Mark Shepard
Mark Shepard
Mark Shepard is the founder and President of the Restoration Agriculture Development and CEO of Forest Agriculture Enterprises. He teaches Agroforestry and Permaculture worldwide and has also written the book Restoration Agriculture. He runs New Forest Farm, the 106-acre perennial agricultural savannah, considered by many to be one of the most ambitious sustainable agriculture projects in the United States.
New Forest Farm, located in Viola, Wisconsin, was once a worn-out rowcrop farm and has since become a 106-acre showcase commercial-scale perennial agricultural operation. It is considered by many to be one of the most ambitious sustainable agriculture projects in the United States. The farming system layout was founded on his innovations in engineering the runoff distribution, retention and control of water throughout the property. Next he implemented his take on adaptive mass-selection breeding with use of select perennial crops based off plant families abundant amongst the oak savanna, successional brushland, and eastern woodlands ecotypes that constituted the region prior to commercial agriculture. With the water management infrastructure in place, trees, shrubs, vines, canes, grasses, forbs and fungi were planted in likeness to their respective ecological niches, and organized to optimize efficiency in harvesting and management. Hazelnuts, chestnuts, walnuts, and apples are the primary woody crops. Various ongoing tree crops research sites are nested about the farm as well, and are an important feature in his adaptive, resilient restoration agriculture system.
Trained in mechanical engineering an ecology, Mark has combined these two passions to develop equipment and processes for the cultivation, harvesting and processing of forest-derived agricultural products. He is a certified permaculture designer and teaches agroforestry, permaculture, and his innovative systems of water management around the world.
You can learn more about Mark’s keyline adaptations and ways to optimize water across your property through is latest book, Water for Any Farm, or by attending our events and workshops available throughout the year.
Friday Night’s Keynote Address
Humans as Beings of Sense and Perception
This evening will be an exploration of the non-material forces that stand behind and guide the thinking of Rudolf Steiner and Biodynamic Agriculture. We will start with the “official” definitions of Forces, formative forces, etheric/life forces, astral/sentient forces, then awareness/self-awareness/consciousness. We will use a series of activities to explore feeling, thinking, and willing, the human senses. We will directly experience formative, etheric, astral, and consciousness using some simple exercises taught by Steiner.
Mark’s Workshop
Biodynamics and Permaculture
In this workshop we will engage in a bit of “chapter and verse” showing the various different ways that Rudolf Steiner was urging us all to practice the design and installation practice of Permaculture. In modern times, when the Agriculture lectures are studied, much attention has been given to the Biodynamic preparations and the forces involved in growing food. Not so much the very practical indications given by R. Steiner to make the farm a self-contained entity, an autochthonous ecosystem, that includes the proper mix of meadows, forests, and shrubland replete with a diversity of aromatic herbs, mushrooms, flowers and, of course livestock.