永續農業的生產力與持續性 : 幫助人類面對環境、經濟與社會問題 - 政大學術集成

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(1)國立政治大學商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程 International MBA Program College of Commerce National Chengchi University 碩士論文. 治. 政 Thesis大 Master’s. 立. ‧ 國. 學. 永續農業的生產力與持續性:幫助人類面對環境、 Nat. y. ‧. 經濟與社會問題. er. io. sit. Productivity and sustainability of Permaculture: Helping. n. populations to cope awith their environmental, economic and. iv l C n h e n gissues social chi U. Student: Léo Caujolle Advisor: Professor Carol Lin. 中華民國一○六年六月 June 2017.

(2) 永續農業的生產力與持續性:幫助人類面對環境、經濟與社會問題 Productivity and sustainability of Permaculture: Helping populations to cope with their environmental, economic and social issues 研究生：寇里歐. 政治大Student: Léo Caujolle. 立指導教授：林月雲. Advisor: Carol Lin. ‧ 國. 學 ‧. 國立政治大學. 商學院國際經營管理英語碩士學位學程. Nat. al. A Thesis. er. io. sit. y. 碩士論文. n. v i n C to Submitted MBA Program h eInternational ngchi U National Chengchi University. in partial fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of Master in Business Administration 中華民國一○六年六月 June 2017.

(3) Abstract Although Permaculture has been successfully implemented and used various times over the past 40 years, too little is known about this notion and about how it can offer to humanity the solutions of tomorrow to cope with the current world situation. Throughout their books, articles and trainings, most authors and experts – such as Bill Mollison, David Holmgren or Toby Hemenway - used the same systematic and scientific approach to expose the major problems of the world. The same authors also tackled the solutions of these problems in the. 政治大. same way: what are the environmental and social problems that the world is currently facing, and how can Permaculture deal with them on a global scale. However, the latter lacks in. 立. implementing what is called a daily life oriented approach to the same topic, that is to say. ‧ 國. 學. reflecting upon a profitable and sustainable way of dealing with the problems mentioned above that directly impact our daily life. This approach, which involves the concepts of. ‧. livelihood, health and close environment, is better visualized by the majority of the population who can explore the various concepts of Permaculture via a different angle and get a clearer. sit. y. Nat. understanding of how Permaculture works and how it can help them in their daily life. Thus, this dissertation aims to determine whether Permaculture can be an answer to the main socio-. io. n. al. er. environmental challenges that are poverty alleviation and sustainable development by. i n U. v. examining the benefits of Permaculture in terms of productivity and sustainability.. Ch. engchi. Productivity to ascertain whether Permaculture is able to support households’ daily life, and sustainability to ascertain whether Permaculture designed systems are meant to indefinitely last and be regenerative instead of degenerative for the environment. This thesis gathers, confronts and further develops the existing knowledge around Permaculture in order to encourage and guide people in adopting Permaculture ethics, principles and methods to ensure a better economic and ecologic environment for themselves and a sustainable future for their children.. i.

(4) TABLE OF CONTENTS. Chapter 1: Introduction...................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background of research ................................................................................................. 1 1.1.1 Current world socio-environmental challenges ......................................................... 1 1.1.2 Conventional Agriculture: solution or cause? ........................................................... 3 1.1.3 Hypothesis: Permaculture as an alternative? ............................................................. 8 1.2 Motivations and Objectives ......................................................................................... 15. 政治大. 1.3 Research method .......................................................................................................... 16. 立. Chapter 2: the productivity of Permaculture ................................................. 17. ‧ 國. 學. 2.1. Definition of productivity in terms of cultural systems............................................ 17 2.1.1 Agriculture definition of productivity ..................................................................... 17. ‧. 2.1.2 Permaculture definition of productivity .................................................................. 17 2.2 Labor, planning and input costs.................................................................................. 18. Nat. sit. y. 2.3 Output benefits ............................................................................................................. 20. io. er. 2.4 Contribution of Permaculture to dietary, income and basic household needs ....... 23 2.4.1 Contribution to dietary households needs ............................................................... 23. n. al. i n U. v. 2.4.2 Contribution to income and basic needs .................................................................. 26. Ch. i. e. ch Chapter 3: Beyond sustainability,nagregenerative system ............................. 34 3.1 Definition of sustainability in terms of cultural systems ........................................... 34 3.2 In what sense Permaculture is sustainable ................................................................. 37 3.2.1 Permaculture improves the efficiency in the use of resources ................................ 38 3.2.2 Permaculture conserve, protect and enhance natural resources .............................. 40 3.2.3 Agriculture protects and improves rural livelihoods, equity and social well-being 41 3.2.4 Permaculture enhance resilience of people, communities and ecosystems ............. 42 3.2.5 Permaculture implies responsible and effective governance mechanisms .............. 43 3.3 Permaculture goes beyond sustainability: it regenerates ......................................... 44. ii.

(5) Chapter 4: How replicable is Permaculture and what is required for replication........................................................................................................... 48 4.1 Replicability of Permaculture ..................................................................................... 48 4.1.1 Reach the sufficient productivity............................................................................. 48 4.1.2 Ensure sustainability of Permaculture ..................................................................... 50 4.2 Education to foster replicability .................................................................................. 54 4.2.1 The role of education ............................................................................................... 54 4.2.2 Learning then teaching Permaculture ...................................................................... 55 4.2.3 Example of the Permaculture classroom ................................................................. 57. 政治大 4.3.1 Horticultural society ................................................................................................ 59 立. 4.3 Example of applications ............................................................................................... 59. 4.3.2 Permaculture based eco villages .............................................................................. 63. ‧ 國. 學. Chapter 5: Conclusion and limitations ........................................................... 65. ‧. 5.1 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 65 5.2 Limitations and future research .................................................................................. 66. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. sit. References .......................................................................................................... 67. Ch. engchi. iii. i n U. v.

(6) List of figures and tables Table 1: Comparison between farmers and foragers .................................................................. 4 Figure 1: Contemporary/Western Agriculture farm ................................................................. 13 Figure 2: Permaculture farm ..................................................................................................... 13 Figure 4: Functional interconnections between elements ........................................................ 20 Figure 5: Greywater irrigation system ...................................................................................... 24 Table 2: Ain Al Baida Permaculture and Greywater Reuse Project: Income (JD) generated per year ................................................................................................................................... 27 Table 3: Comparison of the cost of municipal water and the value of greywater collected .... 28. 政治大 Table 5: Distribution of answers per country ........................................................................... 30 立 Table 4: Annual Benefits of Greywater Irrigation (JD) ........................................................... 29. Figure 7: Distribution of forest gardens by type of use ............................................................ 32. ‧ 國. 學. Figure 8: Pattern of the 5 principles in sustainable Agriculture ............................................... 37 Figure 9: Degenerative, sustainable and regenerative systems ................................................ 45. ‧. Figure 10: Cycle of Dependency, Source: Permaculture Nutrition training manual, draft 2003,. y. Nat. Stacia & Kristof Nordin .................................................................................................... 51. sit. Table 6: Principle of multifunctionality ................................................................................... 52. er. io. Figure 11: Learning pyramid. Source: National Training Laboratories, Bethel, Maine .......... 57. al. v i n Figure 13: 2nd stage of the septicC system in Bahamas: planting day ........................... 61 h e nproject gchi U n. Figure 12: 1st stage of the septic system project in Bahamas: construction of lagoons ........... 61 Figure 14: 3rd stage of the septic system project in Bahamas: 3 months after ......................... 62 Figure 15: 4th stage of the septic system project in Bahamas: 3 years after ............................. 63. iv.

