BDNow 013 Mark Shepard Restoration Agriculture: Real World Permaculture for Farmers

Biodynamics Now! Investigative Farming and Restorative Nutrition Podcast

Mark Shepard is an agriforester and permaculturist He founded and manages Forest Agriculture Enterprises and runs New Forest Farm an 106-acre commercial scale perrennial agricultural ecosystem that was converted to a self suffecient food forest from a row-crop annual grain farm.

Trained in mechanical enigineering and ecology, Mark has combined these two passions to develop equpment and processes for the cultivation, harvesting and processing of forest-derived agricultural products for human foods and biofuel. Mark is a certified permacultlure designer who took his training directly from permaculture founder Bill Mollison . As a student of Mollison, Mark brings a robust masculinty into his permaculture work, working with the larger patterns of the land rather than focusing on the rather dainty features that are often put forward by American permies.

Mark teaches agroforestry and permacluture around the world. He lives with his family in Richland County Wisconsin Mark is the author of Restoration Agriculture, Real World Permaculture for Farmers which was published by ACRES USA this past year. It's a remarkable work of agricultural writing, one that I hope everyone will make the time to read in the near future. You can pick up a copy from Amazon through the show notes at www.bdnow.org

I want to thanks Anders Skarlin bdnow and Steve Diver of bdnow and agri-synthesis.com for submitting questions for Mark that made this conversation more valuable for everyone.

As usual, if you'd like to hear more of these podcasts, please take the time to leave a positive comment at bdnow.org or at the bdnow podcast page at itunes which you can link to through the show notes at bdnow.org

Around the globe most people get their calories from annual agriculture - plants that grow fast for one season, produce lots of seeds, then die. Every single human society that has relied on annual crops for staple foods has collapsed. Restoration Agriculture explains how we can have all of the benefits of natural, perennial ecosystems and create agricultural systems that imitate nature in form and function while still providing for our food, building, fuel and many other needs - in your own backyard, farm or ranch. This book, based on real-world practices, presents an alternative to the agriculture system of eradication and offers exciting hope for our future.