Agroforest for the Future – New Video : True Love – Ernst Gotsh – Part 1 Introduction: Good afternoon everybody. Its a very big pleasure for Catholic University have Ernst here today. So we can to listen to directly from you about you and your researches and your vision. This initiative are been promoted in Catholic University from Theology and Religion Research Center Despite Catholic University doesn't has an Agronomic Research Area But we care a lot with this very important speech and a vision like that. Besides being a vision that speaks of Planet Earth, agriculture, talks about of
our present conditions and a perspective human destiny And the alternatives solutions for the construction of the future. Remember that We have an ecologic research area in this University. The format of this lecture will be: First an Ernst presentation. After that he want to answer your questions. Than, Professor Izabel Varanda, who leads the research line about ecology and theology will coordinate the questions. Today is a very important day from the religious point of view: It is the celebration of St Francis of Assisi, Patron Saint of Animals and the Ecology. I would like to mention as an
introduction to this session, a statement by Pope Francis in his document containing the encyclical letter about Ecology, where he states the following: Earth’s resources have been devastated due to instantaneous forms of dealing with economical, commercial and productive activities. The loss of forest and wood lands imply simultaneously in the loss of species that could account for invaluable resources in the future, not only as sources of food and treatment of diseases as well as other benefits. Different species present distinct genes, which could be the key for solving problems regarding human needs or helping to control an environmental
issue in the future. I would like to invite Ernst Gotsh who will explain what is the impact of Syntropic Agriculture and who is the great visionary of this century. Thank you very much and welcome Ernst. Good afternoon everybody I would like to thank you for the invitation, for the dream of my land (referring to Europe, since he lives in Brazil but he is Swiss), for the opportunity of Mediterranean potentially being the Paradise, I have no doubt about it, it was Paradise. Mediterranean had everything to be the Paradise and it was no coincidence, so many civilizations,
known and unknown, have been in this area – Persians, Egyptians, Crete, different Semitic civilizations, Greeks, Romans, and so many others. All civilizations and cultures where attracted to the Mediterranean region, because of the abundance of this rich ecosystem. I have recently visited Greece, more specifically Evia Island, which was swept by fire. Very little vegetation has survived. The fire has caused a lot of destruction in the south of the island and was less severe in the centre and north of Evia, however there has been still a lot of destruction. In the middle of all that nothingness ,
I have found in a small valley close to a village, approximately 10 km from the seaside (considering that the island is not very large, the seaside is never too far) I have found a small sample of vegetation that has been living for a long time, a “picture” from the past : Oak trees 12 to 15 metres high, 1.5 metre in diameter , plane tree closer to water, olive trees ranging from 0.8 to 1 metre in diameter and a treetop resembling a large oak tree. They were living under the oak trees. There were also around the
area some wild grapevines. This looked like an abandoned area. The grapevine was full of flowers. As I walked further up, I have found grapevines producing both flowers and fruits. I have noticed that the production of fruits was a lot more abundant in these wild areas than the few cultivated grapevines that survived the fire where irrigation was available. Now, I would like you to understand and observe another possibility. In very rough areas, exposed to erosion and degradation , the first plant that grows is a medicinal herb , that if consumed would clean and elevate the spirit
– it is thyme. Together with lavender, they are the first pioneers. They will provide favourable conditions in places such as dunes and rocks for other plants that have existed before to grow in the area again. They will grow and cover the ground like a thin carpet comprised by thyme herbs together with the bitter evergreen oak plants with thorns. Then in the middle of this formation grows the olive trees and depending of the place you might get a cypress tree or another bitter oak tree - the honour oak tree, elm trees. They grow taller and gradually
create a stratified formation. So in this area, as I was saying, it will grow wild olive trees, bitter almond trees , catego/ birriteiro (?)(9:38), and here you can see how it is all set and where it is going, what this area will grow like again. If we wanted and if we would not set fire again for a whole year, instead of going on holiday, invading the beautiful beaches and regions , peeling and spoiling the fields, we would engage in a kind of useful tourism. We would gather seeds and sow them. There would be no need
to set fire fight control campaigns, because it would not burn. And it would all grow evergreen again. In the space of one year. Just channelling our power. I say all this because I see how Portugal has been suffering with so much drought, so much fire, who claims on Eucalyptus, who claims on its neighbours, who claims on the government, who claims on others misbehaving. The truth is that we are all to blame for misbehaving. All of us, or each of us. We are all aware of what is good and right. But we do not want to
pay the price to make it happen. So let’s try to make it. In reality , I did not invent this. This belongs to Talmut. All of us, 2,700 years ago, it is written, we all know what is right and what is good. But we do not want to pay the price to make it happen. We are aware that it is not right to expose the soil, to remove its cover. It is the same as peeling off our own skin. It is painful! And the earth without our interference does everything to cover the exposed area again.
