Earth and ethics | Maxime de Rostolan | TEDxTours

This presentation was done during an local TEDX event, produced independently of TED conferences.

All the solutions are in nature.

Good evening.

I'm delighted to be here tonight
to share a vision,

a social project.

Since I turned 20, I've been trying
to find solutions to change the world

with all my energy and beliefs.

Through searching, I realized
that we had a partner of choice with us,

a partner we tend to forget
and even mistreat.

It's not just any partner
but a laboratory,

an incredible laboratory
with 3 billion years of experience.

It's the laboratory of the living.

Nature has developed
incredible technologies

to overcome all the challenges
it has been confronted with,

that are energy-efficient
since they only work with solar energy,

that are resilient, know how to adapt,
and do not produce any waste.

Gaudi used to say, "The architect of the
future will build by imitating Nature,

for it is the most rational, long-lasting
and economical of all methods."

And he was right.

We became capable of flying a helicopter
from the observation of dragonflies.

Japanese engineers, although brilliant,
performed a simple copy-paste

of the nose of the kingfisher
to design their high-speed train.

Drawing one's inspiration from Nature
is called "biomimetics".

American Janine Benyus,
a pioneer in that field,

wrote an incredible and
interesting book on the subject.

This 600-page book, references
all the clean and circular solutions

that could be adapted
from Nature to our societal issues

with regard to energy,
transportation, health,

business management, and food.

She dedicates the first chapter
of her book to agriculture.

She concludes these 70 first pages
by saying, if we are sincerely convinced

that a new world must be created
for the good of future generations,

then the base on which to build
this new paradigm is agriculture.

So I got very interested in this subject
and I understood quite a few things,

notably how the history
of food and agriculture

had been remodeled
in a context of cheap oil.

In 50 years, we divide our
energy efficiency by 25

in order to produce food.

In 1940, we could produce 2.4 food
calories with one fossil calorie.

Today, we need 7 to 10 fossil calories
to produce one food calorie.

Is that not incredible?

But why is that?

Well, it is due to our production methods

such as tractors that burn
25 liters of gasoline per hour.

It's due to the massive spreading
of petrochemical products.

It's due to packaging and the fact that,
when you eat a cooked dish,

it has traveled 900 miles
before landing on your plate.

Fortunately, concerning
food and agriculture,

Nature has so much to teach us.

A forest, for example, produces 600 times
more biomass than a wheat field.

Finding our inspiration in Nature
to do farming is called "permaculture".

It comes from "permanent culture".

If we want to be strict, permaculture

is the art and philosophy of designing
balanced human ecosystems.

So strictly speaking,
it is not an agricultural method.

Permaculture can be done by managing
our company or our family

which have to be
balanced human ecosystems.

It can be done by constructing
a positive-energy building,

or by producing object from waste
using 3D printing.

So what does Nature teach us?
It teaches us quite a few things.

The first lesson we can learn from her

is that the ground
should never be left bare.

You will never see, in Nature,
a piece of land without anything on it.

As soon as a ray of sun
hits the ground,

a plant develops and grows
through photosynthesis.

And that's a good thing
because it is thanks to plants

that there is life in the soil.

You can imagine that
in the Beauce cereal plains

that are exposed
for the most part of winter,

earthworms have nothing to eat,
decomposers have nothing to decompose.

And when there are no plants,
there are no roots either,

so when it rains, nothing
retains the soil and it erodes,

the ground disintegrates, and we lose
tons of humus and fertility every year.

You can clearly see it in the rivers
at the end of the winter,

all the carried soil
coming from our fields.

Now to avoid this in permaculture,
we mulch, we cover the ground with straw,

or with grass cuttings, or with RCW -
Ramial Chip Wood.

We can also make green fertilizers.

They are plants that we put
between two crops, in a rotation.

These green fertilizers fix nitrogen
in the soil, so they fertilize.

And that is what's awesome
in permaculture.

It is that one action may have several
incidences, several functions.

When we throw straw on the ground,

this creates organic material
and keeps the soil alive.

It also helps to avoid the growth
of adventitious plants, weeds,

because it obscures the ground,
so It saves a lot of weeding.

But the straw also allows to save water,

since it limits the
evapotranspiration of the ground,

thus preserving a freshness,
a true humidity.

So this is the kind of ideas we can have
thanks to Nature with regards to farming.

Another important Nature's teaching
is the culture of diversity.

It's impossible to know how many living
species there are in 100m2 of forest,

there are so many!

And this is precisely the key
to productivity, it is diversity.

In permaculture, we try to do the same
and maintain as many species as possible.

We combine plants, grow trees,

and try to get closer to edible forests.

