"What was WW1, in fact?" "It was the eradication of Franco-German small-farmers, who got slaughtered at the Front." "Millions of farmers died." "#Dominique Guillet, founder of Kokopelli, #an association #that grows and distributes organic heritage seeds." "And this "de-farmering", so to speak, was completed by WW2." "On top of all that comes the development of ammonia, to make bombs, which later paves the way for chemical fertilizers." "Then the invention of mustard gas in WW1 will give rise to insecticides, which are wartime gases." "And with the Marshall Plan in 1947, the USA brings in tractors - a logical extension of tanks." "So, in fact, Western agriculture is an agriculture of war." "#Vandana Shiva, Physicist, PhD Philosophy of Science" "#Alternative Nobel Prize winner, 1993" "#Founder of Navdania, #association which protects Indian small farmers" "All this conventional agriculture is a scam," "a collusion between two parties." "#Ana Primavesi, PhD in Agronomy" "A collusion between agriculture and industry which both possessed huge stockpiles of poisons after WW2 that were supposed to kill the enemy." "But after the war, there was no enemy to kill anymore." "So Professor Bulloch came up with a fantastic idea." "He said: "Agriculture doesn't buy from industry."" "A tractor here and there, but that's all." "So let's make an agreement." "Farmers will buy powerful machines, chemical fertilizers and pesticides from industry," "which will pocket the profits, agriculture will show a loss, and the government will bail out farmers by tapping public funds." "That's what they did, and that's what subsidies are about." "This worked well for the developed world which owned industries." "Here, it couldn't work, because we had no industry." "So we had to import machines, and chemical products, and pay through credit, at 20-25% interest." "It was like an open artery from which gushed the 3rd world's wealth to the developed world." "For us, this wasn't progress." "For them, it was!" "I mean, all those years," "America was in deficit, but lived very well thanks to the 3rd World, which had to pay and pay for America." "After the war, in 1946-47, nobody could account for how much manure was put in the soil, because, being a substance that went directly from the cowshed to the soil, involving no commercial exchange, it didn't appear in the national accounts." "#Philippe Desbrosses," "#Farmer, PhD in Environment Sciences" "#Chairman of the National Commission on Organic Agriculture, #at the Ministry of Agriculture until 2007" "However, the information was found in the accounts of Shell Petroleum," "who sought, after the war, to recycle nitrate explosive plants into agricultural nitrate." "So Shell wanted to assess the potential and the size of the market." "That's how we found out that France was putting 120 million metric tons of manure in the soil annually." "Today, it's barely 30 million." "Nobody wonders about the consequences of the loss of an element that feeds the soil's bacteriology and allows plants to grow without fertilizers, pesticides, etc." "I became a farm worker to learn the trade, and discovered that farming methods were there to produce and destroy." "#Pierre Rabhi, founder of the Colibris movement #for the Earth and Humanism" "In the Cévennes, there was a product called metasystox, which was the cause of lots of deaths and health problems, because people had died as a result of pesticides, others were paralyzed, as an after-effect," "others went blind, etc., so the harm was flagrant." "When the treatment was finished, you could see lots of dead insects, both useful and less-useful." "So we were conducting a general massacre." "That's when I decided to rebel." "If this was farming, I wouldn't be a farmer." "Our generation is in a huge dilemma, because capitalism, presently dominated by finance and the big multinationals, has imposed a type of farming whose goal is not to produce food." "Its goal is to make money." "#Joao Pedro Stedile," "#National Coordinator of LWM," "#Brazil's Landless Workers Movement" "#They've become pillagers of nature." "#They bleed nature to make profit, #to exploit the water and the soil, #applying the productivist methods of industry, with only one purpose:" "#to sell farmers industrial quantities #of fertilizers and pesticides, #and ever-larger machines, which eliminate manual work, #while plundering sources of drinking water, #on a massive scale for irrigation." "#This Green Revolution model #of industrial capitalism applied to farming, #has no future." "#What's more, it endangers the planet's life #by destroying the microbiology of the soil #and poisoning the food." "#And what's worse, these poisons are indestructible." "#They go either into the soil, the water, #or your stomach." "#Just as single-crop farming #imposed by the multinationals and big landowners, #destroys biodiversity." "They called it Green Revolution, just like green dollars!" "They made lots of dollars with the Green Revolution." "But for people in the 3rd World, it was terrifying, because the Green Revolution destroyed the soil, water and air." "Biodiversity was destroyed:" "India had 200,0000 varieties of rice before the Green Revolution, after 40 years of Green Revolution, there are only 50 left!" "India's social fabric was ruined, because Indian farming was feminine farming, and it became masculine farming, with harvests that have regional, national or international value, whereas before, Indian feminine farming's aim was to feed the family." "The economy, in the modern sense, the capitalist market economy, is a guy thing." "#Serge Latouche, Economist," "#Professor, University of Paris South" "I'm sure of it." "I could see it while I was studying economy." "It was no coincidence..." "No women were working in economy... no women in companies..." "It's outrageous." "In Africa, for example, the fundamentals of life, all that makes Africa function, are done by women." "Women farm the land because they're fertile." "They do all the basics." "But as soon as you create a modern plantation, men take over." "#Devinder Sharma, Agronomic engineer," "#Journalist, author" "Past famines are often used to prove that the Green Revolution has saved people from poverty and famine." "Famines aren't fated." "Far from it." "They've all been caused by colonization." "In India, so many small farmers are bankrupt!" "What do they do?" "Commit suicide." "Individually or collectively." "Or they crowd into shanty towns." "Or become day laborers on their own land that they sold to Carguil or to the banks, to repay the loans lent to them to pay for agrochemicals, GM seeds or F1 hybrid seeds, which are very costly." "They used to have their own seeds and renewed them annually." "So this Green Revolution is a huge hoax, a total disaster." "When farmers commit suicide, they use pesticides, not guns." "They use what killed their land." "Symbolically, it's very significant." "How can anyone open a pesticide bottle and drink it?" "They must be at the end of their rope." "Small farmers are brain-washed to use pesticides, to