And then we return and wreck it again. And then we start to distance ourselves from the forests and we have adopted domestic animals. We have first fenced them with wood fences, wire fences, then a century ago we have introduced barbed wires and then electric fences. These animals have always been confined by fences and the purpose has always been to end up in our pans. They on the other hand get us into hell. Everything has its compensation. Let’s try to be useful. Let’s try to change. This requires a very profound paradigm shift. Modern human beings look
at things from the point of view of making profit, of exploiting. Modern human also teaches children in schools that all species are utilizing and exploiting natural resources. We are fully aware that exploitation is not right. If I ask any one of the participants of this lecture if he/she would personally agree to be exploited the answer would be NO. Or please raise your hand if you would like to be exploited. It does not work! And it is also in the Bible or in any of the major religions and philosophy’s ethic code - the contents of the
Categorical Imperative. In one hand Immanuel Kant philosophy, but he has not invented that, he has just formulated it. To act in such a way that you want the principles submitted to your interactions to be immediately raised to the principles of Universal Laws. And nobody escapes the application of Universal Laws. To be applied in yourself. So let’s change the paradigm. I think in one way particularly from the scientific point of view, we have got to change! All species who have appeared and will appear and are living in the present, each and all individuals of all generations
come equipped to fulfil their tasks, their roles, moved by an innate and functional pleasure. And all species come equipped to communicate with each other. It is just a large organism, a large macro organism. Let’s come down from the assumption that we are the highest form of intelligence. We are not the intelligent ones, we are part of an intelligent system, and the difference is astonishing. We are truly equipped to understand all the other( species), just like the others are equipped to understand ourselves, and act and react. The disharmonious interaction or the disharmonious interference of one or
parts of the universal macro organism causes alterations inside the macro organism, which makes the producers of such disharmonious interferences unfavourable. In the last 12,000 years, mankind have been experiencing this hundreds of times, civilization after civilization, it arises and exploits all the resources then it perishes, declines, with large numbers of people, populations who disappear.... Also in Talmud: The wise man learns from the mistakes of others, the intelligent man learns from his own mistakes, and the stupid one repeats his own mistakes as well as assimilates the other’s mistakes. Isn’t this what we have been doing? Everywhere you
look we have been repeating. Observe, this has started 12,000 years ago, locally, they have disappeared and exhausted the natural resources; then regionally, they have also disappeared , they have grown, destroyed and exhausted the resources and disappeared ; then continentally , in the same manner exhausting the resources in a large scale and then disappeared. Roma for exemple. And nowadays, we have been doing the same thing again! We have not yet learnt! Let’s talk about other principles: all inter and intra specific relationships present a paradigm, but it is time now we change our approach, otherwise we will
not move forward, we will go to hell, we will go to a black hole. The inter and intra specific relationships , that is relationships between the individuals of a single species or between individuals of different species are based unilaterally in the UNCONDITIONAL LOVE AND COOPERATION PRINCIPLE and not on how we have been stupidly applying and learning and /or learning and applying afterwards in the fight for success and cold competition, greediness and exploitation. The natural system refuses to accept this. When the principle of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE AND COOPERATION is applied, it unleashes success and abundance. Abundance on
one hand brings on tranquillity in life. On the contrary, dispute and cold competition results in lack of resources, which in turn generates conflicts and wars. Wars will create bankruptcy. Bankruptcy will result in death. Black hole. Let’s try to change this pattern and rethink our interactions. Everybody will have enough time to ask me later. I like when people ask and have show doubts. Is the opportunity I have to answer more than one time and make clear and direct for everybody. Next step is to explain what I'm doing and what is Syntropyc Farming. What is Syntropic Agriculture?
What is Syntropy? What is Entropy? This is an old Greek term. “ Syntropus” are integrating processes for growth that start from the simple to the complex and “Entropus” is the opposite, process from the complex to the simple. Life in this planet is one or part of these instruments that were created around 12,000 years ago for Earth to realize its syntropic strategy. Planet Earth in my view, is an evolutionary being, it grows. Consider this research: include all continents in an 1/3 diameter smaller planet. You will find out that all current continents fit perfectly in the Pangea.
100 % fit. If we have an even closer look, how does this growth happen physically? How do you generate a condenser? You need to connect 2 systems of different dielectric values. comments about Ernst questions in school when he was a children in Physics classes. How teacher explain the energy generator working. How do you generate a condenser? You need to connect 2 systems of different dielectric values. (in geophysics classes teacher told) You will observe this in the organization of the different belts. In the atmosphere around the tropic level, 4,000 m above sea level the temperature is
4°C. As we ascend 1,000 m above that, the temperature then lowers down to -28°C . Then you will reach the stratosphere. Then between the stratosphere and high sphere the temperature is 4°C again. As you continue ascending the temperature goes down to -80°C and then you reach the ionosphere where the temperature is 1000°C and then there is another belt where the temperature is 4°C. Always water is present. The dielectric value of water above 4°C is different. That means Earth is a condenser. If we take a close look: whenever strong solar winds generated by strong solar eruptions
hit Earth they cause earthquakes and volcanic activity. This is because the Planet grows. There is plasma in the ionosphere. In the olden days Greek already used to say that the anti-matter was called ether. Ether turns into plasma and plasma into matter. Therefore the planet grows. Volcanic activity makes it grows more and more. Tectonic movement is directly proportional to the planet’s growth. The masses separate from the underlying fluid motion in order to keep the balance. This would be another form to explain physical phenomenon. This is just the result of a way to change the paradigm and
act differently. Regarding the paradigm about the unconditional love and cooperation, many people ask me about the relationship for example between a lynx, a wolf and a small mammal. What would happen if a wolf, a tiger, a lion, a lynx behave like a human being? What would happen? No more prey would exist. If they were all as dumb as human beings there would be no more food left. I learned this from some old people.. Last century, around 1966, I worked in the media with some people in Namibia - they were officially considered subhuman – Pygmies. I
was responsible for cattle management in a farm and went on visiting weekly the many shepherds in the area with my Jeep. So they were obliged to show their flock of sheep so that I could evaluate and decide what would happen to the animals. One occasion in the end of August I went to visit the shepherds and they were dancing. I was surprised and I wondered where the animals were. I asked them what they were celebrating. They looked at me as if I was a fool. They announced: it is going to rain! In that semi deserted
area of Namibia rain falls have been registered only in January, if any. The frequency is every 2 years. Normally it rains in January but it does not rain in August or at the end of August. So I asked them when will it rain? And they told me it will rain in January. They carry on looking at how fool I was. I was such a fool. I behaved like one. Out of ignorance. I must improve myself. Then I asked: how do you know it will going to rain? They told me the gazelles were mating. So I
asked again: if the forecast is for no rain in January, what would have happened? They carry on looking at me as if I was such a fool Then the lions will mate. It took 26 years for the penny to drop. Only in the early 90’s I understood the concept. Hunger is not the motif for eating for the predator. It is much more intelligent than that. Hunger is the means for the predator to accomplish its role of optimizing the number of gazelles in proportion to the capacity of sustainability of the ecosystem. Therefore if it rains it
will be necessary more gazelles to graze the herbs, foliage, leaves of the trees. And if there will be no rain it will be necessary for lions to reduce the number of gazelles. Clearly, the inter and intraspecific relationship between predator and prey is based unilaterally in unconditional love and cooperation. In the absence of the lion, if the predator was not present, the prey would suffer. I have been kidnapped, assaulted, mugged in Brazil and I have already met a black panther in Bolivia. When I was face to face with a 4 m long black panther about 1,5
m distance, it did not attack me but it just stared at me. It had a big head. It stared intently at me. And I at her. And I felt in the core of my being that I could die there and then. That it could kill me easily there but as you can see I am still fully alive. From my heart I thought in German or in Swedish. It did not matter as I knew it was pointless to say it out loud. So I said in my heart:”You are beautiful!” And it is truly beautiful, really beautiful.
