PERMACULTURE: SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH SELF-RELIANCE
“Man is his own star; and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man,
Commands all light, all influence, all fate;
Nothing to him falls early or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.”
Epilogue to Beaumont and Fletcher‘s Honest Man’s Fortune
I wanted to start this post by explaining to you why did I choose to put self-reliance and, in fact, tell you more what is self-reliance and where did this philosophy came from.
Long time ago, a philosopher called Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote “Self-Reliance”, a compilation of many years. He said, as one of many things, that the mind is initially subject to an unhappy conformism. He highlighted the effect that society has upon the individual and that when people are influenced by society, they will compromise their values in order to retain a foolish character to the world. He had a famous catch-phrase “Trust thyself”. This argument follows three major points: the self-contained genius, the disapproval of the world, and the value of self-worth.
“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
To follow Emerson’s self-reliant philosophy, one must learn to hear and obey what is most true within their heart, and both think and act independent of popular opinion and social pressure.
Now, maybe you are all wondering, how is this philosophy can be related to permaculture, and, indeed, what is permaculture?
Permaculture is always defined as a design system for sustainable living, but it is much more than that. It is not just about the elements that form any particular system; it is about the flow between those elements. A project only can prove to become a permaculture when special attention is paid to the relationships between each element, between the people who work within the system and between the functions of those elements.
“Permaculture is a way of arranging your life to be happy and abundant. You can meet your own needs without making anyone else’s life less pleasant. Human habitats can be made highly productive with much less work than is taken to make them destructive under present systems. By making conscious decisions in designing our lives we can manage our resources well, reducing wastage.”
Graham Bell
It is all about maximizing the quality of life and health for everyone through smart design focused on maximizing sustainable yields.
“We have in hand excellent means to do in 10 years more than could be done in several centuries without them, if we apply ourselves to making the most of them, and do nothing else except what must be done.”
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz (1646)
By thinking carefully about the way we use our resources – material and non-material needs – it is possible to get much by using less. We can be more productive for less effort, harvesting benefits for our environment and ourselves, for now and for generations to come.
This is the essence of permaculture – the design of a way of living – in our households, gardens, communities and businesses. It is created by cooperating with nature and caring for the earth and its people.
Some ideas for living off a permaculture farm:
Flower essences, essential oils, tree resins, coffee, dried fruit, nuts, raw fruit-nut sports bars, aloe gel and products, natural fertilizers, new technology inventions, art/craft, building materials, bamboo wood, honey, bee products, cosmetics, fibers, papers, fabrics, fuels and much more.
Permaculture encourages us to be resourceful and self-reliant. It tackles how to grow food, build houses and create communities, and minimise environmental impact at the same time.
As I said before, this kind of design can help us not only to change our own life but also to try to save the world that we are going to leave our successors. I will finish this words with this thought from one of my favorite people that ever pass in the face of earth:
” You cannot solve a problem from the same consciousness that created it. You must learn to see the world anew”
Albert Einstein
If you are more interested in permaculture, I encourage you to watch this couple of videos that I know you will love:
Redesigning Civilization — with Permaculture
How Permaculture can save humanity and the Earth, but not Civilization- Toby Hemenway
Permaculture- A quiet Revolution
Sources:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-Reliance
- http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Essays:_First_Series/Self-Reliance
- http://www.permacultureindia.com/natural-resource-management/
- http://www.regenerative.com/
- https://socialsciences.arts.unsw.edu.au/tsw/D16WhyBotherWPermcul.html
- http://forums.permaculturenews.org/showthread.php?3995-Is-permaculture-ECONOMICALLY-sustainable/page2
- http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/index/
- http://www.permacultureactivist.net/
- http://www.permacultureglobal.com/
- http://afristarfoundation.org/permaculture/
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21 Jan 2014
por
Gabriela Pella Fernández
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