produce bumper crops or they're fools." "But they realize their neighbors are vanishing and villages are deserted." "It's really tragic." "#Lydia  Claude Bourguignon, founded SMAL together, #the Soil Microbiology Analysis Laboratory" "We're making deserts." "In our 1,500-hectares district, Marey-sur-Tille, there are only 2 farmers left." "They're told their only value is their cows piss 10,0000 liters of milk, their land spits out 10 tons/hectare." "It's always about who can piss farthest." "Schoolboy mentality:" "I'm the toughest, I can piss further!" "That's not farming." "Farmers feed people, ideally with healthy animals and plants." "They're not doing that." "Their plants and animals are sick." "That's no way to feed people." "Looking into the future," "I don't see it being only urban." "Millions of people in towns who have to be fed, who don't produce their food," "and a deserted countryside..." "It's madness." "Here, there were 4 or 5 farms operating, and now there's not a soul." "We're alone." "It's unbelievable." "A CSA is a partnership between a food-oriented consumer group and a vegetable producer." "They buy his harvest in advance, and he ensures diversity and quality, using no chemical products." "#Laurent Marbot, farmer" "#Founder of the Vanves CSA" "#CSA:" "Community Supported Agriculture scheme" "I show a balance sheet, and say, "I need € 70,0000 a year to run my farm."" "The group finds enough members to cover the € 70,0000." "We sell at production price, not market price." "I've been at it for 3 years, and I have no more sales problems." "People wanted our produce, but marketing was lacking." "I do one weekly delivery and all my produce is sold and eaten." " I can't see the numbers." " There's two types of fruit." "I'll do it, Ma'am." "That's it!" "I bring crops we've grown together." "Last week, 10 people came to help me harvest salsify." "If it were a regular market," "I'd have spent 3 hours washing and presenting my vegetables, to make people want to buy them." "Here, it's another story:" "it's our harvest, members remove the dead leaves and clean the dirt off their potatoes." "We created our group 3 years ago." "The first year, I asked 50 people to join me, the 2nd year, we were 60." "And this year, we have 75 members, and 90 on a waiting list." "We closed the waiting list telling them there's no room, we're full." "Something's going on in society." "Citizens are becoming conscious." "French farmers can't cope with the demand." "12 million people live in the Paris region." "We depend on trucks from Spain and Morocco, and planes." "We've 3-4 days of food autonomy." "Polluted products pollute more by traveling here." "Off the record, politicians know there's a problem, but they don't want the shit to hit the fan." "Lots of my colleagues are hiding away in the South." "What will happen?" "If there's a famine, a swarm of locusts will descend..." "Parisians looking for food who'll clean us out." "It's a bit scary." "12 million, only 150 truck farmers left... 5 years ago there were 350-400." "Every time a farm disappears, it means he and his wife or employee leave... then it affects the local school, the mechanic, the village grocer, in total 5 jobs per farm vanish." "This hemorrhage is still going on." "We're losing 30,0000-35,0000 farms a year." "I've often screamed in the wilderness:" "how can we allow this silent hemorrhage?" "4 million farmers driven from the land!" "The very ones we'll need most when chemicals won't work any more." "And that's where we are." "Chemicals are petroleum, so are fertilizers, fuel for tractors, pesticides, plastics, greenhouses, heating." "It's all oil." "Our agriculture is totally based on fossil fuels which we know are exhaustible and now almost exhausted." "#Economists say we must turn New Delhi into NY, #or Bombay into Shanghai, #meaning we don't want to see the poor, we must get rid of them." "#We're driving people from their farms, #and we're driving them from urban areas." "#Tell me where these 600 million poor will go." "#Nowhere." "#Neither Europe nor the US, #can give jobs to these 600 million people." "#So we must find a way #to integrate these 600 million people into society." "#I call it the Indian growth model." "#That's what we need today." "#It may be politically incorrect, #because we'd reject the Western model." "#But let's be strong:" "that's the model we need #or the world will go topsy-turvy #when these 600 million people stand up and demand their rights." "If people are deprived of their livelihood, it'll end in a shoot-out." "Stopping people from living is violent." "No wonder they revolt because of such a pernicious, inhuman system." "We make a fuss about a few boats bringing migrants, but potentially," "800 million Africans want to come to Europe." "We've destroyed any reason" "Africans might have to live in Africa." "They only want one thing, especially young people in villages:" ""Can you help us come to France?"" "There's no work, lots of unemployment... lots of young people doing nothing." "They go out in the morning and come back at night." "They do nothing." "There's nothing at all!" "That's Morocco." "Long live His Majesty Mohammed VI!" "Long live the king!" "Long live Mohammed VI!" "#The farmers of the Third World spared by wars and suicides, #having been chased from their land by industrial agriculture, #are crammed into big-city shanty towns." "#In our so-called developed countries, #they fill the suburban ghettos." "In many areas, the soil's dead, it's been literally stripped." "We no longer feed soil, but plants." "Natural nutrition isn't given back to the soil which is manure or cow dung." "Since we've divided and delocalized production, straw and grains are in Beauce and livestock is in Brittany." "Formerly, we had an agro-silvo-pastoral balance." "Fields, forests and animals made sustainable agriculture." "We've been destroying it for 50 years." "Animals are packed on one side in factories, crops on the other, forests are fenced in, trees planted in lines." "It's a nightmare." "Remove chemical fertilizers from some French regions and what happens?" "Nothing." "Because the soil's dead." "We don't live in a desert like the Sahel." "Yet, it is a virtual one." "The soil's spent, burnt and dead." "It won't give any more." "It only produces thanks to chemicals." "So we're living in a virtual desert." "One day it may be total desert." "Especially if oil prices climb, as farming is based on oil." "#Near Bangalore, we met Narayan Reddy, a small farmer." "#He used to be a champion of chemical farming, #winning all the competitions, #as best producer of Karnataka." "#But as he says, "I was a loser."" "#All his farming profits went up in smoke, #buying seeds, pesticides, fertilizer and tractors." "#One day he decided to reject chemical farming #and go back to the old methods." "#After a couple of hard years, #his production level shot back, #he achieved autonomy, with no debts." "#He has 480 trees on his land #and will plant dozens more each year." "#I am not a very rich man." "#This farm is only 1.8 