Human Permaculture by Bernard Alonso, Cécile Guiochon, Scott Irving and Marie Quilvan

I give this book 10 out of 10 acorns.

Approximately the first 1/3 of the book describes the meaning of the human element of the book's title. It describes left brain vs right brain phenomenon & how that affects decision making & human interactions. It also describes methods to improve & use both side of our brains. There are some interesting tools provided to help analyze any given situation or task. This section gives some practical examples of how the topics & tools being described can be used to form a new homestead or community. Then it goes into how we are all connected to nature, all the way back to the first single celled organisms. Throughout the book beginning in this first section the ethics & principles of permaculture are discussed as it applies to humans. In my opinion this first section is the most unique compared to other permaculture books. It was thought provoking & interesting. It sets the groundwork for the remainder of the book.

The next section goes into permaculture ethics & design principles & how to apply the tools. There are several detailed examples.

The last 2 sections are about the earth & humans. There are many interesting bits of historical & scientific data throughout both sections. Easy to use & understand info. Not a zillion charts & graphs. Just useful & interesting information. The chapters talk about soil & water & food as well as human habits like waste & monocropping & excessive consumerism. The book does not get political except in the most general sense. It does point out some flaws in modern society & how harmful & unnatural some things are. It provides solutions & ways to think about finding solutions. Which leads to food production & distribution. This is not a gardening book. I think tomato was only mentioned once. This book is geared more towards thinking about why we buy things from the other side of the earth that we could produce locally & ways to make that happen. Why us humans need to make that happen. For instance, there was one sideline that said there are 1 billion obese people in the world & 1 billion starving people in the world. With another 1.5 billion expected to appear on the finite planet within the next few decades. We humans need to fix this mess!

A large part of the food discussion was about various diets & nutritional needs. There is a link for a food calculator/pyramid tool that looked interesting. Haven't tried it yet. There's a fair amount of discussion about meat & dairy. Also thinking outside the box. Alga, seaweed, insects, that sort of thing. There's even a cricket pizza recipe.

I think almost anyone who enjoys permies would enjoy this book. I think it would be very useful for someone about to start a PDC or homestead or community. Perhaps the most important beneficiary would be the person who doesn't understand why permies refuse plastic bags at the grocery store or why they eat the dandelions rather than zap them with poison. Or why you ride your bike when you could drive. The one who says "all water comes in plastic bottles, right?". This book is as much about why as it is how to do permaculture.

Thanks for giving a review Mike.  Can you share more about the unique "human permaculture" idea? have you found it applicable and practical, have the strategies worked? any ways that can work during Covid?  Thanks

Merci Myke pour votre partage ... si vous avez des questions, n'hésitez pas, nous pouvons aussi répondre en anglais ... bonne lecture Bernard Alonso