Ramial Chipped Wood, a natural reading of life - Jacky Dupéty at TEDxParis

Jacky Dypéty shows how he applies the natural mechanisms of the forest to agriculture at TEDxParis 2011.

(Applause)

Hello,

I would like you to touch wood,

that is if you know the phrase,

touch wood.

The simplest way,

is when we talk about 2003

and about the heat wave we had,

which was perhaps worse in the countryside

as far as crops were concerned,

so here it is, 2003, that's my place,

and that's what grew then

and what I did not harvest.

When you go through such an ordeal,

that you chose to move to the countryside

and to become a farmer,

you have the right to ask questions
about the future,

and that's why I brought you --

and I'm going to pass some around,

because I think that touching wood does you good.

It's soothing, it's also

pleasant and it smells nice.

So I'm going to give you a piece each,

if you want to pass them around too,

that's cherry tree wood, you know.

Cherry tree and prune tree.

There aren't many of those in Paris maybe,

but, here, pass them around,

then we'll do a simple experiment

to show you that in there,

in these branches,

the future of agriculture is at stake.

It may sound crazy, what I'm telling you,

the future of agriculture, we hear about it,

there are a lot of films about agriculture,

on the edge of tragedy... And it's true that

if we were to talk about it longer,

agriculture is on the edge of the abyss.

And we are on the edge of the abyss.

So I'm going to make you do
the same experience as I do.

Take this branch and do this.

You do this, you may form a circle

very easily.

What I went through in 2003,

I didn't go through it in 2004.

Because the flexibility
of these little branches

that are produced every year
and grow every day,

the forest makes them.

The best model we have in agriculture,

it's the forest.

Because the forest doesn't need
man's intervention.

Agriculture has drifted towards

subsidies, technology,

it cut farmers off the soil,

and farmers completely forgot

that the best model and the best way of life,
life's pragmatism,

urges us to watch how life works.

And the forest is the best example of life.

No human intervention, no watering,

no fertilizer, of course,
no pesticides, no fungicides,

it just about works by itself.

When I found out that
through these branches, their flexibility,

I wondered:

Why are those branches...

You take a bigger branch,

you reach the breaking point very quicly and it snaps!

Here, you make a circle out of the branch,

it could represent the virtuous circle

of the trees producing new branches every year,

but in huge quantities,

and you'll find explanations on the Internet

on the way the forest and its soil work.

What you learn is that those branches
are attached to the leaves,

and contrary to popular belief,

leaves fall to the ground

because they're fed up
with being attached to the branches,

it's because physiologically,
that's the intelligence of life,

the leaves will release 50 to 60%
of what they contain

to the branches.
And in that branch you're holding

and that I'm showing to you again because

that's where it all happens,
in that branch,

there are all the nutriments
which will allow in a few months

the buds appearing
to make new branches.

And within these new branches,

you have next year's branches.

That is to say trees start growing again

just through what lies inside that branch.

When it's thicker wood,

you don't have those nutriments.

So, when you read that, you think,

something can be done individually,

and so you try to tell it to your friends,

and you think you are going
to take some branches, cut them,

cut these branches,

and then the more you are,
the better the occasion to get together

and to enjoy it, and you cut the branches,

you pick them up, you pile them up,

and you put everyting in a grinder

so this is a technical operation

but it's not that complicated.

In Africa they do it with machetes,

You spread it on the floor,
a layer 3 to 5 cm thick, not more,

that's when you realize it's not,

when you have a garden,
it's not that complicated,

a 3 cm-thick layer of that material,

which is hidden, it's not open yet,
but I'll show it to you later.

Then, when it's on the ground,

in winter, in spring, you blend.

You will tell me, it's a matter of seasons,

seasons matter here, it's true.

When winter comes,
branches store all the nutriments.

That means it doesn't go anywhere else

but in the branches.
And it only happens

at that time.

When vegetations starts growing again in spring,

all these nutriments start flowing

in a very diffuse way.

So you proceed to what is called blending.

