C21st Permaculture: Graham Burnett on The Vegan Book of Permaculture

Graham Burnett performing 'Don't Panic, Go Organic' at the 2014 UK Permaculture Convergence

"We have always lived in slums and holes in the wall. We will know how to accommodate ourselves for a while. For you must not forget that we can also build. It is we who built these palaces and cities, here in Spain and America and everywhere. We, the workers. We can build others to take their place. And better ones. We are not in the least afraid of ruins. We are going to inherit the earth; there is not the slightest doubt about that. The bourgeoisie might blast and ruin its own world before it leaves the stage of history. We carry a new world here, in our hearts. That world is growing in this minute."

- Buenaventura Durruti, from an interview with Pierre van Paassen (24 July 1936), published in 'The Toronto Daily Star' (5 August 1936)

In this interview I speak to Graham Burnett about his new book The Vegan Book of Permaculture, the ethical approach of Veganism & where it meets permaculture, whether it's time for permaculture to get more radical and more.

Visit Graham at www.spiralseed.co.uk

Along the way we refer to:

Buenaventura Durruti

Joanna Macy

Donella Meadows

Mark Shepard's book Restoration Agriculture; Real-world permaculture for farmers

Ian Tollhurst

Kathleen Jannaway

The Movement for Compassionate Living

Vegan Organic Network

Meredith Stern: 'We are not in the least afraid of ruins...'

C21st Permaculture: Gerry Taylor Aiken on 'nature'

In the second of my 21st Century Permaculture interviews with human ecologists, I spoke to academic Dr Gerry Taylor Aiken about how permaculturalists construct the 'nature' that they claim to work with. We also talk about whether there is a theological aspect to permaculture philosophy and practice.

Gerry teaches at the Institute of Geography and Spatial Planning at the University of Luxembourg and he researchs the role of community in the transition to low carbon futures.

His doctorate dissertation 'The Production, Practice, and Potential of ‘Community’ in Edinburgh’s Transition Town Network, 2014' was a study of the tensions and relationships between a government scheme to target carbon emissions through community and the grassroots, activist, emergent groups they funded.

Gerry's academic webpage

Along the way we talk about:

Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society (1976) by Raymond Williams

Orientalism (1978) by Edward W. Said

Imagined Geographies

Minnie Evans: Designs, Wrightsville Beach (1968)