Students of Geoff’s Online Permaculture Design Course have question-and-answer sessions where Geoff fields a number of questions every week and answers them via videos. This question was pulled from the 2021 collection. For an in-depth dive into all things permaculture, check out the free Masterclass www.discoverpe...
Question
It seems that it's clearly possible and highly beneficial to change our ways when it comes to perennials or animal-focused farms, but annuals remain an unresolved issue for me. Since human consumption is predominantly focused on annuals, from grains to veg, to me it seems like an important issue for us to address. Are we destined to be stuck/dependent on annual crops?
Taking Zajtuna Farm as an example do you have any idea on the annuals-only yield produced? Or perhaps a ballpark on how many people are actually "fed" on an annual basis? It would be great to understand and quantify how intensely applied Permaculture principles could render in terms of annuals-only production.
Key Takeaways
The main crop would be mostly annuals, with some perennials still in it. We produce enough food in a ½-acre of the main crop-that’s ¼-acre of beds-to feed 30 people 1,000 meals a year, i.e. 30,000 meals a year. That’s a general assessment for the subtropics.
Our society is reliant on highly destructive grains and vegetables are grown in destructive ways. They are the worst offenders in soil erosion. If we are destined to be dependent on that, we’ll have a short future. We can grow annuals, but why wouldn’t we include perennials and grow what we can locally.
It’s a matter of combining all these sources of food together to create a healthy ecosystem. The problem is dependency on destructive agriculture in distant places.
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About Geoff:
Geoff is a world-renowned permaculture consultant, designer, and teacher that has established demonstration sites that function as education centers in all the world's major climates. Geoff has dedicated his life to spreading permaculture design across the globe and inspiring people to take care of the earth, each other, and to return the surplus.
About Permaculture:
Permaculture integrates land, resources, people and the environment through mutually beneficial synergies - imitating the no waste, closed loop systems seen in diverse natural systems. Permaculture applies holistic solutions that are applicable in rural and urban contexts and at any scale. It is a multidisciplinary toolbox including agriculture, water harvesting and hydrology, energy, natural building, forestry, waste management, animal systems, aquaculture, appropriate technology, economics and community development.
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11 сен 2024