Permaculture: A Sustainable Future

Josef “Sepp” Holzer is one of the pioneers of permaculture. A robust Austrian mountain man (5,000 ft. above sea level) in his 60s and a trailblazer of alternative and sustainable forms of agriculture, Holzer has created one of the best examples of permaculture applied in practice and for profit in his own homestead. Students, permaculture practitioners, and other enthusiasts, visit his enormous mountain farm every year to see up close what a permaculture farm looks like and how it’s done in real life. Holzer is less about the theory of permaculture and much more about making it happen and maintaining it with great success.

In the article, “Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture: A Practical Guide,” it comes to light that Holzer has been fined and threatened with prison for practicing what he also calls “Natural Farming” since 1962 when he took over his family’s farm. Called a “rebel farmer,” Holzer was the subject of the film, “The Agricultural Rebel.” Holzer asserts that the agricultural sector has “no consideration for nature.” “Living and working in cooperation with nature for not only the sake of the environment but also for human beings to enjoy vital, healthy, and prosperous lives” is one of Holzer’s permaculture principles. Holzer’s self-sustaining permaculture farm yields “high-quality vegetables, fruits, mushrooms, nuts, fish, poultry, pigs, cattle, and citrus fruits.” All of this bountiful production is done “without irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, weeding, or tilling.” And it all takes place “in an intricate, efficient, and beautiful system of terraces, ponds and waterways, raised beds, and paths, utilizing land that monoculture based methods could never cultivate.”

Done correctly and “once established, permaculture farms and home gardens result in much less work for farmers and gardeners, as well as much less strain on the ecosystem.” Holzer’s “Practical Guide” is “beautifully illustrated and is essential reading for anyone interested in permaculture. Nature has a vast interrelated web of living beings who inhabit it. Holzer’s book is timely now that small and organic farmers in the U.S. are threatened by agribusiness.” Furthermore, “Chemical companies and others view nature as something to conquer and ravish instead of honoring and learning from her.” Everyone from “city dwellers with only a few pots in their balcony to large scale farmers can apply Holzer’s methods.”

The fundamentals to Holzer’s model are: “1. Terraces, vital to steep sloping land; 2. Ponds and interconnected waterways; 3. Raised beds that are massive constructions 5 ft high. The foundations for such beds is another method called, “hugeculture,” which consists of many large logs of wood buried deep and covered over with dirt. The crops and other environments are built on top.” Hugeculture is also known as “Holzer’s hugels” (hugel is the German word for hill). Why hugeculture? Because rotting wood and twigs act as a reservoir of moisture that consistently feeds water to living vegetation for up to 30 years and at the same time producing compost underground that also feeds plants. Hugeculture can be installed in almost any environment whether it is sandy, silty, clay, or other surroundings while the rotting wood acts like a sponge and simultaneously improves the quality of the soil.

Holzer uses a variety of techniques including aquaculture, terracing, “hugel beds raised as high as 15 feet. This eliminates the need for watering and irrigation, which makes permaculture very efficient and requiring a very low level of labor intensity. Holzer’s permaculture strategy is contingent upon setting up the landscape correctly at the very beginning and then simply start planting. Holzer maintains a 110 acre farm in the Austrian mountains and grows lemon trees in subzero temperatures; his produce sells out three years in advance! “Organic gardening starts with the soil,” says Holzer. People in the State of Montana are currently and successfully using Holzer’s permaculture model because of the cold climate there. Hugeculture uses dead wood and vegetation as a soil substitute; this method replicates and accelerates what happens in nature. Hugeculture is highly drought resistant.

The “Three Sisters” garden is an ancient permaculture practice formerly used by Native Americans by using beans, squash, and corn in a symbiotic relationship where each plant supports the other two in different ways, such as shade from leaves, short and long root systems so they do not compete, and other mutual benefits. Permaculture creates a self-sustaining loop or system where the farm or garden requires few resources and labor to maintain it. Permaculture manages the already existing and powerful forces of nature to do most of the work of farming and to provide most of its own material resources. Self-sufficiency is key in permaculture and tomorrow’s food production and agriculture will be free from almost all chemical fertilizers and other unnatural and unhealthy additives, while at the same time protecting and nourishing the Earth’s natural environment. Holzer also calls his methods, “Wilderness Culture,” and receives no subsidies for his agricultural work. Indeed, Holzer makes a large profit every year and his model is used all over the world from Austria to Scotland to the U.S. to Thailand.

Permaculture is a revolutionary wave of the future and it goes hand in hand with other great developments taking place right now in world history. All great historical events influenced others, and permaculture is no different. Permaculture is clearly a great, big sign of the times and of things to come, along with space travel and colonizing Mars, independent and private solar energy grids with residential and business solar panels, electric cars being recharged by these same, off-the-grid systems, sweeping advances in technology like mobile phones, the Internet, free education online and for everyone, civil rights, human rights, gender equality, economic democracy, and many more fundamental changes to civilization. The human struggle continues and one of our greatest tools of progress is permaculture. The rate of social change increases at an increasing rate and our aggregate knowledge doubles every few years. Humans, like all other species, came from mother Earth. Permaculture is one of the greater actors of that social, political, and economic change, bringing with it an additional yield of individual freedom and rights, self-awareness, and self-empowerment for all human beings. Permaculture is here to stay; it is inevitable and natural; permaculture needs to be a part of our destiny.

Works Cited
Morris, Kristine. "Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening." Foreword Reviews, vol. 14, no. 4, Jul/Aug2011, p. 57. EBSCOhost, santarosa.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=62970661&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Roth, Chris and Kim Crieger Goodwin. "REVIEWS." Communities, no. 153, Winter2011, pp. 80-78. EBSCOhost, santarosa.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=69653164&site=eds-live&scope=site.

"Sepp Holzer's Permaculture." Agroforestry News, vol. 19, no. 2, Feb. 2011, p. 39. EBSCOhost, santarosa.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=v1h&AN=59243745&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Zwartz, Hannah. "Out of the Woods." Dominion Post, the, 10 Dec. 2011, p. YW35. EBSCOhost, santarosa.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=TDP111210003544248968-AT&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Lundy, John. "Wigwam to Become Permaculture Classroom near Duluth." Duluth News-Tribune (MN), 02 Sept. 2012. EBSCOhost, santarosa.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=2W621272193&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Haugan, Piper. "High Elevation Gardening Possible with Trial, Error and Tricks." Montana Standard, the (Butte, MT), 29 July 2013. EBSCOhost, santarosa.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=2W62140094755&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Palmer, Kim. "'Hugelkultur' Fosters a Garden Made of Wood." Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN), 13 Aug. 2013. EBSCOhost, santarosa.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=2W62034172946&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Gates, Tessa. "Wilderness Culture That Goes along with Nature." Farmers Weekly, vol. 140, no. 25, 18 June 2004, p. 83. EBSCOhost, santarosa.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=13817010&site=eds-live&scope=site.