Final chance… our heirloom sweepstakes (seedstakes?) ends this week. Enter and share here. Every friend you refer adds another entry.

On this week’s deep-dive, we talk about:

© Making Billions Copying Nature

We spend a lot of time trying to escape unadulterated nature.

Our day-to-day coiffed existence might be interrupted for a weekend or two per year when we pack up the car and venture forth into the untamed expanses of state park campgrounds.

It can be difficult to argue for rugged living when Texas pumps out a summer full of 100+ degree days. That’s when a lot of people (me included) would trade almost anything for some air conditioning.

But it’s those voyages into undeveloped areas that we owe much of our modern technology — one of which includes the next generation of passive AC (thanks, termites).

Turns out, paying attention to nature’s minutiae can inspire billion-dollar ideas.

🌱 A Sticky Discovery

In 1941, a Swiss man took his dog on a hunting trip in the Alps, fighting through unkept wilderness in search of elusive game.

George de Mestral and his canine companion nearly came away empty-handed, but something stuck with them on their journey… literally.

Upon returning to his chalet, de Mestral looked at his dog and saw tiny spots where there was once clean fur. His pants were the same. Putting his initial frustration aside, de Mestral let his curiosity take over for a close examination of what they brought back from their trip.

Tugging the spots out of his pants, George realized they were seed heads from the expanse of burdock plants that they (somewhat annoyingly) had to cross in an alpine meadow.

De Mestral believed himself a scientific man, so he put the burs under the microscope. On the burdock seeds, he discovered thousands of tiny hooks that ensnared the clothing or fur of a passerby.

The efficiency with which the seeds bound themselves to his pants inspired de Mestral to create a new fastening mechanism for fabric.

After a 10-year development process, George de Mestral branded his new fabric fastener Velcro and embarked on a business journey that reaped billions in sales for the company. Thanks to curiosity and observation, you can secure ski pants, scuba gear, and countless other pieces of clothing.

🏞 Biomimicry All Around Us

Velcro is one of countless examples of the benefits of biomimicry (the fancy word for ‘copying nature’).

In Japan, bullet trains were hated by city dwellers for the raining cacophony of sonic booms echoing out of tunnel openings. Researchers took to the wild, returning only when they found a specimen off of which they could redesign a speed train’s nose.

The inspiration? A humble Kingfisher whose long beak enables a low-resistance transition from air to water in high-velocity dives.

The examples don’t end there.

The first effective antibiotic resulted from an accidental observation of nature at work. Penicillium mold growing in a lab petri dish turned into a medication that tipped the scales of World War II: Penicillin.

🐄 Biomimicry in Agriculture

Permaculture and regenerative agriculture are built off of biomimicry.

Humanity’s cumulative agrarian experience pales in comparison to the number of years plants and animals evolved their specialized traits. Our current food production efforts aren’t harnessing that evolutionary power.

But we humans can observe and copy. It’s one of the reasons we’re the most advanced species on our planet.

Where is biomimicry helping us transform agriculture into a regenerative system?

Mob grazing, diverse polyculture farms, companion planting, and keyline pond building are great examples.

If you’re like George de Mestral, willing to use curiosity and experimentation, the agriculture industry is ripe for your billion-dollar copycat skills.

Do you have ideas or examples of biomimicry at work? Reply back and let me know!

See you next week, fellow earthings.

— Permacultured

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