Brother Paul Desmarais SJ was a 25-year-old novice when he arrived in Zambia in 1971. He had just graduated with an agriculture degree from the University of Guelph when he came to work with small-scale farmers around the Jesuit Kasisi Mission just outside of Lusaka.

He taught them how to use hybrid seeds, chemicals, and machines. When his colleague, Dr David Shulist SJ, suggested organic farming, “I thought he was talking rubbish,” said Brother Paul. But his visit to organic farms in Ontario convinced him “we were on the wrong path.” In 1990, the Kasisi Agricultural Training Centre (KATC), a farmer-training institute of the Jesuits in Zambia, transitioned to organic farming and never looked back.

Brother Paul ended his 40-year tenure as KATC director in 2020 and began working as director of its new diploma program on organic agriculture. In late 2022, he moved back to Canada for health reasons.

Brother Paul’s work and life have always been motivated by a deep faith, an unwavering commitment to the most excluded, a love for people and for nature.

Canadian Jesuits International, which supports KATC, presents excerpts of Brother Paul’s memorable thoughts through the years.

On what makes KATC unique

There are other training centers in [Zambia], but we are the only one that is 100 percent organic. Our activities are based on the principles and practices of organic agriculture and agroecology (AE). AE includes organic agriculture but is also concerned with societal values and culture. It is therefore very much part of all four Jesuit Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs).

We grow our crops and vegetables following organic principles. With vegetables we can achieve similar yields to commercial enterprises that use chemicals. With major crops we have yet to achieve similar results as large commercial farms. However, small-scale organic farmers double to quadruple their yields. Since 70% of the food in the world is produced by small-scale farmers, there is every reason to believe that farming organically can feed the world’s population.

About organic farming

Organic farming requires practical experience, an understanding of science and a keen eye to observe what is happening in nature. It has a lot in common with what Is known as “creation spirituality.” It respects the soil, the air, the water, the farmer, the consumer – all of creation. For example, without bees there would be limited pollination. Without pollination we would not have any food. We need the tiniest of creatures to survive.

‘Conversion experience’

I have always been interested in social justice issues. [Ecological] awareness has widened the scope of my concerns to cover eco-justice issues. Social justice has to include justice for the environment.

This great ecological awareness helps us in being in touch with God the creator. We can more readily thank the Creator for the birds singing, for the flowers, for the simple and yet intrinsically complicated web of life in which we are immersed.

Since the Second World War, agriculture worldwide has adopted ways of producing food that are inimical to an appreciative stance of God’s beautiful gift of God’s self in creation. We have poisoned the soil, water, air, and food, all in the name of feeding the masses.

If we say that we love God, then we should respect God’s creation.

Sources: canadianjesuitsinternational.ca, Jesuits Global, The Catholic Register, Harbinger’s Magazine