Definition of "permaculture" [permaculture]

• A system of perennial agriculture emphasizing the use of renewable natural resources and the enrichment of local ecosystems. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The movement's founders, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren, coined the term permaculture in the mid-1970s, as a portmanteau of permanent agriculture and permanent culture."
• "The idea is not complicated, but the term permaculture (permanent agriculture) is most likely unfamiliar to most people."
• "And it's not only the soil that matters in permaculture, but what is grown in it as well."