Permaculture, The Perfect Farming Solution

July 12, 2021

All of us can’t live on a farm.

Or cultivate one.

Don’t some of us have to live in our concrete and wooden hovels that reach to the sky?

On a planet of billions of people, is there really enough room for all of us to have a private farm, go swimming in the creek, get the deer to trust us and drink exotic coffee up in the mountains, under the stars at 4:30 am in the morning?

We love the way that she lives but we sense, even if we all truly loved the earth, could the earth sustain all of us living like Isabel Paige?

It would be wonderful.

The team at bbc.com explain, “The cities and towns we live in account for less than 3% of the Earth’s total land area, but between 35% and 40% is used for agriculture. As populations grow, many fear that more land will be used up to grow more food. And land management has a lot to do with resource management – what we eat, how we grow it, and how we eat it.”

Here is the really tough part.

They add researchers predicted that increasing demand for food, biofuels, industrial forestry and the spread of urbanization will result in this reserve of land being completely used up by 2050.

We hope that is not true.

For now, it is easy to admire Isabel.

Here is her story. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdCottK2mn8T7VOHleKCYCg

“I am on a journey to bring abandoned farmland back to life and grow organic fruits and vegetables for the local community in a sustainable way. I’d like to help heal this earth instead of take from it.

5 years ago I was first introduced to the principles of permaculture and sustainable growing methods while living on a farm community in West Australia. After that, I worked and traveled, trying to gain as much knowledge as possible. My travels led me to become certified as a yoga instructor, work as a plant based- farm to table cook, and bake traditional sourdough bread up in the mountains. After leaving college, I decided to take advantage of the abandoned land that was in my family, and turn it into an oasis of beautiful life and health.

I have a deep desire to bring life back to the land, and bring value into this world, that can help make this earth a better place for all beings.

In exchange for subscribing, you will receive a weekly newsletter of my journey, along with a delicious plant-based recipe based on ancient healing principles of fermentation & sprouting.”

Sounds like a nice plan.

We have heard of permaculture. Most likely you have too. The problem is that we have no idea what it actually really means and once we researched it, there are as many definitions of what it means as there are letters in the word.

It is worth taking another peek at it. We like the following description because we feel that we understand it a little better.

Alex Zorach is an avid tea drinker and the creator of RateTea, an interactive website where anyone can rate and review teas. Alex also is a birdwatcher, active on eBird, and also enjoys swing dancing, blues dancing, and contra dancing.

Alex has an M.A. in statistics from Yale (2008), an M.S. in applied mathematics from U. Delaware (2007), and a B.A. from Oberlin College (2002). He has worked as a consultant in statistics and information technology, and also has experience in operations research, management consulting, retail pricing, ecology, and accounting.

Sounds very impressive. Let’s have a read.

What Is Permaculture And What Are Its Benefits?

Permaculture is a method of agriculture which is very different from conventional agriculture. It tends to be more complex and ecologically-oriented than conventional agriculture, and it is very long-term oriented. It involves diversification of crops, growing multiple crops together in the same area, and using more perennial plants.

Although the term permaculture is relatively new, originating first in the term permanent agriculture coined in 1929, many of the practices used in this type of farming are very old and traditional, and can be found in many indigenous cultures throughout the globe.

To understand permaculture, and what makes it different from conventional agriculture, it helps to look at conventional Western agriculture and to bring into conscious awareness the things that we take for granted.

Modern Western agriculture

Modern Western agriculture is characterized by crop monocultures. Typically, land is cleared and different parcels of land are dedicated to growing different crops. The crops may be rotated from year to year, or separated into patches or strips, but generally are blocked out somehow in space or time. Many of the crops grown in this way are annual crops, grown only through one season. In Western Agriculture, farmed or cultivated land often stretches for miles, with at most only small buffers of wild areas in cropland.

Permaculture breaks all of these assumptions or standard practices. Permaculture often involves growing multiple crops in the same plot in such a way that increases total productive output and reduces problems with pests and weeds.

Ecological principles informing permaculture

The difference between permaculture and mainstream Western agriculture can be seen as the difference between an ecological approach to farming and a mechanistic one. Whereas Western agriculture tries to tame or control nature, permaculture is based around working with nature.

Permaculture thus requires a deeper understanding of plants, animals, and their relationships to each other, but it can potentially yield huge benefits.

Benefits and advantages of permaculture

One of the most immediate and compelling benefits of permaculture is a hugely increased yield of crops. Although Western monoculture farming is often the way to produce the highest yield per acre of a single crop, in permaculture, combining multiple crops on the same plot of land, the total yield of all combined crops can be much higher. For commercial farmers, this means higher income, and for homeowners, this can mean a greater total amount of food production.

Permaculture also reduces the need for inputs such as fertilizer and often completely eliminates the need for herbicides and pesticides. Although the labor for the initial setup can much greater for diversified permaculture methods, the long-term maintenance can be greatly reduced, especially the need for weeding. By recycling both chemical inputs and organic waste products from plants and animals, using them as fertilizer, permaculture also reduces the amount of pollution.

The result is an epic win for both sustainability and economic output.

Resilience and adaptability

Permaculture is also much more resilient in the face of abnormal weather conditions, such as unusually dry, wet, hot, or cold spells. The increased diversity of crops provides one buffer or security measure, as different plants have different levels of resistance to different types of adverse conditions. But the increased total biomass, which corresponds to more stored water, a greater buffer against wind, and a greater cooling potential in hot weather, also translates to increased resilience of the farming system to extreme weather events.

The diversification of crops is also an economic buffer, which helps protect farmers against price fluctuations, such as a glut of a particular crop that can lead to low prices for that year.

The result is a system that is not only more productive, but more resilient, stable, and predictable in the long-run.

Traditional permaculture examples

Native Americans in North America widely used a system of growing three plants in the same area, called the three sisters, beans, corn, and squash. These crops complemented each other ecologically as well as nutritionally. The corn would grow upright, providing a pole for the beans to climb. The corn had high nitrogen needs, but the beans were a nitrogen fixer. The squash, also with a vining habit, but more sprawling, would cover the ground, shutting out weeds. The squash also covers the soil, holding in moisture. The crop harvest combines to form a more complete protein for the human diet than beans or corn alone would provide.

Another traditional permaculture system from a completely different culture and ecoregion is the VAC system used in Northern Vietnam, standing for Vuon, Ao, Chuong, meaning "orchard", "fish pond", and "shed" for poultry or pigs. This is a highly productive system that produces animal and plant foods as well as fiber and fuel. Waste from the animals is used as fertilizer and fish are bold harvested as output as well as used as food for pigs. This system can produce income for farmers that is 3-5 times higher than that from farming rice alone, and it greatly reduces pollution as well.

In summary

Permaculture is complex and requires greater skill and learning, and often, greater initial investment of labor, relative to Western agriculture, but the results can be immensely compelling, with high total yields of crops, higher income for farmers, greater stability, and hugely decreased environmental impacts. Permaculture is one of the most sustainable forms of farming, and a major way through which humanity can achieve a truly sustainable society.

Alex Zorach is a naturalist and advocate of gardening as a tool for ecological restoration, which you can read about in his piece Why Native Plants?. He is also the founder and editor of RateTea, a social review site for tea drinkers, where you can also read about the influence of climate and geography on tea production.

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Alex_Zorach/433569

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