The Brazilian farm, Fazenda da Toca, hopes to become a replicable model for large-scale egg, dairy and fruit production using ecological methods.

Food Tank website carries an interview with Richard Charity, Sustainability Manager at Fazenda da Toca in Itirapina, São Paulo State, about the success of the farm and the history behind it.

Fazenda da Toca was founded in 2009 by supermarket chain heir and former Formula 1 race car driver, Pedro Paulo Diniz. The farm makes use of agroforestry to grow a variety of trees that help to balance required biomass production with the nutritional needs of crops and animals.

Charity explains how the farm operators have been “discovering the most beneficial combinations and planting successions of tree elements, grasses and crops”.

He is hopeful that through large-scale organic and biodynamic production of healthy plant and animal products, the farm will become a catalyst for “sound rural development and environmental regeneration in Brazil”.

The farm has established the Instituto Toca, a non-profit school and research initiative, that aims to “educate to transform,” by providing direct instruction on sustainability to students in the local municipality

Read the full story: Scaling Up Ecological Cultivation: An Interview with Richard Charity of Fazenda da Toca