Permaculture and transition - we are the earth's immune response

I’m another permaculture old-timer, having originally been inspired by wild man Bill Mollison to look at the world with different glasses. In my previous training as a scientist, everything was broken down into their constituent parts to be measured and analysed. Permaculture, though, is about designing from the point of view of whole systems. I loved the idea that by being aware of the interconnectedness of all parts, of all beings, we can design processes and systems that can be high yielding, effective and fair.

I took my design course with Graham Bell, with a baby in arms, 20 years ago. Since then, when approaching a problem or a new project, I tend to spend a long time mulling over all the issues – usually in bed! – before coming up with a design. One of my favourite permaculture principles is about turning problems into solutions, so that I rarely succumb to that very English disease of allowing myself to be limited; sometimes to the annoyance of others I’m always looking for the opportunity in a problem - transition being the biggest example of that. ‘Everything happens at the edge’ is another  favourite principle: I think of myself as a pioneer, because pioneer plants are mostly the sappy, adventitious small trees searching for sun such as willow and birch – It helps me to remember I’m not a mighty oak.

Permaculture applies best of all to material and plant systems, I feel, as they are more predictable. So when setting up a car club five years ago with some friends, we designed it so that it would be self sustaining, replicable and take cars off the road. Five years on, with twelve members, the design of the car club, written up here, has barely changed, though we tweak it every year or so.

With transition it’s a bit different. You can definitely apply permaculture principles when starting and running a group or a project in transition. Integrate rather than segregate is a principle I love – I get quite excited about the enormous potential in the collective mind of a group that doesn’t yet know each other. Use and value diversity has a similar power; training as a facilitator, I now realise that the strength really is in the diversity of opinion. Making decisions through consensus, for example, ensures that all the concerns are integrated into making better solutions rather than being seen as annoying blocks. (See below a great video about how the Occupy New York crowds make decisions.)

I adore the idea of Leverage Points or the question: What is the one small thing I can do which will have a big effect? I highly recommend this seminal paper by Donella Meadows on the subject. It describes another essential permaculture principle: obtain a yield. So when inviting a speaker or creating a project here in Transition Town Lewes, we try to make sure we do it well and communicate well so that the concept and information has maximum impact widely.

I recently accredited with a permaculture diploma, of which I’m ridiculously proud. Writing up the 10 designs, which you can read here,  was difficult because it involved me unpicking what I had become unconsciously skilled about, and learning new design techniques. Some of the designs are patchy, but hopefully useful to others. I have one criticism, though, of the permaculture teachings, which is that they doesn’t take into account this intangible principle I’ve come to understand as co-creation. For me, the way things took off in Lewes was less about design and as much about creating a vision and a basic vessel and then ‘getting out of the way’ while holding the vision. Rob used to describe the last step as ‘let things go where they want to go’.

So ultimately, permaculture design is great for the details of transition, and I also see the change process of transition, of the Occupy movements, of all that is to come, as totally out of our control and unstoppable, as though we're an integral  part of the earth’s immune response, as Paul Hawken puts it here in his wonderful video.

photos: Baked Bean Car Club (Viva Lewes credit) and permaculture diploma