For the permaculturalists (comment from woody agriculture paper)

"Joel, in my experience academic agriculturists don’t tend to view permaculture favorably, not even Wes Jackson at the Land Institute. Part of the problem is that too many descriptions of permaculture as an agricultural method have been made. It is therefore very important to make sure people understand permaculture as a design system first and foremost. Permaculture will likely always have a tough time comparing up to individual fields such as agriculture (or architecture, etc.). As generalists, it is difficult to have as much experience in specific fields compared to specialists. Again, if permaculture has a specialty it is design, and we need to do a better job at making that known in my opinion. We can also do a better job at valuing the scientific specialists because we are always pulling at their work for our designs. Badgersett and the Land Institute are classic examples. I am happy that they are out there doing their work and not muddling terms by calling their work permaculture.
Also, permaculturists tend to focus on smaller scales than is useful to agronomists, mostly because when you get up to hundreds of acres the principles start getting more and more challenging to use when talking about plant based agriculture. Permaculturists focus on the smaller orders (rills and runnels) for a good reason. Start at the top of the watershed to have a great impact at the bottom."