Principles and Ethics (4m 45s)


“Nature does nothing uselessly” – Aristotle

What is a principle? A principle is a fundamental truth, which serves as the foundation of a system.

The overall goal of permaculture is to be self-reliant by producing a surplus of food water and energy within a site. Each of the chapters in this course describe how we can most effectively reach these goals. Here are the goals as they relate to each chapter and then we’ll revisit them and talk about them in each of these videos :

  • For Earthworks, we’re trying to capture rainwater in the soil and provide access to the site,
  • Natural building, the goal is provide housing for people and animals
  • We have water, we’re going to catch, clean, conserve and reuse water
  • Sanitation, we’re going to produce no waste
  • For soil, we’re trying to build soil
  • In the nursery, we’re saving seeds and propagating plants
  • In the garden, we’re growing and harvesting edible plants
  • For trees, we’re growing useful trees and food forests
  • In aquaculture, we’re trying to raise healthy fish and plants
  • Insects and animals, we’re trying to raise beneficial insects, keep pests away and raise healthy animals.
  • In the kitchen, we’re preparing, fermenting and preserving the food we grow on our site.
  • In appropriate technology, we’re trying to use energy efficiently
  • In economics, we’re trying to create or calculate our surplus.
  • In social permaculture, we’re trying to address the needs of all people.
  • In project planning, we’re figuring out how to install a permaculture design.

So really, at the end of the course. For this last chapter, we will gather all the information we have put together from our designs and create a permaculture plan.

So from the first video, you know how you get a different answer from everyone you ask [when you ask ‘what is permaculture’], if you were to ask me, this is permaculture. This group of principles, this group of goals that we go for. It’s universal goals. Where ever we go, this is what we’re going for. And this is what makes this practice so awesome, is that you can build skills in one area and be able to transfer those skills virtually anywhere else in the world and be able to apply the same principles, it’s always going to look different but it’s the same principles, that are the same.

For permaculture ethics, there are three ethics: People care, earth care and fair share.

For people care, we’re talking about being considerate of everyone’s time, interests, thoughts and actions, including our own. For earth care, we need to care for the earth, the animals, the plants, the trees, the fungi, the microorganisms, the water, the air and everything else. For fair share, we need to fairly distribute surplus among humans as well as nature.

I could go on with examples for each one and so on but I think these things are ingrained in us. We know what caring for people looks like, we know what caring for the earth looks like and we know what fair share looks like, more or less. It’s just, sometimes we go on for awhile, in one frame of mind, especially with a group of people, and all of a sudden we realize that while people care, earth care and fair share may have been the original idea in some words, what we may be doing may not be that anymore. So I guess it’s good, as we’ll talk about in the next chapter, to zoom in and out of our perspective, out of our lens, try to look at life from other people’s perspective. This one general said one time, be kind for never will understand the battle’s the other guy is fighting. I think ethics is about compassion, and having compassion for other people, and other species. Okay, so that’s briefly the permaculture principles videos.

We will be revisiting each of these [principles] in each of the following videos and talk about each one of these in depth. But this is an overall snapshot. For me this has really grounded me as far as helping me figuring out what the overall goal is. What are we trying to do? Ah, this is what we’re trying to do. 2 seconds. We can learn it, get good at it, and then you know that they are there. I’ve talked to plenty of people about permaculture, and they’re like, I don’t really understand what it is, it’s really just logic. And I would agree with them. There’s no new information in a permaculture course. It’s just about thinking logically through things. And I think this list of permaculture is a logical explanation of things we normally do. So that’s the permaculture principles video. Thank you for your time.