“If you throw mother nature out the window she comes back in the door with a pitchfork.” – Masanobu Fukuoka
First question a lot of people ask is “What is Permaculture and why would we want to do it?”
Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture
The answer I have is taken straight out of Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture book where he states that:
“The basic principles of Permaculture are:
– All of the elements within a system interact with each other.
– Multi functionality: every element fulfills multiple functions and every function is performed by multiple elements.
– Use energy practically and efficiently, work with renewable energy.
– Intensive systems in a small area.
– Utilize and shape natural processes and cycles.
– Support and use edge effects (creating highly productive small-scale structures).
– Diversity instead of monoculture.”
As the founder of permaculture, Bill Mollison, says, “Permaculture is about design, values, ethics and a personal responsibility for earth care.”
“Permaculture is the intentional design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems, which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people—whole human habitats—providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, nature; of looking at systems in all their functions rather than asking only one yield of them and thereby allowing systems to demonstrate their own complexities and maturation. This requires a multi-disciplinary approach integrating ecology, agriculture, architecture, and construction.”
Freshly pulled organic carrots.
This philosophy takes us away from the agri-business principles we have now where monocultures are the norm and pesticides are needed to grow crops that are weaker than their permaculture counterparts. More and more small farmers are starting to incorporate these principles for many reasons. Again, working with nature and the way she does things creates far superior products. Never in nature would you see rows and rows of corn. Corn that couldn’t even live if man didn’t fertilize it and use pesticides because it would be too weak to live without human intervention, whereas the permaculture counterpart offers a much higher nutritional value without the use of chemicals in addition to also being a much stronger and resilient plant. It is also wonderful to be in a community where the food becomes part of the landscape. To be surrounded by what sustains our bodies can be extremely nurturing.
A personal story
While rummaging thru a drawer one day I ran across a package of radish seeds that had probably been in the drawer for at least a few years or more. I decided I should at least plant the poor little things, better than being in the drawer. I threw them in some dirt and didn’t pay much more attention to them except for the occasional watering. About three weeks later I noticed I had radish plants! I checked to see if they were ready to pull and they were. Now I am not a real big radish fan but I though that the least I could do was eat them seeing that they had actually lived and grown after years of hibernation offering me the best of themselves. So I pulled them and made a small radish salad for myself with about six little radishes and ate them all.
The next day I was walking to a job from my truck and I noticed a feeling of complete joy and happiness come over me. A sort of elated quality that made me feel that everything was right with the world. It only lasted about a minute and was more or less gone by the time I reached my clients home.
Later that afternoon I was listening to a podcast with Anthony Williams, the Medical Medium, and he was speaking of the importance of growing your own food and that plants learn from you what your body needs and will give it to you and that you actually can form relationships with trees that give fruit. I wondered if my “mystical” experience from the morning had anything to do with eating the radishes the day before, so I decided to ask Theo, which is a group of Archangels that are channeled by Sheila Gillette, and they said “Yes, that is how it is supposed to work.”
I found this absolutely fascinating and began looking into it and have been pleasantly surprised at finding other people who work in their gardens speaking of this phenomena also. It is definitely something worth exploring a lot more!!
Mycorestoration
Paul Stamets speaks about how mushrooms can help save the world in his excellent book “Mycelium Running”. 
Their are four components of mycorestoration, these include
Mycrofiltration: the filtration of biological and chemical pathogens as well as controlling erosion.
Mycoforestry and Mycogardening: the use of mycelium for companion cultivation for the benefit and protection of plants.
Mycoremediation: the use of mycelium for decomposing toxic wastes and pollutants.
Mycopesticides: the use of mycelium for attracting and controlling pest populations.
Perennial Crops
The importance of Perennial Crops
“At the Land Institute, ecologists are exploring ways to grow grains, oilseeds and legumes together so cropland can once again benefit from the advantages of diverse perennial vegetation. These new crops
[sic] arrangements will be less dependent on nitrogen-based fertilizers and better-equipped to anchor soil, virtually eliminating erosion and chemical runoff, and promise a much smaller energy cost. They interact in complimentary ways to manage pathogens and pests naturally, all while providing food for years without replanting. In many situations, the deep roots of perennial grains will better withstand the drought or deluge likely to accompany climate change. They sequester carbon, which helps reduce greenhouse gases, and they host microorganisms and invertebrates that contribute to soil health.” Land Institute
Carbon Sequestering
The earths natural process of carbon sequestering through atmosphere, the ocean, plant mass and soil has been interfered with. The normal condition involves cycling between the atmosphere, the oceans and the land, this being the forests, the soil and the vegetation and some carbon that is sequestered into the earths crust.
This disruption has mainly been caused by the burning of fossil fuels, which was carbon stored safely within the earths crust and it being released into our atmosphere which causes the greenhouse effect.
We can reverse this process by stopping our use of burning fossil fuels and by working with our plant mass and biomass to pull the carbon back into the ground. This can be done by the use of Permaculture techniques and protecting the exposed soil from the sun which dries it out and makes the soil hot which then causes rain water to run off rather than soak in and then we have erosion.
In addition, being that climate change is the most dangerous threat that we are facing, becoming more self-reliant in our food supply with local food economies which would improve our health, our resiliency and the health of the planet should be a top priority.
Bill Reed’s Framework for Regeneration