ChangeUnderground: Recent Episodes
mrjonmoore
Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil. To feed the world, to clean the air and water, we need to change what we do with our soils. This podcast looks at the many variants of regenerative food growing. How? Why? When? We must be the ChangeUnderground!
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@jmps.au
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/regen9/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@jmps.au
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/s9bonus/
https://www.1news.co.nz/2024/05/01/us-tests-ground-beef-for-bird-flu-experts-confident-its-safe/
https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/04/concerning-spread-of-bird-flu-from-cows-to-cats-suspected-in-texas/
https://theconversation.com/how-bird-flu-virus-fragments-get-into-milk-sold-in-stores-and-what-the-spread-of-h5n1-in-cows-means-for-the-dairy-industry-and-milk-drinkers-228689
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01256-5
https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/wpro---documents/emergency/surveillance/avian-influenza/ai_20240503.pdf?sfvrsn=5f006f99_130#:~:text=From%201%20January%202003%20to,(CFR)%20of%2056%25.
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://jmps.au
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
Email: jon@jmps.au
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/regen8
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://jmps.au
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
Email: jon@jmps.au
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/regen7
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://jmps.au
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
Email: jon@jmps.au
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/regen6
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://jmps.au
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
Email: jon@jmps.au
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/regen5/
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
In show links:
Katoomba Community Organic Garden
The Kitchen Garden Foundation
Zaytuna Farm
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://jmps.au
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/regen4/
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
Email: jon@jmps.au
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/regen3/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/regen2/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/regen1/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode347
Australian student wins award for design that could turn petrol cars into hybrids
https://thedriven.io/2023/09/13/australian-student-wins-design-award-that-could-turn-petrol-cars-into-hybrids/amp/
Australia’s commuting distance: cities and regions
https://www.bitre.gov.au/sites/default/files/is_073.pdf
Earth ‘well outside safe operating space for humanity’, scientists find
https://amp.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/13/earth-well-outside-safe-operating-space-for-humanity-scientists-find
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode346
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode346
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode345
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Can We Meet the Nett Zero Challenge
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/can-we-meet-the-net-zero-challenge/id1111704563?i=1000622558706
Iron fertilization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization#Financial_opportunities
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode345
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Can We Meet the Nett Zero Challenge
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/can-we-meet-the-net-zero-challenge/id1111704563?i=1000622558706
Iron fertilization
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_fertilization#Financial_opportunities
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode344
Marine species are being pushed towards the poles. From dugong to octopuses, here are 8 marine species you might spot in new places
https://theconversation.com/marine-species-are-being-pushed-towards-the-poles-from-dugong-to-octopuses-here-are-8-marine-species-you-might-spot-in-new-places-207115
Atlas reveals birds pushed further north amid climate crisis
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/03/atlas-reveals-birds-pushed-further-north-amid-climate-crisis-aoe
Ocean heat is off the charts – here’s what that means for humans and ecosystems around the world
https://theconversation.com/ocean-heat-is-off-the-charts-heres-what-that-means-for-humans-and-ecosystems-around-the-world-207902
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode343
Heat Records Are Broken Around the Globe as Earth Warms, Fast
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/06/climate/climate-change-record-heat.html
Heatwaves intensification in Australia: A consistent trajectory across past, present and future
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720340432
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode342
7 Ways to Kill Soil Microbes: and why this is a bad idea!
https://chelsiesquared.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/7-ways-to-kill-microbes/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode341
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Topical Talks
Growing a garden can also bloom eco-resilient, cross-cultural, food-sovereign communities
http://theconversation.com/growing-a-garden-can-also-bloom-eco-resilient-cross-cultural-food-sovereign-communities-121543
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode341
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Topical Talks
Growing a garden can also bloom eco-resilient, cross-cultural, food-sovereign communities
http://theconversation.com/growing-a-garden-can-also-bloom-eco-resilient-cross-cultural-food-sovereign-communities-121543
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode340
King Corn
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode339
Carbon and climate implications of rewetting a raised bog in Ireland
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gcb.16359
Pre-Famine Ireland
http://www.deskeenan.com/4PrChapter8.htm
Russian Dacha Gardens
https://smallfarmersjournal.com/russian-dacha-gardens/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode338
One of next five years set to be warmest on record - WMO
https://www.rte.ie/news/environment/2023/0517/1384030-climate-global/
El Niño and La Niña have become more extreme and frequent because of climate change, study finds
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-18/el-nino-la-nina-more-extreme-climate-change-csiro/102341468
Study suggests China’s crackdown on illegal CFC gases is working
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2021/02/10/study-suggests-chinas-crackdown-illegal-cfc-gases-working/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode337
And the NEW BOOK: Glossing Over the Details:
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0C4HFTXZV
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode336
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode335
Drop in wholesale power prices as renewable energy generation from wind and solar grows, AEMO finds
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-04-28/wholesale-power-prices-drop-amid-renewable-energy-growth/102273350
India’s Quest to Build the World’s Largest Solar Farms
https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.newyorker.com/news/dept-of-energy/indias-quest-to-build-the-worlds-largest-solar-farms
Episode 163: Pumped Hydro and a Hazelnut Driven Food System | #worldorganicnews 2019 04 08
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/163-pumped-hydro-and-a-hazelnut-driven-food-system-worldorganicnews-2019-04-08
The Climate Crisis Gives Sailing Ships a Second Wind
https://12ft.io/proxy?ref=&q=https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/the-climate-crisis-gives-sailing-ships-a-second-wind
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Gardening Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode334
Warmest eight-year period on record - WMO report.
https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2023/0421/1378241-climate-wmo/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode333
Year Without a Summer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer#:~:text=The%20year%201816%20is%20known,years%20of%201766%20and%202000
A fire killed 18,000 cows in Texas. It’s a horrifyingly normal disaster.
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/23683141/texas-farm-fire-explosion-dimmitt-cows-factory-dairy
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode332
SYNTHESIS REPORT OF THE IPCC SIXTH ASSESSMENT REPORT (AR6)
https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6syr/pdf/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode331
We don’t need ‘miracle’ technologies to fix the climate. We have the tools now
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/feb/07/climate-crisis-miracle-technology-wind-water-solar
“It’s a Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stewart
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_Life
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode330
Australia can expect an El Niño weather pattern bringing extreme dry hot weather now La Niña is over
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-11/what-follows-la-nina-weather-pattern-in-australia/102076404
Ukraine war: As wheat prices soar, Australian farmers step up
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/3/10/as-wheat-prices-soar-australian-farmers-step-up-to-the-plate#:~:text=Australia%2C%20which%20accounts%20for%2010,drought%20in%20the%20Northern%20Hemisphere
Perennial Wheat
https://landinstitute.org/our-work/perennial-crops/perennial-wheat/
Episode 48:https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/48-worldorganicnews-2017-01-23
Episode 309: https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/episode-309-climate-change-crops
Solar sheep
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22220694/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode329
Current Project: https://mrjonmoore.com/kin/
Upcoming Projects: https://mrjonmoore.com/upcoming-projects/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode328
Current Project: https://mrjonmoore.com/kin/
Upcoming Projects: https://mrjonmoore.com/upcoming-projects/
RTE Countrywide Ukrainian Farmers
https://www.rte.ie/radio/radio1/clips/22214670
Episode 310. Avian Flu and Food Security
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode310/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
Current Project: https://mrjonmoore.com/kin/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode327
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode326
The Seven Year Itch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Year_Itch
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode325
Apple Podcasts Link for Disability Sunflower Stories
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/disability-sunflower-stories/id1655776843
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode324
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
It’s alive! Scientists get closer to identifying what lives in our soil
https://iowalearningfarms.wordpress.com/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode322
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
https://bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Save Our Soil
http://www.saveoursoil.com.au/
Bio-Soil
https://www.biosoil.net.au/
Demeter Australia
http://www.demeter.org.au/
Biodynamics UK Certification
http://bdcertification.org.uk/
Demeter USA
http://www.demeter-usa.org/
Biodynamic Marketing Australia
https://biodynamic.com.au/
Biodynamic Preparation 500 (Video)
https://youtu.be/tiMMoqngdt0
LINKS
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode321/
LINKS
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode320
Towards Future Farming: How Artificial Intelligence is transforming the Agriculture Industry
https://www.wipro.com/holmes/towards-future-farming-how-artificial-intelligence-is-transforming-the-agriculture-industry/
LINKS
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode319/
Episode 127
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/127-weeds-worldorganicnews-2018-07-30
LINKS
JM Podcasting Service: bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode318/
Rolls-Royce tests a jet engine running on hydrogen
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63758937
Electric Planes Are Taking Flight
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/electric-planes-are-taking-flight-180980821/
LINKS
JM Podcasting Service: bit.ly/JON_M
No Dig Quick Start Course
https://changeunderground.net/the-no-dig-gardening-course/
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode317/
FAO to launch report on black soils to mark World Soil Day
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/fao-to-launch-report-on-black-soils-to-mark-world-soil-day/
Global Soil Partnership
https://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/resources/events/detail/en/c/1470324/#:~:text=World%20Soil%20Day%20(WSD)%20is,sustainable%20management%20of%20soil%20resources
Light Farming: Restoring carbon, organic nitrogen and biodiversity to agricultural soils
https://amazingcarbon.com/JONES-LightFarmingFINAL(2018).pdf
Bordertown sheep farmer Stuart Staude runs his busy property, and new stud business, from a wheelchair
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101679880
Seed Banks:
Episode 52
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/52-worldorganicnews-2017-02-20
Episode 65
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/65-worldorganicnews-2017-05-22
Episode 74
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/74-worldorganicnews-2017-07-24
Episode 238
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/episode-238-seeds-the-original-circular-economy
Episode 275
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/episode-275-the-miracle-that-is-a-seed
Episode 314
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/episode-314-svalbard-drowning
Farmers' suicides in India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_suicides_in_India
LINKS
JM Podcasting Services
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode316/
Residents of Wyanbene struggling to access supplies, medicine due to regularly high floodwaters
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-27/act-residents-trapped-in-homes-by-flooding/101701922
Rural properties going off-grid with renewables for energy security and to reduce costs
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-11-27/rural-properties-going-off-grid-rewewables-for-energy-security/101637758
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode315/
Prickly pear eradication
https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/prickly-pear-eradication#:~:text=Before%20their%20release%2C%20prickly%20pear,South%20Wales%2C%20had%20been%20cleared.
The cane toad (Bufo marinus) - fact sheet
https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/invasive-species/publications/factsheet-cane-toad-bufo-marinus#:~:text=They%20are%20extremely%20hardy%20animals,of%20agricultural%20chemicals%20became%20widespread
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode314/
The "Doomsday Vault" Is In Serious Danger Due To Climate Change
https://www.iflscience.com/the-home-of-the-doomsday-seed-vault-is-in-danger-due-to-climate-change-51480
Episode 65: https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/65-worldorganicnews-2017-05-22
What happened to the “fail-safe” Svalbard seed vault designed to save us from crop failure
https://qz.com/987894/the-fail-safe-svalbard-seed-vault-designed-to-save-us-from-crop-failure-just-flooded-thanks-to-climate-change
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode313/
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode312/
Varroa mite emergency response
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/emergencies/biosecurity/current-situation/varroa-mite-emergency-response#:~:text=Varroa%20mite%20tracing%20and%20surveillance%20work%20has%20confirmed%20three%20new,fall%20within%20existing%20red%20zones
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode311/
Certified 'genius' Saul Griffith has a plan to decarbonise Australia — and it will only take 101 million machines
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/101453956
Who’s Gonna Save Us
https://overcast.fm/+7wElamOLE
Trombe Wall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trombe_wall#:~:text=A%20Trombe%20wall%20is%20a,the%20wall%20and%20the%20glaze.
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode310/
Varroa mite emergency response
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/emergencies/biosecurity/current-situation/varroa-mite-emergency-response#:~:text=Varroa%20mite%20tracing%20and%20surveillance%20work%20has%20confirmed%20three%20new,fall%20within%20existing%20red%20zones
Reports of dead and dying seabirds on east and south coasts
https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2022/0913/1322187-avian-flu/
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control: Factsheet on A(H5N1)
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/zoonotic-influenza/facts/factsheet-h5n1
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode309/
Varroa mite emergency response
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/emergencies/biosecurity/current-situation/varroa-mite-emergency-response#:~:text=Varroa%20mite%20tracing%20and%20surveillance%20work%20has%20confirmed%20three%20new,fall%20within%20existing%20red%20zones
Diet for a hotter climate: five plants that could help feed the world
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/aug/20/ancient-crops-climate-crisis-amaranth-fonio-cowpeas-taro-kernza
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode308/
Varroa mite emergency response
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/emergencies/biosecurity/current-situation/varroa-mite-emergency-response#:~:text=Varroa%20mite%20tracing%20and%20surveillance%20work%20has%20confirmed%20three%20new,fall%20within%20existing%20red%20zones
“When You See Me, Weep” | ‘Hunger Stones’ Resurfacing in Europe Due To Record Drought
https://snowbrains.com/when-you-see-me-weep-hunger-stones-resurfacing-in-europe-due-to-record-drought/
'Flagstone of fire' lit on River Suir in rare sighting
https://www.rte.ie/news/regional/2022/0901/1320127-kennys-rock/
China Facing Power Supply Threat From Drought in Sichuan
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-16/china-joins-europe-in-facing-threats-from-worsening-drought
The West's historic drought is threatening hydropower at Hoover Dam
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/16/us/hoover-dam-hydropower-drought-climate/index.html
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode307/
Varroa mite emergency response
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/emergencies/biosecurity/current-situation/varroa-mite-emergency-response#:~:text=Varroa%20mite%20tracing%20and%20surveillance%20work%20has%20confirmed%20three%20new,fall%20within%20existing%20red%20zones
LINKS
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode306/
Varroa mite emergency response
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/emergencies/biosecurity/current-situation/varroa-mite-emergency-response#:~:text=Varroa%20mite%20tracing%20and%20surveillance%20work%20has%20confirmed%20three%20new,fall%20within%20existing%20red%20zones
Australian Severe Weather
http://australiasevereweather.com/floods/lismore_flood_pictures_reports.htm
Rare ‘triple’ La Niña climate event looks likely — what does the future hold?
