The Ethics of Permaculture: Earth Care, People Care & Fair Share
Permaculture is political.
At Parkrose Permaculture, we believe the three core ethics of permaculture, Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share, are more than principles for designing a garden. They ask us to consider how we interact with the natural world, how we care for one another, and how resources and opportunities are distributed.
On our quarter-acre urban permaculture property in Portland, Oregon, these ethics inform our approach to organic gardening, ecological design, food production, education, and community involvement.
Permaculture encourages us to observe relationships and understand systems. For me, that includes asking a question that extends well beyond the garden: Who benefits?
Who benefits from the way land is managed? Who has access to nutritious food, clean water, and healthy environments? Whose labor is recognized, and whose contributions are overlooked?
These are questions about ecology, but they are also questions about society. Understanding those connections is central to how we practice and teach permaculture.
Earth Care: Ecological Design & Environmental Stewardship
Earth Care begins with recognizing that healthy ecosystems are the foundation of life. Soil, water, plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms are interconnected, and our decisions about land use affect those relationships.
At Parkrose Permaculture, we apply Earth Care through organic gardening, perennial food production, fruit tree guilds, composting, pollinator habitat, and thoughtful water management.
Our urban food forest and rain garden demonstrate how even a relatively small residential property can support biodiversity while producing food.
But Earth Care also asks us to look beyond our own property. Industrial agriculture, resource extraction, habitat destruction, and environmental policy all influence the ecological systems on which we depend.
For us, environmental stewardship includes both practical work on the land and engagement with the larger decisions that affect it.
Explore Our Urban Permaculture Farm
People Care: Food Security, Education & Community Resilience
People Care recognizes that human well-being is inseparable from the health of our environment and our communities.
Access to nutritious food, practical education, safe housing, and the resources necessary for a healthy life are all connected to the systems we create and maintain.
Our approach to People Care includes sharing gardening knowledge, encouraging local food production, and recognizing the value of the work required to sustain a household.
Homemaking, food preparation, growing and preserving food, caring for family members, and maintaining a home are essential forms of skilled labor. That work deserves recognition and support regardless of who performs it.
People Care also requires us to examine barriers to food security, land access, and educational opportunities. We believe permaculture education should encourage people to understand those barriers and participate in conversations about how communities can address them.
Through Parkrose Permaculture on YouTube, we share practical experience and educational resources that connect ecological principles to everyday life.
Fair Share: Resource Sharing, Food Sovereignty & Mutual Support
Fair Share asks us to consider how resources are used, what constitutes enough, and what responsibilities come with having more than we need.
In permaculture design, this ethic is often described as setting limits to consumption and sharing surplus. It encourages us to think about long-term sustainability rather than treating resources as unlimited.
At Parkrose Permaculture, Fair Share informs our approach to growing food, sharing plants and knowledge, and participating in community-based projects.
Our Parkrose Honesty Farmstand is one example of how food production can connect a small urban property to its surrounding community.
Fair Share also raises important questions about food sovereignty, economic inequality, and access to land and resources.
Who has enough? Who is excluded? And how might we design systems that better support both people and the ecosystems they depend upon?
These questions don't have simple answers, but they deserve serious consideration.
Permaculture Is Political: Putting the Three Ethics Into Practice
Earth Care, People Care, and Fair Share are interconnected. We cannot meaningfully discuss ecological sustainability without considering the people affected by environmental decisions, or discuss community well-being without examining access to resources.
For us, permaculture is both a practical design framework and a way of critically examining the systems that shape our lives.
Our garden is one place where we put those principles into practice. Education, community involvement, and political discussion are other ways we explore the same questions.
Through Parkrose Permaculture, we share our experiences with ecological design, organic food production, and sustainable homemaking. On Parkrose Resistance, I explore political news, civil rights, democracy, and the broader social issues that intersect with these concerns.
Ultimately, the three ethics challenge us to consider not only what we can grow or produce, but how our choices affect the world around us.
Earth Care. People Care. Fair Share.
These are the principles that guide our work, both in the garden and beyond it.