Columbian champion of Organic Farming and for the rights of small holder farmers.
"my dream is to construct a being, an
ideal state of a being, so that I shall not be the ideal being of the
State".
Jairo Restrepo is a passionate
educator and activist in the field of sustainable agriculture and food
sovereignty. He campaigns for a return of self determination, knowledge and
autonomy to the farmer away from the power of agribusiness. He offers
education, agronomy and consultancy around the world. His background is in
Latin America and recently he has been touring in Europe and Australia. Jairo
used to be consultant to the UN, Unesco, and the International Labour
Organisation.
As an advocate for Agroecology and
regenerative farming, he is unique in that he not only argues passionately for
the rights of farmers, but he also offers an array of practical technologies
and preparations to increase soil fertility and transform cropping. He offers
tools and inspiration for farmers, smallholders and activists. An agronomist
with a rebellious character, he has a passionate belief in people power, in
local rural culture, food sovereignty, and the desire to transmit the
indigenous knowledge and experience gathered from over 20 years work across all
continents.
In this interview he speaks of
organic farming although he is mistrustful of certified organic farming in the
context of South America. His brand of organic farming is closer to Regenerative
agriculture.
In an interview with Jairo last month in
Spain, Juan Fran from Ragmans Lane Farm asked the following questions –
JF – Tell us a little about your background
and how you came to work in organic agriculture?
Jairo – I worked at the Federal University
of Rio Grande de Sul in Brazil for many years. My main work was in the analysis
and development of agricultural pesticides. For instance I was researching how
to eradicate the smell of rotten eggs from a phosphoric poison called Malatol
used in corn and wheat storage. However, in 1979 I happened to hear a talk
given by a professor working in the poison residues lab on the Ministry of
Agriculture. His name was Sebastián Pinheiro
and in 45 minutes he was able to describe how agricultural poisons were used
not only in the environment, but also how the industry was born out of the
second world war, and that it was now bribing the entire structure of the
Brazilian Dictatorship. This was a turning point for me. I became very self
critical and aligned myself with Pinheiro. Working with him, I trained in
chemical residue analysis, and then I started speaking out to defend and
protect life. My mission now is to defend life.
This is my purpose, my instinct, but also to protect the conditions that
encourage perpetual and healthy life.
JF – how did your work have impact in South
America?
It is hard to quantify it – many things in
Latin America happened due to the crisis or terror and rising social tension. So there is resistance and re-existence. When
I speak of re-existence I speak of people who have always found a way without
industrial agriculture. Some farmers have access to industrial technology,
other have not. But the changes are huge. 75% of farmers in Latin America are now
using organic fertilizer in one way or another and they produce 67% of food in
Latin America, mostly in the small farmer sector.
When we started
promoting the proposal of organic agriculture in Cuba, in 10 years we were
linked with 87,500 promoters of organic agriculture. From 1997 up to 2007 where
a 10 year programme was concluded and assessment in Havana was performed, we
recognised that this movement grew due to the interest of many farmers, so we
did have a huge impact. I participated in forming the founding of the movement
in Cuba and made several consecutive volunteer trips from place to place
throughout the country. One of my trips lasted 78 days, and we were in contact
with 3,000 Cuban technicians - this
practically became policy.
Ideas are shared through farmer to farmer
learning. But organic agriculture is not a small farmer unit, it is not even a
broader political proposal; it is broader than that. Organic agriculture goes
from being an instrument of technological transformation to an instrument for
transforming society.
Society does not have
to be detached from technology. Technology is an expression of society and this
is what we want. We don’t want to change technology; we want to transform
society, thereby changing the technological proposal. Today the opposite
occurs, the dominant type of technology proposes a society subjugated to
industry, and we want the opposite and here I use one sentence quite a lot... "my dream is to construct a being, an
ideal state of a being, so that I shall not be the ideal being of the State".
I want to fight for this ideal state of being so that I won’t be the ideal of
the State; that is not to be slavish.
Industrial agriculture is no longer able to
respond to the crisis of societal change. On the contrary it is causing the
crisis, because agriculture and the food system wants to enslave society, concentrating
economic revenues. This hungry
proposal of accumulating capital by all means causes a crisis, and farmers see
that this is not a technological issue but an economic crisis that in turn is a
political crisis. Capitalism is its own gravedigger in
this respect.
JF - What are the obstacles facing organic
agriculture?
There are three obstacles. The first is the
State. It has little societal commitment and no desire to change. Industry is
where the power lies, and politicians are temporary. In Latin America industry
is power and politicians are temporarily there as its representatives.
The second obstacle is the monolithic
approach of Universities. The term University
is derived from "universities", the universal set of knowledge
possible to dream up, construct, and propose a thesis. Today Universities don’t
propose theses, they propose ‘research’ but already know the results. This is adjusted research. Industry does not
need universities for knowledge, as they conduct more research themselves, what
they need is legitimacy. People have an idea that university is "free,
public and serves the people". That’s a lie, the university doesn’t
represent the citizenry, more so, if universities were to close farmers
wouldn’t even notice, the social impact of universities is negligible as
compared to farmers. People think that Universities are prestigious; this is
still the image that is maintained, like a veil. The truth is that the University
is a brothel, where knowledge and technology are prostituted.
The third obstacle is rural outreach, the
system for disseminating information to farmers. It has been created on a lie.
It assumes farmers as a technological consumer unit rather than as a cultural
entity. The agricultural supply industry can sell products through operatives
that need very little training – you don’t need to be an agronomist, to be a
mugger you don’t need to go to college.
Organic agriculture is about rural
communication, where discussion and dialogue is held, where the farmer is
recognized as having something to give, as they know the territory. The farmer
provides the context and the background, and then others coming in can see the
potential or possibilities. This is the basis for developing organic
agriculture where both parties can grow together.
JF – Can you tell me about the impact of
your work on climate change?
Jairo - Its very simple. The more we can
build life in the soil, the less carbon will be in the atmosphere. So for
example the herbicide industry should pay for carbon emissions, not only for
killing life but also in the embodied oil within the product itself. Fungicides greatly modify the climate, why?
Because they are selective and modify the food networks connecting microbiology
and decomposition. When decomposition of organic matter is paralysed and
modified this releases more carbon. On the other hand the proposal of organic
agriculture is to increase soil life and to trap carbon within productive
systems.
JF – You have worked for the United Nations. They
have proclaimed this year the year of the
Soil. What do you think of this?
Jairo – They have a
year for everything. Saying it’s the year
of the Soil is like saying its International Life Year! Every single day
humanity is related to soil. Our stomach does not exist without being tied to
the soil – without soil there is no life, so why have one year that is for
soil? Its madness.
Jairo Restrepo Rivera has published 40 scientific papers and 14
books on organic agriculture. He has participated in more than 500 conferences
on the subject of organic agriculture and worked with 37 universities. He has
worked as a consultant for governments and parliaments and is the founder of
various NGO’s, foundations, programs, and international initiatives. He has
taught over 400 courses in 52 countries, is a consultant to the UN, UNESCO and
Panama and FAO in Chile and Brazil. –
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