Permaculture Design 3: Designers Who Create Life and Care for the Earth

Text/ Chen Xuanfei

Ever since I took the permaculture design course led by teacher Robyn Francis in 2009, many people have come to ask me: "What is permaculture?" Permaculture covers a very broad scope, and for a moment I did not know how to put it aptly either. I thought about it for a long time and also consulted my seniors.

A senior said: "Permaculture is not agronomy, and there is no such thing as an agricultural product labeled with a permaculture mark; permaculture is not a single technique either, so DIY is not permaculture, and rainwater harvesting is not permaculture." A friend also came to ask me: "Someone told me that permaculture means not using modern electrical appliances and obtaining resources in the most primitive way possible; that approach is hard for people to accept." I told him: "Permaculture is not a dogma. Although its basic ideas center on caring for the Earth, caring for people, and sharing the surplus, the design takes the situation at the time into consideration, and there is no rule saying you cannot use the products of modern civilization." When I explained it this way, he could accept it better, and he even said: "The person explaining really matters, otherwise misunderstandings arise."

What I mentioned above are the misunderstandings ordinary people may have about permaculture, so what exactly is permaculture? The idea of permaculture is to guide people to become designers who care for the Earth. It is a generalist discipline that requires digesting various natural sciences, humanities, languages, traditional wisdom... and integrating them. As long as one has the heart and is willing to learn, everyone can become a capable designer who cares for the Earth.

After finishing the two-week permaculture design course, I felt this idea was very good and really wanted to put it into practice in daily life. But I had no land, did not know how to grow things, and lived in a densely populated city, so what was I supposed to do? I began trying to change my past habits of pursuing convenience and comfort, and slowly became a person who could create life with my own hands.

Wanting to change from a lazy person into a diligent one is truly not easy. I grew up in the city and was very unfamiliar with nature. In a city full of shops, I had already been spoiled. Whatever I needed, I just spent money to buy it. No need to think, no need to do anything with my hands, very convenient. After finishing the course, I discovered that this way of life is exhausting the Earth, and that life was dominated by commercialized activities. Every day was just constantly making money and then constantly spending money. Whether making money or spending money, the process exhausts the Earth's resources, emits large amounts of carbon dioxide, and releases a lot of pollutants.

Of course, not every client is interested in the idea of sustainable living, but the principles I learned from the permaculture design course really can help clients solve their confusion. In my experience, the most useful one is "use and value diversity."

Many clients encounter the troubles of single-track thinking and centralized organization at work. I share with them: "In nature there are many species, and diverse species make it easier for us to survive. Take rice as an example: some rice is drought-tolerant, some is cold-tolerant. When the climate changes and the original rice varieties can no longer survive, that is when drought-tolerant or cold-tolerant rice comes in handy. It is the same in human society. Everyone is different. Because each person's life background is different, their ideas are naturally different. Why should we all be the same? Precisely because each individual or group has its own characteristics, it can bring its specialty into play in different environments, so a diverse society is more resilient."

After hearing this, the clients all felt it made a lot of sense, and they also believed that our society still needs to learn further to respect diversity, and that a diverse society is livelier and more vital. Modern work all depends on teams. How can we make an organization and team run more smoothly? Modern people are very busy. Besides working to make money, they also have to care for the elderly and children. If neighbors in the community could look after one another, that would be even better.

I observed that almost every client felt community is important. To make myself more professional and provide better service, I even took the advanced permaculture design course "Creative Community Communication Facilitation" and learned many communication skills. Although most people know they need to communicate, how should they do it? It still has to be based on the "respect for diversity" mentioned above, plus a few small techniques. I shared techniques guided by teacher Robyn, such as using body performance and jointly identifying strengths and weaknesses to communicate. The clients found it fresh and interesting and wanted to try it, but someone asked me a key question: "What you mentioned is all the rational thinking part, but people are often controlled by emotions and find it hard to think rationally. What then?"

Indeed. I went back and thought about it for a long time and also looked for information. The key point is that everyone must practice positive thinking. Positive thinking can help everyone have a broader angle of thought, while negative thinking makes people fall into a pit and unable to climb out. Of course, positive thinking is not easy to achieve. If management deliberately guides it, such an atmosphere will be shaped. This also conforms to one of the principles of permaculture design, "apply self-regulation and accept feedback." This is the hope that everyone will examine the negative feedback in life, be able to think positively, and gradually change toward self-reliance.

Most of my clients are for-profit organizations that need to make money to survive, which still differs from the core values of permaculture design, "care for the Earth, care for people, share the surplus." Thinking carefully, making money is a means of survival, and ultimately we still need to "prosper together with the Earth," otherwise humanity will eventually be eliminated by the Earth. Governments and enterprises have also seen this, so "greenhouse gas reduction" has become a new trend.

To understand the meaning of carbon dioxide reduction more deeply, I also took the ISO 14064:2006 "Greenhouse Gas Inventory" course. The teacher was a professional greenhouse gas verifier, and I also shared the concept of "permaculture design" with the teacher. The teacher said: "International standards talk about the hardware part, lacking the warm and caring software part. The concept of community building in permaculture just happens to make up for this shortfall. I will buy books on this to read."

I was very happy to hear the teacher's feedback. The environmental problems we face now are complex and diverse. This is not something that a single group or a single specialty can handle, so the seniors in permaculture were very farsighted. This era needs interdisciplinary integrators to help everyone solve problems.

Permaculture is not just about helping a small number of people live a self-sufficient life. It can help everyone solve today's problems. Although most people still aim to make money, and the purpose of making money is present survival, the permaculture idea of "care for the Earth, care for people, share the surplus" is for humanity's longer-term survival. For humanity to survive, we must slowly change our thinking and our way of life. We seeds who have already taken the course have the responsibility to spread this idea further.

From finishing the course in 2009 until now, nearly two years, I have practiced the spirit of permaculture to some extent, but the field of permaculture is vast, and I still feel I understand too little and have done too little. Because one person's time, energy, and ability are limited, I thought that if everyone did it together, it would be more powerful.

So after finishing the advanced course "Creative Community Communication Facilitation" this year, several partners and I decided to form a local permaculture family to put the spirit of permaculture community building into practice, support and cooperate with one another, and exchange our professional knowledge and skills, hoping to understand and practice the idea of "permaculture design" more deeply and to spread such a good idea.

Many people long to find a path that can sustain life, but they do not know which direction to go, just like my client asked me: "This information is very important, but why have I never heard of it?" When my mentor Robyn worked hard to teach us this knowledge, it was in the hope that we could pass the message on. The teacher said: "Many people live very hard lives now. Go tell everyone about a road that can be walked in the future!"

I believe the few of us will gradually pass the message on, and I also look forward to more and more people becoming permaculture designers in the future, working together for the future of our global village!