Permaculture as a Form of Socioeconomic-Environmental Activism
Mae DesTroismaisons
April 5, 2015
PSS 156-Morris
Mae DesTroismaisons
April 5, 2015
PSS 156-Morris
*
“The myth of progress is founded on the myth of nature. The first tells us that we are destined for greatness; the second tells us that greatness is cost-free. Each is intimately bound up with the other. Both tell us that we are apart from the world; that we began grunting in the primeval swamps, as a humble part of something called ‘nature’, which we have now triumphantly subdued. The very fact that we have a word for ‘nature’ is evidence that we do not regard ourselves as part of it. Indeed, our separation from it is a myth integral to the triumph of our civilisation. We are, we tell ourselves, the only species ever to have attacked nature and won. In this, our unique glory is contained…
“This time, the crumbling empire is the unassailable global economy, and the brave new world of consumer democracy being forged worldwide in its name. Upon the indestructibility of this edifice we have pinned the hopes of this latest phase of our civilisation. Now, its failure and fallibility exposed, the world’s elites are scrabbling frantically to buoy up an economic machine which, for decades, they told us needed little restraint, for restraint would be its undoing. Uncountable sums of money are being funnelled upwards in order to prevent an uncontrolled explosion. The machine is stuttering and the engineers are in panic. They are wondering if perhaps they do not understand it as well as they imagined. They are wondering whether they are controlling it at all or whether, perhaps, it is controlling them...
“This is a moment to ask deep questions and to ask them urgently. All around us, shifts are under way which suggest that our whole way of living is already passing into history. It is time to look for new paths and new stories, ones that can lead us through the end of the world as we know it and out the other side. We suspect that by questioning the foundations of civilisation, the myth of human centrality, our imagined isolation, we may find the beginning of such paths.”
—Kingsnorth and Hine, Uncivilisaton: The Dark Mountain Manifesto
*
“The myth of progress is founded on the myth of nature. The first tells us that we are destined for greatness; the second tells us that greatness is cost-free. Each is intimately bound up with the other. Both tell us that we are apart from the world; that we began grunting in the primeval swamps, as a humble part of something called ‘nature’, which we have now triumphantly subdued. The very fact that we have a word for ‘nature’ is evidence that we do not regard ourselves as part of it. Indeed, our separation from it is a myth integral to the triumph of our civilisation. We are, we tell ourselves, the only species ever to have attacked nature and won. In this, our unique glory is contained…
“This time, the crumbling empire is the unassailable global economy, and the brave new world of consumer democracy being forged worldwide in its name. Upon the indestructibility of this edifice we have pinned the hopes of this latest phase of our civilisation. Now, its failure and fallibility exposed, the world’s elites are scrabbling frantically to buoy up an economic machine which, for decades, they told us needed little restraint, for restraint would be its undoing. Uncountable sums of money are being funnelled upwards in order to prevent an uncontrolled explosion. The machine is stuttering and the engineers are in panic. They are wondering if perhaps they do not understand it as well as they imagined. They are wondering whether they are controlling it at all or whether, perhaps, it is controlling them...
“This is a moment to ask deep questions and to ask them urgently. All around us, shifts are under way which suggest that our whole way of living is already passing into history. It is time to look for new paths and new stories, ones that can lead us through the end of the world as we know it and out the other side. We suspect that by questioning the foundations of civilisation, the myth of human centrality, our imagined isolation, we may find the beginning of such paths.”
—Kingsnorth and Hine, Uncivilisaton: The Dark Mountain Manifesto
*
Bill Mollison and David Holmgren developed the permaculture concept in the mid-1970s as “a response to the environmental crisis facing modern society” (Holmgren xvi). This idea of permanent (agri)culture, or “consciously designed landscapes which mimic the patterns and relationships found in nature, while yielding an abundance of food, fibre and energy for provision of local needs” has evolved into what is now a worldwide movement (xix). Figure 1 below summarizes Mollison and Holmgren’s permaculture design principles and provides examples, to boot!
