{"id":26728,"date":"2018-06-08T12:19:59","date_gmt":"2018-06-08T10:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosufficienza.dartmoon.dev\/who-was-emilia-hazelip\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T16:50:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T15:50:18","slug":"who-was-emilia-hazelip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.autosufficienza.it\/en\/who-was-emilia-hazelip\/","title":{"rendered":"Who was Emilia Hazelip"},"content":{"rendered":"

We have already talked about synergistic agriculture<\/strong> in a previous article<\/a>, but today we would like to explore in depth the life and aspirations of its creator, the Spaniard Emilia Hazelip<\/strong> (Barcelona, 1937 \u2013 Carcassonne, 2003).<\/p>\n

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<\/strong> 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<\/strong>, respecting the laws of nature and reintegrating the human being into the cycle of life.<\/p>\n

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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<\/strong> system (Alan Chadwick). Her insights found confirmation when, over 40 years old, she discovered the work of Fukuoka<\/strong>, which she applied also integrating elements of Permaculture<\/strong> into it.<\/p>\n

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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<\/strong> 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”.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Emilia Hazelip was born the same year in which Fukuoka began to outline his Natural Agriculture<\/strong>, 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<\/strong> when its natural dynamics are respected.<\/p>\n

Emilia explains it thus in her video<\/strong> on synergistic agriculture published by herself in April 1995 and in which she shows step by step the creation of an edible garden<\/strong> 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<\/strong> was born”.<\/p>\n