I moved to Belize in 1985, and have been an organic farmer in Belize since 1988. I bought a moribund and abandoned citrus and cattle farm with heavily damaged soils, and converted it into a complex stacked polyculture with over 500 species.

I took a PDC in 1991 with Michael Pilarski, Jose Caballero, Chuck March, Rick Valley and Mark D Cohen. In the 1990s I worked for a small organic chocolate company with the local cooperative, and saw over 600 cacao farms in Belize, Nicaragua, Guatamala, Costa Rica, Panama and Venezuela.

My main interest is creating "food forests", or stacked polycultures of food, timber, medicinals and marketable crops, especially cacao.

I am a photovoltaic technician, and design and install photovoltaic systems, both battery based home systems, systems for schools and ranger stations, and water pumping applications ranging from farm sized to village level.

I am available as a consultant on these subjects.

In 2004 I helped start an NGO called Maya Mountain Research Farm on the land I have been farming, and we have been holding PDCs here every year since then. We have had Toby Hemenway, Penny Livingston, Larry Santoyo, Albert Bates, Andrew Goodheart Brown, Cliff Davis and Maria Ros teach here. In 2013 we will be hosting an Advanced Permaculture Design Course with Jono Neiger and Eric Toensmeir, along with the 8th Annual PDC.

We are working on creating a PDC curriculum appropriate for Maya people in southern Belize and Guatemala, and translating it into Kekchi and Mopan Maya.

8th Annual Permaculture Design Course

Maya Mountain Research Farm is the oldest permaculture project in Central America. This course is a great opportunity to learn permaculture in a location that is a result of 24 years of work.

Updates at MMRF

Article on Biochar stove and piggery at MMRF

Solar installation in Indian Creek and Golden Stream

MMRF will be installing a photovoltaic lighting system in two schools in June.