(7) Chapter 1: Introduction. 1.1 Background of research 1.1.1 Current world socio-environmental challenges Our planet is in danger. Needless to be a scientist to understand that given the frantic rhythm of development and consumption people have been living with during the past decades, or. 政治大 to be made, this would paint a bleak picture of the future. Pollution of air, water and soil; 立. even centuries, our planet is heading for ruin. If a diagnosis of the current world situation was. climate change due to greenhouse gazes emission leading to global warming; overpopulation. ‧ 國. 學. of the planet, with a population facing shortage of basic resources that are essential for survival; destruction of ecosystems leading the extinction of species and the loss of. ‧. biodiversity; deforestation for residential, commercial or industrial purposes; urban sprawl. y. Nat. due to the migration of population from high density urban areas to low density rural areas. sit. which results in spreading of city over more and more rural land resulting in land degradation. er. io. and other environmental issues; health issues for humans and animals as a consequence of. al. n. v i n C hthe productivity ofUfarms. According to Rinkesh, (2009), or the pollutants applied to increase engchi these are the major environmental issues that humanity is currently facing. environmental problems on one hand, but also coming from the genetic modification of food. Besides these environmental issues, for which most people have not realized the major importance that they represent because they do not impact them directly, lies an even bigger concern: the issue of the basic dietary needs of the ever-growing population. Even without taking into consideration the developing countries such as African countries or South-East Asian countries, where most people are constantly struggling to fulfill their basics needs in order to survive, this also applies to developed countries where there is still a big part of the population, covered by debts, taxes and with unpaid or underpaid jobs. It is true that since 1990, many poor people have been able to get out of poverty (poverty rates decreased by more than half). Despite that, though having a job, too many people remain poor across the 1.

(8) world (International Labour Organization, 2016). Indeed, nowadays almost one third of the poor in emerging and developing countries actually do have a job. However, these jobs are far from being a guarantee of safety: they are sometimes unpaid or underpaid, concentrated in low-skilled occupations and do not have any social protection (International Labour Organization, 2016). Therefore, each country in the world has its own amount of poor people who have hard time buying or finding food to feed their families.. Moreover, the world is currently facing a major food crisis. By the year 2050, the UN DESA (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs) report, “World Population. 治政大people while the Earth is not able to following problem: how is it possible to feed 9 billions of 立 feed 7 billions today? Olivier (2012) found that in many developed countries, the dietary Prospects: The 2015 Revision” forecasted that the population will reach 9.7 billion. Thus the. ‧ 國. 學. needs account for about 10 to 12% of the household budget. In developing countries, it is naturally more. For example, Egypt food costs are about 40% of the household budget. In. ‧. India, over 40% of the children under the age of 3 are undernourished and underweight. In Greece and Spain, hit hard by the financial crisis first then austerity measures that came along. y. Nat. sit. with the crisis, many people regularly found their food in garbage bins. Therefore, the. al. er. io. conclusion is that humanity is currently in the middle of a major food crisis that is not going. n. to be solved any time soon. In addition, global grain prices have almost tripled from 2002 to. Ch. i n U. v. 2012, and have then come back to a similar level (similar to 2002 but still higher) in 2016-. engchi. 2017 (World Bank, 2017). The volatility of the grain prices is unpredictable and thus dangerous. If grain prices were to double within the next 20 years, hundreds of millions of people worldwide would be left to starvation. Water is not an unlimited resource and is getting scarce. According to Olivier (2012), about 300 million people in China and India depend on aquifers that will soon dry up. The Ogallala aquifer in America, which covers parts of eight states, is predicted to dry up in 20 years (Olivier 2012). Similarly, aquifers under the capitals of China, India and Thailand Beijing, Delhi, Bangkok as well as many other major Asian cities are drying up as well. Major rivers such as the Ganges, Jordon, Nile and Yangtze, at certain times of the year, are considerably reduced. Water is not only used in our daily life as a beverage, but also in numerous farmlands throughout the world that will be facing a critical shortage. Finally, Olivier (2012) found that more and more people in developing. 2.

(9) countries demand higher quantities of meat in their daily diets. But the meat production is far from efficient. In developed countries, it takes 2,500 gallons of water, 12 pounds of grain, 35 pounds of topsoil and the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of feedlot beef (earthsave.org). Due to a failure during the past ten years in increasing the productivity of grain production in Asia and Europe, it will be obviously be difficult, even impossible, to produce even more grain to feed animals in the developing countries (Olivier, 2012).. 1.1.2 Conventional Agriculture: solution or cause?. 政治大 Eckard (2015), Associate Professor in the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Veterinary 立 and Agricultural Science, explains the challenge of increasing food production to feed the. ‧ 國. 學. world while turning conventional Agriculture into sustainable Agriculture. As stated above, the global population is predicted to reach around 9 billions by 2050. In parallel, to meet this. ‧. future need, Agriculture will have to increase production by at least between 60 and 80% by. y. Nat. 2050. Meanwhile, due to a slow down in investment in agricultural research and development,. sit. as well as a stabilization of Agriculture expansion into new areas, the world is currently. er. io. witnessing a constant decline in agricultural productivity and resources. Furthermore,. al. v i n C h soil acidity and of degradation mainly due to erosion, soil salinity. According to the UN engchi U Environment Program (2006), 25% of the world’s food production will likely be lost because n. available farmlands are reducing, and even the remaining lands have to deal with some form. of environmental degradation by 2050.. According to Eckard (2015), to meet the challenges mentioned just above, more food needs to be produced while using less lands, inputs (e.g. water) and energy, and while reducing soil breakdown and greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, the huge impact intensive Agriculture has on the environment has to be taken into account and restrained as much as possible and restrain it as much as possible. Aside from reducing food wastage, which could and should be an action to take, a new pattern called “sustainable intensification” has emerged in Agriculture, aiming to combine the rise in production along with the restriction of environmental footprint coming from food production.. 3.

(10) However, although research over the past 60 years has considerably increased production, it does not seem to be the case any longer, because nutrient inputs, fertilizers and water inputs have led to diminishing returns. More inputs alone will no longer improve the efficiency or sustainability.. Thus, to some experts, the term sustainable intensification is an oxymoron, as most agricultural intensification cannot come without a negative pressure, and further degrade the available natural resources, making the intensification harder. In order to explain to what extend Agriculture is by nature unsustainable and cannot be. 治政 10,000 years ago. Starting from that point, he drew up大 a comparison between farmers, who 立 grow their own food in farms (agricultural method) and foragers, who look for their food in sustainable, Hemenway (2011) came back to the origins or Agriculture, when it emerged. ‧ 國. 學. nature (hunter-gatherer method) over the years. Below are the characteristics he found out:. ‧. Table 1: Comparison between farmers and foragers. Nat. Foragers. sit. y. Farmers. io. er. - Worship gods whose message usually is - Orbit most fundamentally around food, that humans are chosen beings holding which defines their culture. n. al. Ch. dominion. Therefore, not only ecological. engchi. degradation is inevitable but is also sign of. i n U. v. progress. - Calories mostly come from grains. - Calories mostly come from meat, fish, fruits, nuts. - Storable food, surplus, calories from - Live in small bands and tribes, with a low carbohydrates (grain are more calorie-dense and stable population than forager food): sedentary, with growing population (more calories means more births). 4.

