Students of Geoff’s Online Permaculture Design Course have question-and-answer sessions where Geoff fields a number of questions every week and answers them via videos. This question was pulled from the 2021 collection. For more insights, check out Geoff’s free Masterclass for an in-depth dive into all things permaculture www.discoverpermaculture.com

Question

Something I think about quite a bit as a student is "how will I learn to communicate all things permaculture to both more established practitioners and potential large clients"? While reading about or discussing different methods like "regenerative agriculture", "syntropic agriculture", "holistic management" and the like, I find myself not really able to understand how to assess how each of these is similar or different than permaculture, how to determine when a particular method would be better or worse for a specific circumstance, or when one method or another would be a good or bad partnership with permaculture practices. Do you have any suggestions for how I can begin to unravel my thinking on this?

Key Takeaways

It’s important to realize that permaculture is a holistic system, one in which many disciplines are combined into one ethical design science. Regenerative agriculture and syntrophic agriculture are land use systems, and they belong within the umbrella of systems permaculture incorporates. But, they don’t address things like designing your toilet, retrofitting your house, building waste systems, and creating urban economies.

It can be helpful to think of permaculture like a wardrobe, with these other methodologies as coat hangers within that wardrobe. There are many options for each outfit and different outfits for different occasions. Permaculture is the place where all of these ethical design tools are combined so that we can use them when appropriate. We aren’t really designing the coat hangers; rather, we are designing the spaces in which they all fit together nicely and are at our disposal.

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About Geoff:

Geoff is a world-renowned permaculture consultant, designer, and teacher that has established demonstration sites that function as education centers in all the world's major climates. Geoff has dedicated his life to spreading permaculture design across the globe and inspiring people to take care of the earth, each other, and to return the surplus.

About Permaculture:

Permaculture integrates land, resources, people and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies – imitating the no waste, closed loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. Permaculture applies holistic solutions that are applicable in rural and urban contexts and at any scale. It is a multidisciplinary toolbox including agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics and community development.

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