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An example of how an non-profit can help family agriculture in a developing or poor country - Peirre Rabhi
We are working with Family Agriculture in the poor northeast of Brazil. Peirre Rabhi works in Africa, but the conditions are the same. Some 30 years ago I also worked with FAO, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Peirre's story had become sort of a 'guideline' for our NGO/ONG (Christian, one of our directors is also French). Christian stated this morning that to do a project like this .. Family Agriculture .. one must love the land .. the earth can give us so much. One works the earth to produce food to feed his(her) family ... not just for money. But the earth and nature (the ecology and the environment) must be respected and protected, hence the terminology PERMACULTURE.
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Pierre Rabhi (b. Algeria, 1938) is a French writer, farmer and environmentalist. Originally a Muslim, he converted to Christianity when he started his studies in France as a youth. He invented the concept of « Oasis en tous lieux » - Oasis in any place. He proposes a society that functions in a manner that respects populations and land and supports the development of agricultural techniques that take care of the environment preserving natural resources. His theories relate particularly though not exclusively to arid countries.
.
Franco-Algerian youth
.
Pierre Rabhi was born into a Muslim family in Kenadsa near Béchar an oasis in southern Algeria in 1938. His mother died when he was four years old. His father who was a blacksmith, a musician and a poet, got to know a French couple, an engineer and his wife who was a primary school teacher when they came to work at the Compagnie des Houillères (Coal mining Corporation) in his native village during colonisation. As this couple were unable to have a child and young Pierre’s father was worried about his son’s future, he accepted that the couple bring up his son on the condition that he continue to be a good Muslim. Later, his father would find himself obliged to close his workshop and to go to work in the mine. This would influence the thoughts and philosophy of his son. Thus, Pierre Rabhi’s childhood was shared between France and Algeria and the catholic and Muslim worlds until the age of 14. He chose to convert to Christianity when he was sixteen years old. He completed two years of secondary education but had to stop because his family were unable to cover the costs. When the Algerian War broke out in 1954, at the start of the war he was rejected both by his father for having converted to Christianity and by his adoptive father following a dispute. He decided to settle in Paris.
.
Paris
Without qualifications, he found work as a technician. He would later marry Michelle who he met in the company where he worked. Both of them harbored the dream of getting away from this urban life and thought about the possibility of working in farming. He met a doctor called Pierre Richard, an ecologist and visionary involved at the time in the creation of the Cévennes national Park, who encouraged them in the steps they took. They then decided to move to the Ardèche to remain there permanently from 1960 on. In those years, this was quite an original move to make, because they went well before the French neorural movement of the late 1960s.
.
Return to the land
.
On arriving in Ardèche, they married in Thines. Pierre Rabhi became a father and with no knowledge of agriculture, he registered with a Maison familiale rurale – a centre run by volunteer groups funded by national and regional government in France – and gained a diploma. In 1963, after three years working as an agricultural worker, he became a small farmer himself in the Cévennes ardéchoises starting out as a goat farmer with the intention of not following the productivist models he’d seen in the previous years.
.
Recognition
.
In 1978, he was given responsibility for training in agricultural ecology at the CEFRA (Centre d'études et de formation rurales appliqués-Centre for a applied rural studies and training). From 1981 onwards, at the request of the countries government, he was to visit Burkina Faso as a « farmer without frontiers » this work being funded by the CRIAD (Centre de relations internationales entre agriculteurs pour le développement – Centre for international relations between farmers and for development). In 1985, he set up the agroecology training centre at Gorom-Gorom, with the support of the association Le Point-Mulhouse. In 1988, he founded the CIEPAD (Carrefour international d'échanges de pratiques appliquées au développement – International forum for the sharing of knowledge about applied practices) with the support of the Hérault Regional Council. He developed an « optimised model for an agricultural site », educational and training programs and started numerous oversees development programs in Morocco, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisiea, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Mauritaniea, Poland and the Ukraine. In 1992, he started the program for the rehabilitation of the Chenini-Gabès oasis in Tunisia. Since 1994, he has led the « Oasis en tous lieux – An oasis in any place »movement, aiming to promote an earth that can produce food and the reconstitution of social involvement. In 1997 and 1998, at the request of the UN, he was asked to prepare concrete proposals for implementation of his plan during preparation for the Agreement on action against desertification / Convention de lutte contre la désertification (CCD). From 1999 to 2001, he started new development initiatives in the Agadez region in Niger and the Gao region in Mali. In 2002 he set out on a pre-presidential campaign in which he obtained the support of184 elected representatives and the birth of the Mouvement Appel Pour une Insurrection des Consciences (MAPIC)/ Movement Calling for an Insurrection of Consciences. He regularly leads conferences and workshops on themes relating to simplicité volontaire/simple living and to décroissance/de-growth. Considered to have prepared the ground for the altermondialisme / alter-globalisation movement, he was invited to the European Social Forum, and named one of his speeches « Donner une âme à la mondialisation/Giving a soul to Globalisation ». In 2007 he set up the « mouvement international pour la terre et l'humanisme »/international movement for earth and humanism1. He is president of the Terre et Humanisme association, was a member of the board of editors of the French monthly La Décroissance / De-growth and is vice president of the Kokopelli association which works to protect biodiversity ( in the production and distribution of organically and biodynamically grown seeds..) and for the regeneration of the fertility of cultivated soils.