The animal in the right context is beautiful. And so are human beings! There is no ugly species. They are all very beautiful! The black panther seemed to have understood the message, closed her eyes as if thinking, then a few minutes passed, she turned away very elegantly like cats do and walked away from me towards the woods. So her conclusion was: apparently this is not my prey. A and B, I was not threatening her. Absolutely not. I have never suffered a poisonous snake strike considering I have worked so often in places with so many of them.
I have never been attacked by a wild animal, however I have been attacked by men. And each time I have encountered a poisonous snake, even the most venomous ones, which we have plenty of in Brazil, they certainly communicate with us. They do not consider us like prey. They communicate with us. Each animal has their ways to communicate and they do. You do perceive it. My wife and my daughters also felt the same way when they met these kind of animals. And the first thought that comes to mind is to apologize for being in the animal’s
space. So I mean I am sorry for being there. This is not my space but the animal‘s. There is no need to run away. Just look at the animal and the sensation will come to you. The feeling of how beautiful the animal is. Then the animal’s reaction – they remove themselves from the scene. So you might alter your route. Inter and intraspecific relationships based unilaterally in unconditional love and cooperation. This has been confirmed by father of the son-in-law of my daughter who lives in the north-eastern town in Norway, frontier with Russia, further north than Murmansk.
He had reindeers and for him the wolves were not enemies. The wolves provided him indication of the availability of food for the reindeers. So when he spotted the wolves mating he reduced the numbers of his reindeers and then nothing happened. There is no need to kill the wolves. And the wolves did not attack him or the reindeers either. The wolves will definitely kill the ill or weak animals. But they are providing a service for the shepherd. Unconditional love and cooperation. Ok! Now, Lets talk about Syntropic Farming - Syntropic Agriculture Syntropic farming is a way of
producing whatever we need from the plant or animal kingdom based on natural principles such as: first - the unconditional love and cooperation that I have described above; second the categorical imperative – to act in such a way that you want the principles submitted to your interactions to be immediately raised to the principles of universal laws and third the conviction that all species have their roles including ourselves. That we and them have duties to accomplish and that all present are there for a purpose, not by chance, to accomplish a task. They are all working for the
good of life, except us. When I start a new plantation in an area, I take a good look at it and I wonder what is the task to be accomplished, that I wished to be. In Portugal, in a Mediterranean degraded area, I have communicated with the lavender and thyme and they showed me. Therefore our role is to be good dispersers and bring them to the area so that they can fulfill their role. Later, if we get pests in our crops, we should ask ourselves what went wrong, what did we do wrong, for the balance has
been lost and the pests have appeared for this reason. Pests are part of the immunological system of the macro organism of which we are part of. Killing the pests is the same as killing our own white cells that are proliferating in order to defend our organism from an inflammation or infection, when the health of the organism has lost its balance. It would be the same as killing the firemen when they come to put out the fire. Let’s try and see things differently. Each of the participants should not think like the modern human beings who consider
and interpret that their peers are in competition with one another. This is a philosophical mistake. There should be no competition. There should be cooperation. Therefore, how can I integrate it, incorporate it and act in such way that the interaction between all participants results in synergistic effects? A complete different approach to our own world. We will go straight into Paradise! So I will now show a few pictures. Picture (1). Here you can see how it looked like in the beginning, when I bought some land. The title of the land is still the original – “Fled from
Dry Land Farm”. And it is true, the previous owners were not interested in that place and they left it. When I bought the land they thought I would never be able to grow anything there, not even pineapple that used to be cultivated there. Next picture (2) - This is the same area after 33 years. You can see the boundaries and this is a result of what we have partially planted. Next picture(3). Within just under 2 years, planting seeds with my own hands, just like plants and trees have been doing for 10 to 11 million years,
Nature has not yet invented any plastic nursery , with plants in pots and has not adopt a truck or van powered by petrol to take it to the fields to be planted there. They have always relied on dispersion by wind or animals to spread the seeds and that is how I planted in my land. Next picture (4) This is where I live, my house and the dryer, and a few other things, here is a plantation , this is a recent pruned area, and here is the area of where I grow my vegetables, you will see
them in the next picture. I recommend the use of chainsaw, because I find it useful for growing corn, beans and vegetables. As you can see (picture 4) the trees grew back and the forest came back. In picture 5 you can see the area where I harvested corn, beans and vegetables as well as cassava a few months ago. Therefore, you can see the organic matter and a few trees that I had planted. In picture 6 you can see this new place where in the last 2-3 months I have started to plant (he goes on pointing to
the image the areas where he planted) vegetables, trees, cassava, beans and trees, you can see cruciferous vegetables and tomatoes and here in this corner I am cutting down this little bit of forest that I am not completely satisfied with and I will transform it. Next picture (7) this is what we do, so we will saw this wood, then you can see the others that have been cut down the day before and the green matter, this is palm leaves and not grass, and various woods originated from different trees, and the plant bed where I will be
