Profitable Permaculture? Look no further..

A really inspiring article about a Wisconsin Permaculture farmer, enjoy:

http://permaculture.org.au/2010/12/18/mark-shepherds-106-acre-permaculture-farm-in-viola-wisconsin/

EXCELLENT article!

Thanks!

I think this quote sums up his income method

Like all of my many ventures, there is no one enterprise that is able to pay all the bills all by itself. Every venture that we do is small. I don’t have the job skills, tools or education to earn $100,000 and $100,000 seems like a big scary number to me. But I can a dollar. I can sell a dozen trees. I can sell a couple of sticks, some cut flowers, some asparagus, some mushrooms, some salad greens, do a couple tours, speak at a conference or two, teach a course, grow some peppers, sell some nuts, make some cider, sell some pigs and some beef, sell some firewood, etc., and it all adds up. No one thing does it. They all are key.

Great article worth the read!

i highly recommend this podcast interview with him also: http://agroinnovations.com/index.php/en_us/multimedia/blogs/2009/01/permaculture-in-the-savanna/

I saw him speak last year at the MOSES conference. Great speaker, I would love to see his farm one day. - Joe

"Ninety percent of certified permaculture designers that I have encountered are not doing it. They're playing at the edges and fooling themselves. They're not creating a different culture, they're not growing their own food."  -Shepard

This guy really impresses me. I especially love what he has to say about really going after things, making it profitable, and registering as a business, etc.

I love how he deals with the interns by not using them as interns but instead making them self reliant by hiring them like he would another contracting business.

RusticBohemian wrote:
I love how he deals with the interns by not using them as interns but instead making them self reliant by hiring them like he would another contracting business.

Kudos to him.

It's painful to see so many organic farms run on a neo-feudal landlord/landless serf relationship.  We need to challenge that arrangement, not greenwash it. 

yukkuri_kame wrote:
Kudos to him.

It's painful to see so many organic farms run on a neo-feudal landlord/landless serf relationship.  We need to challenge that arrangement, not greenwash it. 

100% agree!

Has he written anything? I'd love to hear more about his ideas and techniques.

RusticBohemian wrote:
Has he written anything? I'd love to hear more about his ideas and techniques.

The website suggests a book on the way.