106 Acre Profitable Permaculture Farm – Interview with Mark Shepard

Leader in Sustainable Development: Mark Shepard

The Full Interview

Audio Only

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Synopsis

In this interview we discuss Mark Shepard’s 106 acre profitable permaculture farm – New Forest Farm. Specifically:

-Mark’s decision to use permaculture in his farm

-Perennials vs. Annuals in Agriculture

-The history of annuals and the future of them

-Rainwater Harvesting

-Composting

-Humanure

-Miscellaneous Goodness

About Mark Shepard

Mark Shepard is the CEO of Forest Agriculture Enterprises and runs New Forest Farm, the 106 acre perennial agricultural forest considered by many to be one of the most ambitious sustainable agriculture projects in the United States.

New Forest Farm is a planned conversion of a typical row-crops grain farm into a commercial-scale, perennial agricultural ecosystem using oak savannah, successional brushland and eastern woodlands as the ecological models

Trees, shrubs, vines, canes, perennial plants and fungi are planted in association with one another to produce food (for humans and animals), fuel, medicines, and beauty. Hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts and various fruits are the primary woody crops. The farm is entirely solar and wind powered and farm equipment is powered with locally produced biofuels that are not taken from the human food chain.

Trained in both mechanical engineering and ecology, Mark has developed and patented equipment and processes for the cultivation, harvesting and processing of forest derived agricultural products for human foods and bio fuels production. Mark was certified as a Permaculture designer in 1993 and received his Diploma of Permaculture design from Bill Mollison, the founder of the international Permaculture movement.

What I Learned

This was all about his profitable permaculture farm in Wisconsin. He has about 106 acres and grows primarily perennials. He continued to advocate for the need to move towards perennial subsistence as opposed to annual based agriculture.

Annuals vs. Perennials

He says annual crops are far too input intensive. Currently his farm is not mechanized but he does have plans to move in that direction. He talked about the history of annuals and that they came from nomads where the woman and slaves would tend the annual plots in the camps where animals had trampled on the ground.

Rainwater Harvesting

He also spoke about rainwater harvesting and that a single rainwater barrel is no good. He advocated for building the water retention in the soil. Said his groundwater is contaminated and has to triple filter it before he drinks it just like people in the city.

The water storage that he owns has a holding capacity roughly equivalent to that of his roof. Rainwater barrels are far too small.

Conventional Composting

Another thing. He said the idea of composting is crazy. To take the ag waste, mulch it up. Turn it over and over, then return it to the field to be applied is too much work.  Instead he leaves everything in place to let nature do its work. Much smarter, less input.

Humanure

Regarding human waste composting, he is a fan indeed, but says that the amount of fertilizer to be produced from one family from a composting toilet for a year is barely over a wheelbarrow full. Which is good, but not a huge deal.

Instead he looks to the city to use it more. However he did say two things.

First, he uses his human compost but not on anything edible, mainly on wooded things. Like trees I suppose.

The second thing he said is that the human waste is actually being used now on ag fields which is good.

UPDATE 4/21: “Sewage Sludge is being used on conventional ag land. It is NOT composted… If it were composted, there would be less of it to haul, and more of the pathogens would be destroyed.

This is something I want to learn more about.

Miscellaneous Goodness

That’s good for now, rainwater, building the soil. Let the rodents dig holes away from the frozen ground where water cannot be absorbed and down into the fresh earth where the water can be absorbed.

Also, the first thing he does with a site is to build swales that capture water for the trees that he is soon to plant.

He uses alley cropping to plant a row of trees on each side of the alley and grazing in between, so that the animals can come through and fertilize his fields.