Shuaib Badmos

Ernst Götsch, a Swiss visionary, bought land in the south of Bahia, Brazil, in the ’70s. The land was so dry and exhausted that the locals had abandoned it. He had previously studied ecology and had a hypothesis that by respecting how nature evolves and mimicking it, he could create productive ecosystems superior to industrial farms. He called the system syntropic agriculture. He bought the land cheaply, together with a friend so they could afford it, and started working on it, faithfully following his hypothesis. His intent was to create a polyculture farm mimicking the original forest, from which he would sell cacao. However, after a couple of years, a disease that was killing cacao trees all over Brazil spread fast, causing a complete loss on the other cacao farms. His friend became desperate, because he didn’t believe what Ernst was sure about: that by creating polyculture forests, they would have natural resilience against any disease. In other words, the lack of vitality—the trees’ and plants’ vulnerability to pests and diseases—was caused by planting them in isolation, in a monoculture system. His friend could not be convinced, and Ernst managed to get enough money to buy his friend’s part of the farm and avoid losing it. He was rewarded by observing that his hypothesis was right: all cacao trees in Brazil were affected, except his. Systems that mimic natural ones have a strong immune system. He then continued to steward the agroforest and started to harvest cacao in due time—arguably the finest cacao in the world. He dedicated 70% of his land to conservation and is living proof that we can produce what we want while saving our home planet. As long as we grow plants in isolation, with a “monoculture = efficiency” mentality, we’ll keep creating vulnerability to pests and diseases. The solution is to mimic nature, creating polycultures that build their own immunity. That can also be done in home gardens.