Imagine this scene: to one side, scorched earth, with tiny castor bean plants dying of thirst. Five yards from that, a green wall two meters high, a complex mixture of castor beans, pigeon peas, jack beans, sesame, cowpeas, opuntia (nopales- an edible cactus) fodder trees, and young fruit trees. Below this mass, the soil is so humid that one might think that it had just rained.
A nossa história de vida é marcada por encontros profundos com pessoas que mudaram o nosso caminho. Uma destas pessoas, para mim, é a Anastasyia, uma bela e jovem xamã das florestas frias da Sibéria, na Rússia. Anastasyia vive profundamente integrada coma a natureza que a rodeia e que a alimenta, sem esforço da parte dela.
Animals are a very important fertility component in our agroforest system. For five months out of the year our hot, dry sandy conditions impede decomposition of organic matter, which dries into straw and blows away. The stomach of the animals does what the soil normally would do : digests the organic matter, enrichening it with beneficial bacteria and decomposing the plant material so that it can be used by the plants.
Poucos sabem que as escolas atuais foram criadas para adestrar operários de fábrica. Sabia-se que os filhos de agricultores não agüentariam dias rotineiros e repetitivos se não fossem adestrados para tal desde a mais tenra idade.
Be a Good Neighbor
In my 30 years of work in agroecology and permaculture I have seen that information does not reach the land (in Brazil). The Polyculture Project of the Bahian Permaculture Institute addresses this problem with success, but it is an expensive project, involving heavy travel expenses.
The region of Cafarnaum, in the Bahian drylands (in the Northeast region of Brazil, about 5 hours inland from the coast) has some of the best soils a farmer could imagine. But it also has one of the worst climates possible. Rains are erratic, unpredictable, often destructive ( where a fourth of the year´s average can fall in one day), and are concentrated in three or four months of the year (November to February, Brazilian summer).
My name is Marsha Hanzi, professional in permaculture and ecological agriculture. I farm and teach in the drylands of Northeast Brazil.
On a recent trip to the United States I noted that there, as here in Brazil, bio-fuels are considered the modern solution to the upcoming peak oil crisis.
Ever since my early teens I have asked myself if schools need to have walls, if they need teachers. What is a school for, anyway? What is it exactly that a child has to learn to become a responsible adult? Who is to define what “responsible” is (today,for example, those who decide to dedicate their lives to poetry are considered somehow “irresponsible” unless, of course, they make money at it).
Carregamos na alma uma saudade do “Paraíso perdido”, onde a humanidade vivia integrada a uma Natureza bela e abundante. De fato a palavra “Paraíso” vem da palavra “Paradizo” na Persa, que significa “Jardim”. Hoje estamos cansados do mundo industrial, feio e estressante, com o cimento, carros, poluição e escravidão ao relógio. Sonhamos com um estilo de vida mais lento, íntimo de um lugar belo.
A dinâmica mais inerente à Natureza é o equilíbrio. É por este motivo que aparecem ervas medicinais nos canteiros quando estamos doentes. Fazemos parte do sistema e a Natureza deseja equilibrar-nos quando saímos do eixo da saúde. Mas isto pode acontecer com árvores também.
