Juan Manuel was employed by Mexico's Department of Social Security (IMSS) and was able to add the Biointensive method to programs already delivering services to people in rural areas. In the 1990s Juan started providing training in other Latin American countries and after retiring from IMSS in 2001, he has devoted all his time to ECOPOL. Since then he has traveled throughout Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Europe to make GB presentations, give workshops, and identify trainers who have the potential to become certified.

Through all these efforts, ECOPOL has catalyzed strong GB projects in Mexico, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Peru and beyond. An estimated 300,000 people have been trained, and there are at least 1,000 GB farmer-to-farmer trainers in Mexico and Latin America. Since 2015, Juan has been invited to give workshops in Spain, Italy, Portugal and Slovenia, which he has added to his already intensive work schedule.

Because of the number of GB trainers now available, Juan leaves most of the basic training activities to them. He has two current goals for himself. The first is to increase the number of certified teachers—specifically, to have 100 certified in Latin America by the end of 2018. He believes this number will will provide a critical mass to help assure that the quality of the Biointensive method will be not only maintained but greatly expanded and headed towards the professional level. As of mid-2018, attaining this goal looks promising.

Juan's second goal is to seek out and make connections with NGOs, universities and other organizations that have the capacity to use, research, teach and spread the Biointensive method. One of his most recent allies is Friends of the Earth-Spain, which is not only sponsoring GB trainings in Europe, but in Central America too. Juan also maintains an overview of ECOPOL personnel and activities and works to give support where needed and help solve challenges that arise. We are grateful and honored to be working with ECOPOL and its director, Juan Manuel Martinez Valdez!

ECOPOL's Spanish Language Comunidad Biointensiva page is here! Haga clic aquí para ver la página!

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Tania de Alba had already been using Biointensive techniques at Las Canadas, and in 1998 she attended a 3-Day Workshop at Ecology Action (EA) in Willits, CA. In 2001 her husband Ricardo Romero was a participant at our 5-Day Teacher Workshop. The two began giving regular Biointensive and Permaculture workshops at Las Canadas. Karla Arroyo, the Las Canadas garden manager, was a six-month intern at EA in 2003. She is also an expert in seed production and added that subject to the community's workshops.

To create the community at Las Canadas, Ricardo combined his knowledge of Permaculture to work with the sloping contour of the land and to implement systems and designs that are environmentally harmonious as well as functional. There are unique, aesthetically pleasing cob structures for housing and hygienically recycling human waste and waste water onsite. Over 50,000 trees have been planted to help restore the cloud forest that makes up Las Canadas' ecosystem. Energy efficiency is also a part of the plan being implemented, and they have been introducing fuel-conserving rocket stoves—by far the most resource-efficient means for heating and cooking.

Take a look at their beautiful GB mini farm in this short film:

 

 

Ecology Action, ECOPOL and ADYS, Las Cañadas were all a part of the Latin American Conference 2010: Biointensive Agriculture Facing Climate Change.

 

In 2014 John Jeavons awarded Agustin and Marisol each an Advanced-Level Certification, as well as their Master-Level Certification after they spent the summer at The Jeavons Center, taking part in all the teaching and other activities there. The Master Level certification involves not just a great understanding of GROW BIOINTENSIVE but, equally important, an understanding for Soil, Food and People perspectives locally and globally. As Master Teachers they are now able to certify GB teachers at all levels. What this means is that the certification of GB teachers in Latin America is now in the hands of the Latin American people—a long-time goal of Ecology Action

Along with all their other work, plus teaching activities and running El Mezquite, Agustin and Marisol both achieved Master's Degrees in 2015—he in GB Compost and Soils and she in GB Seed Propagation. Each has written a peer-reviewed article on their research speciality for publication in an English-language scientific journal, due to be issued when the edits to the Spanish to English translations have been completed.

Find El Mezquite on Facebook at https://es-la.facebook.com/elmezquitebiointensivo

 

At the beginning of 2018 John Jeavons, Director of Ecology Action, and Matt Drewno, Garden Manager at Victory Gardens for Peace, attended a 5-Day GROW BIOINTENSIVE conference in Nicaragua. The event was co-sponsored by ECOPOL, and it is evident that ECOPOL Director Juan Manuel Martinez Valdez' work there has created impressive results. Thousands of people have been or are being trained to use GB, and there are GB gardens all over the country maintained by women, men, and children. John observed that people there take responsibility for themselves and what they are doing, and that culturally, they understand GB and are practicing it "from their hearts".

Nicaragua's National Agrarian University (Universidad Nacional Agraria, UNA) is in the process of setting up a 3-year GB university course designed to train Biointensive Technical Specialists! Javier Silva, the program's Director, is a professor at the university. GB testing and research are being carried out at the university as well, as within a trainer's demonstration garden. Here's a video about the work being done at the University.

 

John observed that if GB could be seen globally through the lens of what is being done in Nicaragua, it might save 10 years in the ongoing process to change the world from a depleting agriculture to a living, environmentally sound and productive biologically intensive agriculture

 

Samuel and Peris met when they were both students at Manor House Agricultural Centre in Kenya and married in 1994. Ever since, while raising their biological son and daughter and their adopted son, they have been partners in GROW BIOINTENSIVE outreach projects. Samuel met John Jeavons at the GB conference that was held at Manor House in 2007, and stated he wanted to be "the John Jeavons of Africa". All he and Peris have accomplished since that day proves Samuel wasn't just voicing and idle thought. Their work has been prolific.

