Permaculture is an all encompassing life philosophy and a tool for designing whole systems for life, sustainable food production and settlements.  In fact the principles of permaculture can be applied to the design of almost anything.

Permaculture  design provides  practical solutions  to the problems we are faced with on earth. We, the earth, the world need permaculture to help solve the many problems of war, famine, poverty, pollution, environmental decay, depleted resources, soil erosion, deforestation, the list is long, and overall there is a global crisis happening.

However, permaculture is a positive forward thinking movement; there really is no time to over analyse, fuss and fight over the problems, its much better and useful to get out there and DO something about it.  We CAN make a difference, an individual by their actions can encourage others who in turn do the same, pockets and groups of people working on their sustainable projects and leading more conscious lower impact livings and taking responsiblity for their lives, are becoming more in number, and as we network and link we will gradually break through the dark times and into the light, post industrial age, reconnecting with Nature and living once again better lives.

We believe that the there is a powerful force here in this movement, from the roots up we will become stronger and stronger, and be able to influence and cooperate with governments and the ‘powers that be’ in order to hopefully find a path out of the mess the human race has created!
Permaculture uses principles obtained by observing natural ecosystems, and applies them to the design of farms, gardens, settlements, buildings, and for social applications such as people networks, schools, businesses and personal organisation.  

Here will be the Bill Mollison definition

Permanent agriculture and permanent cultures are essential for a sustainable existence.

Permaculture can design systems which are ecologically sound, sustainable AND economically profitable. Economies themselves must be sustainable too.

Doing as much as possible to make sure your money stays in the local economy encourages a sustainable local economy and development of your area.

Ways to help create sustainable food production include, growing your own in a garden or on an allotment or agroforestry sysyem, by yourself or as part of a community, buying from local grower and suppliers, trading with other local growers, avoiding supermarkets and shops with products which are imported from other regions and countries, and exploring the many free foods around us in nature.

With foods that must be imported look for fairtrade and organic too.

The best way to ensure local food supplies and nutrition for a local area is to design long term permaculture ecosystems such as forest gardens.

Forest gardens are sustainable, perennial agricultural systems. Designed using the principles observed from a natural wood or forest, they are the most stable and resilient ecosystem in temperate latitudes.

They may require quite a lot of work to implement but when they are established they require relatively very little maintenance compared to annual crops. They give food and useful products year upon year, with few inputs needed. Products include fruits, nuts, seeds, perennial vegetables, herbs, honey, saps, timber, poles, firewood, game etc. The beauty is the fact that there is great bio-diversity, it is working with nature, whilst increasing the productivity. This is a great example of a permaculture, benefiting all forms of life.

When there is so much food being produced from a low maintenance perennial food forest, there is reduced strain on the arable, annual veg and meat production, which means more land for trees, wilderness, agroforestry, bio-fuels and projects which integrate people and land. Nowadays land uses are so segregated wth so many people never seeing the countryside or having anything to do with food production.

It is important to design settlements which integrate the land with the people, to create a fully functioning complete system where natural cycles can be carried out.

A major natural cycle which is currently broken is the nutrient cycle between us and the soil. Every other animal returns its excrement to the soil, however we are brought up to believe that ours is dirty, worthless and needs to be disposed of, flushed away to be never seen again. It is insane to throw away such a nutrient rich resource or to use energy intensive methods to process the resource even if eventually it is returned to the soil in some way. It is seen as waste. Permaculture creates no waste, there is no waste in nature everything is used.

Composting toilets are hygienic, low impact, practical solutions to capturing our excretions in order to process them by composting and return them to the soil. The soils fertility is increased and allows for growing good quality and highly nutritious crops, which are then eaten, digested and passed out into the composting toilet once again, thus closing the loop.

A lot of permaculture theory is to do with recognizing the cycles of life and creating cycles witin our own lives, pollution is just unused waste.