WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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[music]

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Willits, California, a country
village north of San Francisco,

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it\'s the site of a remarkable scientific experiment
that may offer answers to a hungry world.

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Jeavons is out of the mainstream
of American agricultural research

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and he is probably 10 to 15 years ahead
of his time. But his time is coming.

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I am convinced of the
viability of this method.

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Uh, it\'s quite clear that it is, uh,
productive and it is our hope for the future.

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[music]

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John Jeavons is a master gardener
and a man with a mission.

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What we\'re going to be able to
do is use our units of water,

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and fertilizer, and soil, uh, 10 times
more efficiently than it\'s being done now.

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[sil.]

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For 15 years, Jeavons and several associates
had been testing and perfecting what they call

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biointensive agriculture. It\'s an
organic gardening technique capable

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of producing crop yields much higher
than those of modern commercial farming.

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[music]

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The Willits garden project known as Common Ground
attracts visitors from all over the world.

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The center of the garden is a thickly
planted 1,000 square foot circle.

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This is the area where we believe minimally

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you can grow one complete balanced
vegetarian diet in or on the average…

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This circle covers only 1/40th of an acre.

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American commercial farming now requires 10
times that much land to grow a complete diet.

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Some Third World Countries
need 30 times as much,

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and many of those countries are
running out of arable land.

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John Jeavons and his fellow gardeners enjoy
homegrown meals half the world would envy.

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Jeavons once worked for the U.S.
Agency for International Development.

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He realized then that unless ways were
found to grow more food on less land,

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millions of people faced a
future of famine. Okay.

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[music]

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The famines have come

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sweeping across drought-stricken Africa, carried
by television into American living rooms.

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In 1984,

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45 million people died of hunger
or hunger related diseases.

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As many as half a billion
more may die within a decade.

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[music]

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Massive food shelters bring temporary
reprieve for many on hunger\'s death row.

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But such generosity provides
no long-term answer to famine.

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For all intents and purposes,
what most of us are really doing

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is just changing the location of
the deck chairs on the Titanic.

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We\'re not doing something that is going to build
a sophisticated low technology safety net.

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When the bags of important
grain are empty and gone,

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the roots of the food crisis will remain.

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On soil, which ones provided
subsistence for millions,

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large land owners now often grow
only cash crops for export.

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[music]

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Commercial farming practices
frequently damage the soil.

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As population grows,

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trees that once held moisture in the
Earth are stripped for firewood

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and deserts expand.

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At best by the year 2000, there
will only be half as much crop land

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per person on Earth as there was in 1950.

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A quarter of the world\'s
people are malnourished.

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How can they be fed?

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For years,

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agricultural experts have pinned their hopes on
what is commonly known as the Green Revolution.

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New more productive crop varieties have been
developed at major laboratories like this one,

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The International Wheat and
Corn Improvement Center

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or CIMMYT near Mexico City.

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[music]

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CIMMYT is a high-tech seed factory. These
miracle grains greatly improve crop yields.

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It\'s apparent in the thick rows of wheat and
corn that surround the CIMMYT Laboratories.

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Since the dawn of the Green
Revolution four decades ago,

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World grain productivity
has more than doubled.

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But dark clouds loom over these fields threatening the
progress that Green Revolution has certainly brought.

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Higher productivity using
miracle grains like these

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has come at high cost, 3 times more water,

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7 times more energy, 10 times more
fertilizer than was used in 1950.

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I think biointensive practices
are going to be much better

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in Third World Countries, because
they require less resources.

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For 10 years beginning in 1971,

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John Jeavons tested biointensive
methods at a garden site in Palo Alto,

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California Industrial Park.

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Today, the work and research
continue on steep slopes

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above Willits.

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In summer heat and winter rain, the gardeners
try to improve biointensive techniques.

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[music]

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The heart of the biointensive
method is deep digging.

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The soil is loosened by spade
and fork to a depth of two feet

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allowing roots to penetrate vertically.

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The seeds or seedlings are planted much closer
together than in commercial agriculture.

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We have four times the
plants in a given area.

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It\'s a deep soil preparation
that makes this possible.

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You notice you can just sort of put your hand
down into the bed because the soil is so soft.

