connected to each other through what caused it. The first time I heard about Permaculture was in a documentary called Introduction to Permaculture Design, I found with Geoff Lawton, a Permaculture designer and educator, where he explains the concept of Permaculture design. From the first two minutes of the video, I found myself violently shaking my head in agreement. Something just clicked and everything he said made so much sense to me. That we could design landscapes to react in natural patterns of harmony, just in the way nature already behaves, “Are job (as designers) is not to recreate pattern, are job as designers is to let patterns evolve and uncover (themselves) within our system” - Geoff Lawton, Introduction to Permaculture Design, 2009.
In a world of constant innovation, we tend to look outside ourselves for inspiration and life changing ideas when, all the information we need is inside ourselves and lives within our intuition. I have always felt nature is interconnectedly linked with our intuitions. So, in a world where we listen to our intuitions, Permaculture exists; we would not only improve the quality of life for all humanity, but every living creature on this planet. We would be in harmony with not only nature, but ourselves. Permaculture is as complex as they come, there will always be room for research, problem solving and creative design. Permaculture lets you open yourself to whole systems thinking, which allows you to look at system and focus on what are the specific links that make the system work and how each link is connected to each other. This helps you become a better critical thinker, because it forces you to examine individual situations with all its parts, and construct a solution and initiate creative problem solving that satisfies all needs. There will always be something new to learn, and that’s what I strive for in a career path.
Overall, Permaculture and sustainable living methods are crucial in keeping a small foot print on earth. Permaculture uses less energy, nothing every becomes waste, there is always a use for something like food scraps, rain water or anything that comes out of your land that is “left-over”. Permaculture also never needs the use of pesticides or fertilizers because there is always a natural more efficient way of adding nutrients or keeps bugs away that eat your crops. Lastly and more conveniently, Permaculture requires little maintenance after the initial start of your farm.
Living off the land, to me, is everything.
I feel like in a way I am obligated to, for the earth and myself. Nothing beats biting into a fresh tomato picked right from the garden, or the smell fresh basil and thyme growing on your windowsill. I look around at all the food we advertise on commercials for fast food restaurants, and it all seems like poison to me, overly processed fatty foods that are the reason our country has such a huge obesity problem. With garden fresh food, you don’t need diet regiments and strict exercise routines to be healthy all you need is Permaculture. This could solve our worlds hungry problem. As American we throw out so much food because there is such a mass quantities produces by commercial farmers. We only need what is essential for us to survive, which is not as much we are conditioned to think. If we grew as much as we needed there would be no need for mass food production in the way commercial farming is done. Each principle in Permaculture can be applied to anywhere in the country and has been proven to work no matter what that circumstance is.
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