Mark Shepard SNC Conference 2018 | Reimagining Regional Farming for the Future
Channel: Bionutrient Food Association
Date: 2019-04-11

http://bionutrient.org/
Mark Shepard
Reimagining Regional Farming for the Future
Bill Mollison, the founder of the Permacutlure movement once said "we are surrounded by nearly insurmountable opportunities!" This workshop will explore this very fact. The creation of a new, ecologically modeled agriculture can restore and rejuvenate soils, purify surface and groundwater, provide wildlife and pollinator habitat, remove carbon from the atmosphere, AND create economic prosperity for those who undertake these endeavors. Real estate investment opportunities abound as do processing and value-added business opportunities. Healthy ecosystems are the foundation of our economy and restoration and interaction with these natural agricultural systems will create the ecological economy the world so desperately needs.

Mark Shepard
Mark Shepard is the CEO of Restoration Agriculture Development, Forest Agriculture Enterprises LLC, and runs New Forest Farm, a 110 acre perennial agricultural savanna, one of the first of its kind in the USA. New Forest Farm is a planned conversion of a typical row-crops grain farm into a commercial-scale, perennial agricultural ecosystem using oak savanna, successional brushland and eastern woodlands as the ecological models.

Trees, shrubs, vines, canes, perennial plants and fungi are planted in association with one another to produce food (for humans and animals) fuel, medicines, and beauty. Hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts and various fruits are the primary woody crops. The farm is solar and wind powered.

Trained in both mechanical engineering and ecology, Mark has developed and patented equipment and processes for the cultivation, harvesting and processing of forest derived agricultural products for human foods and bio fuels production. Mark was certified as a Permaculture designer in 1993 and received his Diploma of Permaculture design from Bill Mollison, the founder of the international Permaculture movement.

He is the author of the bestselling book Restoration Agriculture: Real-World Permaculture for Farmers, available at http://www.acresusa.com/restoration-agriculture-in-practice-book-dvd-combo