Incredible 1.5-Acre Syntropic Food Forest with Over 250 Plant Species | The Food Forest Farmers

Syntropic farming is a new and ancient permaculture practice that can be implemented in any region, in any climate, in limitless ways – even in your own back yard. For over a decade the Lotz-Keegan family have been implementing permaculture practices to regenerate a degraded hillside into an abundant food forest of native and exotic trees that feed their family, their community, the wildlife, the soil, and their souls.

Combining the practices of syntropic agroforestry with the principles of permaculture and their own deeply thoughtful approach to land regeneration, food growing, and lifestyle, this family is partnering with nature to create a humming diversity on the land and a positive story about the role of humans in an eco-system.

We came away from our shoot with so much invaluable information about the why and how of syntropic farming as it’s practised at PermaDynamics. For this reason we’ve made the full interview with Klaus Lotz available on our website, and all 10 full-length interviews, some of which we couldn’t include in the film, available on our Patreon page. Also if you’re keen to dig deeper into this style of growing food and regenerating soil, check out PermaDynamics' own videos available on their Patreon page.

** Find out more about PermaDynamics at these links **

** Find out more about Happen Films **

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** Film credits **
Directed and written by Jordan Osmond & Antoinette Wilson
Produced by Antoinette Wilson
Cinematography and editing by Jordan Osmond
Story feedback and suggestions from Nick Tucker
1990 photo by Malcolm Rands

** Thanks! **
To our wonderful supporters on Patreon, who helped make this film happen:
Kimberly Levesque, Matthew Zimmer, Rahul Banerjee, Jonathan Wise, Georjette Mercer, Mary Conlan, Kate Hall, V.J. Raghavan, Pierre Blom, Cicely Jette Stewart, Brett Davidson, Tony Schaufelberger, Namaste Foundation, Sankar Madhavan, Sue Campbell, Melissa Tripodi, Filip Zeman, Greg and Rachel Hart, Brian Newton, Susan Hunsberger, Kirti Patel, Kelly Milikins, Nathan Kitchen, Geoffrey Torkington, Alex Muir, Tiitus Laine, Rex and Jo, Jess O’Shea, Moana Kiff, William B. Everett, Ron Hastie, David, Lauren, Carolyn Gillum.

** Subtitles and closed captions **
In the past, many people have generously taken time to translate our films here on YouTube. The Community Contributions function no longer exits, but if you’d like to contribute a translation please contact us. Making the film available in your language and to your community would mean the world to us!

Chapters
00:00 - Intro to Syntropic Farming
2:36 - 17-Year-Old Food Forest
7:48 - Market Garden and Orchard
12:20 - Native and Exotic Plants
14:45 - Annuals in the Food Forest
17:29 - Tropical Hothouse
19:17 - 3-Month-Old Food Forest

[happenfilms]

We hope you enjoy the film! We came away from the shoot with so much valuable content that we couldn't include in the final film. So we decided to put all 10 full-length interviews up on our Patreon page! We've also made the full interview with Klaus Lotz available for free on our website. PermaDynamics themselves also have a bunch of great videos on their Patreon for those of you who want to dive deeper into syntropic farming.

[gardeninghacks]

I'm a student and this is my dream one day I will make my own food forest😀

[CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Planting another 50 trees for my food forest today. Come inside and see Happen Films uploaded a video. Today is a good day. Happy Earth week everyone.

[Kiwiwanderer]

I’m noticing more and more that people who are very connected with nature have an inner contentment and their souls shine through.

[OffgridwithJay]

I bought an acre in the desert and am starting this year with bringing the soil back to eventually start a food forest. You were one of my major inspirations to change my life. Thank you

[hamishmclarnon]

I was taught by Klaus back in New Zealand. Where he taught premaculture and management of organic systems and I can say he is a well of knowledge. It's insane how much he knows even after my time with him I felt he had so much more to give. It's awesome to see he is still working with the land and sharing his knowledge with the community.

[arunravi]

best part is the youtube video which spreads the message of how its done and will encourage many to follow and if it becomes a non stop chain reaction then earth will become paradise; hope so.

[Lagaloggie]

"We always make mistakes. our intention is to make better and better mistakes." Such a fount of wisdom this family is. Rewatching the video makes one discover something else missed during the previous viewing.

[nlhrb]

My grandparents' farm is similar to this style of farming. We have mango trees, coconut trees, avocado, pomelo, banana, pineapple, coffee, lanzones, and some vegetables, root crops, and herbs I don't even know the names. It was already matured when I was little so who knows how old it really is. It's just amazing how people just start planting all these trees and plants, and they eventually mature and establish their own ecosystem. Later on, they won't even need human intervention. We just come to prune and do the harvest.

[emilianomarquez]

Tomorrow I'll be getting my own land, It's about half of what they started on, and it too has been over exploited over a 100+ years. This inspires me so so much to work hard and smart at it.

[TomS-cehi]

"I don't like to see myself as a steward of the land, more like a partner in the development of the highest expression of life..."

What a quote

[kalamataolives]

love this but it’s important to recognize this wasn’t started by one man in the 80’s. many indigenous communities had been maintaining these types of areas for centuries

[narayandarlami]

Its my 5th times .Every words are so meangingful😍its a 4 am from Nepal and i am watching nd it will my 6th times.

[jahd]

If the world just saw what the word “Rich" means, this is it

[carmenortiz]

Wish I lived in a tropical area, would make my life easier. I transformed my 1/3 acre in the middle of a town, into a food forest/wild life habitat/tiny farm. It produces a lot but our growing season is only about 4 months (May-September and if we get very lucky early October). I do start annuals indoors. I have my own set up using a large commercial shelving unit, shop lights and heating pads. Right now we are in an extremely rare, long heat wave, with drought conditions, which means I have to hand water every plant, individually, using milk cartons.

[thandruphani]

I am Indian I can say that this culture is followed in rural india from a long time, but the problem is now a days its slowly diminishing ... So sad

[johnb]

This was fantastic! Put a smile on my face showing how humans should truly exist within our ecosystem - the evolving one, not the concrete one.

[superchillerchill]

as a grower, listening to the first bit just put a smile on my face. We as humans have the capability of so much good

[laurentfournier]

Thanks for the inspiration. My wife has started a mix of orchard and veggie production in a semi-desertic subtropical clime (mild winter with little rain and hardly any frost, long hot summer with no rain at all) about five years ago. It doesn't look as lush as yours but we are on the right direction. She has lost a lot every year because of insects and animals too happy to find food where there was none ! She hopes to have enough yield in an other 2 to 3 years to feed our family of 4. And eventually have some to give away.
People need to know it's a long process, not rewarding at the beginning.

[davidt]

I'm a retired (age only) regenerative banana farmer re-establishing a food forest on an abandoned banana farm. It's great to see there is a community of like minded people in the real world.