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01668-1
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode305/
Varroa mite emergency response
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/emergencies/biosecurity/current-situation/varroa-mite-emergency-response#:~:text=Varroa%20mite%20tracing%20and%20surveillance%20work%20has%20confirmed%20three%20new,fall%20within%20existing%20red%20zones
An ‘avo-lanche’ of avocados – Australia needs to consume and export more avocados as production continues to soar: Rabobank
https://arr.news/2022/07/26/an-avo-lanche-of-avocados-australia-needs-to-consume-and-export-more-avocados-as-production-continues-to-soar-rabobank/
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode304/
Varroa mite detection at Port of Newcastle threatens Australia's bee industry
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-06-24/varroa-mite-detected-at-newcastle-port/101180446
Varroa mite outbreak sees millions of bees destroyed, keepers call for compensation.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-30/beekeepers-impacted-by-varroa-mite-call-for-compensation/101195846
Queensland, Victoria impose bee border bans as NSW battles varroa mite outbreak
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-30/victoria-and-queensland-ban-bees-from-nsw-amid-varroa-outbreak/101196640
Varroa mite detected on blueberry orchard near Coffs Harbour in 43rd case since outbreak began
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-07-26/nana-glen-varroa-mite-beekeepers-not-notified/101268526
Duckweed: How a humble plant could help food security
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/duckweed-how-a-humble-plant-could-help-food-security/
Foot and mouth disease detected in Adelaide as airports ramp up biosecurity measures
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/foot-and-mouth-disease-detected-in-adelaide-as-airports-ramp-up-biosecurity-measures/news-story/f50fc049e392d539a8f3edec07e6d680
New feed additive could cut Irish cattle emissions by 60%
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/new-feed-additive-could-cut-irish-cattle-emissions-by-60/
Methane-reducing seaweed asparagopsis up for sale after years of research
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-06-30/asparagopsis-methane-reducing-seaweed-sold-in-australia/101198580
Late Night Live
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode303/
Episode 272
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode272/
Climate change: New Zealand's plan to tax cow and sheep burps
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-61741352
Varroa mite detection at Port of Newcastle threatens Australia's bee industry
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-06-24/varroa-mite-detected-at-newcastle-port/101180446
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode302/
A Revolution on Food and Farming
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00180bs
Claire Ratinon
https://www.claireratinon.com/
Sarah Langford
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rooted-Stories-Life-Farming-Revolution/dp/0241503744
Episode 158. Cows aren’t the enemy & let’s reward those doing the job!
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode158/
LINKS
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode301/
10 Heartbreaking Facts About Ongoing Conflicts Around the World
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/facts-about-world-conflicts/#:~:text=There%20Are%20at%20Least%2027%20Live%20Conflicts%20Right%20Now&text=Of%20those%20worsening%20are%20the,and%20the%20conflict%20in%20Ethiopia.
Experts say Ukraine war shows we need a new way to feed the world
https://www.politico.eu/article/expert-ukraine-war-need-new-way-feed-world/There's time
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode300/
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode299/
NSW Corps (The Rum Corps):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_South_Wales_Corps
LINKS
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode298/
How the Russia-Ukraine war, COVID and climate change are fuelling a growing global food crisis
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-07/russia-ukraine-war-covid-and-climate-change-food-crisis/101015366
Episodes 294, 289, 282 & 281
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode297/
Living Mulch Suppresses Weeds and Yields in Organic Vegetable Plots (CIAS Research Brief #100)
https://cias.wisc.edu/organic-initiative/living-mulch-suppresses-weeds-and-yields-in-organic-vegetable-plots-cias-research-brief-100/
6 Reasons Why I Chose Clover as a Living Mulch by KANE JAMISON
https://insteading.com/blog/white-clover-as-a-living-mulch/
Episode 296. The Great Dying
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode296/
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Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379118307261
LINKS
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Earth system impacts of the European arrival and Great Dying in the Americas after 1492
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277379118307261
LINKS
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode295/
In Sri Lanka, Organic Farming Went Catastrophically Wrong
https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/05/sri-lanka-organic-farming-crisis/
Cuba's organic revolution
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/apr/04/organics.food
Mororo farmer helps Mel Gibson’s Fijian island
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/grafton/mororo-farmer-helps-mel-gibsons-fijian-island/news-story/577ceaf174396fb6627e05f38821741e
LINKS
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode294/
RTE: World food prices hit record high over Ukraine war
https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2022/0408/1291141-world-food-prices/
UN News: Ukraine war drives international food prices to ‘new all-time high’
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1115852
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report, Summary for Policymakers Headline Statements
https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/resources/spm-headline-statements/
LINKS
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode293/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode293/
LINKS
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The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode293/
LINKS
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode292/
Record-smashing heatwaves are hitting Antarctica and the Arctic simultaneously. Here’s what’s driving them, and how they’ll impact wildlife
https://theconversation.com/record-smashing-heatwaves-are-hitting-antarctica-and-the-arctic-simultaneously-heres-whats-driving-them-and-how-theyll-impact-wildlife-179659
What Greenland’s record-breaking rain means for the planet
https://theconversation.com/what-greenlands-record-breaking-rain-means-for-the-planet-166567
Satellite data shows entire Conger ice shelf has collapsed in Antarctica
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/25/satellite-data-shows-entire-conger-ice-shelf-has-collapsed-in-antarctica?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other&fbclid=IwAR2k0INUIwuV6qQkJCs_1-H5FupNjbi3X4wZ6lstDBX5YG0C5DM9wQVJomQ
LINKS
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode291/
Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/farm.html
Episode 288: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode288
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode291/
Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/farm.html
Episode 288: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode288
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode291/
Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/farm.html
Episode 288: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode288
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode291/
Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/farm.html
Episode 288: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode288
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode290/
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/
World Central Kitchen
https://wck.org/
The Story Behind the José Andrés Nonprofit Serving Hurricane Dorian Victims
https://www.eater.com/2017/11/10/16623204/world-central-kitchen-jose-andres-bahamas-puerto-rico-haiti-houston
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode289/
Goulding Fertilisers withdraws its price list
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/goulding-fertilisers-withdraws-its-price-list/
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/
LINKS
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode289/
Goulding Fertilisers withdraws its price list
https://www.agriland.ie/farming-news/goulding-fertilisers-withdraws-its-price-list/
IPCC Sixth Assessment Report
https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar6/
LINKS
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The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode288/
Episode 84.
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/84-heat-waves-a-great-green-wall-and-a-one-square-metre-garden-worldorgancinews-2017-10-02
21 African Nations Fight Desertification with 8,000 Kilometer Long Great Green Wall
https://www.archdaily.com/976054/african-nations-fight-desertification-with-80000-kilometer-long-great-green-wall
The Great Green Wall
https://www.greatgreenwall.org/about-great-green-wall
Episode 281
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode281/
Episode 282
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode282/
Episode 278
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode278/
Episode 191
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode191/
Episode 184
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode184/
Cuba's organic revolution
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/apr/04/organics.food
Episode 286
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode286/
LINKS
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The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode287/
Victoria's first seaweed farm aims to reduce livestock emissions
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2022-02-12/seaweed-to-reduce-cow-methane-emissions-port-phillip/100819694
Asparagopsis feedlot feeding trial
https://www.mla.com.au/research-and-development/reports/2020/asparagopsis-feedlot-feeding-trial/
SOUTHERN OCEAN CARBON COMPANY
https://southernoceancarbon.com/
Native grains harvest brings culture, food, and regenerative farming together
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-13/narrabri-plant-breeding-institute-native-grains-harvest/100819478
Were Indigenous Australians the world's first bakers?
https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2016/10/06/were-indigenous-australians-worlds-first-bakers
Dark Emu
https://www.audible.com.au/pd/Dark-Emu-Audiobook/B01NCU4H04?action_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp&shareTest=TestShare
Perennial Wheat
https://landinstitute.org/our-work/perennial-crops/perennial-wheat/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode286/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Episode 285
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode285/
Huge Tesla battery in South Australia primed for big upgrade
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/huge-tesla-battery-in-south-australia-primed-for-big-upgrade-20191119-p53byo.html
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode285/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Companion Planting: Three Sisters Garden Plans
https://www.growveg.com.au/guides/companion-planting-three-sisters-garden-plans/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode284/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Planting Corn into Living Red Clover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHxGfOZVtbM
Episode 260:
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode260/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode283/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Episode 281 The Future
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode281
Episode 282
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode282
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode282/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
What is AdBlue and why could an international shortage bring Australia's economy to its knees?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-08/adblue-shortage-a-serious-threat-to-australias-supply-chain/100683230
Episode 281. The Future
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode281
AdBlue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_exhaust_fluid
DTN Retail Fertilizer Trends
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/crops/article/2021/10/20/urea-price-climbs-26-since-mid-147
Episode 278. COP26, what's changed?
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode278
Riots: Remember the Four Meal Rule
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mark-fletcherbrown/riots-remember-the-four-m_b_927882.html
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode281/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Episode 279: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode279/
Learning from the 2008 food crisis: what happened, lessons learned, and ongoing consequences
https://waterpartnership.org.au/learning-from-the-2008-food-crisis-what-happened-lessons-learned-and-ongoing-consequences/
Where the supply-chain crisis came from, where it’s going, and when it will be over
https://www.businessinsider.com.au/supply-chain-crisis-when-it-will-be-over-end-2021-11?r=US&IR=T
Riots: Remember the Four Meal Rule
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/mark-fletcherbrown/riots-remember-the-four-m_b_927882.html
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/e280/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode279/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Britain’s half-arsed climate summit
https://www.politico.eu/article/cop26-uk-britain-boris-johnson-glasgow-climate-summit-london/
No fertiliser and no hay making but still plenty of grass for the cattle
https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/tas-country-hour/intensive-grazing/13572266
Episode 260. Small Scale Grain Growing
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode260/
JADAM is a group of organic farmers
https://en.jadam.kr/com/com-1.html
Journey to Forever: Small farms
http://journeytoforever.org/farm.html
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode278/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Fertiliser prices boom as Incitec Pivot plans closure of Gibson Island plant
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2021-11-13/incitec-pivot-shut-brisbane-plant-amidst-fertiliser-price-boom/100610750
Nations reach climate deal at COP26 after compromise on coal
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-14/cop26-climate-deal-reached-with-coal-compromise/100618866
COP26 Reaches Consensus on Key Actions to Address Climate Change (POress Release)
https://unfccc.int/news/cop26-reaches-consensus-on-key-actions-to-address-climate-change
COP26 climate deal ‘too late’ for vulnerable countries but too much for others
https://www.politico.eu/article/cop26-climate-summit-deal-vulnerable-countries/
A watered-down COP26 deal as Delhi chokes
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-59286783
Cuba's organic revolution
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2008/apr/04/organics.food
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode277/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Avocados dumped amid glut in domestic supply and imports from overseas
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-11-07/wa-avocados-dumped/100598768
Episode 246: Growing in Subsoil?
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode246/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode276/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Climate Change: Global Temperature
https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature
Climate Change Policy.
https://nff.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/2020.08.06_Policy_NRM_Climate_Change.pdf
Gina Rinehart
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/gina-rinehart-quotes
Australian fossil fuel subsidies hit $10.3 billion in 2020-21
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/australian-fossil-fuel-subsidies-hit-10-3-billion-in-2020-21/
episode 191:
Are you the 100th Monkey?
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode275/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Plant Evolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_history_of_plants#:~:text=There%20is%20evidence%20that%20cyanobacteria,around%20850%20million%20years%20ago.
The dangerous concentration of the seed market
https://www.publiceye.ch/en/topics/seeds/concentration-of-the-seed-market
What Are The World's Most Important Staple Foods?
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-important-staple-foods-in-the-world.html
Invisible Hand
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/invisiblehand.asp
Svalbard Global Seed Vault
https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vault/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode274/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Episode 272: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode272/
To A Lesser Degree
The Vegetarian Myth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vegetarian_Myth
Wolf Restoration
https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/wolf-restoration.htm#:~:text=Wolves%20arrived%20in%20Yellowstone%20National,truck%20on%20January%2012%2C%201995.
Climate change means Australia may have to abandon much of its farming
https://theconversation.com/climate-change-means-australia-may-have-to-abandon-much-of-its-farming-166098
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
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email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode273/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1546564598887681
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode272/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Cattle numbers in the US: https://www.statista.com/statistics/194297/total-number-of-cattle-and-calves-in-the-us--since-2001/
Bison in the US 1800: http://www.ozarkbisons.com/aboutbison.php
Ruminant Evolved: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20338409/#:~:text=The%20first%20ruminants%20evolved%20about,kg)%20forest%2Ddwelling%20omnivores.
