Biointensive for Russia

Welcome to BfR!

Biointensive for Russia is a people-to-people agroecology project, fiscally sponsored by Ecology Action. We promote GROW BIOINTENSIVE sustainable mini-farming through Russian-language publications, seminars hosted by ecology groups and agricultural colleges in Russian-speaking Eurasia, and experiments conducted by our partner organizations. Since the citizen diplomacy era of the 1980s, we have developed a network of Eurasians who offer models of sustainable living to people who are concerned about their own and children's and grandchildren's future food security. One of our Eurasian partners, the Grassroots Alliance PERESVET in Bryansk, Russia, has developed a Russian-language website on Biointensive.

To help support our work in Eurasia, we have held many fundraising events in Palo Alto and now Ojai, CA, often with sustainable living themes. These have included solar cooking, double-digging, food preservation, and junk mail reduction workshops, as well as Biointensive and Permaculture garden tours. Our first events in Ojai (a link to news of our move is in the box at right) have included several garden and orchard tours and introductory Biointensive workshops, and an Afternoon of Eurasian Music and Cuisine, featuring outstanding area musicians Daniel Eshoo, Raymond Powers, Montino Bourbon del Monte, and Rod Martinez.

As of this writing, for July 17, 2010 we've scheduled Songs of Nature and Love by Palo Alto soprano/lute player Doris Williams, along with Eurasian buffet, orchard tour, double-digging demo, and slides of Russian gardens. Feel free to contact us for details!

Our Russian partners continue to be active

In May of this year, Dr. Igor Prokofyev of the Grassroots Alliance PERESVET attended the Latin American conference "Biointensive Farming: Sustainable Agriculture in a Changing Climate" near Mexico City. The conference was organized by Ecology Action, Ecopol (Mexico), and Fundacion ADYS (Ecuador), and was attended by over 200 Latin American teachers and one Kenyan. Igor presented a well-received report to a large audience on radioactive contamination (from Chernobyl) of the soils in his region, explaining how Biointensive methods can reduce the uptake of radioactivity into the vegetables, at the same time as it increases yields and builds soil. BfR Is supporting a series of experiments proving these points. For more information on Biointensive work in the Bryansk region including an exciting village school-based experiment, see our newsletters.

Our publication work

Currently we are actively working on preparations for publishing translations of Ecology Action's Test Your Soil With Plants and Future Futility by John Beeby: excerpts of the GROW BIOINTENSIVE Basic-Level Training Manual, and a second printing of a translation of The Sustainable Vegetable Garden by Carol Cox and John Jeavons. These will need financial support when the time comes for printing. Please get in touch if you'd like to help!

If you're interested in learning more about BfR, be sure to follow the links to other newsletters. And do contact us for occasional free email updates, to join our e-list, Local or National, for news of our and our partners' activities!

Your financial support is needed for future publications and workshops. So, if possible, please also join us. In return, we'll keep you up-to-date with annual paper newsletters, and welcome even more your emails and calls!