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When the plants reach maturity,

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they cover the entire bed preventing
rapid evaporation of water

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and discouraging weeds.

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Over the years, the Willits\'
gardeners have tested

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more than 200 different crops.
We document all the inputs,

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the fertilizers and water that go into the bed, and
we record all of the yields that come out of the bed.

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The results confirmed by
independent university researchers

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have matched early expectations.

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This garden produces two to four times US Commercial
average yields for most grains and vegetables

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while consuming only
one-quarter as much water

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and fertilizer per pound of food produced.

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The gardeners use only hand tools and practices
affordable in even the poorest of countries.

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One of the fantastic things about biointensive
techniques is that they are capable

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of producing Green Revolution yields,

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very high yields without the
special seeds, high water,

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and costly and high fertilizer inputs that
are required by Green Revolution practices.

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[music]

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The soil on this hillside is hard and poor

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like that of most of the
world\'s hungry nations.

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Garden grown compost and organic
fertilizers improve the soil.

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But the process takes time, and maximum crop
yields are not achieved for several years.

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It took us seven years to
build up our wheat yields.

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We started out at three quarters
the US average, fairly low

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and by 1979 in one test we got at the
rate of five times the US average.

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Healthy soil also makes plants more
pest resistant. Biointensive gardeners

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don\'t use pesticides, but companion
planting a natural predators

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help keep their crop losses lower
than those of commercial farmers.

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When he isn\'t raising food,

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John Jeavons is writing his biointensive
gardening manual, \"How to grow more vegetables?\"

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It\'s been translated into several languages
selling nearly a quarter million copies.

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Karen.

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Former US Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland has been
interested in biointensive farming for several years.

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There\'s probably a billion people in
this world that are malnourished.

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The Jeavons\' approach could enable that segment of the
population to feed itself adequately for the first time ever.

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That would be a remarkable development in this world
and would do more to solve the problems of poverty,

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and misery, and hunger than
anything else that we\'ve done.

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The Peace Corps and UNICEF

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now use common ground publications for
training agricultural volunteers.

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But many scientists still view
biointensive methods as impractical.

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Most agronomists are not skeptical
about the yields that we\'re obtaining.

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They\'re skeptical about whether or not
people want to, want to raise food manually.

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Right now you have people
working very long hours

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trying to find the money for very expensive
Inputs, and they\'re still not feeding themselves.

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[music]

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Though some experts still
demand more proof,

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Common Ground research has generated
interest from England to India.

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Individuals and organizations in
over 100 countries around the world

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are using our materials and over four
languages right now. Major biointensive

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research and development
projects exist in Mexico,

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India, China, the Philippines

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and people seem to be grabbing hold of
using the practice, uh, very readily.

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When directors of an experimental project

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in Mexico wrote to Common Ground requesting
an experienced biointensive gardener

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to teach the method, Gary Stonor had
been a Jeavons\' apprentice for a year.

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Gary volunteered to go to Mexico.

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[music]

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This is Mexico City,

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the world\'s largest with
18 million inhabitants.

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Like a magnet,

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the city attracts more than a thousand people
a day from the impoverished countryside.

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If present trends continue, 30 million people
will live here by the end of the century.

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Many of them will live like this.

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Like most Third World capitals,

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Mexico City is surrounded by the shanty towns of the
poor. For thousands, home is a makeshift shelter

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in a garbage dump. Here desperate people

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come as cities refuge
for life\'s necessities.

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[music]

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Mexico was the cradle of the Green Revolution,
but half its people remain malnourished.

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(inaudible).

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Dr. Jorge Martinez, Director
of Family Services for Mexico

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believes biointensive agriculture can
help produce the food his country needs.

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Was it grown naturally (inaudible). Martinez was very impressed when
he first observed John Jeavons\' work 10 years ago in California.

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In a very short time,

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I was absolutely convinced of the need to those
something similar and some place in Mexico.

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At that time, we have no idea of the possibility
to do what we are doing here in Tula now.

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(inaudible).

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Today, Dr. Martinez directs a program
called menos y mejores, fewer and better.