Personal Carbon Footprint: https://mashable.com/feature/carbon-footprint-pr-campaign-sham
Episode 246: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode246
George Monbot: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Monbiot
Episode 158: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode158
COP26: https://ukcop26.org/
LINKS
But Me a Coffee: buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode271/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Spelt: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spelt
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode270/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Episode 189: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode189
Biological patents in the United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biological_patents_in_the_United_States
Green Revolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution
Glyphosate Sales By Year
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Global-glyphosate-sales-1980-through-2018-Source-Adapted-from-data-provided-in_fig2_351374539
Organic Seed Alliance
https://seedalliance.org/
Heirloom Seeds
https://vimeo.com/398922532
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode269/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
15 tips to start a small farm using regenerative practices
https://www.growjourney.com/15-tips-start-small-farm-using-regenerative-practices/
Gabe Brown
Episode 213
Episode 254
Episode 257
Episode 267
HS2 Petition
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-hs2-from-destroying-anymore-ancient-woodlands-and-areas-of-important-wildlife-habitat?bucket&source=facebook-share-button&time=1618039775&utm_campaign&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=facebook&share=3427643a-141b-43ea-a0bd-4f997d03710a&fbclid=IwAR3O86PQQUTlRNRwV4BbkFz8NbBfxhC-13sUkJfIOWXpT3wEsoM2O8rhsQE
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode268/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
‘Six chickens somehow turned into 60!’ Meet the families trying to live the Good Life in the pandemic
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jul/01/six-chickens-60-families-live-good-life-pandemic-grow-food
Episode 267: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode267/
Episode 261: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode261/
URBAN SPRAWL SPARKS AGRARIAN REVOLUTION IN QUEENSLAND
https://www.smallfarms.net/urban-sprawl-sparks-agrarian-revolution-in-queensland/
Biodynamics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodynamic_agriculture
EPISODE 117
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/117-biodynamics-and-soil-carbon-with-mark-rathbone-worldorganicnews-2018-05-21
Mark Rathbone
https://www.saveoursoil.com.au/our-story-1
Episode 264
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode264/
HS2 Petition
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-hs2-from-destroying-anymore-ancient-woodlands-and-areas-of-important-wildlife-habitat?bucket&source=facebook-share-button&time=1618039775&utm_campaign&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=facebook&share=3427643a-141b-43ea-a0bd-4f997d03710a&fbclid=IwAR3O86PQQUTlRNRwV4BbkFz8NbBfxhC-13sUkJfIOWXpT3wEsoM2O8rhsQE
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode267/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Journey to Forever: Small farms
http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm.html
UN agency urges support for small farmers to help them not just get by, but thrive and feed others
https://news.un.org/en/story/2017/01/549962-un-agency-urges-support-small-farmers-help-them-not-just-get-thrive-and-feed
Blue Corn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_corn
Gabe Brown
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode-254-when-we-lose-diversity/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode266/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Amazon rainforest now emitting more CO2 than it absorbs
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/14/amazon-rainforest-now-emitting-more-co2-than-it-absorbs
HS2 Petition to Save the Ancient Woodlands of England
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-hs2-from-destroying-anymore-ancient-woodlands-and-areas-of-important-wildlife-habitat?bucket&source=facebook-share-button&time=1618039775&utm_campaign&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=facebook&share=3427643a-141b-43ea-a0bd-4f997d03710a&fbclid=IwAR3O86PQQUTlRNRwV4BbkFz8NbBfxhC-13sUkJfIOWXpT3wEsoM2O8rhsQE
Amazonia as a carbon source linked to deforestation and climate change
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03629-6
Lizzo & Martian
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7w2NGc39ktyl8eUeUPniQ
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode265/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Amazon rainforest now emitting more CO2 than it absorbs
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/14/amazon-rainforest-now-emitting-more-co2-than-it-absorbs
HS2 Petition to Save the Ancient Woodlands of England
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-hs2-from-destroying-anymore-ancient-woodlands-and-areas-of-important-wildlife-habitat?bucket&source=facebook-share-button&time=1618039775&utm_campaign&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=facebook&share=3427643a-141b-43ea-a0bd-4f997d03710a&fbclid=IwAR3O86PQQUTlRNRwV4BbkFz8NbBfxhC-13sUkJfIOWXpT3wEsoM2O8rhsQE
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode264/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
No Trees... No Humans.
https://www.nature.com/scitable/blog/our-science/no_trees_no_humans/
Earth’s Calendar Year
https://biomimicry.net/earths-calendar-year/
Deforestation and Forest Loss
https://ourworldindata.org/deforestation
The Woodland Trust: HS2 Rail Link https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/protecting-trees-and-woods/campaign-with-us/hs2-rail-link/
HS2 Petition
https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-hs2-from-destroying-anymore-ancient-woodlands-and-areas-of-important-wildlife-habitat?bucket&source=facebook-share-button&time=1618039775&utm_campaign&utm_medium=socialshare&utm_source=facebook&share=3427643a-141b-43ea-a0bd-4f997d03710a&fbclid=IwAR3O86PQQUTlRNRwV4BbkFz8NbBfxhC-13sUkJfIOWXpT3wEsoM2O8rhsQE
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode263/
Episode 260. Small Scale Grain Growing
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode262/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode261/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
John Seymour
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seymour_(author)
Masanobu Fukuoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka
Bill Mollison
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison
In Grave Danger of Falling Food
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrtJbk8_GY8
Quote:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/217513.Bill_Mollison
David MacKenzie
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2534423.Goat_Husbandry
The Good Life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Life_(1975_TV_series)
J.I. Rodale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._I._Rodale
Episode 261. Seymour, Fukuoka, Mollison and MacKenzie
LINKS
buymeacoffee.com/changeug
The ChangeUnderground Academy No-Dig Gardening Course: https://worldorganicnews.com/changeunderground/
FREE eBook: https://worldorganicnews.com/freeebook/
email: jon@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode261/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
John Seymour
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Seymour_(author)
Masanobu Fukuoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka
Bill Mollison
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison
In Grave Danger of Falling Food
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrtJbk8_GY8
Quote:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/217513.Bill_Mollison
David MacKenzie
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2534423.Goat_Husbandry
The Good Life
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good_Life_(1975_TV_series)
J.I. Rodale
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._I._Rodale
Episode 261. Seymour, Fukuoka, Mollison and MacKenzie
LINKS
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode260/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
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Bubugo Conservation Trust
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode255/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
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Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
NSW Mouse Plague
https://youtu.be/9t8tBZegawU
episodes 226, 245, 249 and 250
Gabe Brown
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Climate Change Unfolding
https://www.climatechangeunfolding.com/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
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Climate Change Unfolding
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Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
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Climate Change Unfolding
https://www.climatechangeunfolding.com/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
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Climate Change Unfolding
https://www.climatechangeunfolding.com/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode254/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Gabe Brown
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode253/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
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Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode252/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
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Transcript https://worldorganicnews.com/episode251/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
Why No-Dig Gardening?
https://youtu.be/E-1u41-U2Qc
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Climate Change Unfolding
https://www.climatechangeunfolding.com/
Bubugo Conservation Trust
http://www.bubugoconservation.org/
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Subhash Palekar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhash_Palekar
Green Revolution
How to do Masanobu Fukuoka's natural farming.
https://youtu.be/y0xmEDq3NIs
Indian Farmer Suicides
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmers%27_suicides_in_India#:~:text=The%20farmer's%20suicide%20rate%20in,more%20than%2010%20suicides%20daily.
5-Layer Mini Forest in 5 Acre Land Boosts Karnataka Farmer’s Annual Income to 25 Lakh!
https://www.thebetterindia.com/224417/karnataka-farmer-zero-budget-natural-farming-mini-forest-earns-lakhs-india-gop94/
Subash Palekar five layer model
https://abcdfarming.blogspot.com/2015/06/subash-paekar-five-layer-model.html
Why are suicide rates higher in rural communities?
https://www.australianunity.com.au/about-us/partnerships/resilience/suicide-rates
Three Sisters Garden
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Sisters_(agriculture)
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How It Works
https://mycorrhizae.com/how-it-works/
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The Carbon Cycle
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/CarbonCycle
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One-Third of Farmland in the U.S. Corn Belt Has Lost Its Topsoil
https://e360.yale.edu/digest/one-third-of-farmland-in-the-u-s-corn-belt-has-lost-its-topsoil
Dust Bowl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl
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What's driving erosion worldwide? https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/12/191203114518.htm
Sloping Agricultural Land Technology (SALT)
http://agrowingculture.org/a-review-of-sloped-agricultural-land-technology-salt/
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Hendra Virus:
https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/hendra_virus.aspx#:~:text=Hendra%20virus%20is%20a%20virus%20that%20infects%20large%20fruit%20bats,have%20developed%20Hendra%20virus%20infection.
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No-Dig Gardening Membership
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World Organic News
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Transcript HERE
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Christmas Sale on NOW!
World Organic News
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Transcript HERE
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Christmas Sale on NOW!
World Organic News
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Christmas Sale on NOW!
World Organic News
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode239/
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Svalbard
https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vault/
Pavlovsk Experimental Station
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlovsk_Experimental_Station
Nikolai Vavilov
The Siege of Leningrad
https://www.history.com/news/the-siege-of-leningrad#:~:text=On%20September%208%2C%201941%2C%20German,the%20lives%20of%20800%2C000%20civilians.
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World Organic News
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Dwayne Beck
http://www.notill.org/dwayne-beck
Episode 236
https://worldorganicnews.com/episode236/
The Johnson Su System
https://regenerationinternational.org/bioreactor/
Masanobu Fukuoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka#Natural_farming
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World Organic News
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Masanobu Fukuoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka#Natural_farming
Dr Christine Jones ~ Amazing Carbon
https://www.amazingcarbon.com/
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Masanobu Fukuoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka#Natural_farming
Dr Charlie Massy
https://fennerschool.anu.edu.au/people/visiting/dr-charles-massy
Dr Christine Jones ~ Amazing Carbon
https://www.amazingcarbon.com/
4 per 1000
https://www.4p1000.org/
Diploma in Sustainable Living at the University of Tasmania
https://www.utas.edu.au/sustainable-living
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Masanobu Fukuoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka#Natural_farming
Dr Charlie Massy
https://fennerschool.anu.edu.au/people/visiting/dr-charles-massy
Dr Christine Jones ~ Amazing Carbon
https://www.amazingcarbon.com/
Diploma in Sustainable Living at the University of Tasmania
https://www.utas.edu.au/sustainable-living
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Dr Christine Jones ~ Amazing Carbon
https://www.amazingcarbon.com/
Fractional Farming
https://worldorganicnews.com/fractional-farming/
Diploma in Sustainable Living at the University of Tasmania
https://www.utas.edu.au/sustainable-living
episodes 217 and 218
https://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/size/5/?search=chaos
Bureau of Meteorology
http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/outlooks/#/overview/summary
Bill Mollison
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/647350-the-greatest-change-we-need-to-make-is-from-consumption#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20greatest%20change%20we%20need%20to%20make%20is%20from%20consumption,there%20is%20enough%20for%20everyone.
4 per 1000
https://www.4p1000.org/
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Website: World Organic News
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Transcript HERE
Lazy Bed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazy_bed
Cord Rig
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cord_rig
Laziness Quote
https://ravenperformancegroup.com/give-hardest-job-laziest-person/#:~:text=Bill%20Gates%20is%20often%20credited,Gilbreth%20Sr
Poorhouses
https://www.history.com/news/in-the-19th-century-the-last-place-you-wanted-to-go-was-the-poorhouse
Dr Christine Jones ~ Amazing Carbon
https://www.amazingcarbon.com/
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World Organic News
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episode 144
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Greenland ice sheet lost a record 1m tonnes of ice per minute in 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/20/greenland-ice-sheet-lost-a-record-1m-tonnes-of-ice-per-minute-in-2019
2019–20 Australian bushfire season
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019%E2%80%9320_Australian_bushfire_season
Another Intense Summer of Fires in Siberia
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/147083/another-intense-summer-of-fires-in-siberia
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RegenEarth
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Transcript HERE
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King Corn
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James Ruse
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Episode 207
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Episode 207
Bokashi (horticulture)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokashi_(horticulture)
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Episode 207
WOODCHIP STOCK PILE SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION EARLY DETECTION
https://www.imcontrol.com.au/white-papers/woodchip-stockpile-combust/
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Light Farming: Restoring carbon, organic nitrogen and biodiversity to agricultural soils Christine Jones, PhD Founder, Amazing Carbon http://amazingcarbon.com/JONES-LightFarmingFINAL(2018).pdf
Episode 207
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Light Farming: Restoring carbon, organic nitrogen and biodiversity to agricultural soils Christine Jones, PhD Founder, Amazing Carbon http://amazingcarbon.com/JONES-LightFarmingFINAL(2018).pdf
[Podcast] No Insecticide Means More Predation, Less Slugs
https://www.covercropstrategies.com/articles/1311-podcast-no-insecticide-means-more-predation-less-slugs
Salt, Sugar Fat
Monsanto advocate
legal actions
University of Texas at Austin study
gut microbiome immunity
last week
Joel Salatin
Fractional Farming
Episode 207
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Most Farmers in the Great Plains Don’t Grow Fruits and Vegetables. The Pandemic is Changing That. https://civileats.com/2020/05/12/most-farmers-in-the-great-plains-dont-grow-fruits-and-vegetables-the-pandemic-is-changing-that/
Light Farming: Restoring carbon, organic nitrogen and biodiversity to agricultural soils Christine Jones, PhD Founder, Amazing Carbon http://amazingcarbon.com/JONES-LightFarmingFINAL(2018).pdf
International Year of Soil Conference
http://www.fao.org/soils-2015/events/detail/en/c/338738/
[Podcast] No Insecticide Means More Predation, Less Slugs
https://www.covercropstrategies.com/articles/1311-podcast-no-insecticide-means-more-predation-less-slugs
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Transcript: HERE
JOSEPH CAMPBELL AND THE POWER OF MYTH
Ep. 1: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth — ‘The Hero’s Adventure’
https://billmoyers.com/content/ep-1-joseph-campbell-and-the-power-of-myth-the-hero%E2%80%99s-adventure-audio/
John Seymour, in The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency
Most Farmers in the Great Plains Don’t Grow Fruits and Vegetables. The Pandemic is Changing That. https://civileats.com/2020/05/12/most-farmers-in-the-great-plains-dont-grow-fruits-and-vegetables-the-pandemic-is-changing-that/
Light Farming: Restoring carbon, organic nitrogen and biodiversity to agricultural soils Christine Jones, PhD Founder, Amazing Carbon http://amazingcarbon.com/JONES-LightFarmingFINAL(2018).pdf
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Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode215/
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Permaculture Plus Podcast
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SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE TOPICS
https://attra.ncat.org/topics/#Publications
ATTRA - Sustainable Agriculture: Glyphosate Contamination https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/attra-sustainable-agriculture/id1208569802?i=1000473797618
The No-Till Market Garden Podcast: Gabe Brown - Brown’s Ranch https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-no-till-market-garden-podcast/id1441886206?i=100047350572
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SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE TOPICS
https://attra.ncat.org/topics/#Publications
World Organic News Podcast
Episode 117
Episode 207
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South Dakota pork plant closes after over 200 workers contract Covid-19
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/13/south-dakota-pork-plant-closes-after-200-workers-contract-covid-19
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Growing a No-Dig Garden on Udemy
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The No-Dig Gardening Course on Udemy Link: HERE
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FACEBOOK PAGE: HERE
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The FACEBOOK LIVE event HERE
Homegrown Hillary: Lasagna Gardening https://homegrownhillary.wordpress.com/2019/05/25/lasagna-gardening/
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One Square metre garden plans: HERE
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One Square metre garden plans: HERE
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
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WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
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One Square metre garden plans: HERE
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One Square metre garden plans: HEREWORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
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One Square metre garden plans: HERE
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
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email: media@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript HERE
World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Scott Morrison Heckled
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ts71iK2Jx_I
‘Go and get f***ed’: Angry NSW firefighters on the frontline deliver blunt messages to Prime Minister Scott Morrison
https://thewest.com.au/news/bushfires/go-and-get-fed-angry-nsw-firefighters-on-the-frontline-deliver-blunt-message-to-prime-minister-scott-morrison-ng-b881425480z
Grandmother dumps burnt remains of home at Parliament House in climate change protest
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-12-02/bushfire-victim-nsw-nymboida-climate-change-protest/11757082
LINKS
World Organic News
email: redocean112@gmail.com
Transcript HERE
World Organic News Facebook page
LINKS
World Organic News
email: redocean112@gmail.com
Transcript HERE
World Organic News Facebook page
LINKS
World Organic News
email: media@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript: https://worldorganicnews.com/episode194
World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Topical Talks
Episodes 166, 170, 171, 182 and 192
RegenEarth
Regenerative agriculture finds solid backing as decades of success show renewal
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-03-10/regenerative-agriculture-attracts-solid-backing-amid-success/10871130
LINKS
World Organic News
email: media@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript HERE
World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Topical Talks
Weather forecast fuels Sydney fire fears, RFS warns of 'catastrophic' danger for the first time ever
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-10/nsw-weather-conditions-ease-but-high-risk-fires-expected/11690080
NSW fires: Pictures reveal widespread devastation that can even be seen from space
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-11-08/nsw-fires-in-pictures/11688244
LINKS
World Organic News
email: media@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript and videos: HERE
World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Topical Talks
Episode 184 https://worldorganicnews.com/2019/09/02/episode-184-20-years-and-more-we-knew/
LINKS
World Organic News
email: media@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript HERE
World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Topical Talks
Growing a garden can also bloom eco-resilient, cross-cultural, food-sovereign communities
http://theconversation.com/growing-a-garden-can-also-bloom-eco-resilient-cross-cultural-food-sovereign-communities-121543
LINKS
World Organic News
email: redocean112@gmail.com
Transcript HERE
World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Topical Talks
'I'm standing here in the middle of climate change': How USDA is failing farmers
https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/15/im-standing-here-in-the-middle-of-climate-change-how-usda-fails-farmers-043615
NCAT, ATTRA
Episode 189
LINKS
World Organic News
email: media@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript HERE
World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Why we Need Small Farms
https://www.resilience.org/stories/2019-06-07/why-we-need-small-farms-2/?fbclid=IwAR1NtW4hG5cIZztiwzjkciFez-reOYspkRNteEon-THfAuZmS85HitFnTgY
New Model Farming
Episode 180
Episode 122 In Defence of a Modern Yeomanry
LINKS
RegenEarth
email: redocean112@gmail.com
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
Topical Talks
RegenEarth Podcast
Teaming up for global grasslands
https://www.yoursun.com/sebring/around_town/teaming-up-for-global-grasslands/article_c6fc3b94-e45b-11e9-846c-77113b385506.html
The attack on agroecology
https://www.thesangaiexpress.com/Encyc/2019/9/25/Powerful-lobbies-with-vested-interests-see-agroecology-as-a-threat-to-their-influence-on-farming-systemsAgroecology-is-recognised-worldwide-as-a-system-that-enhances-fertile-landscapes-increases-yi.html
LINKS
email: media@worldorganicnews.com
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Rear Vision: Land use, climate change and the role of soil
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/rearvision/land-use,-climate-change-and-the-role-of-soil/11507270
LINKS
The RegenEarth 2019 Online Conference ~ Living Soil
~~~~
Episode 185. They might think it’s a movement and friends it is!
This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 9th of September 2019.
Jon Moore reporting!
Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
Well folks, we are one week away from the RegenEarth Online Conference 2019: Living Soils - Backyard Regen.
A little background should be helpful. After years of publishing this podcast, I had great hopes during our last federal election for some movement on the Climate situation. The vaguely left side was and still is stuck in the renewables are the answer paradigm. Not bad but only half the story, as we all know. The more right of centre parties pretty much ignored the climate policy area. The right won the election.
The upshot of this was a couple of weeks of, not quite depression but more disappointment and confusion. Clearly something has to be done. The UN and the major NGOs all point to the need for a political solution. This never sat well with me despite my hope against reality that a political party might come up with something other than a carbon tax.
My problem with a carbon tax is that it places the costs on the poorest and allows the equity traders who must take some responsibility for our current situation to continue to profit from “fixing” the situation. Combine this with the obvious solution of renewables and pumped hydro to carbonise the energy system and this solution is being driven by price signals. Most houses in Australia have solar PV and pumped hydro systems linked to wind and solar are being approved. Carbon tax unnecessary, a need to suck carbon out of the air still exists even if we stopped putting any more into the air today.
The other issue I have with the large lobby groups is that they scream we all have to change how we live to save the planet as they jet off to yet another self congratulatory talk fest. Yes we need to do something but suggesting we live like medieval serfs is not a great sales pitch. Forecasting doom and gloom doesn’t work with humans either. Experience is a great instructor. We have all either lived through or seen the wildfires, the floods, the hurricanes/cyclones increasing in intensity, we know something is up. We just need simple techniques that both make a difference but which first make our lives better. Solar PV is not an inconsiderable investment but the returns make life better, lower power bills and the climate benefits too.
After much thought, backyard regen seemed to fit this pattern. Something which brought a return to the individual and made the climate better, little steps at a time. Less dollar investment than solar PV, yet a great way to improve our lives with, as you will see at the conference, far less work than is usually considered part of gardening.
A change with tangible benefits!
Regenerative techniques, as I have banged on about for years on this podcast, are our best hope but no one in the political classes seems to be championing them. A bit like a frustrated parent, the thought, “I’ll just do it myself.” popped into my head. Following a production meeting with Rich for another podcast, Permaculture Plus, we bounced a few thoughts around. Out of these came the idea of a regen month. This reduced to a regen week and finally a three night conference. We have plans to keep the story and the movement going after the conference but the three session conference became our focus.
People we invited agreed and then had to drop out just as new people arrived to fill the gap and help shape the event. In parallel to this, I was offered a position with a disability support NGO to set up a Horticulture Program. No-dig on a grander scale but using the backyard techniques, just expanded.
So months of fun and hard work, have us a week away from the event on the 16th to the 18th of September. 19:00 to 21:00 each night. That’s UTC +10 hours for those not on Eastern Australian Time. For those who sign up, a full recording will be available in case life happens and you can’t get there or the time zone thing means a two in the morning start.
Now to the conference:
Rich and I are really pleased with the way it’s all come together. The flow is great. Night one sets the stage: “Why Regen Matters” with Liz Bastion followed by Catherine Lockley explaining the importance of local food beyond the usual “food pyramid” thinking and we conclude our first night with Stephen Alton: Soil Evangelist. What this man has forgotten about soil is more than most of us have ever learned.
Night two begins with my presentation on a no-dig garden followed by Be Ryan on ways to create a backyard biodynamic garden. A different approach and one worth thinking about. Then we finish off night two with Dan Hatfield on building a compost pile. This presentation is one of the best I’ve ever seen on the art and science of this soil creation process.
Night Three kicks off with Kate Willoughby on the gentle art of integrating chickens into a backyard garden. Meg McGowan follows, covering the principles of setting up a backyard permaculture garden. Night three and the conference concludes with Rich and I bringing it all together, answering any questions that have come in over the previous nights, and where to next.
I’m sure you’d find the event of great value and enormous fun too. This is our chance to start turning suburbia into a giant carbon sink and you get carrots too. Or strawberries or nuts or eggs or whatever your favourite thing to eat fresh is.
And all this is available for $67 AUD. Click the only link in today’s show notes and together we can:
Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
Thank you for listening and I'll be back next week.
LINKS
The RegenEarth 2019 Online Conference ~ Living Soil
email: regen@regenearth.net
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
Topical Talks
Agroforestry Success Stories (1996)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033jzhb
Why Cuban Agriculture Went Organic (1996)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033jzjq
Mixing it up: a Biodiverse Harvest (1999)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p033k2tw
The first Science Show had a warning about fossil fuels - 44 years ago
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/the-first-science-show-had-a-warning-about-fossil-fuels/11460652
LINKS
The RegenEarth 2019 Online Conference ~ Living Soil
email: regen@regenearth.net
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
Topical Talks
LINKS
The RegenEarth 2019 Online Conference ~ Living Soil
email: regen@regenearth.net
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
Topical Talks
Key soil carbon messages
https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/428851/key-soil-carbon-messages.pdf
Ten Acres Enough
The One Straw Revolution
Journey to Forever has a really great compost page
LINKS
The RegenEarth 2019 Online Conference ~ Living Soil
email: regen@regenearth.net
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
Topical Talks
IPCC climate change report calls for urgent overhaul of food production, land management
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/11391180
Great Green Wall of Africa
IPCC's land report shows the problem with farming based around oil, not soil
https://theconversation.com/amp/ipccs-land-report-shows-the-problem-with-farming-based-around-oil-not-soil-121643
Farmers of Forty Centuries
The Online Conference:
Learn how to compost, grow earthworms and soooo much more at the Regen Earth Backyard Regen Conference
regen@regenearth.net
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Vavilov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofim_Lysenko
https://www.croptrust.org/our-work/svalbard-global-seed-vault/
LINKS
The RegenEarth 2019 Online Conference ~ Living Soil
email: regen@regenearth.net
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
Topical Talks
The Online Conference:
Learn how to compost, grow earthworms and soooo much more at the Regen Earth Backyard Regen Conference
regen@regenearth.net
http://library.uniteddiversity.coop/Food/The-One-Straw-Revolution.pdf
LINKS
The RegenEarth 2019 Online Conference ~ Living Soil
email: regen@regenearth.net
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
Topical Talks
LINKS
The RegenEarth 2019 Online Conference ~ Living Soil
email: regen@regenearth.net
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
Topical Talks
LINKS
The RegenEarth 2019 Online Conference ~ Living Soil
email: regen@regenearth.net
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Topical Talks
Agroecology as Innovation
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/07/10/agroecology-innovation
SLOPING AGRO-LIVESTOCK TECHNOLOGY (SALT-2): A GUIDE ON HOW TO RAISE GOATS UNDER THE SALT SYSTEM
http://www.pcaarrd.dost.gov.ph/home/momentum/afin/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=416&Itemid=314
LINKS
The 2019 RegenEarth Online Conference: Backyard Regen
RegenEarth.net
regen@regenearth.net
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
RegenEarth.net
‘The end is near’: Dairy farmers pushed to the brink
https://www.2gb.com/the-end-is-near-dairy-farmers-pushed-to-the-brink/
Dexters
Jerseys
Guernseys
Brown Swiss.
LINKS
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PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
RegenEarth.net
‘Recycling Is Like a Band-Aid on Gangrene’
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/591640/recycling-plastics/?fbclid=IwAR2O0v0AY6X5ziYnT-IdKuROouJ4XQPvDOU3tak7K8CXZf2tnZcNQIoUA5Y
New research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health
https://grist.org/article/2010-02-23-new-research-synthetic-nitrogen-destroys-soil-carbon-undermines/?fbclid=IwAR1TTvHsFDL3TpaIoj8e-z8FiP6C1-L7ivzhuhTb2MRWX-UG4w0hx0MY1fg
https://regenearth.net
Welcome to the RegenEarth Podcast. Changing the world from the soil up.
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/regenearth/
email: regen@regenearth.net
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
RegenEarth.net
RegenEarth Trailer
Transcript HERE
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
'The Biggest Little Farm': How One Couple Gave Up Everything to Live the Entrepreneurial Dream
https://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/biggest-little-farm-movie-review-sundance-john-chester-climate-change.html
Regenerative agriculture for students launched in Australian-first curriculum to maintain healthy soils
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-05-15/tamworth-teacher-reeducation-in-agriculture/11112832
LINKS
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PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
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Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Hunter-gathering seems to have been easier than farming
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/05/adopting-agriculture-means-less-leisure-time-for-women/?amp=1
Which countries spend the most on food? This map will show you
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/12/this-map-shows-how-much-each-country-spends-on-food/
John Seymour
Organic food is booming, but it’s grinding field laborers into the dirt
https://www.salon.com/2019/05/25/organic-food-is-booming-but-its-grinding-field-laborers-into-the-dirt_partner/
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Canberra will be first Australian city to run on 100 per cent renewable energy from October By Jake Evans
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2la
Satellite information reveals Antarctica ice thinning at ‘extraordinary rate’
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2l8
Farmers turn back on harsh chemicals, improve biodiversity and lower costs
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2lf
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
permaculture zones one and two
UN: 68 percent of world population will live in urban areas by 2050
https://m.phys.org/news/2018-05-percent-world-population-urban-areas.html
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Call of the Reed Warbler
U.S. environment agency says glyphosate weed killer is not a carcinogen
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-epa-glyphosate/epa-says-popular-weed-killer-glyphosate-is-not-a-carcinogen-idUSKCN1S62SU
The Human Microbiome Project
https://www.nature.com/articles/nature06244
Piltdown hoax
UK is 30-40 years away from 'eradication of soil fertility', warns Gove
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/24/uk-30-40-years-away-eradication-soil-fertility-warns-michael-gove
LINKS
SHOW NOTES HERE
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
How to keep the mycorrhizae? The more hosts you leave, the more symbionts you get.
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2ki
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Topical Talks
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
5 Organic Acres in Tipp.
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2jj
Cheap Renewables Shave $10 Trillion of the cost of mitigation!
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2jn
LINKS
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Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Pumped Hydro the battery for renewables.
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2iK
The Marvelous Million Hazelnut Campaign
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2iS
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Forest Garden With 500 Edible Plants Could Lead to a Sustainable Future
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2is
Food forest and why you need one!