planting some vegetables and over to the right you will see in the next picture (8) the vegetables. So here you can see vegetables, corn and beans. Picture 9 more vegetables and the transition to cocoa beans plantation. Pictures 10 and 11 – I produce Ecoto cocoa beans. I live very well producing it. People say that the production is not viable, but in the 70-80’s decade we have produced 1.2 million tons of cocoa beans in Bahia, and it has dropped to 40 thousand tons and it was said that there were no trees due to illness and other
things. Later the Ecoto cocoa beans production got worse for me. They say that the cocoa beans culture is no longer viable but for me it is still good business and I have been producing good quality cocoa beans, I make good profit. Also cocoa beans by-product is wood. The picture before showed a lot of cocoa beans wood. And it is good value. Other by-products are palm trees, such as many with edible fruits, and other fruits such as mangostin, rambostin, jambu fruit, gianduja jackfruit banana, etc..., etc... and we also supply vegetables and roots for our needs. I
don’t use any pesticides or fertilizers from outside. It is all the dynamics of the place. It is the dynamics of the system. I was told that I would not be able to produce anything at all in the designated area of my land. According to the map of areas suitable for the production of cocoa beans made by the Cacao Research Center (Cepec) from Brazil, my area was considered inadequate for the production of cocoa beans due to very low pH soil (3.7 – 4.5) and its yellow latosol composition. Also another feature of this tropical soil is that
there is hardly any trace of phosphorus available. However, as a result of my activities in these areas of rainforest, it was observed that the pH for soil has achieved 5.5 and it was noted 30 - 40 rpm of phosphorus available in soil. Furthermore, there has been an increase of 1-3 cm of organic matter per year. This increase is a capitalization, this is syntropic – from the simple to the complex. If we were to act like this, as farmers, as human beings, there would be no need for prisons, judges, environmental police officers in order to create
and protect areas of permanent human exclusion. This way we would be able to work and generate both animal and plant products in such a way that would be satisfying for all involved, including the submitted, the affected and all presents. This way all cultivated areas would turn into areas of permanent human inclusion or translating this into Bible language this would be Paradise. Now you can ask questions. We have a coordinator. Im gonna stay besides then you may send questions for coordinator and I will answer more as I can, in an order. We would like to say
very very much this magnificent experience we could to listen to about syntropyc agriculture Now we will have a moment for a debate. We have a lot of questions considering the number of watchers here. A lot of People prepared questions before the lecture. I will ask for everyone be objective. You can present yourself quickly, talk about your experience with agriculture. Ernst are very avid for this moment to answer everybody. The microphone is available. Show up if have a question, present yourself quickly. Now you can ask questions. Just before we start, please no praising. I am open
for criticism. Let’s do things right then we can praise for Mother Earth. So I will start with a criticism. So what about the mushrooms, fungi, bacteria? My name is John of Mushrooms, João Oliveira. Funghi and Bacterias? Look: Instead of having a technomorphic and market centric vision I have a biophile and organomorphic vision. See, all animals in this planet, including ourselves as we are animals right? We are large animals. All animals have a role, for example our bacterial flora on the skin, in the mouth and intestines. As a farmer, finding fungi in the soil is the
best prize I could wish for. We have been killing all fungi with all the fungicides we have been using. I harvest a lot of mushrooms as by-products of my work. Many mushrooms grow on top of the cut wood I place on the ground. Each wood will produce different types of mushrooms. Not all of them are edible. Incredibly, the better I behave within the system, I mean, the more beneficial is my influence, my interaction with the system, the more I am reward with edible prizes. For anyone who suspects that these fungi could be pests or cause
some illness, one needs to understand that on the contrary, they are members of the optimizing life processes department or members of the immune system of the macro organism. They warn me clearly, they indicate the consequences of my own mistakes. Therefore, I am grateful for their participation and I try as hard as I can to communicate with all of them, as we are all equipped to do so, and try to understand the message that has been sent to me . This way, I can try to rectify my actions and not try to combat them. So I
will act in a different way so that their interaction is no longer necessary. Similarly, the firemen go home happy after accomplishing their mission. You don’t need to kill them with the machine gun. In the same way, when bacteria attacks your vegetables, when you have made a mistake, the question is what is the weak point of my interaction, where have I made a mistake? Then you take a good look. This has not been attacked. If all is suffering really badly (if all is shit), then go to your neighbour, if he/she has been more successful, if he/she
knows better. If they managed to get the production without the unwanted interaction. This way you move forward, you learn the difference and try to put that into practice. Test it. This is why we have our intelligence. Let’s test it. It is a great pleasure to test. Negative. Positive. So sometimes you take two steps forward and one backward, sometimes three backward and five forward or sometimes five backward and three forward, but everything is wonderful, to be able to learn every step of the way, to be open, it is wonderful. This gives me a lot of pleasure.
