle as well. Slope aspects deal
mainly with efficient use of gravity for water collection and flow throughout
the site but also include location of forested areas for erosion control. Sector planning deals with determining which
directions different energies such as sunlight, wind, water, and fire enter the
site. Once these directions are
determined, the site can be planned with the sectors in mind.
Using Biological Resources: This is simply using plants and animals to do work typically done
by humans or machines in conventional agriculture. A good example is the idea of animals as tractors. Part of normal chicken and pig behavior is
scratching up the ground to find insects or roots for food. This behavior may be harnessed by placing
these animals on areas that need to be cultivated. Using nitrogen-fixing legumes to fertilize areas is another use
of biological resources.
Energy Cycling: The
idea of this principle is to keep the flow of incoming energy on the site as
long as possible. This is accomplished
through catching, storing, and using the incoming energy at as many points as
possible before it is too far degraded.
An example is creating a system of gravity-fed water storage/catchment
bins that supply water to all areas of the site. Only after each area has had access to the water is it allowed to
run off of the site. This prevents the
waste of energy through pumping water uphill against gravity.
Small-scale Intensive Systems: In permaculture, the focus is on decreasing the amount of land
needed to produce food. Mollison
believes that smaller sites are much more efficient and easily managed than
large sites (Introduction 19). One way
that permaculture increases production on less land is through plant
stacking. Here plants of different
heights that complement each other are grown together in the same area. The result is an increase in total yield
from the land.
Using and Accelerating Succession: Instead of using conventional agriculture's solution of expending
energy working against succession, permaculture calls for working with the
succession process. Through noting the
characteristics of an area's specific succession process, an alternative,
food-producing climax community of plants can be developed where succession
does not need to be continually kept at bay.
Diversity: Growing a
variety of species in an area increases the sum of yields and also disperses
harvest over time. Mollison states that
"[e]conomically, having more saleable products at different times of the
year protects a family from market downturns and severe losses of one crop due
to pests or bad weather" (Introduction 25). An increase in crop diversity also leads to an increase in
biodiversity. Developing guilds of
plants and/or animals that complement (not inhibit) each other's growth is the
suggested method for achieving a diverse yet productive system.
Edge Effects: This
principle is based on the concept of ecotones, places where two or more
ecosystems meet. These edge areas have
increased productivity due to the availability of resources from more than one
ecosystem and thus are prime areas for permaculture sites. Different characteristics may be brought
about in edges through altering their shape.
An example is by simply making an edge line wavy instead of
straight—this increases the area of edge in a given space.
Attitudinal Principles: This last principle involves how problems are approached. Instead of simply assuming a problem is
inherently bad and trying to get rid of it, problems may be approached by looking
at how they may be turned from disadvantages into advantages. One example is using invasive weeds as a
soil conditioner for preparing a site.
Mollison notes that "[p]ermaculture is information and
imagination-intensive, ...not energy- or capital-intensive" (Introduction
31).
Permaculture has a large amount of theory behind it. Yet truly successful ideas are not just successful in the theoretical stages, they must also be successful when practically applied. Following are a few examples from around the world of permaculture in action.
Rancho
El Pardo:
Rancho El Pardo is located in Tlaxcala, México,
lying in a region once forested, but which is now dominated by dusty, eroded
topsoil with sparse vegetation. The
farmers in the area are experiencing firsthand the decreasing soil fertility
from decades of conventional farming.
In 1956, a man named Juan Carlos Caballero returned to this area and
bought a ranch in poor condition. He
proceeded to dig runoff trenches that captured moisture and allowed plant
succession to begin. As organic matter
from the plants accumulated, soil fertility was slowly increased until finally
forests began to regenerate.
Now
Caballero and his family are running permaculture operations in forestry and
produce farming which, according to Michael Bronner, "produces about nine
times the yield of a conventional plot" (37). His farm is also a demonstration site that hosts permaculture
workshops for other Mexican farmers that are experiencing trouble with
declining yields from conventional agriculture. These farmers are inspired by the fact that Rancho El Pardo is
working well, since they often doubt the advice from development workers about
sustainable agriculture.
(from Bronner 36-44)
Great Circle Farm:
In 1997, Beth Neff decided to plant a small permaculture plot on her 10-acre organic farm in Goshen, Indiana. She was inspired by a permaculture workshop and thought that "organic farming was not quite enough—I wanted something that imitated natural systems." Neff utilized the concept of plant stacking on the approximately three-quarters-of-an-acre site, which consists of a straw bale-constructed greenhouse, apple peach, plum and cherry trees. Underneath the fruit trees is a ground layer of asparagus, garlic and clover, providing nitrogen and natural pest protection. Since planting, Neff states that the site is doing quite well, as only one tree has died (a plum) and the garlic is spreading.
(from Neff, personal interview)
May Farm:
The
80-hectare May farm is located in Victoria, Australia, where the May family is
at work using permaculture principles to restore soil fertility. Much of the soil fertility has been lost in
the last 100 years of conventional farming.
Bud May became interested in restoring the soils after an internship in
the United States where he was turned off by the pressure of debt-driven
industrial agriculture. Using a
combination of lime, rock phosphate, and pastures of leguminous crops, the soil
is slowly regaining fertility. The May
farm produces "a wide range of leaf and root vegetables…grains, cattle,
sheep, apples, chestnuts, walnuts, hazelnuts and wine grapes."
(from Janchitfah and Chinvarakorn 26-27)
These examples show that
practical application of permaculture can indeed be successful. Environmental sensitivity has allowed these
farms to restore degraded ecosystems while producing food at the same
time. Farms throughout the world are
beginning to see the advantages of permaculture even in the face of
international pressure to use conventional industrialized agriculture. Perhaps as ecosystems and agricultural lands
are further degraded from conventional industrialized agriculture, this
international pressure will grudgingly be forced to shift to the restorative
and energy-efficient qualities of permaculture. Hopefully before that point of degradation is reached, farms will
realize for themselves the benefits of ecological agriculture.
Bronner, Michael. "The Fertile Returns of
Permaculture." Americas. Sept/Oct. 1997: 36-44.
Jackson, Wes. New Roots for Agriculture. Lincoln:
University of Nebraska Press, 1980.
Janchitfah, Supara and
Vasana Chinvarakorn. "Organic
Matters." New Internationalist.
May 2000: 26-27.
Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment, 11th
ed. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole, 2000.
Mollison, Bill. Introduction to Permaculture. Australia:
Tagari, 1991.
Mollison, Bill. Permaculture: A Designer's Manual.
Australia: Tagari, 1988.
Neff, Beth. Personal Interview. 2 November 2001.