THE PLOWBOY INTERVIEW BILL MOLLISON

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What practitioners of permaculture do, then, is cooperate with the earth and avoid the use of force. In accordance with Fukuoka's "do nothing" system of farming, we use no machinery . . . no digging or slashing machines, which would only disturb the earth and create an imbalance by the introduction of force. And this is the point that I must make time and again: If you use energy in any way non productively, then you are causing a chaotic condition, either in your garden or in your society. Permaculture involves a thought process in which you design systems to harmonize with nature, not to oppose it.

PLOWBOY: Let's talk some more about the role of design in a permacultural system. Just how important is it?

MOLLISON: It makes all the difference in the world! Look at Fukuoka: That man, at 74, controls 12 acres at a higher productivity than any other farmer on earth . . . and he does it all on foot, with no machines whatsoever! And even his design could be improved upon. The point is that, by applying any sort of temporal and spatial pattern, one can literally achieve wonders in the product yields of a system.

PLOWBOY: What are some of the design criteria used in the formation of a permaculture? I mean, exactly how do you go about planning one of these microcosms?

MOLLISON: First of all, you take stock of all the external factors that must be worked with — such as climate, topography, soil, and water supply — and then choose plant and animal species that are highly suited to that particular set of factors. And this is the point at which permaculture must radically differ from commercial agriculture. If you want to — particularly here in the Americas — you can sit down and design a very productive piece of swampland containing people, ducks, invertebrates, and so forth . . . because swamps are naturally productive areas, and such a system will produce a vast number of useful things. But modern agribusiness experts would advise draining the swamp and making it into a cattle fodder system! That's far too wasteful . . . in effect, it turns a natural area of high productivity into an artificial place of extremely low productivity.

When you're developing the spatial design for a permaculture, you literally start at your own doorstep and work out from there . . . all the way to the horizon! The ground plan — starting from the center, where the dwelling and other principal buildings are located — involves concentric zones, with each species placed so as to maximize its usefulness in the ecosystem. The arrangement should be based on the principle of greatest accessibility: The species that need your attention or control most often — for watering or harvest, for example — are best located closest to the dwelling site . . . while plants and animals that need little or no attention are likely to be on the periphery of the system. Zone placement, then, governs the energies that are generated within the system, so that the whole "structure" operates on the least amount of labor possible.

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