david holmgren at going local - relocalising our food: using permaculture theory and practice

8/12/2019 David Holmgren at Going Local - Relocalising our Food: Using Permaculture Theory and Practice

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/david-holmgren-at-going-local-relocalising-our-food-using-permaculture-theory 1/36

2/11/14 © 2008 www.holmgren.com.au 1



2/11/14 © 2006 wwww.holmgren.com.au 2

Techno-Explosion

Energy

Descent Collapse

Historical Time Future Time




What Is Energy Descent?

• Decline in net energy available to support humanity (Net energy is energy profit after all direct & indirect costs of production are subtracted) • A gentle decline like a balloon

coming back to earth as the most hopeful future.

• Mirrors energy ascent; very fast over several decades,

and then more slowly over several centuries • Rate of change appears greater

due to radical change in direction(ie economic contraction)




Oppor

tunities from energy descent



© 2007 www.holmgren.com.au2/11/14 © 2006 www.holmgren.com.au 5

Climate Change & Energy De

scent Scenarios




Nutrient dependence of agriculture




Total Water Budget for Average Sydney Household(ABS 2000)

House Recreation(including

restaurants)

In House(& Garden?)

Services

Clothing

Food

GoodsTransport




Selected good produced in Australia

Litres/$ value Melliodora

Rice in the husk 7459 (8400)

Seed cotton 1600

Sugar cane 1239 (Honey) 2Dairy products 680 (1450) (Goat dairy) 2

Wine 503 (Wine & juice)!30

Beef products 381 (700) (Eggs & Meat) 2

Fruit & Vegetables 103 (350) !20-50

Clothing 90




Good & Services to support Victorians

Global Footprint Network

Integrated Sustainability Analysis (Sydney Uni)

Food plant based 8%

Food animal based 28%

Food total 37% 21%

Goods 24% 16%

Housing 18% 18%

Services 11% 37%Mobility 10% 9%




Melbourne Metropolitan Area: 8806 km2

Population in 2000: 3 417 218 persons

Population density: 388 persons /km2

Area of land per person = 2500m2(one quarter acre each)




Area/person needed to produce total food supply

• US agriculture ! 2200 - 4200m2/person (Jeavons)

• Swedish agriculture ! 1500 - 2500m2/person (Günther)

• Bio intensive vegan ! 300m2/person (Jeavons)

• Permaculture omnivore ! 700-1500m2/person (Holmgren guesstimate)




• To improve health and well being

• To relocalise our economies

• To develop a true culture of place that draws on our multicultural heritage• To increase local food security and sovereignty

in the face of peak oil, climate change & economic contraction




Sheet mulching, raised beds, vertical growing, & other techniques for intensive

garden agriculture




Attached Greenhouses and poly tunnels (minimal bottom heat)

for seedling production,

early production and extended seasons




Allotment, rooftop, container and vertical gardens & aquaponics (higher density areas)




Composting, deep litter systems & worm farms for nutrient recycling and soil improvement




Compost toilets and reed beds

for nutrient captureand water saving




Storm water harvesting to tanks,

swales, ponds and wetlands




Poultry for eggs in

deep litter yards,

chicken tractor &

orchard range systems




Rabbits and geese for meat,

fed by urban lawns & weeds




Neighbourhood goat dairies

managing public land




Mushroom production on compost & wood

in shaded spaces Bees for honey, pollen, wax & pollination




Home food processing, preserving & fermentation

using low energy methods




Low input pond

aquaculture




Amenity landscaping as

source of fuel and organic

matter




Wild harvesting (weeds, windfalls and wildlife): abundance at your feet




• What is the cost of current centralised markets?

• How can surpluses from gardens be distributed?

• Local markets that don’t cost the earth




• Community Supported Agriculture – For consumers: food security, seasonal food culture, influence

– For producers: capital base, market security

– Stimulate polyculture and stabilise production peaks & troughs

– Develop seasonal labour pool & understanding consumers

• Farmers markets

– Identify local sources for consumers

– Distribute seasonal surplus for home processing & preservation

– Encourage gardeners to become new producers

• Restaurants and street stalls providing set menus to reduce waste

• Local & regional currencies to encourage local production & consumption

• Increase household size for economies of scale & efficiency of resource use




• Focus on production of local food for local people

• Remove health & environmental regulatory impediments to garden agriculture.

• Develop skills (gardening, food processing, small livestock husbandry)

• Reform horticulture and agricultural education to support new start-up producers

• Remove tax impediments to barter & non monetary economies

I believe the evidence of global instability leading to energy descent if not total collapse is

so overwhelming that it is incumbent on everyone to begin taking personal and

household responsibility for reorganising their lives to adapt in place (or consolidate with

family or friends). Paying off debt, teaching our kids to garden, and turning our hobby

into a business is not going to solve the problems unleashed by permanent energetic and

economic contraction, but after forty years of public policy denial of the limits to growth

conundrum by government, the media and other sources of power and public policy, the

bottom up adaption strategy is the only one with any remaining utility. Retrofitting the Suburbs: Simplicity Institute Report 2012




Living Soil; the wa ter & carbon bank for future food securi t y

Hot Composting Mulching potatoes with meadow hay




Hot Composting

The next generation of farmers;skills to feed themselves, kin and communi t y for fu ture food securi t y

david holmgren at going local - relocalising our food: using permaculture theory and practice

Documents