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2iF
LINKS
email: redocean112@gmail.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
The Irish Generative Land Trust
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1924333924527282/
Researcher sees huge carbon sink in soil minerals
https://m.phys.org/news/2017-11-huge-carbon-soil-minerals.html?fbclid=IwAR2Zqnt5ZhNaTVOeybwbrU07zk6skR_G5y4j3jE_1Ddvmng2mwjP_4quUrQ
Renewable thermal solution provides green alternative for gas-hungry industries
https://reneweconomy.com.au/renewable-thermal-solution-provides-green-alternative-for-gas-hungry-industries-12919/
00000385 00000390 000195B4 0001976F 00087A68 00087A68 00008456 00008454 00084C97 00084C97
LINKS
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Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2gD
LINKS
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Cows are getting a bad rap and it's time to set the record straight: Giving up meat won't save the planet
https://www.businessinsider.com/giving-up-meat-wont-save-planet-2018-10/?fbclid=IwAR1dsMaobbUxw4HUWyubcdshaxUihjEMX1tQ19X-LEyTBwZLQbSJLi7RJsQ%3Futm_source%3Dtwitter&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=topbar&utm_term=mobile&referrer=twitter&_ga=2.35603937.1500839690.1550597502-857567176.1550597502&r=AU&IR=T
The future of farming in the era of climate change
https://amp.abc.net.au/article/10852926
John Seymour’s Complete Book of Self Sufficiency
Prickly Pear
LINKS
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Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
How Factory Farming Contributes to Global Warming
https://www.ecowatch.com/how-factory-farming-contributes-to-global-warming-1881690535.html
Regenerative Farming — One Solution That Solves Many Problems
https://matteroftrust.org/14409/regenerative-farming-one-solution-that-solves-many-problems
LINKS
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Transcript HERE
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
ASEAN Nations Focus On Agroforestry To Hike Food Output, Ensure Biodiversity Conservation
https://www.eurasiareview.com/15022019-asean-nations-focus-on-agroforestry-to-hike-food-output-ensure-biodiversity-conservation/
How e-commerce is reshaping organic farming
https://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/11052-How-e-commerce-is-reshaping-organic-farming
Across China: Earthworms help farmers get rid of poverty
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-02/08/c_137807442.htm
Don’t burn straw, feed it to earthworms
https://www.nation.co.ke/health/Do-not-burn-straw-feed-it-to-earthworms/3476990-4955898-14xmks5/index.html
LINKS
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Transcript: Here
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Queensland floods have likely killed hundreds of thousands of cattle, farmers facing 'catastrophic' losses
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-02-08/graziers-confronted-with-devastation-as-floods-kill-cattle/10793502
'Sands are shifting': NSW agriculture minister to push climate cause
https://amp.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/sands-are-shifting-nsw-agriculture-minister-to-push-climate-cause-20190207-p50wa9.html?fbclid=IwAR2aQtxIl7modhyCarwEl1YnFbbjIwDMamsQDoi5BLOGBlIRd3aGzyxQTAo
Extreme Weather & Food Shocks Compel Climate-Emergency Plans
https://thecalloftheland.wordpress.com/2019/02/09/extreme-weather-food-shocks-compel-climate-emergency-plans/
Club of Rome Climate Emergency Plan
LINKS
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Topical Talks
President Sall announces that Senegal will adopt agroecology
https://wp.me/p4gyiO-2b5
Enda Tiers-Monde
http://endatiersmonde.org/instit/
Biodynamics
Seymour
Jeavons
Fukuoka
Mollison
LINKS
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http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
CIVIL EATS |Silvopasture Can Mitigate Climate Change. Will U.S. Farmers Take it Seriously?
https://civileats.com/2019/01/07/silvopasture-can-mitigate-climate-change-will-u-s-farmers-take-it-seriously/
Inside Climate News | Industrial Agriculture, an Extraction Industry Like Fossil Fuels, a Growing Driver of Climate Change
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25012019/climate-change-agriculture-farming-consolidation-corn-soybeans-meat-crop-subsidies
Bill Mollison
- Silvopasture, Industrial Agriculture and Bill Mollison’s Response.
This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 28th of January 2019.
Jon Moore reporting!
Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
A little housekeeping. Some of you have noticed the website is still down. I’m still in discussions with my host about appropriate levels of performance and hope it will be back up soon. In the meantime I’m posting things to the Facebook page if you’re interested. And now to the show.
From the site Civil Eats come a piece entitled: Silvopasture Can Mitigate Climate Change. Will U.S. Farmers Take it Seriously? A fair question!
Quote:
Steve Gabriel curls back a bit of flimsy net fencing and shakes a plastic bucket of alfalfa pellets. Immediately, a sweet-faced, short-fleeced mob of some 50 Katahdin sheep pull away from a line of young black locust trees on whose leaves they’ve been snacking and swarm around him. The sheep race after Gabriel as he strides across nibbled grass and out from the fencing, around a dirt path’s shallow curve, and into a shadier, overgrown pasture dotted with long standing black walnut and hawthorn trees.
End Quote
A sweet image and one that can be replicated across much of the world. It does require a mindset shift from those on the ground. Not the easiest of things but it is the people on the ground who can see the changes occurring as I write then read this. There’s serious fires to the south of us here in Highclere. Emergency evacuations, watch and act alerts and very little sign of rain. Two days ago it was predicted we would receive between 20 - 40mm on Wednesday. Today, Monday, that forcast is now down to 1 - 5mm. I’ve seen this pattern too many times in my life. Rain forecast, clouds arriving and then nothing!. We’re fortunate here. We have a very small holding, 1.5 acres and a permanent bore. We can de-stock, focus on the vegetables and get through this. If this is not the new normal.
Those on the ground see, I think we can all agree on that. It is the properties with multi-generational occupation with rainfall and temperature records that prove most useful. From small grape growers to corporate types the harvest dates, temperature at harvest and annual rainfall records all form part of their business IP. Those in the southern parts of the Australian mainland are and have been buying land in the southern island state of Tasmania. It is cooler here. Whilst the mainland has been under 40+ degrees celsius for most of January, our part has hit 30 once or twice. The southern parts of Tassie have hit the hit 30s and that’s where the fires are.
So we have a dilemma. The rising temperatures and falling rainfall are a consequence of climate change. Silvo pasture as one variation of regenerative agriculture provides a solution in some cases. The nature of silvopasture is that it includes trees, obviously. Trees are a worry in bushfires. Now there are ways around this. Tagasaste is a species which is fire resistant as is, I believe, saltbush. There are ways around these things.
Back to the piece sited:
Quote
Gabriel (the person in the above quote) is an agroforestry specialist at Cornell University’s Small Farms Program. He’s also the author of the book on silvopasture, a farming technique that’s touted as a way to sequester carbon by growing trees in livestock pastures.
End Quote.
Gabriel himself runs a 35 acre farm. He rotates meat sheep across once fields. Some of these have black locusts planted on them for feed, shade and nitrogen. These black locusts sequester between 1 and 4 tons of carbon per acre per year. It’s taken five years to convert the place from ru down to productive with huge improvement in soil organic matter and soil biology. All the work has been done by the animals. This is the bit I like, let the stock do the “work” for you by doing what they evolved to do. Stock go to the feed, they manure the ground and move on.
The alternative, CAFOs, feedlots, chick and pig sheds bring the feed to the animals and take, eventually, the manures from the animals. All at the cost of fossil fuels. The differences are obvious. I understand that debt levels will affect decisions in on farm management. I also understand that not everywhere on the planet can stock be outdoors all year. These cases can be opportunities to collect organic matter but again the way is the most important. Slurry tanks and aerial spreading are not good, in a carbon sense, but are technologies worked out and powered by diesel. You can see the pattern. Everytime a technique is powered by a fossil fuel, it reduces the need for people and pumps carbon into the atmosphere.
Silvopasture offers some opportunities dependant upon the landscape, the climate and the preferences of the farmer.
To give you some idea of the wider range of possibilities for silvopasture, the piece goes on:
Quote:
For example, 14 miles south of the Gabriel farm, the 69-acre Good Life Farm has had success with a peach and apple orchard grazed by beef cattle and poultry, supported by salad crops.
About 180 miles east, in Valley Falls, New York, first generation farmers Dustin and Kassie Gibson have converted 20 acres of what Kassie calls “useless woodland” to silvopasture that supports beef cattle and hogs, thereby expanding the number of animals they’re able to support on their 70 total acres.
End Quote
Now we come to piece from Inside Climate News entitled: Industrial Agriculture, an Extraction Industry Like Fossil Fuels, a Growing Driver of Climate Change.
Quote:
Industrial farming encourages practices that degrade the soil and increase emissions, while leaving farmers more vulnerable to damage as the planet warms.
End Quote
This pretty much sums up the dilemma. Yet there are, of course, people on the ground making a difference. Gabriel, quoted above is one such example.
In this piece they bring us Seth Watkins.
Quote:
On his farm in southwestern Iowa, Seth Watkins plants several different crops and raises cattle.
He controls erosion and water pollution by leaving some land permanently covered in native grass. He grazes his cattle on pasture, and he sows cover crops to hold the fertile soil in place during the harsh Midwestern winters.
Watkins' farm is a patchwork of diversity—and his fields mark it as an outlier.
His practices don't sound radical, but Watkins is a bit of a renegade. He's among a small contingent of farmers in the region who are holding out against a decades-long trend of consolidation and expansion in American agriculture.
Watkins does this in part because he farms with climate change in mind.
"I can see the impact of the changing climate," he said. "I know, in the immediate, I've got to manage the issue. In the long term, it means doing something to slow down the problem."
End Quote.
Seth is a hold out against the consolidation process that’s been occurring with increasing rapidity since WW2 but examples can be found as far back the Roman Republic and more recently with the clearances of the 18th century.
Clearly there are economic advantages to consolidation and industrial agriculture but it is these very economic advantages which are driving climate changes. So it is time to do things differently.
Quote:
"The industrial food system presents a barrier to realizing the potential climate benefits in agriculture," said Laura Lengnick, a soil scientist who has written extensively on climate and agriculture. "We continue to invest in this massive corn and soybean and beef-making machine in the Midwest despite all that we know about the changes we could make that would maintain yields, improve farm profitability and deliver climate change solutions."
This is happening as landmark government reports and ample academic research show that agricultural soils are critical for stabilizing the climate.
End Quote
There is, of course, a political element to all this. Where there are subsidies, there will be lobbyists and market distortions through price signals. These have led to investments based upon the subsidies, consolidation of farms, and then these rely upon the continued subsidies to maintain profitability. A self sustaining cycle. No problem if there’s no down side. In this case, there’s plenty. Fossil fuel use, soil erosion, water contamination and animal cruelty as a starting list. All because the subsidies point enterprises into growing corn, soyabean and beef.
From the article:
Quote:
Agricultural policy has long emphasized over-production, propped up by government subsidies that favor certain crops. Lawmakers have been unwilling to change the system, largely because of a powerful farm lobby and the might of agribusinesses that profit from technological advancements.
"Farmers are dictated in how to farm," said Adam Mason, a policy director with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. "They're locked into a system."
This system has transformed agriculture into a business that resembles the fossil fuel industry as it extracts value out of the ground with relentless efficiency and leaves greenhouse gas pollution in its aftermath.
End Quote
I would see this as an implementation of Henry Ford’s factory methodology to the whole world. We can do things differently.
Bill Mollison springs to mind in these cases.
Quote.
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex,
the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.”
― Bill Mollison
“The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.”
― Bill Mollison
End Quotes
And on that note I’ll draw this episode to a conclusion.
Remember: Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
Of course the podcasting checklists are still available over at Jon Moore Podcasting Services
Thank you for listening and I'll be back next week.
LINKS
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript:
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Highclere Smallholding Blog: Click here
Permaculture Plus
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Topical Talks
Regenerative agriculture creates a sprawling road map
https://www.manitobacooperator.ca/news-opinion/news/regenerative-agriculture-creates-a-sprawling-road-map/
Thousands of farmers, supporters take to streets in Germany demanding climate-friendly agriculture
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/01/19/thousands-take-to-streets-in-germany-for-climate-friendly-agriculture.html
- Regen Ag from Manitoba to Berlin Via an Irish Sojourn.
This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 21st of January 2019.
Jon Moore reporting!
Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
A little housekeeping. Some of you have noticed the website is down. I’m discussions with my host about appropriate levels of performance and hope it will be back up soon. In the meantime I’m posting things to the Facebook page if you’re interested. And now to the show.
This week we look at some of the faces of regenerative agriculture.
From the Manitoba Co-operator a piece entitled: Regenerative agriculture creates a sprawling road map.
Quote:
Regenerative agriculture has got lots of time in the headlines, but the movement may look very different for an organic farmer with 3,000 acres of annual crops versus a rancher whose land is mostly pasture.
End Quote
As we can all agree, I think, every piece of land is different, every person will have different vision for their particular piece of land and if we toss in the variability of the weather, different approaches are critical.
Whether grazing, cropping, horticulturing (?) or a combination of these, flexibility and the ability to pivot are skills we need. An example will illustrate.
Last Northern Summer I observed a 100 acre organic farm in East Cork, Ireland coming to terms with a drought. The last time this occurred with the mid 1970s. There was, therefore, not much institutional memory of what to do in these circumstances. On nearby properties I saw potato paddocks of 20 acres and a single sprinkler with a spread of twenty metres in the middle of the field. It was a pointless but heroic effort.
The country itself is not equipped for drought. The image of Ireland as a green paradise is there for a reason. The amount of bare soil became an issue. This was especially so in the outdoor horticultural parts of the farm. Eventually the rain returned but the deficit was obvious.
The pastured based sections of the farm were rotated through more quickly than usual as the feed had stopped growing. The grain part of the farm fared best. The barley was well underway before the rains stopped arriving and the soil had a fair amount of moisture from a late finishing winter with an unusually heavy snowfall.
The challenges for each section of the enterprise were, therefore, different.
This brings us back to the Manitoba Co-operator piece:
Quote:
Blain Hjertaas of Redvers, Sask., and David Rourke of Minto, Man., were both well-known faces before their panel at the MFGA Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Brandon late last November.
For Hjertaas, it’s all about livestock. The longtime beef producer and holistic management instructor counts pasture as a good portion of his land base. He has become a passionate advocate for planned grazing, often called to conferences and workshops to share his experiences with high-density rotational grazing and the benefits he’s seen in his soil organic matter, sequestered carbon, forage yields and pasture performance.
But high stock density grazing, with its small paddocks and frequent herd movements, also seems like a long reach for farmers like Rourke, whose operation revolves around annual crops and who has no livestock of his own.
Instead, Rourke’s experience with regenerative agriculture slants more towards green manures, field cover and biodiversity.
End Quote
Either way, you can see the focus on the soil. These two methodologies point to the different effects of the same thought. Keeping the soil covered allows the soil to re-generate. So either through tight grazing regimes or cover crops, the effect is similar. The fossil fuel inputs may well be different but the soil health is the key. And there are good reasons for following the regenerative farming philosophy.
Quote:
Both are believers in regenerative agriculture, a movement that, among other things, promises more efficient production, resiliency against drought and flood, and the promise that the farm will not only be sustainable with the environment, but actually help regenerate degraded soil.
