WTF is Permaculture and Where are the Azores?
Having spent the last 12 months investigating such things as Electronic Music Production, Overlanding, Intentional Communities and building 18ft Robots, when I tell friends I’ve been on a volcanic Island called Sao Miguel studying Permaculture the typical response is, as the title of this post suggests, Confusion. The purpose of this post then is to add some clarity on this topic, both to my friends, other readers and indeed myself.
What is Permaculture? First let’s say what Permaculture is not. It is not Organic Gardening (although it includes it). Permaculture is a philosophy and methodology of sustainable living based on the ethics of caring for the planet, caring for people and fair share/future care. We debated the term on the course and here are some sentences that describe permaculture:
Permaculture is the science of sustainable design
Permaculture is a practical regenerative movement
Permaculture uses nature as a teacher, creates cultural harmony
Permaculture is a revolution disguised as organic gardening
Permaculture creates sustainable living habitats
Permaculture is helping nature to accelerate succession
And finally Wikipedias definition:
Permaculture is a set of design principles centred around whole systems thinking simulating or directly utilising the patterns and resilient features observed in natural ecosystems.
What were you learning? The course we took as a group of around 20 people is the internationally recognised, Permaculture Design Certificate or PDC, taught by the very special Helder Valente who studied with all the early permaculture founders and influencers. This is far from an easy thing to describe so I shall break it down in to 4 categories: Course Outline, Examples, Teaching Style and Take Aways.
Course Outline
A PDC course is both standardised and variable. From my research I understand that a PDC must include 72 hours of training over a number of days and include a number of topics. That said content and teaching style vary (more on that later). Our course outline was as follows:
Day 1: Story (history, teachers, principles, ethics)
Day 2: Planet (patterns, climate, microclimates)
Day 3: Soil (soil composition, compost, microbiology, mycorrhiza, worms)
Day 4: Water (lakes, swales, 7 secrets, toilets, fish, keylines, aquifers)
Day 5: Plants (gardens, forests, guilds, beds, biodynamics, polycultures, aquaculture)
Day 6: Technology (energy, vermiponics, aquaponics, hydroponics, hydro power, solar, wind, rocket stoves, induction heating, passive solar, bio-construction)
Day 7 & 8: Social (management, decisions, conflicts, groups, sociocracy, NVC, capital, revenue, volunteers, networks)
Day 9: Design (team design exercise)
Day 10: Design; Presentations
Examples
A sector and zone analysis (basic examples)
A potential project design (c20 min design time)
Teaching Style
PDCs vary in terms of content and teaching style. Our course was delivered in a teaching style developed by our teacher Helder Valente and based on principles he has picked up over the years from research in to alternative educational methods.
The method focuses in on what is alive at the present moment, it requires self-management and could at times be challenging, for me at least, as I adapted to learning in this new way. This method of what I’d call learning in more of a flow (wrapped of course in an overall outline structure) is said to develop better links in the brain. The technique also enables the content to be adapted in real time based on the needs of the student.
Self management and horizontal leadership are concepts I’d like to understand more deeply especially in this educational or training context.
The challenge I think comes from what we seem to require of leadership which we have developed since birth. Giving our power away in circumstances where we expect a leader to behave in a certain way, from parents and teachers to bosses at work. For example, imagine I’m unhappy with something or think something should be done differently but I’m not the leader so I just go along with it and complain internally or maybe to another student. Really I should be able, myself, to take ownership and make or even be the change I’d like to see. This goes way beyond the classroom. Taking ownership for our own experience versus utilising a blame culture to excuse our lack of self-direction.
I haven’t looked in to the educational methods in detail as yet but I was impressed with how much it has affected my thinking since the course finished and what I’m noticing in talking to people in London in different challenges.
Tractors Don’t Shit; (but Cows Do Poo)
Integrating different topics within the syllabus meant some diverse cross-over between subjects. For example, On Planet day we discussed fringe scientists, mushrooms and nuts! On Soil day we investigated recycling, energy flows, learnt about sector analysis and zoning in design, and what would happen to an abandoned Walmart carpark over 500 years (taking in topics such as guilds, nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium cycle and anal plantation!) We also discovered that tractors don’t shit.
The course intermingled social games, practical work, classroom teaching and exercises within each day over the 10 days. The games brought the attendees, teacher and volunteers closer together as a group. The practical work reinforced learning, we built a contour device, grew mushrooms, accelerated mycorrhiza growth (we all would have liked more of this but there is a lot to learn and you have your whole life to practice!)
Here is a booklist if you want to do your own learning.
There is a lot more to understand about the teaching style which will likely be the subject of a future post if and when I get there!
The educational program was supported by both social theory in terms of how to execute permaculture projects from a social, group dynamic perspective and some of those techniques we used in our course with for example task teams so each group knew which areas they were working on when, like food prep, tidying the classroom or creating the daily course journal. We practiced sociocracy to elect a president and and simulated a conflict resolution over the dirty dishes :-) Again these are areas which I look forward to studying and practicing in projects in the near future.
Where are the Azores? We did the PDC on the island of Sao Miguel, The Azores. Specifically on Ana’s farm (37° 33’ 51.937”, 25° 41’ 39.655”); aka Quintos De Flores. Sao Miguel is one of 9 islands making up the Azores, an autonomous region, and part of Portugal; the furthest western point of Europe and they rest in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Volcanic islands, Sao Miguel still has active volcanos and several beautiful craters which make for great surroundings at places like Furnas, complete with picturesque village, steaming hot springs and a huge crater lake!
Conclusion and
Take Aways
- This is a whole new world to explore. New paradigms in thinking and behaviour.
- The world is struggling under the pressure of human growth and capitalism and permaculture is a contender for a practical solution.
- The current system of parenting, education and work seem to disempower people rather than encouraging them to stand in their own power. More on this later.
- There is significant beauty, complexity and wonder in the natural world which if we observe and understand we can use to our advantage to live healthier, happier lives.
- Permaculture is not just a hippie fad, it is being practiced globally, by a variety of people, from wealthy land owners to farmers to refugee camps. Of course, more is needed!
Moving Forward. I’ve been on this recent journey with the specific intention of researching, designing and building an intentional community; with a decentralised energy autonomy approach to off-grid living; integrating new approaches to climate, human connection, community, empowerment, the earth, spirituality and technology.
The topic of permaculture comes up a lot in this world of intentional community and is practiced by successful communities I have visited. I’m happy to have accelerated my education in this area and am motivated to progress this vision forward. You’ll find me over the coming months in the Land Rover visiting communities and doing permaculture projects in Spain & Portugal.
If you’re interested in finding out more about permaculture, the PDC, or the ongoing community project please get in touch. GaiaVille@protonmail.com
