"Permaculture (the word, coined by Bill Mollison, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture and permanent culture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems." The concept of building a productive ecosystem includes how people interact with their environment and each other. Melissa Marts, Program Development Administrator for the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging, explains some of the permaculture principles and applies them to reframe aging. Melissa is a certified permaculture designer and has been practicing design for over 10 years. One principle states to integrate rather than segregate another to use edge and value the marginal. These principles speak to valuing our older adults (and younger too).
Aging with Altitude is recorded in the Pikes Peak region with a focus on topics of aging interest across the country. We talk about both the everyday and novel needs and approaches to age with altitude whether you’re in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida or Leadville, Colorado. The Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging is the producer. Learn more at Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging.
Transcript:
This is Peak Community. The Studio 809 podcast collaborative.
Cynthia Margiotta:
Hello and thank you for listening to Aging with Altitude, a podcast series elevating the issues that matter. This series is produced by the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments Area Agency on Aging. Today we have Melissa Marts, who works for Area Agency on Aging as the Program Development Administrator for almost a year. Welcome to Area Agency on Aging.
Melissa Marts:
Thank you.
Cynthia Margiotta:
Today she is going to talk about permaculture. She is a graduate of the permaculture design class and took that class 11 years ago.
Melissa Marts:
I did, yeah. It's hard to believe it's been 11 years. Permaculture is a huge part of my life and so much so that I have a fabulous certificate in my office that people ask me about it so I'm always excited to be able to share about why I love permaculture and why it is a part of my life, and how I think it matters to age in place.
Cynthia Margiotta:
Nice. Who started permaculture and why?
Melissa Marts:
Great question. It’s two gentlemen who started permaculture, and it was started in the 70s and it came out of Australia. The founder, his name is Bill Mollison. You can check him out online, learn a lot of great information about him. He was a wildlife biologist and so throughout his career he had really had lots of opportunities to observe and interact with nature and see how different species would thrive, others might not thrive. He looked at flora and fauna. He looked super intensely with the eyes of a scientist, and a biologist. Through that he started to realize that there were lots of principles that were happening in nature that if he applied those in his personal life, he would probably have a better existence, just kind of in his own life. The person who joined him on the quest with permaculture was one of his students named David Holmgren. The two guys got together and came up with this kind of way of existing in our world called permaculture. The term comes from the word permanent culture, kind of put together. Realizing that even though permaculture is an evolution in and of itself, the concept is that we're looking at creating a really solid foundation to grow and build from and looking at culture and creating something that really matters, and can be sustainable going forward.
Cynthia Margiotta:
Great, and so then why did you decide to get involved?
Melissa Marts:
My husband and I...
