Ramial Chipped Wood, a natural reading of life - Jacky Dupéty at TEDxParis
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0:09 - 0:16(Applause)
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0:16 - 0:17Hello,
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0:17 - 0:20I would like you to touch wood,
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0:20 - 0:22that is if you know the phrase,
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0:22 - 0:23touch wood.
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0:23 - 0:25The simplest way,
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0:25 - 0:26is when we talk about 2003
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0:26 - 0:28and about the heat wave we had,
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0:28 - 0:30which was perhaps worse in the countryside
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0:30 - 0:32as far as crops were concerned,
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0:32 - 0:35so here it is, 2003, that's my place,
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0:35 - 0:37and that's what grew then
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0:37 - 0:40and what I did not harvest.
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0:40 - 0:42When you go through such an ordeal,
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0:42 - 0:44that you chose to move to the countryside
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0:44 - 0:46and to become a farmer,
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0:46 - 0:50you have the right to ask questions
about the future, -
0:50 - 0:52and that's why I brought you --
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0:52 - 0:54and I'm going to pass some around,
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0:54 - 0:57because I think that touching wood does you good.
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0:57 - 1:01It's soothing, it's also
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1:01 - 1:04pleasant and it smells nice.
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1:04 - 1:06So I'm going to give you a piece each,
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1:06 - 1:10if you want to pass them around too,
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1:10 - 1:12that's cherry tree wood, you know.
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1:12 - 1:15Cherry tree and prune tree.
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1:15 - 1:17There aren't many of those in Paris maybe,
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1:17 - 1:20but, here, pass them around,
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1:20 - 1:21then we'll do a simple experiment
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1:21 - 1:25to show you that in there,
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1:25 - 1:27in these branches,
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1:27 - 1:30the future of agriculture is at stake.
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1:30 - 1:33It may sound crazy, what I'm telling you,
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1:33 - 1:37the future of agriculture, we hear about it,
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1:37 - 1:40there are a lot of films about agriculture,
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1:40 - 1:44on the edge of tragedy... And it's true that
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1:44 - 1:47if we were to talk about it longer,
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1:47 - 1:50agriculture is on the edge of the abyss.
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1:50 - 1:53And we are on the edge of the abyss.
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1:53 - 1:56So I'm going to make you do
the same experience as I do. -
1:56 - 2:01Take this branch and do this.
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2:01 - 2:03You do this, you may form a circle
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2:03 - 2:06very easily.
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2:06 - 2:11What I went through in 2003,
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2:11 - 2:14I didn't go through it in 2004.
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2:14 - 2:18Because the flexibility
of these little branches -
2:18 - 2:23that are produced every year
and grow every day, -
2:23 - 2:25the forest makes them.
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2:25 - 2:28The best model we have in agriculture,
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2:28 - 2:30it's the forest.
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2:30 - 2:33Because the forest doesn't need
man's intervention. -
2:33 - 2:37Agriculture has drifted towards
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2:37 - 2:41subsidies, technology,
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2:41 - 2:43it cut farmers off the soil,
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2:43 - 2:46and farmers completely forgot
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2:46 - 2:50that the best model and the best way of life,
life's pragmatism, -
2:50 - 2:53urges us to watch how life works.
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2:53 - 2:56And the forest is the best example of life.
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2:56 - 3:00No human intervention, no watering,
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3:00 - 3:03no fertilizer, of course,
no pesticides, no fungicides, -
3:03 - 3:06it just about works by itself.
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3:06 - 3:10When I found out that
through these branches, their flexibility, -
3:10 - 3:12I wondered:
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3:12 - 3:13Why are those branches...
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3:13 - 3:15You take a bigger branch,
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3:15 - 3:18you reach the breaking point very quicly and it snaps!
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3:18 - 3:20Here, you make a circle out of the branch,
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3:20 - 3:22it could represent the virtuous circle
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3:22 - 3:25of the trees producing new branches every year,
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3:25 - 3:28but in huge quantities,
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3:28 - 3:31and you'll find explanations on the Internet
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3:31 - 3:36on the way the forest and its soil work.
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3:36 - 3:40What you learn is that those branches
are attached to the leaves, -
3:40 - 3:42and contrary to popular belief,
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3:42 - 3:43leaves fall to the ground
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3:43 - 3:45because they're fed up
with being attached to the branches, -
3:45 - 3:48it's because physiologically,
that's the intelligence of life, -
3:48 - 3:51the leaves will release 50 to 60%
of what they contain -
3:51 - 3:54to the branches.
And in that branch you're holding -
3:54 - 3:56and that I'm showing to you again because
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3:56 - 3:59that's where it all happens,
in that branch, -
3:59 - 4:04there are all the nutriments
which will allow in a few months -
4:04 - 4:08the buds appearing
to make new branches. -
4:08 - 4:09And within these new branches,
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4:09 - 4:11you have next year's branches.
