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Latin American Soil, Food, &
People Conference
The Biointensive Method in Latin America
and the Caribbean
In this century, human intelligence
and good sense are being put to the test. In the following decades
the world has to find a solution for problems we have never faced
on our planet before. For example, more than 6 billion of the
people who inhabit this world are exhausting natural resources
in order to satisfy their basic needs, which in turn, generates
hunger, malnutrition, new diseases, weather changes, lack of water,
and exhausted soils.
Latin America does not escape the tendency.
According to CEPAL, 210 million of its inhabitants live in poverty,
20 million of which are in abject poverty; a great part of its
soil has eroded or is about to be exhausted; and the weather changes
and land distribution conspire against sustainability. To some
extent all countries are struggling to change the situation, and
it will take some years for the solutions to reach the people
who need them the most, but the debt to society that has accumulated
for centuries is wearing out people's patience.
To find a solution for some of the problems
mentioned above , Ecology Action has invested over 34 years on
practical research to find an answer and practical solutions to
the question John Jeavons asked himself many years ago: What is
the smallest soil surface in which a person can produce everything
needed?
This work has resulted in the GROW BIOINTENSIVE®
method. Even as the process continues, with the developed principles
and techniques, the Method— when used properly—can
reconstruct the soil up to 60 times faster than nature and produce
abundant food with 67 to 88% less water, 50 to 100% less purchased
nutrient in organic fertilizer form and 99% less energy compared
with traditional agriculture; besides, among other advantages
it can at the same time increase the soil's fertility and produce
between 200 and 400% more calories per area unit.
In 1982, a group of Mexican people designed
a rural health program. Among its objectives they wanted to decrease
the malnutrition and infant mortality rate, and to be able to
achieve this they decided to promote family gardens. After investigating
five different methods to grow food, they selected the Biointensive
Method due to its high level of productivity in small areas and
its low water consumption, among other things.
In the next years a small Mexican non-governmental
organization (NGO), Ecología y Población (ECOPOL),
picked up the responsibility to spread the Biointensive Method
in the Spanish speaking world. As a result universities, agricultural
schools, churches, public institutions, NGOs and rural communities
became interested in the Method, and it was possible to spread
it throughout Mexico—and beyond.
Other countries that have made strenuous efforts
to spread the Biointensive Method are Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia
and Paraguay. In order to accelerate the diffusion process and
to make information readily available for all the region, Ecology
Action and ECOPOL decided to convene the Latin American Conference
CULTIVE BIOINTENSIVAMENTEMR in 2008 subject to funding.
In this conference experiences will be shared,
and the principles of the Biointensive Method will be taught to
the people who have the potential to learn, use and teach this
method. The cross-fertilization of individuals from many countries
exchanging information and skills, with many levels of training
and experience represented, will demonstrate a creative pattern
of diverse people working together to create solutions to the
world’s pressing soil, food and people challenges.
Juan Manuel Martinez Valdez, Director, ECOPOL
John Jeavons, Director, Ecology Action
PLEASE ENROLL EARLY AS SPACE IS LIMITED
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