No pesticides, herbicides, fungicides and whatever ‘cides’ there exist more. Neither chemical fertilizers.
Reason: all these inputs destroy the soil micro-organisms.

Some regenerative farmers report great successes restoring the soil with a kind of pro-biotics (like we humans take after antibiotics). This is called EM: Effective Microorganisms.

Sterile soil – only minerals and rock particles – does not sequester carbon/ organic material, It compacts and can’t absorb water,
The results: droughts, run offs, erosion and floods elsewhere.

Important other drawback of chemical fertilizers::the mining has devastating effects on the surroundings. It is done by strip-mining, meaning nature is completely destroyed on the site. Then it uses an enormous amount of sweet water. And it leaves a toxic chemical soup on the sites. Dams around this soup do leak and occasionally burst, spreading the toxins for miles.

Always mulch or sow cover crops, also in between your cash crops and under trees.

As soon as soil reaches a temperature above 28 degrees Celsius, the phosphorus binds to aluminum and cannot be used by plants anymore until micro-organisms return with their enzymes to break up this bond. To keep soil cool and moist, protected from sterilizing UV- and infrared and drying wind, we always have to cover with at least 3 inches skin of mulch and growing plants. So we never burn weeds and clippings, we use it as mulch on the beds..

When you have the luxury of wood-chips: they are ideal as mulch on the walkways in between.

Now microbial life can thrive, donating minerals and water to the roots of your crops. The system sequesters a significant amount of carbon out of the atmosphere. If 1/5 of our arable land would be cultivated that way, our fossil fuel emissions would be compensated. And there is another reason how healthy soils can save us from climate change. Learn more in the blog post farming is the most important job at the moment

Synropy method of starting a new growing plot for agro-forestry:
work in rows of two ditches of each 1/2 meter (1.6 feet), with 30cm/ 1 foot wide ridges in the middle. The dryer the plot, the deeper the ditch (max 15cm/ 6 inches, on slopes on contour). Ditches receive a layer of logs first. Then branches and twigs. Lastly 10cm/ 4 inches of normal mulch like leaves and mowed grass. This layer will act like a sponge and fungi fodder. The ridges next to those ditches receive a layer of manure + the leaves/ grass mulch. Planting is done on the ridges, in high density.

Nuance about grasses as perennial over-crop: they can fight desertification much faster than trees. But  since they evolved together with herbivores, they have to be mowed or grazed to keep the system dynamic.
Counter-intuitive fact: In arid regions lacking of grazers leads to desertification. This is going on in national parks in the US and has been shown to reverse with well managed grazing. The results are stunning, even after only half a year: gradually streams and lush greenery return .

See a Ted talk by ecologist Allan Savory.

also relevant: one of our blog posts: Nature left alone can degrade!

Since there is no scientific consensus on the safety of genetically engineered food (1), we’d rather be cautious and only use seeds that were developed by our ancestors over millennia.

The companies that are involved in genetic engineering have shown to invent monstrosities beyond imagination (agent orange, PCB’s) and now want to control the world’s food and drugs supply. See the documentary ‘A match made in hell’ by James Corbett.

GMO is out of the lab since 1990, an ongoing experiment. It facilitated the use of round-up (glyphosate) on a grand scale. This created super weeds which are now a problem for farmers in the US.
We suspect glyphosate is a factor in rising cancer numbers After all, the World Health Organisation defined round up as a class 2a probably human carcinogen, on a par with the infamous DDT.  (2)

Plant an enormous variety, all mixed together. It may look disorderly, but variety gives food-certainty. And don’t forget the cover crops and mulch trees. Not all plants in a farm need to be edible.

A mono culture has only one level of roots and leaves. But nutrients that the plants need, could be available deeper in the ground. A poly culture of different (cover)crops can provide much more nutrients because plants collaborate.

Plants that belong to the same phase supplement each other (e.g. the pioneers). The trick is to put plants of all categories, seasonal and perennial, densely packed together to use all vertical niches:
root vegetables, herbs, leave vegetables, berry bushes, vines, low fruit trees, high fruit and canopy nut trees. You do not need to provide shade nor fertilizers: they support each other.

Weeds are strong pioneer plants. They are cut off close to the soil, their roots are useful in the ground, and their leaves are useful as mulch in between your crops.

Organic agriculture usually needs to irrigate. We strive to harvest so much rainwater into the soil, that there will be no need for irrigation. So one saves time and energy and precious drinking water.
Agriculture is possible without irrigation, even in arid regions!
Most important: keep the ground covered in growing plants or mulch.

Raindrops that fall from an altitude of 2 km onto bare ground are like little hammers pounding the soil into compaction. Result: run-off, erosion, flooding. Flooding in a region is often to be observed after fires that flattened forests nearby on higher level.

Greenery on the other hand acts as bed-springs that slow down the drops, so there is more chance they get absorbed into the ground. From there the water will be slowly released as vapor or via little channels as a spring or creek.

But humans sometimes have to do beaver-work, especially in deserts, to catch every drop.

Before designing a building or a landscape, look at the contour lines and design for water abundance on these lines: construct ditches (swales), ridges/ dams, pitches / ponds, plan roads and ways very well.

:Also plant trees on contour, let the channels meander, etc. There is an intricate landscape to create.

Learn more in a video of Geoff Lawton ‘greening the desert’.

Other example Brad Lancaster: Planting the rain to grow abundance., taught by mr. Zephania Phiri Maseko (1927 – 2015) in Zimbabwe. Culminated in these books:
The Rainwater Harvester by Mary Witoshynsky and Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond by Brad Lancaster.

It really is possible, even in very arid regions. Start to learn here:
– The man who stopped the desert (Sahel, Africa), first on our videos page.
and the woodchips/ leaves mulch method ‘Back to Eden gardening’.

Sowing is the most efficient way of planting. Even of trees. there is no need for a nursery. In fact, trees grow stronger and more adaptive if you directly seed them in the rows or isles where you sow your seasonal crops. By the time they come up the vegetables protect them from the elements.  The nutrient-exchange in the soil will accelerate growth. Later on there will be no stress of transplant.

See the results from Ernst Götsch in the video Life in Syntropy on our videos page