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Edible Forest Garden Permaculture
The Edible Forest Garden (EFG) is an integrated
perennial polyculture of multipurpose species that mimic the structure
and function of a natural forest ecosystem.
The principles of permaculture were
used to design (2005) and establish (2006) an EFG at the Michigan
State University Student Organic Farm (MSU EFG). The MSU EFG follows
a rich history of indigenous polyculture practices used throughout
the world. It is modeled after mid-successional forests native
to the Great Lakes bioregion. The plant species and varieties
were specifically chosen because of their unique life histories
and are placed to form symbiotic plant communities that connect
them to the surrounding ecosystem. The garden design is meant
to enhance the native landscape and therefore native species were
chosen whenever appropriate and care was taken to avoid the use
of potentially invasive species. In addition to producing food,
many of these plants fix nitrogen, aggregate nutrients, suppress
undesired species, attract beneficial insects and wildlife, mitigate
pest pressure, enhance soil structure and enhance the health of
the soil food web. The garden is a balance between aesthetics
and functionality.
The MSU EFG was conceived from a diverse body
of literature pertaining to Integrated Perennial Polyculture that
includes the interrelated disciplines of agroforestry and permaculture.
The design of the system follows a systematic approach to creating
overyielding polycultures that can be replicated and applied to
any scale of land use, from a small urban lot to a large commodity
farm. This tree based polyculture system provides many ecosystem
benefits, perform many ecosystem functions and provide useful
services and products which has many applications to year-round
diversified farming systems, including urban agriculture and home
landscaping. Less common species can be integrated with conventional
perennial fruit and vegetables crops as well as annuals, cutflowers
and herbs to yield a productive, ecologically sustainable landscape.
Adapting to the changes of this garden ecosystem
over time will be a constantly evolving process as nature teaches
us our successes and failures. It will provide a place for people
to learn, eat and enjoy for many years.
For more information contact; Jay Tomczak at
tomczak1@msu.edu
An Introduction to Edible Forest Garden Permaculture
Click
here to download the power point file
What is permaculture?
Permaculture has been described as a practical
design approach which enables people to establish productive environments
providing food, energy, shelter, material and non-material needs,
as well as providing the social and economic infrastructures that
support them (Elevitch and Wilkinson 2001).
History and Development of the Permaculture
Movement
Permaculture was developed in the early 1970's
by Australian ecologists Bill Mollison and David Holmgren as a
positive response to the energy crisis of the time and to ensuing
environmental degradation and resource depletion. Permaculture
was founded on the assumptions that, the environmental crisis
is real, of a magnitude that will transform industrial society
and threaten its existence, humans are subject to the same natural
laws that govern the rest of the universe, the industrial era
and corresponding population explosion were made possible by exploiting
cheap abundant fossil fuel energy, this energy is a finite resource
which will eventually become depleted returning human society
to patterns found in nature and pre-industrial societies (Holmgren
2002). The term itself, is derived from the words permanent,
agriculture and culture. It
comes from the principle that a stable, sustainable culture can
not exist without an integrated relationship with a system of
sustainable agriculture (Holmgren 2002, Whitefield 2004). From
its conception, permaculture has had a strong emphasis on developing
relationships between communities and agriculture for the purpose
of creating a stable, secure, localized food system. Permaculture
systems seek to amend the vulnerability and destructiveness of
the modern industrial food system which is heavily dependent on
massive amounts of fossil fuel inputs (e.g. petroleum based pesticides
and herbicides, fertilizer production and transportation) ( Gever
et al 1991, Holmgren 2002). Permaculture food systems make efficient
use of energy, labor and material resources and maximize synergistic
relationships and yield. Along with this food system focus and
partly because of it, the other principles of permaculture developed
to facilitate the creation of sustainable communities.
Permaculture Ethics and Design Principles
Permaculture is a philosophy, a practice and
a social movement, based on the ethics of a) care for the earth,
b) care for people and c) setting limits to consumption. Care
for the earth, implies that all of the life systems on the planet
are respected and provision is made for them to thrive. Central
to this is proper stewardship and care for the soil. Care for
people, implies that all people are treated with respect and provision
is made for them to have the resources needed to exist with integrity.
This starts with accepting personal responsibility for ourselves
in our situation and expands outward to our family, friends, community
and future generations. Setting limits to consumption, is about
governing our own needs so that a surplus can be shared and distributed
to the purpose of earth and people care. In permaculture there
is no separation between humans and nature, therefore caring for
the earth also fulfills the objective of caring for people (Holmgren
2002, Mollison 1988). These ethics have been adopted from cooperative
indigenous cultures in recognition that many of these cultures
were able to survive for centuries in relative balance with their
environment (Holmgren 2002). These ethics are the foundation for
all the permaculture design principles (Shepard and Weiseman 2006).