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It\'s an effort to improve conditions in
rural Mexico through family planning,

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nutritional classes, and biointensive
gardens. At the request of Dr. Martinez,

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Gary Stonor moved to the village
of Tula in Northern Mexico

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to supervise the Menos y
mejores Garden Program.

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[music]

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Change comes slowly in
small towns like Tula,

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and the modern world of Mexico City seems
far away. Yet many of Tula\'s people,

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like those of other small
towns, dream of the capital.

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For despite its charm and color,
Tula is a hard place to live.

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The land is dry. It\'s not
possible to grow things easily.

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It only rains two or three
months of the year.

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The poor land means poor food production

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and a poor economy. Malnutrition
and health problems are common.

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For years, people have been leaving Tula
to look for better lives in Mexico City

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or the United States. But
the exodus maybe ending.

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Partly because of the highly productive gardens
Gary stonor is teaching people here to develop.

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[non-English narration]

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Each training session draws people eager
to learn biointensive techniques.

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[music]

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In other villages near Tula, biointensive
gardening is also becoming popular.

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People here are planting a lot.

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It takes no more than one hour in the
morning and another in the afternoon.

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[non-English narration]

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This is the first year I planted the garden, but it came out
well. I think it really benefits us, especially the children.

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They\'re better fed, and they
don\'t get sick so often.

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The children like beets,
and radishes, and carrots.

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And sometimes if I\'m not watching, they\'ll
pull out the carrots and eat them right there.

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It\'s very necessary to have a garden
for the children to be well nourished.

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Many of these gardens
were already producing

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when Gary stonor arrived, but Gary provides
technical advice that helps maximize crop yields.

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[music]

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Deep digging in hard soil is difficult,

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and people often revert to easier but
less efficient garden practices.

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A lot of people don\'t dig very deep or they don\'t take
out the rocks, and they don\'t get the same results

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or if they just throw in the plants without spacing right,
the yields are bad and there are more insect problems.

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We have to help them to learn how to use all of the
parts together, and it\'s going to take some time.

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Biointensive gardens

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still provide only a fraction of Tula\'s
food. I realize that the process

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of change and of making these changes are going to
be a really gradual process, but it is happening.

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I\'ve seen, uh, I\'ve seen a lot of the improvements here
just since I\'ve been, uh, been here about 11 months.

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And for example, when
the, the program started

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a few years back, many of these people
didn\'t even know what a carrot was.

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And nowadays the people who are using a garden and using it
right are eating maybe five products a day out of the garden.

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And that\'s pretty significant.

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[music]

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(inaudible).

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Besides corn tortillas and beans,

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families in Tula now receive the nutritional
benefits of vegetables from their gardens.

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With their home gardens,

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people realize that they are
beginning to eat better.

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This has definitely helped in
reducing malnutrition here.

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[non-English narration]

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Dr. Gisela Lara is the menos
y mejores coordinator

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in the Tula area. She saw … she\'s seen changes
here that offer real hope for the future.

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Little by little people learn
about gardens and health.

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Before, 30 or 40% of our children
under 5 suffered from malnutrition.

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Ninety percent of those
children have now recovered.

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[sil.]

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In addition to his teaching, Gary stonor cultivates an impressive
demonstration garden on the grounds of Tula\'s hospital.

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He grows dozens of crops like carrots,

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sweet potatoes, Calarts or leafy
vegetable high in calcium,

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and sunflowers. This is Amaranth,

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an indigenous and nutritious grain
well-adapted to dry climates.

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Kochia is considered a weed, but it produces
nitrogen rich compost. (inaudible).

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Lucia Garcia is a medical doctor. But she
was so impressed by Gary Stonor\'s garden,

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she\'s changing her vocation.

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It surprised me that these were
such big and exuberant plants

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compared to the rest that grow in
this area, because this is a desert.

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Such plants weren\'t supposed to grow here. But
there they were strong, healthy, and vigorous.

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So I asked Gary, \"How is this
possible?\" And he explained it to me.

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[non-English narration]

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Armed with only a Spanish language
version of how to grow more vegetables,

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Dr. Garcia began her own garden and
encouraged other villagers to do the same.

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The people were surprised to see me. How is it
possible that the doctor is using a shovel?

