Perspectives on permaculture for commercial farming: aspirations and realities

Abstract

The term 'Permaculture' (PC) refers to a theory about diversified farming systems, based on an ethical attitude (worldview) and a practical design process, guided by 12 principles and flanked by a holistic sustainability concept. Invented in the wake of Australia's socio-political 'back-to-the-land' aspirations of the 1970s, PC has since developed and grown into a diverse international grassroot movement. It can be considered a rural as well as an urban socio-cultural phenomenon that revolves around non-commercial gardening, for example urban community projects, or around farming for self-sufficiency, for instance in eco-villages. This paper intends to investigate which aspects of PC may be scalable to commercial farming whilst identifying PC aspects already implemented in commercial (organic) agriculture (OA). It analyses a current business case led by a German wholesaler of organic produce who worked in cooperation with a German supermarket chain to create the first nationwide PC label. To this end, the paper describes the degree of overlap between two organic farming certification schemes and the case study. As opposed to certified OA, PC is less prescriptive, using a deductive and inductive approach instead. It may expand scope and flexibility required for farm redesign towards improved resilience, reaching out to the landscape level. The productiveness of PC in commercial settings needs to be established further, such as best practices in soil regeneration and monitoring as well as the reduction of soil losses, or the valuation of added ecosystem services such as promotion of (agro-)biodiversity.

Regenerative agriculture and integrative permaculture for sustainable and technology driven global food production and security

“…There have been debates on whether permaculture can truly feed a growing population and questions remain as to what extent it outperforms intensive farming system sustainably (Fiebrig et al., 2020). Its scientific foundation, applicability, and scalability to large land area have also been criticized (Fiebrig et al., 2020). Ingram (2018) describes the confusion as a mere lack of good evidence and intellectual rigor.…”

“…Permaculture views many of the various farming activities as being co‐independent. For example, permaculture advocates for farmers to consider pests or weeds when making fertilizer decisions (Fiebrig et al., 2020). Similarly, permaculture encourages crop rotation that involves more than two crops where such numbers provide the best solutions for maintaining soil fertility and improving soil moisture, control pests, or provide pollination services (Asbjornsen et al., 2014; Jensen et al., 2010).…”

Food forests: Their services and sustainability

“…They could learn from mature food forests that diversified their product range or focused on a few main products or services. Weak economic viability-common in many permaculture farms-may also be overcome by monetarizing the value of ecosystem services and receiving adequate compensation (Fiebrig et al, 2020). However, such compensation policies to date focus on agro-industrial sites; this poses a structural barrier to the economic viability of agro-ecological solutions such as food forests (Fernandez et al, 2013;Smith et al, 2012).…”

Circular Approaches in Small-Scale Food Production

“…Composting is implemented, and animal manure and organic fertilisers are used. Physical barriers are created for pest control, and species-rich ecosystems are sought in order to use natural enemies of pests for plant protection [79][80][81][82][83][84]. Overall, permaculture has a lot in common with agroecology, agro-forestry, and traditional and indigenous land uses [82].…”

“…It often bundles techniques and practices from these areas and gives recommendations and evaluations for successful application. Here, multi-year polycultures as well as annual vegetables play an important role [78][79][80][81][82][83][84]. Elements used from forestry are, for example, alley cropping and Fig.…”