Permaculture, an approach to land management that uses integrated whole-system thinking, stands as a core practice of sustainable agriculture. Its models encompass diverse strategies, ranging from self-sustaining ecosystems to agroforestry systems and regenerative farming practices, all rooted in three core ethics: care for people, care for the planet, and fair share.
At Cacao Source, we wholeheartedly align with the vision and principles of permaculture design, and as such, they are deeply ingrained in our business plan. In this article, we will explore what permaculture is and entails, and how it integrates into Cacao Source's Social Business Model.
What is Permaculture?
The term "Permaculture" originates from "Permanent culture," referring to a system designed to function forever. This is why all permaculture practices aim to establish a relationship with Earth that can endure for generations.
If you continually take more from nature than you give back, resources will eventually diminish until sustaining the same approach becomes impossible. Such a system wouldn't truly embody the concept of a "permanent culture". That is why Permaculture is a system defined by principles rather than rules, capable of adapting and evolving in harmony with the planet's rhythms.
Permaculture's ethics & Principles
The 3 primary principles of permaculture are: 1. Care for the people, 2. Care for the earth, and 3. Fair-share. They encompass the human, ecology, and economic dimensions of our work. These ethics are a guide in decision-making.
Following the ethics are the 12 principles:
- Observe & interact: Take the time to familiarize yourself with your environment. Observe its natural cycle. Identify what influences the environment and interact with it.
- Catch & store energy: Collect energy that is in sundance to use in the time of needs.
- Obtain a yield: Collect the fruits of your hard work.
- Apply self-regulation & accept feedback: Grow as much as can be consolidated. Accept feedback fro the environment, people and economical results to evolve.
- Use & Value renewable resources: Harvest the value of what already exists and that is around you.
- Produce no waste: Create a model that creates minimum carbon footprints and optimizes all resources.
- Design from pattern to details: Use the patterns you observe in nature and society as the framework of your design, then fill in the details that connect these patterns to your needs.
- Integrate rather than segregate: Integrate people and your environment in your design. Create an inclusive environment.
- Use small & slow solutions: Small & slow solutions are easier to consolidate. Avoid over fast-growth which you can fulfill the tending to its needs.
- Use & value diversity: In diversity, you find resilience. Create a strong eco-system with beneficial relationships.
- Use edges & value the marginal: Find the edge between two systems with the concept 1 stone, 2 birds. Think outside the box and include unfamiliar ideas.
- Creatively use & respond to change: The world is constantly evolving, evolve with it!
Idea 3: 3rd paragraph: Cacao Source & Permaculture Principles (Intro… why did we choose to work with Permaculture principles;
With Cacao Source we chose to work with the Permaculture design as it seemed to be a beneficial practice for our vision to be a force of regeneration. We believe that the monoculture design interpretation into a business model resulted in today’s capitalist system. We wondered, what would be the interpretation of the permaculture design into the business world. We aimed to build a model beyond the social business term, a model that had a holistic perspective and that could integrate with its environment.
Insert a Chart from the Social Business Design PPTX
4th paragraph: Observe and Interact principle application to Cacao Source
For example, using principle 1, observe and interact, at Cacao Source we immersed ourselves in the cacao industry. We dived deep into both, the sweet and sour, sides of cacao. We educated ourselves about the cocoa industry, the chocolate industry, and the new sustainable movement of bean-to-bar and fair-trade cacao. Of course, the essence of our project originates with ‘ceremonial cacao’.We observed all of the markets and resonated deeply with ‘ceremonial cacao’ as it had a wholesome approach with respect to the process, the people, nature, and the community. Within that approach, we integrated the bean-to-bar process which has a transparent trade and we focused ourselves in the quality of the cacao, as well as its taste.
5th paragraph: Use & value diversity application to Cacao Source
Furthermore, another example, while using principle 10, use & value diversity, we created an incredible team that fuels our mission at Cacao Source. Our team includes indigenous, Latinos, and foreigners who all have an equal voice in the project. Each perspective is unique and extremely valuable. We also sought diversity in gender and over 50% of the team identify as LGBTQ. Within the Guatemalan context, it is extremely rare to find this diversity in a team with equal salaries and voice. Once a year, we gather the team of Cacao Source and go into a ‘Vision Quest’ where the team brainstorms to come up with a unified identity and vision. It allows us to bring all the points of view to the table, and share ideas and opinions.
6th paragraph: Impact Energy flow charts & Cacao Source - Show one flow chart
Beyond working with the ethics and principles of permaculture, we also got inspired by the energy flow charts of the permaculture design. We identify all existing energy in our business, including social, environmental, and financial, to draw its flow into our project. We bring to awareness all the energy to need, how it moves in Cacao Source, and how this energy comes out of the project.
In the case of the environmental flow chart, it is more simple to draw out. We identify all natural resources required for the project and conclude by what is our environmental impact and how can we close the cycles we open in order to minimize negative environmental impacts.
The financial flow can seem as easy to draw as the environmental flow. It allows us to measure our initial investment, our profit, our financial waste, and how money moves through Cacao Source.
For the social flow chart, it can be a bit more complex. We aim to identify our positive and negative impact on people. The work of Cacao Source is tight with indigenous local communities, history, and culture. We aim to work with the highest respect of indigenous people, their history and culture. In order to do so, we have to identify all actions that could in some way or another have a negative impact. Only once we have identified those, can we start looking into closing the cycle, giving back or taking different decisions in order to avoid these negative impacts.
To create a flow chart that is perfect with no leak of negative environmental, social, and financial impact, is extremely challenging, at least, we haven’t succeeded yet. What we did succeed at is to always do our best, and continuously improve our systems, decisions, and actions, in order to close all the cycles and offer back some clean energy to the world.
7th paragraph: The zone & Cacao Source
Lastly, an important part of our implementation of the permaculture principles in Cacao Source is the integration of the zones. Where do we focus our attention towards? When creating a permaculture garden, you always want to keep closer to the things that have more needs of tending, this way you optimize your energy. That could be expressed as your herb garden close to your kitchen so you can stretch an arm to get the basil for your pesto. Your vegetable garden is placed afterward so you can tend to it on a daily basis and collect its yield. The chickens close by the vegetable garden to feed them your compost and collect your eggs. The fruit trees are a bit further as they don’t need some daily tending but are accessible to collect their fruit in season. A wild forest at the edge of your land to let nature express itself and offer you some surprise treasures.
In the case of Cacao Source, we keep our Vision/Mission/Values as our home, the heart of our project that we have t daily care for and nourish in our decision-making. Afterwards, we have the cacao production which is our primary offering. We want to tend to it and ensure its functionality before expanding. Our cacao production supports financially over 100 people with a majority of indigenous Guatemalans. Furthermore, we can tend to all our secondary offerings such as our educational course, bi-products, and more. When we have more time, we develop content and new offerings. Once in a while, we take a walk into the wild where we soak in new information and discover new ideas.
Conclusion: (8th paragraph) Why do we choose to work with this model + What have we learned from it + Invite others to work with it
To conclude, this model has been a compass to our work and integral development. We have grown through it and have constantly evolved towards our vision of a force of regeneration through cacao. It has supported our project to grow with strong ethics and for our team to be proud of what we stand behind. We have gone through a fair share of mistakes and learning curves but the integrity behind every decision making always remained solid.
Our model is constantly evolving and as the world changes, we respond to it!
Extra (9th paragraph): Invite people to learn more about our online module “Social Business Design”
If you want to dive deeper into what we call ‘’ the social business design’ we have a short online course that can support you in building your project using our model. FInd out more at www.sourcecacao.com