PERMACULTURE IS A SYSTEM OF DESIGN for people living within nature. It has become common practice in many countries since it was developed forty years ago. However, we live in a world that is rapidly changing and we need to respond positively to this. Permaculture is now central to bringing about that widespread change, even more so with the advent of the Transition movement.
Transition started as a conversation. From that initial conversation between a small group of people, who had wide and diverse backgrounds, came a phenomenon that is now found throughout the world. We are seeing communities around the world adopting and adapting the tools that can enable our communities to reengage with each other and to build resilience.
This book, The Permaculture Transition Manual: A Comprehensive Guide to Resilient Living, written by well-known teacher and author Ross Mars, is aptly named. It is full of practical ideas, techniques and strategies that are built on sound scientific and ecological principles.
Over the last forty years Ross has researched, observed, experimented and developed integrated systems, and he shares his knowledge here. His work took a different turn when he became interested in permaculture 25 years ago. This book has been a long time coming. Here is a toolkit of useful plants; alternative farming systems that repair and build soil; skills to add value to your produce; strategies for energy and water efficiency; and techniques to enable us to re-skill and relearn arts and crafts many of us have lost in recent generations. Ross has shown that we do have the knowledge and technology to allow us to live in a lower carbon future, that we can grow nutritious fruit and vegetables, even in small spaces, and we can have a lot of fun and enjoyment doing so. This is not so much a transition away from something, as a transition towards something eminently more nourishing and healthy.
These innovative ideas will enable us to farm profitably even in extreme climates and landscapes, undertake tasks and build structures we thought were difficult to do, and select plants for specific functions and regions. This book is full of immensely useful information and handy hints for those of us who share a vision for a better future. Using the Earth’s resources more wisely and gently is the only way we might be able to leave our world in a better condition for our children and grandchildren.
Although Ross is recognized worldwide as a wastewater specialist, his focus has always been to see how natural cycles and the interrelationships in ecosystems can be improved and utilized to develop more sustainable ways of living on this planet. This book continues and deepens that work.
In her book This Changes Everything, Naomi Klein wrote “there are no non-radical solutions left” if the world is serious about avoiding catastrophic climate change. This book sets out what some of those solutions will look like, and the many benefits they will bring us. It took huge creativity, hard work and imagination to create the Industrial Revolution and we have much to thank its designers for. Yet the path forward from here will look very different, but there is no reason that the urgent dash away from fossil fuels won’t unleash the same levels of creativity and ingenuity. Permaculture design principles deserve to be at the heart of that, and this book offers us a powerful crash course in the thinking we will need if we are to create a future that actually works for everyone.
Rob Hopkins
Founder of the Transition movement
and author of The Power of Just Doing Stuff