(11) - Agriculture’s surplus requires hierarchy: - Flat hierarchy, people have no exclusive someone to distribute, someone to guard, skills, everyone helps gather food someone to produce, etc.. -. Slow. feedback. from. degrading. the - Do not overexploit their environment as. environment. Degrading the environment destruction of resource one season can lead brings more food, so they keep doing it. to starvation the next season. Fast feedback. - Loss of biodiversity means more food: have - Loss of biodiversity means no food. 政治大. to clear forests to grow crops. 立. - Wilderness is a nuisance, a source of pest - Wilderness is necessary, the plants and. ‧ 國. 學. animals and insects, as well as land that’s animals they depend on cannot be overjust “going to waste.”. harvested without immediate harm. ‧. - A growing population needs more food, and - Seldom conquer new lands, as new terrain. y. Nat. al. are culture’s knowledge, stories, and traditions. er. Farmers. n. conquerors. expansion.. io. Agriculture. sit. crops can be grown everywhere: nurtured the and its different species would alter the. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. - Farmers need 2-3 days to gather a week’s - Foragers need 3 hours to gather a week’s food, plus more to pay facilities. food. - Not healthy overall (malnutrition, diseases, - Healthier (lifespan of 26 years old) lifespan of 19 years old, diseases, epidemics due to domesticated animals, etc.). - Frequent famine. E.g. France suffered - Less frequent famine: much more diverse country-wide famines 10 times in the tenth food supply and greater mobility. Can find century, 26 in the eleventh, 2 in the twelfth, 4 food in nearly any conditions in the fourteenth, 7 in the fifteenth, 13 in the. 5.

(12) sixteenth, 11 in the seventeenth, and 16 in the eighteenth century. - Agriculture became a reliable source of - Forage culture does not need any fuel to food when fuels gave farmers the necessary work energy to supply their work. - Do not only require lands to farm but also - Only require what nature provides various inputs (fertilizer, fuel, tools, etc.). 治政大1 calorie of energy to harvest 40 - Nowadays expend 10 to 15 calories to - Expend 立 harvest 1 calorie of food energy calories of food ‧ 國. 學. Note: reproduced and adapted from Is Sustainable Agriculture an Oxymoron? Hemenway. ‧. (2011). y. Nat. sit. This comparison helps to better understand why Agriculture is fundamentally unsustainable. al. er. io. and cannot be sustainable. A process that fears wildness (fear of bugs, fear of wild animals. n. that would tear downs fences, fear of deers that eat the crops, etc.) to the point that it needs to. Ch. i n U. v. destroy it to exist (destruction of forests to get access to a land). Furthermore, Agriculture. engchi. uses much more inputs than outputs it can generate (calorie-wise), and cannot do otherwise. What if the harm of Agriculture could be controlled? What if humanity intended to make Agriculture more sustainable? Hemenway (2011) thinks this would not change the outcome. According to him, laws could be passed in order to stop some of the harm Agriculture does, but these rules would reduce harvests. As soon as food gets scarce, the laws will be canceled. There are no structural constraints on Agriculture’s ecologically damaging tendencies.. Tittonell (2013), former chair Professor of the group Farming Systems Ecology of Wageningen University (Netherlands), answers the question of affordability of agricultural production and its possibility to feed the planet. In his opinion, people must stop asking themselves the rhetorical question: can conventional Agriculture feed the world? The. 6.

(13) successive reports on security food co-published by UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) every year, stating that “about 795 million people are undernourished globally, down 167 million over the last decade, and 216 million less than in 1990–92” (The State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2015). In addition, it is common knowledge that the world produces way more food than enough to feed the planet (more than 1 ½ times). Therefore instead, based on these numbers, the world must acknowledge that conventional Agriculture has failed to feed the world mainly due to two reasons: worldwide, food is not produced where it is mostly consumed or needed, and energy, chemical and genetic inputs. 治政大 Besides, of the total energy the food produced worldwide comes from small farmers. 立 contained in one grain of maize produced in high input Agriculture about 70% comes from used in conventional Agriculture are not affordable for all farmers. Currently, about half of. ‧ 國. 學. fossil fuels. More than 30% of this energy is used in the manufacture of chemical fertilizers. And yet, these small farmers mentioned above cannot afford such costs. In fact, in developed. ‧. countries, Governments subsidy conventional Agriculture so farmers can afford fertilizers and fuel for their mechanics. Afterwards, the taxpayer’s money will then again pay for the. y. Nat. sit. depollution of grounds depleted beforehand by the use of these fertilizers. Some farmers even. al. er. io. contract debts in order to intensify their production, and often go bankrupt, as they are unable. n. to repay them. It is a vicious circle, originally generated by the very essence of Agriculture.. Ch. i n U. v. This vicious circle has various aftermaths on society on different levels: for households, food. engchi. is often too expensive. For farmers, they are not profitable enough and are struggling for life.. Hemenway (2011) goes beyond and even states that Agriculture is the cause of a social and political problem. According to him, the goal of Agriculture, which was developed at a time when civilizations needed more food to sustain their activities and to feed the growing population, is to generate surplus. Inevitably, this surplus nurtured a hierarchy so as to store it, protect it and decide who would be allowed to use it. At the same time, needless to say that any kind of surplus is doomed to be lusted after by neighbor, thus leading to wars. This system has concentrated power into the very few people who control the surplus, and has severed the personal freedom of the rest of the population.. 7.

(14) 1.1.3 Hypothesis: Permaculture as an alternative? After understanding the failure of Agriculture to take up the challenge of saving our planet’s health and helping people to get out of poverty, another method that is able to accomplish that must be found. The word Permaculture, coined in the 70’s by the two Australian Mollison and Holmgren (1978), is a contraction of “permanent” and “culture”, initially “permanent” and “Agriculture”. Permaculture claims to be the fastest, easiest and most effective solution to face Humanity. 政治大. and planet issues. It is an ethically based design system for human habitation that is in harmony with the natural world.. 立. The definition Bill Mollison and David Holmgren gave in their book Permaculture one. ‧ 國. 學. defines Permaculture as “Consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships, found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for. ‧. provision of local needs.”. In other words, Permaculture integrates land, resources, people and the environment through. Nat. sit. y. mutually beneficial synergies by imitating the no waste, closed loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. As there is no permanent Agriculture without a culture to support it,. io. n. al. er. Permaculture is also “permanent culture”. Permanent here means something stable and. i n U. v. enduring, which can continue indefinitely without change. Hence, lands, resources,. Ch. engchi. environment refer to systems and structures that are designed to sustain. And if they are designed to sustain, that means they are also to offer more energy than they took to make. In other terms, to provide more outputs than the inputs that have been used.. First, Permaculture relies on three ethics (Holmgren, 2002): - Care for the earth and every kind of life beings (husband soil, forests and water, animals) - Care for people and build communities (look after self, kin and community) - Fair share (set limits to consumption and reproduction, and redistribute surplus to the Earth and to people).. 8.