hectares." "#We produce food for 15 people all year round." "#We also sell 15 tons of fruit, #10,0000 coconuts #about 2 metric tons of vegetables" "#and 4 metric tons of grains a year." "#All this from 1.8 hectares." "#We produce our own seeds." "#We make our own fertilizer." "#We depend on nobody and waste nothing." "#This is a rainwater tank." "#We'll use it to collect roof water too." "#We also raise fish." "#We've got about 400 here." "#It's two in one." "#We've planted so many trees." "#More roots, more water infiltration." "#The more leaves that fall, the more fertile the soil is." "#People think I'm mad #not to sell this tree for 10,0000 rupees, #but to me, this tree is a god." "#Five times a year, it gives fruit that becomes rich fertilizer." "#Without spending a cent, #we have 10 metric tons of fertilizer a year, #and we still have the tree there." "#They just do farming, #while we have the forest plus farming." "#We call that "agro-forestry"." "#Good soil, #rich in humus #which smells so good..." "#That's how soil should be." "#There's so much fruit." "#Look at this pepper!" "#This is the best milk breed." "#Very healthy milk." "#And in 10 days, she'll give us a calf." "#Animals easily transform our biomass into manure." "#When the farmer's autonomous, #farming becomes easy." "#Seed is the killing factor." "#They're controlling the population with the ruse of providing seed." "#It's a cold war against the population, the seed business." "#I'm confident that in 5 or 6 years, #at least 50% of our small farmers and breeders #will change to this system." "Fertilizers and pesticides used to destroy parasites shouldn't come from chemicals." "We should look for them in the resources nature offers us." "We've discovered that humanity has survived over millions of years because small farmers have developed this knowledge of cultivating land while respecting nature." "Now we must retrieve this traditional native knowledge to recover ancient farming techniques that respect the environment." "Of course, governments don't like it because they've sold-out to big business." "They're merely puppets running industry's business." "Modern agronomy obsessively tried to eliminate all the natural and free functions of the eco-system, and replace them by polluting and costly petrochemicals, by heavy industry, in short, by what's called technical progress." "We're now at a stage of resistance, to preserve our knowledge." "Today, people laugh at us, as if we're Don Quixote tilting at windmills, but in the future, we'll prove that the only way to produce healthy food that guarantees people's health and preserves the environment... is to adopt family farming methods," "as opposed to industrial farming." "#LWM:" "Landless Workers Movement, #a Brazilian people's organization #fighting to give landless farmers land to cultivate." "My name's Patricia." "I'm an agronomist." "I've been on this camp for 10 years." "This southern region has always been dominated by large properties." "These occupations, these conquests of the land, were won through great struggle by the farmers to get access to land." "My name is Leci." "We've been living here for 19 years, in the south." "My name's Amarildo." "I'm the son of small-farmers of Italian origin who emigrated to Brazil because they had no land." "I found the Landless Workers Movement in 1987." "When we occupied the land, the conflict was very violent." "Women and children were attacked." "I took part in the occupation." "I was arrested and tortured." "Going through all that wasn't easy for me..." "After, you just want to forget about it." "When you join the Landless Workers Movement, even your childhood friends start to treat you like a bum." "Society becomes hostile." "You're judged out-of-hand." "I'm not a crook." "I've always worked and I'm honest." "I just wanted what I never had..." "I wanted land." "So I joined the Landless Workers Movement and fought for the land." "Sometimes people accuse you of all kinds of things, and that hurts." "You go through rough times, you're arrested and tortured and all that gets tangled up with feelings." "But we overcame this difficulty, we had to." "There were 1,200 families in the camp." "We faced lots of problems:" "an underdeveloped region, no roads, no electricity, no schools." "We had nothing to eat." "For months, we depended entirely on what we found in nature to eat and survive." "It was a true test of survival." "It lasted 2 years." "Many soldiers train to survive in the forest, we did it for real." "Before coming to the Landless Workers Movement," "I worked in tomato farming using conventional methods, with intensive use of pesticides." "When I discovered there was a different approach," "I really wanted to come here." "And since I arrived," "I've used no chemical products, no poisons or anything." "It's made a helluva difference." "At the time I was young, but I already had health problems from using pesticides." "Now things are completely different." "Now I feel secure." "In the kitchen garden, I can pick a leaf of lettuce and have no problems eating it." "These are Parana pines." "They produce fruit that's edible by both humans and animals." "They're hundred-year-old trees." "They grow very slowly." "These trees once covered the entire Parana." "Very few are left." "Here, in our camp, we have plenty, which we'll preserve." "Since we've arrived here, we farm organically." "Our parents had already passed on this knowledge." "But the Green Revolution started, with kits of chemical products from the multinationals which destroyed small-scale agriculture." "We followed their lead." "But we abandoned it and returned to agro-ecology." "#This is bean mulching, #but you can use any sort of mulching #as long as it doesn't contain seeds." "#It holds humidity and stops weeds from growing." "#Mulching is critical for growing vegetables." "Most soils stinks." "They're dead." "Sometimes Lydia and I spend days measuring dead soil." "After that, we're virtually suicidal." "But we've developed ways to restore soil, and put people back on previously abandoned land." "But the situation's tough." "Faced with the huge destruction on the planet now, we're no match." "When I finished doing zoology and biochemistry at university," "I went into agronomy." "I was horrified at what I saw." "They told us to put meat in cattle feed, making them carnivores, coop up pigs." "They eat their tails." "We cut them off." "We cut their ears off too." "They still eat each other, so we take their teeth out." "And when I saw all that, on video, pigs eating each other," "I thought, humans are insane." "Females are chained or they eat their babies." "They're just so packed in." "Chickens' beaks are cut or they tear each other's skin." "Engineers have even created featherless chickens because feathers consume nitrogen and potassium." "But the chickens got cold, and heating cost more than nitrogen." "So they put back the feathers." "The whole thing was nuts." "Square tomatoes were developed for easier packing." "They tried square eggs." "They failed." "Eggs are a real