Open Source Permaculture

What is Open Source Permaculture?

From a Chat with Lucas Gonzalez:

I think we should start raising awareness for the concept of Open Source Permaculture. Let's define what that meanby the term. This would be a crucial upgrade to what Permaculture today is about.

I have ended up an a parcel of land. I read the theory, and found myself basically clueless in terms of producing an integrated permacultural operation when I got onto the land. I believe that proper information access could have allowed us to avoid wasteful, trial-and-error-reinventing-the-wheel on the practical level (living material choices). We are still suffering from huge waste along these lines - either by spending long research hours or planting crop that will not do well here. There are issues that one can't read about - such as layout and geography - but the living material issue should be a non-issue. This way, the focus could be on further adaptation and breeding of region-specific materials - not in not knowing the optimal materials. This point may be difficult to grasp for people without an open source philosophy or without agricultural experience - but better access to information is a true bane of permaculture - as it tries to survive in a playing field of its factory-farm-global-neighbors.

Moreover, one cannot emphasize how many surprises there are in the plant world. You could read all you want - but you will never find out about what plant material is really available - you will always find particular (and extremely useful, unique, more adapted, more disease resistent, etc.) varieties from some next-door neighbor or other unexpected source. It is impossible to keep up with nature's diversity. The only way to address this is to record instances - and make them widely accessible on the internet.

The hypothesis to be tested is simple: Can permaculture become the dominant paradigm - a favored alternative to its factory-farm-global-neighbors?

To me, open source permaculture (OSPC) is:

1. Info on plant choice. Data on what explicit varieties work where - with a visual, global map - if we make this a worldwide project. This point - combined with basic theory, such as Mollison's work - leads to permacultural designs that anyone can implement where they are. The shortcomings of all global-reaching work on the topic is the lack of site-specific information - requiring the invitation of outside experts (permacultural designers). Theory abounds - but practice boils down to knowing particular varieties of living materials and where to get them. One could live on the theory only and end up with suboptimal systems - but optimization can happen from site-specific performance data.

2. Propagation - how you would get the living materials accessibly - on the cheap. This includes both industry standard techniques for propagation, and bioregional facilities where this plant material can be obtained. It should be obtained along OS lines - DIY option where you could, for example, do sweat equity at a propagation facility to get low cost or free materials. Or, it could be that you buy the materials outright. The requirement is that the bioregional facilities have EVERYTHING - diversity, quantities, and prices that allow easy access to producing an integrated permaculture implementation.

3. Machinery - open source equipment for processing; energy production; field equipment. Other supporting equipment for complete permaculture startup and maintenance, from neosubsistence to economically significant market production capacity.

4. Economic analyses of productive operations. Both on the subsistence and market levels - such that analyses promote replicability.