Sepp Holzer's Permaculture
and Aquaculture at
the Kramaterhof Farm

Josef 'Sepp' Holzer has been practising his unique take on what is now commonly termed permaculture for almost 50 years. He was an early pioneer of the holistic approach to creating abundant food landscapes even before Bill Mollison coined the term 'permaculture', in the 70's, to describe techniques that represent the permanent culture and natural cultivation of land in harmony with nature's cues and clues in order to generate amazingly productive land in any climate.

On the elevated slopes near Lungau, Austria Sepp Holzer has created a very special place that combines aquaculture and permaculture approaches to generate a rich, fertile and productive area producing a cornucopia of naturally produced foods many of which would struggle to grow in the cooler climes without the sage intervention and observational wisdom of this master of helping nature to exceed expectations.

Sepp and Veronica Holzer, at their farm 'Der Kramaterhof', became well known only after publicity that occurred at the turn of the millennium. In short series of inspirational videos Sepp Holzer narrates the history of his ideas that have made his farm "a high production combination of agroforestry, aquaculture, terraces and raised beds, water heat exchange, self-produced electricity, pig raising, and fish farming without toxic pesticides, herbicides, or having to buy additional foods to feed the pigs and fish."

In the overwhelmingly pine-infested mountain-side region, at some 1500 meters elevation in the Tyrol of Austria, the area in which he farms, Sepp has created a terrain with gentle and insisitent natural intervention that is more biodiverse and generates its own Mediterranean microclimate through his ingenious techniques. He even grows lemons and kiwis in an area better know for skiing and winter sports.

Sepp Holzer has farmed the 45 hectare site on a steep slope, near Lungau for over 4 decades and has turned "marginal, erosion-prone mountain lands with poor, acidic soils into a stable Eden on Earth with rich soils, high biodiversity, and high productivity."

All these achivements have been attained without recourse to 'standard techniques' such as irrigation, use of toxic and costly pesticides and herbicides, and without importing fish, cattle, or pig feed.

Many years of observing just how nature works has helped Sepp's turn the Kramaterhof farm into an expemplar of how productive abundance can be achieved through understanding and application of techiniques used by nature herself... If only so many others so-called farmers who insistently poison and erode the land around them might take heed!

Here is one of the set of video that you might like to watch:

More info:

More about Sepp Holzer: on Wikipedia

See Sepp Holzer's Der Kramaterhof website and publications