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But this also motivated them.

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I think it\'s possible to reduce or
even completely eliminate hunger

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if everybody realizes they can be self-sufficient
in nutrition with family gardens.

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[non-English narration]

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Dr. Garcia believes the
nutritional improvements

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these gardens provide are so important.

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She\'s leaving the medical profession to concentrate
full time on spreading the garden idea.

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I want to teach here first
so 100% of the families

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can grow these gardens and
get the most benefits.

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And later, I want to go to other places
if it\'s possible, and I hope that it is,

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for example, Africa.

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Local enthusiasm like Dr. Garcia\'s has led Gary Stonor
to sign up for another year of teaching in Tula.

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John\'s kept me in touch with things
that are happening back in Willits,

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and with a lot of the new research they\'re doing in
simplifying teaching people how to do the methods.

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And by showing the people the
correct methods of bed preparation,

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of sowing the seeds, of transplanting a
plant, and of caring for the plants,

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we can, we can make a real difference.
(inaudible) a lot of interest…

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Perhaps most importantly, the Tula gardens
have also caught the eyes of experts.

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Sam Taylor, U.S. Agency for International
Development Director for Mexico,

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believes in the Green Revolution. But
he says, \"Biointensive agriculture

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also deserves support.\" It\'s
probably not a panacea,

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but it certainly it is a way to get people
involved in improving their own well-being.

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It works. It worked here in Tula. And if it\'ll
work in Tula, it\'ll probably work anywhere.

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Jeavons\' approach needs to
be tried on a large scale

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in all regions of the world
and given a fair test.

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The Jeavons\' approach is never going to replace the
Green Revolution on a commercial scale globally.

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But it certainly can fit an important part of the
world\'s economy that is now being passed over

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by the commonly established systems.

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The problems of hunger and food production have long been
a special priority for Congresswoman Claudine Schneider.

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This week is so insane I (inaudible).

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Schneider shares Bob Bergland\'s optimism
about biointensive agriculture.

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I feel very positive in that Jeavons\' approach
is being used by the Peace Corps, and

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that we hopefully will incorporate it into our foreign aid Bill,
and the World Bank will incorporate it into their programs,

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because only by taking this approach I believe
that we, we will be successful in helping Africa

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and other nations help themselves.

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Back at Common Ground,

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work and research continue. New
apprentices like Louisa Lens

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learn the basics of biointensive food raising
and prepare to begin their own projects.

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So I should just kind of divide
the bed down and (inaudible).

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Right, and sort of pretend like you\'re broadcasting seed. You
want to do it a little lighter. Make sure you get it even.

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On this damped spring day,
John Jeavons teachers Louisa

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how to spread organic fertilizer on a freshly dug bed.
Eventually we hope not to use the organic fertilizers

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and use just compost that
concentrates nutrients

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that are in the soil and makes
them more available to the plants.

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These visitors to Common Ground help
support a biointensive project in Africa.

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Jeavons shows them cover
crops grown for compost.

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He hopes to create a
self-sustaining food system

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with all soil nutrients coming directly from
the garden. We\'re building up the soil.

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We\'re helping create the
proper diet for the soil,

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and as a byproduct we get some food that when it\'s grown
in the right combination provides a little better diet

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for ourselves.

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Every tour of the garden ends in this circle.
It\'s like a Circle of Plenty. Right now

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it would probably take two to three
circles to grow a complete diet in.

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But we\'re convinced that soon it\'s going to be possible for one
person to grow all of his or her own food on just one circle,

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a thousand square feet, that\'s only one-tenth
of what commercial agriculture grows

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a complete diet in. (inaudible). Good.

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The Common Ground project is supported
by sales of how to grow more vegetables,

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foundation grants, personal
donations, garden produce,

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and a small mail-order seed business.

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Today, only a fraction of agricultural research
funding goes to biointensive experiments.

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My guess is that in 10 years, we\'re going to
see a lot of public research spent on things

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that John Jeavons has
been doing by himself.

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[music]

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Another spring has come to Willits.

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And John Jeavons is planning again.
In his quiet way,

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he hopes to prove by example that
biointensive gardens can feed the world.