Grow
Biointensive 2005 Highlights
Ecology Action Headquarters
Training: Sasha Paradis, from New York,
begins a 3-year apprenticeship at Golden Rule in
April, while David Basile completes his apprenticeship
in August. Salvador Diaz, from Mexico, and Fausto
Moran, from Ecuador, are 6-month apprentices at
the Mini-Farm. Alvaro Hidalgo, a student from EARTH
University in Costa Rica, takes his 3-month field
training as an intern at Golden Rule, and Yesica
Cusiyupanqui from Peru begins a 5-month internship
there in November. We give 2 educational garden
tours during the summer and Three-Day Workshops
in March and November. Mary Barsony and Robin Mankey,
both from the San Francisco Bay Area, attend a multi-day
tutorial in July, an alternative this year to the
Basic-Level Teachers Workshop. EA continues to work
with ECOPOL to plan a conference and workshops in
Costa Rica that have the potential to impact the
whole Latin American continent.
EA as a Resource: Anna Lappe interviews John Jeavons about sustainable
diets for a new book she is writing. * Willits Economic
LocaLization, a group devoted to creating a sustainable
local economy, is consulting with us about sustainable
local food production. John Jeavons makes a presentation
to the group in April. * The City of Oakland, California,
contacts EA for advice about helping its people
grow much of their vegetables and soft fruits.*
The largest strawberry grower in California contacts
EA about training an intern from Angola. * Julian
Darley, founder of the Post Carbon Institute, interviews
and videotapes John Jeavons. * A volunteer at an
orphanage in India emails to explore sources of
information about Biointensive for training the
children. * A farmer in Sweden, wanting to start
using Biointensive, emails for information.
Networking, Website: We develop a Global Networking Chart which graphically
illustrates the reach of EA initiatives over the
years. We collect email addresses of all EA teachers
on the chart so that they may network with each
other. * We are the center of an email correspondence
between a colleague and a former apprentice, trying
to determine how to extrapolate GROW BIOINTENSIVE
production to a larger area. * We are upgrading
our website to make it more informative and accessible.
We are in the process of completing a contact list
to make it available online.
EA Colleagues
- Steve Moore, in Pennsylvania, teaches workshops
throughout the year, including ones to learn how
to grow using Biointensive in a passive solar
greenhouse. Steve also continues to develop information
on energy efficiency.
- Bi-sek Hsiao spends 6 weeks at the Biointensive
projects in Ecuador, teaching ADYS staff and also
training people at the Amazonian project in organic
rice production and seed production.
- Calvin Bey, in Arkansas, teaches a workshop
for 25 people.
ECOPOL (Mexico)
ECOPOL is becoming well-known and gaining credibility
on many levels. It sponsors a one-day forum at the
University of Chapingo with the purpose of giving
other growing options to small-scale farmers and
working towards a national Biointensive network.
220 people attend. Director Juan Manuel Martinez
is requested by state authorities to teach six 3-day
courses in Colima state, for a total of 180 people.
Juan is invited in May to make a presentation at
a conference in Aguascalientes state, and as a result
is invited to give workshops in 3 other Mexican
states. He finds that many people in Aguascalientes
have been trained by Patricia Munoz, who received
training at the Willits Mini-Farm in 1997. Juan
travels to Ecuador where he meets with representatives
from 2 UN organizations and one from the Ecuadorian
government, all of whom offer support for the Biointensive
projects there. On the same trip he goes to Costa
Rica to continue negotiations for the conference
and workshops planned for 2006 at EARTH University.
Juan returns to Costa Rica in August to help support
the potential funding process for the conference
and spends the rest of the year traveling to Colombia,
Venezuela, and Panama to make contacts for GROW
BIOINTENSIVE and for the conference.
Kenya
Manor House Agricultural Centre
MH continues the upgrading of its facilities and
grounds to attract more 2-year students and workshops
and to change the layout of the site from the prep
school it was formerly to reflect the values of
its current use as a sustainable agricultural training
center. Other goals are to better use the land to
its full potential, to change the location of the
garden and other farm facilities for them to be
better incorporated into the Centre activities,
and, overall, to demonstrate sustainable production.
The library is being remodeled to become a community
resource center. MH staff is working with 7 partner
organizations on a new extension program for 16
community groups. Groups have been identified and
their representatives have attended workshops at
the Centre to learn about Biointensive agriculture
and other food-related subjects. The trained groups
are being followed up in their communities to offer
further advice, monitor their progress and help
them establish income-generating projects. Workshops
held by Boone Hallberg, maize expert from Oaxaca,
Mexico, help defeat the use of GMOs in Kenya.
Common Ground Project
Director Joshua Machinga establishes a new mini-ag
center in western Kenya, near Uganda, to work with
farmers in 6 locations. A weekly workshop is held
for the farmers for 4 months to encourage their
assessment of their own needs. Students in the 5th
grade at Pathfinder Academy, run by Joshua and his
wife, give Biointensive training to a women's self-help
group composed mainly of AIDS widows.
Russia
Biointensive for Russia Director Carol Vesecky leads
a 17-day culture/eco-ag tour to western Russia where
they visit Biointensive gardens, education centers
and research gardens in the Chernobyl irradiated
zone. The Viola organization, headquartered in the
irradiated zone, is continuing its research on how
GROW BIOINTENSIVE techniques reduce the amount of
radionuclides taken up by produce. In September
Viola members tour irradiated zones in Ukraine,
Belarus and Russia, to test harvested vegetables
using a mobile laboratory. The purpose is to map
areas contaminated by radiation to present proof
at conferences being planned for the upcoming 20th
anniversary of the Chernobyl accident that produce
grown in these areas is still dangerously contaminated.
Argentina
Fernando Pia, Director of CIESA, continues with
a full schedule of teaching workshops and apprentices,
as well as growing for market. In March he teaches
a 3-day workshop in Pirque, Chile, at the first
Agroecological high school in Chile. In April Fernando
teaches a 2-day workshop at the Agronomic University
of Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia for 27 people,
70% of them agronomic engineers working in rural
extension programs in different parts of Bolivia.
Also in April, he teaches a 5-day workshop at CIESA.
One of the participants, who teaches organic gardening
to poor women in Neuquen, stated: “This kind
of information was something that I was looking
for a long time.”
Afghanistan
Naqibullah Salik develops a Biointensive demonstration
farm on Ministry of Agriculture land in Kabul. He
researches the difference between crops grown with
Biointensive and those with traditional methods
and finds Biointensive production much greater.
Devon Pattillo spends 6 weeks in Afghanistan, advising
the Kabul project and also one developing in Lalander,
a village south of Kabul. |