headache." "They're in a hyperbolic envelope." "They'd adore square eggs for easier packing." "They couldn't do it." "I realized their agronomy was warped." "Those guys were sick." "Before I finished school, I couldn't put up with it, so I found a program in soil microbiology." "I needed to go back to the basics..." "In 3rd year soil microbiology, I was the only student." "So I had private tutoring for one year." "Not bad!" "I had the professors all to myself." "The department was shut down in '86." "So, for 20 years, 150 agronomists graduate annually who are clueless about soil biology and how microbes work, which is absolutely incredible." "All soil microbiology departments have been shut down all over the world." "Now, agronomists don't even know the soil's alive." "They have no clue." "They're quick to pour chemicals on the land." "Just a spot of potassium on an earthworm kills it." "Even a frog dies." "They don't give a damn about life." "Lydia and I disagreed." "We had to get out and try to show soil biology is crucial." "When we set up our soil biology method, if we'd asked Rhône-Poulenc's help, and told them their products kill soil, please fund us, they'd have said, "Sure, come by for dinner!"" "Dream on!" "Forget about getting funds to prove they're killers." "No scientist ever will." "No scientist will work on it without funds." "The state won't pay researchers, they must find funds themselves, otherwise there's no research." "It's corrupt!" "Anything that gets in the way of industry, won't be scientifically studied." "That's how civilization will crumble." "If no more research goes against vested interests, the system collapses." "It is collapsing." "Urgent research needed on soil life, can no longer be done." "You can't see soil life, except earthworms and other big animals like moles." "Soil animals are microscopic." "Without microscopes, you can't see them." "You'd never suspect the number of animals here." "To the naked eye, there's nothing!" "All these little creatures have a purpose:" "on a microscopic level, they circulate in tunnels" "which aerate the soil, because these holes let oxygen into the soil, and feed microbes and roots." "A root can only grow with oxygen." "So each and every thing is vital." "Each has its task." "Each does its job." "Females lay females, there's no sexuality." "So, as soon as life is put back in the soil, and you stop poisoning the animals, they multiply rapidly." "That's our hope." "Earth is generous." "It will live again despite all the harm." "Chemicals kill all this." "Some people even think they're parasites and dangerous." "Earth's feminine." "That's for sure." "And it's very complicated to accept it can be so alive and fertile." "Look, there's a white mite." "Beautiful." "Potassium kills everything." "You don't need brains to kill." "Any pea-brained fool..." "Give him a gun, he'll kill everyone in sight." "But to raise and educate a child, that's complicated." "Any fool can kill." "These creatures work for free." "No need for fertilizer or industry." "They work for free for you." "They need nothing." "Forests are self-sufficient." "There's no money to make." "If everybody listened to us, some multinationals would have problems." "They fight us because we cut their profits." "There's a centipede." "It reacts fast, very sensitive." "That soil porosity!" "That's their droppings." "When you walk in the forest, it feels like a mattress, because all the animal droppings pile up and aerate the soil." "That's why forests can absorb storms without erosion." "Because on these droppings rain goes deep into the soil and feeds the water table." "Whereas dead soil doesn't absorb water, causing erosion and floods." "We blame the rain, instead of the dead soil." "This world's rich in species, and still unknown." "This is a crustacean, with strong pincers." "It eats bits of wood and straw." "It's able to attack solid debris." "Springtails are lace-makers, decomposing leaves." "It's a beautiful ballet, fast or slow depending on the species." "In fact, compost is for the earth, not for plants." "And that's hard to put across because when a farmer uses fertilizer, it's for greater yield." "Sometimes people send lumps of compost which look like animal biscuits and ask us to analyze it." "In fact, they're chemically top-notch." "Same organic matter." "But with no living creature, because it's been sterilized." "We tell them, you're putting down fertilizer, not compost." "There's no life in it." "No microbes." "No biological activity." "Soil in Africa is subject to very strong solar radiation, sterilizing it up to 20 to 30 cm deep." "South Morocco" "So there's a loss of bacterial population, and the only way to restore that population is to add yeast." "Good compost is yeast that you put in the soil." "We've managed to multiply the yield 4 or 5 times at no cost, obtaining high-quality products." "Today 100,0000 eco-farmers in Africa work with those methods because they get good results." "#Pierre Rabhi has successfully worked #to help small farmers of Burkina Faso #to survive on their land with agro-ecology." "#Here, in South Morocco," "#Pierre Rabhi's association "Land and Humanism", #organizes sessions to show farmers #how to make compost using only local products, #and how to fertilize their arid land." "Since the 19th C, tractors have plowed deeper and deeper and destroyed the soil." "Scratching the surface is OK, but with deep plowing, erosion becomes a disaster." "The problem is you're hitting a myth, the myth of plowing." "And attacking a myth is no piece of cake." "There are plowing contests." "Bronze statues of plowers adorn farmers' mantelpieces." "In my school, a bronze statue read:" ""The plow never digs too deep"." "It's a myth." "Lydia and I try to change farmers' mentality." "Convince them to stop raping the earth." "Plowing is about virility:" "I've a big tractor, I plow deep, I'm a tough guy!" "Changing mentality takes a long time." "We've been destroying the planet for 500,0000 years." "Getting men to understand it's time to respect it, is harder than getting them to respect women." "Considering how women are treated, it'll be a while before the earth is respected." "They're so into raping." "They're far from being respectful." "They just harvested and they're already plowing." "That soil will be dried by the sun till the next sowing." "They've smoothed the earth." "Plowed soil is shiny and polished." "So air can't get in." "It's violent for the earth." "Soil shouldn't be smooth." "It's like concrete." "On the contrary, it should be lumpy." "In the light, you can see the damage from the plow." "It's too violent." "The ancients would say about damaging erosion:" ""The land's bleeding."" "The farmer plowed up deep red earth." "Can you smell that earth?" "It stinks!" "It smells like pig manure." "That's last year's straw." "It hasn't decomposed." "It's so deeply plowed, a year later, it doesn't decompose." "That's why it stinks." "It smells rotten." "It makes clods in geometric structures." "The soil's compacted." "If you break it, it's not