Case Studies from Temperate Climates
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- Ecological Agriculture I - Earth Care, People Care, Fair Shares Rural and Urban Permaculture in the Context of Danish Society By: Marie-Ève Lépine Jessica Scott Eileen Leung Benno Hansen Supervisor: Dr John Roy Porter This project has been submitted in partial fulfilment of the SOCRATES European Common Curriculum 1 “What Permaculturalists are doing is the most important activity that any group is doing on the planet. We don’t know what details of a truly sustainable planet are going to be like, but we need options, we need people experimenting in all kinds of ways and Permaculturalists are one of the critical gangs that are doing that.” David Suzuki, 2002 –Hope Dance USA 2 Acknowledgements First of all we would like to thank the farmers and community gardeners who gave us their time through farm visits, interviews and even WWOOFing stays! Their generosity and patience has greatly contributed to our project. We wish you every success in your pursuit of sustainability. Thank you Karsten, Kirsten, Trina, Susanne, Carl, Allan, Marijke, Tony, Inga, Bent, Jørgen, and Knud Anker. Second, we would like to thank all the wonderful people who helped us out while we were hitchhiking around Denmark. Thirdly Jess, Benno and Eileen would like to thank Marie-Ève for all her beautiful drawings which have no doubt made the concepts of Permaculture much more tangible and our project much more interesting! Marie-Ève Lépine Jessica Scott Eileen Leung Benno Hansen Picture from the cover page “The great oval of the design represents the egg of life; that quantity of life which cannot be created or destroyed, but from within which all things that live are expressed. Within the egg is coiled the rainbow snake, the Earth-shaper of Australian and American peoples.” Mollison, 1988 3 Abstract Motivated by the need to develop new, more environmentally friendly and sustainable farming systems, the Permaculture (“Permanent Agriculture”) movement began in the 1970’s as an alternative farming strategy. Over time, the concept gathered momentum around the globe and has now grown to incorporate many aspects of “Permanent Culture,” not just food production. Permaculture, as it is today, has three main goals: “Earth-care, People-care and Fair-Shares.” The prime objective of this project was to analyse the Permaculture system, in a holistic and inclusive manner. To reach this goal, the project assessed the various aspects of Permaculture - discussing its origins with the theories and principles; moving onto on-site functional and design analyses; a qualitative review of Permaculture and its relevance to Urban and Peri-Urban agriculture (UPA); and then a broad discussion of Permaculture in the context of global food production history and philosophies. The final assessment considered the sustainability, feasibility and applicability of Permaculture in Denmark, through extensive reviews of Permaculture and Agriculture literature; on-site analysis and personal interviews. It was concluded that the Permaculture system is inherently “information and design intensive.” Adoption of the Permaculture ethos, in both rural and urban environments can lead to benefits in energy efficiency, closed nutrient cycling, ecological balance, reduced work and disturbance, and community development. These can all be sustained and enhanced in the long-term, and may be a real means of food production achieving true sustainability goals. However, Permaculture in Danish rural and urban environs is currently not well developed. The future success and extension of Permaculture, in Denmark, will not be limited by deficiencies in the Permaculture system itself, but rather by external factors, such as lack of political support, low community interest and other polemics of Denmark. 4 Table of Content INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................8 CHAPTER 1. REVIEW OF LITERATURE: THEORIES BEHIND THE PERMACULTURE CONCEPT ............................................................................11 1.1 The need for a New Agriculture - Righting the Wrongs............................................................. 11 1.1.1 Environmental Degradation and the Green Revolution............................................................... 11 1.1.2 Economic Challenges in Agriculture........................................................................................... 12 1.2 Definition of Agro-production Systems ........................................................................................ 13 1.2.1 Definition of Conventional Agriculture............................................................................................ 13 1.2.2 Definitions and Goals of Organic Agriculture ................................................................................. 14 1.2.3 Definitions and Goals of Permaculture........................................................................................ 14 1.3 The History of Permaculture......................................................................................................... 16 1.3.2 The Extension of Permaculture........................................................................................................ 16 1.4 The Permaculture Design Principles ............................................................................................ 17 1.4.1 Permaculture and Food Production.............................................................................................. 17 1.4.2 Zone Analysis.............................................................................................................................. 18 1.4.3 Energy Management (Sector Analysis) ....................................................................................... 19 1.4.4 Nutrient and Waste Management ................................................................................................ 20 1.4.5 Permanence in Agriculture .......................................................................................................... 20 1.4.6 Optimising Ecological Relationships........................................................................................... 21 1.5 The Permaculture System: Differences with Organic and Conventional......................................... 23 1.5.1 Earth-care, People-care and Fair-shares........................................................................................... 23 1.5.2 Permaculture and Community.......................................................................................................... 23 1.5.3 Permaculture, Organics and Certification........................................................................................ 23 1.6 Sustainable Agriculture and Permaculture.................................................................................. 25 1.6.1 Definition of Sustainability.......................................................................................................... 25 1.6.2 Permaculture as Sustainable Agriculture..................................................................................... 25 1.6.3 Why Can’t We Just Adopt Organic Farming?............................................................................. 26 1.7 The Success and Viability of Permaculture in Temperate Climates ................................................. 28 1.7.1 Isn’t Permaculture Best Suited to “Year-round” Growing Seasons? ............................................... 28 1.7.2 Case Studies from Temperate Climates....................................................................................... 28 1.8 Chapter Summary.......................................................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER 2. ECOLOGICAL DESIGN OF SMALL FARM SYSTEMS IN RURAL DENMARK...........................................................................................................31 2.1 General Overview ................................................................................................................................... 31 2.2 Methodology........................................................................................................................................... 32 2.2.1 Farm Visits and Data Collection...................................................................................................... 32 2.2.2 System Analyses and “Permaculture Criteria”................................................................................. 32 2.3. The Farm Systems ................................................................................................................................. 34 2.3.1. Bjørnbakhus..................................................................................................................................... 34 2.3.2. Søndermarksgård ............................................................................................................................. 39 2.3.3. Hegnstrup......................................................................................................................................... 48 2.3.4. Gule Reer ......................................................................................................................................... 55 5 2.4. Classification of Farms With Relation to Each Other........................................................................ 61 CHAPTER 3. PERMACULTURE IN URBAN AND PERI-URBAN AGRICULTURE .............................................................................................................................64