.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pierre Rabhi has used principles of agroecology to improve yields and living conditions across the French and West-African agricultural sectors. Through innovative training methods, he has helped over 150,000 farmers diagnose the best way to adapt and apply ecological practices to their land and cultures, effectively uniting thousands of citizens in a movement to restore and protect environmental and social ecosystems.
.
In light of accelerating environmental and social consequences of the industrialization and intensification of agriculture in France since the 1950s, Pierre has been advocating for agroecology: Sustainable and productive farming practices that empower the most disadvantaged rural communities to achieve food self-sufficiency and economic self-reliance. Since the 1960s, he has shown farmers in France and Africa that they can independently improve their practices by combining traditional and modern ecological agronomical techniques that dramatically increase agricultural yields while respecting and preserving the environment.
.
Pierre’s hands-on, self-learning approach lets farmers understand agroecology from their own experiences, measure the economic and social value of ecological farming, and diagnose the best way to eliminate alienating industrial and chemical farming methods. In doing so, Pierre has invented a new form of North-South development aid in the agricultural sector that allows for local food self-sufficiency and embraces indigenous cultures and knowledge, as opposed to the traditional short-term and content-based aid programs, which reinforce South-North dependency and endemic poverty.
.
To this day, Pierre has created numerous local training centers, enhanced partnerships with grassroots organizations, and created agroecological farmers networks across Africa and France to teach and implement agroecology through self-learning. Furthermore, Pierre is ensuring that farmers are valued for their knowledge and innovation to inspire and enrich the agronomical research field, providing a solid scientific and economic justification to agroecology.
.
Beyond the agricultural sector, Pierre has united tens of thousands of citizens in local and national movements to create a social and environmental balance. Through his work, Pierre encourages citizens to develop and lead a broad range of grassroots actions and programs around key issues and values, including the right to decent living conditions, fair trade, peace-building, access to and protection of natural resources, equality of all human beings, and access to education, among others.
.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A farmer in the1960s, Pierre Rabhi confronted very early on the problem of intensive agriculture and was appalled by the impacts of this practice on ecosystems. In the 1960s, he decided to develop, with his wife, an ecological agriculture experience in Ardèche (France). He promoted the principles of agro-ecology in France as well as in Africa. He is engaged in projects supporting the local environment, notably for the rehabilitation of African oases, since 1994, and leads "Oases in all places" movement. Today he directs the Earth and Humanism Association, which fights for the respect of the earth and solidarity. To share his experience, he has written several books including "Sahara aux Cévennes (The Sahara of the Cévennes)" or "la Reconquête du songe (Regaining the Dream)" (Albin Michel, 1995), "Parole de Terre (Talk About Earth)" (Albin Michel, Paris, 1996 - preface by Yehudi Menuhin) and "Graines de possibles : Regards croisés sur l'écologie (Seeds of Possibility: Differing Views on Ecology" co-authored by Nicolas Hulot and Weronika Zarachowicz (Livre de Poche, 2006).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.
We need to understand that intensive farming, resorting to high quantities of pesticide, degrades the soils, pollutes the water, threatens domestic biodiversity, and the vital heritage of mankind which has grown over centuries. We are heading straight for times of food scarcity and famine.
.
Now it happens that third world populations have caught the train we are on. We were forced to catch up with a change for which nothing could prepare us. A large part of the world follows the production pattern of developed countries out of mimicry, without seeing the dangers. In reality, this model is absolutely not renewable. The depletion of oil resources actually leads us to think that we have reached the end of a logic.
