Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Agriculture and Human Values https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-018-9870-8 What’s wrong with permaculture design courses? Brazilian lessons for agroecological movement-building in Canada Marie‑Josée Massicotte 1  · Christopher Kelly‑Bisson 2 Accepted: 2 June 2018 © Springer Nature B.V. 2018 Abstract This paper focuses on the centrality of permaculture design courses (PDCs) as the principal sociopolitical strategy of the permaculture community in Canada to transform local food production practices. Building on the work of Antonio Gramsci and political agroecology as a framework of analysis, we argue that permaculture instruction remains deeply embedded within market and colonial relations, which orients the pedagogy of permaculture trainings in such a way as to reproduce the basic elements of the colonial capitalist economy among its practitioners. In the specifc case of eastern Ontario, this embeddedness had the efect of diluting the transformative capacity of permaculture practitioners who were unable to create its own social movement organization. The paper then highlights key elements of the agroecological pedagogy used by the Brazilian Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST) and the Escola Latinoamericana de Agroecología (Latin American School of Agroecology, or ELAA) in Paraná, Brazil. The objective is to draw lessons from these inspiring experiences, in a rather unique context of struggles that can help to critically assess the pedagogical practices and principles presently inform- ing permaculture communities in Canada and in advanced industrialized countries more generally. We then conclude by reiterating the key arguments and lessons drawn from the Brazilian pedagogical experiences, pointing out the importance of engagement and coalition-building with established rural and urban movements, as well as progressive farmer, Indigenous, and rural associations to foster a just and sustainable transformation of agri-food systems, starting at the local and regional levels. It also emphasizes the need for the most marginalized sectors to lead the way towards an agroecological transition. Keywords Permaculture · MST · Agroecology · Emancipatory pedagogy · Peasant movements · Gramsci Abbreviations CPT Comissão Pastoral da Terra (Pastoral Land Commission) CUFF Community Urban Food Forest ELAA Escola Latinoamericana de Agroecología (Latin American School of Agroecology) MST Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (Landless Rural Workers Movement) NCC National Capital Commission OPIRG Ontario Public Interest Research Group PDC Permaculture Design Course PIEO Permaculture Institute of Eastern Ontario PO Permaculture Ottawa PRI Permaculture Research Institute We have recently witnessed the multiplication of analyses criticizing the Green Revolution originating from initial crit- ics like Carey McWilliams (1939), Murray Bookchin (1962), and Rachel Carson (1962) as a result of the intensifcation and expansion of industrial agriculture practices. Scholars such as Phil McMichael (2009) and Haroon Akram-Lodhi (2013) have highlighted the multiple and pervasive impacts of such large-scale agri-food production on biodiversity, the environment, as well as the quality of life and well-being of food producers, consumers, future generations, and non- human species alike. It is in this context that a growing num- ber of food producers, ecologists, indigenous, and women’s movements have been organizing and promoting food sov- ereignty, agroecology, and food justice, especially since the inclusion of agriculture in the governance structure of the World Trade Organization in 1995. These sociopolitical * Marie-Josée Massicotte massicot@uOttawa.ca 1 School of Political Studies, Institute for Feminist and Gender Studies, Ottawa, ON, Canada 2 Political Science, School of Political Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada