This document provides an overview of the history and principles of permaculture. It traces permaculture's origins back to indigenous agricultural practices and early 20th century ideas around agroecology. Key figures like Bill Mollison, David Holmgren, and Masanobu Fukuoka helped develop and promote permaculture starting in the 1970s. The document outlines permaculture's three core ethics of earth care, people care, and fair share. It also discusses commonly taught design principles and encourages individuals to educate themselves on permaculture, implement practices, network with others, and take classes through organizations like the Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute.

1. Finger Lakes Permaculture.org
michael @ fingerlakespermaculture.org
607–527–0607

5. History (the old ideas)
• Ecology-based design can be traced to back to
indigenous cultural practices
• Permaculture is part of a decades-long
succession of ecological design ideas
• Derived from the writing and research of
agricultural scientists who researched problems
brought on by industrialization.

6. History (early agro-ecology)
• Farmers Of Forty Centuries Or Permanent
Agriculture In China, Korea And Japan
by F. H. King, 1911
• Five Acres and Independence
by M.G. Kairns, 1935
• The One-Straw Revolution
• The Natural Way Of Farming: The Theory and
Practice of Green Philosophy
by Masanobu Fukuoka, 1975 & 1976

7. History (pre-permaculture)
• Fundamentals of Ecology
by Howard T. Odum, 1953
• The Keyline Plan
Water For Every Farm
by P.A. Yeomans, 1950-1970s
• Foxfire magazine & books, 1970s
• A Pattern Language
by Christopher Alexander, 1977
• Tree Crops
by Joseph Russell Smith,1987

8. History (Mollison describes the idea)
• Permaculture One
by Bill Mollison & David Holmgren, 1978
• Permaculture Two
by Bill Mollison, 1979
• Permaculture: A Designer's Manual
by Bill Mollison, 1988
• Introduction to Permaculture
by Bill Mollison, 1991

9. History (2 Generation)
nd
• Gaia’s Garden:
a Guide to Home-scale Permaculture
by Toby Hemenway
• Permaculture:
Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability
by David Holmgren, 2002
• Edible Forest Gardens Vol. I & II
by Dave Jacke & Eric Toensmeier
• Earth User’s Guide to Permaculture
by Rosemary Morrow, 2006

10. What is the
most important priority for
collective and individual action?
Protecting Feeding
the Earth’s 7 Billion
ecological people
health

11. Permaculture Ethics & Food
• Food exemplifies the false choice between
meeting human needs and protecting the
environment.

13. Permaculture Ethics
1. People Care: meet the needs of humans
2. Earth Care: maintain
and support the
ecosystem
3. Fair Share: limit
consumption and
direct all surplus to
people & earth care
From: permacultureprinciples.com

14. Permaculture Ethics & Food
• When few people have direct experience
growing and producing food, farmer's lives are
in trouble, society's ideal of healthy food is
degraded, and the connection between
health, the environment and food is lost.
• Permaculture encourages food production by
non-experts.

17. Permaculture Principles
• Commonly taught principles are meant to be
understood my most people.
• Effective permaculture practice is meant for
non-experts.

18. Permaculture Principles
• Principles provide ecological guidance and
inspiration for design, decisions, and problem
solving centered around ethics.

19. Permaculture Principles
• Principles may appear to be “common sense”
but when used to evaluate most systems may
reveal a lack of ecological common sense.

20. Permaculture Principles
• Mollison and Holmgrem’s permaculture
principals are the most common but have
been reinterpreted by other authors and
permaculture practitioners.

21. Permaculture Principles
• The ecological principles and methods of
permaculture design are not dogma and will
evolve.

25. Design
Solutions
Techniques
Strategies
Design Process
Design Principles
Ethics

27. What can I do now
to bring permaculture
into my life, land and
work?

28. What can I do?
1. Educate
yourself.

29. What can I do?
1. Educate yourself.
• Examine the work and writings of:
Bill Mollison David Holmgren
Penny Livingston Masanobu Fukuoka
Dave Jacke Rosemary Morrow
Darren Doherty Wes Jackson
Toby Hemenway Patrick Whitefield
• Subscribe to the Permaculture Activist magazine

30. What can I do?
2. Copy and implement permaculture practices
that already work.

31. What can I do?
2. Copy and implement
permaculture practices
that already work.

32. What can I do?
3. Network with others.
• Northeastern Permaculture Network (thePINE.org)
• PermacultureActivist.Net
• FLXpermaculture.Net
• PermacultureGlobal.com
• International Permaculture email listservs
• Begin a local permaculture group or book club
• Identify programs with similar ideas and goals.

33. What can I do?
4. Take
permaculture
classes.

34. Finger Lakes Permaculture
Institute
• founded in 2005
• Evolved out of a series of potlucks held since
2003
• First Permaculture Design Certification
course organized by Michael Burns, Steve
Gabriel and Karryn Olson Ramanujan with Geoff
Lawton teaching the first 24 hours.

35. Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute
• Workshops
– Focus on specific skills that demonstrate
permaculture principles

36. Finger Lakes
Permaculture
Institute
• Community
Trainings
– Approx. 30+
hours of classes
that introduces
design principles

37. Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute
• Apprenticeships & Internships
– intensive study & practice

39. Finger Lakes Permaculture Institute
• Permaculture
Design Certificate
course
– Most common
course
– 2 ½ week
intensive course
of an
internationally
recognized
curriculum

44. Next course: July 27- August 12, 2012
Next course: July 27- August 12, 2012

45. Finger Lakes Permaculture.org
michael @ fingerlakespermaculture.org
607–527–0607