#6 - Permaculture

In all honesty, I have no idea where the things I eat really come from. Like most of us, I grew up in the city and everything I ate always came from the supermarket. Even today I remain somewhat unaware of the links between the sourcing, production and distribution of food, and the ways in which I consume it. In many ways, I think we are all strangers to the journey our food takes before arriving at our table and it’s clear to me that the distance we’ve put between our kitchen and our food’s source is one of the main reasons that the global food distribution system has turned out to be the second largest greenhouse gas emitter.

What I do know though is that there’s an ongoing revolution that is taking place where people around the world are actively trying to reinvent the way we produce food in cities. Some call it kilometer 0 food, others urban farming or even urban forests. You hear of plant-based meat, vertical farming, aquaponics, hydroponics, aeroponics, the list goes on and on. The main objective is to bridge this gap and scale down the production levels.

One of the oldest and most prevailing practices in sustainable food production is permaculture. It's a concept that was created in the 70s by Australian academics Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. It was defined as “the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.” Hmm, a conscious design of agriculturally productive ecosystems. Sounds like exactly what the world needs today right?

So this time, with the help of Karim Abillama and Júlia Ferreira Veiga we will put permaculture at the center of the discussion, in an effort to understand what it is, what are its principles and how we can envision and implement other sustainable food production practices in our kitchens and our cities.