Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective (2015) - full transcript

(cars honking)

- [Voiceover] A keystone species

is any species in
an ecosystem whose

population and behavior
affects every other species.

That's certainly what we
are as a species right now.

- [Voiceover] If you
look at the foundation

out of current
system, it's based on

a flawed understanding
of nature,

and a lot of our
political ideologies,

our economic system,
it's all based on

this understanding that we're
separate from natural systems.



- [Voiceover] We've
seen enough examples

in different civilizations
and societies

that have existed
throughout history.

Invariably you'll
find that the reason

why they no longer
exist is because

they undermine
their resource base.

- [Voiceover] The
word agriculture comes

from Agrarian culture.

Agrarian means the soil, culture

means the enrichment of it.

Agriculture today
is the destruction

and depletion and
extraction of soil.

It's an extractive
process closer to mining.

- [Voiceover] All of
the agricultural soils



where our food is
coming from is losing

around two millimeters topsoil

per acre per year
every single year.

It really can't continue.

- [Voiceover] So as
we look at the present

modern world that we live in,

it's largely an
industrial economy.

And this idea of centralization,

mass production, long
distance transportation,

goes completely
against how it is

that evolution has
actually done what it's

done so beautifully and
ingeniously on the Earth.

And what we're
looking towards is

this question of adaptation.

How can we, as a species, really

adapt to how the Earth works?

- [Voiceover] In order for
us to design an agriculture

or a culture that is
ecological, then we have

to look to our local models,
and that's the forest.

That is our teacher.

- An ecosystem generally
doesn't require

lots of energy input
from the outside

from another ecosystem.

It's finding a way
to work with the sun

and all the natural cycles
throughout the seasons

to produce what it needs.

- [Voiceover] Nature's
the best thing we got.

Point to something
else that's better.

There's nothing, we
don't have anything else.

And it hasn't only
survived, it's thrived,

it's found ways to
adapt to new conditions.

- [Voiceover] Let's
now design ecosystems.

They're ecologically sound,
economically productive,

and permanent agriculture.

- [Voiceover] Permaculture
is not a thing.

It's a way of thinking,
it's a process of design.

And the word permaculture comes

from permanent and agriculture,

and it's putting those
two things together

and asking the
question can we create

a permanent agriculture.

Not permanent in the
sense of concrete,

but permanent in
the sense that it is

built upon and grounded
in the resilient

diversity of how
ecosystems work.

And it's also a
permanent culture

in the sense that
can culture become

something that is
grounded in the real

resilience of biology.

- And we can really
look at permaculture

design as a whole way
of seeing the world.

Looking at problems
and seeing how

they can turn into solutions.

- [Voiceover]
Permaculture is a design

process that's applicable n any

landscape for any
set of objectives.

- Permaculture is dependent on

the prospects for us doing good,

not us just doing less bad.

And that really
has been the driver

of a lot of the modern
environmental movement

is people doing less bad, let's

just do less damage.

Be eco, lower our footprint.

- [Voiceover] And
concepts like this

create a very
dangerous self image

because it's a self
image that's based

on the notion that
we're inherently bad,

or inherently a scourge
on the face of the planet.

- [Voiceover] I wanna have as
small an impact as possible.

Ultimately, it'd
be better if you

didn't live with
that approach, right?

And that's where you go
with that philosophy.

Well I don't wanna be
dead, I wanna live,

and I want the lives
around me to live

better as well
because I had lived.

So all of a sudden
humans start doing good

and then impact
is a great thing.

Footprint is something
we wanna leave.

- [Ben] We're a piece of land

that's representative
of what most

of land is in the United States

and increasing in the world,

it's a beat up old hill
farm, so it's degraded land,

we're not on agricultural land,

so the strategies
we're working with

are specifically to respond
to these conditions,

how to restore health
to degraded land

and to do so in a way in which

you're gleaning valuable yields.

We see the time we're in today

as a period where
we need new tools

and new strategies,
new techniques

for land repair
that are adaptive

in our more rapidly
changing world.

Whoa!

We check them once every
few days to a week.

Look at their hooves,
make sure they're healthy.

It wasn't until
after we got sheep

that I realized that the
site, that the biomass,

the biological material,
that the site was producing

was mostly oxidizing,
it wasn't being

cycled back into soil directly,

and that doesn't really
build soil very quickly,

this material falls
down and it decays

in the sunlight
and oxidizes and it

doesn't turn into soil directly.

And when this
material goes in the

mouth of a grazing
animal and out

through the backside
it comes out

as fantastic, pure
soil and moves

right back into the
soil food web system.

All of a sudden, when
we got grazing animals,

the lushness of the site and the

vitality of it just
started to go straight up

and we saw more richness in what

the soil could do on this site

in a season of
grazing than we had

in six years before.

So we're always
adding organic matter,

feeding the soil
from the top and also

feeding from the
bottom with roots

because that's carbon that was

in the atmosphere,
these roots...

Now in the soil, that's carbon

going from the
atmosphere into the soil,

that's the reverse
of a smokestack.

That's the opposite
of a factory.

And plants are the
opposite of a factory,

right, reverse
carbon conveyor belt.

Oh, I'm stepping on
them, there' s so many!

Wow!

It's neat to see the value of

perennials in the ecosystem

as far as food
producers, you know,

perennials, plants that don't

have to be planted
every year, they're

constantly growing,
constantly establishing

themselves deep in
the root systems

growing bigger every year

and more productive every year

versus an annual that
we always have to plant.

Seaberry is a
nutraceutical quality berry

that's loaded with
essential fatty acids

and vitamin E, vitamine C, many

forms of anti-cancer compounds.

It's really a
citrus of the North,

but it's much more
nutrient dense

than any citrus, and it's
a nitrogen fixing fruit,

one of the only
that we can grow,

so it's actually putting more

nitrogen into the
soil than it takes,

it's putting more
fertility back into

the soil than it extracts while

giving us a very high quality
yield of food and medicine.

