Hello, I have worked and lived in both the states and in Western Europe working as a permaculturist. There are similarities between the two because on the grand context every society has different niches within. That means you can find urban applications, village applications, broad acre applications, people doing it and not even knowing the word permaculture. In the states it seems to have been brought to the University level more frequently. i work for two in the states but I only know of one agronomy school in Portugal that has explored the idea of Permaculture.
Permaculture is an Anglo thing as my French girlfriend puts it. This is why it works in the UK, Spain, Portugal but not so much France. France has a great movement that is similar called Agro-ecology headed up by Pierre Rahbi. Its similar from what I have seen and heard from my girlfriend who has studied a bit of both. Thats the French, slightly different, not bad, just different.
I work in Portugal quite a bit and am apart of Projects small and big there which is true for the states as well. The idea of Edible Landscaping is probably a bigger market in the states at this point as well. There is more infrastructure in place for this there and as well in Britain. That means nurseries that have collected productive plants from all over the world. Portugal is way behind on this but with about a 5,000 Euro plant investment from the Agrofrestry research center of Britain we will be just fine. Its probably going to happen this winter or in stages over the next few winters.
One common thing about the west is this- we still have a choice of how radical we want to be with Sustainability. I teach a lot of young folks around the same age as me, under 30, who still have the luxury of deciding will I take a more agrarian lifestyle. Its up to the first worlders to set the example for the rest of the world on sustainability. Trust me I spent a lot of time in the developing world as well. As an American that has spent time in Europe, overall I think the movement is more advanced in the states. However I haven't spent much time in the UK. People often just think of America as this country of big, fat stupid people but that is the joy of the states, there is so much diversity and opportunity for new ideas. It really is a great place but I choose to spend more time in Europe if that says anything.
I hope this helps and feel free to email me with more discussion.
cdoug_e@hotmail.com