Considering all cultures of the tropical lands such as cocoa beans, papaya, coconut, banana, mango trees, how are we going to apply syntropic farming in Portugal? Which cultures are we going to grow? So this answer is in the beginning of my lecture. Let’s grow the plants that were here in the beginning. I have described earlier how the herbs are waiting and they even come by themselves to colonize the area. How could we take action? See, here in Portugal, the cultures to grow are olive, peach, almond trees and in the North of the country the cultures to
grow are apple, pear, cherries, vines, in the south olive and fig trees each one has their role. Let’s reconcile. And clearly you have poplar. Your poplar is our Eucalyptus. Eucalyptus is not even ours but we have been planting it. It has got very close properties to Eucalyptus. It is very similar! If you plant Poplar which is native to this country in the same rate you have been planting Eucalyptus, it will grow as fast as Eucalyptus, it will grow like weed. The ecological disaster Portugal has been suffering with the drought is not the Eucalyptus fault. The
lack of water. It is the way of planting. If I plant poplar 2x3 and use lots of pesticides as well as give it a lot of fertilizer for it to grow , the same thing will happen, the water will disappear. I will show you later. Another question now. Please wake up than we can see you. Good afternoon Ernst, my name is Marina, from Reforest Portugal organisation. In relation to the fire issue that desolates Portugal and the Eucalyptus monoculture, which is a big problem in this country, we know that Ernst uses this tree a lot as
a source of organic matter. Many people whom we have spoken about syntropic farming , claim that this type of farming only works in the tropics. Here it takes too long. In Europe a tree takes a long time to grow. I would like Ernst to please talk about the potential of agroforestry with a group of native species of trees. Could we potentially achieve a productive income working with native trees? I say so in order for people to abandon the idea that the only tree that will generate profit in short, mid or long term is the Eucalyptus.
The issue is the abandoned countryside in Portugal, many Eucalyptus plantation are left without care and people believe that to grow other species will demand too much hard work and the return will take too long. I can explain to you. What Eucalyptus do you plant? Eucalyptus globulus. You have indirectly answered. But there is one more reason. Eucalyptus is one of the plants...When there is degradation of an ecosystem it loses its local species and others will occupy the area. It loses what we call its resilience. Here in Portugal there are many areas that lost their resilience. So
firstly when an ecosystem loses its resilience, species from less privileged areas within the same ecosystem will invade the area, since the system still retains capacity to hold water and where minerals are still available. If the situation of the ecosystem deteriorates even further, then species that don’t belong to the given ecosystem will invade the area, depending on rainfall index, the capacity to hold water and the availability of minerals. The worst case scenario is the desertification of an area. If I was asked to do an ecosystem recovery programme in some areas in Portugal, have you got any
idea which tree I would recommend to plant to start with? It is good. One of the most hated trees in the Mediterranean region. It is called Ailanthus (Ailanthus altissima). Does anyone know it? It is the most efficient of all of them. The most helpful one. Generally the most hated and combated plants are the most helpful ones. They are not your enemies, they are your friends! They will colonize by themselves unlike the Eucalyptus. Once introduced it will spread by itself. It will produce millions of seeds that will easily spread around and grow. Moreover, it produces a
beautiful wood. It withstands pruning well. You can prune it three times a year. You can prune and disturb the tree in this manner and each time it will re-grow. It will be all year round green which guarantees photosynthesis, if you start to prune it. From then onwards all vegetables and plants you cultivate will grow well around them. No more need for irrigation. Water will return. Photosynthesis is another aspect in our paradigm. There is no need for water (irrigation). Freshwater circulation in this planet does not require our doing. It is being done. About 2,700 years ago,
what I will tell is not a fable, nor a myth. There is no need to do things. They just happen. The circulation of freshwater in the planet corresponds in 100% to the human blood circulatory system. The venous system corresponds to the rivers and the arterial system corresponds to the groundwater. Most of us and most of the Portuguese people change the course of the rivers and suck the fresh waters from the rivers as well as the groundwater. If you apply the same treatment to our blood circulatory system, you will kill yourself. If you decide to take
the patient to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) you will not be able to resuscitate by inducing irrigation with assistance of specialized equipment. In this case you will need to call the species specialized in solving these type of problems. They are most able and suited to capture water from the soil or from the atmosphere. For example let’s remove all people and goats from the Sahara desert. To be honest you don’t even need to remove the goats. Just the people. No problem, as the predators will come to optimize the number of goats and sheep. Take the people
away. Separate them from this system. I am not asking to kill them. Just to separate for science’s sake. 3,000 to 4,000 hectares of desert fenced so no goats and sheep from outside are allowed in. You can introduce some predators in the system. So what is going to happen? From this moment on wards, many cactus (belonging to the Cactacea family) and succulent plants will grow. The area will turn green. Dark green. And it becomes stratified. In a few years, the desert turns into sub desert. And the sub desert turns into steppe. And the steppe turns into
savanna and the savanna turns into forest. It happens everywhere! I have witnessed this. But when you add humans into the system, it is the opposite. About the Eucalyptus. If you would provide me a few hectares of land to “play” with Eucalyptus, I can show you how to do. You must prune all Eucalyptus at 5 m height. Remove all branches at the top. I can assure you they will not die. However, before you do the pruning plant a few Gramineas (grass) and some Leguminosae that grow well around them. There are plenty of them available in Portugal.