Whether they choose to label themselves as such or not, people who practice permaculture are, by definition, activists. An activist is simply a person or group of people who take action to effect change, usually in the social, political, economic, and/or environmental realms (Permanent Culture Now). However, it is worth noting that some permaculturists are reluctant to call themselves activists, perhaps for reasons similar to those that Andrew X highlights in his Do Or Die article, “Give Up Activism”:
“A division of labour implies that one person takes on a role on behalf of many others who relinquish this responsibility. A separation of tasks means that other people will grow your food and make your clothes and supply your electricity while you get on with achieving social change. The activist, being an expert in social change, assumes that other people aren't doing anything to change their lives and so feels a duty or a responsibility to do it on their behalf. Activists think they are compensating for the lack of activity by others. Defining ourselves as activists means defining our actions as the ones which will bring about social change, thus disregarding the activity of thousands upon thousands of other non-activists. Activism is based on this misconception that it is only activists who do social change - whereas of course class struggle is happening all the time… The activist role is a self-imposed isolation from all the people we should be connecting to” (160-166).
Regardless of the ongoing dispute about the semantics of the word “activism,” permaculture, essential to the creation of sustainable communities, is a growing practice that drives the type of positive change that many of today’s activists wish to see. As Maddy Harlan, editor of Permaculture Magazine said, “Permaculture is the key to a post-carbon future” (Morris).
Permaculture is different from the type of “top-down” activism that usually entails lobbying government to make (or to cease making) changes or additions in policy from the “top” down via legislation. Permaculture is “bottom-up” action. Bottom-up strategists recognize that although the wealthiest individual’s power in effecting large-scale change is massive in comparison to the poorest, but also that the power of the people (the 99%, if you will) is significant and society can be transformed by “slowing and reorganising the production-consumption cycle” via changing our individual worldviews and behaviors (Holmgren 80).
“A division of labour implies that one person takes on a role on behalf of many others who relinquish this responsibility. A separation of tasks means that other people will grow your food and make your clothes and supply your electricity while you get on with achieving social change. The activist, being an expert in social change, assumes that other people aren't doing anything to change their lives and so feels a duty or a responsibility to do it on their behalf. Activists think they are compensating for the lack of activity by others. Defining ourselves as activists means defining our actions as the ones which will bring about social change, thus disregarding the activity of thousands upon thousands of other non-activists. Activism is based on this misconception that it is only activists who do social change - whereas of course class struggle is happening all the time… The activist role is a self-imposed isolation from all the people we should be connecting to” (160-166).
Regardless of the ongoing dispute about the semantics of the word “activism,” permaculture, essential to the creation of sustainable communities, is a growing practice that drives the type of positive change that many of today’s activists wish to see. As Maddy Harlan, editor of Permaculture Magazine said, “Permaculture is the key to a post-carbon future” (Morris).
Permaculture is different from the type of “top-down” activism that usually entails lobbying government to make (or to cease making) changes or additions in policy from the “top” down via legislation. Permaculture is “bottom-up” action. Bottom-up strategists recognize that although the wealthiest individual’s power in effecting large-scale change is massive in comparison to the poorest, but also that the power of the people (the 99%, if you will) is significant and society can be transformed by “slowing and reorganising the production-consumption cycle” via changing our individual worldviews and behaviors (Holmgren 80).
“‘Consciousness is the most stubborn substance in the cosmos, and the most fluid. It can be as rigid as concrete, and it can change in an instant. A song can change it, or a story, or a fragrance wafting by on the wind.’ That’s what Lily says in The Fifth Sacred Thing, when she is trying to help Bird understand that there are other ways to fight besides guns and bombs” (Starhawk).
Annie Leonard defines consumerism as follows: “Consumerism, even when it tries to embrace ‘sustainable’ products, is a set of values that teaches us to define ourselves, communicate our identity, and seek meaning through accumulation of stuff, rather than through our values and activities and our community” (YES! Magazine). As she said in her book The Story of Stuff:
"All of us on the planet collectively are consuming more resources than the planet produces each year; we're consuming about 1.4 planets' worth of bio-capacity resources annually...It's as though a household saved income for years before ramping up its spending. It could spend more than it earned for some time, eating away at the savings, but eventually there's nothing left. That's what is happening with the planet" (40).
