The primary goal is to help students and community members understand the necessary balance and connection between people and their environment by addressing environmental issues and what can be done, both individually and as groups, to improve results of human interaction while reducing negative impacts. We inspire people to plant the seeds for eradicating food deserts by becoming future farmers and earth stewards. Proper care for the earth produces positive yields for all living beings.

“Permaculture is a system of agricultural and social design principles centered around simulating or directly utilizing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems. It has many branches that include, but are not limited to, ecological design, ecological engineering, environmental design, construction. Permaculture also includes integrated water resources management that develops sustainable architecture, regenerative habitat and agricultural systems modeled from natural ecosystems.

The three core tenets of permaculture are:

Care for the earth: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply. This is the first principle, because without a healthy earth, humans cannot flourish.

Care for the people: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence.

Setting limits to population and consumption: By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above principles. This includes returning waste back into the system to recycle into usefulness. The third ethic is sometimes referred to as Fair Share, which reflects that each of us should take no more than what we need before we reinvest the surplus.”- Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual.