“HAPPY SOBRIETY” TO SAVE MAN AND THE PLANET EARTH, SAYS THE FRENCH GURU OF AGRO ECOLOGY PIERRE RABHI. “FOOD SHOULD NOT TRAVEL. ONLY A FEW PRODUCTS CAN TRAVEL WELL. WE MUST PRODUCE OUR FOOD LOCALLY AND LIVE IN MODERATION”

Create a new global model of development and life, based on man’s primary needs, with the main objective being agro-ecology. It’s time to start realizing that producing and consuming until the end of our existence is not the true vocation of humanity. And, it must be done soon because time is running out. This is the warning from Pierre Rabhi, 72, a pioneer of organic farming in France and International expert in the fight against desertification. He is also a writer and philosopher and has created many agriculture projects all over the world, especially in Africa (the “Pierre Rabhi Foundation” for agro ecology and food autonomy should be launched March).

“We are very far from being out of the crisis. Those who say it is over, he said to Adnkronos, are unrealistic and hypocrites”. The way forward is through “happy sobriety” where man and nature are at the center of life. “Our model of development, instead of producing happiness and friendliness, has produced poverty and the depletion of resources necessary for life, leading us to destruction”.
For Rabhi, it is imperative to realize that we cannot apply an infinite principle to a finite planet. “Urban concentration is very dangerous. Cities do not respond to the inhabitants’ needs because they are unable to produce the food necessary to satisfy everyone: the ratio between the capacity of producing and consumption is too dissimilar.”
“there are other disturbing phenomena: the land destroyed by chemicals, polluted water, the bees are disappearing, biofuels occupy land taken away from agricultural, and the ”deception” of GMOs, genetically modified and patented organisms. There is a collective human irresponsibility in relation to its survival.” We must re-locate economic activity, produce and consume conserving our common goods, which are the earth and plant and animal biodiversity. “Food must not travel. Only few products can. We have to produce food locally and live in moderation”.



Focus - Who is Pierre Rabhi

Born in 1938 in southern Algeria, Rabhi is the son of a blacksmith, who was also a musician and poet, forced to work in a mine. After his mother died, at five years old, Rabhi was entrusted to a French couple. He received a European education while keeping his culture of origin. When he was 20, he went to Paris. Since he had no specific qualifications (“I was always bored in school because they did not answer basic questions I was always asking myself”) he began working on a farm as a skilled worker.
experience became an interesting observation point in understanding the real condition of human beings in the modern world. After three years in Paris, Rabhi decided to leave the capital in 1961, with his wife, and settle in Ardeche, in South Eastern France. He became a farm worker and quickly opposed the logic of productivity applied to agriculture. In 1972, after discovering ecological and organic agriculture (especially by reading books by Rudolf Steiner and Ehrenfried Pfeiffer) he decided to apply these methods to his small farm and created what he likes to call, an oasis of life.
this, despite the fact his farm was located in a place where agricultural conditions were extreme: little water and rocky land. His five children were born on the farm and Rabhi transmitted his passion to them: one of his daughters opened a Montessori school, and three of his sons have created a green engine. Little by little Rabhi began to make his work public, spreading the concept of agro-ecology based on the principle that land can feed a family without upsetting the ecosystem: no fertilizers, no pesticides, and parsimonious usage of water. This technique shows that we can reconcile the need for survival and respect for nature. Rabhi is committed to applying these methods where the land is the most ungrateful. Between the end of the ‘70s and through the ‘80s he created several training programs in France, Europe and Africa.
articular, he participated in several International programs, including some under the auspices of the U.N. in Morocco, Palestine, Algeria, Tunisia, Senegal, Togo, Benin, Mauritania, Poland and Ukraine. In the ‘90s he created the association Terre & Humanisme (Land and Humanism) to transmit the ethics and the practices of agro-ecology and launched new initiatives in Niger, Mali and Morocco.
002, Rabhi, urged by some friends, decided to campaign for the Presidential election. He received wide consensus, but not enough signatures to officially run in the race for the Elysee Palace. In 2006 he started “Colibris”, his “Movement for Land and Humanism”. He has implemented many projects in France. Among these, the Monastery of Salan, in the South of the country, where the nuns apply its lessons to organic farming: an experience that could soon spread to the Rumanian Orthodox monasteries. Then there’s the Hameau des Buis, in Ardeche, an experience that began in 2003: a school and a farm with a total of 20 rooms. In March, the “Pierre Rabhi Foundation” for agro ecology and food autonomy should be launched. This is Rabhi. A man who, as the famous violinist Yehudi Menuhin said “has fertilized dusty lands with his sweat, a job that restores the chain of life we are constantly interrupting”.

Source: ADNKRONOS