Permaculture is more than a new-age homesteading technique; it’s a philosophy that seeks to change the consumerist zeitgeist. By shifting what Leonard calls our “take, make, waste” otherwise known as the “cradle-to-grave” paradigm, permaculture can “empower us to move from being dependent consumers to becoming responsible and productive citizens” (Holmgren xix). The three core ethics of permaculture are care for the earth, care for people, and “fair-share” or care for future generations (Morris). On the subject of the primary ethics of permaculture, Isa Fremeaux, co-founder of the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, said in a 2011 interview that, “If we combine these three [ethics], we are automatically living within limits. Ecological and energetic ones. Which is what capitalism does not do at all, it has the fantasy of perpetual growth, of infinite resources…” (Kwakkenbos). The utopian vision of the permaculture movement promotes posterity, resilience, environmental restoration, sustainability, self-sufficiency, and community engagement, among other values (see cover image).
Here in the Global North, as the beneficiaries of globalization, our primary role in the world economy is that of the consumer. In this day and age, in which humans are seen as separate from nature, many people view the grocery store shelves and faceless brands rather than farms and farmers as the source of their food. Consumers rarely consider the variables related to the food they purchase: where, how, by whom, in what working conditions, and using what resources was the product grown, processed, packaged, and distributed? And where will that product’s leftovers or packaging eventually end up when it is no longer useful to the consumer who then throws it “away?”
Our present capitalist economic system encourages overconsumption, materialism, competition, coercion, manipulation, selfishness, and environmental degradation while stifling generosity, empathy, cooperation, social justice, personal relationships, meaning, security, and community engagement, all in the name of growth. The term, “growth,” in economics is misleading. The costs of economic growth include hunger, poverty, and environmental destruction, all problems that “growth” is supposed to solve (Meadows). As Lappé wrote in her book EcoMind: “Since what we’ve been calling ‘growth’ is largely waste and destruction, let’s call it what it is: a system that in fact stymies growth and even quickens diminution and death—of genetic and social diversity, health, relationships, beauty, happiness, art forms, languages, and ancient knowledge” (22). She continues later in the chapter, “I agree strongly that today’s economic ‘growth’ is not working, but to define what we’ve been doing as ‘growth’ risks blessing our current practices with a term that sounds positive to most ears. That’s a problem” (41).
Bill Mollison told Mother Earth News in an interview with reporters Larry Hollar and Jeanne Malmgren: “Everything I did, either in research or in fieldwork, indicated that there was something fundamentally wrong with modern farming methods. For instance, every problem I found in commercial agribusiness was actually caused by the industry itself” (3). Indeed, as he noted in his film, In Grave Danger of Falling Food, modern agriculture is more focused on growing profits than in growing food. The so-called “Green” Revolution of the 1960s, what Lappé refers to as “dependency agriculture” made farmers around the world dependent upon a few multinational agribusiness corporations, namely Cargill, Monsanto, Nestle, ConAgra among others, and their (largely petroleum-based) chemicals and patented genetically modified seeds (182). These conglomerates thrive within our “growth”-driven economy and consumerist paradigm, strengthened by the positive feedback loop of advertising, not to mention colossal tax subsidies (176-177). Furthermore, via lobbying and excessive campaign contributions, these firms are able to mold government food policy to suit their interests (Global Policy Forum). “Currently,” wrote Holmgren, in Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, “most people are dependent for their needs on a global economy dominated by multinational corporations” (170). He also points out, however, that governments and corporations need us consumers to be dependent on them; they need our dependence so desperately, in fact, that “a slackening in the frenzy of consumption is called a ‘consumer strike’” (87). Thus, permaculture, which fosters self-reliance, is a form of political action (87).
