OPG ŠURAN

Description

Fertility and life of the soil itself are in danger. In the name of productivity, blinded by chasing profit, the man has forgotten that the food and wine are products of Earth, and Earth demands respect. If you hurt Nature for too long, it can turn from a loving mother into an evil step-mother overnight. It can stop giving us fruit and hence deprive us of means of subsistence and many different things related to enjoying life. The moment has come when we have to ask ourselves whether the path we have been following in agriculture so far, the one of “scientific” logic focused primarily on increase in yield, has led us to believe that we are greater than we really are, the masters of Earth, and not a part of Nature and the world. For many years we thought just that, and we acted accordingly. From 1985 until today more than half of chemical fertilizers produced in the entire history of mankind have been used; in the past twenty years we have put into the Earth the same amount of chemical products that had previously been used during one century, which shows exponential growth. At this moment the change of direction is not an option but an obligation that we have towards the environment we live in. Therefore, it is necessary to take into consideration all the possible alternatives by going back to ancient knowledge of communities that used to produce food and farmers who have been living in harmony with Nature for thousands of years. Without rejecting Science and its discoveries, it is necessary to ask it to humbly put itself on the same level with a lot of knowledge that has been forgotten or marginalized too soon, daughters of everyday practice and experience, ancestral knowledge and respect. This way a dialogue marked by equality and fertility can be established while at the same time leaving some space for the farmer’s knowledge, natural agriculture, biodynamics, in comparison with all the other alternative and clean production methods.

CARLO PETRINI