I grew up on a Texas stock farm in the forties. Destroyed the ecosystem. Came to CA as a teenager, ended up on the Mojave Desert. I did (sorta) walkabouts. On one of them, it came to me what to do with my life: Reconcile the needs and works of humankind with those of Earth and its life. It took me over fifteen years to flush the agronomic paradigm out of my system and let reality--REAL reality, set in. Did my first fully successful project in 1972. I'm retired, but still active at 80. This ain't purity, but it does get the job done I set out for myself in 1955, and my hat's off to Shepard. Good editing--I bore easily and I listened to the whole thing.
Awesome, every farmer should be an ecologist! Shepard is a great stepping stone between agroforestry and permaculture. As consumers, we should replace annuals in our diet with perennials and support the creation of these kind of landscapes.
Re: tree crop. A guide at Tikal in the Peten of Guatemala explained how the base of Mayan culture was a tree called Ramon. Number of foods were made from its nut, as well as from a flour made from the nut. Most of this preparation knowledge was lost, and locals do not eat it, but tell how their livestock prefer its leaves when grazing in the forest. The trees are still there dotting the grounds.
The fungus plays a big part in turning dead trees and shrubs back into liquid sugars, minerals, water and cold CO2. Paul Stamets is one of the most inspirational mycologists in America, his contribution to fungus research is enormous.
Tunç bey uzun zamandır bu adamın kitabını almaya calisiyorum..bir türlü başaramadım.. y.lisans mezunuyum öğretmenim.. ama ingilizcem de anlamak için yetmiyor...kitap sizde var mi...yardimci olabilir misiniz..
ANYWHERE there are oak trees you can have chestnut and hazelnut trees? Ill have to try chestnut. Already experimenting with hazelnuts but Florida isn't known for nuts outside of pecans(we are #2 dammit :P). My property has some big oaks in the back.
That sort of thing is usually only "sustainable" as a proof of concept through grant money. Before you can convince anyone to take $3500/acre land and do that with it, you're going to have to show some hard numbers on profitability and revenue generation. Growing nuts and fruits is one thing, picking it and getting it to a market is another.
Brent, you make good points. To my knowledge, Mark's work has not been subsidized. However, harvesting is a challenge without a cheap and stable workforce. I believe the key will be to work cooperatively with other growers in the region and share harvesting equipment. Coops generally empower farmers. Also consider that most farmers are highly subsidized and obtain crop insurance when their crops fail. So conventional farming is not exactly a perfect economic model.
@@bneldredge "Coop" usually means you're screwed without a LOT of like minded people in the same area willing to help each other. Crop insurance is subsidized but is a system set by production history. Most farmers pay their full share of premiums. It's subsidized to keep food prices low and the subsidy isn't that much. There really aren't that many subsidy programs available for farmers. A few are touted but are hard to get and generally aren't worth the trouble to jump through all the hoops required. There are some low interest loans but that's low interest, not grant money. That's not a very good argument against conventional farming being a "perfect model". That's comparing one model that has a safety net for financial investment vs one that doesn't and needs an extremely hard to come by set of circumstances to work as a profitable business model (silvopasture or permaculture). I applaud Mark's work and spirit and I'd like to see one of these models that can compete with conventional ag. If there was one I'd be in it up to my throat. I am into regenerative farming with cover crops and livestock and Greg Judy's system is the best I've seen so far along with Gabe Brown and a few others. Mark's system may work as a sideshoot portion of a farm that's well manned as a conservation minded project. That's how I'm thinking of implementing it.
One year of growing 200yard row of garlic wil generate 7 to 12 grand. Tell me how it cant be profitable. Theres a market in agriculture. You just have to culture yourself and law of atraction will bring you the bounties
Zachary. I grow garlic and I can't believe how you can generate that kind of revenue. In my system, if lucky, I can grow 1200 cloves in 200 yards. In the best case scenario I can get $1 a clove or $1,200 Please explain how you squeeze 7 grand out of that length of garlic? Also garlic will not grow without lots of inputs and cultivation. It can't be grown semi wild like asparagus.
The last minute of this documentary needs to be played over and over again to the entire states. In which have been manupulated by the coperations to monopoly farm. "A bunch of small scale farmers making up, what should be the coperation. The goverment has thought and installed by passing through congrees. to make descions of a way to farm to feed the ever growing population. Keep in mind they cant describe what soil is other then dirt. They missed it bigtime by farming to feed there pockets ibstead of humanity.... Ok im done,end rant ☝