End Quote.
And the demand from farmers for these technologies and methodologies is growing. From the CNBC website comes a piece entitled: Thousands of farmers, supporters take to streets in Germany demanding climate-friendly agriculture.
Quote:
Thousands of farmers from across Germany and their supporters protested at Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate on Saturday, calling for climate-friendly agriculture and healthy food.
Organizers say 170 tractors drove in from farms around the country to join 35,000 other protesters for the Saturday demonstration under the motto "we are fed up with the agricultural industry." Among other things, the protesters called for more animal welfare and protection.
The protest was called to coincide with the German capital's "Green Week" agricultural fair, and Agriculture Minister Julia Kloeckner's meetings with dozens of countries about more international cooperation on agricultural issues, the dpa news agency reported.
End Quote.
This is a remarkable thing. The actual people with their feet on the ground are calling for support. This means by inference less support for industrial food production. Now the EU is a special case. Given the food shortages caused by war during the twentieth century, subsidised farming is a decision for a safety net rather than a neoliberal “let a thousand flowers bloom ruthless market based approach”. (And yes I am aware I’m quoting Mao in the same sentence as the word neoliberal).
With these subsidy systems in place, it is possible to send price signals to farmers, it is just a matter of political will. If the EU and the other great subsidiser, the US of A redirected those subsidies to regenerative practices, farmers would take those practices up. Farmers aren’t stupid and they will follow the money. Hence the huge areas of maize planted in the US as a result of subsidies for that crop. Equally in industrial ag farmers won’t keep using unlimited amounts of glyphosate in the way local councils do to “combat” invasive plant species. Farmers are looking to make a living after all.
So redirecting subsidies to regenerative practices and even giving incentives to smaller farmers would have benefits beyond just food production. Employment, carbon drawdown, less reliance of fossil fuels are just a few. And remember small has its own benefits. I can’t find the link but I read some years ago that 85% or something like that percentage of soft fruit in Russia is produced in backyards. Given the size of Russia, the poor travel characteristics of raspberries and other brambles, this makes a certain amount of sense. Again from my Irish Odyssey, I was eating up to 5 kilos of blackberries a week just from the hedgerows as I walked the paddocks of South Kerry. Local food systems with a certain amount of “foraging” food available for people is a wonderful thing.
If we can find ways to have people outdoors, collecting “free” food and getting their feet on the soil, we can “sell” the regenerative message more easily.
And we need to sell the message. The time is now!
And on that note I’ll draw this episode to a conclusion.
Remember: Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
So with all the above in mind and the fact we live in the twenty first century, I’m opening up applications for a Regenerative Agriculture Mastermind group. It will be limited to twelve people, we’ll meet weekly, online to discuss our successes, challenges and decisions. The wisdom of the crowd applied to this necessary field of endeavour. You can have a look at the intro page and click through to the application at worldorganicnews.com/mastermind-application There’s also a link in the show notes.
Of course the podcasting checklists are still available over at mrjonmoore.com
A transcript of this episode is available at worldorganicnews.com
Thank you for listening and I'll be back next week.
LINKS
MASTERMIND GROUP: worldorganicnews.com/mastermind-application
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript:
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Highclere Smallholding Blog: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Inmates at a Missouri state prison nurture a career in agriculture | Public News Press
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/97450
The blind can still see factory farms | The Vegan Logician
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/97458
Utopian Dinner Table
LINKS
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PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript: http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=97444
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Highclere Smallholding Blog: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Topical Talks
Empty cow barns filled with milking goats | The Western Producer
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/97318
The Cairns Group
https://cairnsgroup.org/pages/default.aspx
LINKS
MASTERMIND GROUP: worldorganicnews.com/mastermind-application
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript:
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Transition town
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transition_town
Transition Town Kinsale and sustainability – Future Kinsale
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/92939
A Method for Drought Resistant Organic Farming | Craftsmanship Magazine
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/92916
Carbon farming the next competitive advantage – Te Tai Tokerau Climate Change Action
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/93740
LINKS
MASTERMIND GROUP: worldorganicnews.com/mastermind-application
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript: http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=92936
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
The Soil we Live on is Disappearing and it is YOUR Responsibility. – Swift Science
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/92769
4 per 1000: Regenerative Agriculture and the Climate – Organic Dairy & Pastoral Group
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/92709
Welcome to the"4 per 1000" Initiative
https://www.4p1000.org/
LINKS
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PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript:
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
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Monsanto behind papers declaring their pesticides safe – Natural Revival Health
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/91894
Journal corrections on glyphosate review confirms what we’ve been saying for years: Monsanto released ghostwritten papers declaring supposed “safety” of their pesticides.
https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-12-09-monsanto-released-ghostwritten-papers-safety-of-their-pesticides.html#
Baum, Hedlund, Aristei and Goldman, Consumer attorneys: Lawyers: CRT Correction of Glyphosate Review Only Tells Half the Story.
https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/9-18-journal-correction-monsanto-review/
Expression of Concern
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10408444.2018.1522786
The Ecology of Weeds: episode 127
LINKS
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Transcript: https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-nDT
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
The future of food: droughts, wrecked crops, and empty plates | Grist
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/91121
Global warming underlies India’s “giant agrarian crisis” | People and Nature
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/archives/91091
LINKS
MASTERMIND GROUP: worlorganicnews.com/mastermind-application
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript: https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-nDT
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Save Our Soil
http://www.saveoursoil.com.au/
Bio-Soil
https://www.biosoil.net.au/
Demeter Australia
http://www.demeter.org.au/
Biodynamics UK Certification
http://bdcertification.org.uk/
Demeter USA
http://www.demeter-usa.org/
Biodynamic Marketing Australia
https://biodynamic.com.au/
Biodynamic Preparation 500 (Video)
https://youtu.be/tiMMoqngdt0
Remember: Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
So with all the above in mind and the fact we live in the twenty first century, I’m opening up applications for a Regenerative Agriculture Mastermind group. It will be limited to twelve people, we’ll meet weekly, online to discuss our successes, challenges and decisions. The wisdom of the crowd applied to this necessary field of endeavour. You can have a look at the intro page and click through to the application at worlorganicnews.com/mastermind-application There’s also a link in the show notes.
Of course the podcasting checklists are still available over at mrjonmoore.com
A transcript of this episode is available at worldorganicnews.com
Thank you for listening and I'll be back next week.
LINKS
MASTERMIND GROUP: worlorganicnews.com/mastermind-application
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
Transcript: https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-nDT
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Gregor Mendel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel
LINKS
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Permaculture Plus
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Oldest evidence of dairying on the East Asian Steppe | Ancientfoods
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ny3
On the land of regenerative almond farming.. – letsregenerate
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-nwq
Forests are F*cking Important – Love Always
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-nxn
LINKS
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Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
PodThoughts YouTube Channel Click Here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Apple Podcasts Link:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/permaculture-plus/id1436420750?mt=2
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
PODCASTING CHECKLISTS CLICK HERE
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This Episode’s Show Notes: https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-nvr
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS No Dig Gardening Book: Click here
PodThoughts YouTube Channel Click Here
Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Apple Podcasts Link:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/permaculture-plus/id1436420750?mt=2
How to Double Your Cabbage Crop – Anna's Good Life
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ns7
Only farmers can do this | Land Research
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-nsL
Charcoal production techniques in SOUTH AFRICA – VUTHISA
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ntr
Mindzilla – Knowledge Portal (Beta): Plants Rely on Their Resident Bacteria to Protect Them from Harmful Microbes
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ntL
LINKS
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Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
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Permaculture Plus
http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Apple Podcasts Link:
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LINKS
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Trends in Sustainability: Regenerative Agriculture – The Frog Business Blog
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-noB
A soils-first food and farming policy – from farm to fork to farmer
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-noU
Why Indian Agriculture Now Needs To Focus On Sustainability Rather Than Productivity – RePower
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-np3
Reversing global warming | Land Research
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-noE
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- Permaculture Plus
This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 8th of October 2018.
Jon Moore reporting!
Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
This week I’m on the road so I’m running episode one from Permaculture Plus. By the time you hear this episode two should be in the feed. I’d urge you all to have a listen and subscribe.
Thanks and I’ll be back next week.
LINKS
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http://permacultureplus.com.au/
Apple Podcasts Link:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/permaculture-plus/id1436420750?mt=2
Energy Storage with Concrete Blocks | Robert McGrath's Blog
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-njd
Stacking concrete blocks is a surprisingly efficient way to store energy
https://qz.com/1355672/stacking-concrete-blocks-is-a-surprisingly-efficient-way-to-store-energy/
Unlimited Energy- Are Oceans the Key to Future? | Curiosity Alive
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-nk3
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
PODCASTING QUICK START MINI_COURSE CLICK HERE
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
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Permaculture Plus
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Apple Podcasts Link:
https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/permaculture-plus/id1436420750?mt=2
Scientists Say Monsanto Weed Killer Contributes to Honeybee Deaths – Apokalyps Nu!
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-nhO
Glyphosate perturbs the gut microbiota of honey bees
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/09/18/1803880115
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Strawberry needle contamination sparks federal investigation - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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Cargill issues a ground beef recall after E. coli kills one and sickens 17 — Quartz
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Soil Microbes Speed up Global Warming | Radio Free
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EurekaAlert!
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-08/dnnl-atr072918.php
Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05842-2
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Scientist Develop Paper-Based Biodegradable Batteries to Curb e-Waste, Power Wastage
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Better many small than a few large: how landscape configuration affects arthropod communities in rice agroecosystems – The Applied Ecologist's Blog
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-n2g
High Yields Coupled With Habitat Preservation May Reduce Agricultural Carbon Emissions : The Salt : NPR
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Truth or Click Bait: Did you Read “The Organic Industry is Lying to You”? | Organic Matters
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Earth Overshoot Day 2018 is August 1, the earliest it's ever been — Quartz
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CDC: Backyard chickens responsible for salmonella outbreak – Archy Worldys
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HACCP Principles
https://food.unl.edu/seven-principles-haccp
How to reduce global warming: like getting people to drop the QWERTY keyboard | Greg Hannsgen's economics blog
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How planting trees and grasses can help stabilise farmland in a changing climate - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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A weed is just a plant in the wrong place. – The CWU Campus Community Garden
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-mPM
Weeds?? What Weeds? A Permaculture Mindset – Permie Flix
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-mP8
No-till farming trial proves successful (Posted 10 Apr 2007, 5:30am)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2007-04-10/no-till-farming-trial-proves-successful/2238306
Joel Salatin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Salatin
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Red Hot Planet – World News Forum
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Impact of global warming on food, worldwide | A Floresta Nova – A Tropical Food Forest – Brazil – Bahia – Permaculture Training
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How the global wine industry is adapting fast to climate change – Ideal Wine Company
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-mGo
Could the Neolithic Revolution offer evidence of best ways to adapt to climate change? – Novo Scriptorium
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-mGu
Nendo Dango – TRAIL AND TRACES
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How sustainable is your GROW BIOINTENSIVE garden? – John Jeavons
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Hedgerows: Living Fences for Fruit, Nuts, Building Materials, Bird and Beneficial Insect Habitat, Plus Animal Protection! – John Jeavons
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Hedgerow by Eric Thomas and John T White
https://www.amazon.com/Hedgerow-Eric-Thomas/dp/0863180094/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530366619&sr=1-2&keywords=hedgerow
Farmers in America Are Killing Themselves in Staggering Numbers « CBS Detroit
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'Giant water battery' in far north Queensland gets conditional approval for $500m loan - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
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Transcript here: https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-mDc
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Pre-cut melon linked to Midwest salmonella outbreak
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Symbiotic farming: Using sheep to graze weeds on coffee plantations found to be beneficial economically, agriculturally, and environmentally – Truther's World
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Crop rotations called into question – The Applied Ecologist's Blog
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Quoted Posts
Bayer to retire Monsanto brand this week | Alaturka
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-mtT
What Do Soil Organisms Do? – Worm Power Farm
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-mtD
Soil Food Web
https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detailfull/soils/health/biology/?cid=nrcs142p2_053868
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Essential Equines | Sacred Sueños
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Investors with $10 trillion in assets want the oil industry to take responsibility for "all its emissions" — Quartz
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Machakos farmers go organic. – The Environment Enthusiast
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Save Our Soil
http://www.saveoursoil.com.au/
Bio-Soil
https://www.biosoil.net.au/
Demeter Australia
http://www.demeter.org.au/
Biodynamics UK Certification
http://bdcertification.org.uk/
Demeter USA
http://www.demeter-usa.org/
Biodynamic Marketing Australia
https://biodynamic.com.au/
Biodynamic Preparation 500 (Video)
https://youtu.be/tiMMoqngdt0
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EU votes to ban bee-harming pesticides – INKLINE
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DDT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT
Silent Spring
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring
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Monsanto Technology’s patent for BT cotton held not patentable | PatentsRewind
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The New Internationalist: 8 things you should know about Patents on Life
https://newint.org/features/2002/09/01/keynote
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How energy storage is starting to rewire the electricity industry — @ConversationUS | Coyote Gulch
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How Sheet Mulching Works – Our Backyard Garden at the Bridge
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Masanobu Fukuoka And The Four Principles of Natural Farming
https://vinyessonalegre.com/2018/03/07/masanobu-fukuoka-and-the-four-principles-of-natural-farming/
The One Straw Revolution
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19120282-d0wnload-the-one-straw-revolution-pdf-audiobook-by-masanobu-fukuoka
The Natural Way of Farming by M. Fukuoka http://www.rivendellvillage.org/Natural-Way-Of-Farming-Masanobu-Fukuoka-Green-Philosophy.pdf
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7 Ways to Kill Soil Microbes: and why this is a bad idea….
https://chelsiesquared.wordpress.com/2017/12/31/7-ways-to-kill-microbes/
This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 26th of March 2018.
Jon Moore reporting!
As I discussed last month with the new vision statement for the podcast and blog, “Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil.”, in mind I’m calling on my listeners to put forward ideas for an interview episode once a month. If you know anyone who is doing either part of the vision, I’d love to hear from them or, indeed, from you if you are on the front line doing the work.
This week we continue our journey through the soil with a post from CHELSIESQUARED entitled: 7 Ways to Kill Soil Microbes: and why this is a bad idea….
