Main text: Permaculture in the Philippines: Landscape Structure, Practices, and Perspectives
Permaculture is commonly considered to be a subcategory of sustainable agriculture (Maghirang et al., 2013). Therefore, it can be a valuable toolkit for meeting the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as permaculture ethics directly address sustainability’s ‘triple bottom line’ of social, economic, and environmental welfare (Frankel-Goldwater, 2012). Beyond the SDGs, permaculture was intended by its proponents to be a radical reimagination of conventional agriculture in which sustainable food production is an outcome of proactive individual action from the grassroots (Crosby et al., 2014). Nevertheless, eventual structural change (socio-political) is also viewed as necessary by its adherents. Socio-cultural and environmental contexts have provided diversity in how permaculture is viewed by its practitioners. A review of some examples of permaculture communities in other countries provides clues on their perspectives of permaculture.
Abdala and Mocellin (2010) studied permaculture practitioners in two ecovillages in Brazil, Arca Verde and Karaguata. These were identified to be composed of middle-class professionals (i.e. journalist, teacher, medical doctor, biologist, etc.) who chose to relocate from the city for practical reasons and experiment on communal and ecological living. One respondent even described himself as a ‘wanderer’ implying the privilege of mobility. The small communities were described to have simple and utopian lifestyles. It was also reported by the author that some political perspectives of the villagers have Marxist undertones with regards to social commentary on issues related to factory labor and division of surplus. The opportunity to ‘experiment’ on alternative lifestyles is in itself a privilege of the middle-class. Though not as financially stable as their counterparts in the city, their reliance on their knowledge capital gives them a safety net and distinct advantage over poor rural folk who don’t have the same opportunities.
The communitarian lifestyle of ecovillage permaculture practitioners in Brazil demonstrated altruistic values (Abdala & Mocellin, 2010). Their advanced knowledge in sustainable consumption habits is a manifestation of the new consumption communities (NCC) phenomenon—defined as a group of localized people that oppose multinational corporations (Abdala & Mocellin, 2010). But apart from intentionally embracing an eco-centric lifestyle through simple communal living, their motivations were not yet clear. Hence, how long they will be able to maintain this lifestyle and perspective is subject for further research.
Brawner (2015) in her case study of villages in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) reinforced the permaculture-based ‘ecovillage’ model from a different cultural perspective. Instead of establishing ‘intentional communities’ for alternative communal living like in Brazil, permaculture existed in CEE as part of well-established traditional towns in which networks of gardens, villages, forests, and irrigation systems were already embedded into the socio-ecological landscape. Yet revisiting past values and ‘reimagining progress’ have met much resistance from older generations as they viewed permaculture as retrograde. This perspective has hindered the assimilation of permaculture principles into public policy. Practitioners continue to insist that permaculture can be a platform for the marriage of traditional practices with contemporary scientific knowledge thus redefining the trajectory of progress. The sustainability of such a model rooted in culture and tradition can only be hindered by opposing perspectives of development upheld by those in the position of power. A similar study by Kelly-Bisson (2013) in Canada followed a group called Permaculture Ottawa which resisted the neoliberal management of the environment.
Kenis and Mathijs (2014) studied a permaculture-based network called Transition Towns in Belgium. An alternative lifestyle concept that originated in the United Kingdom, Transition Towns promoted the creation of resilient local communities and used a collective approach to affect behavioral change. It viewed localism or small-scale local economies as a sustainable alternative to globalization. One popular practice in these communities is community-supported agriculture (CSA)--a ‘shared risk’ market model that partners consumers with local farmers (Fernandez et al., 2012).
In Turkey, Abiral (2019) described the ‘permaculture habitus’ of practitioners living in upper-middle class districts privileged with educational and financial capital. He discussed how permaculture practitioners tend to bring with them residues of their socio-economic privileges into their new ecologically-based dispositions as well as perspectives. These practitioners were described to have a general dislike for organized politics and are attracted to intentional communities such as the Transition Towns movement mentioned earlier.
In a case study in Melbourne, Australia by Hillis (2011), it was concluded that permaculture appealed mostly to those who have had prior knowledge and experience in sustainable food and alternative agriculture movements. Though permaculture seems to appeal to the intellectual elite because of its philosophical and often utopian view of rural life, Millner’s (2017) studies of peasant farmers in El Salvador demonstrate that it is not an entirely middle-class perspective.
Similarly, the Asian experience of the permaculture movement in Japan sought to find congruence and unity in local culture and sustainable living through what Chakroun (2019) called a ‘concrete utopia’—concrete actions that critique or resist mindsets of a hegemonic society. In such a setting, networks of micro-scale permaculture experiments may be realized in local gardens helping to accelerate the transition to a sustainable form of society. However, scaling up this concrete utopia at the political and territorial level remains a challenge and a subject for further research.
In the Philippines, since practitioners have yet to be identified, corresponding perspectives on permaculture have yet to be determined as well. Research on this topic may help in identifying how the Philippine context influences the way permaculture is interpreted and manifested in the design of sustainable agricultural landscapes.
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