Permaculture is perhaps the wave of our near future that we must ride in order to sustain a reliable food source and sustain life on this planet. Humans graduating from reliance on imported crops and industrial farming is inevitable.
The word "permaculture" was coined in 1978 by Bill Mollison, an Australian ecologist, and one of his students, David Holmgren. It is a contraction of "permanent agriculture" or "permanent culture."
Permaculture is about designing ecological human habitats and food production systems. It is a land use and community building movement which strives for the harmonious integration of human dwellings, microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils, and water into stable, productive communities. The focus is not on these elements themselves, but rather on the relationships created among them by the way we place them in the landscape. This synergy is further enhanced by mimicking patterns found in nature.
A central theme in permaculture is the design of ecological landscapes that produce food. Emphasis is placed on multi-use plants, cultural practices such as sheet mulching and trellising, and the integration of animals to recycle nutrients and graze weeds.
However, permaculture entails much more than just food production. Energy-efficient buildings, waste water treatment, recycling, and land stewardship in general are other important components of permaculture. More recently, permaculture has expanded its purview to include economic and social structures that support the evolution and development of more permanent communities, such as co-housing projects and eco-villages. As such, permaculture design concepts are applicable to urban as well as rural settings, and are appropriate for single households as well as whole farms and villages.
You don't need to be living in the country to practice fundamentals of Permaculture, there are many adaptations to it's techniques for city dwellers like ourselves here in NYC.
For more information on this movement check out the documentary below and the following websites.
Documentary on Permaculture and Bill Mollison, founder of the movement.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6370279933612522952&q=permacult...
Wikipedia's entry on Permaculture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture
Permaculture Institute
http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/index/
Urban Permaculture Guild
http://www.urbanpermacultureguild.org/
rockets redgalore