Professor George Chan was born and raised on the island of Mauritius off the Continent of Africa in the Indian Ocean next to Madagascar. He did both his undergraduate and postgraduate engineering studies at the prestigious Imperial College of Science & Technology in London and specialized in environmental engineering. Yet he notes he values his 5 years' experience among the Chinese peasants just as much, if not more so. It was his experiences in China that led him to become the Johnny Appleseed of Integrated Farming, which was known in China as Chinese Ecological Agriculture (CEA). Working with Gunter Pauli and his non-profit Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI) to spread the seed of zero waste, integrated, low input, sustainable farming systems which they called by different names over the years including Integrated Biomass Systems (IBS), Integrated Farming Systems (IFS) and finally Integrated Farming and Waste Management Systems (IF&WMS).
George Chan was an interesting case, because basically he had two careers. His first career moved forward predictably and successfully, putting his modern Western education into practice working for the US government in Mariana Islands. The second one began with what he thought was to be his retirement. His "five years' experience among the Chinese peasants inspired him enough to postpone his retirement and work as long as he was physically able to, promoting to the world what he thought was the answer to many of our problems.
After working for the EPA for over 7 years, he was eligible for US citizenship. Instead he but did not change his Mauritius passport and spent his “retirement years” in China for the next 5 years to understand "how they could produce so much with so little." Chan said that going to China had nothing to do with patriotism or race, as he still loved his native Mauritius. He never thought of retiring anywhere else except in his tiny island with the white sandy beaches & warm turquoise sea teeming with colorful fishes among the coral reefs.
Professor Chan was inspired by the wonderful things he saw in the southern parts of China, when he visited his ancestral village in 1983. He says he will never forget the day he visited the first sewage treatment plant built in Shanghai with over 25 experienced engineers from USA, in a US People to People Environmental Mission to China in 1983, in his own words:
They had an Activated Sludge process among others, but they did not have a duplicate tank, which was usually required all over the world when they had to clean the aeration pipes. They surprised ALL of us when they said they did not have to clean the pipes. Their trick was that they had put the pipes 12 inches from the floor, with the holes underneath, so there was no deposit that could block the holes during the intermittent aeration stoppage.
With his training in China he became a new 'graduate' of integrated farming. During his time in China, he enjoyed some of the most productive and enjoyable years of his life as learned about a system of farming and living that would serve also as an inspiration to many others. For several years, he was a professor and fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences working with pioneers in the field refining the process. What's remarkable about his story is without the lessons from China, working from the peasants, from age 60 to 65, he would not have succeeded in his life’s work. Professor Chan believes the pioneering efforts by the Chinese in developing integrated farming solutions offers many solutions to development problems around the world not just involving farmers but all aspects of waste treatment.
It was then that he met Gunter Pauli, who was thinking about similar things with his background as protege to the founder of the Club of Rome - the Italian industrialist Aurelio Peccei. Working with Pauli and ZERI, they worked together to start a new consultancy, leveraging Prof Chan's experience working and learning about Chinese waste treatment practices (CEA) towards the creation of a new sustainable, grassroots based model of farming.
Professor Chan saw himself as a "barefoot engineer" learning his lessons the hardest way possible by working in the field with the people that live off the land - the farmers. He had been in continuous consultancy services working with ZERI since he left China in 1989 and until he was physically unable to travel due to ill health. In the span of his "second career" his work included travel to nearly 80 countries and territories, helping local farmers and sustainable development activists develop the IF&WMS concept as an alternative and more sustainable system of farming and waste management.
His frustration at how inadequately things are done in the farming community today drove his desire to make the IF&WMS a commonly known alternative to conventional farming systems. He example he has visited many small dairy farms that closed down in New Mexico, USA, because they were losing money due to the high costs of inputs. Yet he felt like he solved those problems in Brazil working with the farmers to implement the IF&WMS best practices he learned from the Chinese there.
He takes pride in the fact that he had the honor of introducing one of these Integrated Farming prototypes at 15 locations throughout Brazil. This included one of Brazil’s major research institutions, TECPAR, in Parana State, where he worked with a bio-engineer there by the name of Alexandre Takamatsu. Because of the momentum he was in Brazil, he felt at least partially gratified that he life work is helping move the world in a more sustainable and sane direction of development. During that time, he was optimistic that his message of integrated farming is at least beginning to get through in some parts of the world. He had hoped that the success in developing the 15 IF&WSM prototypes in Brazil can be replicated in other regions of the world - including his home continent Africa.
Through this process the Integrated Food and Waste Management System (IF&WMS) has evolved to become a compelling alternative system of farming and waste management that is highly sustainable, while also economically productive. In this process, Professor Chan helped developed over 40 zero-emissions farms around the world that convert waste to abundant energy and food at very low cost.
Yet the story of his life ends with a man whose dream is still very much unrealized. Prof Chan like many Ecological Design pioneers who started their work in the mid-20th century, faced the reality of not being able to see their visionary ideas become fully incorporated into mainstream society theory and practice. While the potential of his ideas remain, we still struggle with how to disseminate these ideas more effectively and to honor the legacy of great and visionary people like George Chan, whose dedicated his life to empowering smallholder farmers so that they could not only survive but prosper within the modern global economy.