Permaculture is an ecological design system that uses local resources like plants and animals to assemble productive cultivated ecosystems that meet human needs, with a focus on food and nutrition. It addresses global food insecurity challenges through locally-based solutions like community gardens, farms, and reclaiming neglected lands. The document outlines nutritional needs that can be met through a permaculture approach of growing one's own food and cultivating local food systems, with strategies like soil building, companion planting, vertical growing, and encouraging local economic support of small farms.
2. What is Permaculture?
• An ecological design system for the creation of
regenerative human habitats.
• Biologically based, whole systems approaches to meet
human needs from the landscapes in our care
• Using local resources, plants, and animals
• To assemble productive cultivated ecosystems.
• Food and nutrition is at the core of Permaculture-
designed systems.
3.
4.
5. Food Insecurity
• Global Food Security Challenges:
– Global competition for a seemingly limited
resource
– Declining soil quality and productivity
– Increasing food and transportation costs
– Corporate control of the food supply
– Reduced food diversity = vulnerability
– Climate instability
– Declining nutrition content of available foods
6. Local Food Insecurity
• Results of a 2011 Gallup survey on Food
Insecurity in 100 US metropolitan areas:
– 2010 Survey: Asheville metropolitan
area(Buncombe, Haywood, Henderson, Madison
Counties) - 7th worst in the nation!
– 2011 survey - 3rd worst !!
– One in 5 people (approx 106,000 People) in WNC
is food insecure!!!!
– NC 1st in local food insecurity in USA
– 1 in 4 kids hungry in NC, 1 in 3 obese!
– We source less than 5% of our food locally!
7. The Good News!
• We can reclaim control over our local food
supply. Local self reliance is achievable.
• Liberation through Abundance. Nature is fecund.
• We can grow what we need.
• We have access to the information, plants, and
materials we need.
• Gardens and small farms are more efficient and
grow healthier food than large scale agriculture.
• Thriving vs. Surviving: a community endeavor
10. What do we eat?
• Vegetables
• Herbs and spices
• Root Crops
• Grains
• Animals and animal products
• Oils
• Nuts
• Fruits and berries
• Mushrooms
• Products of the above: ferments, sauces, canned and
dried goods
12. Antioxidant Super Foods
Blackberries Asparagus
Raspberries Yellow pepper
Strawberries Green grapes
Apples Black eye peas
Plums Cooked tomatoes
Cherries Red Cabbage
FRUITS Peaches Red-leaf lettuce
Elderberry Red grapes Broccoli
Aronia berry Prunes Beets
Sea Buckthorn Black Currants Tea Camellia
Mulberry
Serviceberry VEGGIES
Muscadine Grape Collards/Kale
Hardy Kiwi Potatoes
Blueberries Kidney beans
Cranberries Pinto beans
13.
14. Regional Staples
– Sweet Potatoes
– Potatoes
– Onions
– Beans
– Corn
– Pumpkin and Squash
– Cabbage and greens
– Eggs
– Fruit, nuts, and berries
– Wild Plants and Game
– Small and large Livestock
15. Plugging the local nutritional food gaps
• Oils: Nuts, Seeds, Animal Fats
• Minerals: soil remineralization
• Grains
• Staples
• Cultivate more specialized farm/orchard
enterprises to close the loop/ fill the niches.
16. Strategies for meeting our
Nutritional needs
Grow what you need: Begin in the Garden
Cultivate the local community food shed.
Neighborhood
Town
Local area
Bioregion
Region
17. In the Permaculture Garden
• Build soil, plant plants, tend animals
• Begin at the kitchen door and work outward on a controlled
front.
• Overcoming limiting factors.
• Optimize use of space, fill the niches, stacking and packing.
• Select for optimum nutrition: varietal selection
• The art of placement: right plant, right place
• Mixed perennial, annual, and animal production systems for
creating food poly-cultures.
• Diverse yields over time. Year round production.
• A place for animals and fish.
18. Permaculture Garden Strategies
• Vegetables to the center;
nuts, fruits, and berries
on the edges
• For limited spaces,
grow trees as shrubs
• Speed succession.
• Increase the productive
edges.
• Alley cropping
• Use vertical space –
Grow up, not out!
• Use shady spaces
• Use slopes to advantage
19.
20. Cultivate the local community food
shed.
• Food Activism. The time is now!
• Re-skilling: Learning the art of growing food
• Cultivating interdependence: cooperation, a survival value
• Neighborhood/Community gardens
• Neighborhood/Community orchards, vineyards, berry
patches, and medicine gardens
• Wild Foods
• Food and Medicine Forests.
• Restore the commons – abandoned, abused, and neglected
lands.
• Support more local small and organic Farms.
• Regionally source our needs.
21. Nutrition and Local Economics
• Putting our money where our values lie; the myth
of cheaper foods
• Fresh food is nutritious food
• Food miles vs. food feet
• Vote with your dollars: Investing in local farms
and allied businesses
• Encourage farmers to grow what we need, then
buy it.
• Incredible Edible Todmorden
22. Have fun. Savor the journey
toward an abundant future.
CHUCK MARSH
chuck@usefulplants.org
www.usefulplants.org
wwwlivingsystemsdesign.net