Permaculture: The need for increased science

Scott James Minckler

doi:10.7273/000003967

The widespread and growing practice of modern-day industrial agriculture has generated increasing global concerns about the negative impacts of industrial agriculture on the long-term health of the planet. Alternative forms of agriculture, such as permaculture, may be capable of providing a broad suite of ecosystem services while producing adequate yields, and may be a practical means to facilitate an agroecological transition. Permaculture, which intends to develop self-sufficient and sustainable agroecosystems, merits more investigation by the scientific community into the many claims made in the popular literature regarding its sustainability benefits. This thesis is intended to provide a better understanding of the sustainability strengths and limitations of permaculture in moving current farming systems in a more agroecological direction (an agroecological transition). With that in mind, reported here are the results of a systematic review of the scientific and popular permaculture literature. Moreover, qualitative and quantitative analyses are made to produce an overall evaluation of permaculture, including recommendations for needed future research. The systematic literature review indicates that the amount of scholarly and peer-reviewed scientific research works on permaculture is substantially lacking, especially when compared to the amount in the popular permaculture literature. In addition, the numbers of peer reviewed scientific research regarding permaculture pale in comparison to the well-researched topic of agroecology. Clearly, more scientific investigation and research regarding permaculture is needed. Moreover, data derived from this literature review make a strong case for more interdisciplinary scientific investigation, research, and participatory collaboration with farmer stakeholders regarding the potential of permaculture's principles and practices to contribute to an agroecological transition. These permaculture principles and practices include biodiversity, perennial cropping, and incorporation of local ecosystems in-site design. Themes identified for future research include permaculture's role and contribution to agroecosystem design and configuration, addition of perennial crops in annual cropping systems, and enhancing biodiversity. If increased scholarly research can demonstrate that permaculture practices can contribute to an efficacious agroecological transition, then mainstream agriculture will have the factual, scientific basis to incorporate many permaculture practices.

Permaculture: The need for increased science

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