The Permaculture Concept (1989)

The word permaculture, coined by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren during the 1970s, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture as well as permanent culture. Through a series of publications, Mollison, Holmgren and their associates documented an approach to designing human settlements, in particular the development of perennial agricultural systems that mimic the structure and interrelationship found in natural ecologies. Permaculture design principles extend from the position that "The only ethical decision is to take responsibility for our own existence and that of our children" (Mollison, 1990). The intent was that, by rapidly training individuals in a core set of design principles, those individuals could design their own environments and build increasingly self-sufficient human settlements — ones that reduce society's reliance on industrial systems of production and distribution that Mollison identified as fundamentally and systematically destroying the Earth's ecosystems.

While originating as an agro-ecological design theory, permaculture has developed a large international following of individuals who have received training through intensive two week long 'permaculture design courses'. This 'permaculture community' continues to expand on the original teachings of Mollison and his associates, integrating a range of ideas of alternative culture, through a network of training, publications, permaculture gardens, and internet forums. In this way permaculture has become both a design system and a loosely defined philosophy or lifestyle ethic.

Big Ideas   Permaculture   Solutions
Rate this video 
Solutions
Environmental Films
Philosophy
Trending Videos
Louis Theroux: The Settlers (2025)
62 min - Fourteen years after his first visit and 2011 film The Ultra Zionists, Louis Theroux meets some of the growing community of religious-nationalist Israelis who have settled in the West Bank.Louis...
White Right: Meeting The Enemy (trailer)
3 min - In this authored Fuuse documentary, Emmy Award-winning film-maker Deeyah Khan joins the frontline of the race wars in America, sitting down face-to-face with Neo-Nazis and fascists and marching...
Waste = Food (2007)
49 min - Man is the only creature that produces landfills. Natural resources are being depleted on a rapid scale while production and consumption are rising in nations like China and India. The waste...
Hey Corporate America, THIS Is What Happens When You Piss Off a Rapper And His Friends
6 min - Food Fight is the story of a kid who lives in a world where the food at the local corner store is killing his neighborhood -- literally. SHARE IT? Accompanying FREE CURRICULUM, LYRICS & SONG...
The 3.5% Protest Rule Is a Dangerous Fantasy — Here’s What Resistance Actually Requires
9 min - The 3.5% figure keeps getting passed around as if its a formula for regime change. Its not. Its a retrospective pattern from a dataset of 20th-century movementsnot a strategy, and not a rule. In...
HyperNormalisation (2016)
161 min - We live in a time of great uncertainty and confusion. Events keep happening that seem inexplicable and out of control. Donald Trump, Brexit, the War in Syria, the endless migrant crisis, random...
10 Films That Will Metaphorically Blow Your Mind
Films about Localization - the Solution to Globalization and Destructive, Infinite-Growth Economics
Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films
Subscribe $5/mo View All Patron Films

 

Your support keeps us ad-free and financially independent

Our 10,000+ video & article library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patron subscribers!


Want to double your impact? You can subscribe for $10/mo or more as an extra show of support.