De Raíz: The story of the "Old Farmer", a pioneer of organic meat and permaculture in Argentina

Guillermo Schnitman—better known as the Old Farmer—speaks with the calm of someone who has spent half a century observing how a plant grows. He was born and raised in an apartment on Estado de Israel and Corrientes Avenue in Buenos Aires, but his first visit to the countryside changed his life. “It was a cage for me,” he recalls. “Once my parents took me to a family farm in Entre Ríos and I said, well, this is it. I was seven or eight years old. Since then, every vacation I asked to be taken there.” The interview took place on a winter morning in Escobar, where Guillermo currently lives. In conversation with De Raíz, he reviewed his journey from the countryside to the city and his way of understanding production, science, and daily life around the land. Over the years, the relationship became definitive. His family bought a farm in Entre Ríos and, while he was studying Veterinary Science, he began to combine the technical perspective with his curiosity about the land. Later, they ...