Today’s conversation was recorded back in the last few weeks before I left Guatemala when I had a chance to sit down with my good friend and fellow permaculture educator, Mordur G’ott, but we all call him Moli.Mörður or Moli is a permaculture pioneer in Iceland who has been travelling between countries to learn and share what he knows. In Iceland he has hosted multiple events and PDS’s with legendary teachers like Albert Bates and Robyn Francis among others.
In this session Moli and I speak about the more problematic aspects of the permaculture pedagogy that we’ve found in practice. As with any teaching methodology, permaculture can become dogmatic and even cult-like when practitioners take certain teachings as gospel and forget the essential aspects of observation, reassessment, and flexibility when techniques don’t apply to your context. Moli offers great insights from his years as a permaculture educator and project coordinator on some of the aspects of permaculture that he feels need deeper explanation and clarification to help avoid pitfalls and misunderstandings, especially from people who are new to the concepts and often don’t have any experience working directly with nature to draw from.
Many of you may find that you disagree with some or all of Moli’s conclusions or maybe know of elements of permaculture teaching that weren’t mentioned in this episode that you think are essential to include in a conversation about the shortcomings or undesirable aspects surrounding permaculture. If that’s the case, I would love to hear your opinions. You can comment in the threads below or email me directly at info@abundantedge.com. This is a controversial topic that I’m looking forward to exploring further
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For years now, I’ve been hearing feedback and questions from listeners of this podcast. Many of you out there have been piecing together your education. You’ve taken your PDC, you may have taken some other gardening or more advanced design courses, and though you’re passionate about ecological work, many of you still lack the confidence to break out on your own and start working as professional designers. That’s why I’m really excited to tell you about the new Digital permaculture design course, taught by Dan Halsey, the founder of Southwoods Ecological design and United Designers Intl. In just five days this online intensive will guide you through every part of the design process from client intake to the final presentation with specific focus on digital design and drawing. You’ll also get a year of access to the Permaculture Plant Database, live interactive online classes, access to the United designers symbols library, files, professional templates and much more. This course is a fast track to working as a professional on the cutting edge of ecosystem regeneration and for a limited time, listeners of this show can get $100 off the course by entering the code AEpodcast at checkout. The course starts on July 29th so hurry to reserve your place at permacultureprofessionals.com
And if you want to learn more about Dan Halsey and his work, checkout the interview I did with him about running a professional design company in episode 117 or by clicking the link in the show notes of this episode
We need professional ecological designers more than ever. Sign up for the Digital Permaculture design course today at permacultureprofessionals.com