.
The question is to find out why duality has become a model of organization. In reality, antagonism leads to globalization. The education of our children is motivated by principles of competitiveness, and competition. We should not be surprised that this policy should result in the current situation.
.
I am often called a philosopher. But you must know that I came to ecology through farming.
.
I attempted to understand the profound mechanisms of the earth. I wished to return to the soil, live frugally and self-sufficiently. The administration of my estate in the Cevennes of Ardèche was prompted by principles. I have lived for 13 years without electricity, water, or modern techniques., Through this experiment I found out that man had created a radical break between activities that enable them to feed themselves and essential principles of nature.
.
Reading Silent spring, by Rachel Carson, a scientist who was requested by the American government to look into the effects of insecticides on the environment, triggered something in me. The study’s outcome is disastrous: The entire life chain appears degraded. I therefore decided to radically change my direction.
.
My project was more about life style than an economic project. The beauty of the place where I settled has been, as a matter of fact, crucial. In my view, ecology does not just concern the environmental conundrum, or that of the biosphere, but the cosmos as a whole. In reality, we “are” ecology. Indeed, the substances we release into the soil will end up sooner or later in our body, in our cells. What’s more, the world “humanity” refers to the words humus and humility.
.
Jean-Jacques FRESKO
.
Afterwards, you became the councilor to the President of Burkina Faso and, if I am correct, provided the evidence that organic farming could feed the world.
.
Pierre RABHI
.
Absolutely. The little plot of land that I cultivated in Ardèche widened my horizons and enabled me to connect with time and space all around the world. I then wondered whether my experiment was “transmissible”. I realized that the South had been trapped by modernity, that it was connected through chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Furthermore, the South is especially affected by ecological disasters, by the disappearance of animal and vegetal biodiversity, by desertification. Above everything else, man should eat his fill, and yet, too many human beings do not even obtain the vital minimum.
.
Having found that out, I wanted to train farmers from third world countries in agro ecology techniques, using my own practices and laboratory experiments in order to help them feed themselves and regenerate their environment. In 1981, I went to Burkina Faso upon the request of the government.
.
Jean-Jacques FRESKO
How many farmers have adopted this production pattern today?
Pierre RABHI
We started with 900 farmers. We built a laboratory on the premises; now 100,000 farmers use organic fertilization and, as such, are freed from the control of chemical industry and international organizations.
.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pierre Rabhi (b. Algeria, 1938) is a French writer, farmer and environmentalist. Originally a Muslim, he converted to Christianity when he started his studies in France as a youth. He invented the concept of « Oasis en tous lieux » - Oasis in any place. He proposes a society that functions in a manner that respects populations and land and supports the development of agricultural techniques that take care of the environment preserving natural resources. His theories relate particularly though not exclusively to arid countries.
.
Franco-Algerian youth
.
Pierre Rabhi was born into a Muslim family in Kenadsa near Béchar an oasis in southern Algeria in 1938. His mother died when he was four years old. His father who was a blacksmith, a musician and a poet, got to know a French couple, an engineer and his wife who was a primary school teacher when they came to work at the Compagnie des Houillères (Coal mining Corporation) in his native village during colonisation. As this couple were unable to have a child and young Pierre’s father was worried about his son’s future, he accepted that the couple bring up his son on the condition that he continue to be a good Muslim. Later, his father would find himself obliged to close his workshop and to go to work in the mine. This would influence the thoughts and philosophy of his son. Thus, Pierre Rabhi’s childhood was shared between France and Algeria and the catholic and Muslim worlds until the age of 14. He chose to convert to Christianity when he was sixteen years old. He completed two years of secondary education but had to stop because his family were unable to cover the costs. When the Algerian War broke out in 1954, at the start of the war he was rejected both by his father for having converted to Christianity and by his adoptive father following a dispute. He decided to settle in Paris.
.
Paris
Without qualifications, he found work as a technician. He would later marry Michelle who he met in the company where he worked. Both of them harbored the dream of getting away from this urban life and thought about the possibility of working in farming. He met a doctor called Pierre Richard, an ecologist and visionary involved at the time in the creation of the Cévennes national Park, who encouraged them in the steps they took. They then decided to move to the Ardèche to remain there permanently from 1960 on. In those years, this was quite an original move to make, because they went well before the French neorural movement of the late 1960s.
.
