Natural farming, the permaculture gateway

Once you start thinking this way, you realise it connects to everything else.

The word permaculture was coined in the 1970’s to describe an approach to farming that might have the possibility of permanence. Agriculture is possibly the most destructive activity that we humans engage in, ripping down forests, exposing fragile soils to the elements, constructing huge monocultures and drenching them in petrochemicals to control insects and provide fertility, nothing short of an ecological catastrophe. Topsoil loss, breakdown of complex ecosystems and the disruption of natural functioning means this kind of approach can never be permanent. We need something much better than this.

Permaculture did not come out from a vacuum, it was informed, inspired and shaped by everything that had gone before it. Rather than really being something new it could be seen as a rediscovery, a reinvention or a return to reality. From early on it also became apparent that a permanence of culture, of human endeavour was the overall aim, food production, energy, shelter, everything needs to be informed by and in harmony with the natural flow that we can learn through observation and interaction of nature’s systems.

One Straw Revoloution

The pioneering work of Masanobu Fukuoka is one of the many sources of inspiration to permaculture design. This man pioneered the approach of ‘do nothing gardening’, he quit his job in the city to return to his rural roots and taking on the family rice fields and orchards was determined to refind the way of harmonizing with nature instead of battling against it. There are some wonderful videos of him and his work, the legacy of the seminal One Straw Revolution book, but also some wonderful interviews with Larry Korn, the US citizen who had stayed with Fukuoka many years ago and was the translator of his book into English. This makes a great starting point to enter the world of permaculture, and I have been reviewing this content in preparation for our up-and-coming Permaculture Design Course, starting in just over a month.

Study permaculture

The PDC is 72-hours of study that serves as a crash course into permaculture, designed to kick start off your permaculture journey. It is largely based on the content of Bill Mollison’s Permaculture Designers Manual, and serves to bring to life the many ideas, insights and concepts contained within the book but the course also contains practical activities, site visits and slideshows of case studies and work in progress.

Here at Treflach farm we have been ‘playing’ at permaculture for 14 years or more and slowly the way the farm operates, thinks and plans is informed more and more by permaculture thinking and practice.

Examples:

• No longer flailing hedges to trim them, they are grown out, and laid every three years, releasing and retaining all of the narrow diameter brash for turning into fuel and especially biochar for use as a soil amendment

• Strip grazing and mob grazing cattle, restricting access to fresh pasture to ensure optimum grazing for grass health, carbon sequestration and animal nutrition. This mimics how cattle would behave as a herd in the wild.

• Diversification of activities, embracing more horticulture, human and personal development, educational and recreational activities at the farm. Diversity leads to stronger systems, more interactions and a diversity of revenues.

• On farm camping, yoga studio and expanded facilities for hospitality in all forms. Part of a strategy to build many more links with the customers and surrounding community.

• Farm guests, residents and trainees, a more people centred approach to the farm.

• Arboriculture, that means growing more trees, widening hedge lines, more fruit, fodder and shade trees for livestock and wood for fuel.

• Integration of renewable energy systems, solar power and ground source heat pumps.

• Chicken tractor, integrated egg production that turns and produces compost for the horticulture projects.

• Hosting courses and training events whilst developing activities that compliment both learning and horticultural therapy activities.

• Conservation of wetlands and previously drained lands

• Development of an overall farm ethos, approach and mutual understanding that can constantly move this process forward.

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I am not a farmer, how is permaculture relevant to me?

1. Permaculture is relevant to everyone because we all eat food, drink water and have a long-term vested interest in the health of the environment.

2. Permaculture is the language and ideas of regeneration and can be applied to most aspects of life, the PDC helps form a peer group for mutual support and understanding.

3. We are all active participants in the global biosphere, we are not separate from the environment, but we are participants within it. Every action we take has knock on consequences, permaculture can help inform our every action.

4. The ideas concepts and insights within permaculture can all be abstracted and applied to almost every aspect of life, the principles and ethics become the steering and decision-making mechanism to steer us towards a sustainable state, in everything that we do.

5. Permaculture is a unifying ideology, it makes us all realise we are simply players in something much bigger than all of us, no one is in charge, outcomes are not fixed, we are all responsible for our own destiny and we have to learn how to pull together in common cause.

6. Permaculture design puts you at the centre of your own world, it is empowering and inspiring, and I would argue permaculture is essential.

We are in a climate emergency

Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil has been sentenced to 5 years in prison for leading and encouraging direct action and civil disobedience to bring attention to the severity of the climate emergency.

It is deeply worrying and also deeply revealing that such voices are silenced with such extreme responses, 5 years for peaceful protest, or more accurately for conspiracy to organise a peaceful protest, is shocking. Roger is here to remind us all that we are not here as spectators, we are here to take part, to be active in every way that we can.

Permaculture gives tremendous insight into how we might regenerate, rebuild and repair some of the damage done to the biosphere by human ignorance and stupidity, we are not powerless to respond, but as he reminds us, none of these actions will bear any fruit whatsoever if we keep on polluting as we are currently, we do need to Just Stop Oil, but we also need a really good plan as to how in heaven’s name are we going to be able to live without it?

Achieving these goals is going to involve all of our efforts.