Permaculture: Producing food without destroying the planet

Agriculture accounts for 17 percent of worldwide CO2 emissions. But what if there were a way to produce it without harming the planet? The idea is called permaculture – growing vegetables in a circular, self-sustaining system, without artificial pesticides or fertilizer.

We're destroying our environment at an alarming rate. But it doesn't need to be this way. Our new channel Planet A explores the shift towards an eco-friendly world — and challenges our ideas about what dealing with climate change means. We look at the big and the small: What we can do and how the system needs to change. Every Friday we'll take a truly global look at how to get us out of this mess.

#PlanetA #Permaculture #SustainableAgriculture

Read More:

Permaculture methods and principles:

Scientific evidence for permaculture methods:

Scalability and commercial possibilities for permaculture:

Permaculture projects worldwide:

Special thanks to: Simin Fadaee, Immo Fiebrig, Narsanna Koppula, Julius Reiff and Sabine Zikeli for background interviews.

0:00 Intro
1:02 Farming the permaculture way
2:02 What is permaculture?
3:05 Design and water management
4:39 Building up the soil
5:22 Polyculture, habitats and pesticides
7:21 Permaculture worldwide
8:04 The future of permaculture
10:44 Conclusion

Reporter: Kiyo Dörrer
Camera & Video Editor: Henning Goll
Supervising Editor: Joanna Gottschalk

[DWPlanetA]

What do you think of permaculture? Is it the "better" way of farming?

[jaridkeen]

If you have a yard you shouldn't be growing grass you should be growing food. I save around $250 - $350 a month on food due to my garden. I killed all my grass and put a permaculture garden in my yard. Actually my whole yard is a permaculture garden. We have a little patch of grass for BBQs and friends but the rest is making food. If everyone in America turned there yard into a permaculture garden it would be the same as making a forest the size of TEXAS!!!! That's 268, 597 miles Squared that's insane! A forest that big could save a lot of species from going extinct

[frenchiepowell]

As a Permaculture Farmer, I love the way you guys covered the basics! There are large scale farms doing this as well in Brazil and New Forest Farm in Wisconsin, USA. Great work you all!

[freshturnips]

I dug my own garden almost 2 years ago. It has drastically changed my view on native plants and animals and how we treat our earth. I’m so grateful.

[WeaselTM]

They seriously should have mentioned that the guys last name 'Gärtner' means 'gardener'. 😆

[Stef.Cata]

We have these gardens here in Romania but it's impossible to make a living out of them. Elderly have them in villages because they are way more healthier and more delicious than the stuff you get from a supermarket

[maida-san]

Thank you for another great documentary! I think permaculture is a great way to farm. However, we also need to change the consumer behaviour of getting the "perfect"looking produce so the food waste will be lessen to. Keep up the good work! Prost!

[timjones]

Thank you for mentioning indigenous people more than once. It is something that is often overlooked with permaculture. A very strong nod to indigenous technique is needed.

[Aveeguides]

My friends here in central Ohio have turned their yard into a permaculture paradise. It’s crazy how it’s changed not only their yard, but themselves. After the first couple years, it seems like they don’t even care about their jobs anymore.

Whenever we all get together to hangout, you can see them practically falling asleep when everyone starts talking about work. 😂

They still have office jobs, but it’s like, “Oh yeah—that’s just the 40 hours I have to do to pay the bills.” It’s actually quite amazing how they are working so much harder now than ever before, but they are happier and more fulfilled.

Whenever I need to get away I go over and spend an afternoon drinking tea and chilling in their garden. ❤

[LucaBl]

Fun fact: His last name (Gärtner) literally translates to gardener. That guy was born for this lol

[js.goldklang]

I feel like this doesn't discuss the use of perennials enough. That aspect is crucial to building soil and storing carbon. Not to mention creating habitat.

[aenorist]

That my friends is market-gardening, not permaculture.
Permaculture emphasizes perennials, which he uses basically none of, multistory canopies, which he has none of, etc.
Not an attack on his practices by the way, on the contrary, we need a market garden in just about every village.

[imperpektoify]

I do composting at home and actually when I get some sprouts on my pile that looks familar, I just plant it!! This summer I gave out a lot of tomatoes and egg plants from the plants that sprouted from my compost! Well, thats my goal!! I want to open my backyard and front yard to people who needs food! Hopefully, I get more plants and more pallets so I can build more bed planters. Like what the guy did in this video, I also plant some native plants in my backyard!!! I love seeing those bumble bees and monarch butterfly in the garden you know!

[rodrorap]

In mesoamerica (Mexico to Costa Rica) an ancient permaculture system typically known as Milpa is still in use. It involves planting maiz, beans, squash and sometimes other plants like chili peppers in the same plot, at different seasons and ratios. And rotating the plot of land used every two years.

[Insect_Expert]

Why the thumps down ? This is important !!!!

[kenhunt]

One of the best explanations of permaculture in a short time frame.
The correspondent did a great job.
Thanks DW.

[nazaudy]

Keep those vids coming Planet A, we love it! Thank you so much for sharing these insights

[muhammadisaac]

I really love this channel's videos. These are really useful 😊😊

Thanks from Bangladesh 🇧🇩🇧🇩🇧🇩

[Xsomono]

This is super interesting. I regularly get into discussions over agricultural practices with a friend who works on a farm. It's clear that current industrial agriculture is unsustainable and doesn't factor the massive cost of the damages caused in the long term. With monocultures being so fragile trying to grow multiple crops on the same farmland seems like an obvious solution.
On the other hand I must say it seems that the permaculture approach is much more labor intensive. As short sighted as large scale conventional farming is it still seems to have immense productivity, in the sense that lots of produce comes out in relation to the labor put in. If we want more permaculture we might have to accept the idea that more people have to work on farms again, which I imagine might be hard to convince people of.
I think ideally we'd find a good balance of sustainable practices and automation. If we could have permaculture or other sustainable farming that did not require huge amounts of manual labor and could mostly be done with machines I seems to me that that would be perfect.

It's definitely good that more agricultural methods are being experimented with. Whatever one may think of organic farming or conventional farming, it's clear that we need to find new solutions for producing food.

[bte_permaculture]

Loved it! Aranya is so beautiful ❤️ Thank you DW team for this video. It's a great shoutout to Permaculturists all over the world including us. More love and power back to you too 💚 from Kerala, India.