Return to the land
.
On arriving in Ardèche, they married in Thines. Pierre Rabhi became a father and with no knowledge of agriculture, he registered with a Maison familiale rurale – a centre run by volunteer groups funded by national and regional government in France – and gained a diploma. In 1963, after three years working as an agricultural worker, he became a small farmer himself in the Cévennes ardéchoises starting out as a goat farmer with the intention of not following the productivist models he’d seen in the previous years.
.
Recognition
.
In 1978, he was given responsibility for training in agricultural ecology at the CEFRA (Centre d'études et de formation rurales appliqués-Centre for a applied rural studies and training). From 1981 onwards, at the request of the countries government, he was to visit Burkina Faso as a « farmer without frontiers » this work being funded by the CRIAD (Centre de relations internationales entre agriculteurs pour le développement – Centre for international relations between farmers and for development). In 1985, he set up the agroecology training centre at Gorom-Gorom, with the support of the association Le Point-Mulhouse. In 1988, he founded the CIEPAD (Carrefour international d'échanges de pratiques appliquées au développement – International forum for the sharing of knowledge about applied practices) with the support of the Hérault Regional Council. He developed an « optimised model for an agricultural site », educational and training programs and started numerous oversees development programs in Morocco, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisiea, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Mauritaniea, Poland and the Ukraine. In 1992, he started the program for the rehabilitation of the Chenini-Gabès oasis in Tunisia. Since 1994, he has led the « Oasis en tous lieux – An oasis in any place »movement, aiming to promote an earth that can produce food and the reconstitution of social involvement. In 1997 and 1998, at the request of the UN, he was asked to prepare concrete proposals for implementation of his plan during preparation for the Agreement on action against desertification / Convention de lutte contre la désertification (CCD). From 1999 to 2001, he started new development initiatives in the Agadez region in Niger and the Gao region in Mali. In 2002 he set out on a pre-presidential campaign in which he obtained the support of184 elected representatives and the birth of the Mouvement Appel Pour une Insurrection des Consciences (MAPIC)/ Movement Calling for an Insurrection of Consciences. He regularly leads conferences and workshops on themes relating to simplicité volontaire/simple living and to décroissance/de-growth. Considered to have prepared the ground for the altermondialisme / alter-globalisation movement, he was invited to the European Social Forum, and named one of his speeches « Donner une âme à la mondialisation/Giving a soul to Globalisation ». In 2007 he set up the « mouvement international pour la terre et l'humanisme »/international movement for earth and humanism1. He is president of the Terre et Humanisme association, was a member of the board of editors of the French monthly La Décroissance / De-growth and is vice president of the Kokopelli association which works to protect biodiversity ( in the production and distribution of organically and biodynamically grown seeds..) and for the regeneration of the fertility of cultivated soils.
.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Pierre Rabhi has used principles of agroecology to improve yields and living conditions across the French and West-African agricultural sectors. Through innovative training methods, he has helped over 150,000 farmers diagnose the best way to adapt and apply ecological practices to their land and cultures, effectively uniting thousands of citizens in a movement to restore and protect environmental and social ecosystems.
.
In light of accelerating environmental and social consequences of the industrialization and intensification of agriculture in France since the 1950s, Pierre has been advocating for agroecology: Sustainable and productive farming practices that empower the most disadvantaged rural communities to achieve food self-sufficiency and economic self-reliance. Since the 1960s, he has shown farmers in France and Africa that they can independently improve their practices by combining traditional and modern ecological agronomical techniques that dramatically increase agricultural yields while respecting and preserving the environment.
.
Pierre’s hands-on, self-learning approach lets farmers understand agroecology from their own experiences, measure the economic and social value of ecological farming, and diagnose the best way to eliminate alienating industrial and chemical farming methods. In doing so, Pierre has invented a new form of North-South development aid in the agricultural sector that allows for local food self-sufficiency and embraces indigenous cultures and knowledge, as opposed to the traditional short-term and content-based aid programs, which reinforce South-North dependency and endemic poverty.
.
To this day, Pierre has created numerous local training centers, enhanced partnerships with grassroots organizations, and created agroecological farmers networks across Africa and France to teach and implement agroecology through self-learning. Furthermore, Pierre is ensuring that farmers are valued for their knowledge and innovation to inspire and enrich the agronomical research field, providing a solid scientific and economic justification to agroecology.
.