lumpy." "It's stony." "The soil's becoming stone again." "I'll dig some forest soil to show the difference." "We'll see the structure of living soil." "It's pellets." "We call it couscous." "There's lots of roots." "I'm in the forest." "The soil doesn't clump up, it's structured organically." "It's real couscous." "That's living soil." "It should always be couscous." "Very rich in life." "Now it's like cement instead of couscous." "What an amazing mushroom scent!" "That other soil stinks." "Earth should be respected, it makes beautiful structures by itself." "The more alive the soil, the less you need fertilizer." "Earth only wants to make plants grow." "Forests grow without chemical fertilizer." "They have for millions of years." "Agronomy's propaganda claims that without fertilizer nothing grows and we'll all starve." "It's nonsense!" "Forests grow fine without fertilizer." "We have to put trees back into fields." "We've completely eliminated them." "People from Beauce can't make ramial chipped wood." "They've no wood." "#Ramial chipped wood or RCW #is a technique of spreading crushed branches on the soil, #so you can grow without plowing, fertilizers and water." "When you want to renew soil, you use ramial chipped wood." "And that gives lots of mushrooms." "It smells good." "The mycelia stick together, will feed the animals in the soil and kick-start life in the soil." "It's a mattress." "Under the ramial chipped wood, you can pick up the soil by hand." "The soil is couscous." "The problem is..." "it costs nothing." "It only requires planting trees and hedges." "Lydia and I planted that hedge 30 years ago." "There was nothing before." "Now we've got plenty of RCW for our vegetables." "One becomes self-sufficient." "No need for miracle garden products." "Your hedge feeds you and your soil." "Every citizen can easily do this, plant a hedge, for free." "This is plowed soil." "There's no biological activity." "It'll need chemical fertilizer." "He's the prey of chemical-fertilizer merchants." "With no-till, he's becoming self-sufficient." "Agro business won't like him." "We lay a covering in which we sow the next crop." "The soil is protected all summer." "That's the summer cover." "It'll stay damp and keep the fauna." "Crops will sprout." "People doubt it will grow, but it does." "Weeds can't grow because of the straw." "There's no need for herbicide." "Psychologically, it's hard for famers not to plow." "Seeding soil that's already got vegetation is a shock." "I'm the only one who tears up my land." "With the no-till system, it's out of my hands." "Earth will become wild..." "I'll lose control." "And that's scary." "They have to control everything." "Nature should be caged in national parks, to contain it and guide it." "No room for the least wild vegetation on the planet." "Man must control everything." "Look at our modern vine roots." "They're rootless." "The soil was so concrete, it grew like this." "It couldn't enter the soil, so it grew sideways." "Look at a young vine..." "This is the latest fashion." "It can't penetrate the soil." "It stays on the surface." "Here's another." "See." "It couldn't get in the soil, so it had to push its way up to breathe." "And the guy brags about his great soil." "What's the point if roots don't go in it?" "It's absolutely insane!" "A vine shouldn't stand up." "You shouldn't be able to put it on a table." "Now we've got vines with upside-down roots." "It's the latest thing." "It's just come out." "It's insanity!" "That's how you kill a country, when plants no longer have roots." "Not only are people rootless, but so are plants." "Here's the latest fashion in crops." "The wheat's all rotten with fungus on its leaves." "And that's what we feed our children." "The plant is sick to its core, to its very last leaf." "It's got blotches all over, fungus and fusariosis." "The works." "It lives on chemicals." "Look how ugly this ear is, totally bloated." "Wheat used to be "golden"..." "It's all gray and ugly." "They've shortened the stalks." "Wheat used to grow this high." "Nitrogen makes them fall over." "So they shortened them." "They put in hormones." "It's awful." "That doesn't worry people." "It'll go to the silo, and the farmer gets the same money." "So why bother growing good wheat?" "Look at the soil." "Look at the cracks." "It's not soil!" "It's covered in algae." "Algae and moss grow on rocks." "This soil is like rock, it's completely cracked." "It's dead soil." "Farming's over, now it's plant pathology management." "You learn to treat a sick plant at the right time." "We eat sick plants and sick animals, which makes sick people." "Then doctors sell drugs." "Since the same firms make all the products, bingo!" "#We're in Stavkovia, in Ukraine." "#We're meeting Mr. Antoniets #who has farmed organically for 30 years #on over 8,000 hectares." "#He's invited us to lunch." "We enjoyed his wonderful food." "Mother gives life," "Earth gives life." "Earth is a living organism." "We must feed her." "We must give her life, not kill her." "#The 70s saw the start of an intensive-agriculture policy #in the Soviet Union." "#Mr. Antoniets was ordered to use weed-killer." "#As it was mainly women who worked the fields, #and prepared the pesticide mixes, #they were in direct contact with the products." "#After a while, #we discovered women had sores on their hands." "#Seeing that, in 1978," "#Mr. Antoniets promised everyone on his kolkhoze #that weed-killer would be banned." "#For exactly 30 years, no herbicides have been used." "#He asked the Soviet authorities #for permission to farm organically." "#They answer was: "If you stick to the plan, who cares how you work."" "#Not only did he keep to the plan, #he often got the best results in the district." "#His technology is based on 3 main principles:" "#First, no plowing, #but light work on the soil." "#Second, feeding the soil with manure #and biomass, which is vegetable fertilizer." "#Thirdly, crop rotation and regular fallow phases, #nourishing the soil with cover crops." "#That's the kind of crop you need to fertilize the soil:" "#green fertilizer." "#See that field." "#It hasn't been plowed for 33 years." "#We've only worked the soil surface." "#Periodically, we give the harvest back to the earth." "#Look at the structure of this earth." "#It hasn't been plowed for 30 years." "#You'd expect it to be hard as a rock, but it's all loose." "#It's full of little roots." "#It looks like oil cake." "These are our sunflowers." "We never put any chemicals on them or herbicide." "And our neighbor, used herbicide 3 times on his." "His sunflowers look good, but how many times has he poisoned the earth," "spent money?" "But the worst is poisoning people and the earth." "#We retrieved this field 7 years ago." "#See how much vegetal residue it contains." "#Now look at the soil fed on pesticides." "#The structure is different." "#This soil hasn't been plowed or treated for 30 years." "#These fields haven't seen a plow for 30 years." "#This technology keeps water in the soil #and protects it from drought." "#These trucks will