Permaculture: scientific innovation or sham?

For several years, permaculture has been a media success with a profusion of books, press articles and websites, when it is not praised on public television channels. According to its followers, permaculture is an essential partner in the ecological transition.

Permaculture is not only a farming technique. It is also a way of life linked to an agrarian system similar to agroforestry that takes into account the interdependence between human societies and their environment. Permaculture practitioners claim to be part of the agroecology movement. They have to respect rules of conduct and a form of agriculture that combines traditional knowledge with recent notions of agronomy. Firstly, all agricultural activity must be based on the observation of nature, and more precisely on the functioning of local ecosystems. These are then mimicked in the space reserved for agriculture.

The rules of conduct aim above all to reduce energy expenditure by banning all tools and inputs that consume non-renewable energy. Why? Fossil fuels are not eternal and we must be prepared to face their disappearance, which will not be long in coming in a few decades.

Permaculture also aims to combat the environmental damage caused by industrialisation and intensive agriculture. Mechanisation is replaced by manual work. Goodbye tractor, weeder, irrigation pump with thermal or electric engine… and long live the campagnole (a) and animal traction.

It should be noted that permaculture uses cultivation techniques recommended in integrated or organic agriculture, such as plant cover and mulching with organic matter. The usefulness of these techniques is now well recognised, giving credence to the idea that permaculture is part of an avant-garde vision of environmentally friendly agriculture. Is this really the case?

To combat bio-agressors, permaculturists rely mainly on plant interaction, mixtures of essential oils or various herbal decoctions and teas. Everything has to come from nature, in which there are many solutions for feeding the soil, maintaining the plants and combating bio-agressors. However, the effectiveness of in the open air cultivation associations is often derisory, as the most aggressive bio-aggressors are frequently polyphagous and they can easily detect and select the scents from the plants they covet from the maze of different odours they perceive. Treatments based on plant extracts have always had a very limited action, which explains why farmers have abandoned them in favour of synthetic pesticides (and recently organic ones such as pyrethrins) when the latter became available.

It should also be noted that in permaculture, the choice of locally produced heirloom seeds is favored, which is not the best guarantee against disease and genetic degeneration.

Origin of permaculture

The first guiding principles of permaculture were set out in two books by its founders; Bill Mollison and David Holmgren: “Permaculture one” written in 1978 and “Permaculture two” written by Bill Mollison in 1979. In 2003, the fundamental principles of Permaculture were refined by David Holmgren in his now famous book “Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability”. In an attempt to give credibility to these recommendations, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren created a living community called “Tagari” in Stanley, Tasmania, Australia. Subsequently, Patrick Whitefield incorporated a new layer to the founders’ principles in his books, including The Earth Care Manual published in 2005, with his vision of integrated living in nature to create resilient facilities that mimic natural ecosystems that are self-sustaining, productive and energy efficient where everything lives in harmony. Other authors will bring a personal touch, such as Australian lecturer Geoff Lawton, or Jordan Rubin-Jordan, owner of the Heal the Planet Farm in Missouri.

Permaculture, like other approaches claiming to be organic, grew out of the beliefs and fears of the post 1960s. Permaculture embraces the analyses of the neo-Malthusian biologist Ehrlich of Stanford University, and the Club of Rome. We must prepare for the inevitable collapse of industrial society as a result of the depletion of fossil energy resources and a return to subsistence farming. This collapse is expected to occur by 2100 at the latest. Science would be unable to stop this development. According to the founders of permaculture, 4 catastrophes are expected in a precise order of appearance: famine, soil erosion, widespread poverty and viruses (contagious viral diseases).

Cultivation without disturbing the natural balance

In permaculture, ploughing is forbidden as well as weeding. Why is this? Weeds are said to participate in beneficial interactions with cultivated plants as in a forest; an idyllic vision that ignores the aggressiveness of weeds against cultivated plants, described in a chapter of this website by clicking here. Synthetic fertilisers and plant protection products are also prohibited, because in a natural forest no one uses these inputs to feed and protect the plants. These practices are necessarily related to a truncated vision of nature as if it had been invented for the development of man. But permaculture also wants to provide a solution to a predicted end of the world.

Permaculture’s edible forest gardens aim to restore a presumed ideal state of natural balance that humans have disrupted by destroying forests and ploughing land.

By seeking to mimic the balance of ecosystems, nature is restored. Returning to the balance of nature is not a recent vision. It can be found in writings dating back to antiquity. According to these writings, if nature is left to its own devices, it will maintain a state of equilibrium, and agricultural methods must respect this same principle.

