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

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

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

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Video Language:
French
Team:
closed TED
Project:
TEDxTalks
Duration:
11:41

English subtitles

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