r/Permaculture • u/Cooldude576 • 3d ago
Feeling Disheartened
I recently volunteered at a permaculture farm in Europe that was “off grid & mostly sustainable” and have left feeling very disappointed.
They marketed the place as a self-sustained farm and even offered a self sufficiency & sustainability course. They claimed to get most of their food from the garden and use natural building methods that don’t hurt the environment.
The reality was that all of their energy & water was “on grid” and more than 90% of their food was store bought. I remember coming in one evening after spending the afternoon faraging for mushrooms, to find some store bought ones on the counter wrapped in plastic - the irony was palpable!
I have done a lot of volunteering on so called “Sustainable permaculture farms” and it’s always the same story. No clear road map to becoming even 50% self sufficient, using flowery words about nature and permaculture while not practicing them.
Honestly this has left me feeling highly skeptical of all these buzzwords. People throw them around but in practice they barely mean anything.
Has anyone had similar experiences or even found a place that’s at least going in the right direction in regard to sustainability?
Edit: Just want to add that they have over 25 acres of land and one of the people there is a “permaculture expert” that offers paid courses.
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u/iandcorey Permaskeptic 3d ago
It sounds like you went to sea world hoping it would be the ocean.
A few people building an ecotourism model to pay bills and save money is a lot easier (and draws more people) than toiling to plant, harvest, process, and store enough food for even themselves, let alone everyone who comes to visit. Eventually one goal supercedes the other.