When you do that,

a few weeks later, you can see

that the soil you were farming,

it's real soil, the rocky ground
you saw at the beginning

became this!

Between 60 to 90 days
after spreading a 3 cm thick layer.

So that's the top,

and this is what you have underneath.

What you see is the mycelium,
that is the real mushroom,

and that mycelium, that mushroom,

collaborates with us

to do something that nature
can't do any other way

but through mushrooms,
put in a food chain

something relatively complex,

called the lignin molecule,

which is high energy,

and will enter

a complex food chain in the soil,

which will turn the farming soil

into a forest soil.

It's a copy-paste forest soil, farming soil.

And it works in an amazing way

so that rocky ground
where we spread Ramial Chipped Wood,

you grow wheat, and the yields

are superior to what they usually are,

and surprisingly,

trees grow there too,

vegetables,

and you are on the Quercy limestone plateau,

I invite you over to my home!

I've brought you trees from home,

but that's my home:

you can see the zucchinis that grow

in direct sunlight,
no need for watering,

it's just a seedbad,
I put the seeds

in the ground
and waited for them to grow.

That year, out of a dozen plants,

I picked up 190 kilos of zucchinis

without any watering,

without any phytosanitary treatment,

without any weeding, I just --

and that when you're getting close
to the Garden of Eden,

I just put the seeds into the ground
and I harvested.

So here you have the productions
from the plateau...

but it can't be done!
It's something

that can't be done:
when you say that

you are going to grow carrots on the plateau,

honestly, everybody tells you,

not just the agronomists,
but people who have the experience too,

they tell you:
"Your soil is 30 to 40% rocks,

your soil is 30 cm thick,
that's a bet you are bound to lose.

No one can do that."

So no water, no fertilizers,

no treatment, 160 to 170% yields,

the amount of dry matter is around

30% more, so it simply means

that plants that haven't been waterlogged

have obviously superior taste,

hold when wooked,
and that's for gastronomy,

for cooking,

and they can be kept much longer.

So obviously, unrivaled flavours,

no traces of illnesses,
whether it is pesticides,

aphids, pests.

You'll tell me

it all seems rather magic, doesn't it?

No human intervention,

so here you are facing the forest where

there is no human intervention either.

What are we talking about here?
Is it still agriculture,

isn't it a new concept in which,

even in Mali, in Burkina Faso, in Togo,

the gestures are the same,
the results are the same,

that is when you grind
those little branches,

and you put them on the ground
in a thin layer,

you see the same phenomenon,

that is mushrooms of a certain species

will take hold of the nutriments

contained in it

and start a large food chain

in which life will reappear in the soil.

So here it is, it's a kind of invitation

that thing is sending us,
I didn't say the word,

but I'm telling you,
because he said it,

it's RCW, R for Ramial,
C for Chipped, W for Wood,

what you have in your hands,
some of you,

that is a very particular part of the tree,

which actually bear the leaves
where photosynthesis happens.

That is the energy from the sun

transformed by the leaves,
stored in the branches.

And it's a concept
tremendously disturbing to agronomy

tremendously disturbing
to the farming trade,

because you have to reinvent
the farming trade,

with something like that!

Imagine a farm where 20 to 30% of the surface

dedicated to the forest or timber,

you can have a production
without adding anything,

saving at least 50% water,

and producing 160 to 170 more.

It's something you do every 4 or 5 years,

that is sustainable,

this new world, this new technique

is something winning over many people,

but for which research finds it difficult to adjust,

and that bag here, by the way,
I think that in your bags,

you have a little plastic bag.

Those who are interested,
we can share this

because it works in a garden,

but it also works in a pot,

the pot where you have a lemon tree

or the plant you like,

you put a 3 to 5 cm-thick layer,

and it works!

So you will get bigger fruit,

you will need

a lot less water,

and in addition, it's really beautiful,
it smells nice,

honestly, those who want to smell it,

and take some of it,
there's a typical forest smell,

so I invite you to share this meal with the soil.

(Applause)