DVD - Design for life - Permaculture the food forest story In Stock Now

Design for life - Permaculture the food forest story 

This inspiring documentary tells the story of a young couple who set out to perfect an abundant, sustainable way of living. Using permaculture design they turned a dusty paddock into an idyllic home, profitable farm and vibrant teaching centre

Annemarie and Graham Brookman's quest for the principles of sustainable living took them to 40 countries, until they encountered permaculture, a design system for sustainable living created by David Holmgren and Bill Mollison. It was everything they needed for a bold experiment, giving them a set of principles and techniques with which to plan their lives and a small farm to assess this new way of living.

The film traces the physical and economic challenges they overcame: lack of capital, smallness of scale, droughts, floods and the loneliness of the pathfinder, to become one of the World's iconic permaculture properties and one of Australia's most awarded organic farms, The Food Forest.

The movie explains the ethos and planning principles of permaculture through a range of interviews with David Holmgren, Graham and Annemarie Brookman and other designers. It also gives an insight into the thoughts of permaculture children whose generation must fix the exploitative foundations of global economics. Design for Life illustrates the spacial and energy planning of The Food Forest as well as tracing the development of direct sales through farmers markets, the phenomenon of WWOOFing and the spin-off enterprises of eco-tourism and short courses.

There is a sting in the tail of the film when Holmgren and Brookman address the World's urgent needs for educational, economic and environmental reform and illustrate a model for the planning of sustainable cities.

'Design for Life' moves on from the string of eco-disaster documentaries that have raised public awareness and provides a glimpse of the way forward, prosperity without growth’, leaving viewers hungry for more.

In addition to the 68 minute movie the Design for Life DVD includes a detailed 25 minute virtual tour of The Food Forest which explains the workings of the sustainable strawbale home and each of the enterprises that are stacked into this certified-organic, hive of activity – vegetables, fruit and nuts, herbs, chickens, geese, agroforestry, biodiversity, value-adding, water, compost, waste cycling, wine, cider and vinegar. See the trailer here »