Sepp Holzer
Sepp Holzer is a farmer, an author, and an international consultant for natural agriculture. After an upbringing in a traditional Catholic rural family in Austria, he took over his parents’ mountain farm business in 1962 and became well-known for his use of ecological farming, or permaculture, techniques at high altitudes after being unsuccessful with regular farming methods.
Holzer was called the “agricultural rebel” because he persisted, despite being fined and even threatened with prison, with practices such as not pruning his fruit trees. He is treated like royalty in Ukraine and Russia, where he is helping the development of Anastasia-inspired Ecovillages.
He is constantly consulting and traveling the world as his technique is unique on how to restore nature by developing decentralized water retention spaces. Holzer believes that to repair our world-wide natural environment, the water cycle needs to be fully operational, which will result in a green planet and stop desertification. Also unique to his technique is aquaculture (water retention spaces and crater gardens), terraces and designed Raised Beds (hugel cultures) Sepp Holzer is able to successfully grow his plants without using any fertilizer, herbicides or pesticides by maximizing the abundance of healthy soil life on his farm (microbes, mycelium, earthworms, insects etc.). He also does not need artificial irrigation, because he catches the rain water and even creates springs on his land.
Sepp concludes that natural disasters and catastrophes are happening:
“when too many people are acting stupid at the same time” by not understanding nature’s one and only truth.”
Location: Burgenland, Austria.
Books: Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture, Desert or Paradise
Website: 1) http://www.seppholzer.info 2) https://www.seppholzer.at/english
Video 1: Holtzer’s Mountain Farm
Video 2: Water is Life
