Sepp Holzer is way beyond Bill Mollison and Masanobu Fukuoka. These are all great pioneers, but the most innovative and having had the toughest life is still Sepp Holzer. Future historians will recognize the outstanding value of his tremendous contribution in the field of agriculture, renewable energy and alternative systems of water distribution. He is a real farmer and an impressive innovator and inventor at the same time, something that is very rare nowadays, if not unique. He is extremely intelligent. He fought successfully numerous court trials and helped for free many oppressed colleagues to get justice in court. He is not only the number 1 in world agriculture right now, he also combines an impressive array of other faculties. He has a great wife that made his success possible, by her loyalty in the face of numerous attacks by envious, ignorant or evil people directed toward him and his family. His wife is very industrious and helped him promote his undertaking, for example by learning English to be able to communicate with the thousands of fans around the world. Of course, like any human being, he has some minor shortcomings, but we have to look at the core of a person, and we will discover that Sepp Holzer is a very kind and mild soul, even though his behaviour may at times appear a little bit rough. We need to look at the good sides of each person.
Basically he didn't say much more than fukuoka and mazanobu brought some thoughts about the economic system put us in trouble. read his book you will find out that they put the same thing on the table
VERY interesting! I'd never heard of "permaculture" before today, but have been thinking for some years now that there must be a more natural way of farming, and that having biomass is important. So I am indeed very interested to hear of this, and am inspired to learn a lot more!
Dear Olga, David met Sepp in 2005, just before the International Permaculture Conference in Croatia (that´s where I made the interview). I would state that Sepp´s interest in communities has grown since then. When I was filming Sepp Holzer during the years 1998 until 2001, he was fantastic making contact with nature and animals, but conerning human contact, he was a very self-centered person and rather suspicious. I am sure that has changed since then, since he did a lot in communities.
Holtzer himself states that everyone must observe their own land, and learn to work with nature in their own place. Some have expressed frustration that Holter's books provide few 'recipes' or detatiled directions on how to make his methods work everywhere. What I have read seemed detailed enough, in most instances, but to pretend that a 'cookie cutter' solution would work everywhere would be sheer folly.
An interesting perspective on Sepp Holtzer. My understanding is that Holtzer realized sufficient income from his farm to give him both the time and the money to devote to continued expansion and experiementation. If the Krameterhog (sp?) is an experiment station, it is a self-sustaing one; no tax dollars or grant money was used to develop or sustain his work. The government authorities have tried - and succeded, in some instances - in blocking so much that he was doing, and this takes and enormous amount to time, energy, and money to deal with, as well. Not to mention a strong character, tremedous fortitude, and a deep commitment to farming with nature, instead of turning his place into yet another 'spruce desert' - a mono-culture of trees that apparently remain vulnerable to avalanche and landslides. In addition to providing a vast array of delicious and exceptionally nutritious food for his own family, and all their own power! - providing food of this variety and quality for purchase to his community IS a service. I have heard that the gov made it impossible for him to sell his produce from his farm, so he has had to rely on tours - after which people were allowed to 'steal' what food they could carry away. If this is true, it is a sad situation - but government regulations in the USA are often (depending on are and product) very restrictive, hurting small, sustainable family farms. Meat and milk sales, in particular, and many 'value added' products.
The use of many people with picks and shovels to move the earth is romantic, but unless one is in China or somewhere else with ample cheap labor (or free, wasn't it, in the famous Loess Plateau reclaimation?) a little diesel fuel to create functional earth-and-water works - that will last for thousands of years - is a good thing, IMHO. Diesel designed the engine that carries his name to run on plant oils, but the petro-chemical industry intervened. Far better a use like this than idle sight-seeing, or the giga-tons of plastic packaging and useless whatnots that have been produced, and mostly discarded- made of petroleum, shipped via petroleum, re-shipped as part of the waste stream with petoleum, releasing nasty chemicals when incinerated; causing untold damage to eco-systems, most noteably the oceans when dumped with massive amounts of mixed garbage into the oceans, or washed down streams and rivers to end up there.
Krameter _Hof_ - Hof means farm. - he was not hindered to sell his produce, how would they do that. Lots of trouble because he violated the letter of zonin laws. Like using areas that are dedicated as "forest" to have fruit trees, or fish ponds. Also the terraces and earth works - in order to avoid mud slides there are lots of restrictions on that. You have to get a permit for any pond even samller ones that he has and on flat land in the valley. The restrictions are founded in the right of all to water (Unlike other nations companies like Nestlé could not exploit the wells or groundwater in one region, if the adjacent neighbours or the communities object). So it is restricted how one can collect water, and also the infrastructure (safety !).