Cultivating without disturbing the natural balance is also the objective of “natural agriculture“, also known as “wild agriculture“, the foundations of which were defined by the Japanese Masanobu Fukuoka. In order not to disturb nature, it is necessary to act on it as little as possible and to re-establish the spiritual unification between man and nature. It is forbidden to plough, to pull up weeds, to use fertilisers and pesticides, not to prune the crops… The only thing to do is to sow, then to harvest. Permaculture is not revolutionary. It is nothing more than a “modernised” adaptation of thousand-year-old and erroneous allegations that contradict the fundamental bases of agronomic science.

Can we believe that thousands of agricultural engineers throughout the world have made mistakes and that we should accept as gospel the assertions of a few self-proclaimed geniuses who are convinced that it is enough to trust natural balances? Yet it is easy for an amateur gardener without much experience to see that imbalance is everywhere in nature and especially in his ornamental garden and vegetable garden, which are subject to constant disturbances such as physical stresses linked to climate change, competition for access to light, water and nutrients, the pressure of bio-aggressors that changes from one year to the next, the appearance of a new, more aggressive predator that can even cause immeasurable damage to the environment.

Energy descent and post-capitalist society project

From micro-farming to animal traction; the anachronistic discourse of permaculture

It is often mentioned in texts dealing with permaculture that it is particularly adapted to micro-farms. This agricultural practice would avoid the disappearance of small farmers and would even be a source of employment, realising the dream of a return to the land and to the numerous small farms of the 19th century which employed millions of peasants. A market garden farm run according to permaculture methods would be profitable from a surface of 10 ares, but with what income for the permaculturist? There are many small animal-drawn farms in the world, such as in Bangladesh, which are notorious for their low yields and chronic poverty.

This is also the type of agriculture that prevailed throughout the world before the pre-industrial era, as described in a famous book by Félicien PARISET, “Mœurs et usages du LAURAGAIS” (4) (awarded a gold medal by the Société Nationale d’Agriculture). This work could constitute a reference and a model of direction for the followers of permaculture, as its fundamental principles are to be found. Thus, in the 19th century, the following predominated : peasant seeds, the absence of chemical fertilisers replaced by farmyard manure, the use of animal traction and the massive use of manual labour, long rotations to compensate for the lack of organic inputs provided by mixed farming and livestock farms, etc., were all prevalent.…

The consequences of this unprofitable pre-industrial agriculture (e.g. 13.6 quintals per ha for wheat, i.e. 6 times less than the yields of today’s cereal farms) are also known: massive recourse to free family labour (women and children from the age of 12) and day labourers receiving a derisory salary barely allowing them to satisfy their basic needs, pellagra (or “misery sickness”), an endemic disease due to malnutrition and vitamin B3 deficiency, illiteracy as a rule among children who leave catechism school without having learnt to read or write as soon as they receive their first communion in order to help their parents with the work in the fields… It is true that today’s permaculturists in France do not employ 12 year olds. However, they are replaced in model farms by the voluntary work of trainees whose stay and training are fee-paying for and constitute their main financial resource for survival.

Is the reduction in energy expenditure guaranteed by returning to animal traction? A tractor does not consume energy when it is at rest, which is not the case for an animal that has to eat and drink every day. A 400 kg horse must eat about 10 kg of vegetable matter (cereals, fodder, etc.) every day, which must therefore be provided for in the cultivated area.

From directive principles to environmental strata and sharing zones in permaculture

When you read the works of the founders of permaculture (or those who copy them), you are struck by the banality of the advice they give, written in the form of commandments. Some of these commandments are so obvious that no one would dare to deny them, and many farmers apply them without knowing it. Perhaps that is why Moses did not write them in stone. What are these commandments?

They are ethical principles (care for the land, care for people…), design principles (observe before interacting, achieve efficiency, integrate instead of separate, use and value renewable resources and diversity, respond creatively to change, create beneficial interactions, do not produce waste that cannot be recycled….), and ‘attitude’ principles (work with nature rather than against it; the problem is the solution…) (3).

The application of all these principles is made concrete on the farm by the establishment of strata and zones sharing the human environment. The strata distinguish large trees from smaller fruit trees, shrubs, cereals and climbing plants. As for the zones, from the house to the wild forest, 6 spaces are defined: the house, the zone close to the house, the vegetable garden, the orchard and other crops, the edible forest and the wild forest, all organised in such a way as to make the most of the energy that the system would be able to capture and conserve.

In practical terms, the creation of a permaculture farm requires first observing the environment such as the position of the cultivated land in relation to the wind, the obstacles that reduce sunlight, the location of a water source for irrigation… Then the different elements of the farm are set up, such as the location of the edible forest planted with walnut and chestnut trees, the position of the vegetable garden in relation to the house to limit travel, the organisation of the vegetable garden into flat beds where combinations of vegetables will grow, the protection of a greenhouse against the wind by a hedge made up of small fruit trees, the position of the fields cultivated with cereals where animal traction will be used…

In the writings of permaculture, it is often mentioned that permaculture would ensure a gentle “energy descent” from fossil fuels. This new World of production that is on the horizon is defined by a seven-branched flower that is supposed to represent the vital areas that bring together ethics and design principles “(6) to support humanity in the energy descent”.

