Quality of life in permaculture farms evaluated using MESMIS

Abstract

This article presents a case study developed by Terra Permanente project and its objective was to evaluate if there was life quality advances for four farmers' family in Santa Catarina State (Southern Brazil) after the permaculture principles adoption on their farm management. To evaluate the life quality before, along and after the Permaculture Design Course (PDC) conclusion, it was monitored four familiar farms during two years. It was used “Evaluating the sustainability of complex socio-environmental systems." - MESMIS framework - as reference, with some customizations needed to approximate to permaculture ethics and design principles. Some results obtained reveals the life quality advances clearly. Thus, the customized MESMIS methodology  here applied it was dubbed as Permaculture MESMIS. It shows potential to be applied to surveys that address permaculture farms sustainability.