Permaculture rests on three core ethics from which all design decisions flow.
The Three Ethics
Permaculture rests on three core ethics from which all design decisions flow. They are not philosophical abstractions — they are practical constraints that shape every choice in the garden and beyond.
Earth Care
The health of all life depends on the health of the planet. Soil, water, air, and the living community of organisms are not resources to exploit — they are the substrate of life itself. Every permaculture decision begins here: does this action regenerate or deplete?
People Care
Human needs — food, shelter, community, meaning — must be met in ways that honour dignity and autonomy. A permaculture system that depletes the people who tend it is not sustainable. Self-care, family care, and community care are all People Care.
Fair Share
Take only what you need. Return the surplus. In practice: consume less, redistribute abundance, invest in the commons. Fair Share acknowledges that we live inside a living system with finite throughput — and that limits are not a problem, they are the design.
All three ethics work together. A choice that serves Earth Care but exhausts the gardener fails People Care. A practice that nourishes the practitioner but extracts from the commons fails Fair Share. The art of permaculture is finding the design where all three are satisfied at once.