John Jeavons is a Yale graduate, a teacher, researcher, and author of over 30 publications. He is a champion of sufficient nutrition, and a man committed to sustainability. He's won many prestigious awards, spoken around the world, and inspired work in over 130 countries. Jeavons is the director of Ecology Action, an environmental research and educational organization based in Willits, California.

Jeavons is the creator of "Grow Biointensive", his branded name for survival gardening. It combines raising food with improving the soil, protecting the biosphere, conserving water, and helping people around the globe feed themselves.

When properly used, the techniques in Grow Biointensive’s sustainable mini-farming's miniaturization of agriculture can build the soil up to 60 times faster than in nature while making possible: a 67 percent to 88 percent reduction in water consumption per unit of production; a 50 plus percent reduction in the amount of purchased nutrient (inorganic fertilizer form) required per unit of production; a 94 percent to 99 percent reduction in the amount of energy used per unit of production; a 100 plus percent increase in soil fertility, while productivity increases and resource use decreases; a 200 percent to 400 percent increase in caloric production per unit of area; and a 100 plus percent increase in income per unit area.

To learn more about this important topic, read the full article in the November/December edition of Touch the Soil magazine.