Harvesting Abundance: Another Twist on the Third Permaculture Ethic

It’s Fall — harvest time in the northern hemisphere — and we are flooded with goodies from our gardens.

As permaculturists, there’s probably no more delightful feeling than nourishing our human Beloveds with the fruit of our humble work caring for the land — because we are in integrity with our People Care and Earth Care ethics. And it’s equally fulfilling to share our extra produce with friends and neighbors… which brings us to….

The third permaculture ethic

When I first learned about permaculture, the third ethic was presented as “Fair Share” — meaning we voluntarily limit our own consumption and reproduction so that we don’t take more than our fair share of resources.

Voluntarily limiting our own reproduction avoids the problematic approach to “population control” that led to policies that often infringe upon the agency of the world’s poor. It also rightfully acknowledges the outsized impacts of the world’s “richer” nations: for example, realigning our lives to reduce our consumption is a great start for people in the U.S., which is home to 5% of the world’s population but generates half the globe’s solid waste and “ranks highest in most consumer categories by a considerable margin, even among industrial nations.”