The fact of the matter is that over the years we have allowed ourselves to be more and more accepting of the urban way of life with an ever-increasing preoccupation and overdependence on technology.
Overcrowded but isolated from one another living in unnatural concrete jungles, brainwashed into the superficial consumerist lifestyle, goaded by the societal demands of corporate and governmental power structures, constantly bombarding ourselves with electronic imagery and sound from applications… we have in effect become a mutant race (It’s quite ironic that social media serves to disconnect rather than connect).
Disconnection from nature and community life
On the subject of disconnection, many of us have lost that innate feeling of oneness with nature. We have lost our heart-based connection to nature’s divine ebb and flow… as well as understanding our responsible place in it. We expect to have instant food without ever questioning where it came from and under what conditions it was grown. We have little consideration for the recycling of nature and how the balance is maintained…
In effect we have forgotten our role in nature’s interdependence and that sense of constructive community-based living, sacrificing it to those societal demands of corporate and governmental power structures to which we rely on more so now than ever.
Permaculture and the new paradigm self-sufficient community-based living
Permaculture, meaning ‘permanent agriculture’ and ‘permanent culture,’ is a practice originally developed by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the early 1970s. Since then it has spread all over the world like wildfire.
Unlike the current world paradigm permaculture is an ethical, practical applied philosophy based on designing and maintaining a productive eco-friendly agricultural system providing all the resources (mostly local) needed; food, soil, water, medicine, good health, utilities, building infrastructure… for local community-based living.
In harmony with nature it provides a psychologically sound, thriving community.
Permaculture and the future of humanity
Permaculture is a rescue package for a sick and dying society. It is the future for a healthy humanity. It is a demonstration of people-power, the triumph of ‘service to others’ over ‘service to self.’
Sustainable community-based living allows communities to trade with each other. No need to go to supermarkets for food supplies these communities have all the food they need in their back gardens. If a food source is missing in one community it could be supplied by another: Local communities frequently meet with others for trading and helping out each other. They also meet up socially. Nobody goes homeless, socially isolated, is left hungry, or in poverty.
The Lost Ways–Saving Our Forefathers’ Skills
Through education, knowledge, application and design the permaculture system has been successful in mountainous areas, woodland, forestry, the jungle, the desert… i.e. all the different terrains of the world with their temperature extremes.
Using natural resources to deal with the imbalances, free from toxic chemicals, oil and the spoils of industrial agriculture it respects the environment with its flora and fauna.
Thus through permaculture we CAN feed the world and make it a better place…