Principles and prohibitions that are difficult to respect

Local circumstances are sometimes formidable for permaculture theories and exceptions have to be made. For example, it is very difficult to do without plastic pipes in drip irrigation. This technique is essential when there is a lack of water; a recurrent situation in the Mediterranean region. This technique adopted in the permaculture garden of Valsainte Abbey is included in a gravity watering system using rainwater stored at high levels and conveyed through plastic pipes. In addition, not everyone has a high water source.

Of all those who claim to be inspired by permaculture methods, how many respect all the principles set out by the founders? Are all the prohibitions respected, such as the use of tractors, including for transporting compost, as I noticed in a report broadcast on a television channel? The difficulties being numerous and the results not very convincing, many do not say everything about the derogations that they take in secret, especially as there is no official control with the attribution of a label as in organic farming.

The pseudo-scientific claims of permaculture.

Let us return to one of the fundamental objectives of permaculture; the reproduction of natural forest ecosystems as a method of cultivation.

Agriculture, as an economic activity, has as its fundamental purpose the satisfaction of human needs that are considered indispensable. Farmers produce exportable foodstuffs. To achieve this goal, farmers are forced to transform the natural environment, starting with deforestation, and then importing plants useful to humans. Every cultivated field is an artificial habitat created by man that persists as long as this artificial environment is maintained. The founders of permaculture recognised that agriculture produces an artificial ecosystem, but it must mimic the original ecosystem. However, it is difficult to have both, the natural (forests) and the artificial (crops), at the same time, as their functions are different:

• Are forest soils that are used as examples in permaculture really suitable for agricultural activities? Forests producing neutral humus where deciduous trees predominate are often cited as examples, but this overlooks a major difficulty: the fragility of their biodiversity:

• The presence of forest areas near crops is not necessarily a guarantee of beneficial interactions. For cereal crops, it is well known that the leafroller (Cnephasia) is the main insect to watch out for during bolting until heading in woodland edges or sheltered plots. Planting certain trees near a vegetable garden is problematic if the area is particularly affected by cutworm attacks, which also like carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, celery, cabbage, artichokes, spinach, and others.
• Not only do cultivated plants not tolerate competition from the roots of large trees, they also do not tolerate their shading, unlike all herbaceous forest plants.
• Cultivated plants are essentially heliophilous and ruderal plants that cannot survive in the forest. The ancestors of cultivated plants appeared in various countries at the edge of forests, paths and marshy areas that are constantly being reworked by human action. As far as vegetable crops are concerned, why is the term vegetable crops used if not in relation to their origins (a)!
• Cultivated plants have evolved through the selective action of farmers to meet their requirements, i.e. to produce exportable crops quickly in a system that is constantly out of balance and that these same farmers are trying to control (by controlling predators, using fertilisers to compensate for nutrient losses, etc.).
• Crop plants are generally unable to survive in a competitive environment unless humans intervene on their behalf by eliminating weeds and bio-agressors. From seed to harvest, crops cannot survive alone. Do we find maize, cucumbers and tomatoes growing wild in our forests?
• Most vegetable plants are imported species. This is also the case for cereals; wheat and barley were imported from the East to France around 7000 BC. Apart from the fruits of the oak and chestnut trees, lentils, radishes, sea beetroot and berries found on the edges of forests, all the other fruits and vegetables consumed today were unknown in the Neolithic period.
• Interactions between the various actors in a managed ecosystem that would be favourable to agriculture are not systematic. While some associations are possible, other associations produce random or even incompatible results, depending on factors that are often uncontrollable. Trusting only in natural regulatory mechanisms that regulate pests through their predators has never been an effective solution in agriculture. Why is that? It’s all described in another article on agroecology and ecosystem services, which can be accessed by clicking here.
• The profitability of labour-intensive permaculture vegetable farms has not been proven. Due to a lack of mechanisation, many of those who have tried the experiment have found that they have to work 60-70 hours per week. The pay for the work varies between €7 and €9 per hour (10). The physical limits of human beings, the complexity of the cultivation routes, the low added value of the products, suggest that the maximum remuneration for work will remain quite low if permaculture becomes widespread, as were the farms of the Middle Ages or those still existing in poor countries using the same cultivation methods.

a) The term “cultures maraîchères” (market gardening) appeared in the 18th century and refers to the cultivation of vegetables in the marshes around Paris and later in other wetlands around rivers.