Its solution of selected elements ensure ecological balance, an uninterrupted cycle of living and non-living material. A perfect system, a holistic perpetual-motion machine, created by people in partnership with nature. Is permaculture the key to producing healthy food in a time of ecological crisis?

Do you remember those times during the summer holidays when you’d spend the whole day in your courtyard, building treehouses, playing football, mumblety-peg, hare and hounds – and when the concept of boredom didn’t exist? It was 1996, I was 13, and like most of my peers I was dreaming about what interesting things I’d do on the following summer day. From today’s perspective, I can confidently state that I wasn’t a typical teenager. I differed from my friends in how I spent a lot of time with pet fish, and with sci-fi and fantasy books. I often hid away in my ‘secret’ base, reading the works of one of my favourite authors: Arthur C. Clarke. That summer my imagination was entirely captivated by The Sands of Mars. The story is set at the start of the 21st century. It tells the story of the flight of the rocket Ares, and the trials and tribulations of the first colonizers, working on terraforming the Red Planet.