This is a term coined by a man named Arthur Koestler, author of The Ghost in the Machine.
I haven’t read the book. I go the term from Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma, where I also learned the term usufruct.
Holon is derived from the Greek word holos, meaning whole, and the suffix on, suggesting a particle.
Holon, as defined by Pollan (p. 215) is “an entity that from one perspective appears a self-contained whole, and from another a dependant part. A body organ like the liver is a holon …”
Besides sharing the joy of a new word, I enjoy the conceptual thinking this embodies. As it is applied to farming, it has to do with a series of integrated systems that help each other. Polyface Farm, the model for this method