(15) Furthermore, Permaculture takes inspiration from three models: - Wild ecosystems in order to establish and maintain effective, self-sufficient, sustainable, regenerative, resilient, non-polluting, safe and diversified systems (and societies) - Knowledge and knowhow from the first peoples and sustainable societies - Latest natural sciences advancements (science of systems, ecology and social economy, renewable energies, botanic, water management, etc.). Not to be confused with technology advancements.. Lastly, Permaculture follows a dozen of principles that slightly differs from an expert to. 治政大and repackaged these principles into Design Manual. Later on, Holmgren (2002) consolidated 立 twelve in his book Permaculture: principles & pathways beyond sustainability. For simplicity. another. Mollison (1988) included a comprehensive list of principles in the Permaculture. ‧ 國. 學. sake, the Holmgren’s twelve principles will be presented in this thesis.. ‧. Principle 1: Observe and interact. y. Nat. sit. Pre-industrial societies with high population and industrial societies respectively depend on. al. er. io. large input of manpower and large inputs of fossil fuel energy. At the contrary, Permaculture. n. designers observe carefully and interact thoughtfully to use more effectively human abilities. Ch. i n U. v. and also reduce dependence on fossil fuels (non-renewable) energy and high technology.. engchi. Principle 2: Catch and store energy. A huge amount of fossil fuels has already been harvested, and part of this amount has already been used in order to increase the productivity of harvesting the Earth’s renewable resources. But the degree that has been reached by doing so is unsustainable and dangerous. Thus, it is necessary to learn how to save and reinvest in a smart and sustainable way most of the wealth that is currently consuming or wasting, for the sake of the future life of people’s children and descendants’.. 9.

(16) Principle 3: Obtain a yield. Following the second principle, energy must be captured and stored so as to maintain the system one implemented. A system, autonomous at all levels, must be designed. Then, the objective is to obtain a yield as a reward that encourages, maintains and/or replicates the system that generated the yield. Only then the system will be successful and will spread. These rewards are called “positive feedback loops” and serve to boost the system.. Principle 4: Apply self-regulation and accept feedback. 治政大 disturbances, it is important to In order to get a resilient system that can resist to external 立 build this system with self-reliant elements. Moreover, by using the positive and negative ‧ 國. 學. feedbacks can be found in nature, more self-regulating systems can be built. Achieving to build self-maintaining and regulating systems can considerably reduce the amount of human. Nat. y. ‧. labor.. al. er. io. sit. Principle 5: Use and value renewable resources and services. n. Although some inputs of nonrenewable resources are necessary to get started, Permaculture. Ch. i n U. v. design aims to mostly use renewable natural resources - resources that can be renewed and. engchi. replaced over time without any other nonrenewable inputs - to obtain, manage and maintain yields. Also, Permaculture should nurture the various possibilities of harmonious interactions between humans and nature, to really include as many parts of nature as possible in the process. This is for example the close relationships human always had with domestic animals such as the horse or other animals for transport, soil cultivation, etc.. Principle 6: Produce no waste. It is true that wasting is easy when there is abundance. However, that waste will most likely turn into troubles later. Bill Mollison defined a pollutant as “an output of any system. 10.

(17) component that is not being used productively by any other component of the system”. Thanks to this definition, people need to always be looking for ways to reduce waste and pollution by making good use of all outputs. Indeed, with a better use of all the resources that are available, nothing goes to waste. For example, the outputs for one entity can be the inputs for another. This is the case of the earthworm, which converts plant litter (wastes) into humus that improves the soil environment (beneficial for soil, micro-organisms and plants).. Principle 7: Design from patterns to details. 治政 easier to simply understand and apply them – as the大 backbone of our designs - in other 立 contexts and scales while implementing a system. Forests initially served as example to Given the similarities between patterns that can be found in nature and society, it becomes. ‧ 國. 學. design Permaculture. The concepts and patterns found in forests have been and are still a good example for Permaculture, which is still drawing on forest model.. ‧. Principle 8: Integrate rather than segregate. sit. y. Nat. al. er. io. Integration is central in Permaculture. A functional and self-regulating design placed its. n. elements in such a way that each of them provides the needs and gets its supplies from other. Ch. i n U. v. elements of the system. A correct placement of all the elements makes possible the. engchi. development of a higher degree of integration and self-regulation, considerably reducing again manual labor (for corrections). To do so, two genuinely important statements in Permaculture must be applied: - Each element of the system serves many functions. - Each important function is supported by many elements.. Principle 9: Use small and slow solutions. Systems should be designed on a small scale with slow functions. In that way, the system will be easier to maintain than big systems, and will provide more sustainable outcomes.. 11.

(18) In forestry, fast grown trees often do not live for a long time, whereas some trees grow slower but are more valuable species, offering a better yield. For example, a small plantation of thinned and pruned trees can yield more total value than a large plantation without management. Similarly, naturally raised animals will live longer than concentrated, nutrients fed and rapidly grown animals due to their higher disease disposition.. Principle 10: Use and value diversity. Permaculture should leave aside monoculture and foster polyculture instead. Indeed,. 治政 reduce the vulnerability to pests, danger of seasons and 大 market fluctuation. Other applications 立 of this principle that are also crucial can be found as well, such as the diversity in the different polyculture is a very good application of diversity in Permaculture and permits the farmer to. ‧ 國. 學. cultivated systems regarding the nature of the site, the location, the context, etc., or the diversity in structures.. ‧. Principle 11: Use edges and value the marginal. sit. y. Nat. al. er. io. For the sake of system productivity and stability, this principle implies that the emphasis must. n. be put on the edges and the marginal and invisible aspects of the system. Indeed, the interface. Ch. i n U. v. between two entities, such as a forest and a pasture, or the soil and the atmosphere, is where. engchi. the most interesting events take place due to the crossover of the two entities. These interfaces - edges - are often the most valuable, diverse and productive elements in the system.. Principle 12: Creatively use and respond to change. Two threads respond to this principle: - Designing to make use of change in a deliberate and cooperative way. By understanding how ecosystems change over time - this is predictable) - the process can be accelerated and productive ecosystems can be created faster than is usual in nature. Forest gardens are an example of this, where all the layers of the forest are put in all in one go, rather than over many years.. 12.

(19) - Creatively responding or adapting to large-scale system change that is beyond human’s control or influence (climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, etc.). Permaculture is most well known for its food systems and forest gardens. The following pictures and schemes show an example of what a farm in Permaculture looks like.. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 sit. y. Nat. Figure 1: Contemporary/Western Agriculture farm. io. n. al. er. Note: Reproduced from Introduction to Permaculture, Morison (1991). Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 2: Permaculture farm Note: Reproduced from Introduction to Permaculture, Morison (1991). 13.

(20) 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學 er. io. sit. y. Nat. Figure 3: Example of application in Permaculture: Permaculture gardening. n. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Note: reproduced from Permaculture Design Map, Many Hands Farm (2017) Thus, according its definition, Permaculture seems to be an enduring and sustainable method, integrating landscapes, animals, plants and people all together and that is capable of offering more outputs than inputs initially needed by the system to work properly. The question now is to see whether Permaculture can claim to be the alternative solution to face the socioenvironmental challenges describes in the first part of this chapter. This will constitute the body of the text of the thesis that will be developed in the following chapters.. 14.

