The Bio-Integrated Farm

“The Bio-Integrated Farm provides practical solutions for farmers and homesteaders facing the dual challenges of sustainably feeding an expanding global population and building resilience into their systems in response to climate disruption. Shawn Jadrnicek’s designs for greenhouses, irrigation, composting systems, and more are based on the most enduring answer: let’s look to nature. From experience, Jadrnicek knows how to create organic, resilient, and highly productive systems based on creative use of water, solar energy, and other free forces of nature.”--Courtney White, author of Two Percent Solutions for the Planet

“The Bio-Integrated Farm is an invaluable resource for market farmers, homesteaders, and serious gardeners who are interested in improving their relationship with the land. Shawn Jadrnicek’s creative use of materials, animals, and space, which he clearly and thoroughly explains in this book, will inspire and teach you how to improve the efficiency and resiliency of your farm or garden. I can’t wait to implement some of Shawn’s designs at my site. While reading through this book, I was reminded of the ancient gardening techniques mentioned in F.H. King’s Farmers of Forty Centuries. Shawn has integrated these simple and effective technologies into his modern-day working farm; his book will allow readers to access some of that ancient wisdom, too.”--Jerome Osentowski, author of The Forest Garden Greenhouse

“Harvesting, multiplying, capturing, conveying, sloping, fertilizing, irrigating, heating, cooling… ‘at least seven functions’ is the genius of Shawn Jadrnicek’s stacked systems in The Bio-Integrated Farm. Shawn turns almost everything we think we know about farming on its head, beginning with the notion that the odds are stacked against the small farmer and permaculturist. Instead, he stacks the odds in our favor by requiring every component of a farm to serve at least seven functions. These stacked systems create biological and mechanical efficiencies that maximize production and ecological diversity. While innovators abound in the permaculture world, Shawn is unparalleled in the practicality and detail of his innovative designs.

As a connoisseur of college farms, I’ve visited several dozen such operations across the United States, and I have yet to see another academic farm demonstrate the level of careful design and innovation found on the Clemson University Student Organic Farm, one of several permaculture masterworks Shawn has helped create. As much an engineer as he is an ecologist, Shawn teases out nature’s secret systems with a covey of collaborators—students, prawns, soldier flies, chickens, and thermophilic bacteria to name but a few—and he shares all his best designs in this paradigm-altering guide. Be prepared to have your vision of a farm’s limits shattered. Fear not, Shawn shows you how to reassemble those broken pieces into a ‘7-plus mosaic’ that can take any homestead or farm to the next level.”--Philip Ackerman-Leist, professor, Green Mountain College; author of Rebuilding the Foodshed

“What is unique about permaculture, at its heart, is integration of elements like fish ponds, greenhouses, chickens, and crops. The Bio-Integrated Farm highlights real-world farm management experiences, including particularly innovative practices such as raising freshwater shrimp in greenhouse tanks that also provide thermal mass. The authors also respect and acknowledge the ancient roots of many of these ideas.”--Eric Toensmeier, author of The Carbon Farming Solution

“Nature knows no waste, and cutting-edge farmers should start today to incorporate the bio-integration principles that Shawn Jadrnicek describes in detail in this book. Shawn shares his in-the-field experience using easy-to-understand formulas and charts to encourage the reader to develop a plan and translate project descriptions into hardworking results. I have seen Shawn’s transformational power in person at Clemson University, and his visions are addictive, teaching you not just to think outside the box by harmonizing natural systems but to act outside the box to create inexpensive and highly functional growing environments that are much more profitable and efficient than traditional growing systems. Even at our mushroom farm, we are incorporating Shawn’s design approach with aquaponics, black soldier fly composting, and passive heating. Farmers need all the financial help they can get, and The Bio-Integrated Farm will help readers prevent costly experimental failures. Every farm's needs and layouts are unique, and this book allows the reader to customize and hybridize systems that harness the power of nature to transform ordinary farms into models worthy of world-class learning centers for permaculture.”--Tradd Cotter, author of Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation

“As climate change drives increasingly challenging weather variability and extremes, ecosystem-based strategies such as those presented in The Bio-Integrated Farm will be crucial to successful adaptation efforts. In this practical, clearly written, and beautifully designed book, Shawn Jadrnicek shares his unique ability to conceptualize, design, and manage water for whole-system benefits at multiple scales. A must read for anyone interested in design and management of water systems for resilient homesteads and farms.”--Laura Lengnick, author of Resilient Agriculture

“Shawn Jadrnicek has spent the last decade getting his hands dirty and taking risks, experimenting with how to create systems that actually work. The Bio-Integrated Farm covers areas often neglected in the current permaculture literature. Shawn's systems-based designs show permaculture's relevance beyond typical gardening scenarios. He offers a load of detailed practical advice based on personal experience, demonstrating how to make connections that result in greater yields and ease. His zeal for making the most out of the resources on hand has inspired to me to find ways to further integrate my own permaculture homestead!”--Rain Tenaqiya, author of West Coast Food Forestry