Permaculture Design Courses:

The Myth of Self Reliance

A mass emailing went out a while back from a prominent permaculturist looking for “projects where people are fully self sufficient in providing for their own food, clothing, shelter, energy and community needs. . .” There it was, the myth of “fully self sufficient,” coming from one of the best-known permaculturists in the world. In most US permaculture circles, the idea that anyone could be self sufficient at anything past a very primitive level was abandoned a while ago, and the softer term “self reliant” replaced it. But even self-reliance is barely possible, and, other than as way of expressing a desire to throw off the shackles of corporate consumerism, I don’t think it’s desirable. . . . Read the full article here

Just out! The revised, expanded, all-color Second Edition!
Gaia's Garden: A Guide to
Home-Scale Permaculture

by Toby Hemenway

Chelsea Green, 2009.

Is Food the Last Thing to Worry About?

Our food system is woefully dependent on petroleum, as writers such as Richard Heinberg and Michael Pollan have eloquently pointed out. Soaring food costs have led to riots in some countries, and in unstable nations, famines rage regularly. Fears of empty grocery shelves have made food security the centerpiece of many a post-Peak Oil plan, and among those watching energy descent, a common refrain is that the best way to guarantee your food supply is to buy a piece of land and grow your own. Yet in the developed world, especially the breadbasket nations such as the US, Canada, and other food-exporting countries, the food network may be one of the last system to fail during energy descent. . . . Read the full article here

“The world didn’t come with an operating manual, so it’s a good thing that some wise people have from time to time written them. Gaia’s Garden is one of the more important, a book that will be absolutely necessary in the world ahead.”

—Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy and Hope, Human and Wild

Native Plants: Restoring to an Idea

Let me tell you about the invasive plant that scares me more than all others. It’s one that has infested over 80 million acres in the US, usually in virtual monocultures. It is a heavy feeder, depleting soil of nutrients. Everywhere it grows, the soil is badly eroded. The plant offers almost no wildlife habitat, and since it is wind pollinated, does not provide nectar to insects. It’s a plant that is often overlooked on blacklists, yet it is responsible for the destruction of perhaps more native habitat than any other species. . . . Read the full article here

Is "Sustainable Agriculture" an Oxymoron?

Jared Diamond calls it “the worst mistake in the history of the human race.”(1) Bill Mollison says that it can “destroy whole landscapes.”(2) Are they describing nuclear energy? Suburbia? Coal mining? No. They are talking about agriculture. The problem is not simply that farming in its current industrial manifestation is destroying topsoil and biodiversity. Agriculture in any form is inherently unsustainable. At its doorstep can also be laid the basis of our culture’s split between humans and nature, much disease and poor health, and the origins of dominator hierarchies and the police state. Those are big claims, so let’s explore them. . . . Read the full article here

Permaculture: A Pattern for
Whole Systems Design

Of all the various incarnations of ecological design, sustainable living, holistic systems management, and related big-picture ideas for living on a small planet, the one that grabs me is permaculture. None of the other schemes seem so complete, self-contained, and naturally integrated. That may be because permaculture design combines a set of coherent and interlinked principles, an energy- and resource-conserving attention to relative placement of elements, and, unlike most other design systems, a set of ethical guidelines. It is also amply broad-reaching to appeal to a restless generalist like me.

Permaculture is notoriously hard to define in a sound-bite. Here's one way to describe it: If you think of natural building, sustainable agriculture, solar energy, graywater recycling, consensus process, and the like as tools, then permaculture is the toolbox that helps organize those tools and suggests how and when to use them. Some of the writings and links here may help deepen your understanding of this vast subject.

I make my living teaching, writing, and consulting about permaculture and related fields. On these pages you'll find a list of my upcoming courses, workshops, and public appearances with links to their venues, plus links to other resources for permaculture and ecological design. You'll also find articles I've written for the various publications, including the magazine Permaculture Activist, where I was editor for five years. More articles and reources will be added over time

Here also are excerpts from my book, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, the first major North American book on permaculture.