Permaculture Fast Track DVD Review

James Burnette Gardening

Sometime ago I got on an email list for the Regenerative Leadership Institute, a permacultre site. I was googling around looking for a Free Online PDC, legally not trying to redistribute someones work, and I came across theirs. I signed up for the course and started taking it. I want to say I didn’t get very far. Like maybe not even past the first module.  The video seemed like it was shot on a VHS camcorder tweenty year ago. There might have been VHS lines on the screen. Instead of instilling me with a sense of nostalgia I could not get into it. Which is a shame it was permculturist Larry Korn, translator of The One Straw Revolution, teaching it. Skipping ahead to now and I get an email from them with an offer for a FREE DVD. I should have known better and I’ll share with you why.

 

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Free Comes With A High Cost

Usually nothing is ever free. I like to joke as a blogger I get a ton of free things but that’s not exactly true. In the case of this DVD it was litterly not free. In the email as soon as I saw the word FREE in all cap’s multiple times I knew it would have a shipping cost for one. That was true it had it said a $12.95 shipping cost. But things don’t end there. When I clicked the buy link in the email it took me to a marketing page to sale a $60 a month membership for additional videos on demand. The page was long and it would seem that the $12 offer didn’t exist, I have seen this kind of marketing too many times before though and knew I had t0 scroll for a long time to get to the cheap price. All of this should have set off my Spider sense but I will buy almost anything for 12 bucks. Eventually I got the order placed and received an email fro their DVD drop ship company saying it was on the way and that Regenerative leadership didn’t have the tracking into to contact them if I need it. Ugh.

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So I finally get it in the mail, in a cheap envelope, and rip it open. The DVD is in a cd sleeve and only one. The marketing on this was that it was a $129.95 plus shipping DVD. I for soe reason thought it would be more than one DVD. Maybe just because I could not fathom how a single DVD could be worth that much. I also thought It was an entire PDC. It is only 3 chapters from the 14 chapter Permaculture Designers Manual. Anyway, Whatever, let’s just watch this thing.

 

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Let’s Watch

I toss it in still thinking it is a whole PDC and not about a fifth of one. I saw that it went straight to three menus, old school DVD style, and nothing else. I started with the first chapter and quickly got angry. I noticed that the video was pretty bad quality. Like shot badly by composition, sound, and video quality. Every few seconds the top of the screen would get scrambled and it would loose audio and skip ahead. This was at times mildly annoying to full on infuriating. So based on the video quality this thing was already making me regret even the $12 spent.

Red Flags

Early on in the video another red flag went up. Permaculture is based around 3 ethics:

  1. Care Of the People
  2. Care of the Earth
  3. Return of Surplus

When the lady teaching in this video gets to the third ethic, the one most misconstrued, she had it all wrong. She said that the third ethic was Redistribution of Surplus/ Fair Share. Why must people always change that one. Return of Surplus is not fair share. Fair share is really theft and unsustainable whereas return of surplus is sustainable. It took me a bit to stop being angry over that to get back to listening to her. When I calmed down I heard some good things. She did talk about some good techniques and principles. When the video was not skipping that is.

 

Even though this DVD did contain some good info I would not recommend it. I feel bad enough I talked a friend into buying it. I feel you could get just as much watching free YouTube videos. Without the skipping video. Also I’ll be removed from that list. It’s a shame you have to be so careful of people like this on the internet selling piss poor merchandise.

Have you got suckered on the internet? Let me know in the comments

 

 

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10 thoughts to “Permaculture Fast Track DVD Review”

  1. I almost bought this same DVD! I sent the link to my wife to order it for me. I’m glad she suggested that we don’t waste the money on it. She said it seemed a little funky.
    I really dig the permaculture thing! But I just don’t have the cash to throw down for a real PDC.
    If you ever come across something that is worthy, please keep us posted!
    Thanks dude,
    Joe

  2. I signed up for the Free Online PDC from Regenerative Leadership Institute a while back. It does give you access to a TON of video content. Unfortunately the positives end there. I watched the first 4 or 5 videos, but more or less lost interest (in the videos, not Permaculture). I know Larry Korn is supposed to be a big name in Permaculture teaching, but his speaking style bored the hell out of me. He basically reads off of slides/out of a book or goes off on a tangent about having worked with Fukuoka. I struggled to get through any of the ~50 minute videos in one sitting.

    I find Geoff Lawton’s videos to be far more engaging. Even though they don’t generally get into technical details about techniques, they do a great job of showing the potential power of Permaculture in just a short 10-12 minute snippet. I also learned more about fundamentals and techniques from Jack Spirko’s Youtube lectures and/or his TSP podcast.

  3. I did the same thing you did: bought the “free” DVD (so cheap!), watched 5 minutes, threw it away and kicked myself for falling for it.

    I felt like I had been duped into letting a door to door salesperson into my home for a presentation and realized I was their first customer. The woman was at her kitchen table with a flipboard and giant windows behind her with a camera running. She had no speaking skills (and no editing to help her) and it was obvious that she hand’t practiced any of the material.

    As for their free online videos, I used to pull them up and let them run while I was at work (sysadmin). I would occasionally find something interesting but I couldn’t give them my full attention without getting bored. Geoff Lawton’s online PDC blows them away and I expect Spirko’s online PDC to be even better than Lawton’s.

  4. I also got sucker into this DVD deal. Shot with a crappy camera into a window. No supporting documentation but a talking head describing some dribble. Utter waste of money. Glad I didn’t waste any more cash with them. The permaculture concept is brilliant but this DVD is pure rubbish. You can get much more from free you tube videos.

  5. Thank you for this review! Was about to order the info when my common sense kicked in and searched for a review, phew.

  6. Thanks for this. I was tempted but got nervous about the ‘Normally $129 now completely free’ statements. If it is so good that it is worth $129 then there’s no way they’re giving it away for free. you just saved me $12 and I appreciate that.

  8. Thanks for posting these comments and saving us all time and money. Don’t give up on learning about permaculture. It is very worthwhile even if this offer was not!

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