Permaculture from my way of looking at it is a mindset of designing a system or systems that work together naturally to enhance the overall out come of each element so that the combination of the elements is abundantly more productive tham any element would be on it’s own. Each element of the system feeds another element to enhance the entire system. So instead of 1 + 1 × 1 + 1 × 1 + 1 × 1 + 1= 8 you have (1 + 1) × (1 + 1) × (1 + 1) × (1 + 1) = 16 or much much more.
For example in an Aquaponics system, which is growing fish and plants together, you have 6 elements:
- the fish,
- the plants,
- a plethora of bacteria the convert fish waste into plant food,
- water for the fish to swim in and water for the plants
- Gravel for the plants to sit in and the bacteria to live on
- Fish food (if you are really clever you can grow that as well)
This system works together miraculously to produce an abundance of food with minimal effort in comparison to either Aquaculture (growing fish in water), Hydroponics (growing plants in artificial nutrient rich water) or traditional gardening.
I would say that the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts but with Aquaponics is is more of an exponentially greater or at the bare minimum it is multipled.
Permaculture (the word, coined by Bill Mollison, is a portmanteau of permanent agriculture and permanent culture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people — providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order.
Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all its forms.
https://permaculturenews.org/what-is-permaculture/