Those concerns of authorities have a rational foundation. Laws very strictly regulating zoning in agriculture and especially in marginal areas like in the mountains are hundreds of years old (the content and what is allowed, if not the bill itself). The forests protect the water and they protect the land from mudslides, erosion and avalanches. - Holzer accepted a paid consulting job for a property in 2002, and it ended with land that was unuseable and a mudslide after earthworks on a hill (damaging a public street). Authorities also mind if mudslides are triggered in remote areas, but it is double bad if public streets and public safety is jeopardized. The owner went bankrupt (Holzer bought that property and now lives there, one of his sons has taken over the Krameterhof in the mountains ) and she sued him, and wrote a book. It is interesting that the problems were on land that is also in Austria, max. a 2.5 hour drive but already another climate zone (Pannonian dry climate, with LESS rain that is usual in Austria, one of the few regions where they can grow quality wheat, most is imported). Look like he was less in tune with those conditions or he gpt dismissive of real risks because projects on other marginal land had worked out well. so he does have common sense and some intuition what goes and what not - but not in that case. One of the reasons authorities are skittish to say the least when people start doing the kind of earthwork Holzer is known for. He tends to go big with that and usually with good results. (and they were being petty in the area where he lived for many years, executing the letter of the law to a T when he was concerned.) He never got a mudslide in his neck of the woods, or with other consulting jobs, but it happened in this very different climate and region - and after he had decades of experience. . Maybe every vulnerable area in the mountains had plenty of oppportunity to slide down in the last 1000 years or so, and he knew he had to be careful in his area. I do not know who is more to blame - but he knew that she was inexperienced, and had no background in civil engineering or farming. And accepted the payment for advising her on how to create a permaculture park with paying visitors. I read that he did not even visit the property - and if he knew there was a hill where she did earthworks and water collection (that triggered the mudslide), so even if she made mistakes by carrying out his advice - he still has some responsibility. Earthworks, the extra collection of water on a slope IS POTENTIALLY TRICKY, and saturated earth, where a water layer can promote a slide if there is unusual precipitation has lead to muslides before. Which is one of the reasons it is very restricted what people are allowed to do on their land, even how farmers can change the use of the land they have. If it is dedicated as "forest" you cannot just make a meadow out of it, or an orchard. If it is logged down, or the storm threw the trees it has to be reforested, and especially in the mountains. There the protection is even stronger, you cannot even log it all down at once and reforest, because that could also cause erosion and mudslides.
sir i am from india . first of all i am sorry beacause my english not good but sir i think you understand me and reply me about my problem . sir my problem is i love natural farming because it's the truth of our life . i knew this before 5 months when i saw masanobu fukuoka in RU-vid doing natural farming. first i was think is it true . sir in our village all people doing farming with till the soil with tracktor and ploughing and then planting . if i telling him about natural farming people laghing at me. they told me that without tilling the soil , with weeds farming is not possible . but i don't agree with them . i am starting natural farming in a small area to see that plant grow or not . i put the seed without weeding without ploughing into the soil and other people doing ploughing with tractor and then planting .and give chemical fertilizers . i am waiting for results . everytime my mind say it's not grow but still i wait for the result . and the result is disturb my mind . after one and half month i saw that my plant not growth but those peoples plant well growth . i am feeling very sad and searching what the problem in my cultivation . when masanobu fukuoka doing farming with weeds and no ploughing why my farming not success , what the reason . is that my soil not good or anything else sir please please please reply me i request you . i love natural farming 🙏
Check out all the NREGA videos regarding water management. There is a Ted talk of a family from the city (obvioulsy affluent) that bought a farm so they can have organic food, they were hobby farmers though they had a farmer with a traditional mindset doing the work for them. She describes how he was hesistant with the new methods she wanted implemented incl. no till.I seem to remember that he was also highly sceptical about no till and they first got into trouble with that. Maybe you can find that TED talk and seek information online. What Sepp Holzer does is not that relevant in India (methods) they have 105 days per year where there is some frost. Farmers in the Himalayan regions might be able to copy his strategies, but you have to go by the principles. One of them is: observe the land for one years. Japan has completely different conditions. things can work wonderfully there and be a disaster in your climate and region. Pest control and weed control is a problem. There are videos about green manure and cover crops from the temperate climate zone, terminating those crops so the cash crows can be sowed out seems to be tricky, they often use herbicides. The soil is still doing better because it is always covered they Go for the low hanging fruits - like regulating water with simple measures. and do TEST areas, so you can learn I noticed that they do not mulch the soil even though they often have months of rain - problems with insects, snakes ? .... In the Southern states of the U.S. they can also not mulch, they run into problems with fire ants. Methods that work well in other regions (other climate, pests, rainfall patterns) do great - and the same methods cause failures elsewhere.
Zepp Holzer is not community oriented person??!! He IS community oriented person! All his projects all over the world prove it. He is not crowd oriented person.
I love the "where's the profitable permaculture farm?" criticism. Expect someone to just hand you their business model? It shouldn't be a shock that the people teaching and writing books about this stuff are mainly teachers... I don't see what the issue is with "vegan" farming... For people who hate animals so much that they can't stand fish ponds, rabbits, earthworms or birds on the farm? Is having a pond mean you're enslaving fish? What about a worm bin? If one doesn't want to eat animals, great. If one doesn't approve of domesticated animals in their natural environments (remember, these are new species that we created, filling new niches), that's ok too. But I would draw the line there. Your compost piles (which you will become very intimate with - farming without any manures) are actually a sort of worm farm. If you're doing it right on a farm, without cats or a lot of predator birds around, you are actually operating a field mice (and likely other rodents) ranch at the same time.
He talks about 'vegan permaculture' but doesn't mention human vegan shit being composted... That said, I think the world of permaculture must be a big big yurt. All types accepted: pig eaters (Sepp), chicken egg eaters, vegetarians and near-vegetarians all will create their own systems based on the principles. It's not about what you eat, but how you design it to work for yourself and nature. Totalitarian haters need not apply.