The author Chelsie Anderson comes to this post from two separate events which we adverse for her worm farm. In one case the worms went walkabout when too many coffee grounds were added to the worm bin. The second was a result of using chemical laden potting material from “off farm”. Earthworms make great canaries, in the sense that miners used to keep canaries to check for poison gas in mines. If the earthworms are leaving, we have a problem.
They will, naturally enough, no pun intended, move away from things that will kill them. And they are sensitive to changes in their homes. They require bedding and food. Should either be out of their comfort zone, they will decamp.
Keeping earthworms has many benefits but as canaries in your soil might be one you hadn’t thought of yet.
Top the seven killers:
- Chemicals
-
- This one would seem self evident. We too can be poisoned by chemicals so it’s not surprising earthworms and other soil biota suffer the same consequences. Now chemicals can cover anything from excessive amounts of coffee to artificial fertilisers. The dose is, of course, important. This is why earthworms and other soil biota can survive low levels of NPK fertilisers. As directed by the manufacturers, they are lethal to soil biota.
- The apocryphal tale of the Romans plough the field of Carthage with salt gets the message across. As does sea water inundation in low lying island in the Pacific. Salt will kill soil biota. Salt is also suggested as a “natural” herbicide. Yes salt is natural, yes it will kill weeds and snails and beneficial plants and soil biota and earthworms. It has no place in the soil.
- Salt
- Quote: This is another weed killer. If you buy a horticultural grade vinegar (7-20% vinegar) and spray this on young weeds in the spring, they will die back, at least temporarily. The problem is - vinegar kills indiscriminately, so it will kill other plants if accidentally sprayed, as well as the critters of the soil, including microbes. End Quote So it is again “natural” but not something to used.
- Vinegar
- This one is a dosage matters with poison situation. Chlorine gas was used in WW1 to kill humans. It is used in swimming pools to kill microbes. It is in public water supplies for the same reason. The key words there are kill microbes. Garden hoses from the mains water supply will contain chlorine. I smell the stuff if I have the first shower in the morning. To avoid this peril in the garden will require some form of rainfall harvesting. I understand this is illegal in some parts of the world. This is to control mosquito breeding places, apparently. The other solution, as suggested by aquarium owners is to let the water stand, uncovered overnight to allow the chlorine to dissipate. Best advice, try to avoid chlorine.
- Chlorine
- This one is difficult to see, obviously with microscopic biota, but earthworms again act as a canary in the mine. I’ll quote from the piece again: Quote: In a not-so-obvious, but simple way, dehydration kills microbes. You want to preserve those summer berries? Dehydrate them and they will not rot. Soil microbes are no different. While very wet conditions cause anaerobic conditions (smelly and not-so-good bacteria and nematodes to thrive), drought also kills. This is one more reason to use a mulch in summer. Natural mulches prevent top soil from drying right out, also preserving those beneficial bacteria! End Quote This seems so obvious once said out loud. Some soil biota are capable of surviving droughts by sealing themselves off and waiting for rain but that’s not much help if you’re trying to grow things. For that matter, neither is dry soil. I like the mulch idea, it fits in with the No Bare Soil principle from last week’s episode.
- Dehydration
- Another of the principles from last week. I don’t think I can paraphrase better than Chelsie for this point so here comes a longish quote. Quote: The no-till garden has gained in popularity over the past decade or so and with good reason. Myccorhizal fungus is an invisible-to-the-human-eye web in the soil that literally feeds your plants the nutrition they need in exchange for the sugars that plants can produce through photosynthesis of the sun. It’s a pretty great mutually beneficial relationship. Plants that have abundant amounts of myccorhizal fungus are less susceptible to diseases, pest problems and also grow stronger, since they are being well fed. Parent trees can share nutrition with baby saplings using this web as well, in a way nurturing them just as any other living being does its young. When we till the soil, we break up this invisible web, meaning our plants are left with fewer body guards. Only dig when it is necessary (ie- to harvest your potatoes or to plant a seedling. Otherwise, simply top dress your garden with all of the goodies including worm castings, and the microbes will travel to where they want to be in the soil food web. End Quote. I think we have more than sufficient evidence available to support this idea. By the way I happen to have a No Dig Gardening book for Sale at Amazon and the website. Links in the show notes.
- Tilling
- This is a thing which becomes second nature once we change our mindsets from feeding plants to feeding the soil. Organic matter and the correct level of moisture will keep our soil beasties alive and well. Mulching, no bare soil and no tillage will all work together to ensure their dietary requirements are met. Again to quote the piece. Quote: Microbes, like anyone else need carbohydrates. Naturally they’d get them from plants (photosynthesis produces sugars) to keep them going. If you have a bare patch of soil with no plants, then there will be no food. You can artificially add carbs to their habitat through sprinkling the ground with finely milled flour for example, or by mixing molasses into water and applying this. Or you can simply allow plants to grow as they will feed the system naturally. Does this help explain why bare ground doesn’t stay bare for long? End Quote.
- Starvation
So in summary these are the things to avoid to keep your soil microbial community happy, thriving and alive.
- Chemicals
- Salt
- Vinegar
- Chlorine
- Dehydration
- Tilling &
- Starvation.
And with that I’ll draw this episode to a conclusion. Remember: Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
As a podcast listener you may be thinking of producing your own podcast but you’re not sure where to begin, drop over to mrjonmoore.com and check out my course. I have been teaching this at Community Colleges around town and have developed an online version. There’s a link in the show notes. Classes start whenever you’re ready, I’d love to help you into this way of communicating.
A transcript of this episode is available at worldorganicnews.com
Thank you for listening and I'll be back next week.
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This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 19th of March 2018.
Jon Moore reporting!
As I discussed last month with the new vision statement for the podcast and blog, “Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil.”, in mind I’m calling on my listeners to put forward ideas for an interview episode once a month. If you know anyone who is doing either part of the vision, I’d love to hear from them or, indeed, from you if you are on the front line doing the work.
This week I’m going back to first principles.
What are these first principles? I’m glad you asked.
There are, to my mind three basic truths to earth friendly gardening/farming.
- No digging/ploughing.
- No Bare Soil.
- No chemicals.
I am aware these appear to fly in the face of 10,000 years of agricultural/horticultural practice.
So let’s look at what those 10,000 years have created, shall we?
From Iowa State University Extension and outreach
Quote:
tillage has all along been contributing negatively to soil quality. Since tillage fractures the soil, it disrupts soil structure, accelerating surface runoff and soil erosion. Tillage also reduces crop residue, which help cushion the force of pounding raindrops.
Without crop residue, soil particles become more easily dislodged, being moved or 'splashed' away. This process is only the beginning of the problem. Splashed particles clog soil pores, effectively sealing off the soil's surface, resulting in poor water infiltration.
The amount of soil lost from Iowa farmland each year is directly related to soil structure, levels of crop residue remaining on the soil's surface, and the intensity of tillage practices.
End Quote
Basically, ploughing to turn under crop residue, a practice designed to increase soil organic matter destroys soil structure, seals the soil from the atmosphere and leads to soil erosion. Remember: no soil, no food. While soil erosion is a cumulative effect, eventually only subsoil or bedrock is left, if the system continues to its logical conclusion.
Over the past 10,000 years, from the beginning, new land was available for cultivation or top soils were so deep the losses were not catastrophic.
We have reached a point where urban populations are now covering those deeper soils or they have gone. Land better suited to grazing is being put to the plough as animals are confined as factory widgets in feedlots rather than as ecosystem components where their grazing improves the grass cover, the soil health and the soil carbon. Think about the removal of the bison from the North American plains and the eventual dustbowl of the 1930s. This appears to have been a common line of cause and effect across human history.
So to first principle number 1. No digging. This is most easily understood in a gardening context. The best way to do this, I’ve found, is in raised beds. Raised beds are created by piling organic matter, compost, animal bedding, decomposed leaf mould, that sort of thing onto an organic mat of some sort. I find cardboard is ideal, newspapers work well too.
Podcast footnote:
For our younger listeners, just google “Newspapers” to discover how we used to consume news in the olden days.
End Podcast footnote.
To plant into this material simple use you fingers to push larger seeds into the organic material. To plant seedlings a cut is made with a knife and the now topsoil is opened, the seedling inserted and the cut closed by pressure. It is actually much is to do than to describe.
Larger implements have been developed for doing this on an agricultural scale. The basically consist of a knife blade, followed by a seeder followed by wheels reclosing the cut. The timing in agricultural settings is important. If planting into pasture, this needs to be timed to coincide with the dieback of summer or winter growing species. So Autumn and Spring. If part of a cereal rotation, then into the stubble from the previous harvest.
If you’re following the Fukuoka method, then seed is simply broadcast over the growing cereal crop a couple of weeks before it’s harvested. The new crop is growing when the old is harvested and, as a general rule, survives the harvest without any dramas. The straw from the harvest is spread over the new crop and it pushes through that.
The systems to avoid digging have been developed. They are in growing use and the world’s sols are the better for it.
No digging goes hand in glove with principle number two: No bare soil. In a garden context, this means “overplanting” when observed from a conventional standpoint. The effect of this is to protect the organic material growing medium and provide extra harvests of other organic material.
Let me explain. As the plants grow, some stems are edible, more food, those that are not are thinned as the leaves grow to cover the soil. The thinned plants are dropped onto the soil surface, protecting the soil, decomposing into it and giving space for the growing plants to expand.
In an agricultural setting, it means leaving stubble, and shredded storks covering the soil. These then become food for the soil biota as they protect the soil from wind and water erosion. As the soil biota pull this material in the soil structure, they are actually adding carbon to the soil. When soils are left bare they leak carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. So covered soils have the double effect of reducing CO2 emissions and drawing carbon out of the atmosphere to create more complex, more richly alive soils which grow stronger plants. Win, win, win!
Principle number 3: No chemicals.
This includes fertilisers, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. Why? They destroy soil structure, soil biota and plant coverage. Thereby violating both of the other principles. They may not turn the soil but by killing off the soil biota they achieve the same effect.
Now it is possible to grow things by ploughing, having bare soil and spraying chemicals but, and this is a big but, this is a Faustian bargain. The cost of this system is first and foremost, topsoil. Not much but enough to have an effect over time. Say 1% of topsoil per year of industrial farming. This is the obvious effect. We now know there are other, less visible effects.
These relate to both soil and atmospheric carbon as well as nitrous oxide from nitrogen based fertilisers. The longer the soil is bare the more CO2 it dissipates. The long term effect of this, in human terms, is ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere above 400 ppm. This has the effect of rendering many areas of agricultural practice unsuitable for purpose. The grape growers from episode 107 are an example. Excessive use of monetarily cheap nitrogen fertilisers leads to nitrous oxide leaking into the atmosphere and it too is a greenhouse gas.
If we avoid or better yet, decline to use synthetic additives we gain better soils, a more benign climate with the twin benefits of CO2 not leaking into the atmosphere and soil carbon percentages improving, we lower input costs and break the farmer/chemical company dependence cycle. This takes courage but it can be done.
So, in summary there are three principles for good organic growing
- No digging/tilling;
- No bare soil; and
- No chemical inputs.
By following these three principles, a farmer can free themselves of debt, grow healthier soil and thereby healthier plants and animals and they lower the demand for chemicals and the profit incentive for chemical companies to produce these soil destroying substances.
All of the above effects also leads to healthier environments, waterways and, yes, people.
And with that I’ll draw this episode to a conclusion. Remember: Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
As a podcast listener you may be thinking of producing your own podcast but you’re not sure where to begin, drop over to mrjonmoore.com and check out my course. I have been teaching this at Community Colleges around town and have developed an online version. There’s a link in the show notes. Classes start whenever you’re ready, I’d love to help you into this way of communicating.
A transcript of this episode is available at worldorganicnews.com
Thank you for listening and I'll be back next week.
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Podcast Like a Pro: mrjonmoore.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
While politicians question the reality of climate change, farmers and businesses act
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-05/farmers-and-businesses-take-action-on-climate-change/9502320
The Cairns Group
http://cairnsgroup.org/pages/default.aspx
What happens when we start producing more electricity than we can consume?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-07/solar-power-what-happens-when-theres-too-much/9522192
This is the World Organic News for the week ending the 12th of March 2018.
Jon Moore reporting!
As I discussed last month with the new vision statement for the podcast and blog, “Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil.”, in mind I’m calling on my listeners to put forward ideas for an interview episode once a month. If you know anyone who is doing either part of the vision, I’d love to hear from them or, indeed, from you if you are on the front line doing the work.
This week we have an article for the ABC news site entitled: While politicians question the reality of climate change, farmers and businesses act
This article is the written version of a TV program aired last Monday night here in the antipodes.
The title pretty much says it all but let’s dig a little deeper.
Quote:
David Bruer has been growing vines and making wine at his Temple Bruer vineyard in the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia since 1978.
In his vineyard laboratory, weather records for every vintage for nearly 40 years are stacked in plastic folders.
They clearly show a steady increase in maximum temperatures over that time of about 1 degree. It might seem like a relatively small change but the impact has been dramatic.
And from further in the article:
"Thirty-four years ago we used to pick in the middle of March," he said.
"We're now picking in the middle of February."
End Quote.
Grapes have always been a marker of world climatic conditions. During the Medieval Warm Period when Vikings were able to navigate a relatively ice free north Atlantic ocean, reaching Newfoundland as well as colonising Iceland and Greenland, grape vines were growing in England.
Because grapes are a perennial crop, they are in the ground for many years. Planting requires a commitment to the future. Changes, rapid changes in climate can have catastrophic effects on the grower. David Bruer’s quote above shows rapid change in a relatively short period.
Clearly n=1 is not a reason to raise concerns but the article and the TV program goes onto to talk with a wine making company with weather records going back much further.
Quote:
About 800 kilometres to the east of Temple Bruer, Ross Brown from Brown Brothers Wines has an even longer weather record on file.
His family has been making wine in Milawa, Victoria, for almost 130 years.
Mr Brown says he used to be a climate change sceptic but his vintage charts are indicating things have changed.
In Milawa, Brown Brothers is also picking earlier and their records show temperatures are rising.
Some of the cool climate varieties his family always used to grow here — like pinot noir and sparkling whites — have now become too unreliable so the company has moved some of its operation to cooler country in Tasmania.
End Quote.
If this is effecting wine growers it will be effecting orchardists, soft fruit growers and pretty much anyone in agriculture. The perennial growers have movement issues, that is vines and trees are pretty much going to stay where they are. Cereal growers and graziers have a little more flexibility but not as much as they’d like.