The plants that are most
medicinal for the land

also tend to be
the most medicinal

for the human body.

Which probably
isn't a coincidence,

we're all co-evolved with plants

for tens and hundreds
of thousands of years.

So here we are in
seaberry swale zone

and this is our
growing medium here.

If you look at the
material we're on,

you just pull back the
one inch of subsoil...

And roots, you see
what we're on here.

This is bedrock, we're on zero

to one to 12 inches of subsoil

on the Earth itself,
the mantle, right,

schist, green mountain bedrock

Terrible land, the
opposite of Ag land

and we've turned
what was the least

productive area
this property into

now the most productive,
this Southwest facing slope

was in perpetual
drought and I didn't

realize that until we
actually dug these swales.

Swales is where you
cut out of a slope

on a line of equal
elevation across

a slope, not up and down,

horizontally across the slope,

you take that material
and you put it downhill.

(beeping)

And so all you do is
create this long channel

where the water has to stop when

it's flowing downhill, and it's

spread out and infiltrate.

And so all of a sudden the water

has to go into the soil and it's

not just moving
across the surface,

it's going into the soil horizon

and then percolating
through the soil

past the roots of plants.

Made the swale.

Does anywhere in
this whole field

look as productive as this?

There's so much more food

and soil building here, this is

the kind of biological action

that's happening here.

So I got tillage radish,
purple top turnips,

clover, there's so much food

for people and animals here.

There's more food
for grazing animals

on this swale than there is in

the existing field that was here

and probably more nutrition here

than there is in
this entire field.

And we didn't add anything,

we just changed the structure.

The only input's in
running the machine,

we didn't put lime or fertilizer

or anything like that in.

It's structural
adjustments, land Rolfing

Land chiropractics, it's like...

The rice comes right
out of its stalk,

so all of these,
that's really cool,

you see how it's inside that?

The rice?

It's coming out of...

The grass.

In parts of Southeast
Asia they've

managed to figure
out how to grow grain

for not just hundreds,
but thousands of years

in the same piece
of land in these

things called patties,
even on hilly landscapes

without losing
their soil, without

losing the constant battle
to erosion and gravity

which is soil loss
and nutrient loss.

Because the patty
changes everything.

All of a sudden you
have a depression

in the landscape, and you have

a system that's
catching everything

rather than always
losing your nutrients.

Everything we're
doing here, we're

realizing, is an attempt

to actually farm the water first

and the soil second.

Now water droplets that used

to have to travel
about 1,500 feet

from the top of the
property to the bottom

have to travel
about a mile through

swales and patties and ponds

and most of that water
never even leaves the site,

it's infiltrated and
recharges the ground water,

or it goes right into plants and

evaporated back up into the

hydrological system to fall

as rain somewhere else.

There's a fossil
fuel input there

to create these
land shapes which

I resisted early on and wanted

to do everything by hand,

but then I realized this energy

is only gonna be cheap and super

available potentially
for a short window

in human history, we have
those resources today,

and they're being burned up for

flagrant uses every day.

So now my approach is one of

oil intervention, oil to soil,

oil to inter-generational
infrastructure.

We get done with Earth working

an area of the land,
heavy equipment

never goes back
there, it's done,

that land is
structurally adjusted

to be more robust for the next

five, 10,000 years until
the ice comes back again.

And be more resilient
in the face of

drought or flood
and more productive

every year thereafter with

a little bit of Earth shaping.

We're not just creating rows of

corn or beans,
that's just for us,

you think about
cultivated till field,

that's just for human
beings, everything

else needs to basically be
killed to get that crop,

you know, that thousand
acre cornfield.

Well creating a
multi-storied ecosystem

with mushrooms and
berries and fruits

and nuts and grazing
animals and vegetables

all interwoven, this
idea of permaculture.

- [Eric] Among the things
that do well in this spot...

(mumble) eat as many as you
can put in your mouth at once.

We found a place that was

just as beat up as
it could possibly be,

the house was brand new but

the yard was just
a wreck, most of it

was fill, it didn't
even have vegetation

on it or anything.

We could have gotten
a farm and stuff,

but we wanted to show what could

be done on this
scale 'cause so many

people have yards this side

and we wanted to show that even

with terrible soil
and lots of shade

you can produce a
huge amount of food.

We spent a year
learning the site

Watching it in every
season, learning

the pattern of light and shadow

and rainfall and snow and wind

and came up with a pattern that

harmonizes to the
best of our ability

our goals within needs
and opportunities

the site presents.

Basically we wanted
a double handful

of fruit every day from
late May through November.

We wanted edible greens
every day of the year.

We wanted to build
organic matter

and to put some
vegetation in here

and to make some
habitat to bring

life back, to bring animal life

and soil life and fungal
life back to the site.

And we're trying
to do it in a way

that functions as
a real ecosystem.

We've tried to find this garden

as the best of both worlds where

you've got native plants
and habitat plants,

many of which are edible.

And you've got food plants

many of which provide habitat

all working together to try

and bring this ecosystem, this

novel designed
ecosystem to life.

And it's mostly perennial.

We're experimenting
with perennial beans

and perennial chickpeas
and all kinds of stuff.

So we grow 70 kinds
of perennial greens

and another 46 species of fruit.

These are paw paws, and
it's a delicious fruit,

it's related to cherimoya,
soursop and guanabana

all that good stuff,
and it's native

here which is really
important to us,

we feel like we
always wanna start

looking at the native
plants of our area

and building out.

Paw paws are creamy and
custardy and wonderful.

I'm not a spiritual
guy, but I would say

there's a spiritual
enrichment that happens

when you make that
transformation,

when you regenerate
a site and that's why

we talk about permaculture
being regenerative design.

