Permaculture Quotes

“. . . every society that grows extensive lawns could produce all its food on the same area, using the same resources, and . . . world famine could be totally relieved if we devoted the same resources of lawn culture to food culture in poor areas. These facts are before us. Thus, we can look at lawns, like double garages and large guard dogs, [and Humvees and SUVs] as a badge of willful waste, conspicuous consumption, and lack of care for the earth or its people.

Most lawns are purely cosmetic in function. Thus, affluent societies have, all unnoticed, developed an agriculture which produces a polluted waste product, in the presence of famine and erosion elsewhere, and the threat of water shortages at home.

The lawn has become the curse of modern town landscapes as sugar cane is the curse of the lowland coastal tropics, and cattle the curse of the semi-arid and arid rangelands.

It is past time to tax lawns (or any wasteful consumption), and to devote that tax to third world relief. I would suggest a tax of $5 per square metre for both public and private lawns, updated annually, until all but useful lawns are eliminated.”
― Bill Mollison

“You can solve all the world's problems in a garden.”
― Geoff Lawton

“Anytime there is a disassociation between the producer of value and the consumer of value - there will be waste, a lack of economic empathy, and a lack of productivity.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“The shift towards Permaculture Economics represents a paradigm shift in how businesses operate. By recognizing their interconnectedness with the world around them, companies can unlock new opportunities for growth, resilience, and positive impact.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Board Room Blitz: Mastering the Art of Corporate Governance

“An economic ecosystem that disrespects natural ecosystems will be disrespected by natural ecosystems.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“A permaculture economy is superior to a circular economy.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“In any economic ecosystem whereby things are measured primarily according to their present gross utility; it becomes tolerable and even profitable to create, sell and buy products and services which cause net future harm even as they provide present gross utility. This is why a permaculture economy is superior to every other economic ecosystem.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Waste is antithetical to efficiency. You cannot have one while also having the other. In maximizing one, the other will definitely be minimized. In minimizing one, the other will definitely be maximized.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth

“Boards that consider Permaculture principles can help their companies become positive change agents rather than simply doing no harm.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Board Room Blitz: Mastering the Art of Corporate Governance

“Permaculture Economics views businesses as interconnected parts of a larger ecosystem. By understanding and optimizing these relationships, companies can create positive feedback loops that benefit not only their bottom line but also the environment, their communities, and society as a whole.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Board Room Blitz: Mastering the Art of Corporate Governance

“How do you design a garden. Well the intentional placement of boundaries and the intentional facilitation of interactions has a lot to do with it. The same is true in an economic ecosystem. The intentional placement of boundaries and the intentional facilitation of interactions has a lot to do with the success of an economic ecosystem. This is one reason why Permaculture Economics is so effective.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“A permaculture economy is one whereby people are inclusively participating in productivity and equitably sharing in profits.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Business is inherently altruistic — to profit, a business must add value to peoples lives and It must solve peoples problems. It does this while creating income and wealth for employees and owners. This is what I call a ‘Multiplicative Value Effect.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Pure capitalism is great at rewarding the creative utilization of capital by one group of people in service to another according to present gross utility and refined use cases. But pure capitalism does not address the intentional placement of boundaries or the intentional facilitation of productive interactions accounting for net utility and holistic use cases. This is why pure capitalism at times is threatened by or presents threats to a variety of social and ecological ecosystems. And this is why permaculture economics is superior to pure capitalism, as it contains all of the benefits of capitalism plus some benefits that capitalism does not provide .”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“A purely capitalist ecosystem is like a wild forest — It’s beautiful and great and productive. But the application of design principles which utilize the natural capabilities already there will result in a luscious fruit garden that is more beautiful, more great, and more productive. A permaculture economy is that luscious fruit garden.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Capitalism is great at facilitating the maximization of production — regarding efficiency only as it effects the profit of the producer and the profit of the buyer in any given transaction. But permaculture economics is great at facilitating the maximization of productivity — regarding efficiency more holistically and measuring according to multiplicative value effects.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“I passed out cigars to the men, and we lit them with a twig caught alight in the fire and passed the bottle around. Charley was doing most of the talking, telling a hunting story from the days of elk and bison, neither of which anyone in attendance except Charley had ever seen. He made them epic animals in his story, inhabitants of an old and better world not to come around again. He then told of his lost farmstead at the old mound village of Cowee, before one of the many disastrous treaties had driven him and his family west to Nantayale. At Cowee, he has been noted for his success with apple trees, which over the years he had planted at spots where his outhouses had stood. Apples grew on his trees huge as dreams of apples. That Cowee house was old, from the time when they still buried dead loved ones in the dirt floor.”
― Charles Frazier , Thirteen Moons

