Superhero Academy Podcast

Superhero Academy Podcast
Jean-Martin Fortier - The Market Gardener

For full notes and key points, please visit LINKSOON

Summary
In this podcast, Marc Coppola interviews Jean-Martin Fortier, the author of 'The Market Gardener', a successful grower's handbook for small scale organic farming. He wrote the book to give people the right tools and information on market gardening so that they too can start their own gardens. They talk about how focusing on the solution, and not on the problem, one can truly make a difference. Through permaculture, they are able to design their farm well in order to multi-function and although it is management and labor-intensive, their production is a lot more. They also talk about how people cannot do away with the economy, and focusing on small businesses and organic ways of development is their way of achieving sustainability. Jean-Martin talks about how they, as people in organic market farming, are both making money and making a difference. If we truly want to make a change and make a difference, we just have to do it and get our hands dirty.

Main Questions Asked
• What are you doing? [03:30]
• Where exactly is your farm? [05:28]
• What inspired you to start your farm and your book? Is this something you grew up doing? What made you get into market gardening? [07:42]
• What are your thoughts on permaculture? [15:40]
• What are the lifestyle changes somebody should adopt to begin organic farming? [28:46]
• Do you have volunteers? What are they like? [34:14]
• More so than your book, do you educate people personally at your site? [36:14]
• Has there been any dramatic change that you've seen in food and faming over the last couple of years? [41:50]
• Why are there changes on people's views in food and organic farming? [43:31]
• Do you think the Internet and technology are helping you? How does it affect your practice? [44:19]
• How can start farming at home? What are your thoughts about how you can make suburbia to become more sustainable? [48:10]
• What role does automation play in gardening? [50:26]

Powerful Quotes
• "We've just basically been focusing on trying to grow better instead of growing bigger." - Jean-Martin Fortier [04:15]
• "The crop that we grow comes from seed; everything we've grown from scratch. All the tools we used come from small companies and none of the fundamental inputs that we use on the farm are from an industrialized process." - Jean-Martin Fortier [12:40]
• "We're making both; we're making money and we're making a difference." - Jean-Martin Fortier [13:45]
• "You can expect to have a decent income and a right livelihood in farming if you know what you are doing." - Marc Coppola [30:32]
• "Just clicking is not enough to really create change." - Jean-Martin Fortier [45:39]
• "If we're going to change agriculture, it's going to be one farm at a time." - Jean-Martin Fortier [48:45]
• "We have to get our hands dirty if we're going to change anything." - Marc Coppola [51:51]

Links Mentioned
Greenseed
greenseed.me

Contact Information for Jean-Martin Fortier
themarketgardener.com
amazon.com/The-Market-Gardener-Successful-Small-scale/dp/0865717656
facebook.com/marketgardenerthebook
twitter.com/jm_fortier

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