DESIGNING A LIFESTYLE, NOT JUST A GARDEN
Growing at least some of our own food is a step in a different direction from the mass agriculture, processed meals, and supermarket system. Designing our homes with attention to harmonizing with natural energy features is the beginning of moving away from our crippling dependence on fossil fuels. And, the list goes on.
We don’t design this way to meet any trendy environmental tableaus or even to save money but because, as permaculturalists, we are in search of that which is efficient and sustainable, those practices that might put back us into better harmony with the planet. To do that, more than any garden we grow, most of us have to seriously change the way we live.
Adopting a new lifestyle is a major part of the design.
WHY ARE WE GROWING FOOD?
We should be growing food because the way we produce it, as a society, doesn’t work for us or for the planet, and if we don’t fundamentally change this approach to supplying our needs, the results may be the end of us. Processed and packaged versions of just a few crops isn’t providing the nutrients we need, and that’s not taking care of ourselves (People Care). Monocultures, feedlots, and felled forests are scarring the planet with chemicals and destructive concentrations of waste, and that’s not taking care of the world (Earth Care). Then, we continually degrade new swaths of land once we’ve exhausted the ones we are using, and that’s taking more than is necessary (Return of Surplus).
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