by Anne StClair

Created on: January 31, 2009

The permaculture system has its origins in Australia in the 1970s, where it was developed by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. . In the words of Bill Mollison and Reny Mia Slay, in Introduction to Permaculture, permaculture is "a philosophy and an approach to land use which weaves together microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, water management, and human needs into intricately connected, productive communities."

Permaculture has as its core values:

1. Care for the earth.

2. Care for people.

3. Distribute or give away surpluses.

4. Reduction in consumption.

By caring for the food needs of people and growing food where the people live, permaculture also makes further land grabs for agriculture unnecessary and could also allow land to be reclaimed from agriculture and reverted to natural habitat for other creatures.

Permaculture aims to counter environmental destruction and pollution, the loss of diversity, extinctions of species largely through loss of habitat, and it also aims to counter the current destructive economic system, which is based on excess consumption. Permaculture makes us part of the solution to the many problems facing us, but also by adopting permaculture it makes us as individuals more self-reliant and less dependent on agricultural and transport systems that can fail.

Permaculture is in part a system of ecological gardening that brings the growing of food, flowers, and other useful plants, and animals back to the home. It counters the current system in which, for example, cauliflowers are grown in China and then is transported around the world, wasting fuel and producing greenhouse gas emissions all along the way. It counters the current agricultural aims, for example, of growing tomatoes that store well and can be transported around the country or around the world, but which have skins like leather and taste of nothing at all.

The word permaculture embodies the ideas of permanent (sustainable) agriculture, but also permanence in culture, and is a system designed to be self-sustaining once established. It is much more than a gardening system, being a system of integrating sustainable human housing with the land, in a system that needs few inputs from outside, and that uses and re-uses resources wisely.

In practical terms, permaculture systems try to mimic nature's diversity and resilience, and feature small scale, intensive use of land for producing food and other products for humans, and for other creatures. As much diversity as

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