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4:11 - 4:14That is to say trees start growing again
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4:14 - 4:18just through what lies inside that branch.
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4:18 - 4:20When it's thicker wood,
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4:20 - 4:23you don't have those nutriments.
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4:23 - 4:26So, when you read that, you think,
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4:26 - 4:29something can be done individually,
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4:29 - 4:32and so you try to tell it to your friends,
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4:32 - 4:35and you think you are going
to take some branches, cut them, -
4:35 - 4:37cut these branches,
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4:37 - 4:40and then the more you are,
the better the occasion to get together -
4:40 - 4:44and to enjoy it, and you cut the branches,
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4:44 - 4:47you pick them up, you pile them up,
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4:47 - 4:50and you put everyting in a grinder
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4:50 - 4:53so this is a technical operation
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4:53 - 4:55but it's not that complicated.
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4:55 - 4:57In Africa they do it with machetes,
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4:57 - 5:00You spread it on the floor,
a layer 3 to 5 cm thick, not more, -
5:00 - 5:03that's when you realize it's not,
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5:03 - 5:06when you have a garden,
it's not that complicated, -
5:06 - 5:09a 3 cm-thick layer of that material,
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5:09 - 5:11which is hidden, it's not open yet,
but I'll show it to you later. -
5:11 - 5:13Then, when it's on the ground,
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5:13 - 5:16in winter, in spring, you blend.
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5:16 - 5:18You will tell me, it's a matter of seasons,
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5:18 - 5:19seasons matter here, it's true.
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5:19 - 5:24When winter comes,
branches store all the nutriments. -
5:24 - 5:27That means it doesn't go anywhere else
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5:27 - 5:29but in the branches.
And it only happens -
5:29 - 5:31at that time.
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5:31 - 5:33When vegetations starts growing again in spring,
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5:33 - 5:37all these nutriments start flowing
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5:37 - 5:40in a very diffuse way.
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5:40 - 5:43So you proceed to what is called blending.
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5:43 - 5:46When you do that,
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5:46 - 5:49a few weeks later, you can see
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5:49 - 5:52that the soil you were farming,
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5:52 - 5:55it's real soil, the rocky ground
you saw at the beginning -
5:55 - 5:57became this!
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5:57 - 6:03Between 60 to 90 days
after spreading a 3 cm thick layer. -
6:03 - 6:05So that's the top,
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6:05 - 6:07and this is what you have underneath.
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6:07 - 6:10What you see is the mycelium,
that is the real mushroom, -
6:10 - 6:13and that mycelium, that mushroom,
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6:13 - 6:17collaborates with us
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6:17 - 6:20to do something that nature
can't do any other way -
6:20 - 6:23but through mushrooms,
put in a food chain -
6:23 - 6:25something relatively complex,
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6:25 - 6:27called the lignin molecule,
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6:27 - 6:29which is high energy,
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6:29 - 6:34and will enter
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6:34 - 6:36a complex food chain in the soil,
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6:36 - 6:39which will turn the farming soil
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6:39 - 6:41into a forest soil.
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6:41 - 6:48It's a copy-paste forest soil, farming soil.
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6:48 - 6:52And it works in an amazing way
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6:52 - 6:57so that rocky ground
where we spread Ramial Chipped Wood, -
6:57 - 7:01you grow wheat, and the yields
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7:01 - 7:04are superior to what they usually are,
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7:04 - 7:09and surprisingly,
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7:09 - 7:12trees grow there too,
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7:12 - 7:13vegetables,
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7:13 - 7:15and you are on the Quercy limestone plateau,
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7:15 - 7:16I invite you over to my home!
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7:16 - 7:17I've brought you trees from home,
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7:17 - 7:19but that's my home:
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7:19 - 7:20you can see the zucchinis that grow
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7:20 - 7:22in direct sunlight,
no need for watering, -
7:22 - 7:24it's just a seedbad,
I put the seeds -
7:24 - 7:27in the ground
and waited for them to grow. -
7:27 - 7:29That year, out of a dozen plants,
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7:29 - 7:30I picked up 190 kilos of zucchinis
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7:30 - 7:32without any watering,
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7:32 - 7:33without any phytosanitary treatment,
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7:33 - 7:38without any weeding, I just --
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7:38 - 7:40and that when you're getting close
to the Garden of Eden, -
7:40 - 7:44I just put the seeds into the ground
and I harvested. -
7:44 - 7:48So here you have the productions
from the plateau... -
7:48 - 7:52but it can't be done!
