home and local food

31 March 2007

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture#Critiques

(Comment below)

Though the general principles seem to be sensible, early texts promote the use of non-native invasive species or environmental weeds e.g. many Acacia species. John Robin of has been one the strongest critics of permaculture who criticised it for its potential to spread environmental weeds: reflecting a divide between native plant advocates and permaculture. [3]. Some critics have argued that permaculture is best suited to tropical, Mediterranean or desert conditions, but isn't suitable for a cool temperate country such as the UK. [citation needed]

Permaculture in the tropics, as expressed in Permaculture: A Designer's Manual, did not produce significant amounts of food or fruit when applied in Northern NSW and Queeensland. The closed canopy is not conducive to fruit production. The system whilst very healthy in and of itself yielded very little. [citation needed]

The perceived lack of evidential data about the performance of the system, and lack of a central body representing the system has also been a source of criticism.

Bill Mollison himself has also been critical of itinerant teachers of permaculture who would go on to teach after only a short course. At one point Mollision unsuccessfully tried to trademark the term permaculture to prevent this practice.

Perhaps the strongest criticism of permaculture is to be found in the Review of Toby Hemenway's book Gaia's Garden, which was published in the Winter 2001 edition of the Whole Earth Review[4]. In it Greg Williams critiques the view that woods were more highly productive than farmland based on the theory of ecological succession which says that net productivity declines as ecosystems mature. He also criticised the lack of scientifically respectable data and questions whether permaculture is applicable to more than a small number of dedicated people. Hemenway's response in the same magazine disputes Williams's claim on productivity as focusing on climax rather than on maturing forests, citing data from ecologist Robert Whittaker's book Communities and Ecosystems. Hemenway is also critical of Williams's characterisation of permaculture as simply forest gardening, whereas for Hemenway it is more a broadscale design system.[5]

…

United Kingdom

There are a number of example permaculture projects in the UK, these include:

• Ragmans Lane, a 60 acre farm in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire[8].
• Tir Penrhos Isaf, near Dolgellau, develolped by Chris and Lyn Dixon since 1986 [9].
• Plants for a Future is a vegan-organic project based at Lostwithiel in Cornwall that is researching and trialing edible and otherwise useful plant crops for sustainable cultivation. Their online database currently features over 7,000 such species that can be grown within the UK [10]. A collaborative version of the database is in development by the permaculture.info project. The project has a second, larger property in North Devon, for which it is looking for a new group to take over.
• Prickly Nut Woods is a ten acre woodland near Haslemere, Surrey that is managed by Ben Law. He is using a 'whole system' permacultural approach, utilising a wide variety of woodland products and documenting a complex web of relationships. He has built a house almost entirely using products from the woodland, which was featured in Channel 4's Grand Designs TV series [11].
• Agroforestry Research Trust, a not for profit organisation based in Dartington, Devon that runs a 2 acre forest garden and publishes the journal Agroforestry News [12]
• Middlewood Trust, a permculture based farm in North Lancashire running courses in permaculture, crafts, forestry and sustainability [13]
• The RISC Roof Garden, on top of a development education centre in Reading city centre and inspired by Robert Hart's permaculture forest garden in Shropshire is an excellent example of urban permaculture design. [14]. It is used by schools, educators and designers as an educational resource for sustainable development and is a member of the National Gardens Scheme. The garden is comprised of dense plantings of over 180 species of edible and medicinal plants and is fed by rainwater and composted waste from the centre.

Other projects tend to be more community oriented, particularly in urban areas. These include Naturewise, a north London based group who tend a number of forest gardens and allotments as well as running regular permaculture introductory and design courses [15], and Organiclea, a workers cooperative who are involved in developing local food growing and distribution initiatives around the Walthamstow area of east London [16].

The UK Permaculture Association publishes an extensive directory of other projects and example sites throughout the country [17].

Comment

If the examples above are the best we can come up with in Britain (not being a monarchist I dislike references to ‘Kingdom’), there is much work to do, and the Critiques are correspondingly challenging. Permaculture seems to be fine as a set of ideas and aspirations, but does it work? The Permaculture Association ( Britain) has a newsletter called Permaculture Works, and during recent discussions on redesigning this periodical, members declared their fondness for the name. Research is urgently needed, hopefully to get a better picture of permaculture projects in Britain, and then to document suitable case studies and draw up a plan for establishing demonstration sites.

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