Beyond the agricultural sector, Pierre has united tens of thousands of citizens in local and national movements to create a social and environmental balance. Through his work, Pierre encourages citizens to develop and lead a broad range of grassroots actions and programs around key issues and values, including the right to decent living conditions, fair trade, peace-building, access to and protection of natural resources, equality of all human beings, and access to education, among others.
.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A farmer in the1960s, Pierre Rabhi confronted very early on the problem of intensive agriculture and was appalled by the impacts of this practice on ecosystems. In the 1960s, he decided to develop, with his wife, an ecological agriculture experience in Ardèche (France). He promoted the principles of agro-ecology in France as well as in Africa. He is engaged in projects supporting the local environment, notably for the rehabilitation of African oases, since 1994, and leads "Oases in all places" movement. Today he directs the Earth and Humanism Association, which fights for the respect of the earth and solidarity. To share his experience, he has written several books including "Sahara aux Cévennes (The Sahara of the Cévennes)" or "la Reconquête du songe (Regaining the Dream)" (Albin Michel, 1995), "Parole de Terre (Talk About Earth)" (Albin Michel, Paris, 1996 - preface by Yehudi Menuhin) and "Graines de possibles : Regards croisés sur l'écologie (Seeds of Possibility: Differing Views on Ecology" co-authored by Nicolas Hulot and Weronika Zarachowicz (Livre de Poche, 2006).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.
We need to understand that intensive farming, resorting to high quantities of pesticide, degrades the soils, pollutes the water, threatens domestic biodiversity, and the vital heritage of mankind which has grown over centuries. We are heading straight for times of food scarcity and famine.
.
Now it happens that third world populations have caught the train we are on. We were forced to catch up with a change for which nothing could prepare us. A large part of the world follows the production pattern of developed countries out of mimicry, without seeing the dangers. In reality, this model is absolutely not renewable. The depletion of oil resources actually leads us to think that we have reached the end of a logic.
.
The question is to find out why duality has become a model of organization. In reality, antagonism leads to globalization. The education of our children is motivated by principles of competitiveness, and competition. We should not be surprised that this policy should result in the current situation.
.
I am often called a philosopher. But you must know that I came to ecology through farming.
.
I attempted to understand the profound mechanisms of the earth. I wished to return to the soil, live frugally and self-sufficiently. The administration of my estate in the Cevennes of Ardèche was prompted by principles. I have lived for 13 years without electricity, water, or modern techniques., Through this experiment I found out that man had created a radical break between activities that enable them to feed themselves and essential principles of nature.
.
Reading Silent spring, by Rachel Carson, a scientist who was requested by the American government to look into the effects of insecticides on the environment, triggered something in me. The study’s outcome is disastrous: The entire life chain appears degraded. I therefore decided to radically change my direction.
.
My project was more about life style than an economic project. The beauty of the place where I settled has been, as a matter of fact, crucial. In my view, ecology does not just concern the environmental conundrum, or that of the biosphere, but the cosmos as a whole. In reality, we “are” ecology. Indeed, the substances we release into the soil will end up sooner or later in our body, in our cells. What’s more, the world “humanity” refers to the words humus and humility.
.
Jean-Jacques FRESKO
.
Afterwards, you became the councilor to the President of Burkina Faso and, if I am correct, provided the evidence that organic farming could feed the world.
.
Pierre RABHI
.
Absolutely. The little plot of land that I cultivated in Ardèche widened my horizons and enabled me to connect with time and space all around the world. I then wondered whether my experiment was “transmissible”. I realized that the South had been trapped by modernity, that it was connected through chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Furthermore, the South is especially affected by ecological disasters, by the disappearance of animal and vegetal biodiversity, by desertification. Above everything else, man should eat his fill, and yet, too many human beings do not even obtain the vital minimum.
.
Having found that out, I wanted to train farmers from third world countries in agro ecology techniques, using my own practices and laboratory experiments in order to help them feed themselves and regenerate their environment. In 1981, I went to Burkina Faso upon the request of the government.
.
Jean-Jacques FRESKO
How many farmers have adopted this production pattern today?
Pierre RABHI
We started with 900 farmers. We built a laboratory on the premises; now 100,000 farmers use organic fertilization and, as such, are freed from the control of chemical industry and international organizations.
.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.
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This is terrific! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing this one, Steve. I hadn't seen it - and it is so in line with the OurWorld way of thinking. And Jared Diamond is a really thoughtful, credible source!
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