Check out this brilliant site at neverendingfood.org:"A quick search of Permaculture on the internet shows that there are now people in almost every country on earth who are practicing Permaculture. The Permaculture and nutritional ideas that we are highlighting on this website are the ones that we have been trying to use here in Malawi and that have specific importance for helping to solve many of Malawi’s problems...
...The word “Permaculture” is the combination of the two words “permanent” and “agriculture”. Two Australian men named Bill Mollison and David Holmgren coined the term in the 1970’s. It is an agricultural philosophy that allows us to use the resources that we have around us to their fullest potential. By observing and learning from our environment, such as how does nature replenish its soil, how does nature protect and conserve its water resources, how has nature adapted to the specific climate of an area, etc…we can learn how to imitate these natural processes in our daily living. The more closely that we can work with nature, the more likely we are to establish a balance which will provide us with the things that we need without hurting the environment. One of the founding fathers of Permaculture, Bill Mollison, has defined Permaculture as “the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems, which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems”. Source: neverendingfood.org