"All of us on the planet collectively are consuming more resources than the planet produces each year; we're consuming about 1.4 planets' worth of bio-capacity resources annually...It's as though a household saved income for years before ramping up its spending. It could spend more than it earned for some time, eating away at the savings, but eventually there's nothing left. That's what is happening with the planet" (40).
Permaculture is more than a new-age homesteading technique; it’s a philosophy that seeks to change the consumerist zeitgeist. By shifting what Leonard calls our “take, make, waste” otherwise known as the “cradle-to-grave” paradigm, permaculture can “empower us to move from being dependent consumers to becoming responsible and productive citizens” (Holmgren xix). The three core ethics of permaculture are care for the earth, care for people, and “fair-share” or care for future generations (Morris). On the subject of the primary ethics of permaculture, Isa Fremeaux, co-founder of the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination, said in a 2011 interview that, “If we combine these three [ethics], we are automatically living within limits. Ecological and energetic ones. Which is what capitalism does not do at all, it has the fantasy of perpetual growth, of infinite resources…” (Kwakkenbos). The utopian vision of the permaculture movement promotes posterity, resilience, environmental restoration, sustainability, self-sufficiency, and community engagement, among other values (see cover image).
Here in the Global North, as the beneficiaries of globalization, our primary role in the world economy is that of the consumer. In this day and age, in which humans are seen as separate from nature, many people view the grocery store shelves and faceless brands rather than farms and farmers as the source of their food. Consumers rarely consider the variables related to the food they purchase: where, how, by whom, in what working conditions, and using what resources was the product grown, processed, packaged, and distributed? And where will that product’s leftovers or packaging eventually end up when it is no longer useful to the consumer who then throws it “away?”
Our present capitalist economic system encourages overconsumption, materialism, competition, coercion, manipulation, selfishness, and environmental degradation while stifling generosity, empathy, cooperation, social justice, personal relationships, meaning, security, and community engagement, all in the name of growth. The term, “growth,” in economics is misleading. The costs of economic growth include hunger, poverty, and environmental destruction, all problems that “growth” is supposed to solve (Meadows). As Lappé wrote in her book EcoMind: “Since what we’ve been calling ‘growth’ is largely waste and destruction, let’s call it what it is: a system that in fact stymies growth and even quickens diminution and death—of genetic and social diversity, health, relationships, beauty, happiness, art forms, languages, and ancient knowledge” (22). She continues later in the chapter, “I agree strongly that today’s economic ‘growth’ is not working, but to define what we’ve been doing as ‘growth’ risks blessing our current practices with a term that sounds positive to most ears. That’s a problem” (41).
Bill Mollison told Mother Earth News in an interview with reporters Larry Hollar and Jeanne Malmgren: “Everything I did, either in research or in fieldwork, indicated that there was something fundamentally wrong with modern farming methods. For instance, every problem I found in commercial agribusiness was actually caused by the industry itself” (3). Indeed, as he noted in his film, In Grave Danger of Falling Food, modern agriculture is more focused on growing profits than in growing food. The so-called “Green” Revolution of the 1960s, what Lappé refers to as “dependency agriculture” made farmers around the world dependent upon a few multinational agribusiness corporations, namely Cargill, Monsanto, Nestle, ConAgra among others, and their (largely petroleum-based) chemicals and patented genetically modified seeds (182). These conglomerates thrive within our “growth”-driven economy and consumerist paradigm, strengthened by the positive feedback loop of advertising, not to mention colossal tax subsidies (176-177). Furthermore, via lobbying and excessive campaign contributions, these firms are able to mold government food policy to suit their interests (Global Policy Forum). “Currently,” wrote Holmgren, in Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability, “most people are dependent for their needs on a global economy dominated by multinational corporations” (170). He also points out, however, that governments and corporations need us consumers to be dependent on them; they need our dependence so desperately, in fact, that “a slackening in the frenzy of consumption is called a ‘consumer strike’” (87). Thus, permaculture, which fosters self-reliance, is a form of political action (87).