We try to make it friendly
for insects and animals.

To control aphids, we rely on ladybirds.

To avert slugs, we welcome
hedgehogs or frogs.

If we were fighting aphids chemically,

the ladybird larvae would have nothing
to eat, so they would never come back,

and the following year, we would
be obliged to use pesticides.

So it's this kind of ideas that we should
take from Nature to cultivate differently.

Following my interest in this in 2010,
I discovered the farm of Bec Hellouin.

It's an absolutely incredible farm,
in Normandy, inspired by permaculture.

It's a lush farm,
a kind of garden of Eden.

It's so productive that it
is the subject of an INRA study

that proves that on a planted
area of 1000m2,

they're able to generate
€50,000 of turnover.

That's how much they made last year.

It's huge, it's ten times more
than in conventional agriculture.

There are a lot of farms
that function like this one.

There is an impressive farm
in Quebec, the Grelinette farm,

which inspires lots of followers.

So as I was convinced of the relevance
and the power of the project,

I met the INRA head of research

who is leading this study
of Bec Hellouin and asked him

how to help duplicate
this type of farm on the territory.

He told me that, as a researcher,

his purpose was to follow
a farm at a cruise pace,

like this one that gives real hopes
in terms of healthy intensive production.

But he was interested in following
a farm in its installation stage

because it's a period a bit complicated.

And it is this stage that serves
as an alibi to many unions

and many agricultural lobbies,
to leave the current model as it is.

Yet this current model
is on its very last legs, isn't it?

In 50 years, we have lost 1.5
million farms in France.

At the same time, we went
from 10% farmers to 2%.

We lost between one third and one half
of all the organic matter of our lands.

And we have no magic spell to recover it.

Tomorrow's model
will have to pollute less,

consume less resources
and employ more people.

And to employ more people,
it will be necessary

for some citizens to agree
to go back and live in the countryside

to recreate balanced human ecosystems
in France's abandoned villages.

Now it was easy for me to say this
from my little Parisian universe.

Since I had never planted a tomato,
I doubted I was really credible.

So, since I felt like it,
I decided to give it a try myself.

At the time, I was running
a publishing company.

I was making educational boards
on sustainable development,

working with Louis Albert of Broglie,
nicknamed the "prince gardener".

He's created the National Conservatory
of the Tomato not far from here,

with 650 varieties of tomatoes.

We decided we would make
this experimental farm,

on his land, on 1.4 hectares.

So I quit my job and trained
in organic farming,

I visited a lot of farms, set up a team,

and we created an association
called "Fermes d'Avenir."

We defined one challenge
and several objectives.

First, the challenge
is to scientifically prove

that agroecology can be more profitable
than conventional agriculture.

We know this for sure, and it is
what we are doing on this farm.

Our farm, on 1.4 hectares,
will cost us less than a tractor,

and it will not consume any oil.

If everything goes well, in year 4,
we'll be economically balanced,

and we would have created
three jobs on 1.4 acres.

Comparatively, three jobs
in conventional market gardening,

it's rather on 9 acres.

So we can employ six times more people
thanks to this type of agriculture.

Now, our objectives.

The first objective is to give
INRA researchers

all the numbers they need in order
to evaluate the economic model.

So we note everything at the farm.

We note the work time, the cost,
the evolution of productivity,

then they enter them
into their program,

and compare it to the traditional model.

The second objective
is to create a tool box

that would allow anyone
to recreate this experience,

to replicate this type of farm

because it is one of the real
revolutions of this project.

One of the true revolutions
that permaculture can bring

is to say that, to become farmer,
we no longer need 50 or 100 ha.

We can do it from one or two acres,
and this changes everything

because one or two acres
can be found everywhere.

Many landowners -

either individuals, businesses
or local communities -

would be willing to make available
one or two acres of land,

for example, to provide
for the canteen of a school.

The third objective
isn't the simplest one.

It's evaluating the ecosystem services
provided by this kind of agriculture.

Basically, we say farmers
are not here just to produce food.

They preserve biodiversity,
maintain the quality of water,

cultivate people's health when they
makes good products, imprison carbon,

shape landscapes,
create dynamics on the territory.

It's super complicated
to evaluate what this represents.

Imagine a system where worms
create fertility for free,

and another where we don't
have worms anymore

and we need to create
this fertility artificially.

How much must we spend to match
the efficiency of the worms?

Similarly, you probably know
that bees are becoming extinct.

In China right now, they're paying people

to pollinate by hand
the apple trees growing in orchards.

Is it not utterly absurd?

So to evaluate all this,
with our association,

we've created a scientific committee

that estimates the positive impacts
and try to put a figure on it.

