The Fukuoka Farming Website Emilia Hazelip 1938 - 2003 |
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When I was a child in the Spain of the dictator Franco, the borders of the Nation were closed to all foreigners
trying to come and to locals wanting to go out. The agriculture that was practiced those days by the peasants didn't
use tractors or chemicals, but what farmers where doing to their fields was clearly not good to the soil. One of the
earliest memories I have is of one summer in the countryside. It was of dried up and sick looking soil after the
Castillian cereal fields had been harvested. Although I did not know why, to me it was obvious that something the grownups where doing was wrong. That
conviction of a fundamental error in their agriculture has directed my life towards finding a way to reconcile
agriculture with Nature.
In the very early 60's while living in Big Sur, I met a few people involved with social reform (aka "hippies").
They were into growing their own food, and thanks to them I learned of the work of Ruth Stout.
She was the first person to lift the veil of understanding how to handle the production of annual plants on a
non-tilled soil.
Reading Faulkner's book "Plowsman Folly" made clear the urgent need to change the tilling habits used in
agriculture. Later on, from Alan Chadwick while living in Santa Cruz, I integrated and organized the garden with
raised beds (but not double-dug!), and with the experience of Masanobu Fukuoka's work, I was able to confirm the
agronomic validity and possibility of a chemicaless, zero-till method.
By the time I found out about permaculture I had very much figured out a strategy that could be applied to places
with many limiting factors so as to obtain healthy and abundant harvests on self-fertile, zero-tilled agricultural
soils. I have traveled much in my life (as is often the case with political exiles). In gardening terms it means
that I had to adapt to many different soil and climatic conditions which forced me to find solutions to many
different problems.
About 26 years ago I came to the French mediterranean-pyrenean foothills, where I purchased 40 hectares of land
for the settling of an intentional community. Today, although I'm not living there, the settlement, the gardens,
goes on unfolding as I was hoping it could happen. This region has been my homebase since then, although I have
also been involved with eco-agricultural projects in other regions as well. And at the present I may again move to
a place near Geneva, Switzerland, where my 2 daughters and grandchildren are living, to start a hands-on teaching
garden .
During all those past many years I have met quite a number of people interested, like myself, in the work of
Fukuoka-san. Many wanted to repeat what they understood of his work, but practically nobody could obtain sufficient
results to keep on their interest in Natural Agriculture. Because I had gone myself through the phase of doing a
lot of "do-nothing" with not much food produced, and since my need to grow food was real and pressing, I came to
accept that what was essential was to follow the Four Natural Agricultural Principles, but as well, to integrate
plastic hoses for drip irrigation, plastic greenhouse to start subtropical seedlings, and even mechanical traction
for the first structuring of the raised beds.
I have given the name of Synergistic Agriculture to soil's autonomous feeding process and all the additions and
modifications done to the original model, so that producing copious annual crops with soil's self-fertility could
be possible even in places with all kinds of limiting factors, like extreme heat, or cold, or rain or draught or
"bad" soils. Chemicaless ecological zero-till agriculture, by whatever name may it be called, needs to be developed
to become, without much delay, a real option to feed the exponentially growing human population without hurting or
exploiting the planet's soil organisms.
Emilia Hazelip
[Editor's Note: Emilia died in her sleep on the night of February 1, 2003 at Centre Hospitalier,
Carcassonne, France. She left behind two daughters, two granddaughters, and a third grandchild due in early February.
She also left behind many people whose lives have been enriched by knowing her, and a world that is a little better for
her having been here. She came to understand the secrets of truly sustainable agriculture that few others ever have or ever will,
and freely shared her hard-earned knowledge with any and all who asked her. She was a guide, a mentor, and a very special
friend who's loss is deeply felt. Thank you Emilia.
One of Emilia's articles on Synergistic Gardening, complete with many photos of her garden,
is in the Articles section, and her video can be purchased through links in the Books and Videos page. A few weeks prior
to her death she sent me a collection of articles she wrote over the years, and these too will be posted as quickly as
possible.]
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This page was last updated on December 21, 2002
Copyright © 2002 Larry Haftl