Introduction to Permaculture

Overview

• Introduction

• My start in sustainability

• Growth, sustainability, and the collision course

• Permaculture

– Definitions

– Examples

– Permaculture resources

Introduction

• Brett Andrzejewski, Bachelors and Ph.D. Chemical Engineering – UNM

• Post-Doc USDA in biofuels program

• Algae-biodiesel venture capital competition

• Provisional patent on concentrated solar thermal

• Current searching for a way to make sustainability/environmental restoration economically viable

My Start in Sustainability

• As an undergraduate chemical engineer, my future job will be transforming oil into valuable products, how much oil is left?

Resource Peaking

Applies to oil, coal, phosphorous, industrial ores and metals, water, soil, land conversion, etc.

More information: Dr. Robert Hirsch, Dr. Colin Campbell, Matthew Simmons, Dr. Richard Heinberg, Dr. Chris Martenson, Dr. Tad Patzek, and many more

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Growth and Sustainability

• We have a growth based:

– Economic system

– Political system

– Industrial system

– Cultural training

• We live on a finite planet

Need for a New System

Waste accumulation (Climate change) Resource depletion

Economic growth

Renewables Quantity and Quality

Photograph of sweet sorghum test plot after Hurricane Lee Theoretical EROEI ~ 6:1 Actual ? Liquid fuel

Spanish solar industry Theoretical EROEI ~ 30:1 Actual ~ 5:1 Electrical power

Palo Verde nuclear plant Theoretical EROEI ~ 30:1 Actual ? Electrical power Ref: Personal calculations, scientific literature, ASPO, Post-Carbon Institute

Algae photobioreactor Theoretical EROEI ~ 30:1 Actual ? Liquid fuel

Life-Cycle Analysis

• All inputs and outputs are considered

• Current economic system many inputs and outputs are neglected as “externalities”

Externalities of a solar panel: Clean room infrastructure, cadmium contaminated water, copper mining for wires, diesel fuel for transportation

Additional Information

• Dr. Robert Hirsch – Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management

• Dr. Chris Martenson- The Crash Course

• Dr. Richard Heinberg - The Party’s Over

• Dr. Guy McPherson – climate change lectures

• Dr. Albert Bartlett – The Exponential Function lecture

An Adult Conversation

• As engineers/scientists we are educated and trained to be the problem solvers of society

Sustainability Movements Permaculture

Permaculture

In Australia back in the 1970’s:

• Bill Mollison – left society and came back

• David Holmgren – graduate student

Design science based on observation and feedback for sustainable living

Portmanteau: “permanent agriculture”

“permanent culture”

Other sustainable movements

• Transition towns • Cradle-to-Cradle design • Steady state economics • Sustainable cities • Conservation biology • Post-carbon movement • Zeitgeist movement • Homesteading • Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) • Earthship homes • Slow foods/Slow movement • Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness (GNH) • Many more …

Principles of Permaculture

Sustainability and Permaculture

Typical image of sustainability

Permaculture Topics

• Culture, living and interacting • Growing food & fuel • Animal interactions • Natural building • Natural medicines • Rainwater harvesting • Renewable energy • Managed intensive rotational grazing • Biomimicry (modeling systems after nature) • And much, much more

Permaculture Key Concepts

1. Care of the Earth

2. Care of people

3. Return the surplus to # 1 and 2

Design Science

• Observation • Methods of Design

– Zones, layers, cycles, sectors, guilds

• Pattern understanding – Matrices, modeling, boundary conditions, dimension

and potential

• Energy • Plants, animals, climate, soil, • Reference nature (biomimetic) • Polyculture

Zones

• Zone 0: Home/living space

• Zone 1: daily visits

• Zone 2: weekly visits

• Zone 3: monthly visits

• Zone 4: Semi-wild occasionally visit

• Zone 5: Wilderness (no disturbance)

Layers

1. Canopy

2. Understory

3. Shrubs

4. Herbaceous

5. Ground

6. Root

7. Climber/vine

Sectors

Time progression

Unsustainable agricultural practices

Question

What is the number 1 export of the United States?

Topsoil

At current rates of topsoil loss all the top soil will be gone in 60 years, Ref: Time magazine “What if the World’s Soil Runs Out?”

Great Dust Bowl

Sicily • During the Roman Republic and Empire, Sicily the Roman

breadbasket, lost most of its topsoil.

• It took ~1000 years after the collapse of the Roman Empire for Sicily to rebuild its topsoil.

Ref: Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed, Diamond 2005

Libya Egypt

Algeria

Fertile Crescent

Palynologists (pollen scientists) say area used to be a forest/grassland/wetlands before agriculture Over grazing Over irrigation (leads to saline soils) River diversion, dams and hydropower Erosion

Ref: Collapse: How societies choose to fail or succeed, Diamond 2005 Nature episode, Braving Iraq, PBS WGBH Boston

1989 2008

Aral Sea Before and after cotton farming

2 rivers were diverted for industrial agriculture starting in 1960

Loess Plateau - China

At the start of agriculture one China’s most fertile areas: heavily forested, rich soils Intense agriculture, overgrazing, and deforestation have resulted the desert above

Ethiopia

Examples of Permaculture for environmental restoration and

sustainability

Loess Plateau - China Highly recommend watching: Green Gold by John D. Liu

Feng et al., Nature Scientific Reports 3, 2013

96.1 Terragrams of carbon sequestered! 96.1 billion kilograms of carbon

1995

2009

Jordan Valley - Jordan

November 2013

Ethiopia

2000

2006

Same hillside, but viewpoint not the same

Niger

Date unknown

Date unknown + 3 years

My Backyard (Brother’s)

Feb 2013 Apr 2014

Big names in Permaculture

• Bill Mollison • David Holmgren • Geoff Lawton • Masanobu Fukuoka • Sepp Holzer • Toby Hemenway • Allan Savory • Brad Lancaster • Dr. Elaine Ingham • Paul Wheaton • Michael Pollan • Joel Salatin

Local Resources for Permaculture

• Ampersand Sustainable Learning Center – Madrid

• Soilutions – Albuquerque

• Permaculture Research Institute – Santa Fe

• Santa Fe Permaculture – Santa Fe

• Dry Land Solutions – Albuquerque/Santa Fe

• San Isidro Permaculture – Santa Fe

• La Orilla Farms – Albuquerque

Additional Resources for Permaculture

• Permaculture: A Designers Manual

• Gaia’s Garden: A guide to Home-scale Permaculture

• www.permies.com

• Permaculture Design Course (PDC)

Conclusion

• Presented the need for an alternative way of thinking

• Introduction to Permaculture

– One solution of many

• Examples and resources for Permaculture

Thanks

Peru

Jordan

Spain