(21) 1.2 Motivations and Objectives This thesis is meant to raise the awareness among people about Permaculture and its tremendous power to regenerate the planet of tomorrow. Everyone knows about the challenges that must be overcome in order to give a future to our children and descendants. However, very few people know about the solutions, about how to have a meaningful impact at a small scale, going way further than the simple daily actions such as recycling or avoiding waste as much as possible. Then why is Permaculture so little known? If it is so efficient as the thesis is about to expose in the following development, why is Permaculture not relayed. 治政 proven fact about this statement, but people among Permaculture 大 agree on the point that there 立to the chain of Agriculture, due to the inherent nature of are too many actors belonging by medias and newspapers, or encouraged by governments and companies? There is no. ‧ 國. 學. Agriculture that relies on many inputs and fossil fuels to exist. To quote some of them: the oil industry, the pesticides industry, the fertilizers industry, the pharmaceutical industry (for. ‧. poultries), etc. These actors all defend their own interests and certainly block any alternative that could save people and the planet. Especially Permaculture, which does almost entirely. Nat. sit. io. n. al. er. small scale.. y. not rely on any of these industries, and yet can be even more productive than Agriculture on a. Ch. i n U. v. This thesis aims at examining the benefits of Permaculture in terms of productivity and. engchi. sustainability; productivity to determine whether Permaculture is able to support households’ daily life, and sustainability to determine whether Permaculture designed systems are meant to indefinitely last and be regenerative instead of degenerative for the environment. Then, the thesis will provide the possibilities and opportunities that people have, as individuals or groups of people, to apply Permaculture in their daily life. Consequently, the thesis combines different works that have been done about Permaculture and comes up with solutions for the planet (support economically the inhabitants of this planet to feed and give them the tools to regenerate the planet). This thesis takes on its full meaning in the fact that even though a few experts have already tried to raise awareness among people to lead them towards the way of Permaculture, authors such as Mollison and Holmgren (1979) or Hemenway (2011) have not combined the existing knowledge to confront Permaculture. 15.

(22) with the socio-environmental challenges and have not provided a response to each of these challenges that makes sense to everyone. Also, although these same authors provided some guidelines to replicate Permaculture and apply it in daily life, then again they did not do it in the perspective of helping people to support their need and protect their environment at the same time. The point of this thesis is to bring out concrete applications and explicitly say in what way it can genuinely support people’s daily life and their environment.. 1.3 Research method. 政治大 as well as various studies about Permaculture were produced (Mollison & Holmgren, 1978; 立. To write this thesis, a literature review method was made. Several books and various articles,. Mollison 1988; Holmgren, 2002; Faruqui & Al-Jayyousi, 2002; Wills, Chinemana, Rudolph,. ‧ 國. 學. 2009; Faber, AS Phungula, Venter, Dhansay, Spinnler Benadé, 2002; Remiarz, 2013). Therefore this paper is a work of research gathering in order to answer a problem. In addition,. ‧. elements taken from Permaculture websites and YouTube videos was integrated in the. y. Nat. research to bring more depth into the analysis. For lack of support from main medias and. sit. newspapers, Permaculture can truly exist only through the Internet and through the new and. n. al. er. io. independent media support of today: videos.. Ch. engchi. 16. i n U. v.

(23) Chapter 2: the productivity of Permaculture. 2.1. Definition of productivity in terms of cultural systems According to the business dictionary, productivity is “a measure of the efficiency of a person, machine, factory, system, etc., in converting inputs into useful outputs. Productivity is computed by dividing average output per period by the total costs incurred or resources (capital, energy, material, personnel) consumed in that period. Productivity is a critical. 治政大 everywhere, as each case has its That being said, this general definition cannot be applied 立 specific definition of productivity. determinant of cost efficiency”.. ‧ 國. 學. 2.1.1 Agriculture definition of productivity. ‧. Agricultural productivity is measured as the ratio of agricultural outputs to agricultural inputs.. y. Nat. sit. In Agriculture, products are measured according to their weight or volume. However, as there. al. er. io. are many different agricultural products, the question that naturally arises is how to combine. n. them given that the sums of weights or volumes are not very relevant. The most common. Ch. i n U. v. answer to that issue is to measure outputs in Agriculture in monetary units by calculating the. engchi. sum of the value of the entire production minus the value of intermediate inputs originating from the agricultural sector. Both cash and non-cash (barter, trade and self-consumption) transactions of final products are to be included. This is referred to as “final output”. Output is usually measured as the market value of final output (excluding intermediate products such as corn, which is used to feed animals in the meat industry).. 2.1.2 Permaculture definition of productivity The definition is different for Permaculture. According to Holmgren (2002), “the lack of conceptual tools to incorporate previously ignored environmental "givens" into calculations used by economists and decision makers is painfully obvious”. 17.

(24) Since Permaculture insists on the integration and interactions of the lands, animals, people and the environment, since Agriculture’s purpose aims to protect and values more these elements than money, Permaculture productivity is usually not measured in monetary units, but in energy invested. Therefore, productivity is the ratio between the total production (output) of the system and the total energy invested (input) to produce these outputs. This energy can be measured in calories.. 2.2 Labor, planning and input costs. 政治大 First, the labor costs. A person or a household that has decided to start in Permaculture can 立 Costs in Permaculture are divided in two categories.. choose to either learn how to plan and design a Permaculture farm, or to participate in. ‧ 國. 學. trainings offered by successful professionals of Permaculture. Indeed, Permaculture requires a thorough process of planning and design beforehand, otherwise the risk of errors is high and. ‧. this might cost much more in the end than trainings. Thus, the primary costs of Permaculture. y. Nat. are related with training and design. One of the trainings is called the Permaculture Design. sit. Certificate. It is a seventy-two hour (minimum) training experience. Students who complete. er. io. the full curriculum earn the internationally recognized Permaculture Design Certificate. It. al. n. v i n Bill Mollison. This program canCbehdelivered at approximately 35 USD per participant per engchi U. provides an introduction to Permaculture design as set forth by the movement's co-founder. day. When it comes to more basic courses, costs are usually cheaper, reaching around 10 USD per day per participant for a total duration of 5 days. However, prices can be very variable depending on the country and the quality of training. For example, in France, the association Permaculture Sans Frontières provides long-term trainings (15 days), from beginner to advanced, for a price of 100 USD a day (including accommodation). Even though Permaculture depends a lot on the integration and interactions between the different elements of the system that are mostly plants, it does not require a thorough botanic knowledge, basics can be learned step by step along the implementation. Other costs have to be taken into account such as equipment and land costs. Regarding equipment costs, as an example Les Jardins de La Grelinette, a 1.5-acre (6000 square meters) Permaculture farm in Quebec (Canada) invested a total of 39,000 USD in standardized equipment, which turned out to be 18.

(25) very profitable investment afterwards. Naturally, these costs are also variable depending on the size of the farm. The same goes for land cost, but for this thesis, people who already have a cultivable land will be addressed. Then come implementation costs. They are based on the availability and state of local resources as well as the overall design (simple versus sophisticated). Often, manual labor to prepare and decompact soils will be required, given the poor quality of soils today. Depending on whether household/persons do this job on their own or if they get any sort of help from communities to provide resources, labors, etc., costs can be reduced or even non-existent (but it will take more time). In France, Christophe Koppel evaluated the time labor cost that he spent to get started with his Permaculture garden and. 治政大of the soil, embankment, strawperson) for cleaning, grinding, staking, decompaction 立 mulching, staking, greenhouses settlement, etc. Back to les Jardins de la Grelinette, the prepare his land. According to him, a land of 200 square meters needs six weeks of work (1. ‧ 國. 學. outside labor of their 1.5 acres property - which is much bigger than the property of Christophe Koppel – is done by the owner-operators with the help of either one or two. ‧. seasonal workers, depending on the area under cultivation and the number of greenhouses. Even so, time and labor might be relatively high at the beginning but notably decreases -. y. Nat. sit. along with the increase of food production - as the system becomes self-reliant with time.. al. er. io. Benefits usually come within the first 3-6 months. The same Permaculture gardener. n. Christophe Koppel claims to only spend 1 hour and a half (1 person) every two days for. Ch. i n U. v. harvesting and doing various side tasks (transplant, straw-mulching, etc.), as well as one day. engchi. (1 person) every season for sowing, taking plant cuttings, straw-mulching and seeds collection. Finally, specific needed resources vary based on the initial design of the system and the resources available in the region.. On the other hand, very few input costs (if any) are required to get a functional and sustainable system. Indeed, a well planned and designed system, following the Permaculture principles mentioned in the first chapter, disposes of elements that provide the necessary needs and gets their supplies from other elements of the system. In other words, the outputs of some elements are the inputs of others. It is what is called a closed system, a self-regulating system. The elements of a Permaculture system do not depend on external elements, contrary to open systems such as chicken farms, which need grains, antibiotics, etc. to sustain. Plus,. 19.