Sustainability is
just about keeping

things as they are, not
letting it get any worse.

Regenerative is about
making things better

and that's really very promising

and very inviting.

- (mumble)

- [Lisa] It's so peppery.

Isn't that nice?

You know, in a setting like this

which some might
classify as suburban...

I think it's pretty
important to not focus

on the negative
aspects that suburbia

has come to engender
over the years.

We have an enormous opportunity

to take the
neighborhoods we have

and turn them into the
villages we're going to need

to navigate through the future,

so whether you think of

stringing a bunch
of lawns togethers

for food production,
or all of the roofs

that could be capturing
energy and rain water,

or just the geographic proximity

of people and
families to be able to

team up together and make
positive things happen.

Just wanna welcome all of you

and thank you for coming
to this Perma blitz

the idea being that we
all pitch in together

and we get an enormous amount

of work done in
one day for turning

a permaculture
design into reality.

- [Little Boy] (mumble)

- [Voiceover] You
boys are so strong!

- Doom and gloom and ultimatums

of catastrophe are
not necessarily

the most compelling messages.

I mean it's true that we need

to be concerned about what's

happening in the world and not

hide from those realities.

But at the same time,
hold in our hearts,

this amazing vision
of what's possible.

What could it be like if humans

could help make this
place sing with life.

- [Lisa] So I'm really
interested in taking

the scope of
permaculture and taking

it really wide and
looking at how does

a whole region or
whole community adapt

this kind of systemic
design lens and thinking.

Pedal People was
started 10 years

ago and it's a worker co-op that

uses bicycles and bike
trailers to haul things.

Somewhere along the
line somebody said

wow, a diesel truck,
that's a great way

we can pack a lot
of trash on that,

but when you look at
the effect on our roads

and we look at
really the terrible

effect that diesel fumes have

on our communities,
bicycles just are awesome.

The whole business
is really based

on a principle that there's
no such thing as waste.

And Pedal People
actually takes that waste

and takes compost,
literally, we started this

in our pilot project, and uses

that to build healthy soil.

Taking out of the
waste stream all

the wonderful organic materials

that are just going
into the landfill

and contributing to methane gas,

but actually using
that, pulling it out

and building healthy soil.

- [Steve] We moved
to this house about

11 years ago in
Plymouth, New Hampshire,

and it's an 1890s
house, and it's

on a half an acre,
and we did that

with a lot of intention.

As much as we would've liked to

start it clean and
be able to build

exactly what we wanted
in a way that we wanted,

one of our thoughts
was that so much

of the housing stock that's
needed is already built,

and all the energy's
been put into

all these houses all
across the nation,

so could we take
a house in a town

that we really wanted to be in

and start to retrofit
it and actually

embody permaculture.

For us, the whole
intent of putting

a composting toilet in the house

was part of trying to close

the cycles of
nutrients and energy

as they flow on the
property, and we realized

we had a huge disconnect where

we were eating all
kinds of healthy,

organic, local food,
we were processing

it really well with our bodies,

and we were creating this really

nutrient rich waste, human waste

is really nutrient
rich, I mean we

use cow waste and all kinds of

other manures in agriculture.

And so we had this really
nutrient rich waste

that we were using
clean drinking water

to flush down a pipe to
the sewage treatment plant.

And so we realize there's a huge

disconnect, so we
were taking all

this fertility and we
were actually exporting

it from our site,
and it was becoming

a really energy intense
polluting issue.

So we decided we could actually

keep our waste home, capture it,

and recycle it on
site and use it

to actually nourish
the forest garden

and the fruit trees.

So this is basically
the bottom part

of the batch composting system,

so all the waste from
that second story bathroom

that I showed you
just comes down

through this piece
of road culvert

And then there's a fan that

actually just is
exhausting any odor

and any moisture from the
system, just out of the house.

And then inside that
box is this drum.

Just this pretty typical
trash can on wheels.

And that will hold,
it'll fill probably

about 60% of the way after

about three to four months.

We're gonna compost this
material really well.

It will have been sitting
for a couple years

and we can take it out
and actually use it,

so we're spreading
it around, above

the root system, the fruit tree,

and then putting fresh
mulch material on top.

The trees are happy.

- [Dwaine] Sneaky ailanthus.

Who invited you to this party?

Look at this, a field of dreams

on top of a building.

Green roofs literally
are a vegetated

system that cover
most, or if not all

of the surface
area of a rooftop.

We can integrate elements

from the natural world
into a developed space

in a harmonious way to
add not just beauty,

but some functionality as well

that you get in
the natural world,

you can bring that into
a built space environment

in a powerful way
with green roofs.

One of the great
unspoken catastrophes

happening in this city
and cities like this

across the country,
across the world,

is the enormous problems
caused by sewage systems.

So in a city like
New York, rain water

goes into a combined
sewage system,

so every time you use the toilet

or wash your face
or brush your teeth,

that water goes into
the same sewage system

as storm water.

This puts an enormous burden on

the current model,
infrastructure model

for dealing with these kinds

of environmental inputs.

Large cities like
New York city eject

anywhere from 25 to
30 billion gallons

of raw sewage into
those surrounding

bodies of water
every single year,

I mean that's just
an astounding number.

And that is having a
catastrophic effect

on ecologies that
depend on those

bodies of water that are near us

and it's having a
catastrophic effect on us

because we're
intimately connected to

and dependent on
those ecosystems.

So if you've got living
systems like this

covering the city, you have a

massive capability of absorbing

almost all the storm
water that falls

over the city on
top of buildings,

this is one of the
biggest contributors

to combine sewage overflow.

And I think one of
the most important

revolutions has happened in the

last five or six years is that

green roofs have
now become a center

for food production.

So you can get all these other

sort of cascading
benefits, but now

you can imagine that
you can grow food.

