David Holmgren: "Small and Slow Solutions - Permaculture Design”
Nov 1, 2023
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David Holmgren, ‘permaculture’ author and educator, joins Nate Hagens to discuss scaling up permaculture design, re-localization, regenerative systems, and the potential of small and slow solutions in adapting to a lower throughput future.
Permaculture focuses on small and slow solutions for resilient and regenerative living.
Permaculture principles prioritize building resilience and restoring natural systems over efficiency.
Permaculture can be applied at different scales, from local adaptation to national policy design.
Deep dives
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a design system for resilient and regenerative land use in all its forms, including gardening, farming, forestry, and aquaculture. It is also a design system for resilient and regenerative living. Permaculture emphasizes the importance of small and slow solutions, focusing on organic small-scale adaptation of existing suburban patterns. It aims to create a permanent culture that is sustainable, attractive, and a powerful alternative to consumerism.
Resilience and Regeneration in Permaculture
In permaculture, resilience refers to the ability of systems to withstand shock and bounce back by recovering basic function, while regenerative refers to systems that go beyond minimizing adverse impact by actually restoring and extending natural systems' functionality. Permaculture focuses on building resilience through strategies like storages of water and multiple pathways to achieve functions. It also emphasizes regenerative practices that aim to improve and restore natural resources, such as soil, forests, and biodiversity. These principles challenge the focus on efficiency and highlight the importance of restoring and extending natural systems.
Applying Permaculture to Localized Systems
Permaculture principles can be applied to designing systems at different scales, including local and national levels. For instance, the principles of permaculture can inform the design of policies and systems for resilient and regenerative living on a national scale. At the local level, permaculture can be applied to adapt suburban patterns and create organic small-scale systems that support sustainable and self-reliant lifestyles. The concepts of relocalization and shortening supply chains can also be integrated into permaculture practices to strengthen communities and increase resilience.
The Tradeoff between Efficiency and Resiliency in Cities
Cities like Hong Kong prioritize efficiency in providing human needs but are disconnected from nature and drain resources. The challenge lies in finding a future city habitation structure that balances both efficiency and resiliency.
The Positive Opportunities of Novel Ecosystems
Novel ecosystems, created through mixing species and high fertility in polluted environments, offer increased biological productivity and functionality. These ecosystems, often seen as weeds, can provide new resources and land rehabilitation. The rapid evolution of novel ecosystems provides possibilities for productivity beyond what existed in the past, rather than solely returning to previous states.
On this episode, Nate is joined by ‘permaculture’ author and educator David Holmgren to discuss his experience within the movement and what it might look like for more systems to be designed using permaculture in the future. While often thought to be an agricultural tool, permaculture thinking is meant for designing human systems to be embedded in nature - an important principle for a future where societies will need to re-synchronize with natural flows. What does it mean for permaculture design to ‘scale up’, and how is it different from how we usually think about growing a system? How will permaculture design change as we move through different phases of resource availability? More importantly, how can the ‘small and slow’ foundation of permaculture help human societies adapt to a lower throughput future as we navigate The Great Simplification?
About David Holmgren
David Holmgren is best known as the co-originator of permaculture. In 1978, he and Bill Mollison published Permaculture One, starting the global permaculture movement. Since then, David has developed three properties, consulted and supervised on urban and rural projects, written eight more books, and presented lectures, workshops and courses in Australia and around the world. His writings over those three decades span a diversity of subjects and issues, whilst always illuminating aspects of permaculture thinking and living.
Holmgren Design would like to offer a discount on RetroSuburbia to The Great Simplification listeners. Get a 20% discount on RetroSuburbia plus a free copy of Our Street for the month of November by using code: Nate at this link: http://retrosuburbia.com/nate
