Permaculture is a design science and a way of life. It is not a “new” practice, but rather, a return to the traditional and indigenous ways of life that have been practiced since time immemorial. The term ‘Permaculture’ was conceptualised by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970s in Australia. It derives from the words ‘permanent agriculture’, offering an alternative to the ecologically destructive and unsustainable methods of industrial agriculture.
Permaculture is a practice of conscious design and maintenance to enable landscapes to evolve naturally and achieve a level of diversity, stability and resilience that is seen in natural or wild ecosystems. The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, nature, and it can also be applied in urban settings. It embraces a return to a holistic and harmonious relationship between people and nature to enable all life to thrive and meet their needs for food, water, energy, shelter, community and other material and non-material needs.
Permaculture is underpinned by a set of ethics and ecological principles that guide us to follow practices when designing landscapes and interacting with ecosystems, such as using thoughtful observation rather than thoughtless action out of habit or tradition; observing natural ecosystems holistically in all their functions rather than compartmentally; recognising and utilising the patterns and cycles in nature; and allowing systems to evolve and function naturally to achieve optimum output with minimal input.
The full list of the ethics and principles of Permaculture can be found on the Permaculture in New Zealand (PiNZ) website.
These ethics and principles create a framework that encompasses a range of ecologically enhancing practices that we also incorporate in our landscape design and resource management practices at Kauri Ora Farms.
Regenerative Agriculture
Regenerative Agriculture, also known as ecological farming, is a system of farming principles and practices that enhances biodiversity, soil fertility and water quality. It emphasises the need to move away from chemical applications and monocultures which strip the soil of nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, and degrade ecosystem biodiversity.
Regenerative Agriculture includes practices such as:
- Erosion Control
- Composting
- Rotation and Cover Crops
- Integrating Livestock
- No-till
- Conversation Tillage
- Diversity
- Holistic Management
- No Synthetic Fertilisers or Pesticides
The idea is that as soil health improves, so do crop yields, crop health and livestock health.
Natural Farming
Preceding the common use of the term ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ worldwide is the concept of Natural Farming developed by Japanese farmer and philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka. He contradicted and radicalised the traditional methods of farming and agriculture in Japan and harvested some of the largest yields of rice and fruit in the country without the use of machinery, chemicals or prepared fertiliser, and by following his four principles of No cultivating, plowing or turning the soil; No chemical fertiliser or prepared compost; No weeding by tillage or herbicides; and No dependence on chemicals.
These principles are rooted in Fukuoka’s observations that the earth cultivates herself by penetration of plant roots and digging activity of soil organisms, the earth can maintain her own fertility without dependence on chemicals, weeds can be controlled rather than eliminated, and creating a healthy environment in turn creates sturdy crops.
The methods that Fukuoka practiced go a step further than regenerative agriculture, with an added spiritual dimension and philosophy of how we relate with the world around us. He described natural farming as a state of mind; in fact, a state of “no-mind”, thereby stripping away all assumptions and pre-conceptions we have about farming.
Conventional agricultural methods are often trying to improve nature and make processes more efficient by adding more fertiliser, more machinery, more this, more that… However, Fukuoka simplified farming by subtracting from the list of things that traditional or conventional methods would follow. This means to stop doing the things that caused the damage in the first place, and reviving the soil and re-establishing diversity using the intelligence of nature. This approach led him to the conclusion that there was no need to plow, no need to apply fertiliser, no need to make compost, and no need to use insecticide. In fact, there are few agricultural practices that are really necessary.
One distinction between Natural Farming and conventional agriculture is that Fukuoka asked not ‘what can nature provide for me?’ but rather, ‘what does the land need?’. Fukuoka talked directly with plants and animals and asked them what they needed and how they want to be treated. By putting oneself in place of the plant or animal and carefully observing without scrutiny, one enters into nature, becomes nature, and in doing so, a different way of understanding and accessing knowledge becomes possible.
In his book, The One Straw Revolution, Fukuoka highlights that most indigenous people worldwide lived with an attitude of courtesy and mutual respect. During harvest, the rituals that surrounded the act of harvesting, hunting or fishing were as important as the act itself. How one approached a plant or animal with what frame of mind and heart was very significant. A personal connection was often made by saying a silent prayer, leaving an offering and thanking the plant or animal for the gift of life. Fukuoka put this into practice and developed a set of spiritual principles to live by.
Fukuoka received global recognition and praise for his natural farming methods which have also been applied in projects to ‘green’ the deserts in arid environments around the world. You can visit his official website here.
The real path to natural farming requires that a person know what unaltered nature is, so that he or she can instinctively understand what needs to be done – and what must not be done – to work in harmony with its processes.
Fukuoka, M. (1978).
The person who can most easily take up natural agriculture is the one who doesn’t have any of the common adult obstructing blocks of desire, philosophy, or religion . . . the person who has the mind and heart of a child. One must simply know nature . . . real nature, not the one we think we know.
The One Straw Revolution
Indigenous Worldview
We recognise that Permaculture and Regenerative Agriculture definitions are western adaptations of what indigenous cultures have already been practicing before conventional farming was introduced by colonial societies. One critique about permaculture theory is that it leaves out indigenous worldviews and is limited by the English language which compartmentalises and interprets the world around us as “other” or “it”. Many indigenous cultures don’t have a word for “nature” because nature is not viewed as something separate or external to us, but innately within us.
Some principles held by indigenous worldviews are:
- All life is interconnected: the people, the plants, the animals, land forms and celestial bodies. All people are part of a vast family and and have a shared responsibility to care for the land and all living things. Indigenous ways of living are unified and community-oriented rather than individualistic.
- All things in the physical world have a life-force. Every rock, mountain, river, plant and animal are animated. No soil is deemed “dead” or void of life.
- Ancestral knowledge includes the entire natural world. Knowledge is passed down to generations through stories and oral traditions.
- A person’s identity is rooted in the land that they were born from. There is a deep, spiritual connection between land and people. We cannot “own” land as the land grows us – no human is older than the land.
- Time is non-linear and cyclical in nature, such as the seasons. The past, present and future are all interrelated. The earth goes through cycles of continuous transition.
Being situated in Aotearoa, New Zealand, we recognise that Māori are the traditional custodians of the land and have a rich history of cultivating and growing kai (food) along with specific practices for building and maintaining soil health. Early Māori horticultural practices were also regulated by karakia (prayer) that connected the growing cycle and abundant food harvests. This brought both an ecological and spiritual balance to the activities of growing kai and nourishing the whenua (land).
Hua Parakore is a kaupapa Māori (Indigenous) system and framework for growing kai and supporting Māori food sovereignty, developed by Te Waka Kai Ora (National Māori Organics Authority). The system is based on incorporating six key principles drawn from mātauranga Māori (ancestral body of knowledge) in the context of growing food. Learn more about Hua Parakore here.
At Kauri Ora Farms, we incorporate a range of practices that suit us, while continually evolving our systems as we learn and experience more about what the land needs.
We don’t own the land, the land owns us. The land is my mother, my mother is the land. Land is the starting point to where it all began. It’s like picking up a piece of dirt and saying this is where I started and this is where I’ll go. The land is our food, our culture, our spirit and identity.
Knight, S. (1996).
Our Land, Our Life: Aboriginal Land Rights in Australia’s Northern Territory.