Lets Infect Some Brains

Permaculture.
permanent + agriculture

Merriam-Webster-
:  an agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems.

     "Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system."
Bill Mollison

     Permaculture is an ecological design science guided by a set of ethics. It is utilizing natural eco-systems to design sustainable/regenerative food production systems. It is also a set of guiding principles that can be incorporated into our daily lives.

     There are three primary ethics that are fundamental to permaculture, which I will address only briefly due to the fact that they can be a bit contentious, and debating them is not something I want to be a part of. They are : Care of the Earth, Care of People, Return of Surplus. There are some who word the ethics as : Earth Care, People Care, Fair Share. You may already be able to see how the third ethic can cause a bit of strife within the permaculture community.

     I prescribe to the third ethic being "return of surplus." This can be interpreted to allow the use of that surplus for your own benefit. It allows you the option to do with it what you will. You can sell your surplus, you can store it, you can redirect it back to your production, you can give it away or donate it. The only thing that return of surplus does not allow you to do is to waste it. This is because the surplus is yours. It belongs to you. If you interpret the third ethic as "fair share," this implies that the excess of what is produced does not belong to you and should therefore be given away to those who would take it. That is neither sustainable nor fair. There. I've addressed that, and now I'm done.

     So we have addressed a little bit of what permaculture is (and a bit of what it isn't). Lets begin to explore what you can expect from this blog. As time goes on we'll get really in depth and begin to unpack a lot of various topics, some of which will be very simple, others really complex, and a few of them controversial depending on your worldview. I like to start with basics like the 12 permaculture design principles, energy flow through natural systems, integrated systems, practical application and the multitude of ways to incorporate permaculture concepts into our daily lives to create abundance.

     I hope to help and encourage everyone to design abundance into their lives. To create resiliency and redundant systems by stacking functions, observing and interacting with their environments and valuing and utilizing the marginal. To turn waste into wealth, and generally make life easier by valuing diversity and allowing small scale changes to make large scale impacts.

J.B.