Voices Of Change PODCAST: A Conversation With Diego Footer

Recently I had a chance to chat with Diego Footer from Creative Destruction, formally known as Permaculture Voices, on a podcast series featuring “honest, hard conversations about farming, business, and life with those trying to make a living doing something that they love and dealing with life in the process.”

We spoke in depth about how permaculture can be an incredible design tool and how it has transformed my own engineering practice. With Diego’s permission, I’m pleased to feature the entire talk below:

An excerpt:

…Like me Rob comes from an engineering background, and he came to permaculture after having been an engineer.

For him, permaculture gave him another tool to use and way to re-purpose his engineering career. Permaculture gave him a way to richen and deepen his design work and engineering versus diluting it.

And it was in one of our conversations where he said something that stopped me in my tracks, and changed my paradigm on the spot.

He said, ‘Diego, it doesn’t matter what anyone is saying or doing with permaculture, no matter how irrelevant it may seem. Permaculture is simply another tool in the toolbox, and if it makes my job easier, then I will use it. Like a hammer, it doesn’t matter what people are saying or claiming about a hammer, when you need to drive a nail you use a hammer, and when you don’t, you don’t pay attention.’

It was that simple idea of permaculture being a tool, regardless of what claims people make, it’s still a tool, that really reset my perspective on permaculture….

For more insight, check out the extensive archive of Creative Destruction podcasts here.

About Rob

In less than 10 years, Rob & Michelle Avis left Calgary’s oil fields and retooled their engineering careers to help clients and students design integrated systems for shelter, energy, water, waste and food, all while supporting local economy and regenerating the land. The’re now leading the next wave of permaculture education, teaching career-changing professionals to become eco-entrepreneurs with successful regenerative businesses. Learn more and connect with Rob & Michelle on;

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/vergepermaculture/
Website – https://vergepermaculture.ca/

Originally Published: https://vergepermaculture.ca/2017/01/26/voices-change-podcast-diego-footer/