spread manure that's been composted for 1.5 years." "#On this field, for instance, #we'll spread 90 metric tons of manure." "#Every year, we put 70,0000 metric tons of manure #on our 8,000 hectares." "#These wheels, blend the manure with earth #and cut the left-over alfalfa, #which the soil will digest." "#This is only possible because we have 4,000 cattle, #1,000 pigs and 100 horses." "#The vegetal and animal worlds are totally linked." "#Cows not only provide milk and meat, #they also provide manure." "#And it's a big mistake #to think that agriculture can do without animals." "#I think the solution is to stop the rural exodus, #and create attractive living conditions #so people stay in villages and on their land." "#What we harvest here, feeds the entire family:" "#my wife, sister, daughter, mother and father." "#We fertilize the soil with home-made manure." "I'm Director of Kokopelli in India." "I've spent a lot of time developing sustainable, high-yield agro-ecology techniques." "Systematically, before cultivating crops, we grow biomass." "That's the first key." "Free work: the sun, photosynthesis." "Between seasons, we put green fertilizer on the land." "In a week it's up to here, and a week later, up to here." "We get 10-12 metric tons in 45 days." "Huge!" "10-12 metric tons of biomass which grows up to here, then we cut it." "We leave it there, take some earth and cover it." "So we get compost on-the-spot." "Today we'll show you 4 or 5 biopesticide recipes and 2 or 3 natural fertilizer recipes." "We'll make one that's widely used:" "panchakavia." "It involves 5 cow products:" "cow dung, urine, milk, yoghurt and clarified butter." "First we mix the dung with the clarified butter." "It's a very powerful growth agent." "Now we add the urine." "Yoghurt..." "Milk..." "You stir the panchakavia for 1 minute, morning and evening." "It keeps for 6 months." "This is a fish-meal extract recipe." "1 kilo of fish," "1 kilo of sugar, lemon." "It decomposes in 2-3 weeks." "Now some biopesticide recipes." "We'll blend peppers, ginger and garlic." "It's very strong and works fast on insects." "#Before transplanting rice, #we work the land with compost and vegetal preparations." "#Here they're spreading the compost." "#Now they spread #neem and pungan cake." "#This is neem cake, #this one's pungan cake." "#Both have natural pesticide properties." "#We spray them with organic growth promoters #such as panchakavia and yem." "#Now the mixture's ready, #we dip the shoots in it, to protect their roots." "#Now the land's ready for the transplants." "Before 1961, multinationals had begun to take control of the food chain." "But they hadn't taken control of seeds." "Seeds are life." "He who controls seeds, controls the food chain and humanity." "So in 1961, they established a legal framework called the UPOV." "From that moment, the war was on." "They bought a million seed companies in 30 years and played monopoly." "Today, 5 multinationals control 75% of the world's vegetable seeds." "Number 1 is Monsanto." "From then on, they got rid of all the old varieties that reproduced normally and replaced them by F1 hybrids, creating a captive market." "Now, farmers and gardeners have to buy seeds every year, since F1 hybrid seeds are by definition sterile or degenerative." "The seed grower's evil plan is to take 2 measly plants and create a magnificent hybrid out of them." "That's what they sell." "So when the farmer replants it, he gets measly crops and can't make a living." "He's trapped, strangled." "Hybrids are diabolical." "It's about preventing farmers from owning their seeds." "So today, in the infamous National Seed Association catalogue, look up "Tomato"," "F1 hybrids make up 99.5% of the tomato catalogue." "Look up melons, zucchini, broccoli or cabbages, sometimes they're 100% F1 hybrid varieties." "So it's against the law to sell, cultivate or distribute any kind of seeds that aren't listed in the national catalogue." "They're forced to use hybrids grown in far-away regions that need more water, so they have to buy irrigation systems." "Former varieties didn't need it." "You see?" "They're in a trap." "They're accused of polluting, but the system drove them to it." "Why's the Mafia taking over seeds?" "Because seeds determine the type of farming." "So, a GMO or F1 hybrid seed leads to a whole technological package:" "pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, etc... all based on oil." "They've made us believe hybrids were productive." "It's a myth!" "The government claims to protect consumers." "My question is:" "where's the Camembert catalogue?" "Where's the socks or fridge catalogue?" "Next question:" "aren't they protecting the multinationals?" "Who've confiscated all living things in Europe." "When you see our water pollution levels, 95% of our waterways are polluted by 240 substances, mostly coming from agriculture." "Crooks and gangsters go to prison." "When are the poisoners in authority going to prison?" "Monsanto developed Agent Orange responsible for thousands of deformed babies in Vietnam." "The number 1 poisoners have full political protection." "Awful, but true." "A Nobel prize for the inventors of the atom bomb, DDT..." "DDT killed billions of bees and insects." "A Nobel for the Green Revolution which desertified half of the tropics and left Africa starving." "Support industry instead of life, and you'll get the Nobel Prize." " So we won't get a Nobel Prize!" " Not a chance!" "Forget about it!" " I was hoping we'd win one!" " It's a lost cause!" "Here's the catalogue of last century's fruits." "Apples, pears..." "Each one is illustrated." "The Beurrée du Cercle, the Richard..." "The black pear, the Princess Marie." "It took 13 volumes to describe European fruit varieties." "France had 3,600." "Take apples." "Today only 5 varieties are sold in France, mostly American." "So we pay royalties." "Yet we had the greatest fruit varieties." "The strong varieties have been eliminated and replaced by the Golden Delicious that requires 30-36 treatments a year." "Industry and financial groups pressured the EC to drop old varieties and plant Golden Delicious, which needs 10 times more pesticide." "In France, not only is it illegal to market the old varieties, it's also illegal to exchange or give away those seeds." "Since 1999, Kokopelli has distributed a colossal number of seeds to hundreds of associations and rural communities on every continent." "We give them away free." "That's why they drag us through courts." "The GNIS, the Ministry of Agriculture sued us, along with the seed lobby." "In two years, we've spent € 90,0000 in legal costs and fines." "Yet Kokopelli's clients include" "Bordeaux, Poitiers, Paris," "Lubéron Park..." "They've been with us for 10 years." "They buy tons of seeds." "Guadeloupe's parliament ordered 5,000 Euros of "illegal" tomatoes and seeds." "It's a hoax." "The finest restaurants in Paris where classy people of the Left, Right or Center eat only serve our Kokopelli tomatoes." "Once they've tasted our tomatoes, you think they'll go back to hybrids?" "No!" "Our