Choose the grass depending on the region. Gramineas and other Leguminosae such as Clove and Triponio and others . Just scatter the seeds. Then do the pruning and run the brush cutter over it. Then you need to use a tool to cut the material over the ground. Then you can tell me what happened after that. You will see. It will grow a lot! Then you have to manage it intelligently with your cattle. During the rain season, every six to seven weeks, during the dry season, you allow them one day to feed over there (do their work)
and in the mean time you keep pruning the Eucalyptus, both at the base as well as the top, leaving a few small branches. It will grow, the leaves will turn dark green, the grass will turn green, you will see that plants such as alfalfa and many cloves, grass and also the Eucalyptus will remain green in the dry season. And if you plant at that time instead of only grass, you can even cultivate some vegetables, all sorts of vegetables, trees, they will all grow. Keep the Eucalyptus, prune it to rejuvenate it, it will be happy. Do
it technically correct, prune it twice a year, once in February and other time in July, but perhaps for the Mediterranean you should prune it in October/ November and the just before the last rain in April, and you will see the result, it will have dark green leaves and below it the new plants will grow. And that is without any irrigation! This was the reason, when restoring a land which suffered an ecological disaster in Brazil, I teased everyone by planting the most hated species of Eucalyptus. I was proving that it is not the Eucalyptus’s fault but
it is the way you cultivate it. Who has seen the Life in Syntropy? I used the must cursed specie in Brazil (Eucalipto) People accuses it for any ecological disaster. The problem is not the plant, but the cultivate system. Back to your case... I would not necessarily use the Eucalyptus but in this case, if it is already there, I will not argue, I will ask the Eucalyptus – What can you do well? And then use it accordingly. Use it for a purpose. Then it will produce wood and fibres , but it will produce it in a
slight different way. It will be pruned. It will work very hard. It will make a lot of photosynthesis. I can show you in this picture. The one with the rain. Looking for the photo of the rain... All ecosystems like forests are stratified. At the top there are the emergent and the less emergent ones. And they create shade. According to the capacity of supporting large animals and the need to have them in the area. All species have a role, including large animals. They are disperser and scrapper of exceeding complex energy for deposit, a process that occurs
with the degradation and accumulation of deposit in the planet, such as methane gas at the bottom of the sea and other deposits. The rivers are means of transport. Mankind interacts using rivers as means of transport. Mankind delivers millions of cubic metres of fertile soil down the rivers every year. It is a choice of interaction. You can measure how intelligent mankind is. Recipe for suicide. Sending the good soil away, since the river is a means of transport and then bleeds the river for irrigation purposes. Moreover mankind then uses phosphor in fertilizers which is the means life
uses to accomplish transforming and flowing process. Phosphor is released when there is need of flow. For example, feeding large scale animals. We cannot escape the fact that we are part of a macro organism. That is an intelligent system. And we are not acting intelligently. According to the way we act, we should not call ourselves Homo sapiens. Sapiens Homo Destructor fruit and ignorance. Another question now.... I am Mônica, an agronomist and this summer I have started a Facebook page called - Forest Reform now. I don’t know if Ernst is aware of, but we have a very
dangerous and serious illness, and I am trying to create this means of consultation, because we have had a serious fever this summer. we have suffered tremendously. I believe agroforestry might be one of the means or the solution for our illness. As far as I understand Ernst uses Eucalyptus the same way we use the ram pump to fetch water from the depth. We have 900,000 hectare of Eucalyptus globulus. Just one species. We are the 5th world power in production of Eucalyptus, preceded by China, Brazil, India and Australia. We are not as large as these countries. On
Sunday we will have a lecture about agroforestry in Pedrógão Grande. All are welcome to attend. We propose to the people of Pedrógão Grande to find an alternative to the Eucalyptus. We are not in war against this tree. There are far too many of them. Too many of the same species. We must resort to using a wider variety of native species to try and stop this fever in the summer. Thank you Monica for your words. Everybody are invited on Sunday in Pedrogón Grande. I am confronted in Brazil with the same issue, just in the same way.
But it is not the Eucalyptus’ fault. It is the way it is cultivated! If you would only use the Eucalyptus in the way I have been recommending! I am not asking you to go plant some more of it but use the ones you already have! Do not scold the Eucalyptus. Use it intelligently, in your favour. It will be a marvellous ally. How can the Eucalyptus help? There are several possibilities : It is one of the world photosynthesis champions. We have got to revise science. You will need your scientific equipment such as microscope. Photosynthesis is the
process that happens in galleries and centripetal vortex . In other words it cools down and as it cools down it extracts water. The more desert or sub desert plants in the area, the strongest the vortex, the more accentuated the vortex. They can carry out the condensation of the water, by cooling it down, which does not increase the volume of water in the atmosphere but increases the relative humidity of the air, therefore they can extract water from the air. This is photosynthesis. This is the work involved in photosynthesis. I am scared of photosynthesis. I work for
photosynthesis. The mistake is to grow single species of trees or monoculture crops. It does not matter if it is Eucalyptus, wheat, corn, horticulture, olive trees. It is all the same. The number one error in our model of cultivating is that they are not stratified, they are mono stratified. It is mono stratum. Just one stratum. That means the water comes from down below to the top and then the wind blows it away. However, when you have a stratified system like the one of a forest, then the wind blows and because photosynthesis is taking place in all
levels, including at the lower level near the ground, then the wind flow is broken as it encounters the trees. Since the temperature is lower nearer the ground, the air circulates from top to bottom. The heat is transferred from the top to the bottom. This way the action of photosynthesis is doubly potentiated – 1) the lower stratum sucks the heat because of the photosynthesis and the ground cover the degradation of the organic matter caused by fungi also causes the temperature to drop in the area. What does the modern humans do with the organic matter? They make
