THE PLOWBOY INTERVIEW BILL MOLLISON

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But no one, at that time, ever thought of taking such a relationship and consciously applying it, making it part of a design. The idea was a real mind twist, something that caused an almost physical change within my brain.

PLOWBOY: How were your new ideas received by traditional agriculturists?

MOLLISON: Well, I can only say that there was a stunned silence at first, since the concepts were seen as being terribly radical. The ideas were intuitively accepted very quickly, though, by nonprofessorial people. And many of the enthusiastic responses came from women. In fact, 70 to 80% of the letters I now receive come from women . . . they seem to see immediately that we've got something here. On the other hand, scientists — male or female — don't see, mainly because they're used to teaching a passive and nonreactive system. Such individuals don't teach reactivity, and they don't practice activity. Everything is on the blackboard, and nothing is in the garden.

PLOWBOY: Let's see if we can define the whole idea of permaculture. Exactly what is your theory all about?

MOLLISON: The word "permaculture" refers to an integrated, self-sustaining system of perennial agriculture . . . which involves a large diversity of plant and animal species. A permaculture is really a completely self-contained agricultural ecosystem that is designed to minimize maintenance input and maximize product yield. In a permaculture, little wheels or cycles of energy are set up . . . and the system virtually keeps itself going! Essentially, it's a living clockwork that should never run down . . . at least as long as the sun shines and the earth revolves.

I like to call permaculture a "humane technology", because it's of human dimensions. By that, I mean that it deals in a very basic way with simple, living elements . . . so it's available to every man and woman. Permaculture doesn't involve some sort of complicated technology, as does even an electricity-producing windplant. Instead, it's a bio-technology . . . which people can intuitively handle .

After all, permaculture deals with living systems . . . and since man himself is a living organism, he can readily comprehend it. It's a concept that can be very easily transplanted or given away to anybody, too. In that sense, it can never be patented — because it's so readily available — nor should the idea be patented.

PLOWBOY: How, specifically, is permaculture different from conventional modern agricultural techniques?

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