In the depleted lands of Brazil, Swiss agronomist Ernst Götsch has found fertile soil to test transformative agricultural techniques.

In the depleted lands of Brazil, Swiss agronomist Ernst Götsch found fertile soil to imagine and test transformative agricultural techniques. His approach, called syntropy, is rapidly being adopted across the South American nation and provides a glimpse to the future of agriculture. For his many followers, the Swiss expatriate has become an icon.

Imagine humans are part of an immense organism. Their job is to make this system run as smoothly as possible. Humans share everything with the other beings in this organism. They all work together and help each other for the benefit of the whole.

How does this sound? Utopian? Well, keep reading.

Imagine the environment is a cooperative and interactive structure where every single being plays a specific role and thus contributes to ensuring that the living space regularly renews itself. There is sufficient food and living space for everyone.

Let’s say goodbye to a mentality based on exploitation and competition. Let’s forget the traditional models of cultivation, production and land use.

Syntropic agriculture is when cultivation becomes a natural part of a constantly regenerating ecosystem. This is the brainchild of Ernst Götsch, the Swiss agronomist who is transforming traditional agriculture into organic farming in Brazil.

  • Kempeth@feddit.deEnglish
    5·
    1 year ago

    Very interesting but the article - for me - was too scarce on details of this farming system so I took to google. For anyone who wants a TLDR: This is basically a combination of “forest farming” and “terraforming/re-wilding”

    • forest farming uses a mix of different plants with different grow heights so the available are isn’t just fully utilized in 2 dimensions but the third as well. This mixing avoids many issues with monocultures, and better protects the ground against the sun.
    • the second aspect is using different stages of plants, first to reclaim dead land with primitive but hardy “pioneer” plants, follow them up with “bioaccumulator” plants that have higher needs but are excellent at enriching the land with biomass before culminating in plants that have the highest needs but also support the most diversity and are most productive.