tomatoes have flavor." "French farmers are subsidized by Brussels to slowly poison the French people, and the government harasses us for distributing heirloom seeds." "#We're at the St. Marthe farm, owned by Philippe Desbrosses." "#Interns are trained here, #and heritage vegetable seeds are cultivated #to provide future generations with great biodiversity." "It smells so good!" "#The seeds are preserved in a seed depository, #a real farmer's vault, #where millions of seeds #are carefully stored in stable conditions." "#They're selected, cultivated and distributed." "In the 1970s, we were still up against all sorts of government hassles, with the fraud squad after us." "We couldn't say we grew organic." "It was supposedly unfair competition." "They took me to court for having saved a potato variety that wasn't in the official catalogue." "I was convicted, yet people thanked me for rediscovering a variety that had vanished." "I expected a medal." "Instead, I was fined." "I asked them to explain why." "This potato isn't in the government catalogue so you're fined." "So I said, that's just great!" "It gives me a chance to publicly expose the scandal of outlawing what's nourished humanity since its origins." "These plants have fed us for generations." "Why would they be illegal?" "We have 22 varieties of tomatoes:" "red, orange, cherry... 6 types of corn:" "white, red, multicolored, purple." "8 or 9 eggplants." "So this year, we'll grow 85 varieties from 14 species." "Kokopelli's mission in India is to give farmers seeds they can reproduce and supplant the hybrids." "The seeds are dried in shade, with natural ventilation." "We produce 25,0000 to 30,0000 packs of seeds that we distribute free to farm associations, to NGOs, to whoever wants them." "#We're in North India near Dehradun with Mr. Shandi, #at Navdanya, a farm created by Vandana Shiva." "#It's a network of 500,0000 seed guardians #and organic farmers, spread across 16 Indian states." "In 1996, the cooperative decided to begin seed production." "We found 12 families ready to take up the challenge of producing seeds without pesticides." "It was a gamble." "It could have worked or not." "It could've been a disaster for them." "Thankfully, it worked and we had great results!" "We jumped from 12 to 30 producers." "It was major growth." "Today 200 families are involved in this project." "At that time, the Movement's leaders said:" "Why do these whackos want to produce organic seeds?" "We had no support." "We tried to explain to them that when it comes to seeds we're dealing with life itself." "We're alive thanks to them." "Because of seeds, people can feed themselves." "At that time, I already felt this, the crucial importance of preserving seeds for the future." "When you take from the people, their most sacred thing, in other words seeds, that's terrorism." "Taking away from people what belongs to them is submitting them to your will." "With the debate over transgenic plants, the Movement opened its eyes." "At that point it understood the small farmers were in great danger if their seeds were confiscated." "#Creole seeds were passed on #by our ancestors who'd kept them #since the dawn of time." "#It was traditionally a woman's job #to grow the vegetables and store seeds." "#With the arrival of hybrids, agro-toxics, #and commercially sold seeds, #many of our families, particularly women, #lost this tradition." "#We want to get those seeds back, #and are working in 19 regions." "#It's a typically feminine activity." "#Men don't do this." "They're into intensive production." "#Women aren't." "Earth is feminine." "And farming practices require a feminine point of view." "We men are educated to see things the opposite way, to be productivist despoilers." "Women understand that seed can't be merchandised." "To have food autonomy, it's crucial that each community take care of its seed." "#We follow our parents' model." "#Now it's modern times..." "everything's modern." "#We stuck to our parents' model." "#Commercial seeds are never as good as mine." "#I noticed my cucumber seeds #grow beautiful cucumbers." "#I had to plant the hybrids twice." "#She takes us into her garden to see the difference." "#Those are our cucumbers, #and those are the hybrids." "#Home seeds," "#Hybrids." "What are we to make of GMOs?" "GMOs are pesticide plants, contrary to what's said." "Either they produce their own pesticides, or they're designed to tolerate pesticides." "You couldn't use Roundup on soybean before because it would destroy it." "Now, soybeans can take hit after hit of Roundup without dying, because they tolerate it." "GMO farming pollutes the planet the most." "And they dare say it preserves environment." "What a lie!" "In Argentina, pesticide use has increased by 4 with GMOs." "GMOs have another goal." "They're a Trojan horse for people who want to appropriate the planet's genetic pool and own what belongs to all of us." "Corn is drought-resistant." "They've turned it into a water monster, guzzling 120 liters per plot." "Now there's no more water, so farmers in southern France have to stop growing it, since water tables are empty." "The GMO seed industry shows up and says:" ""Hang on, we'll save you from ruin!"" "We'll create transgenic corn varieties that will resist drought." "And there you go!" "We started with drought-resistant corn, then made plants that guzzle water, and end with transgenic drought-resistant corn." "Instead of keeping our old corn varieties which were intrinsically and naturally drought-resistant." "Billions were spent on human DNA research, now we've deciphered some plants' DNA like oats, cotton, grapes..." "They got pissed off, they found oats had twice our DNA." "These guys thought, since humans are superior, they must have more DNA." "Bad news!" "Oats has twice as much DNA." "And it's a plant." "That made them mad." "There's a huge part of DNA they don't understand." "They call it junk DNA." "For them it's useless." "They're so stupid, they think nature has created this molecule, the most energy-consuming in the world, for nothing." "These geneticists take idiocy to a new level." "It's totally mind-blowing." "In Costa Rica, I saw babies born without arms and legs, because in pineapple farming they use so much ******* the farm workers are up to their ears in it." "What we put in the earth, ends up in our body." "That's why I say, when you sit down to eat, instead of saying "bon appétit", we should say "good luck!"" "since we've no idea what we're putting into our bodies or giving to our children." "GMOs are simply an adaptation of crops to dead land." "So I ask you, is working with dead land really necessary?" "No." "It's not." "#Ana Primavesi lives 4 hours south-west #of Sao Paulo." "#Doctor in agronomy and university lecturer, #she's pioneered agro-ecology since the 50s." "#She's written books and numerous articles #and is a soil microbiology specialist, #one of the last, along with Lydia ClaudeBourguignon." "#The Landless Workers Movement's farmers like her." "#They come from everywhere to seek her advice." "What do you think