Certified STAARs (Soil Test Analyst and Want expert advice on improving your soil? The STAAR (Soil Test Analyst and Amendment Recommender) Program is an extensive online training process covering foundational soil science and focused on small-scale sustainable agriculture, as well as multiple case studies of soils and farms all over the world. The program is “growing” soil scientists and experts, and has produced its first three certified STAARs: Liliane Spendeler from Spain, Guillermo Barriero from Spain, and Matt Drewno from the United States. Please see below for information about each one and how you can contact them to help you improve your soil. Other current students in the program are from Canada, the United States, Mexico, Scotland, Guatemala, Kenya, Nicaragua, Spain, Portugal, Ecuador, Nepal and Peru. Before a soil can be improved, it—as well as the farm site, farmer resources, farming method, climate, and region—must be understood. Certified STAARs are trained to understand a soil based on soil laboratory testing, but if that is not available, they are effective at understanding what a soil needs—and just as importantly, what it does not need—based on soil quality testing and cultivated and wild plant observations, which require less cost to the farmer. As we have more and more certified STAARs, Ecology Action hopes to gain funding to be able to advertise their services on Read Your Soil (readyoursoil.com) so more people can gain access to soil experts and improve their soils, wherever they are in the world. As our soils continue to lose fertility at an alarming rate, and arable land per person continues to decline, these skills and services are needed now more than ever. The Certified STAARs
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Liliane Spendeler grew up on a farm
in the French Alps. After receiving
her PhD in physics, she moved to
Spain and worked for twenty years
for an environmental organization. In
her fifties she decided to move back
to the countryside, in a small village of Spanish
Pyrenees, with the goal of producing her own food.
At the same time, she had the opportunity to learn
about GROW BIOINTENSIVE and to become a Soil
Test Analyst and Amendment Recommender. She
is now combining her work at the environmental
organization and her dedication in cultivating her
garden biointensively. With her partner over the
next few years, she plans to transform a small farm
with a vineyard, grain crops, and garden to become
regenerative and sustainable, with guidance and
trainings offered to other farmers. Liliane can be
contacted at lspendeler@ gmail.com
Guillermo Barriero is from Spain,
but lived part of his life in Central
America where, in 2014, he learned
about GROW BIOINTENSIVE and
began to grow his own food.
Guillermo gained his basic-level
GB Teacher Certification in 2016,
and his intermediate-level Certification in 2018.
He now lives in Galicia (Northwestern Spain)
where he established O Torno Biointensive Garden. Guillermo has also participated on the
Ecology Action 8-Month Internship with John
Jeavons and Matt Drewno. Now, Guillermo is part
of the Cooperative “A Milpa do Salnés” which is
promoting GROW BIOINTENSIVE in Spain. He
manages O Torno, participates in GB research,
and offers workshops and consultancies on GROW
BIOINTENSIVE and improving soils as a certified
STAAR. Guillermo can be contacted at Guillermo@
amilpadosalnes.com; Web: 
Master-Level GB Certified Teacher
Matt Drewno runs Ecology Action's