“Exploitation of the earth's natural resources on a massive global scale, and the introduction of unbalanced economic systems (so-called "Free Trade" agreements) interrupts the stability of local ecologies and economies, and diminishes the ability of local communities to provide for their basic needs. This leads to mass migration and the devastating loss of cultures and place-based knowledges” (Planting Justice).
Permaculture is a form of resistance to profit-driven neocolonialism; it is a decentralized movement and although the practice itself is not political in nature—it’s focused upon designing (re: biomimicry) productive, diverse, stable, resilient systems that function sustainably to provide food, shelter, energy, and other human needs (Bell)—it is a practice that involves citizens directly, and indirectly helps diminish the power of private/corporate wealth and influence in our “democracy.” And it seems to be cropping up (no pun intended) everywhere, wherever people are willing and—most crucially—able to.
People don’t typically think of permaculture when they hear the word, “resistance,” but all over the world, folks are participating in meaningful, purposeful, and productive activities that free them from the cage of consumerism, marketing, and corporate control. To name just a few examples:
· Detroit’s urban agriculture movement is led largely by African American women and the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) in response to the city’s poor economy and race/class-based obstacles in the way of access to healthy food via repurposing vacant spaces “to create community-based food system” (White). These women engage in this unconventional activism “as a way of reassessing their cultural roots and reclaiming personal power [in regards to] the supply of food in the city of Detroit. By farming, they demonstrate agency and self-determination in their efforts to build a sense of community” (White).
· In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Megan and Tim Toben started Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute, which had approximately 200 WWOOFers in the first five years (Estill 105), because, as Megan wrote, “I had to escape the industrial society, the house of cards, built on finite resources and dependent on infinite growth” (101). Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute offers residential internships in a variety of disciplines including permaculture, organic farming, mycology, composting, herbal medicine, beekeeping, local economy, community resilience, renewable energy, sustainability, systems thinking, culinary arts, yoga, spiritual ecology, wild edibles, earthen building, wilderness skills, and activism ("Odyssey Program Internship & Fellowship").
· On Hakuretna Farm in the northern West Bank, Tulkarm (bisected by Israel’s Separation Barrier), Palestinian farmer/activist Fayez al-Taneeb believes permaculture is “an important component of any Palestinian non-violent resistance strategy” (Gray). When Israeli soldiers began to use the farmland he’d inherited in 1984 as training grounds, he realized that if he didn’t use it, he’d lose it. “Water, food and energy are available to all humanity if we work with the laws of nature…[permaculture is] a powerful resistance tool, because water, food and energy are things that Israel does not want us to control” (Gray). Despite his equipment being sabotaged by Israeli soldiers; despite his crops dying due to construction of a pollutive agrochemical factory on the border of his land; and despite losing 60 percent of his land when the Israeli West Bank barrier or “the wall” was built right across it, Fayez continues to utilize his farm for “international gatherings of permaculture practitioners and Palestinian youth” as well as for experimentation and demonstration of organic farming techniques and sustainable technologies (Gray).
There are so many more permaculture projects happening all over the world, like Crystal Waters in Australia, Rainbow Valley Farm in New Zealand, The Panya Project in Thailand, Permaship in Bulgaria, the Institute of Permaculture and Ecovillage of the Cerrado in Brazil, and the Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture in—you guessed it—Indonesia (“List of Permaculture Projects”). Figure 2. below shows a map of worldwide permaculture projects; visit permacultureglobal.org to find permaculture projects and people near you!
People don’t typically think of permaculture when they hear the word, “resistance,” but all over the world, folks are participating in meaningful, purposeful, and productive activities that free them from the cage of consumerism, marketing, and corporate control. To name just a few examples:
· Detroit’s urban agriculture movement is led largely by African American women and the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) in response to the city’s poor economy and race/class-based obstacles in the way of access to healthy food via repurposing vacant spaces “to create community-based food system” (White). These women engage in this unconventional activism “as a way of reassessing their cultural roots and reclaiming personal power [in regards to] the supply of food in the city of Detroit. By farming, they demonstrate agency and self-determination in their efforts to build a sense of community” (White).