(26) waste from each element is going to be used as a resource to provide for the other elements. For example, plants produce nutrients for animals. Mushrooms feed plants in nutrients and water thanks to their roots. This is why almost no inputs are used in Permaculture gardens. Chemicals, tiling, digging (aside from the first year), added compost, treatments, mechanization and machinery (purchase, non-renewable fuel, maintenance, etc.) are not used in Permaculture, hence notably decreasing costs compared to other conventional methods. The only inputs left are amendments for soil, seeds and plants protection products, which are generally fairly low and most of the time only needed at the initial stage.. 2.3 Output benefits. 立. 政治大. There is a myriad of outputs in Permaculture, which probably represents its highest strength.. ‧ 國. 學. As stated in the previous part, outputs of one element in the system are to be efficiently matched up with inputs of another element.. ‧. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 4: Functional interconnections between elements. 20.

(27) Note: reproduced from Introduction to Permaculture, Mollison (1991). Mollison (1991) described the functional interconnections occurring in a Permaculture system. Chickens and fishes eat the dropping fruits of the mulberry tree. In return, chickens can fertilize the pond and the tree through their droppings, which will provide more biomass to the pond to the benefit of fish and seaweeds. Duckweeds will then flourish on the top of the pond and will be eaten by chickens, offering them higher protein content that will help then to produce better quality eggs. The tree will then use the pond as a light reflector and a moisture. 政治大. source. All of this is doable because the elements are placed right next to each other, making then possible the access to the other elements’ outputs that will serve as their own inputs.. 立. Thus, it is crucial to perform a profound observation of what happens in nature and natural. ‧ 國. 學. ecosystems to figure out what outputs can be a good match for inputs. In that way, the system can gain more profitability thanks to relative location and smart interactions. With the food. ‧. web growing and becoming more complex, there is less waste and more products, ultimately boosting the profit.. sit. y. Nat. What must be kept in mind is that humans in Permaculture are fully incorporated to the. io. n. al. er. system. The outputs of humans, similarly to chickens for example, can fertilize the plants, and. i n U. v. reciprocally, humans get their food from the abundance of plants (abundance coming from a. Ch. engchi. high productivity). The most productive plants that a human can get his food from are trees. Trees provide fruits, nuts, and leaves, which are edible in some cases. A common tree possesses 100 of hectares of leaves, which can represent a huge quantity of food for humans. At any rate, even if humans do not want to eat leaves, there is more than enough food produced by the whole system to sustain humans’ needs. The French Permaculture gardener Christophe Koppel has achieved to feed his vegetarian family composed of 4 persons, only thanks to his garden during 10 years. In other words, he has not stepped into any kind of grocery stores to buy food for the past 10 years. Again in France, the National Institute For Agricutural Research realized a scientific survey to observe a small Permaculture farm during 4 years and concluded that Permaculture was a profitable activity. The farm in question is a 1000-square-meter property capable of generating an hourly wage from 6 to 10.6 USD for a. 21.

(28) 43-hour week due to a high productivity, that is to say a monthly net income from 1000 to 1775 USD. Another farm, the 1.5 acres Market Garden from Quebec already mentioned above also managed to become steadily productive enough and therefore profitable. In 2013, they sold 140,000 USD of vegetables produced on site, with expenses representing 75,000 USD, thus generating 65,000 USD of profit (~45% profit margin). Thanks to this revenue, they can achieve to live a decent life.. Finally, another survey was made by the Permaculture Association in the United Kingdom and led by Van Der Velden (2015), a plant ecologist who has been working to investigate. 治政大 a high diversity mix of vegetable diversity mix of vegetable seeds (3 different species) and 立 seeds (12 different species) to 26 volunteers. They gave them growing instruction and asked. productivity of household systems using mixed vegetables systems. They sent out a low. ‧ 國. 學. them to measure the yield of their production after they harvested. The high diversity mix obtained higher productivity than the low diversity mix, even in regions with harsh climate. ‧. where they obtained a pretty fair yield. The results are as follows: - Average yield: 35 tons per hectare in one year. y. Nat. sit. - Highest yield: 100 tons per hectare in one year. al. er. io. The survey does not stop here; calculations have been made afterwards to measure these. n. results at larger scales. Even so, at this point the conclusion can already be drawn:. Ch. i n U. v. Permaculture methods can get a pretty decent yield and more diversified crops result in a. engchi. higher yield, even in such a harsh climate like northern UK.. Eric Escoffier (2013) draws up a small comparison with Agriculture productivity and Permaculture productivity. He declares that in Agriculture - going back to the definition of productivity – 15 calories (inputs) are invested to reap 1 calorie (output). Among these 15 calories, 9 are spent in fossil fuels. As food production, Agriculture shows a remarkable inefficiency in terms of input/output ratio and is consuming all the capital and resources of the planet. Quite the reverse happens for Permaculture. Indeed, natural systems invest 1 calorie (input) to reap 10 to 20 calories (outputs). In comparison, the different types of Agriculture have an average productivity from 150 to 400 times weaker than natural systems.. 22.

(29) 2.4 Contribution of Permaculture to dietary, income and basic household needs To begin with this part, the survey made in the United Kingdom regarding the mix vegetables systems needs to be further studied. After getting the results of the survey, they scaled them up by doing some calculations in order to get a glimpse of what impact this production could have on a much larger scale. They observed that there are 216 millions of households in Europe. Among these households, 15% - which represents 324 000 households – possess a land where they grow their own food. Permaculture Association found out that if all these. 治政大 was asked about how people over a million tons of food a year. Furthermore, question 立 perceived the activity of growing their own food. The answer was these households do not see households could produce a 10 x 10 meter plot of food using their system, they could produce. ‧ 國. 學. it as a job, they see it as a leisure activity, an enjoyment activity and a learning activity. Therefore, if all the households agree, potentially 75.6 million tons of food could be grown in. ‧. Europe just in households. Of course, some are bigger; some have more land, some less, etc. Nonetheless, these calculations were made so as to get a rough idea of the food production. y. Nat. sit. potential that could be done with the help of Permaculture techniques. And the potential. er. al. n. impact.. io. turned to be quite interesting. Small amounts duplicated on a larger scale can have a big. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. 2.4.1 Contribution to dietary households needs Implementing Permaculture in households would benefit society as a whole because it has the potential to help families individually. As many Permaculture professionals say, such as Eric Escoffier (2015), it is perhaps the time to “claim back the ownership of our production means”. It is perhaps the time to take with old rural traditions and decide to grow our own food. Not only this is doable, but also the benefits that can be taken out from this are quite considerable.. In 1997, the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) in Australia implemented a Permaculture Pilot Project (PPP) at a kindergarten in Ain El Baida, a suburb of 23.

