SADHU'S
VISION
Thank you for visiting my website! I’m
Sadhu, the founder of Govardhan Gardens, a natural living and
self-sufficiency oriented farming project near Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.
After traveling the world for almost 20 years, doing volunteer work
for
various cultural, social, altruistic and agricultural projects, an
opportunity came up to acquire my own land. Thus, I could fulfill my
old dream of living in nature and being as self-sufficient as
possible. When I acquired my land, a ten acre farm, it had severely
eroded, heavy clay soil and it was mostly covered
with weeds; in short, it was a major challenge to even get the most basic cultivation
going.
My first project was to grow as much of my own food as
possible. Despite all the challenges, I lived off the grid for a while
and was happily eating my own produce. At that time, there were not
more than a handful of organic projects in Puerto Rico, and everyone
grew more or less the same limited varieties of crops. I felt that
there was a need to bring more diversity to the island and I started
to systematically collect tropical fruit species. Since I needed an
income to survive and develop my farm, I soon opened a small tropical
fruit tree nursery.
Within less than a
decade, I was able to establish the most diversified tropical fruit
and nut collection as well as
nursery in the Caribbean (over 330 species planted). By now, my farm
has turned from a weeded place full of
invasive plants into a true tropical fruit forest. In February of 2012, I
reached my original goal of planting at least 350 tropical fruit and nut species
at my farm. Almost all of the collection
species are spreading fast throughout Puerto Rico which is a big step
in securing the fruit future of the island. About 150 of these new
tropical fruit and nut species are the first ever being circulated in
the Caribbean.
Throughout the years, I continued to systematically study, propagate
and promote new tropical fruit, herb, vegetable and bamboo crops. In
March of 2007, I published "Oro Verde - Securing the Future of our
Food" - which is a proposal of how to improve or even
revolutionize the derailed state of agriculture in Puerto Rico. I am
happy to see how a new generation of small -scale farmers is taking
advantage of this publication, and is currently helping to introduce a
new era of sustainable, holistic farming in the tropics.
Puerto Rico, like most other Caribbean islands,
lacks biological and genetic diversity of vegetables, grains and
herbs. In order to help improve this situation, I started the Oro
Verde Foundation with the help of a local activist and farmer, Magha
Garcia. From my perspective, the acquisition of the hundreds of
required tropical vegetable and herb species is a major challenge, and
foremost, the endeavor is a race against time. Open pollinated
heirloom seeds are disappearing at an alarming rate and ruthless
corporations are working hard to control the world's seed market.
In the fall of 2007, I
began to add a bamboo collection of high quality structural, edible
and ornamental bamboos. (A special thank you for his guidance and help goes out to Jim Rehor, who has one of the
most beautiful bamboo collections in the Western hemisphere). I consider
bamboo cultivation one of the more important steps towards self
sufficiency for any small scale farmer. Some of my nursery species are already used by
farmers as wind breaks, living fences and even as a food source. I am
looking forward to the day when I can start to popularize bamboo
construction projects in Puerto Rico.
There is undoubtedly much work to do and maybe not that much time
left. We are living in a fast paced materialistic time where money, power and mass
manipulation dominate practically every sphere of life. It is not
surprising that these unhealthy dynamics are resulting in an
artificial economy, based on the exploitation of limited natural
resources. Now that this artificial economy is about to crumble under
the weight of having reached its peak, sustainable agriculture and
lifestyle are
again in a position to resolve many of humanity’s deep-rooted
problems.
In general, a citizen has only two identities for our
governments: being a tax payer and devoted, materialistic consumer.
All necessities of life are increasingly controlled by centralized
powers and my work is to fight these powers in order to create a
network of independent self-sufficiency oriented communities.
Every other year, another false hope or dream is
sold to the public. Currently, there is much talk about the
progressive "green wave", and as usual, it is a dishonest product
meant to be sold with high profit margins. Almost all "green"
products have the same unsustainable, toxic background as any of the
conventional products (
Link to Solar Power Article
). It did not take long and the once
idealistic organic movement has been infiltrated by opportunistic and
ill motivated people who have no concern for true holistic eco-farming
or nature in general. All they see is a new opportunity for high
profits and a white-wash of their bad conscience for having been
addicted to toxic agricultural practices. The fight over government
grants for organic and sustainable projects has already begun, and the
same power hungry and greedy people who were enthusiastic proponents
of mono culture and toxic chemicals, are now the ones grabbing most of
the federal funds circulating in the system. As usual, the honest and
hard working small scale farmer doesn't see a cent of these funds.
It is not difficult to understand what all of this has done to our
agriculture. As a result of unqualified agricultural leadership,
Puerto Rico's agriculture has been pushed to the brink of extinction.
Today, there are only 18,000 registered farms and slightly over 30,000
farmers left. Much of the farm land (several thousand acres per year
for the last six decades) around the island is sold, broken down into
smaller plots and subjected to erosion, neglect or housing
developments. A good percentage of these 18,000 farms are not under
cultivation and the vast majority of the cultivated land has
practically no diversity. The main concern for the local department of
agriculture is still the coffee mono culture industry, which
ultimately doesn't benefit anyone. After all, we need to grow food,
not unhealthy stimulants. Instead of seeing farming as an ecologically
responsible lifestyle, Puerto Rico's agricultural "leaders" see
farming merely as a business based on exploiting farm land.
For too long now, Puerto Rico’s agriculture has followed the same
trend that prevails almost worldwide by only growing a few mono-crops
that are “cultivated” with an array of pesticides, chemical
fertilizers and herbicides. The average modern farmer and sadly
especially the government has had little or no concern or vision for
an ecologically sound and sustainable agriculture. Not many farmers
know about the medicinal, nutritional or insecticidal properties of
herbs, fruits or vegetables, and only very few are self-sufficiency
oriented. Instead of seeing farming as an ecologically responsible
lifestyle, modern agronomists see farmers merely as a business based
on exploiting farm land.
Currently, the island is highly food-dependent (about 94% of all foods
consumed in Puerto Rico are imported). Unknown to most, a large
percentage of those imported foods contain hundreds of dangerous
chemical additives and transgenic ingredients. “Oro Verde – Securing
the Future of our Food” explains how the island could turn towards a healthy,
decentralized food production and become largely food self-sufficient.
Holistic farming can be a meaningful and fulfilling way of life and
it will always remain the most important natural means of economic security. To
reach this point, nothing short of a complete paradigm change is
required. I hope to be instrumental in paving a way for this change by
inspiring people to become independent thinkers and true lovers of
Mother Nature.
As we are heading into
difficult times, I will continue with my work of establishing Govardhan Gardens
as an aspiring role model farm and expand my work of
giving consultations (I develop eco projects in the Caribbean), work shops and
writing about self-sufficiency related topics.
For those of you who would like to
visit in person, the fruit tree and bamboo nursery are open by appointment
only. Extended farm tours are only during the dry season
(January-March). - Sadhu
|
I would
like to extend a heartfelt thanks to everyone who
has helped out this project over the years. Even
if I can't acknowledge all of you individually
since so many people have supported Govardhan
Gardens in so many ways, I certainly remember
every one of you.