And on a green roof
this size, you can

grow enough food for
several different

communities that are
local to this area.

So these are the beehives.

One of the principles
of permaculture is

the idea that, in
a limited space,

you can diversify the production

that's happening in that space.

And here you have
built in pollinators

for the food production
and perennials

that are planted on the
other side of the green roof.

So you have this mutually
supporting relationship.

And of course you get
a little added bonus

because you can
rob a little honey

when the time is right.

When I got involved
with green roofs

I was working for
a non-profit that

really, you know,
I had such a deep,

I gained such a
deep understanding

of social justice working there,

and one of the reasons
that we were involved

with creating green
roofs is because

the understanding was is that

this was a way of not just
improving the environment.

Although that was
our goal, our goal

was to improve our
immediate environment

there in the South
Bronx, but also

to look at a way
of creating unique

and appealing
jobs, opportunities

for people who are really often

not a part of that conversation.

You know, really, it's about

supporting human
activities in a way

that enables us to also support

these essential relationships
that we depend on.

Brings us back into that
web of interdependence.

- [Andrew] We've got
over 120 million people

in the Northeastern
corridor which is over

one third of the United
States population.

Most of those people are living

in urban epicenters.

And what we're looking at as we

tour around these
sites in this landscape

is ways to take the
principles of permaculture

and turn a problem
into a solution.

The dill here...

Is a permaculture
guild plant in that

this plant attracts in
beneficial pollinators.

These two plants together create

a symbiotic relationship
where the dill

is attracting in the insect that

will eat the things
that would have

made holes on this.

And so you end up
with better looking

kale and some dill to
make your pickles with.

So one of the main
things we're out

here to look at is
this rain tank up here.

Part of what's so great
about this rain tank...

Is that you don't even know
there's a rain tank here.

In a landscape where we
get two to four inches

of rainfall every single month,

we could be catching,
holding, storing,

and using that rain
water in our landscapes.

This is one that
we're looking at here

that is a 1,000 gallon tank.

The water for it is all
coming from a church

that is a large structure that's

sitting next to the
community garden,

and the roof surface
of that church

sends all of its water into

this 1,000 gallon
tank, so we see

a great example of another
permaculture approach

which is let's use biology
to back up technology

and here the biology
is all these vines

that are trellised
over the tank.

Prolong the life of
the tank, increase

the water quality by keeping

light from getting into it.

We'll see, I'll turn
this one on so we can

see the volume of water
we're talking about.

So when we catch it,
hold it, and store

it high, part of why this tank

is so well placed
is because it's

at the highest
point in the garden,

so every place we go downhill,

our water pressure
will actually increase.

For every foot of
drop in elevation,

you get one pound
of PSI pressure

in a water pipe.

Tanks like this
throughout the city

in our community
gardens are really

an invaluable resource because

this water flowing
right now doesn't

need any electricity
from the grid,

doesn't need any trucks, doesn't

need any aqueduct
from the cat skills.

All it needs is
to have this line

from that tank be
connected, and we've

got gravity fed high
pressure, high quality water.

This would just be turning into

a storm sewer overflow event,

and now here it is becoming

part of how we can grow super

high quality nutritious foods.

And people will ask us
will permaculture work

and what Bill Mollison
said is will plants grow.

(children laughing)

- Not me!

- [Paula] This is both
an educational place,

but really from the
kids' point of view

it's more of just a really
pleasant place to hang out.

And it's really
beautiful, the idea that

the garden is really
part of the block.

And so it's just integrated like

all of the fruit plants
and the vegetables

are now a normal part of life.

It became much easier to teach

garden design when I was using

permaculture principles
because I wasn't...

Designing something
that they would

think would be this
disgusting amount of work

that would turn them off
to the whole project.

Instead, we could
design a playground

where food is naturally growing
throughout the playground.

That that's a healthy
part of this garden,

that's not taking
away from the garden,

that it's adding to it.

And the people sitting
out front and playing

cards adds to it,
and that they're

looking out over it
and taking care of it.

And that's all part of, to me,

the permaculture idea,
especially in the city.

- [Ari] This neighborhood's
called Waterfront South.

And here in Waterfront
South there's

a lot of environmental
issues because

of our proximity to the river

and to industry along the river.

The storm water and household

waste water treatment facility

is like a block away and they

process all of the store water

and household waste
water for Camden County.

Historically,
they've been really

bad to the neighborhood and this

neighborhood is known for

having a certain smell that

Camden as a city doesn't have.

And made it so it wasn't

like people wouldn't
go play outside

because of the
smell, and so because

of our closeness in proximity to

the water treatment
facility, we've

come to realize that it's

really important to find a way

to recycle water
and reuse water.

- [Little Girl] Faster.

- [Louis] Camden's
an older city.

It's been around for awhile,

it's had its ups
and downs, but yeah,

the way the sewer
system works is

everything's going,
all the pipes connect

to the same route, they're

not separated in any way.

When it rains,
all the rain water

gets collected in
that same area.

So when it starts raining,

and it goes on for
a couple hours,

it starts to flood, the system

actually overflows
into the streets

and flooding is bad down here.

So right here we got...

We have these inverts
in the sidewalks

because the streets have
a downward slope to them,

but all the rain water
rushes down the streets,

comes through these
vents, vents go

straight across into
the rain garden.

They go across the
rocks, it's almost

like a natural
filter, and they water

this, these gardens.

Before this happened,
three years ago

it was an abandoned gas station.

Three years ago, an
abandoned gas station

and now it's a rain garden.

It's a big contrast.

Well after they had
lifted the concrete

and it was just dirt,
we brought in soil,

we started bringing plants,

we started taking plants from

our native plant nursery.

It went from being
that run down,

abandoned gas station,
really, just dead,

to turning, it's
like it's flourished

and it turned into this.