(30) Tufileh, Jordan. The project turned to be very successful and was implemented afterwards by Ain El Baida Voluntary Society on larger scales as they loaned money to 50 poor families to implement the PPP in their own homes. The project was to grow many types of fruit trees and vegetables (olive, grape, cucumber and tomato), as well as small animals (rabbits, goats, chickens and pigeons) using a rooftop rainwater systems and greywater reuse systems to irrigate the production (in the case of the kindergarten, greywater was derived from hand washing). Following this, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) evaluated the consequences of the project. They did a survey of 15 families out of the 50 that received a loan to help them in the implementation of the project. Most families in the survey (87%). 治政大 irrigate vegetables, fruits and herbs. 立. used part of the loan to use greywater coming mostly from the kitchen and the bathroom to. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Figure 5: Greywater irrigation system Note : reproduced from www.greywater.com, Lindstrom (2000) The results of the survey showed that a Permaculture project using greywater irrigation systems could considerably help poor urban populations. Although Jordan has a human 24.

(31) development index higher than most developing countries, about 7% of its population is below the poverty line of 1 USD a day. Furthermore, because of its scarce water resources and rapidly growing population, the poor, who are increasingly moving to cities, face growing food and water insecurity. Even so, thanks to this project, the urban poor of Ain El Baida increased their access to food and water, especially in a region where water is scarce. They also improved their food and water security since they had access to more nutritious food that they could not grow before under “usual’ conditions, so they were able to diversify their production. Finally, they were able to save valuable fresh water for drinking instead of irrigating.. 治政大 survey in Johannesburg, South Wills, Chinemana and Rudolph (2009) realized a similar 立 Africa. The survey is based on a project called the Siyakhana project. This project aimed to ‧ 國. 學. set up a plot of land of 1 hectare in Johannesburg City Parks in 2006 with the objective of growing fruits and vegetables and providing food for children attending early-childhood. ‧. development centers and for the beneficiaries of non-governmental organizations providing home-based care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Again, a survey was made to measure the. y. Nat. sit. impact of the project on this South African population. Although the impact on health is not. al. er. io. yet measurable, the project still improved food security in this urban area given that it. n. increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables (the amounts of fruits and vegetables. Ch. i n U. v. available and consumed in South Africa being quite low). The knowledge that they acquired. engchi. also helped them in their choices and improved their overall health (what to eat, what not to eat, how to effectively use medicinal plants, etc.).. These two projects partly proved that diversification of food that Permaculture helps to ensure food security thanks to the diverse diet it can provide, but also thanks to the positive interactions that the different elements of a Permaculture system have, bringing up a better yield and better output quality. In addition and maybe more importantly, a Permaculture system relying on diversification helps to ensure a year-round food security since foods of the systems are harvested at different times of the year. Therefore, a shortage on food seldom appears as there is a constant food supply based on diversification. This is in total opposition with monocultures such as monocropping (wheat, corn). Indeed, they only benefit from two. 25.

(32) massive harvests a year but are unable to ensure a healthy diet. Plus, their harvest production can only last one season. Even so, Modern Agriculture has brought an excessive focus on growing just one single crop, providing their population a diet centered too much around a type of cereal. This cereal centered diet leads to undernutrition (lack of protein, fat and micronutrients). Permaculture at the contrary decreases this undernutrition with its diversification-centered diet. A last survey realized in South Africa further demonstrates the overall increase of nutrition due to access to diverse food. In this country, as in many other developing countries, Vitamin A deficiency continues to be a major health problem, especially among pre-school children,. 治政 In that context, a study was carried out in Ndunakazi,大 a mountainous rural village in South 立 Africa. A home-gardening program, focusing on the production of yellow and dark-green whose intakes are low and who belong to populations that cannot afford to buy supplements.. ‧ 國. 學. leafy vegetables was implemented with a community-based growth-monitoring system in this village. The results are as follows:. ‧. - Establishment of 126 home gardens within the village. - Increase of yellow and dark-green leafy vegetables daily intakes among children. y. Nat. sit. - Percentage of children who consumed provitamin A–rich vegetables at least once a week. al. er. io. increased (range: 2 to 68%). n. - Significant increase of serum retinol concentrations (Vitamin A) among children. Ch. i n U. v. Thus, a home-gardening program focusing on the production on yellow dark-green leafy. engchi. vegetables significantly increased the Vitamin A intakes of pre-school children in a South African village.. 2.4.2 Contribution to income and basic needs To elaborate this part, some of the different studies mentioned in the previous parts must be further studied, which results also show a significant help for income and basic needs coming from Permaculture. In the case study of Jordan (Wills, Chinemana, Rudolph, 2009), greywater was reused in a system aiming to grow several kinds of fruits, vegetables and small animals in an urban area. Following this experiment, various economic results that were not mentioned earlier came up. The first result that is worth mentioning is the fact that all of them. 26.

(33) were able to pay back 100% of the loan. Indeed, a loan was granted to the adopters who chose to participate in this experiment. Besides, all the households reduced their food expenses, due to their own food growing system. Thanks to the success of the project, about one third even obtained surplus and decided to sell it to generate income. On average, 10% of all the household income was saved. Among them, the poorest participants saved up to 44% of their income.. Table 2: Ain Al Baida Permaculture and Greywater Reuse Project: Income (JD) generated per year. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Note: Reproduced from Greywater Reuse in Urban Agriculture for Poverty Alleviation: A Case-Study in Jordan, Faruqui & Al-Jayyousi (2002). 27.

(34) Moreover, had the households used municipal sources for this supplemental irrigation, on average, they would have used 15% more water and had 27% higher water bills, and it does not end here: these savings will be enhanced as more high quality greywater is recovered allowing irrigation of higher value and faster growing vegetables.. Table 3: Comparison of the municipal water cost and the value of greywater collected. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Note: Reproduced from Greywater Reuse in Urban Agriculture for Poverty Alleviation: A Case-Study in Jordan, Faruqui & Al-Jayyousi (2002) And last, depending on the complexity of the greywater reuse system, the average annual cost to collect greywater was 113 USD (range from 45 to 229 USD), while the average net annual benefit was 376 USD (range : from 170 to 615 USD). Hence a very high benefit-cost ratio of practicing greywater reuse, with an average ratio value of 5.3 (range: from 2.8 to 9.4).. 28.

(35) Table 4: Annual Benefits of Greywater Irrigation (JD). 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. io. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. Note: Reproduced from Greywater Reuse in Urban Agriculture for Poverty Alleviation: A Case-Study in Jordan, Faruqui & Al-Jayyousi (2002). Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Above all, the biggest priority for people willing to start in Permaculture is food-self reliance. In 2013, a general approach survey was produced to investigate on forest gardens – forest gardens display many of the Permaculture characteristics to achieve productivity and resilience – in order to learn more about Permaculture among other things. And so a questionnaire was posted online and was filled by 117 people by the end of 2013. Basic questions such as location, size of sites, goals, achievements, challenges and so on were asked. Various nationalities answered the questionnaire:. 29.

