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My guest for this episode is David Holmgren, one of the co-originators of Permaculture, and author of some of the fundamental books on this subject including Permaculture One and Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability.

I wanted to talk to David because of my curiosity. His contributions to this field are many, but what I knew of him and his work was a mystery. Rather than continue on with conjecture, why not talk to him? From conversations with the listeners and other practitioners I knew there was a desire to know more about David; To hear his own words, in his own voice.

During this conversation we talk about the early days of permaculture, his development with Bill Mollison of the core concepts, as well as his work over the years through each of three waves of environmentalism he identifies: the limits of resources in the 1970s, the limits of what we can put into the environment during the 1980s and 90s, and the convergence of these two ideas over the last decade or so. The last portion of the interview is about how to continue to grow permaculture, which took a direction that, initially, surprised me.

Resources:

David Holmgren

Permaculture Principles

Novel Ecosystems

Introduction (Wiki)

Novel Ecosystems: Theoretical and Management Aspects of the New Ecological World Order (PDF)

Perspective: Is Everything A Novel Ecosystem? (PDF)