Three basic forms of training are offered by G-BIACK: training of farmers in their own communities and at the Centre, the training of individual interns to teach others to be trainers, and a variety of programs at its Women's Centre to supplement GROW BIOINTENSIVE agricultural training—such as nutrition, family health, and income generation, which are all important factors to empower women and families in the region. Interns have come to G-BIACK from across Kenya as well as Nigeria, Afghanistan, Mexico, the U.S., Malawi, Rwanda, South Sudan and Tanzania.

In each community where trainings are given, two Community Resource Persons (CRPs) are selected by the community to continue the project when G-BIACK transitions out. The CRPs are given extra training by G-BIACK in GB skills and leadership, and in this way the original training is reinforced and internalized. After five years of training local young women in six-month GB, nutrition and job skills programs, G-BIACK constructed a residential unit so that girls from all over Kenya (aged 15-25) could learn those skills in a one-year program. In 2017 seventy young women took part in the program.

G-BIACK has received impressive recognition for its work, such as the "Best NGO of the Year" in the district awarded by the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (UN-FAO) in 2010, the "Food Sovereignty Prize" Honorable Mention awarded by The Community Food Security Coalition CFSC of USA in 2011, and nomination by the Katerva Awards for "Best Organization of the Year" in 2012. Several NGOs have invited and sponsored Samuel and Peris for workshops in Germany, Uganda, Tanzania, the U.S. and Scotland. Samuel has been elected by his peers to be the first president of the Kenya chapter of the newly formed GEN-Africa organization, which has emerged with the support of GEN-Europe and promotes social resilience environmental protection, and restoration of nature through development of "ecovillages" and networks.

For a closer look at the work being done here, watch this short (12-minute) film Grow, about G-BIACK and the biointensive farming movement!

For more information go to http://www.g-biack.org/

 

 

 

Starting in 2000, Jodi Roebuck was a two-year apprentice at Koanga Gardens, New Zealand's only organic heirloom seedbank gardens at the time, which has 100 beds for seeds. While there he taught the Biointensive method to workshop participants, organic growers and at greenmarkets and garden centers. In 2007 he started giving trainings on his own land with a 7-month intern from Mexico. He has taught people from Ecuador, Germany, Egypt, Australia and the US, among others. Jodi has also been a teacher of Permaculture Design since 2005. He reported recently how amazed he is at the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method, which he finds to be "a whole system that reiterates all the principles that pop up in Permaculture."

In 2016, Jodi Roebuck taught over 11 workshops in New Zealand. His activities included: a public presentation at Milkwood Permaculture in Victoria at Kul Kul farm; a 2-day workshop in Bali; and a Whole Systems Design Biointensive 2-day workshop in Vermont. He also attended many workshops, including one on 6-figure farming, a New Zealand tour with Curtis Stone, one with Jean Martin Fortier at Roebuck Farm, and a Byron Bay consulting in New South Wales, Australia; he also gave an interview to Organic NZ Magazine "Biointensive Seedkeeper." (March/April 2016 Issue)

Jodi's demonstration/training site is called Roebuck Farm (www.roebuckfarm.com). In 2017, 34 new growing beds of 100-square feet each, for a total of 77 beds, a vegetable wash station and 2 new greenhouses were established. In January 2017, the farm hosted David Asher, author of The Natural Art of Cheese Making, and in February they gave a 4- day practical workshop with celebrity chef Curtis Stone. In April Jodi gave 2 sold-out Biointensive courses in Australia, in September a 3-Day Biointensive workshop at the Koanga Institute (New Zealand) and in October a 2-day workshop at his farm.

Jodi is a good, very enthusiastic teacher. When taking a GROW BIOINTENSIVE class from him, be sure to ask:

How can I make sure my food-growing activities are closed-loop and fully sustainable? How to Grow More Vegetables states that I need to recycle everything that I can back into my soil to maintain soil fertility, and that it is important not to market more than 10% of my cultivated crop area, so nutrients are not exported from my soil in the marketed crops. — Why is this important? With these questions in mind, does my design accomplish this full sustainability? If everyone in the world grew such a diet, would there be sufficient fertile soil, water, and other resources, so everyone can live well?

John Jeavons' thoughts on this topic: "The average omnivorous US diet takes 101,000 sq. ft. to grow. If everyone on the planet decides to grow and eat this way, there is only sufficient farmable soil globally for one-quarter of the world's human population to live. For everyone to eat well and live sustainably, carefully-designed vegetarian diets with few animal products, or well-designed vegan diets need to be used. Such diets can be grown on as little as 4,000 sq. ft. with beginning GB yields. An additional advantage for using less soil with the correct techniques is that you use much less water, compost and purchased nutrients to grow the same amount of food and compost crops. If everyone farmed this way, it would be equivalent to leaving of half the farmable soil in wild to protect the plant and animal genetic diversity needed to ensure the sustainable environment we all need for a good life. Creating thriving mini-ecosystems through thoughtful diet design is essential!"