Transcriber: Titus Hollier Reviewer: Elisabeth Buffard
According to the U.N., we lose the equivalent
of one soccer field worth of soil to erosion
every 5 seconds.
We are in the midst of a global soil crisis,
and unsustainable agriculture is a main driver for it.
When Yutam and I met 15 years ago,
we were studying environmental studies.
One of our courses was in sustainable agriculture.
Our teacher, Dr. Elaine Solloway,
walked us through every aspect of what is wrong with the way
our current food system is designed.
It was eye-opening, It was also incredibly troubling.
I remember going home from uni one day
and talking to a family member about what I’ve learned.
His response was, “Well, yes, but to feed the billions of people on the planet,
we have no other choice.
We’ve heard this argument again and again.
This is the story industrial farming tells us.
But we wondered, is that really true?
What if there were ways to grow lots of food,
and build healthy soil in the process?
Young and naive, Yotam and I left uni with a decision that changed our lives.
We are going to be farmers.
Cultures all over the world have found ways to feed themselves,
while taking care of their environment.
We had been very fortunate to have had many teachers that helped us learn,
develop and refine ongoing practices.
In 2014, we started our own market garden, Pakaraka Permiculture,
with the burning desire to see how much food can we grow in the quarter acre
using truly sustainable, organic and regenerative techniques.
We fenced the piece of land that previously supported two sheep,
(Laughs)
now we grow over ten tonnes of fresh vegetables,
providing fresh food for hundreds of people.
The layout of the garden was the first opportunity for us to think
about best soil practices.
On our sloping site, it meant creating permanent beds on contour.
Growing on contour means that the beds are shaved perpendicular to the slop.
This helps slow down water flow,
reduce soil runoff and increas water retention in the landscape.
Permanent beds mean that the bed stays a bed,
and the path stays a path and they don’t mix.
This means we don’t have to till our soil to recreate them every season
By not tilling we’re maintaining healthy soil structure, which is the habitat
for so many creatures that rely on it to survive and thrive.
This is known as No-Till Gardening, and it’s a growing movement.
With no-till practices and minimal soil disturbance, carbon stays in the soil.
Carbon is key in developing healthy soil structure,
feeding and diversifying the soils living community,
and enhancing the soils ability to hold water.
So how do we prepare beds for optimal plant growth? We fork.
(Laughs)
Forking
(Laughs)
is just as effective as digging or tilling at (?) the soil.
But it has many advantages.
it’s not only easier,
it also doesn’t disturb the layers of the soil,
it doesn’t invert the layers of topsoil, which are much better left intact.
Forking a bed for the first time,
we take small bites making our way backwards.
With every forking sequence, it becomes easier and easier
as we take care not to compact the beds
by stepping on them or driving heavy machinery.
At this point, we only need to fork our beds once a season.
We like to take credit for the work we do as gardeners, of course,
but the truth is plants and microorganisms take care of each other.
As plants photosynthesize,
they release some of the sugars they make directly into the soil for root exudate.
Not only that, but the plants can curated special mix to attract beneficial
microorganisms and deter harmful ones.
In return, the microorganisms synthesize nutrients in the soil
to make them more plant friendly or bioavailable,
and that’s why an active living soil community
is the heart of a productive garden.
When we look at the golden bed, we ask ourselves,
how can we grow in it, as many plants as possible?
We want to create a living ground cover that the plants themselves act as mulch.
We aim to have the beds fully covered as quickly as possible,
to reduce weed pressure and water evaporation,
essentially creating a microclimate that protects the soil
and is enjoyed by the plants.
If we’re growing a slow crop that won’t quickly cover the bed by itself,
we will interplant it with a fast-growing crop.
By planting multiple successions,
we don’t need to stretch each plant beyond its limits,
instead, we can plan for reliable production,
and booster yields across the season.
The cool thing is that planting in these ways
means that we’re getting more vegetables from every single bed.
In our gardens, we only use organic practices,
we never use chemical fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides.
When chemical inputs are introduced,
they harm the surrounding ecology as well as the soils living community.
So besides growing a variety of vegetables, we’ve also planted herbs,
perennials and flowers in and around the garden
to create a more complex ecosystem,
provide shelter to small predators that help with pest contol,
and keep pollinators happy with the year-round blooms.
In our journey, we learned lots and lots by trial and error,
and we keep experimenting to get better results from the same space.
In our first year, we grew $20,000 worth of vegetables.
In our second year, we got $50,000 worth of vegetables.
Last year, our seventh growing season, We go over $120,000 and ten tons
of fresh vegetables from a quarter-acre garden.
(Applause)
Thank you. It is incredibly exciting that while yields keep increasing,
the health of our soil is improving on every measurable scale.
It is possible to make a living from a small piece of land while prioritizing,
caring for the earth, for the people and creating abundance.
We sell our vegetables within our local community.
Through markets, local shops and cafes, and with veggie boxes.
And we're building, cultivating and strengthening
the relationship between the gardens,
the growers and the people that enjoy the produce.
We established an education center
and wrote a comprehensive, regenerative gardening book,
so that we can share all of our gardening skills with as many people as possible,
so that anyone who can and wants to grow food in their homes and communities
will have access to all of the same tools that we have.
And we’re not alone.
(Applause)
The research tells us that smaller farms have higher yields
and boost greater crop and non crop biodiversity than larger farms.
Farms like ours are growing food and building soil all over the world.
So going back to the conversation I had 15 years ago,
I now know we do have a choice.
If you want to feed the billions of people on the planet,
now and in the future,
we have to tell a different story about the future of agriculture.
By decentralising food production
and supporting regenerative and organic growers,
in 15 years from now,
we can have a future where food grown while nurturing
the soil instead of depleting it, is the norm and not the exception.
Since we started this talk alone around the world,
we lost around 100 soccer fields worth of topsoil.
That's 700 times the size of our gardens.
A garden the size of one soccer field
can feed thousands of people with fresh vegetables.
Humanity is capable of providing for itself while providing for the planet.
However, if you’ve got access to 2 square meters or 20,
you could be growing some of your own food
for yourself, your family, and your community.
If you fall or fell in love with gardening like we did
and have access to a quarter acre or two acres or more,
you could also be feeding hundreds of people and perhaps thousands.
We see a future where the majority of fresh vegetables
is grown in people’s front and backyards, community gardens and market gardens,
where fresh food is never far away
and is accessible to more people everywhere.
Thank you. Thank you.
(Applause)