We have already talked about synergistic agriculture in a previous article, but today we would like to explore in depth the life and aspirations of its creator, the Spaniard Emilia Hazelip (Barcelona, 1937 – Carcassonne, 2003).
When she was born in 1937, bombs were falling on her home city, Barcelona, and when Emilia turned 18 she decided to leave Spain embarking on a path of lively questioning of established patterns. Already in the early ’60s Emilia experimented with community life at the dawn of the hippie movement, soon realising how the practices of ploughing and cultivation on uncovered land were absolutely against nature. At the same time Emilia wanted to find different forms to live in contact with the earth, respecting the laws of nature and reintegrating the human being into the cycle of life.
She learnt many things working at ecological farms in California and the south-west of the United States, she met authors who taught how to cultivate without working the land (for example Ruth Stout) and the raised bed cultivation system (Alan Chadwick). Her insights found confirmation when, over 40 years old, she discovered the work of Fukuoka, which she applied also integrating elements of Permaculture into it.
A tireless creator and careful observer of nature, she dedicated all her commitment to trying to heal the damage that the traditional agricultural system has caused to the earth. She did this by creating methods, foundations, practices and theories and teaching wherever she was called. She left without any warning, she had so much energy that it didn’t seem she should ever be extinguished. Only a year before she was involved in various projects and with so many things to do that sometimes she said: “thank goodness I’ve programmed myself to live 120 years”.
As an activist in ecological movements she happened to breathe tear gas launched during demonstrations, suffering asthma problems from it. Sudden respiratory complications forced her into hospital where, a few days later, she passed away in her sleep.
Emilia Hazelip was born the same year in which Fukuoka began to outline his Natural Agriculture, a system that allows cultivation without working the land and which is considered to be the first great agricultural reform since agriculture has existed. After 17 years of personal and professional research, in 1978 Emilia discovered the work of this microbiologist and Japanese farmer which confirmed her insights on the soil’s capacity to self-fertilise when its natural dynamics are respected.
Emilia explains it thus in her video on synergistic agriculture published by herself in April 1995 and in which she shows step by step the creation of an edible garden created on a hectare of land: “Fukuoka’s work was the proof that my intuition was valid, namely that working the land is not necessary. However when I began to imitate him, the results I was getting were so poor that I rapidly understood the necessity to modify and adapt his system to other cultural and climatic conditions, thus what I decided to call Synergistic Agriculture was born”.
Everything is united and interconnected
Emilia found in her model the agriculture of the next millennium and had the opportunity to experiment with it with excellent results in countries with high population density and scarcity of means. “Personally I consider the destructuring of the soil, keeping it artificially fertile, fattening it with fertilisers, compost, etc., both an error that has been repeated since the beginnings of agriculture and now is the time to remedy this mistake responsible for so much erosion of the planet” she continuously insisted.
In the numerous courses she taught throughout Europe, particularly France, Italy, Switzerland and Spain, she committed herself to leading her students to understand starting from a broad and global vision the interaction and unity of all things: “the originality of Permaculture is that it realises at the same time a practical project, we learn to think globally, to see connections. And when we overcome the initial vertigo of using our mind in multiple and simultaneous directions, we feel a deep peace, allowing the brain to function with its complementary hemispheres, in creative harmony, manifesting itself here and now, without parasitism…
To feel good about ourselves we must feel that the planet is also well, everything is in everything and we are not an exception. Even if culturally we have lost the state of grace, as human beings we can reintegrate it and there ecology begins”. In her courses work was always intensive, in 10 days the vegetable gardens, compost toilets, chicken coops, greenhouses and everything that was missing to leave the project ready was built. The dimensions of the land didn’t frighten her and it was easy for her to circumvent the specific problems of the place to instead draw from it a source of resources for the project itself.
In recent years Emilia asked for continuity in the projects she collaborated on in design: at least 3 years of application of the principles of Synergistic Agriculture to give time for the land to self-regulate. There were many vegetable gardens started and few that, after an initial enthusiasm, continued to respect the basic principles. “Conventional patterns and myths about the needs of a vegetable garden are so deeply rooted in us that a total change in the relationship with the land must be undertaken”.
Emilia decided to be part of the solution
In her deep reflections Emilia was saddened by the predatory reality that man has created in his rush to exploitation, “An economy based on continuous growth cannot sustain itself indefinitely, it’s not lasting. However admitting this means accepting that our system is false…, and, obviously, it’s easier to get rid of minorities, start wars, repress and suppress entire populations… than to admit our mistake”.
Her vision of the future led her to an apparent dead end, “Western culture reasons in terms of natural resources when it considers the planet’s wealth. Water and air, elements that were believed to be inexhaustible, are beginning to be fragile resources whose scarcity is really difficult to remedy. For this reason when the consequences of the planet’s exploitation are analysed deeply sadness seizes us… it’s like a duel with life, with ourselves and with the beings dearest to us. What can be done? How to be again an integral part of the planet’s life? How to come out of an immoral and parasitic economy? How to prevent this planetary genocide, this collective suicide?”
However Emilia found the key in herself, she decided to be part of the solution, to make her life an example of return to the laws of nature, to work in favour of life creating real alternatives to a model of coexistence with oneself, with others and with the planet that is unsustainable, parasitic as she would say. Her enthusiasm and the certainty with which it’s possible to live what one aspires to were contagious. Mother of two daughters and happy grandmother of three grandchildren (the last was born after her departure), Emilia often said that they were her priority.
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