Peter Bane – How I’m Preparing for the Local Future: Permaculture

Permaculture – (n) agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems

Educator Peter Bane is preparing for the local future, beyond the global economy and after peak oil. Bane’s talk is the story of the history of permaculture, and how he has used permaculture methods to move towards a self-sustaining homestead using free or low-cost techniques.

Peter Bane is the publisher of Permaculture Activist Magazine for 20 years. He is a garden farmer in Bloomington, Indiana. He teaches permaculture design for Indiana University. He has a bachelors from University in Illinois in political design. Bane has a diplomna in permaculture design from the British Academy of Permculture design. He served on the peak oil task force for the City of Bloomington, Indiana, which was adopted in 2009 December. Bane is currently working on a permaculture handbook for people who live in the suburbs.

In this talk, Bane describes, in his own words, how he is moving beyond the money economy, to providing his essential needs from his homestead, and how he is utilizing the principles of permaculture.

This talk immediately followed Nicole Foss’s talk on how she prepared her family for peak oil and economic uncertainty.

Recorded at the International Conference on Sustainability: Energy, Economy, Environment 2010 hosted by Local Future and directed by Aaron Wissner.