2021 permies.com Permaculture Leader Maestro Awards

Sean Dembrosky is the owner and operator of Edible Acres,  a popular youtube channel which doubles as a permaculture nursery and forest farm research space. He focuses on ways to grow food with human scale earth working and low technology solutions.

Permaculture People You Could Know (but might not know already)
Edible Acres - youtube channel
Edible Acres - permaculture nursery






Allan Savory has spent his life researching and finding solutions for the desertification of the world’s grasslands. His methodology, Holistic Management, provides a framework for managing the complexities of the living world, while utilizing a grazing planning procedure that regenerates grasslands and can reverse desertification. His book, "Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment" describes his effort to find workable solutions ordinary people could implement to overcome many of the problems besetting communities and businesses today.

Savory Institute
Savory Institute - facebook
Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment - book




Ben Falk is the author of the award-winning book the Resilient Farm and Homestead. He developed Whole Systems Design as a land-based response to biological and cultural extinction and the increasing separation between people and elemental things. Life as a designer, builder, ecologist, tree-tender, and backcountry traveler continually informs Ben’s integrative approach to developing landscapes and buildings.

Whole Systems Designs
Ben Falk - youtube channel
Resilient Farm and Homestead - book




Bryant Redhawk holds a PHD in Microbiology and is best known for his Soil Science Series on permies.com. These articles explain the importance of healthy soil microbiology to having a thriving garden ecosystem, and give specific advice on how to apply this knowledge to your garden. He and his wife live on 15+ acres in the woods, where they continue their own research both in Agriculture and soils with the hope to make the world more like it used to be, before mankind began screwing up the Earth Mother.

List of Dr. RedHawk's Epic Soil Series Threads







David Holmgren is an Australian environmental designer, ecological educator and writer. He is best known as one of the co-originators of the permaculture concept with Bill Mollison. David is passionate about the philosophical, conceptual and practical foundations for sustainability, and his book "Principles and Pathways" is regarded as a major landmark in permaculture literature.

Holmgren Design
Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability - book

Number 1

Joel Salatin calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. He is co-owner of Polyface Farms, which producing meat he describes as "beyond organic", and are raised using environmentally responsible, ecologically beneficial, sustainable agriculture. He has been featured in news stories, books, conferences, and documentaries showcasing his regenerative agriculture through rotational grazing.

Polyface Farms
Musings from a Lunatic Farmer - blog
Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front  - book







Mark Shepard is the CEO of Restoration Agriculture Development, the Forest Agriculture Nursery and runs New Forest Farms, a 110 acre perennial agricultural savanna, one of the first of its kind in the USA. He is the author of the award-winning Restoration Agriculture: Real-world Permaculture for Farmers and Water for ANY Farm.

Restoration Agriculture Development
New Forest Farms
Restoration Agriculture - book
Forest Agriculture Nursery





Brad Lancaster is an expert in the field of rainwater harvesting and water management. He is also a permaculture teacher, designer, consultant, co-founder of Desert Harvesters, and author of "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond"

Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster
Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond - book
Desert Harvesters




Eric Toensmeier is the award-winning author of many books, including "Perennial Vegetables" and "The Carbon Farming Solution" and is the co-author of "Edible Forest Gardens." He is an appointed lecturer at Yale University, and has studied useful perennial plants and their roles in agroforestry systems for over two decades, and cultivates about 300 species in his urban garden.

Perenial Solutionshttp://www.perennialsolutions.org
The Carbon Farming Solution
Project Drawdown





Rosemary Morrow is one of the pioneering women in permaculture: for almost 40 years she has worked extensively with farmers, villagers and refugees. She is known and appreciated  for her pragmatic and effective approach to creating permaculture systems across a very  broad range of environments, such in SE Asia, the Middle East, India and, East Africa. She focuses on taking permaculture to communities who wouldn't normally have access to it and how to meet needs, with abundance, for water and food security, and successful sustainable farming models, no matter the situation

Blue Mountains Permaculture Institute
Earth User’s Guide to Teaching Permaculture - book





Toby Hemenway was an American author and educator who wrote extensively on permaculture and ecological issues. He was the author of "Gaia's Garden"  and "Permaculture City." Gaia's Garden is an affordable, accessible, informative introduction to permaculture, and is usually the first book people read on the subject. Through his books, lectures, and magazine, he brought  ecological design and sustainable culture to a large segment of society.

Toby Hemenway
Gaia's Garden - book
The Permaculture City - book
Toby Hemenway





Willie Smits is a forestry engineer, microbiologist, conservationist, animal activist and social entrepreneur. For over thirty years Smits has been working for reforestation and the conservation of endangered primate species such as the orangutan. He is currently using sustainable agriculture, reforestation, and forest monitoring to reforest more than 500,000 acres of degraded tropical rainforest.

Masarang Foundation
Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation





Paul Wheaton is a powerful advocate of permaculture. He was dubbed the Duke of Permaculture by both Geoff Lwaton and Sepp Holzer, and The Bad Boy of Permcaulture by Occupy Monsanto. Paul is the owner of permies.com, coderanch.com, richsoil.com, and Wheaton Labs. He has produced over 400 podcasts, a multitude of youtube videos and multiple DVDs, has presented at over 100 events around the US, and has written dozens of articles and a book. The events he hosts at his property, Wheaton Labs, have resulted in rocket stoves and ovens, massive earthworks, solar dehydrators and and many other permaculture innovations.

Paul Wheaton Permaculture and Homesteading Stuff
Building a Better World in Your Backyard - book
Paui Wheaton - youtube channel





Geoff Lawton is a permaculture, farmer, film maker, designer, consultant, educator and aid worker, for over 30 years has specialized in permaculture education, design, implementation, system establishment, administration and community development. Lawton's aim is to establish self-replicating education demonstration community share project sites and he has educated over 25,000 students in Permaculture worldwide.

Discover Permaculture with Geoff Lawton - YouTube
Zaytuna Farm
Discover Permaculture
Permaculture Research Institute

Number 2

Sepp Holzer is a farmer and author of several books who works nationally as permaculture-activist in the established agricultural industry, and works internationally as adviser for ecological agriculture. He specializes in cold climate and desert permaculture, especially at high-latitudes and steep slopes, utilizing hugelkultur and earthworks to create productive land from that which was previously considered "unfarmable."

Sepp Holzer Permaculture - main site
Sepp Holzer's Permaculture - book
Sepp Holzer Permaculture -English




Bill Mollison is considered to be the Father of Permaculture.  Mollison not only coined the term "permaculture," he wrote the the permaculture bible, titled "Permaculture - A Designer's Manual," and also founded the The Permaculture Institute in Tasmania. As a researcher, author, scientist, teacher and biologist, he spent decades of his life devoted to understanding, teaching, and furthering permaculture around the world.

Permaculture: A Designer's Manual - book (USA) (Australian site)
Bill Molison's Permaculture Design Course video

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