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The original was posted on /r/permaculture by /u/sugarmaple9728 on 2024-09-16 13:12:49+00:00.

Does anyone know who created this term?

Also, what do people think about the term “food forest” vs. “Forest garden”.

Personally, I think the term food forest is misleading, making it sound like everything in the system is food just waiting to be eaten. I prefer the term forest garden, which implies tending like a garden and also an aspect of wildness like a forest. In most forest gardens I’ve been in (hundreds, between the US and Abroad) the food produced is a very small amount compared to the overall productivity of non-food biomass and species that don’t produce food. The term “food forest” makes it sound like we are walking through candy land, eating everything that grows. In most forest gardens I have been in, this is not true, just like the idea that permaculture is low input (ask anyone who has a forest garden if it is low-input).