· In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Megan and Tim Toben started Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute, which had approximately 200 WWOOFers in the first five years (Estill 105), because, as Megan wrote, “I had to escape the industrial society, the house of cards, built on finite resources and dependent on infinite growth” (101). Pickards Mountain Eco-Institute offers residential internships in a variety of disciplines including permaculture, organic farming, mycology, composting, herbal medicine, beekeeping, local economy, community resilience, renewable energy, sustainability, systems thinking, culinary arts, yoga, spiritual ecology, wild edibles, earthen building, wilderness skills, and activism ("Odyssey Program Internship & Fellowship").
· On Hakuretna Farm in the northern West Bank, Tulkarm (bisected by Israel’s Separation Barrier), Palestinian farmer/activist Fayez al-Taneeb believes permaculture is “an important component of any Palestinian non-violent resistance strategy” (Gray). When Israeli soldiers began to use the farmland he’d inherited in 1984 as training grounds, he realized that if he didn’t use it, he’d lose it. “Water, food and energy are available to all humanity if we work with the laws of nature…[permaculture is] a powerful resistance tool, because water, food and energy are things that Israel does not want us to control” (Gray). Despite his equipment being sabotaged by Israeli soldiers; despite his crops dying due to construction of a pollutive agrochemical factory on the border of his land; and despite losing 60 percent of his land when the Israeli West Bank barrier or “the wall” was built right across it, Fayez continues to utilize his farm for “international gatherings of permaculture practitioners and Palestinian youth” as well as for experimentation and demonstration of organic farming techniques and sustainable technologies (Gray).
There are so many more permaculture projects happening all over the world, like Crystal Waters in Australia, Rainbow Valley Farm in New Zealand, The Panya Project in Thailand, Permaship in Bulgaria, the Institute of Permaculture and Ecovillage of the Cerrado in Brazil, and the Indonesian Development of Education and Permaculture in—you guessed it—Indonesia (“List of Permaculture Projects”). Figure 2. below shows a map of worldwide permaculture projects; visit permacultureglobal.org to find permaculture projects and people near you!
“Self-reliance tends to work as a more generalised and invisible consumer boycott, undermining the market share and psychosocial dominance of the centralised and large-scale economies that support and maintain addictive and dysfunctional behavior. At the same time, it tends to foster and stimulate new local forms of economic activity” (Holmgren 87).
Works Cited
"Agribusiness Companies." Global Policy Forum. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <https://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/agribusiness-companies.html>.
Bell, Graham. "About Permaculture—Definitions." Permaculture.Net. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://www.permaculture.net/about/definitions.html>.
Darlene. "Permaculture in the Suburbs: What Does It Look Like?" A Wholesome Homestead. 9 June 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://awholesomehomestead.com/permaculture-in-the-suburbs-what-does-it-look-like/>.
Estill, Lyle. "Pickards Mountain Eco Institute by Megan Toben." Small Stories, Big Changes: Agents of Change on the Frontlines of Sustainability. Gabriola Island: New Society, 2013. Print.
"Ethics and Principles -." Barbolian Fields. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://barbolian.com/permaculture-journey/ethics-and-principles/>.
Gray, Alice. "Permaculture and the Sustainability of Resistance." Al Araby Al Jadeed. 10 Feb. 2015. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/features/2015/2/10/permaculture-and-the-sustainability-of-resistance>.
Hollar, Larry, and Jeanne Malmgren. "Bill Mollison: Permaculture Activist." Mother Earth News: The Original Guide to Living Wisely. Nov./Dec. 1980. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/bill-mollison-permaculture-activist-zmaz80ndzraw.aspx>.
Holmgren, David. Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services, 2002. Print.
Bill Mollison—In Grave Danger of Falling Food—Full Video. 11 Jul. 2012. YouTube. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjWaP0iQmWw>. (Originally distributed by 220 Productions, 1989).
"Introduction to Activism." Permanent Culture Now: Tools and Knowledge to Create a New Life. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://www.permanentculturenow.com/what-is-activism/>.
