permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

http://www.superconsciousness.com/topics/environment/earth-mind

Earth in Mind
IN THIS ISSUE JUNE/JULY 2009

Interview with Permaculture Farmer Sepp Holzer
Author: Heidi Smith
Photographer: Mark Frey

The normal temperature range for growing lemon trees is seventy to
fifty-five degrees. Below fiftyfour degrees Fahrenheit they go into
dormancy, which is why much of the world’s citrus is grown in sun
belts like Florida and California. But although the average
temperature at Sepp Holzer’s farm is 39.5 degrees (4.2 degrees
Celsius), sometimes plunging to thirteen degrees below zero during the
winter, his one hundred acre property known as the Krameterhof is home
to 30,000 fruit trees, including many citrus.

Holzer farms in the Lungau region, which is commonly referred to as
the Siberia of Austria. Through paying careful attention to the
interaction of different species, he has developed a system that
creates astonishing yields, allows for an incredible diversity of
plant and animal life, and uses none of the toxic additives so
prevalent in standard agriculture.
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Earth in Mind - Interview with Sepp Holzer

Growing up on his family farm, Sepp Holzer began experimenting with
nature early, taking great joy in each sprout as it emerged from the
soil and surreptitiously creating fish ponds where legally none were
supposed to be. His academic studies eventually persuaded him to
abandon his former methods, however, and adopt the contemporary
approach of pruning, fertilizing and using pesticides. To his
surprise, the same plants which had thrived under his care now began
to die. It didn’t take long for him to conclude that modern theories
about farming were wrong, on a colossal scale.

Rejecting the advice of teachers and local farmers, he resumed his
intuitive experiments, using power of observation and experiential
knowledge as key tools. He learned which plants naturally promote or
inhibit each other, and discovered how to create microclimates by
using large stones to trap heat and establishing terraces to reflect
warmth back into the earth. His maverick approach drew frequent
criticism from state and local authorities, and lawsuits, fines and
charges of “forest desecration” followed, based in one case on his
refusal to plant a monoculture of spruce trees in favor of maintaining
the diversity of fruit and other trees. More often than not he won
these battles and in the process has earned the nickname “The Agro
Rebel.”

With the way nature is now, it’s like an open book. You can read
everything there about what is coming to us. There are so many signs
already, and you know when it will happen.

Today Holzer’s practices are supported by agricultural scientists,
including internationally renowned biologist Bernd Lotsch, and he is
in demand worldwide, conducting workshops in Costa Rica, Bosnia,
Colombia, Thailand, America and Africa. He sees a growing hunger for
the information he can provide, particularly in light of the growing
food crisis. “In my opinion, cities especially are full of people
seeking a way back to nature,” he says. “Every city dweller could
produce a lot of his own fruit and vegetables like I once did as a
little boy by planting them out in flowerboxes on the balcony, terrace
or front yard.”

He talked with SuperConsciousness about the lessons of nature.

<interview follows>