It's really lively,
I can hear crickets,

there's something
living in here.

This is just, this
is rain water,

this is that overflow.

Yeah, like right here,
not too long ago,

this was an abandoned factory

and it had got
burned to the ground.

And that's all that remains,

that's all that's left
standing was that tower.

But definitely, if something
were to happen here

I'd love to see a
rain garden put in.

This, it's a massive lot.

It's empty, that's
all it's, it's

already got life growing in it.

Why not?

I mean it's already
growing plants.

Why can't we, we could
make it functional.

- [Pandora] Talking,
showing, sharing,

and practicing to pave the ways

people and the planet
are all connections,

so (mumble) about that.

(mumble) and free
colonizing roots,

can I get an a-woman.

(laughing)

A-woman!

Can I get an a-woman?!

- (unison) A-women!

- That's where my family
used to, you know?

That's the way, blah blah,

oh that's kind of,
well that's just...

One of the most
inspiring permaculture

principles for me
is the first one,

this idea of observing
and interact.

It slow me down, it
allows me to understand

the flow and the
wisdom that exists

in a landscape that I might

have the opportunity
to learn from

and co-design with.

And it's the same with people.

I work with formerly
incarcerated men,

so when I can talk to them about

the permaculture principles and

applying it to their
life, they get it

and they immediately apply it.

Whether they have land or not,

whether they have a window that

they can plant
seeds in, but they

understand this
permaculture lens

starts with me, how
I'm designing my life,

and then how I'm
meeting mine and other's

needs for sustenance.

Naturally that includes
food, water, energy.

So it's that integration
and relationship building

because I don't
wanna assume that

any person or group doesn't
care about something.

I wanna create
capacity for people's

needs to be heard.

How do we meet people
where they're at,

and that to me is the on ramp.

It's actually meeting
people where they're at,

acknowledging where
they're at to be valid,

and then co-designing
this movement together.

All 16 of the participants,

you can make your way over.

- I can give back now, you know,

I mean I have children that can

actually learn from me,
you know what I mean?

How to build garden
boxes and run lines

and drip systems and
so on and so forth.

And what's the importance
of having healthy food.

- [Voiceover] What
we've been doing is

we're planting 500 fruit tress,
actually 494 to be exact.

We got cherries, we got
apples, and we have pears.

- So that idea of
observing and interacting

is not just about the
land that we're a part of,

but it's all of
the different areas

that we are trying to
transform in our lives.

- [Charles] Permaculture
is a lot more

than simply applying a new set

of techniques to nature that's

viewed the same way as the past.

It's not just a
bunch of techniques

to better manipulate
the substrate of matter.

It comes from a different
understanding of matter.

So to make an
economy ecological,

we have to understand what is

true of the rest of
life, and that means

understanding ourselves
as a part of nature.

Not the lords and possessors

of nature as Descartes put it.

And as technology
seems to make us think,

you know, that a
better world will come

when we finally
complete our dominance

over all natural processes,
over all other beings,

we can control things
at the genetic level,

at the nano level.

Then we'll have a perfect world.

We're waking up
from that because

for one thing, that
technological program

is falling apart, and
our control over nature

has kind of backfired,
so an economy

that's aligned with
permaculture and that

supports permaculture
would be an economy

in which for example the
best business decision

is the same as the best
ecological decision.

- [Michael] Most of
us know the saying

an apple a day will
keep the doctor away.

It's certainly not true today.

What we have to
understand is how

our food is grow
has big implications

for how medicinal
that food is for us.

I do this thing in my workshops

and I ask who many of
me do you see right now.

And usually people
will laugh and joke

and say oh I see ten of you

or two of you or one of you.

And the right answer
is I am a community

of one trillion, and my skin is

covered with bacteria.

My respiratory tract,
my digestive tract,

and without all those allies,
I would be in trouble.

Well similarly out
here in nature,

there are all kinds
of beneficial bacteria

and beneficial fungi that
cover the surface of plants.

When we come in and
spray fungicides,

we're also depleting
what's meant

to be on the
surface of the leaf.

Really, the basic
notion is I have

a symptom and I'm going to

do something to take
care of that symptom

by killing the organism
causing the problem.

On the other hand,
a holistic spray

is something that works with
the system to build health.

And that's where the
true divide lies here.

Is that spray allopathic, or is

that spray holistic, are
we supporting the system.

So there's several items that

go into my holistic
spray mix, and the

biology portion is
effective microbes.

And the way to think about this,

it's not unlike a
probiotic culture

us going into the
health food store

and buying something to
replenish out gut flora.

Well effective
microbes come to us

out of the natural
farming movement in Japan,

and the microbes select the

lactic acid bacteria, the
photosynthetic bacteria,

the different yeast are
all competing organisms

that i'm gonna apply out to
the surface of the plant.

And this is something
that I actually brew,

so there's a way to
bring it up to heat

to make these
organisms multiply.

So when I'm out
here spraying, it's

because I'm on
the positive side,

I'm looking for ways to enhance

that nutrient
uptake in the plant,

enhance the coverage
of the biology

on the leaf and the
fruit because that's

all part of how the
plant resists disease.

All these different plants that

make up this really
bio diverse scene

here in my orchard
play all sorts

of different roles.

Here you see Queen Anne's Lace,

all these umbelliferous
flowers attract

all kinds of parasitic wasps.

Those parasitic
wasps, as adults,

need the nectary to be here.

They in turn go out
and find the larvae

of the codling moth or
the oriental fruit moth

and put their egg inside
that larvae and destroy it,

so they're part of my
insect balancing plan.

It's through
biodiversity that we

bring in all kinds of allies.

I've always loved the idea of...

The permanent part of
the word permaculture,

this notion that
we live in a place

and we're committed
to it just as much

as it's committed to us.

