Permaculture Ethics

Why This Matters

Permaculture ethics aren't just feel-good principles—they're the foundational framework that guides every design decision you'll make in this course. When you're tested on permaculture concepts, you're being evaluated on your ability to connect ethics to action, showing how abstract values like "Earth Care" translate into concrete design choices like water harvesting, polyculture planting, or community food sharing. Understanding these ethics means understanding the "why" behind every technique.

Think of the three core ethics as a lens through which all twelve design principles flow. Every principle you'll study—from "Catch and Store Energy" to "Produce No Waste"—serves one or more of these ethical foundations. Don't just memorize definitions; know which ethic each principle supports and how they work together as an integrated system. That's what separates surface-level recall from the deeper thinking your assessments will require.

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The Three Core Ethics

These are the philosophical foundation of permaculture—the non-negotiable values that inform every principle and practice. All design decisions should pass through the filter of these three ethics.

Earth Care

• Prioritizes ecosystem health and biodiversity—recognizes that human systems depend entirely on functioning natural systems
• Restoration over exploitation—focuses on regenerating damaged landscapes rather than simply sustaining current degradation
• Interconnectedness principle—acknowledges that harming one part of an ecosystem inevitably affects the whole

People Care

• Community resilience through collaboration—builds social systems that support human well-being alongside ecological health
• Equitable access to resources—ensures that sustainable practices don't benefit only the privileged few
• Human needs as legitimate—rejects the false choice between people and planet by designing systems that serve both

Fair Share

• Redistribution of surplus—moves beyond individual accumulation to community benefit (sometimes called "return of surplus")
• Responsible consumption limits—acknowledges that infinite growth is impossible on a finite planet
• Generational equity—considers the needs of future generations in current resource decisions

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Observation and Learning Principles

These principles establish how permaculturists gather information before making design interventions. Good design requires deep understanding of existing patterns and systems.

Observe and Interact

• Extended observation before action—spend at least one full seasonal cycle watching a site before major interventions
• Pattern recognition—identify water flow, sun paths, wind patterns, and wildlife corridors through careful attention
• Engagement over extraction—learn from natural systems as teachers rather than treating them as resources to exploit

Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback

• Adaptive management approach—treat every design as an experiment that requires ongoing adjustment
• Failure as data—mistakes provide crucial information for system improvement rather than reasons for discouragement
• Personal accountability—designers must monitor their own impacts and adjust behavior accordingly

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Resource Flow Principles

These principles govern how energy and materials move through permaculture systems. The goal is capturing, cycling, and maximizing the utility of every resource.

Catch and Store Energy

• Harvest at peak availability—capture sunlight, rainwater, and nutrients when they're abundant for use during scarcity
• Multiple storage strategies—includes water tanks, food preservation, soil building, and even social capital
• Renewable source priority—solar, wind, water, and biological systems over fossil fuels

Use and Value Renewable Resources and Services

• Ecosystem services recognition—pollinators, decomposers, and nitrogen-fixers provide free labor that designs should support
• Sustainable material selection—choose inputs that regenerate faster than they're consumed
• Process over product—value ongoing natural cycles (composting, photosynthesis) as much as physical outputs

Produce No Waste

• Closed-loop systems—every output becomes an input somewhere else in the design ("waste is a resource in the wrong place")
• By-product utilization—kitchen scraps become compost, greywater irrigates trees, prunings become mulch
• Efficiency mindset—question every material that leaves the system as a design failure to address

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Design Strategy Principles

These principles guide how permaculturists translate observations into functional designs. Strategy determines whether good intentions become effective systems.

Obtain a Yield

• Productivity requirement—designs must produce tangible benefits or they won't be maintained long-term
• Multiple yield types—includes food, fiber, fuel, medicine, beauty, education, and community connection
• Short and long-term balance—annual vegetables provide immediate return while fruit trees build future abundance

Design from Patterns to Details

• Macro to micro sequence—establish overall site patterns (water, access, zones) before selecting specific plants or structures
• Nature as template—branching patterns, spirals, and edges observed in ecosystems inform human design choices
• Coherent integration—details should reinforce the overall pattern rather than fighting against it

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Quick Reference Table

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Self-Check Questions

1. Which two principles work together to create closed-loop resource systems, and what's the difference in their focus?

2. If you're designing a community garden, which core ethic would guide decisions about who gets access to the harvest, and what principle would help you minimize inputs from outside the system?

3. Compare and contrast "Observe and Interact" with "Apply Self-Regulation and Accept Feedback"—when in the design process does each principle apply?

4. A permaculture designer wants to install a rainwater harvesting system. Which principles support this decision, and which ethics does it serve?

5. Why does "Design from Patterns to Details" come before specific plant selection in the design process? What problems might occur if you reversed this sequence?