Struggles from below

Gaia theory proposes that the Earth and its natural cycles can be thought of as akin to a living organism. When one cycle disturbs the natural equilibrium, the others work to bring it back into balance. Despite an initially frosty reception, the theory—coined in the 1960s by scientist Dr James Lovelock—has been gaining traction in recent years, as the world comes to terms with its impending climate reckoning. And now it seems some farmers are putting the concept into practice.

We learnt this week, via a fascinating longread by Mongabay, about syntropic agriculture—a new brand of organic farming that imitates nature using agroforestry techniques. It’s creator, the Brazilian-based Swiss agronomist and cocoa farmer Ernst Götsch, believes the system can replace the Green Revolution model that took over agriculture in the 1950s using advances in agrochemistry. Götsch’s system is climate-friendly, ecologically sustainable and cost-efficient, and growing numbers of Brazilian soy farmers are turning to it. 

The syntropic model puts the forest front and centre: a self-sufficient agroforestry system in which different plants interact with one another and, over time, form increasingly complex ecosystems and more fertile soils. Modern agriculture's pesticides and fertilisers give way to intelligent design and management, and crop diversity trumps the Green Revolution’s monocultures. 

But farmers still have an important role to play regularly trimming the rows of trees that flank the crops. “We are the giraffe,” says Götsch. “Trimming stimulates the growth of the plants, creates biomass which is added to the soil as a fertiliser, and makes the light come in which stimulates the photosynthesis and therefore absorbs more carbon dioxide.”

Götsch employs the syntropic model on his 120-hectare farm in Gandú, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, which he won 30 years ago in a bet over whether the model would actually work. Today, he produces 920 kilograms of cocoa beans per hectare, more than three times the average in Brazil. And because he doesn’t spend money on fertilisers and pesticides, he also enjoys higher margins than his competitors. 

Nature-based farming solutions such as these are growing in popularity across the world, as crop yields suffer the consequences of climate change and years of synthetic modification of the land. A growing wave of British farmers are swapping conventional, chemical-heavy farming practices for regenerative agriculture: a system of farming that prioritises soil health, helping to boost biodiversity and sequester carbon back into the ground. And the country’s new agriculture bill pledges to reward farmers for environmental benefits such as improved water and air quality, higher animal welfare standards, or measures to reduce flooding.

In Guatemala, a programme run by Catholic Relief Services is teaching farmers best practices to increase the adaptability of their crops to the changing climate. Seeing a 41% better yield than their counterparts, these farmers are leaving crop brush—leaves, stalks, and stems—in the field to act as a mulch and retain moisture; and planting trees to provide additional shade and nutrients for the soil.

Some Canadian farmers are now using bees to spread organic fertilisers on their crops. As the bees leave their hives, they’re coated with a special fungus that they pass on to the plants, protecting fruits like strawberries from disease. 

And in India, tribal farmers are returning to indigenous crops to restore ecosystems and ensure yield in the changing climate. The indigenous seeds are resistant to different prime pests and diseases and are highly adapted to the climatic conditions of the local land.

“The decline of advanced civilisations has always been initiated by an exhaustion of natural resources, beginning with the Romans and continuing with the Mayans,” says Götsch. “Nature has so far always recovered from human inflicted setbacks.” He concludes, as Lovelock once did, that we could do better by working with nature than fighting against it.