an excerpt from a longer article that i wrote.

Everything gardens. All living beings must eat. Humans purchase, trade, hunt, or grow. Animals hunt. Plants convert sunlight to food energy. All living beings must have nourishment. This is a basic need. This basic need is also common ground. Food production and food distribution, carried out to meet this basic need, are the common ground upon which we can build sustainable communities. Food production, otherwise known as agriculture and food processing, can create sustainable employment, healthy neighbourhoods and a strong local economy.

How we grow and transport food from the farm to the kitchen defines our society. Fast Food is becoming our most popular food delivery system and it is one of the most environmentally unfriendly. It is not sustainable to use so much energy to produce the paper, plastic, styrofoam and cardboard that we all too often find on our highways, sidewalks and city streets. How many miles does that ‘special’ meal travel before you eat it? How many gallons of fossil fuel are used in its production, storage and distribution?

A certified organic label means that no synthetic products have been used in the food production processes, this includes livestock feed. Organic food may still travel hundreds and thousands of miles from where it is produced to where it is consumed. This transportation requires fossil fuel use just as non-organic food does. The organic labels do not guarantee that there is equity in the work place or that fair labour practices exist.


Food, organic and non-organic, travels hundreds and thousands of miles to reach your plate. It is time to bring the field closer to the kitchen. Permaculture is a way to make this move. The word permaculture was coined, from the words permanent and agriculture, by its founders, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Since then for many permaculture designers, including the writer, permaculture is also a contraction of permanent and culture.