It's something -
7:52 - 7:54that can't be done:
when you say that -
7:54 - 7:55you are going to grow carrots on the plateau,
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7:55 - 7:57honestly, everybody tells you,
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7:57 - 7:59not just the agronomists,
but people who have the experience too, -
7:59 - 8:03they tell you:
"Your soil is 30 to 40% rocks, -
8:03 - 8:07your soil is 30 cm thick,
that's a bet you are bound to lose. -
8:07 - 8:09No one can do that."
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8:09 - 8:12So no water, no fertilizers,
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8:12 - 8:18no treatment, 160 to 170% yields,
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8:18 - 8:21the amount of dry matter is around
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8:21 - 8:2330% more, so it simply means
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8:23 - 8:25that plants that haven't been waterlogged
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8:25 - 8:28have obviously superior taste,
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8:28 - 8:31hold when wooked,
and that's for gastronomy, -
8:31 - 8:32for cooking,
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8:32 - 8:35and they can be kept much longer.
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8:35 - 8:38So obviously, unrivaled flavours,
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8:38 - 8:40no traces of illnesses,
whether it is pesticides, -
8:40 - 8:42aphids, pests.
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8:42 - 8:43You'll tell me
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8:43 - 8:45it all seems rather magic, doesn't it?
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8:45 - 8:47No human intervention,
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8:47 - 8:50so here you are facing the forest where
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8:50 - 8:51there is no human intervention either.
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8:51 - 8:53What are we talking about here?
Is it still agriculture, -
8:54 - 8:57isn't it a new concept in which,
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8:57 - 9:02even in Mali, in Burkina Faso, in Togo,
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9:02 - 9:06the gestures are the same,
the results are the same, -
9:06 - 9:10that is when you grind
those little branches, -
9:10 - 9:12and you put them on the ground
in a thin layer, -
9:12 - 9:14you see the same phenomenon,
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9:14 - 9:18that is mushrooms of a certain species
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9:18 - 9:20will take hold of the nutriments
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9:20 - 9:21contained in it
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9:21 - 9:23and start a large food chain
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9:23 - 9:26in which life will reappear in the soil.
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9:26 - 9:29So here it is, it's a kind of invitation
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9:29 - 9:33that thing is sending us,
I didn't say the word, -
9:33 - 9:35but I'm telling you,
because he said it, -
9:35 - 9:40it's RCW, R for Ramial,
C for Chipped, W for Wood, -
9:40 - 9:42what you have in your hands,
some of you, -
9:42 - 9:45that is a very particular part of the tree,
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9:45 - 9:49which actually bear the leaves
where photosynthesis happens. -
9:49 - 9:53That is the energy from the sun
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9:53 - 9:58transformed by the leaves,
stored in the branches. -
9:58 - 10:02And it's a concept
tremendously disturbing to agronomy -
10:02 - 10:04tremendously disturbing
to the farming trade, -
10:04 - 10:05because you have to reinvent
the farming trade, -
10:05 - 10:07with something like that!
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10:07 - 10:11Imagine a farm where 20 to 30% of the surface
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10:11 - 10:13dedicated to the forest or timber,
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10:13 - 10:18you can have a production
without adding anything, -
10:18 - 10:21saving at least 50% water,
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10:21 - 10:25and producing 160 to 170 more.
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10:25 - 10:28It's something you do every 4 or 5 years,
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10:28 - 10:31that is sustainable,
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10:31 - 10:35this new world, this new technique
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10:35 - 10:37is something winning over many people,
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10:37 - 10:42but for which research finds it difficult to adjust,
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10:42 - 10:47and that bag here, by the way,
I think that in your bags, -
10:47 - 10:49you have a little plastic bag.
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10:49 - 10:52Those who are interested,
we can share this -
10:52 - 10:54because it works in a garden,
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10:54 - 10:57but it also works in a pot,
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10:57 - 11:00the pot where you have a lemon tree
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11:00 - 11:03or the plant you like,
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11:03 - 11:06you put a 3 to 5 cm-thick layer,
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11:06 - 11:07and it works!
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11:07 - 11:09So you will get bigger fruit,
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11:09 - 11:10you will need
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11:10 - 11:12a lot less water,
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11:12 - 11:16and in addition, it's really beautiful,
it smells nice, -
11:16 - 11:19honestly, those who want to smell it,
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11:19 - 11:21and take some of it,
there's a typical forest smell, -
11:21 - 11:29so I invite you to share this meal with the soil.
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11:29 - 11:37(Applause)
- Title:
- Ramial Chipped Wood, a natural reading of life - Jacky Dupéty at TEDxParis
- Description:
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Jacky Dypéty shows how he applies the natural mechanisms of the forest to agriculture at TEDxParis 2011.
- Video Language:
- French
- Team:
closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 11:41