That through stewarding it,

by creating
biodiversity, we start

to have part of
what is the answer

to a lot of our
big issue problems

that overwhelm us.

- [Keith] Riparian basically

means along the water, and a

riparian buffer
means a more diverse

ecology along our water's edge.

Most of our farms of course are

farming right to the
edges of the rivers

and we see that being some of

the most erosion prone land.

In the Summer of
2011 here in Vermont

we were hit by
tropical storm Irene

which did tremendous
damage to our farms

to the point of some farms being

literally washed away to
the underlying bedrock,

essentially losing
all of their topsoil

because their land was
in bare cultivation

with no protection
from the action

of the river and from
the action of flood

getting over the
banks and moving

swiftly over their fields.

What we see here is your

standard pattern of
riverbank erosion,

so the goal here is to
aggressively establish

deep rooted plants
and root masses

to better stabilize this.

But yeah, you can see
I mean these ones,

you know, they weren't
planted like that

pretty obviously,
but they're still

rooted and this Spring has been,

we've seen two
floods this Spring,

we just had a 100-year flood,

and these plants are holding on

even as the banks
crumble underneath them

unlike the grasses which tend to

break off and wash away,
they have deeper roots

and they hold more
soil, so the buffer

isn't simply to absorb
nutrients running off the farm.

the buffer is also to
protect it from wind,

the buffer is also
to shade the stream

the buffer is also
to prevent erosion,

the buffer is also
to provide food,

the buffer is also
to provide medicine,

the buffer is also
to provide habitat.

So I have lost track,
right, but when

we talk about
stacking functions,

we see that we're
getting multiple

yields from this one endeavor.

- For most of human history,

most humans in most
places in the world

having been getting
their food from forests.

That's definitely some good...

This is very
traditional, this has

probably been done for
thousands of years in Asia.

And it's very different
from most mushroom

production which is done indoors

on lots of sawdust where you're

controlling the temperature
and the humidity

and constantly
putting energy inputs

into the system.

And here we're out in
the woods, you know,

and the woods provide
all the right context

for these to grow and flourish.

It's a little variable,
this week's a little wet,

so they're a little
bit different,

but by and large the logs then

respond to the
conditions of the forest

which is where they come from.

And I like to believe
where they wanna be.

It's kind of nice out
here, nice fresh air.

I worked at a nature center.

We were thinning our sugar bush

for maple syrup
and had all these

small diameter
logs like this one

that we had enough
firewood, we were like

there's gotta be something
else we can do with these,

so we learned some
guy up the road

was growing shiitakes on logs.

We said let's have
him for our class.

We did it, it was kind of weird,

he plugged a bunch
of things in a log

and they're sitting there and

they don't look like
anything is happening.

And a year later of
course, first flush

and I was pretty hooked just at

the beauty of them and
the nutritional value

and just the flavor.

And then we're decomposing
this log, right?

So if you just dropped a tree it

would decompose anyway,
we might as well

decompose it with
something that's edible,

and then it eventually goes

back into the forest
soil, so we're

plugged in in a really nice way

to this whole
forest system that's

gonna happen anyway,
the trees are

gonna fall over, die, decompose.

But we're inserting
this piece where

we're getting this
really high value,

high sustenance food
product in the meantime.

You can have that
win win scenario

where the forest
benefits, we benefit,

and we engage in
the cycle, right,

we're just the facilitator
of decomposition.

The mushrooms are doing most

of the work really in the end.

There's a slug.

Gotta get the
ducks back in here.

That's our biggest
predator, so to speak.

You know, from
permaculture, Bill Mollison

was known for saying
you don't have

a slug problem, you
have a duck deficiency,

so that there's
something missing

from an ecosystem which
gets it out of balance

and the slugs in
the mushroom yard

is the system a little
bit out of balance.

(ducks honking)

The eggs are bi-products
for a surplus

of their activity as pest
control agents on the farm.

So their main job
here is to root

around and dig
out slugs and bugs

and fertilize, and
the eggs are just

helping as a surplus
of that activity.

As a product for us to sell.

What this is about
is whatever species

you're working with,
plant or animal,

how does it wanna
thrive, and how

can you create the
conditions for that?

'Cause then it just
goes crazy, you know,

if you give it the
right conditions,

it just explodes with health.

The principle that
Mollison said is

everything gardens, we're just

a piece in the whole ecosystem,

and that's a big shift from what

I've seen of
industrial agriculture

which is that we
command the ecosystem,

we tell it what to
do and it obeys us.

What we're talking about here

is that I'm just a
part of it, but the

birds in this forest,
the trees in this forest,

the rodents, the
slugs, the ducks,

are all playing
their role and we're

just orchestrating
those relationships

and trying to shift
little pieces at a time

and let it exist as
its own ecosystem

and see ourselves as just a 1/10

of that ecosystem
or 1/100th rather

than it's all about us,
you know, it's really ego

driven and I think
that's the shift

of permaculture
from agriculture is

how we place in it rather
than imposing on top of it.

- [Rhamis] If you look
at the natural world...

If you look at the
forest or jungle

or savannah or
grassland, what is

the primary energy input?

It's the sun.

And there's water
and there's wind,

you know, those are the inputs,

and then somehow, through
those energy inputs,

it's able to create this
amazing infrastructure.

So you get wood,
leaves, and you got

all the biology that's
connected to it.

You have all these
amazing lifeforms

that come from that process,

that photosynthesis,
that autotrophic process,

being able to take the energy,

the nutrients that
are in the atmosphere,

the light that
comes from the sun

and then convert that into...

Into matter.

That's incredible!

Technologically,
that is amazing!

And we don't have anything

that comes anywhere near that.

So why would you
not leverage that

technology to form
the basis upon

which the systems
that you rely upon

to live, why not
leverage that technology?

Why not leverage
that infrastructure?