If we succeed, we'll be able to convince
the politicians that it's smarter

to finance now this type of agriculture

than paying fortunes
in a few years to repair the damage.

They don't really need
our numbers to start.

Are you familiar
with endocrine disruptors?

It costs 80 billions a year in France,
and it's just because of pesticides.

It is said that we don't have
enough money to stop pesticides,

but in fact in doing so,
we save 80 billions.

So we can finance this right now.

You understand that we're
trying to give a societal

or even political dimension
to our project.

So we want to make it
part of an economic reality

because this is the only
condition for us to be able

to spread it and duplicate it
on the territory.

So there's a number
we need to keep in mind.

It is that 70% of fruit and vegetables
in France are sold in supermarkets

or in hard discount stores.

So from the start, we wanted to associate
to this approach large-scale retailers

because we won't be able to change
the agricultural model without them.

Therefore, we went to meet them
and, surprisingly, they welcomed us.

Well, it was not totally surprising
since when we met them,

it was the horse meat lasagna crisis.

So they were trying to find solutions
to win their customers back,

to work on the traceability
of their suppliers.

Maybe it was a bit a PR stunt,
but it was more than that

because economically, it is very
profitable for them, it's logical.

Today, they're buying tomatoes
that come for Spain.

They know very well that when
the oil barrel'll be worth $300 or 500,

Spansih tomatoes will
no longer be able to compete

with local tomatoes
or even organic ones.

Concretely, we launched this farm
one year and a half ago.

We are up to our objectives.

We are very satisfied to see
that Nature is generous.

If we take good care of it,
it gives it back.

Personally, I've discovered a job.

I became a market gardener,
I put my hands in the soil.

It's a fascinating job with a lot
of things to do and in the open air.

I lost five kilos,
I'm tanned all year round.

I'm quite happy.

Still, we should not
idealize farmer's job.

There are quite a few
things left to invent.

An agriculturist's job remains
a complicated one.

You must be technically good,
be diligent, manage your bills,

be in top form all the time,
sell well and buy well.

It's a very complete and complex job.
You have to be a bit like Superman.

So if we want to create
200 or 500,000 jobs in agriculture,

we won't find 200 or 500,000
Superman volunteers.

So there are quite a few jobs to invent.

We thought of something -
well, it's a bit of a big word -

a job that does not exist today
but will exist tomorrow,

and it is "farm manager".

We think that a motivated agriculturist
can easily create 5 to 10 micro-farms

like that of the Bourdaisiere.

That way, they'd pool many things,
administration, marketing,

tools such as a tractor, a crusher,
or a transformation unit, why not?

This job, we call it "countryculturist".

because we think that they're people
who will cultivate a country,

cultivate something very local
and get involved in their territory.

And this thing is missing.

So you have it, it's the project
I wanted to talk about tonight.

It seems to me that we can
all participate in this dynamic.

Quite a few people
are in search of meaning,

thinking they don't really know
what the point of their work is,

who would perhaps like
to live in the countryside.

Well, they can try and become part-time
countryculturists or market gardeners.

They can invent other jobs
in distribution and transformation.

Those who don't necessarily
want to change jobs,

you can still consume local
and organic, it's really important.

People say consuming organic products
is expensive but, in fact, it's not.

It's just that junk food
is totally subsidized.

We pay for it several times:

with our taxes, with the CAP,
and with the induced health costs.

There is another very important lever,
it's financing this type of activity.

Because conventional banks
like conventional agriculture.

A few years ago, when I discovered this,

I set up a crowd-funding platform
called Blue Bees.

It allows Internet users, citizens,
to give or to lend money to projects,

like this one, agroecological projects.

Thanks to this, when you lend,
you can get 2 to 3% interests,

two to three times what you get
from your saving account.

It's better than leaving
your money to a banker

who will finance offshore
platforms in Antarctica, right?

With your grey matter, your arms,

your wallet or your plate, you can
all participate in this movement.

In the meantime,
we will go on experimenting,

creating projects, developing jobs,

and lobbying for politicians
to accompany this movement

with incentive policies
and tax arrangements.

We're maybe less strong than the lobbies

and have less elements of persuasion
than the food lobbies,

but we're much more numerous,

and the world that we're promoting
is much more desirable, isn't it?

It's a world in which we would
reconcile Nature and the city,

travel and pleasure,
alimentation and health.

Victor Hugo once said:

"It's sad to think that Nature speaks
and men is not listening."

So I propose to you that for once,
we prove Mr Hugo wrong

and all together, we build
a society of common sense,

a resilient and fertile world.

Thank you.

(Applause)