“Profits are the result of productivity. Productivity is defined as ‘the effectiveness of effort as measured in terms of the rate of output per unit of input.’ Profit exists within this margin. Therefore, any desire to increase profits must include reasonable actions to improve productivity.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Like with pure Capitalism — in a Permaculture Economy, trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit and not by the state. This is essential to the success of an economic ecosystem.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“In business, as is the case in nature, circularity amplifies profit.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, CEO of Mayflower-Plymouth, Business Essentials

“Everything in a natural ecosystem both is capital and exists in service to capital.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Investing, The Permaculture Way: Mayflower-Plymouth's 12 Principles of Permaculture Investing

“The role of soil in natural ecosystems shares striking similarities with the role of capital in economies. Just as soil serves as the vital resource underpinning natural ecosystems, capital is the foundational resource driving economic systems.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“The proper use case of tokens is to more precisely control behaviors within naturally occurring social ecosystems. Any attempt to transcend beyond the small naturally occurring ecosystem is naive at best and dishonest at most.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Capitalism is great at facilitating the maximization of production — regarding efficiency only as it effects the profit of the producer and the profit of the buyer in any given transaction. But permaculture economics is great at facilitating the maximization of productivity — regarding efficiency holistically and messing according to multiplicative value effects.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Now, more than ever, the world needs a Permaculture Economy.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr

“In nature, capital is never stagnant. Capital exists in service to life - at all times. It's a medium of utility, not a souvineer. The capital in our portfolio should work in the same way.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr., Investing, The Permaculture Way: Mayflower-Plymouth's 12 Principles of Permaculture Investing

“Stability, the deep, cushiony ability to take blows, and yet to keep things as they were, came from the special place of these people on the land. The peasants were agriculturalists; their livelihood sprang from the earth. Americans they met later would have called them "farmers", but that word had a different meaning in Europe. The bonds that held these men to their acres were not simply the personal ones of the husbandman who temporarily mixes his sweat with the soil. The ties were deeper, more intimate. For the peasant was part of a community and the community was held to the land as a whole.”
― Oscar Handlin , Children of the Uprooted

“Digging in the dirt and shoveling manure in the corral is not going to strip off the layers of armor the first day or the second day or even the twelfth. But over time, they're part of something that they start from scratch and see through to the end. How often have they had the chance to do that? To feel like they created something? Especially something that could help keep another human being alive?”
― Debra Landwehr Engle, Grace from the Garden: Changing the World One Garden at a Time

“View now with delight the works of your own hands, your fruit trees of all sorts, loaden with sweet blossoms, and fruit of all tastes, operations, and colors: your trees standing in comely order, which way soever you look. And the roots of your trees powdered with strawberries, red, white and green; what a pleasure this is!”
― William Lawson , A New Orchard And Garden: Or, The Best Way For Planting, Grafting, And To Make Any Ground Good, For A Rich Orchard: Particularly In The North And ... Housewifes Garden For Herbes Of Common Vse,

“Anger and even fury. I have no other motivation. Anger about the senseless distraction. The only thing that keeps me going is anger. I don't have any love in me at all. I hate community. Two things make me furious. Spiritualism, and community. People who talk about community want to manage other people. I grew up in a village. And people say that's a community, but it isn't. It's a lot of individuals, following the rules. And spiritualism, spiritual people are often very greedy, avaricious, and waste a hell of a lot of time. Nobody deserves what they are promised by spiritual people. And some people promise them eternal life. I think it's a horrific punishment to get eternal life. Ordinary people should never have such punishment visited on them”
― Bill Mollison