Kingsnorth, Paul, and Dougald Hine. "Uncivilisation The Dark Mountain Manifesto." The Dark Mountain Project. Bracketpress, Summer 2009. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://dark-mountain.net/about/manifesto/>.
Kwakkenbos, Lars. "Art, Activism, and Permaculture." Foreign Policy In Focus. 20 Jan. 2011. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://fpif.org/art_activism_and_permaculture/>.
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Leonard, Annie. "Annie Leonard: How to Be More than a Mindful Consumer." Yes! Magazine 22 Aug. 2013. Web. < http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-human-cost-of-stuff/annie-leonard-more-than-a-mindful-consumer>.
Leonard, Annie. The Story of Stuff: The Impact of Overconsumption on the Planet, Our Communities, and Our Health—And How We Can Make It Better. New York: Free, 2011. Print.
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Meadows, Donella H. "Places to Intervene in a System." Whole Earth Catalog. 1997. Web.
9 Apr. 2015. <http://www.wholeearth.com/issue/2091/article/27/places.to.intervene.in.a.system>.
Morris, Keith. “Tonight – Free Screening of ‘The Growing Edge’ at Willow Crossing Farm.” Prospect Rock Permaculture: Design and Education for Ecological Culture. 12 Sep. 2012. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <https://prospectrockpermaculture.wordpress.com/2012/09/08/tonight-free-screening-of-the-growing-edge-at-willow-crossing-farm/>.
"Odyssey Program Internship & Fellowship." Pickards Mountain Eco Institute. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://pickardsmountain.org/internship>.
"Permaculture in the Suburbs: What Does It Look Like?" A Wholesome Homestead. 9 June 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://awholesomehomestead.com/permaculture-in-the-suburbs-what-does-it-look-like/>.
Permaculture Research Institute. "Worldwide Permaculture Projects" Worldwide Permaculture Network. The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://permacultureglobal.org/projects>.
Starhawk. "Kickstarter Update #4 – Week Two." The Fifth Sacred Thing. 6 July 2011. Web. 8 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.thefifthsacredthing.com/2011/07/06/kickstarter-update-4-week-two/>.
"Urban Permaculture." Planting Justice: Grow Food Jobs Community. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://www.plantingjustice.org/resources/urban-permaculture/>.
White, Monica M. "Sisters of the Soil: Urban Gardening as Resistance in Detroit." Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts: 13-28. 5.1 (2011). Project Muse. Johns Hopkins University. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/rac/summary/v005/5.1.white.html>.
X, Andrew. "Give Up Activism." Do or Die: 160-66. Eco-Action. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://eco-action.org/dod/no9/activism.htm>.
"Agribusiness Companies." Global Policy Forum. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <https://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/agribusiness-companies.html>.
Bell, Graham. "About Permaculture—Definitions." Permaculture.Net. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://www.permaculture.net/about/definitions.html>.
Darlene. "Permaculture in the Suburbs: What Does It Look Like?" A Wholesome Homestead. 9 June 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://awholesomehomestead.com/permaculture-in-the-suburbs-what-does-it-look-like/>.
Estill, Lyle. "Pickards Mountain Eco Institute by Megan Toben." Small Stories, Big Changes: Agents of Change on the Frontlines of Sustainability. Gabriola Island: New Society, 2013. Print.
"Ethics and Principles -." Barbolian Fields. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://barbolian.com/permaculture-journey/ethics-and-principles/>.
Gray, Alice. "Permaculture and the Sustainability of Resistance." Al Araby Al Jadeed. 10 Feb. 2015. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/features/2015/2/10/permaculture-and-the-sustainability-of-resistance>.
Hollar, Larry, and Jeanne Malmgren. "Bill Mollison: Permaculture Activist." Mother Earth News: The Original Guide to Living Wisely. Nov./Dec. 1980. Web. 8 Apr. 2015. <http://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/bill-mollison-permaculture-activist-zmaz80ndzraw.aspx>.
Holmgren, David. Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability. Hepburn, Victoria: Holmgren Design Services, 2002. Print.
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