of Lula's ethanol program?" "He's insane." "Completely crazy." "Agro-industries aren't sustainable." "They destroy the soil." "All around the world, with this type of crop, 10 million hectares are being desertified each year." "At this rate, we can still hold on for 50 years, but when the desert starts, it'll go fast." "A tank of gas equals what a man eats in a year." "Imagine Westerners filling their tanks and saying:" "One less Asian eats this year." "Westerners must do it to starve countries because the rich are getting sick of the poor." "It's the latest trend of the millennium." "The rich are revolting against the poor!" "Enough." "They're fed up with them." "So killing off some more with bio-fuels would really be nice." "You really feel the rich have had it with the poor." "We'll soon hit the billion mark of starving people." "Bio-fuels are cutting into food production." "China has lowered production by 10% since 2000." "It's importing lots of grain." "There'll be conflict between fueling cars and feeding the Chinese." "We're in a food crisis." "Only a 20-day stockpile left on earth." "Australia is in its 8th consecutive year of drought." "Instead of 21 million tons of wheat, they only produce 10 million now." "Soon we'll be talking about food shortages in France." "People think it's only happening elsewhere and that we live in a safe bubble, having solved food problems forever." "It's not true." "Today, if supermarkets were to shut, we'd be unable to feed ourselves." "40% of our food comes from Spain, the rest from Morocco and Kenya." "France can't feed itself." "France imports 80% of its supplementary animal feed." "If you take away Brazilian soybean, Thai manioc and Thai shrimps..." "Sorry, but the French won't eat." "We've allowed large producers to increase their land holdings." "They could at least grant a minimum quota of 10 or 15% of their land to feed the local people." "You can't receive subsidies paid by the European people and still refuse to feed them." "We have an unacceptable situation where thousands of small farmers suffer and go out of business and a few rich farmers can buy 3 Mercedes a year." "It's unacceptable." "Each producer and farmer must participate in feeding its local population within boundaries assuring local food safety." "The FAO, in its 2007 Congress, proudly announced that organic farming could feed the planet without harming the environment." "Thanks for the info!" "Why didn't they say that 25 years ago?" "If the FAO's right, we must shift to organic farming, if they're wrong, let's stop financing these nutcases who claim the planet could be fed just with organic farming." "Make up your minds." "If we want to recreate an agro-organic model, to attain French food autonomy..." " only 10% farm land is needed to feed the French - we'll need to create over a million jobs in agriculture." "We must invent a new model, another way of working." "Job-sharing, having several jobs, being a farmer, technician or electrician at the same time." "Whatever happens, each of us will have to farm." "That's what we need to rebuild." "There's been a disconnect between the intellectual and manual." "And tomorrow's farmer will be both." "All humans will." "It's a crime to prevent humans from feeding themselves and let corporations do it." "People have the right and the duty to feed themselves." "Sometimes these rights aren't taken from them, but they don't realize it's their duty." "Since the market has its own laws, if survival becomes an issue, the market couldn't care less, since altruism and business don't mix." "#Celso, farming member of the MST, #takes us to his biodynamic farm." "#This is a spiral-shaped, mandala kitchen garden." "#At its center, we plant herbs and flowers #that radiate energy to the whole system." "#We practice mixed farming, with as many species as possible." "#We have "companion" plants." "#They help each other in the same space." "#Biodynamics, recommended by Rudolph Steiner #already in the 1920s, #sees the farm as a living organism, #uses preparations that energize the soil #and acknowledges planets' influence on crops." "It's a system that integrates animals, people, insects and plants, with maximum biodiversity." "This balance provides health for plants and people." "Cultivating one's garden, when possible, is a political act, an act of resistance." "Not everyone can do it, but city people can join with farmers and create a bridge that overrides big business." "Autonomy is the key word today." "Returning to a sustainable ecological footprint in France would take us back to the 60s." "It wasn't the Stone Age." "What we now consume is no longer produced the same way." "Clothes we wear today travel 30,0000 kilometers." "In the 60s, textile factories were in the north of France." "The situation's absurd." "Danish shrimps are cleaned in Morocco, sent back to Denmark for packaging and re-export." "If people lived the French way, we'd need 3 planets." "If people lived the American way, we'd need 6 planets." "We can still live this way thanks to huge technical help from African countries, who consume less than 10% of the planet." "But if economic growth continues even moderately, at a pace no presidential candidate would dare advocate in an election campaign, at 2% growth up until 2050, we won't need 3 planets, or 6..." "We'll need 30 planets." "We don't have them." "No way." "So it's urgent to realize we must live within the limits the fates granted us, in other words: 1 planet." "Their hard disk is jammed." "It only thinks: growth, production, reaching 10% growth every year..." "They can't think differently." "Growth, growth, growth..." "They'll have to fall." "Then a new civilization will come, for sure." "Like Noah's ark." "The best way to combat multinationals, agrobusiness or chemicals, is to do without them." "In 48 hours, the system collapses." "It's that simple!" "We haven't even begun to understand the power the consumer has." "This power can be used to change society." "We can boycott companies supporting arms producers or exploiting other countries." "It's a new kind of strike." "Not with machines, but a consumers' strike." "The consumer is the boss." "A company's worst nightmare is having no sales." "That's our power." "The world's in such a bad state, either we rethink our existence, or the world falls apart." "Farmers will have to lead the way since they produce the food and work with nature." "The way we treat nature will determine if humanity will survive or not." "#And I say to them:" "#Imagine the world 150 years ago, #when the sun never set on the British Empire #and this empire was ruthless and powerful." "#No freedom of press, no human rights..." "#And yet, #to defend these millions of people fighting the British Empire, #one man stood up." "#The world followed him." "#And the British Empire collapsed." "#Today the sun doesn't set on the multinational empire." "#We don't have Gandhi, but we can have a hundred Gandhis." "#I think together we can make the difference." "Adaptation:" "Pamela Grant" "Subtitling:" "L.V.T" " Paris"