PERMACULTURE
Permaculture area at Glastonbury Festival
The idea behind Formidable Vegetable has been largely inspired by the concept of permaculture, with the band’s debut album based on the book: Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren.
What is Permaculture?
Permaculture is a way for us to reconnect and design regenerative, abundant and sustainable ways of living that connect us more to our food, families/friends, forests, farms and front yards in ways that mutually benefit everyone involved.
For hundreds of thousands of years, most humans managed to live pretty sustainably on the planet . Therefore, permaculture is not a new idea, but rather weaves together and bridges the divide between the mindset of modernity and a more ecological understanding of living systems, in line with many traditional and Indigenous cultures & values. Permaculture aims to help us all move into balance with the living world around us, within whatever context we find ourselves.
Permaculture is based around the ethics of Earth Care – taking care of the land, water & living soil; People Care – looking after ourselves, others and our communities; and Fair Share – being aware of our limited resources and using only what we really need, whilst distributing the rest fairly amongst those around us (not just people, but all other living & non-living beings) in order to keep a healthy ecological system functioning as an integrated whole.
From the ethics of permaculture come a set of principles which are helpful guidelines to follow, not just in design, but in daily life as well. We found these so helpful, that we wrote a song for each one to help us and anyone else wanting to remember them:
The 12 Permaculture Principles In Song:
(Trust me, it’s better than it sounds!)
A common misconception is that permaculture is just about gardening, however it is really a much broader, whole-systems framework for sustainable & regenerative design that can be applied in just about any context – including music!
At this time (now often referred to as the ‘polycrisis’) where our climate, biosphere, financial systems and social cohesion around the world are reaching various points of collapse, permaculture guides us toward positive responses and actions we can take for maintaining & restoring balance in our planet’s incresingly fragile life support systems, giving not only our species, but many others opportunities to survive and ultimately, thrive.
More information on the permaculture ethics and principles can be found at: permacultureprinciples.com
To get involved, just do a search for active permaculture groups, demonstration sites or courses near you. You’re bound to find some exciting results!
Along with illustrator, Brenna Quinlan, Formidable Vegetable has also created some permaculture teaching tools to inspire minds – young and old – toward regenerative systems thinking & design. Head here to check out our Permaculture Action Cards and ethics & principles poster.
TO FIND PERMACULTURE NEAR YOU, CHECK OUT:
Permaculture Institute of North America
Permaculture Research Institute Kenya