And in doing so,
realize that your

ability to exist is predicated

on its ability to exist.

And that if you undermine
it, you undermine yourself.

- Here's a pound, okay?

(distant singing)

- [Susana] When you
get into growing crops

like we're doing on the
scale of an acre here,

the dry beans and pintos,
black turtle beans

and the other beans like
the whippoorwill peas

and the cow peas that you,
try the oats and the wheat.

It's very difficult
for people to get

their head around how to do that

without tractors and
combines and tillage.

Masanobu Fukuoka was
a Japanese rice farmer

that wrote two books
that are important

to people in the
permaculture movement

and both of them
were helpful to me,

The Natural Way of Farming and

The One Straw Revolution.

The biggest thing was
he didn't till the soil.

So he talked about
planting the next crop

into that crop that
was growing when

it's about time
to harvest so that

it takes over and you don't have

weeds, really, are
trying to cover the soil,

so if you do that job for them,

then you don't have
that cycle of weeds,

so if you plant the
crop, the next crop

into the crop and
that really was very

helpful for me because
I couldn't believe

that beans would just germinate

when sewn, everything told me

well you have to
drill it in, they

have to be buried a quarter inch

and to see that it works
with mulch and that

you just scythe
your mulch in place

and the beans come through it.

After we harvest the dry
beans out of the field,

then the chickens go
in there and clean up.

The way animals are treated in

the industrial system is
basically it's a one way loop,

we're not closing
the loop, animals

are mistreated, but they're also

losing many resources
that they provide

in a holistic system, and when

they're treated
well they give back.

The ducks are great
in going around

and getting insects and
eating and foraging.

They're largely self sufficient.

The Three Sisters is a great

example of a poly-culture.

The roles of the three
crops growing together,

they help each
other out, the beans

being a nitrogen
fixer, fix nitrogen,

extra nitrogen for
the soil which is

taken up by the other crops.

The squash and the
pumpkins cover the soil,

you can see how they're doing it

in the cornfield.

You just work with
the field as a diverse

poly-culture and all three crops

help each other out.

One of the things
that many farmers try,

they try to get maybe
four to five percent

organic matter for
example in this soil

and the soils tests
have come back

18% organic matter
here, in fact often

they say it's compost
because of the

way we built this soil
up here and that's

something that organic farmers

are always finding,
they're always

trying to find ways
to get organic matter

and nutrients into
the soil, but still

feeling the need
to till, so that

transformation from tillage

is the biggest obstacle.

It's the obstacle
of scale, and it's a

social obstacle as
well because it's

looking at the farm in
a very different way.

- [Mark] Every
culture that has based

its staple food crops diet,

now staple foods are
the carbohydrates,

proteins and oils.

Every culture that's
based its staple

food crops diet on annual
plants has collapsed.

Now an annual plant is a plant

that the seed goes
in the ground,

grows one years, puts out

a prodigious amount of
seed, and then dies.

If you're growing annual plants,

you have to destroy
the ecosystem that's

there to expose
the soil, so you go

and you eradicate
that ecosystem,

now you're planting
your annual crops,

now your soil is exposed
to the wind and the rain

and it does wash away, it
goes down into the streams.

There's no life there
anymore, it's gone.

Life, it's devoid
of life, you might

as well be on Mars.

That's why we need permaculture,

we need a permanent agriculture.

We need a agriculture
that actually

restores ecosystem
services instead

of an agriculture that goes in

and degrades a resource base,

wipes it out and washes
it all out to sea.

What were the plants that

naturally occurred
here and belong here

and let's create a system that

imitates the form
of that ecosystem

and its ecosystem functions.

(indistinct chatter)

When you look at what is your

region, your biome, what was the

vegetation like
here 300 years ago,

150 years ago, 6,000 years ago,

what was the range
of species that

grew in your area.

Then start to imitate
that, say okay,

pick out the ones that
have economic potential.

Pick out tall trees, medium
trees, shorter trees,

shrubs, cane fruits,
vines that are

specific for your region,
and every region's different.

The model I do
the most work with

is the most widespread
in North America,

the Oak Savanna, it ranges all

across North America.

Wherever you found Oak Savanna,

in order of height you'd find

the Fagaceae which were oak,

chestnut, or beach, they
all produce large nuts.

Apples, malice,
prior to Europeans

there were little prairie crabs.

The dominant shrub in
Oak Savanna was hazelnut.

Then there were raspberries
and blackberries

kind of crawling out,
then there were vines

climbing all over
the whole mess,

grapes was the most
widespread furthest South

you have passion fruit.

Who eats the grass?

The Oak Savannas were teaming,

teaming with wildlife.

the Pleistocene megafauna with

the mastodons, woolly
mammoth, Colombian mammoth.

This was the most productive

photo-synthetically
and biologically

productive savanna
on the planet.

So productive that
some of the soil

South of Chicago were
like 200 feet deep

of the most rich black
dark topsoil ever seen.

That rich dark
topsoil was created

by all those plants
that I just mentioned

and all those grazing
animals tearing

trees down, eating grass,
leaves, bushes, vines,

pooping and peeing, reproducing,

killing each other for zillenia.

That's how the soil was created

after the glaciers pulled back.

It was created by this
type of biology right here.

When we look at that system,

if that's what here, the
Oak Savanna was here,

let's plant those
different families with

selected plants that we've

done breeding work on to have

improved yields, improved
disease resistance,

pest resistance, and
let's use the animals

to do the weed control and
the fertility management

and a lot of the
pest control so that

animals are driving the system,

just like in nature, and we're

harvesting all the yields

that come off of the various

different perennial woody crops.

One of the things, because
this is so far North,

when you get a week
of 20 degree weather,

the burs will freeze shut

and the nut gets ruined.

And so when I'm saving for seed,

I want the earliest
ripening ones.

There's a bunch.

