Since the release of the short documentary "Life in Syntropy", syntropic farming has received a lot of well deserved attention regarding its potential for regeneration and food production in an economically viable manner. In just a few years, its nomenclature like stratification, placenta, pulsing, etc. has become common words within the regenerative agriculture community.
However, while its practices seem to be travelling across the globe, it seems that its foundational principles and overarching philosophy, that is, what anchors those practices, have not. And as a result, early adopters have struggled to make their own decisions, and have to rely on "experts" to tell them what they should do, or what is happening on their land.
From my experience, having a good understanding of the Syntropic WorldView is paramount, as it not only provides the basis for understanding the relationship within the natural world and our place within it, but it help us to make-decisions on how to conduct our agroforestry systems.
Although paramount, such information is not easy to find, and most often then not written material only provides part of it, and the rest needs to be gathered while attending courses in person and talking to experienced practitioners and Ernst Gotsch himself.
For the past 5 years I have been very fortunate to be able to attend numerous courses with the most experienced syntropic farmers in Brazil (including a visit to Ernst's property), and have dedicated myself full-time to not only understanding it conceptually (through lots of research), but also practically, by getting my hands dirty and trying many, many, many things out.
Although, I still consider myself to be in the placenta stage of Syntropic knowledge and experience, I think I can help others out there by sharing how I understand its worldview and how I contextualise it into my practices.
Consequently, in this first episode, I would like to present a conceptual framework that encompasses the "entire" worldview of Syntropic Framing as it is presented in the literature and/or orally. In subsequent videos, I will be expanding each "session" and will be sharing how they help me to make decisions.
I hope this is helpful to you and that it raises many questions on how you can better relate to the natural world.