Agroforestry for a Cooler, Greener Future – a Talk by Michael Pilarski

Growing trees in perennial forested systems (food forests) alongside annual crops and animals is one of the most effective and quickest ways to cool the planet while restoring ecosystems and feeding human communities. Michael Pilarski shares his personal insights and first-hand decades-long experience in the design and implementation of these systems in this video (a preview of his presentation at the upcoming Global Earth Repair Convergence):

Agroforestry runs the gamut from ancient European hedgerows and silvopasture systems to more modern setups like Syntropic farming or Holistic Management. It blends biodiversity, productivity and climate control by seamlessly integrating the disparate elements of a working farm into an ecosystem where exponential positive trends can emerge and biomass can accumulate – improving the health of the land with time rather than diminishing it.

Even the simplest interventions, like planting windbreaks, integrating medicinal shrubs into the understory, or planting trees along canals and ponds, improves the resilience of your system. Many such adaptations interacting supports ecosystem development that supports and feeds all of nature, humans included. Agroforestry systems can sequester carbon, harvest water, improve yields, reduce fires and other natural disasters, and even – if the emerging concept of the biotic pump is accurate – change the weather for the better.

With his half a century of experience teaching and designing with permaculture, and setting up several food-and-medicine forests throughout Washington State, Michael shows us how practical, scalable and time-tested these strategies are, and inspires us to start our own – or get involved where others have begun the process!