I love permaculture!! Listening and reading about permaculture reminded me a lot of a farmer who’s farm I visited last semester. I volunteered at the Carrboro Farmers’ Market, and so I visited the farm of one of the sellers at the Market. His name is Ben, and he is the owner of Dawnbreaker Farms. He does not explicitly refer to his business as permaculture, but I think it matches the description quite well, although his farm is largely comprised of livestock animals, and we did not see any examples of permaculture practices with livestock animals in the documentary or in One Straw Revolution. When Ben told me that livestock was the best agricultural practice we can be doing for our planet, I was a bit taken aback as I gave up meat almost exclusively due to its devastating effects on the environment. He then began to explain his “regenerative practices”, which I now think must be very similar to permaculture. He uses a grazing practice that mimics nature. He based his practice off of the fact that animals naturally move around while grazing, and their trampling and defecating creates a dynamic system that creates extremely fertile soil. The organic matter is a huge contributor of essential nutrients for the soil. Ben considers himself a farmer of micro organisms rather than a livestock farmer — his primarily goal is to grow microorganisms, and the livestock products are sort of an added bonus that stems from the process. He uses a number of different grazing animals because he said the more diversity of species you can stack in a single pasture, the more equal the grazing will be and the better the land ecosystem will be.
I was very interested in his method, and it made me consider possibly eating meat again from sources such as his farm. However, I think with the number of meat-eaters on Earth and the limited arable land that we have to go towards large grazing pastures, I think it is unrealistic and unsustainable to rely on his strategy on a global scale. Some of the featured forms of permaculture in the documentary, such as the rooftop gardens, seemed like a more viable option to be implemented on a wide scale. The rooftop gardens was probably my favorite permaculture practice we learned about because it makes SO much sense. Rooftops provide so much open space that cannot be used for any other function. Turning every rooftop into a garden could have a profound impact on food security, sustainability, AND employment opportunities!
On a final note, could algae cultivation be considered permaculture? In Introduction to Permaculture, Bill Mollison writes: ““The aim is to create systems that are ecologically-sound and economically viable, which provide for their own needs, do not exploit or pollute, and are therefore sustainable in the long term.”
“Permaculture uses the inherent qualities of plants and animals combined with the natural characteristics of landscapes and structures to produce a life-supporting system for city and country, using the smallest practical area.”
I feel like macroalgae cultivate satisfies all of these requirements! Perhaps I am an aspiring permaculturist.
Mollison, B. C., & Slay, R. M. (2011). Introduction to permaculture. Sisters Creek, Tasmania, Australia: Tagari Publications.
