80-20 is a Complex Dynamic Ecosystem. Understanding the depth of 80-20 requires us to think like the CDE that we are. 80-20 has five main components, best understood as interdependent organs within a single vessel, not separate parts or businesses.

Each growing region will have a farm that serves as an education centre to exemplify the 80-20 philosophy. When applied to agricultural systems as a land ethic, 80-20 seeks to allocate 80% of the total acreage for a biological reserve and 20% to be Holistically Designed for human use.

 Observation, science, and billions of years of evidence show that plural, densely-packed ecosystems thrive and create abundance when the CDE is healthy and thus functioning on the regenerative side of the scale. A plural growing system not only provides resilience, ecologically and economically, but it can also sequester vast amounts of carbon and eliminate many harmful practices, like slash and burn techniques.

 Designing a farm holistically not only creates healthy plants but healthy people. Regenerative farming practices can ensure that our food production systems last indefinitely, without removing the basic right for all life to have a healthy habitat. The system as a whole increases profit and mitigates inputs, risks, and losses by utilizing the benefits of cooperation on a multitude of levels. The farm is a place where the agricultural systems can be exemplified, while at the same time informed by the local knowledge base. Each growing zone is different, and the 80-20 System is a co-creative process that adapts to location and evolves continually.

 80-20 is a whole-systems design. It is for and by all life. It relies on and provides the ability for humanity and the individual to take back the power and responsibility of being a member of a global ecosystem. UFHD’s education campaign is partitioned between theory and practice, the internet and the farm. 80-20 uses a train-the-trainer model. Whether a landowner or a local liaison, interested parties are provided with education and training to set up a model farm. The farm is the ideal gathering spot for building community and launching the Growers Cooperative. It allows everyone to see the theory in action and the depth of the benefits of adopting the 80-20 System.

Think of a system of autonomous yet interconnected cooperatives, internally structured in the same fractal way. Each farmer owns their land yet is part of a community of growers who all follow a set of principles and guidelines, making up a much larger organization. Each organization is owned and operated autonomously. It is similar to the idea of a franchise but each co-op contributes to the greater whole of the 80-20 System.

The network is set up so that knowledge, equipment, systems management, and even labour can be shared throughout the co-op to ensure mutual success. In a plural system, an individual farm may have only a small amount of a particular crop. Alone, this farmer could not fill a contract, but if everyone in their local co-op has the same varieties and practices, the co-op can produce large quantities of that particular crop. In this way, growers are not forced to resort to degenerative farming practices. This model can facilitate significant cost reductions in areas like fossil fuels, synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, heavy machinery, and insurance, allowing the system to reduce, reuse, and recycle energy at a more efficient rate than in current agricultural practices.

Open source, plural, regenerative growing systems allow growers around the world to share information and create a diverse test pool for syntropic improvement. By uniting the producers, processors, transporters, sellers, and consumers into one autonomous web, we can dramatically reduce bloat and entropy. This system also creates a model that accepts feedback at a rate that mimics a natural system’s efficacy and efficiency. The seed bank allows farmers to share the strongest and most favorable genetics each season, helping guarantee food sovereignty and security. Utilizing this cooperative structure puts power back into the hands of the growers.

Holistic Design (HD) honours modern science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). This synthesis has led to a clearer understanding of the interconnected and interdependent nature of all life and the systems that sustain it. The original blueprints of the 80-20 System were born from Indigenous ways of experiencing the world as an extension of Self. Modern science is now able to corroborate the traditional wisdom, which shows life and its systems are a complex web of interdependent relationships. The core Principles of HD and the unity of the 80-20 System are foundational to achieving harmony within a CDE.

A prime directive of the 80-20 System is to rewild through regenerative land practices, such as the establishment of private nature reserves, wildlife corridors, and the buying back of traditional territories and sacred sites. One of the many reasons for this directive is that the greatest biodiversity is mostly relegated to the sovereign territories of Indigenous Peoples.

Local experts in TEK inform the regenerative polyculture growing systems. This ensures consistency while favouring local species, which are perfectly adapted to the climate and integral to ecosystem functionality. Through this methodology, regenerative practices can feed the human population, while facilitating the health of the environment.

Instead of a costly and convoluted process of certification, 80-20 uses an authentication model. Its low cost makes it accessible to all, while encouraging the highest ethical compliance. The authentications outlined below are geared toward the agricultural sector, but, like the energy management system, they have wider-reaching implications for business. 

Holistic Design Authentication (Permaculture): A poly-culture system that seeks to mimic the functionality, plurality, and diversity of a wild ecosystem. 

80-20 Authentication: The allocation of 80% of land as a nature reserve and 20% Holistically Designed. While it would be optimal to allocate 80% of each farm to a nature reserve, each case is unique and requires a transition plan. To ensure maximum adoption, we use a proportional compensation and incentivization structure to accommodate variations in land use percentages. 

 80-20 Energy Accounting: By developing tools to quantify how a system captures, stores, and recycles energy, entire businesses and their connecting supply chains are made transparent. This not only propagates and properly rewards best practices, it allows for the general public to identify shortcomings and problem-solve solutions globally. As we begin to transition into transparent designs, the monetary incentives for corruption are reduced.

This authentication model offers all the real-world benefits of the certification model without the bloat and incentives to cheat. Many certifications seek to value fairer or healthier practices. Unfortunately, what is profitable is popular and when certifications succeed, they often cause more ecosystems to be demolished and turned into agricultural land. With the 80-20 template, the more value that is generated for humans, creates a proportional value for all life.

On the other side of the supply web is the Sellers Co-op that carries on the work of the Growers Co-op in whatever location the products are purchased. This is the economic driver that markets and sells the commodities in ways that share the philosophies and practices of HD with a wider community of conscious consumers.

We will begin with a digital storefront and, after a trial period, will develop an app that unifies the whole system into a circular economy. Through the conversion of a supply chain into a web, the system promotes diversity and redundancy in both location and product offerings, thus achieving a level of resilience previously unattained in human systems of finance and trade. 



The 80-20 System treats each part like an organ of the same body. No one section is valued over another. It is precisely for this reason that HD is so easily able to allocate more energy to each component. These higher percentages are what allow the agricultural sector to remain regenerative. This ensures that growers have the resources necessary to adopt the land ethics, economic systems, and agricultural models required to heal our relationship with the Earth.