Now the classic perennial
crop staple foods are nuts.

We've got chestnut trees here.

There are chestnut trees that

are over 4,000 years
old, there's one

on the Eastern
flank of Mount Etna

growing out of the solid rock.

It still sets the
record of having

the largest diameter trunk
of any tree on the planet,

you know, beats
Redwoods and everything,

it's that big and that
old, 4,000 years it's been

producing a grain
equivalent with no inputs.

Anything that you would use

an annual grain for...

You know, breads, pastas, use it

like a potato in
soups and stews.

We know that nature, nature
functions with no inputs.

It doesn't take
any fertilizer from

some factory somewhere
else, it doesn't

need natural gas
to make pesticides

and herbicides and fungicides.

I've actually touched
hazelnut trees

that were planted by the Romans.

They're still there,
still producing hazelnuts,

what, 300 a.d. so that's like
16, 17, 1,800 years later

still producing hazelnuts.

These are some of
the oldest chestnuts.

We did this alley cropping,

we were growing
zucchini in between.

it's five rows of zucchini.

Then as the trees got bigger,

we moved into three
rows of zucchini,

then we went down to
one row of zucchini,

doing one row of zucchini
was a waste of time,

and so then you observe
the rest of the system

I see weeds coming in.

The weeds that were coming in

were mulberry, raspberry,
elderberry, grapes.

And so then we planted
them right down,

right down the
middle of the rows.

This was a corn
farm, I also worked

with farmers to do
exactly that transition.

Where we're entering into now

on our transition,
we've already gone

from the cornfields to
this diverse system.

Now we're getting to the point

where things are closing in,

the canopy's closing in and our

grass component is disappearing.

And so now we're starting to

manage with a chainsaw.

So we're now removing
trees, now we're

gonna have to remove
trees always and forever.

Think about that, our
management system now

demands that we cut trees down.

Crap, we have to make boards,

firewood, mushrooms,
toilet paper,

all that kind of
stuff, we have to

harvest this wood or else
we get decreasing yields.

Hi, pigger.

How you doing, you
want a belly rub?

Want the belly rub, come on,

give me the belly,
pig, belly pig,

come on, belly pig,
there you go, good girl.

Here we go, there's my buddy.

Everybody has looked in their

rear view mirror before
and seen a police car.

What happens to you, instantly

your whole entire body
chemistry changes,

and pats, they are
not being chased.

Your whole body
chemistry changes,

you are a radically
different physical organism.

So if you have animals
that live like this,

and they experience love and joy

and pats, they not being chased

by a police car,
and then what we do,

we're gonna start
doing it right now

is we feed them on the
trailer towards the end

in the morning, give
them their snacks.

So they're used to
loading on a trailer,

we don't have any squeeze
chutes, any of that,

you just call and they
run up on the trailer.

Then you shut the door
and they have one bad day.

Oh hi, how are you?

How are you?

The animals that we have there,

they are savanna species.

It just so happens that the ones

that we have right here aren't

the North American variations

of the savanna species.

So we have, we have
cattle and hogs

and sheep and
chickens and turkeys

and ducks and guineas.

And then some of the animals eat

the grasses, some
eat the broad leaves,

some eat thorny
stuff, some eat brush,

and then turkeys are
mostly insect eaters,

the chickens are
mostly seed eaters.

And so the chickens
are going around

eating weed seeds and some bugs,

caterpillars and stuff.

They all eat different
parts of the ecosystem

and the tree crops, that's what

we reserve to us,
and if you were

just looking for
a vegetarian diet

between hazelnuts and chestnuts

that's a complete protein.

(laughing)

Let's go look at the corn.

Corn has its place,
but it's definitely not

over like 60% of the continent.

But yeah, look at that!

Even in its prime, there wasn't

any more than eight feet of

photosynthesis going on there.

And they produce however million

calories per acre, but it's

not an ecosystem, there's

no wildlife out
there, there's...

Their water actually
runs off onto our farm

then we collect it and store it

and reuse it here.

Look how brown
that cornfield is.

Look how green my trees are.

And it was actually
some students

at University of
Illinois last year,

they did the analysis
and even if we

are getting, if you
look at all the yields

of the different crops
from hazelnut to chestnut,

grapes, raspberries,
currants and livestock gains

and pasture forage,
even if we got

the low end of the range of all

of the crops we grow,
we are outproducing

corn by about 30% total
human calories per acre.

I'm a proponent of doing things

to a real scale
and if we are going

to be creating
permanent agriculture,

that means growing
food for people,

that doesn't mean
planting a nut tree

in your front yard, that means

hundreds and hundreds
and thousands

of millions of acres
of food productivity,

there's, I think it's like over

100 million acres of corn that's

out there this year,
we need hundreds

of millions of acres of
food producing savannas

and forests and
all the different

vegetation types, hundreds
of millions of acres,

but let's have a mechanized
ecological paradise.

If we walk away from
this place right here,

it'll still be producing crops

for the next couple
thousand years.

- [Voiceover]
That's a good sound.

(ducks honking)

You know the word designer
is very misleading.

Designer sounds like oh, well we

know what we're doing
all the time, right,

we know exactly
what we're doing,

we're the designer.

No, we're just
facilitators, right,

we're just assemblers,
we're orchestrators.

But we can't play all
of the instruments.

We can make sure
they're on the stage

and hopefully they can play
their instruments well,

but the symphony that
comes out of that?

That's the magic, we just

can assemble the components

and kind of have faith in that

the symphony will come forth,

and it does, that's
the crazy thing

is it does come forth.

You put the pieces of
the puzzle together

in beneficial interrelationship,

this is just all
that permaculture is,

and the symphony starts to play.

We don't have to know
how to do it all.

'Cause we don't, we will never

know how to do it all.

All we have to do is start
assembling the pieces.

(guitar music)