(36) Table 5: Distribution of answers per country. Country. Number of sites. UK. 46. USA. 27. Italy. 13. Canada. 4. France. 4. Germany. 3. 2 政治大 Belgium 1 立 Belize 1. New Zealand. 1. Norway. 1. Panama. 1. South Africa. 1. y. 1. sit. India. er. io. 1. ‧. Nat. Croatia. 學. ‧ 國. Spain. n. aNetherlands 1 iv l C n hengchi U. Note: Reproduced from Forest Garden Research – Finding the Baseline, Remiarz (2013). 30.

(37) In square meters < 10 < 100 < 1000 < 10,000 < 100,000 > 100,000. Figure 6: Size distribution of forest gardens. 政治大. Note: Reproduced from Forest Garden Research – Finding the Baseline, Remiarz (2013). 立. ‧ 國. 學. The most relevant data for this part is undoubtedly the answers of priorities and achievements that people who took this survey provided. Of a total of 94 responses, 42 sites (45%) saw food. ‧. self-reliance as their top priority. Education was the second most frequent answer (21 %), followed by biodiversity (19%), whereas only 7.5% have commercial production and only 2. sit. y. Nat. sites research as their most important goal. Furthermore, while food self-reliance was highest on the list of priorities for forest gardeners, the majority stated that their forest gardens. io. n. al. er. contribute to this goal according to their expectations or even better. Concerning biodiversity,. i n U. v. answers stated that the achievements were even better than self-reliance.. Ch. engchi. Another very. relevant data that came out of this study was the distribution of forest gardens by type of use. Indeed, 60% of forest gardeners use a private garden, 24% use a community garden and 15% of them use a commercial enterprise.. 31.

(38) 80 70. 67. 60 50 40 Sites. 27. 30. 17. 20 10 0 Private garden. 立. 政治大. Community project. Commercial entreprise. Figure 7: Distribution of forest gardens by type of use. ‧ 國. 學. Note: Reproduced from Forest Garden Research – Finding the Baseline, Remiarz (2013). ‧. Gathering all these data, the conclusions of the study were that temperate forest gardens exist. sit. y. Nat. in many sizes and locations across the northern hemisphere, and for a variety of purposes. They seem to be well suited to contributing towards food self-reliance, as a biodiversity. io. n. al. er. resource and a place for education. However, their commercial use appears to require further. i n U. v. development work. Going further, if the results of this survey are linked to the main core of. Ch. engchi. this part, the conclusion is that most Permaculture gardeners first of all look for self-reliance, which seems to be accomplished, sometimes even beyond expectations according to the survey. The most common type of use, which is private garden, is correlated to this top priority goal, as Permaculture gardeners are more willing to grow their food and achieve selfreliance at home, in their backyard or own private garden. The development of community projects is nonetheless sizeable, gardeners are also willing to share their effort and provide self-reliance and biodiversity for themselves and their neighbors. Biodiversity can in turn be correlated to the overall food security and nutrition increase that were mentioned in the previous part.. 32.

(39) To conclude this chapter, due to its high productivity – very few inputs for huge outputs – and its diversity, Permaculture seems to be a very efficient contribution to households dietary needs (health and nutrition improvements), income (surplus are often reached) and basic needs (the top priority for Permaculture is to achieve self-reliance, which is also often achieved).. 立. 政治大. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 33. i n U. v.

(40) Chapter 3: Beyond sustainability, a regenerative system. 3.1 Definition of sustainability in terms of cultural systems As what was done in the second chapter when regarding the definition of productivity, here again a general approach must be taken first to define the word sustainability. The General Assembly of the United Nations gave a definition of sustainable development. During the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, they defined sustainable development as a “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the. 政治大. ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. In other words, development is. 立. sustainable if it does not compromise the ability of generations to meet their own needs.. ‧ 國. 學. In Agriculture, the term “sustainable” implies the production of food, fiber, or other plant or. ‧. animal products using farming techniques that protect the environment, public health, human communities, and animal welfare. Such production allows farmers to produce healthful food. sit. y. Nat. without compromising future generations to meet their needs. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO 2014) of the United Nations enacted 5 principles as a guideline to respect. io. n. al. er. when trying to achieve sustainability.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Principle 1: Improving efficiency in the use of resources is crucial to sustainable Agriculture.. This principle encourages farmers to modify their current practices in order to improve the productivity of food and agricultural production system. By doing so, it will ensure a sufficient supply of food and other agricultural products while limiting the expansion of arable lands and intrusion in natural ecosystems. Nevertheless, improving productivity will not only mean getting a higher yield any longer. The new productivity will also take into account other aspects such as the environment, water and energy-smart production system as water becomes scarce and greenhouse gas emission needs to be reduced. This will also reduce the use of fertilizers and other chemicals used in Agriculture.. 34.

(41) Principle 2: Sustainability requires direct action to conserve, protect and enhance natural resources. To be efficient and produce food, Agriculture needs natural resources. Thus, Agriculture must find a way to sustain the natural resources it uses. Intensification can be done in order to boost productivity. However, an uncontrollable intensification is incompatible with sustainability. It is true that intensification has positive impacts on the environment due to what was mentioned in the first principle: intensification brings about less agricultural expansion and less intrusion in natural ecosystems; even so, it can have a negative effect on. 治政大 which leads to water pollution, unfortunately the most common model of Agriculture, 立 destruction of habitats, soil degradation, and limitation of crop and animal biodiversity. the environment when it comes to farm inputs such as water, fertilizers and pesticides. This is. ‧ 國. 學. Principle 3: Agriculture that fails to protect and improve rural livelihoods, equity and social. ‧. well-being is unsustainable. y. Nat. sit. Through a satisfying control of and access to productive resources, Agriculture must. al. er. io. significantly bring wealth and food security in rural areas.. n. Although Agriculture is a direct and indirect source of livelihood for 2.5 billion people in. Ch. i n U. v. rural areas, poverty is still overly related to Agriculture, given that Agriculture is among the. engchi. riskiest types of businesses. Agriculture must then provide farmers decent employment conditions (economically and physically safe) and offer them a healthy environment, without which Agriculture will fail to become sustainable.. Principle 4: Enhanced resilience of people, communities and ecosystems is key to sustainable Agriculture. Agriculture is vulnerable to extreme weather events, market volatility and civil conflicts. To contribute to Agriculture’s sustainability, farmers must build resilience to these threats. Climate variability not only caused by the seasonality of temperate climate regions but also by climate change have a considerable impact on farmers and their production. Moreover, with. 35.

(42) the advent and intensification of globalization, the risk of food price volatility has significantly increased over the years, increasing at the same time the unpredictable impacts on the production systems. In that perspective, both farmers and consumers struggle to deal with these two threats. Thus, resilience seems to be the only way for Agriculture to reach sustainability.. Principle 5: Sustainable food and Agriculture requires responsible and effective governance mechanisms. 治政 order to begin the transition towards a sustainable 大 Agriculture. Also, the right balance 立 between private sector and public sector initiatives must be found. Indeed, the public Accountability, equity, transparency and the rule of law are essential and must be ensured in. ‧ 國. 學. dimension must be added to the economic enterprise dimension in order to incorporate sustainability in food and agricultural systems. Naturally, Agriculture is and will continue to. ‧. be an economic activity providing revenues and decent life to people who practice it. Even so, farmers of all types, fishermen and foresters must receive the necessary incentives to support. y. Nat. sit. and apply the correct behavior while practicing onsite. Sustainability will only be reached. n. al. er. io. through effective and fair governance.. Ch. engchi. 36. i n U. v.