David Holmgren (2002) captures the essence
of permaculture as a practical and applicable philosophy with
his descriptions of what he considers the 12 major permaculture
design principles. Each of the principles has a corresponding
phrase which is found in traditional popular culture, indicating
that this wisdom is nothing new.
Permaculture design principles described by
Holmgren (2002).
- Observe and interact: Beauty is in the eye
of the beholder (i.e. systems thinking).
- Catch and store energy: Make hay while the
sun shines.
- Obtain a yield: You can't work on an empty
stomach.
- Apply self-regulation and accept feedback:
The sins of the fathers are visited on the children unto the
seventh generation.
- Use and value renewable resources and services: Let
nature take its course.
- Produce no waste: Waste not, want not.
- Design from patterns to details: Can't see
the wood for the trees.
- Integrate rather than segregate: Many hands
make light work.
- Use small and slow solutions: The bigger
they are, the harder they fall. Slow and steady wins the race.
- Use and value diversity: Don't put all your
eggs in one basket.
- Use edges and value the marginal: Don't think
you are on the right path just because it is well traveled.
- Creatively use and respond to change: Vision
is not seeing things as they are but as they will be.
To apply these principles in the real world
requires understanding them in the context of all the elements
in the system that is being manipulated. These elements fall into
the categories of, site components (e.g. water, earth, landscape,
climate, organisms), energy components (e.g. technologies, structures,
sources, connections), social components (e.g. legal aids, people,
culture, trade and finance), and abstract components (e.g. timing,
data, ethics) (Mollison 1988).
Why permaculture?
Our current industrialized food system is not
sustainable due to an over dependence on non-renewable fossil
fuel energy and the degradation of the natural systems essential
for farming. If action to change these aspects of the food system
is not taken, continuing resource depletion and degradation will
cause the food system to collapse. The current food system is
an outcome of the “green revolution” which resulted
in greatly increased crop yields by using large amounts of fossil
fuel energy in the form of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, petroleum
based agrochemicals, diesel powered machinery, refrigeration,
irrigation and an oil dependent distribution system. This system
destroys biodiversity, contributes to global climate change and
degrades soil and water quality. The availability of decades of
cheap fossil fuel energy has allowed the food system to become
dependent on finite resources that are rapidly being depleted.
Due to the constraints of the first and second laws of thermodynamics
this system can not be maintained in its current form. Essential
components of the current system such as synthetic nitrogen fertilizers
which require natural gas as a feedstock and oil dependent distribution
exemplify the fragile nature of the food system. A wide scale
conversion to low energy, ecologically sustainable agriculture
must be implemented to avoid food system collapse and future food
supply shortages. Permaculture has the potential to contribute
many of the solutions needed to create a sustainable agriculture.
The threat of hunger has been a persistent
problem for humanity, and today with great surpluses of food being
produced globally, it is the restricted access to this food that
plagues many poor communities (Caraher et al 1998). More recently,
some of the most well fed members of our society are waking up
to the vulnerabilities of their fossil fuel dependent meals and
realizing that they too, may soon face the realities of a food
insecure world (Genauer 2006). After the failure of the industrial
food system to achieve food security amidst agricultural abundance,
many community decision makers and informed citizens are realizing
that a new holistic approach to food security must be implemented
(Allen 1999). Giving people food does not make a food secure community.
Creating appropriate social networks and empowering people economically
is what makes a community food secure (Delind 1994, Wekerle 2004).
The principles of the permaculture philosophy can be used as a
holistic framework for developing social, economic and ecological
sustainability in a food insecure community.
A stable, sustainable culture can not exist
without an integrated relationship with a system of sustainable
agriculture.
Useful links
Edible Forest Gardens
http://www.edibleforestgardens.com
Association for Temperate Agroforestry
http://www.aftaweb.org/index.php
Plants for a Future
http://www.pfaf.org
Oikos Tree Crops
http://oikostreecrops.com/store/home.asp
Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_library/smith/treecropsToC.html
MSU Integrated Pest Management
http://www.ipm.msu.edu/
Biological Control
http://www.nysaes.cornell.edu/ent/biocontrol/
Food Not Lawns
http://www.foodnotlawns.com/resources.html
Permaculture Activist
http://www.permacultureactivist.net/
Permatopia
http://www.permatopia.com/
Energy Bulletin
http://www.energybulletin.net/
A special thanks to the project funding
sources:
MSU Student Organic Farm CSA;
Cash Donations by CSA members;
Volunteer work time from CSA members and local community members;
2006-2007 Project Funding from the USDA Risk Management Agency for
graduate student support, labeling, signage, additional plants and
workshops.
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