Permasolutions
I’ve been a fan of Maarten Stapper’s work for a while now. In fact, further below you’ll find an article I wrote, way back in 2007, about his experiences at the hands of his former employer — Australia’s publicly funded CSIRO agricultural research body. I’d recommend you read the article before watching Maarten’s IPC10 Convergence presentation, as it’ll give you a good backgrounder on his valuable work and his commendable ethics. I say ethics because instead of compromising his principles so as to retain favour with those putting bread on his table, he stood his ground… and got sacked instead.
While too many scientists will simply turn a blind eye to retain their paychecks, often with disastrous consequences for society, Maarten persevered in speaking the truth about the root causes of, and the solutions for, Australia’s agricultural and environmental problems, whilst speaking out against the Big Biotech multi-nationals and their ’science’ that ignored both. The article below is an infuriating read, but I think sometimes it’s good to get infuriated about critical issues….
In Maarten’s video presentation above he lays out the truth about most of our specialised, reductionist, western agricultural research — that follow-the-money tragedy that sees all research compartmentalised and isolated and which incentivises all the wrong activities. With good doses of science and common sense, he leads you through a progression of thought that brings us to the great need of the day — participatory research by and for farmers and gardeners everywhere.
Watch Maarten’s second presentation : Biological Agriculture – a Third Way?
Original location and more info here:
http://permaculture.org.au/2011/10/20/maarten-stapper-agricultural-science-an...
