PermaculturePermaculture is a combination of the words permanent and agriculture. It is a gardening design philosophy, based on several natural principles:

  • keep everything in closed cycles
  • grow plants that stay permanently: either they stay for years or they are self-seeding. This way you don’t have to buy seed every year.
  • the land will never stay unused.

Bill Mollison, the father of permaculture, is quoted as follows in the Handbook Ecological Gardening (VELT):

He [Bill Mollison] noticed that the forest was in production permanently, solely runing on the energy from the sun and the fertile soil. There is no extra energy-income and no waste either.

This system-vision is also the basis for The Vision of Enschede, a document written in 1995 by young, almost-engineers which served as s starting point for the design of Rainbow Trading. Hence, permaculture and Rainbow Trading share the same principles from the ground up.

So, we have a gardening philosophy and an economic system which are basically made for each other. Optimal use of energy, closed cycles and cooperation are principles you will see in both. And the knowledge that everything is connected.

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