it into a compost to send the energy away! They make it into a compost to send the energy away! Nature works completely differently. It organizes it to become concave and then it cools down and descends. And then 3 times : physical stratification that creates a barrier, it breaks down the wind, then it goes down and at the lower level the photosynthesis causes suction and at an even lower level the degradation processes caused by fungi, basidiomycetes, generates suction. Therefore, there is a negative gradient for the temperature towards the soil, it causes suction of the water via
a condensation process from top to bottom. This is how Nature works. Eucalyptus can send water to the atmosphere. If you plant poplar, a very sacred European plant, in the same area in monoculture it will cause just the same shit We can`t plant poplar in the same scale as Eucalyptus in Portugal because we have not got sufficient water and poplar tree requires a lot more water than Eucalyptus. But if you start planting trees in areas where water is still available, you will dry the whole area. If you plant a single species in an area (monoculture), photosynthesis
will be concentrated in the top layer, water will be drained from the soil to the top of the trees and then the wind will carry the moisture away. Monoculture is the biggest mistake. Even if you try another species of tree, such as agave, which does not need a lot of water in the Mediterranean. Make a research of all the olive trees monocultures. I see lots of them in Portugal. Even more in Spain. It is a first class catastrophe! A massive catastrophe! It is criminal the way they do! 60% of the soil where the olive monoculture
is planted is pure so it is really warm underneath. Furthermore, the photosynthesis takes place on the top so that means it sucks the water from the soil to the top and the wind carries the water away. And that is why irrigation is necessary! Catastrophe! Others plant horticulture ecologically and organically. They cover 10, 5, 2% of the soil. Then, when everything is ready, they cover 40 to 50 % of it. That means they kill all that produces photosynthesis and then they add fertilizers. When they have a more ecological approach they cut the grass, get some from
the neighbours’, add some leaves from elsewhere and make a compost heap. They add to the compost heap their own feces, some stuff they bought at the supermarket, some soya or some stuff from the tropical forest. Then they are considered super ecological! It is all the same thing! They are all working really hard to send the water away! The heat is kept in the soil, in the bottom and the cold on the top. So all is lost. The water cannot get in the soil due to the temperature gradient. If the soil is hotter than the rain
fall, the water compacts the soil and will not penetrate despite the level curves you make. then salts get accumulated in that place and then the salts that have been deposited over millennium rise via capillary. It will rain upwards! So the dry area gets salinized and the humid area gets acidic. This error is constantly being repeated therefore we are accusing Eucalyptus because it has got no lawyer, no voice to defend itself. We still have 15 minutes to manage all the questions. Please let be more objective in questions. Ernst, would you plant colony grass here? No not
necessarily. I have already told you which grass I would plant. Here in the Mediterranean you have grasses of the gender Loreum and Festuca, (generally when it is drier the land the latter is used) and there are other natural native Mediterranean genus. These should be chosen over the others. Often the role of the Mediterranean grass that I use in the tropics is the fennel , and another species I cannot recall. These are species that occur locally. I will not bring African species for this task. Definitely, I will use the most efficient plants, inclusive” Mr Fennel” that
instead of being chopped and cut it should be elevated and consecrated as one of the most sacred plants for reforestation. Its bulb is very deep in the soil and it dries during the dry season, around May, June and July, according to the area. It dries up above ground but in the bulb underground there is water. Via mycorrhiza it redistributes the water for the other plants moved by the internal pleasure. Based on the intraespecific relationship and unconditional love it reciprocates it to the trees you could have planted. So consider you have onion, garlic, all part of
the ecosystem, including other Liliaceous plants you could plant and/or use. However, it is no monoculture with glyphosate, it is not intended to combat photosynthesis but with the purpose of accumulating water for redistributing it later in the dry season for the other plants. I cannot remember the name of a wild onion so large. It is a Liliaceous. It forms an extension of several large onions that grow as deep into the soil as 20 cm. They cover rocks and all and from the middle of these onions I saw trees growing. I witness this in several places, including
my first visit to Portugal 5 years ago, I saw it in Spain again. Why don’t you use them? Next question please... I am an agronomist and I take very seriously the farmer’s responsibility of feeding the people. With the world growing population and the Earth’s arable soil slowly decreasing, I am almost forced to talk about productivity. I embrace this project and think it is a very interesting project - to recover forest areas as well as other ecosystems, but would you think that you could have an important role in the farmer’s mission of feeding the world`s growing
population? From the time people start to act how I have suggested and start to plant and grow an ecosystem as the one I have shown, we will have food in abundance to feed everyone. I will give you a small example: I produce rocket. Do you eat rocket? I produce not only rocket. When you grow rocket the conditions are suitable for growing lettuce. And when you grow lettuce the conditions are automatically suitable for cabbage. Cabbage grows naturally here. It is a native plant in Portugal. Furthermore, where I grow cabbage I could also plant spring onions, as
well as all kinds of trees. I could also introduce tomatoes instead of cabbage. Sometimes Portuguese people would like to eat and grow tomatoes. So when I plant tomatoes, it is very gratifying because I can grow together with the climbing beans, which are very well known by the Portuguese people. I can also grow it together with cucumber which Portuguese people like to eat. And I can also plant in the south of Portugal together with a kind of passion fruit. It is an exotic plant from sub tropical areas. I can plant it together with trees , rocket
and lettuce. So the space between the tomato plants should be around 50 to 70 cm. In each planting crib between them I would grow corn , either the American or an exotic species. One corn seed for every 70 cm space between tomato plants. Let’s say 2 corn seeds, 3 tomato seeds, 1 cucumber seed and 3-4 climbing bean seeds. In between them I still will plant lettuce to make the most of the space. Because 1,5 m for 70 cm is not just for that plants I told now.. Bush would grow there. So I will plant the
