A little bit of science can be a dangerous thing; when chemical fertilizers came along, they were seen as a great improvement over the traditional methods of fertilizing fields. But the more science we learn, the more we are finding out that fertilizing with N, P, and K is just part of the picture. There is also soil tilth, cation exchange capacity, and soil carbon to think about. I think you will find a lot of permaculture principles in this video: