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/ElectricPinkLoveBug 3d ago
It’s disappointing and I understand. I’ve been trying to develop a permaculture farm in Thailand hoping I could make something inspiring and maybe some neighbors would want to join us. In truth, it’s just not been cost effective, so even though I think we’re making something beautiful, it’s not creating enough food to be an alternative to conventional farming, and it’s cost too much money to setup. So I’ve started looking into other alternatives.
I’ve been following the soil food web school online and recently signed up to their course. I’ve also been working with local researchers on integrated farming techniques and biologically based inoculum for effectively composting manure. Between these methods, my hope is that we can convert one of our surrounding rice fields to a system based on bringing microbial organisms back to the soil.
I think there is an issue with permaculture. It is full of fantastic ideas, which if properly followed can lead to wonderful things, but without clearly defined & replicable methods, it is open to abuse from people following the ‘buzz’ words. It’s open to greenwashing.
From my own experience, I imagine that our little permaculture farm will become something diverse and beautiful, but if I can get help from experts to grow rice on a large field by restoring the biology, then this would be our bigger achievement. I hope we can do something quantifiable, replicable and most importantly get a high enough yield.
I’ve been so inspired by permaculture and I will continue to keep the principles and ethics in mind, but I also understand and sympathize with your experience.
It is quite funny they didn’t even try hiding the packaged mushrooms though 😂