Permaculture is founded upon three ethics:
- Care for the earth
- Care for People
- Fair Sharing of resources
An interesting story:
When we moved into our current house in 2003, we also moved into a house that was over-swept and resource-deficient. If we wanted to make a small fence out of bamboo, we were forced into purchasing these bamboo poles from a neighbor. Great for the neighbor, but not so sustainable for us! So, we decided to ask the neighbor if we could buy a piece of bamboo root stock to plant at our house. At this request, the neighbor scoffed, “Why would anybody want to plant that stuff?” Apparently, even though the owner of the bamboo grove was making money from this natural resource he tended to view it as a nuisance which interfered with his maize production.
Currently, our own personal bamboo grove is now flourishing and we have been able to use the poles for several years to construct chicken pens, fix roofs, make fences, and more. This past week, the man who does most of our carpentry came to inform us that he has begun raising pigs and wanted to make sure that they would managed properly and not running around and destroying people’s gardens. We were able to offer this man several very large bamboo poles (free of charge), and in turn his animal management will be contributing to the overall productivity of our natural resources. When these connections are recognized and strengthened, entire communities begin to benefit! In our experience, we have found that properly designed Permaculture systems very quickly move into states of abundance and surplus where you have no other choice but to give, sell, share, or return!