bush. So I will plant a lot of lettuces and among them I will grow rocket which will grow very quickly. And in the middle of all that I will grow, depending on the location, fennel as I mentioned before, or fennel with grass, alfalfa and trefoil. Then, after 4 weeks, with the same water I have been using to grow my tomato plant, I will be able to harvest the rocket. We reap what we plant. One who plants misery, rivalry and cold competition will reap misery. And the other who plants based on unconditional love and cooperation will
reap the fruits of it just as the one who planted misery. One reaches Paradise and the other reaches Hell. So the trees will grow and each time I harvest, I will prune the alfalfa and the grass to cover the ground, feed the worms and other ground small invertebrates. 4 months later I will be harvesting tomatoes but 2 months before that I will have been harvesting cucumbers, beans and corn. Considering I have planted fast growing trees soon enough the passion fruit will be able to climb on them. This way the forest starts to grow tall as
I have planted different trees in the area. When I am tired to see the forest, after 2-3 years or even before then, I can prune those trees. Therefore you can add some manure or just the cut material for the pruned small trees. Among them you can replant the tomatoes again, no need to prepare the soil. It is all ready for it. I can plant more corn. Then another year goes by and the trees are stronger. So then I leave the stronger trees to grow and prune the weaker ones. Then I can choose the fruit trees
for the future and graft them just like the Romans used to do some 2,000 years ago. I can graft the stronger trees and I will get a marvellous agroforestry. But what about the winter? From October, after harvesting the olives the rain season starts. Then you can plant the winter grains under the olive trees and use the chopped from the previous pruning material from surroundings In January, when olive trees pruning is due, you will not plant the grains under them. You will plant them under the peach, apple trees and deciduous trees in the Autumn. Their falling
leaves will create organic matter. Above them you still have the poplar which you would have obtained organic matter from its pruning. So during winter you will grow together grain and exotic plants such as fava from the Andes, pea, on may. in January, when you prune the olive trees, you can grow under them Andes potatoes as well as tomato plants. Life is wonderful in the Mediterranean region. Beautiful! We will not have any more fires. During summer season all is going to be just green, very green! In May you first harvest strawberries , then at the end
of this month you will get peaches , prunes, apples and grapes. At the end of the agricultural season you will get the olives. What else do you want? Why do you complain? What are you doing not to get into the “Paradise”? (cheers) If you all agree we could have two more questions and after that if Ernst have time we can talk outside the auditorium There are so many hands up here, I don't know how to decide... As we need to vacate the place, I can answer one more question and after that I'll be available outsitde.
I am Alfredo, a farmer and I am curious about the following: Why do you think that the Mediterranean is potentially more productive (like Paradise) than the rest of the world, with slow cycles, poor soil? Well I think it has got a great potential because you can harvest all year round. The soil has become poor as a consequence of our interaction. But as I have told you, if we start to plant thinking of our interactions and if we create domestic animals as our allies rather than invest in the crusades of destruction. Change will happen and it
will not take a long time, it will take just a few months. If you had collected the seeds. Seeds that are everywhere, waiting to be planted, rather than throw them in the Aristotle compost to decompose, to waste energy away to the Universe. if it is convex, it will send the energy away! If only we could go out and gather some seed for planting! Instead of doing tourism for nothing we could organize a type of tourism where we are useful! Go out there and plant. In one year we can sort it all out! Let’s plant Indian
fig, agave toghter, Eucalyptus, ailanthus and poplar. We will create the conditions for poplar to naturally grow and following that even oak will grow again, because all these plants will help us to be able to reach this stage! Very well. The last question for now. Could you please explain how the unconditional love is involved in this issue? Unconditional love and cooperation are the basic principles of the inter and intraspecific relationships between all species of this planet. It is fundamental predisposition for the syntropic process to occur, that is the process of the complexity that evolutes from the
simple to the complex. The way we have been acting as autistic based on rivalry and the cold competition, we are certainly going to hell. It creates shortage of resources, conflicts, war, results in bankruptcy and death. Meanwhile, applying unconditional love and cooperation in any situation or circumstances will have positive results. I can assure you that I have had much success as a farmer in the area I have worked. The secret lies in have applied unconditional love and cooperation. This is how I live my life! I teach many courses in order to develop machines and invest in
research but my daily sustenance is provided by my farming and not suffering. I do this work moved by the internal pleasure and I am ever so happy! (Last Question) Talk a little bit slowly please? My Germanic Guaraní Portuguese makes hard to understand. Try again please. When you started to work in the land you bought in Brazil, it hardly had any vegetation, right? How did you do to grow the trees? Did you simply throw the seeds randomly or did you prepare the soil before planting the trees and other plants? It was all done manually. 350 hectares
of land for 60 to 70 people. It was very simple. I asked the people to go weeding and to ground the soil each 2-3 m. From 2 till 6 am I went on my own without any staff to sow the seeds in those places. I spent the daytime with the staff preparing the soil for sowing more seeds. So in 2 years we have planted an area of 350 hectares. I travelled around by truck gathering seeds with no prejudice regarding the origin of the plant. Exotic or native: Indian jack fruit, Indian mango, many Amazonian species. I
always joke with everyone – I have an "Amatlantic Forest” (Amazonian/Atlantic). There aren’t enough species in the area to plant to recover the forest. Many Amazonian species are not as efficient as the old native species of the area, even though minerals are present in the soil. Also there are very few species left from the original Atlantic Forest and that makes it really difficult for large animals. Nowadays, I managed to reintroduce some of the old species belonging to the Atlantic Forest and I have a representative collection of species of the original Atlantic Forest. Thank you very much
and behalf of the Earth that we live in, the soil that we grow our plants, the earth we are, have a great trip home Ernst! Congratulations! 439 01:45:09,100 --> 00:00:00,000 Ernst final words: “Let’s now plant! Let’s plant in Portugal. This is the most important matter”!
