Permaculture isn´t anything but a movement of gringo hippies who are pretending to be farmers | Food Production and Preservation | Forums

Brings up some good points about the lack of the third principle of permaculture, I'm guessing the swales with a bulldozer is wheaton

I have a friend from Central America who is a diehard advocate for all things organic. He eats organic, grows organic, and dedicates his time to working with small farmers across the region to help them incorporate more environmentally friendly production practices. I once asked him about what inspired the work to which he has dedicated his life. He mentioned first the ancestral agricultural practices of his Mayan ancestors but went on to mention more current sources such as the agroecology movement, biodynamics, traditional organic gardening, amongst others. When I asked him about the permaculture movement however, he laughed scornfully and remarked: “Permaculture isn´t anything but a movement of gringo hippies who are pretending to be farmers.”

Though his critique was somewhat naïve and over simplified, I’ve been finding that throughout Central America and much of the “under-developed” (or perhaps better stated as “differently developed”) world, this appreciation of permaculture as a movement of gringos is strongly felt and deeply rooted.

As I’ve talked with different farmers, researchers, academics and others interested in alternative agriculture and ecology, the main grievance that they have with permaculture is the steep costs associated with the courses offered and the literature sold. These prohibitive costs, they argue, turn permaculture into an exclusive club that can only be enjoyed by the affluent. They have very little argument with what permaculture actually teaches or advocates for, but they find that in a region where small farmers are usually severely economically marginalized, the exclusivity of the permaculture movement is a major impediment.

Most permaculture teachers offer a two week Permaculture Design Course (PDC). The running cost for most PDCs is around $2000 dollars, give or take $500. With prices like those, it´s hard to argue against the idea that permaculture is unaffordable to 90% of the world´s farmers who might be lucky to make that amount in a year of hard work.

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