Closed-loop agriculture system brings positive results for ‘ital garden’

“Why do we have land where everything grows, and yet we’re not self-sufficient with our food supply?” That is the potent question Christopher Binns, of Zion Ites Farm, the farming aspect of Stush in the Bush, located in Free Hill, St Ann, is asking.

“We should be able to feed ourselves,” Binns asserted during an interview with The Gleaner.

And that’s not just chat. For the past 23 years, Barnes has been practising ital (as against organic, which he cites as an imported term), regenerative, and sustainable agriculture on the expansive, family-owned property.

This sustainability is based on the fact that Binns, in his own words, uses the closed-loop agricultural system wherein all input into the farm comes from the farm itself.

The farm, or garden as he likes to refer to the estate, relies on itself to treat areas such as pest infestation and plant nutrition, without using conventional methods such as the use of insecticides and artificial fertilisers.

The result – a sustainable system that Binns is recommending for use across Jamaica’s farming community.

He began by addressing the non-use of herbicides and pesticides to ward off pests, pointing to the used of the intercropping method.

“Intercropping, or companion planting, is specifically using certain types of plants to repel certain insects,” Binns said.

STRONG SCENTS

He added: “We plant a lot of herbs, herbs typically have a strong scent, a pungent flavour that’s why we humans love them to season our food, but at the same time, if you don’t like a certain seasoning in your food it repels (you). Pepper is a repellent, although we love it so much; we do things like cilantro which is also a repellent because it has a very strong scent. The same for rosemary, so if you’re planting certain things you can use a field of rosemary as a trap crop or a pest blocker and you can line that around the two sides of the thing you’re planting that is now more susceptible to those types of insects.”

He referred to the popular practice of planting tomato with basil, in some parts of the world, as an example.

“Tomato and basil is always a great crop; it’s probably one of the most age-old companion plants. If you go to places like Tuscany in Italy and those places you will find they typically plant those two together because number one, it’s good for the menu – you have your pizza with your tomato sauce and fresh basil, or you’re doing a bruschetta – it is said the basil accentuate the flavour of the tomato but what it also does because of that pungent aroma it repels certain insects.”

In the absence of basil locally, wild basil and even sweet parsley may be used.

Sometimes so-called pests are even beneficial, Binns pointed out, as there are certain variety of wasps that eat caterpillars.

“So, the first thing with pest control is how we look at so-called pests; the second thing is knowing that you share your environment, you share your space, you share your food, you’re not planting for you alone. Know your pests, know their life cycle, (know) field sanitation, meaning that you are removing old leaves which might carry eggs (of pests) from the field because if you’re killing something, contact killing, you’re not necessarily killing the eggs.”

Coupled with intercropping, Binns employs another traditional practice that omits the use of modern, and even harmful methods. As a Rastafarian, he does not consume animal products or by-products but, on the farm, makes use of animals in a particular way.

A donkey, a horse, and a goat form a growing group that naturally helps to enhance the farm.

“Growing ital you use a lot of manure; manure now becomes that active ingredient that you’re going to activate things like your compost. It’s a feed essentially, it’s packed full of nutrients and after it is broken down the right way it can be added directly to your plants. So, that is where the animals come in.”

TURNING GRASS INTO MULCH

“They do take your grass, turn it into mulch and spit out nutrients so we recycle all of that in that closed-loop system.”

Those two systems employed at Zion Ites Farm have helped pushed it towards sustainability, a state that otherwise could only have been achieved with the use of expensive pesticides, herbicides, and artificial fertilisers.

“Ital farming has to be sustainable because number one, the practices that we’re using are sustainable. You’re promoting sustainability from the ground up, not poisoning the soil, which is what conventional farming has done every day. Millions of gallons of poison are being pumped into food supply, it goes into the food, it goes into the soil, and then it goes into our water.”

Citing the ills of modern-day farming techniques, which, seemingly, primarily seeks to make money at the expense of health and safety, Binns said he is 100 per cent advocating for ital farming.

Ital farming is sustainable because of the practices, and financially it is the most sustainable way of agriculture, and this will be proven as it will be here for generations, Binns pointed out.

According to him, ital farming will answer to challenges associated with climate control and having a self-sufficient economy.

With all of that said, Binns revealed that his farm, as a traditional organic entity, is not getting any special attention from the state as there is no category for that, and RADA accords his farm the same treatment it does to others. But he said he is not according blame to anyone for this.

“I’m not really blaming government; I think we as people that are growing this way need to reach out to government and tell them what we’re doing. We can work with government to get to a point, as long as they’re willing.”

According to the Planning Institute of Jamaica’s (PIOJ) Economic and Social Survey for 2020, the government dished out millions of dollars to assist various agricultural sectors that were impacted by COVID-19, including $25 million for livestock, over $90 million for sugar cane, cocoa and coffee farmers, $226 millions form fisheries resilience, $8 million for the egg industry and $4 million for the pork industry.

Zion Ites Farm is not a one-crop establishment but consists of a wide variety of crops, including legumes, vegetables, plantains, potatoes, herbs, and spices including pimento, and also lumber.

Probably the most unique thing about Zion Ites Farm is how the company reaches its target market. Through its restaurant, Stush in the Bush, which essentially is the farm’s marketing arm, people from Jamaica and across continents worldwide trek to the cool climes of Free Hill to experience the culinary experience, engineered by his wife Lisa, the food expert.

“The idea is we take what is in excess and turn it into something. So, I’m not trying to go into the market and sell five bunches of bananas; I’ve done it, it’s heartbreaking,” Binns explained.

“What we try to do is do value added all the way; we make our own plant-based cheese, we make salad dressing, three different types of pepper sauce; we try to use this approach of ‘using what you have to create what you want’, and that jumps into our dining experience; our dining experience brings people from all over the world, we are overbooked, right now we’re booked ‘til about March (2022) and we have folks that have booked years in advance because they come up, every year.

“We don’t really market the way of advertising but our best marketing tool is the quality of our products and the quality of our experience. We’re committed to the first two ingredients in any our products, which is love and affection, and we apply that.”

carl.gilchrist@gleanerjm.com