Geoff Lawton - Greening the Desert on CNN

Geoff Lawton talks to CNN. Filed on Zaytuna Farm, the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, at The Channon, NSW, Australia.

Making Barren Lands Bountiful

(CNN) — It is midday and Geoff Lawton is hard at work at Zaytuna Farms in New South Wales, Australia. But the real work, he says, is going on inside the center of the compost.

Geoff Lawton says that permaculture “revs up” systems of soil creation.

“There’s lots of things breeding in there,” Lawton says.

Compost may not seem a sexy subject, but within this steaming pile, life is being created.

“There’s organisms breathing and dying and reproducing very quickly,” he says. “It’s all very hot and steamy.”

That rich soil lays the groundwork for Lawton’s revolutionary method of food production. It’s called permaculture.

Lawton’s friend and mentor, Bill Mollison, developed the process back in the 1970s. Since then he and Lawton have traveled the globe preaching the value of permaculture and its aim to create harmony between the landscape and the people who live on it.

Geoff Lawton, Wikipedia Biography

Geoff Lawton is a permaculture consultant, designer and teacher.

He holds a diploma in permaculture design. Since 1995 he has specialized in permaculture education, design, implementation, system establishment, administration and community development.^[1]

In 1996 he was accredited with the Permaculture Community Services Award by the permaculture movement for services in Australia and around the world.

Since 1985, Lawton has undertaken a large number of jobs consulting, designing, teaching and implementing in over thirty countries around the world.^[2] Clients have included private individuals, groups, communities, governments, aid organizations, non-governmental organizations and multinational companies.^[3]

Lawton’s aim is to establish self-replicating educational demonstration sites. He has currently educated over 6,000 students in permaculture worldwide. Lawton’s ‘master plan’ is see aid projects being replicated as fast as possible to help ameliorate the growing food and water crisis.

Source: Geoff Lawton, Wikipedia