How to Grow More Vegetables : And Fruits, Nuts ... - Shroomery

promotores and residents of mestiza and
indigenous communities in Chihuahua
state. The Ecological Groups of Uruapan,
Mexico, start to include Biointensive
methods in their work with indigenous
communities. An intermediate work-shop
is held in 7 states in Mexico, under the
auspices of SEMARNAP. The Instituto
Nacional Indigenista teaches Biointensive
methods to all its interns and charges in
120 shelters. ECOPOL, Ecology Action’s
counterpart for Latin America, gives workshops
in San Luis Potosi, Oaxaca, and
Tizapan to a total of 89 promotores from 20
states. ECOPOL also gives a 5-day workshop
in Aguascalientes state to 36 agronomists,
promotores, biologists and civil
engineers from 8 states, sponsored by the
United Nations Development Program.
1996
Technical advice is given to Ecological
Soil Management in West Bank, Israel.
Information on Ecology Action and the
Biointensive philosophy appears on PBS’s
New Garden program, in Garden Design
magazine, and in Rodale’s Vitamin A+
Sieve newsletter. John Jeavons participates
in a panel at the Eco-Farm Conference
at Asilomar. The Rodale Book Club
offers the 5th edition of How to Grow
More Vegetables as a main selection.
Ecology Action gives a 3-day workshop in
Willits, California, with 45 participants
and 3 translators from 10 states, Russia,
Mexico, and Uganda. One of the Russians
is the director of the Russian Ministry of
Agriculture’s Teaching and Methodological
Center near Moscow, which serves
292 agriculture technology schools and
colleges. John Jeavons presents a 3-day
workshop at Green Gulch Center Farm
near San Francisco, with 64 people
attending from 6 states and 2 countries.
Ecology Action staff teach another 3-day
workshop in Seattle with 29 participants
from 10 states and Kenya. Fairhaven
College in Washington approves a 5-year
plan for a Biointensive program of 25
beds a year. The U.S. Peace Corps orders
One Circle for use in Turkmenistan.
Fernando Pia, director of CIESA in
Argentina, reports that, given their excellent
results with Biointensive methods,
they now have farming plans that allow an
individual working only 35 hours a week
to provide between 60% and 80% of a
vegetarian diet for a family of four, plus a
reasonable income, on as little as 8,600
square feet. CIESA is visited by 25 agronomic
engineers from the National Institute
of Agricultural Technology, who are
surprised and impressed by the Center
and its yields. The Republic of Georgia
establishes its first Biointensive beds in
the Samtredia region and Tbilisi.
ECODOM and Biointensive for Russia
host a 3-day workshop in Siberia, cosponsored
by the Novisibirsk State Agrouniversity
and its farmers’ extension
service; 68 people participate. It is
reported that the yields of Biointensive
experiments in Siberia average 287% of
U.S. average yields. A rural service center
in Zimbabwe is awarded a grant for the
2nd year of its 5-year Biointensive Development
Program. A resource center in
India receives a grant to help local women
in 10 villages start Biointensive gardens
for home consumption and income. In
Chiapas state, Mexico, Enrique Reyna
conducts four Biointensive workshops for
pioneers in new population centers. He
also gives a workshop for 60 rural people
in Tabasco state. Gaspar Mayagoitia gives
7 workshops in Chihuahua state for 110
participants from agricultural high schools
and members of Rural Development who
work in the Tarahumara mountains. John
Jeavons gives Biointensive presentations
and meets with farmers, teachers, and
officials in Chihuahua and Nuevo Leon
states. The Biointensivistas (Mexican
Biointensive teachers who have trained at
the Willits mini-farm) initiate their first
annual meeting in Nuevo Leon state.
1997
Ecology Action gives a 3-day workshop in
Willits with 42 participants from 5 states,
Mexico, and Russia. Nine of the 12 participants
from Mexico stay on for 3 days
of advanced training at the mini-farm. A
second 3-day workshop in Willits has
40 participants from 8 states and Puerto
Rico, Togo, Kenya, and Japan. Some of
the participants have strong connections
with the Phillipines, Russia, Ladakh,
Ghana, the Virgin Islands, Colombia,
Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria,
and the Ivory Coast. John Jeavons
presents a 3-day workshop in Hawaii for
29 participants, including many indigenous
people. The second 7-day teachers
workshop is given at the Willits mini-farm.
An advanced-level 10-week course is given
at the mini-farm, with participants from
Mexico, Kenya, and Togo. Ecology Action
gives technical assistance to Katalysis/
Honduras, Watts Growing, The Mass
Education Library Service in Mumias,
Kenya, and the Instituto Rural Valle
Grande in Peru. A 3-day workshop participant,
comparing soil samples, is amazed
at the difference that double-digging
makes. Another 3-day workshop participant
works with the University of California
at Santa Cruz to test the nutritional
value of foods he is growing in
Biointensive field tests. Carol Cox
coteaches at a joint ECODOM/Ecology
Action workshop in Siberia. Carol
Vesecky, director of Biointensive for
Russia, reports that since Biointensive
was introduced to Russia in 1990, 18
Eurasians have trained at 3-day workshops
in Willits, 1,568 people have been
taught, 30 articles have been written, and
25 radio/TV programs have been broadcast.
Forty-nine thousand copies of the
Russian translation of How to Grow More
Vegetables are distributed throughout
Russia. In Kenya, Manor House gives two
3-month courses for agricultural agents
from Tanzania and Uganda. The Environmental
Action Team teaches Biointensive
methods to 17 farmer groups in western
Kenya. Four farmer groups attend 1-week
workshops at Manor House with assistance
from the Kilili Self-Help Project.
People from Uganda ask Manor House
trainers about the possiblity of starting a
Biointensive training center in their
country. Manor House reports that as a
result of its 13 years of training, 40 other
NGO’s in Kenya are initiating Biointensive
projects and over 70,000 people have been
trained directly and indirectly. An independently
commissioned study asserts
that between 1992 and 1996, as a result of
Biointensive training in Kenya, among the
farmers studied, self-sufficiency in maize