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

“Although funding was not available to continue these experiments
for the number of years necessary to draw final conclusions,
the results supported the hypothesis that sustainable
food production with few or no outside inputs will not only
continue to produce high yields but will improve rather than
deplete the organic constituents in the soil.”
In India, just one copy of How to Grow More Vegetables
became the textbook for a gardening program at an alternative
technologies training center, Shri A.M.M. Muragapa Chettier
Center in Madras State. That program evolved over a 15-year
period into preparations for a national Biointensive program.
We recently received word that village women who have been
gardening the Biointensive way on their own small plots were
able not only to raise food to feed their families but also to raise
an annual income by growing crops in a small area.
In all 32 states of Mexico, millions of people are currently
using Biointensive methods to grow food for nutrition intervention
for themselves and their families. Each year, new people
are taught these processes by extension agents, universities,
governmental entities, communities, and organizations, or by
those already using the techniques. It is estimated that 1.6
million people are currently using these practices. In addition,
many Spanish publications and videos are spreading Biointensive
techniques throughout Latin America.
In Kenya, the Manor House Agricultural Centre has been
directly and indirectly responsible for training well over 40,000
mini-farmers in just a 16-year period. The Centre gives 2-year
apprentice training to individuals who are sent by their villages
to learn Biointensive techniques so they can go back and teach
these methods to their whole village. There are also shorter
training periods, and a local outreach program sends teachers
out to surrounding areas on a frequent basis to educate members
of the communities. The Centre has now opened its
training program to international students.
In the Philippines, Biointensive publications, conferences,
and workshops given by the International Institute for
Rural Reconstruction resulted in the initiation of a mandated
national Biointensive educational program for all grade school
and high school students.
There is also the beginning of a GROW BIOINTENSIVE network
in the United States. Ecology Action’s 3-day introductory
workshops have drawn many people who are committed to sharing
their own enthusiasm for GROW BIOINTENSIVE techniques
with other people. This has been true of the 3-day workshop
held in Seattle in September 1992, the one at Stanford University
in March 1993, the one given in San Diego in November
1993, as well as more recent ones in Willits and around the
United States. To date, 1,163 people from 45 states, the District
of Columbia, and 20 countries have been trained in these workshops.
People from different parts of the country who have
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