The real punch from the article and the program came at the end. Farmers in Australia don’t receive the subsidies that US and EU farmers do. They are, as a result of Australia being part of the Cairns Group, free traders, even if they’d happily receive subsidies.
However all the other regulatory requirements for businesses do apply to the agricultural sector and things are changing.
Quote:
Brown Brothers is a big operation. Their winemaking is on an industrial scale and the decision to adapt to the changing weather was driven by the company's board.
It's a shift being seen in boardrooms around the country. Corporate Australia has been warned. The changing climate is something they can no longer ignore.
Last November, Geoff Summerhayes, an executive member of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), told businesses climate change posed a material risk to the entire financial system.
His message was that boards and directors had a fiduciary duty to their shareholders to take it into account. He cited legal opinion that found company directors who failed to consider and disclose climate risk could be in breach of the Corporations Act.
End Quote
Let that sink in. If companies ignore climate change in their risk assessments and shareholders suffer losses as a result, the boards of those companies are, probably, subject to legal action.
While our federal government is controlled by a rump coalition party with ties to coal, gas and oil production whose allies have complained about the “ugliness” of wind turbines and the beauty of coal mines, I kid you not, legal opinion based upon science is taking reality into concern.
For grape growers at the big end of town who have nowhere to go after Tasmania become too hot, those corporate entities who ignore climate change effects on their businesses will find themselves sued.
Meanwhile the National Party whose supporters are on the frontline of agriculture keep pushing the world’s biggest coal mine development in Central Queensland with the likelihood of it destroying aquifers, causing air pollution in the local area and running the risk of shipping accidents on the Great Barrier Reef, an ecosystem suffering 50% coral bleaching from the last two summers.
The dichotomy of political nonsense and the feet on the ground food producers is not helping anyone. As the agricultural sector is a free trading one as a result of government decisions, perhaps it’s time to remove corporate subsidies from the energy sector, both fossil and renewables. The price of renewables is now less than fossil fuels, without subsidies and falling as economies of scale, research efforts and price signals drive demand.
In another article from the ABC Solar power: What happens when we start producing more electricity than we can consume?
Quote:
While Australia leads the world in the use of rooftop solar power, some experts say there could soon be too much power coming online — and governments will have little choice but to cut subsidies.
Government figures show 3.5 million solar panels were installed on Australian rooftops last year, an average of almost 10,000 every day.
That is a 41 per cent increase on the previous year, driven by the twin incentives of cheaper solar panels from China and rising power bills.
End Quote
The obvious answer when too much power is being produced is to save the excess not punish the producers. I don’t know, maybe some sort of battery could help. I’ve discussed pumped storage in earlier episodes and that’s a safe, proven, relatively inexpensive form of storage.
What all this comes down to is: The climate is changing, the evidence from the agricultural sector is overwhelming, the federal government in Australia is, if not in the pockets of fossil fuel producers, at least inclined to accept their arguments. What’s happening to science based policy in the US doesn’t bare thinking about but I will have an episode on that soon. While all that’s going on individual households are following the obvious price signals and throwing PV cells on their roofs. The odd one out in this story is government.
If only there was some way we could change governments and some way we could have an actual real choice between alternatives. The conservitive Coalition in power now bows to fossil fuel types, the Labor opposition does so through the mining unions, so the same thing, where is a rational , evidence based party that could step into the breach before Paris COP looks like fine ideal but not a reality?
And with that I’ll draw this episode to a conclusion. Remember: Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!
As a podcast listener you may be thinking of producing your own podcast but you’re not sure where to begin, drop over to mrjonmoore.com and check out my course. I have been teaching this at Community Colleges around town and have developed an online version. There’s a link in the show notes. Classes start whenever you’re ready, I’d love to help you into this way of communicating.
A transcript of this episode is available at worldorganicnews.com
Thank you for listening and I'll be back next week.
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Podcast Like a Pro: mrjonmoore.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Podcast Like a Pro: mrjonmoore.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Facebook Page: World Organic News Facebook page.
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences
It’s alive! Scientists get closer to identifying what lives in our soil
https://iowalearningfarms.wordpress.com/
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Ground Control Broadcast: 15/02/2009 5:35:41 PM
Reporter: Pip Courtney
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/landline/old-site/content/2008/s2490568.htm
Optimising Carbon in the Australian Landscape http://wentworthgroup.org/2009/10/optimising-carbon-in-the-australian-landscape/2009/
King Corn
http://www.kingcorn.net/
Earl Butz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Butz
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Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Organic Gardener Podcast episode 17.
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All other links at www.worldorganicnews.com
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Podcast Like a Pro: mrjonmoore.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
All other links at www.worldorganicnews.com
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Podcast Like a Pro: mrjonmoore.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
All other links at www.worldorganicnews.com
An agricultural insurgency - Late Night Live - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-jRV
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All other links at www.worldorganicnews.com
LINKS
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FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
LINKS
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Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Permaculture Link
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Yes, SA’s battery is a massive battery, but it can do much more besides — Kevin's Walk on the Wild Side
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g8L
Google is the biggest corporate buyer of clean power and keeps buying more — Financial Post
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g9v
What’s brown and magic? — Running wild
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g8I
Conservation Agriculture: A not so conservative tool against climate change — drawdown
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g9A
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CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
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Plant the Trees for the Bees — The Bulls and the Bees
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g66
Urban tree growth is accelerating — Jim Daley Writes
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g6m
Five uses for captured CO2 — Make Wealth History
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g6q
Clean Coal
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_pollution_mitigation#Clean_coal
What is sustainable agriculture anyway? — Ecology is not a dirty word
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g6x
How One Can Develop A Vertical Garden In Simplest Way- Capacloud’s View — CAPACLOUD
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g6T
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Antibiotics in Agriculture: We Can’t Afford It. — This Microbial Life
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g4t
Ground Operations: From veteran to sustainable farming — Life & Soul Magazine
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g4F
Maintaining a Worm Bin — Delta Worms
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g5l
Harvesting A Worm Bin — Delta Worms
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g5r
Building our beds… — Allotted Time
https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g4p
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Transcript: https://wp.me/p5Cqpo-g4c
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A transcript of this episode is available at http://www.worldorganicnews.com/61597/89/
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New genomic insights reveal a surprising two-way journey for apple on the Silk Road — Ancientfoods
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fW3
read: with only 60 years of harvests left, how do we transform our food systems? — the irresistible fleet of bicycles
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fWc
A Weed Killer Is Increasingly Showing Up in People’s Bodies — Adidas Wilson
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fWt
An agricultural insurgency
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/a-rural-insurgency/9077312
Bigger floods, more fires, stronger storms, longer heat waves: As the climate changes, get used to more of this — proactiveoutside
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fX
LINKS
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Virgil — Durn Fun Adventure Club - STL
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fU1
Agroecology in Practice — AMELIA LAKE
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fTN
Feeding the World Sustainably: Agroecology vs. Industrial Agriculture — dcook4real
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fTL
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 23rd of October 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
We begin this week with a one line post from the blog Durn Fun Adventure Club - STL
Quote:
“Consider what each soil will bear, and what each refuses.”
End Quote
This is from the ancient Roman poet Virgil and bears much consideration. He was writing before humanity had a measure of pH yet soil type was connected to plant type. Acid soils for potatoes and blueberries, alkaline soils for legumes and neutral soils for most plants. Yes I understand Virgil saw neither a potato nor a blueberry as they are both New World plants but the statement holds true today.
I heard a Farming Today podcast from the BBC some years ago where a farmer with neutral to alkaline soils was growing blueberries in pots on top of the soil because it still made economic sense to go that extreme because of blueberry prices. The whirring noise I heard at the time must have been Virgil spinning in his grave.
Price signals can do strange things to farming. The high price of beef and the correspondingly low price of wool drove a large number of producers here in Australia to move from sheep to cattle. This occurred even on country almost designed for sheep and wool production. I have noticed the larger the farm, the greater the propensity to chase dollars over matching crop to landscape and soil. This may be a function of debt and or of production unit size. I’m not sure.
It is, though, an argument for smaller sized production units for the benefit of both the soils and the wider economy. The energy required to hip pots, acid growing medium and blueberry plants in case above could have allocated more sustainably elsewhere in the economy. There is no way the acidic soil would not have had an effect on the soil the pots stood. Water flows would be enough to alter the local environs.
Again to quote Virgil:
“Consider what each soil will bear, and what each refuses.”
This leads us nicely to our next post: Agroecology in Practice from AMELIA LAKE.
This is one of the best definitions of agroecology I’ve come across so I’ll quote it verbatim.
Quote:
Agroecology is a rallying call, an inspiration, a collecting point and a word describing forms of food production which puts whole system, ecological thinking at its heart. It’s a term used to describe sustainable agriculture which imitates nature and doesn’t deplete nature’s resources.
End Quote.
Let’s just unpack that for a moment. A rallying call, an inspiration and a collecting point. We need inspiring ideas to change the world. Being right isn’t always going to cut it with the great mass of humanity. Indeed I would argue that many incorrect ideas over the last hundred years were applied because they inspired rather than worked. Fascism, Communism, Laissez Faire Capitalism, industrial agriculture all spring to mind. That agroecology actually works is, I think, now beyond doubt. That it works for the soil, the environment and the people growing and consuming the food is definitely beyond doubt. It does not work for the shareholders of fossil fuel companies, of pesticide and herbicide nor for futures traders. We have choice as to whom we’re going to support.
Agroecology is systems based and ecological at its heart. This requires a different understanding of the production process. Ecology is best represented as an interconnected web of lives and effects including weather, climate, altitude, latitude, aspect and season. Industrial approaches work on a factory mentality. Inputs in, outputs out and waste discarded. It is linear in nature compared to agroecology.
The last sentence of our quote: It’s a term used to describe sustainable agriculture which imitates nature and doesn’t deplete nature’s resources. Now there’s a worthy aspiration. From the American dustbowl of the 1930s, to rabbit plague of 1950s in Australia, we humans have been good at not getting the balance right nor imitating nature.
In this post Amelia Lake, the author, has put her money where her mouth is:
Quote:
After many years studying sustainable food production practices in the UK and having seen several designs of my own come to beautiful fruition I embarked upon my own agroecological project.
End Quote.
Currently the project is developing. A fully functional market garden is up and producing. There is more to come. I would recommend you read the article in full as it is quite inspirational. Link in the show notes.
For more on the differences between industrial agriculture and agroecology I have post from dcook4real entitled: Feeding the World Sustainably: Agroecology vs. Industrial Agriculture. Link, of course in the show notes. This an infographic post which is, therefore, not entirely ideal for the podcast medium. I would urge you to follow the links. It really is a good summary of the differences.
And of course we can all do our own little bit, either consuming ethically or growing our own ethically.
To that end, the one square metre garden handout is still available. email me at square@worldorganicnews.com and it’ll be in your inbox pronto! There’s a link at the top of the show notes.
And with that I’ll finish up for this week.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back at the same time.
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Virgil — Durn Fun Adventure Club - STL
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fU1
Agroecology in Practice — AMELIA LAKE
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fTN
Feeding the World Sustainably: Agroecology vs. Industrial Agriculture — dcook4real
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fTL
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Scientists found bee-killing neonicotinoids in 75% of honey sampled from around the world — Quartz
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/61084/scientists-found…the-world-quartz/
journal Science
Why Bees Matter so Much to Humans
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/why-bees-matter-so-much-to-humans/
Converting Golf Courses in: In Defense of a Modern Yeomanry
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/published-books/long-pieces-and-ideas/
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 16th of October 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
We begin this week with a worrying development in honey. From the Blog Quartz comes the post: Scientists found bee-killing neonicotinoids in 75% of honey sampled from around the world.
Quote:
A study published Oct. 6 in the journal Science found that a significant amount of the world’s honey contains traces of neonicotinoids, a class of commonly used pesticides, at levels strong enough to cause brain damage in bees. The chemicals are meant to attack the nervous systems of pests and keep them from eating crops, but it appears they may also hurt bees, which have been dying off in huge numbers in recent years, much to the befuddlement of researchers around the globe.
End Quote
This is a deeply concerning piece of research. There is some argument for the fact that neonics may not be killing bees outright, that is, there’s a full colony on day one and no colony on day three but that they are more insidious. By weakening the adult females collecting the honey they don’t tend to live as long as they would have. This means the next wave of workers have to step up before they are fully mature and the cycle continues until there aren’t any workers to feed the hive. So a slow collapse of the colony structure by the gradual effect of increased wakening. Add to this the neonics in the honey and the problem is magnified.
This may or may not be the cause of colony collapse disorder but it seems a fair working hypothesis.
Because neonics are systemic, that is they reside in every cell of the treated plant, there is no mechanism for avoiding them. They are effective at killing pests which, bite, burrow into and suck sap but there are other insects which are of benefit to the producer. Apart from honeybees and all the other species of bees which assist with pollination, there are the predator species which attack the plant destroying insects.
Now a monoculture of a crop will attract the unwanted insects as quickly as free beer attracts alcoholics. And monocultures are the prefered cultures for industrial farming methods. Economies of scale, cost savings on fencing, remotely operated or even “smart” in air quotes self driving tractors. These economic considerations make perfect sense if the full costs are not paid for by the producer. So things like health costs to the general population from long exposure to carcinogenic pesticides like the now banned DDT are covered by the healthcare industry not the producers of the pesticides. They can keep their costs relatively low and change a very healthy margin to farmers who have been convinced to plant monocultures, invest in expensive machinery and now need a return on investment to keep the banks happy.
The monocultures and their economies of scale create feeding grounds for pest insects. The farmers need to return a profit or go bankrupt, the insecticide companies don’t pay the full costs imposed by their products and therefore we have DDT and neonics to name but a few. The difference between DDT and neonics is that DDT had to be resprayed every time there was an outbreak of pests. Neonics sit there, in the plant, ready to attack the nervous system of any insect that consumes a plant part.
Hooray for science! Less spraying equals good for the environment, no? Well, yes and no. Yes, if less spraying means less pesticide actually in the environment but in the case of systemic pesticides, the answer is a very definite NO!
Neonics sit there, just waiting, in every cell of the plant. Not surprisingly this also includes pollen and nectar cells. Pollinators smack bang up against these cells and their neonic compounds. But i hear you ask: Such tiny amounts can have much of an effect, can they?
I’m so glad you asked. From the post:
Quote:
For the study, researchers analyzed 198 honey samples from around the world, testing them for five common neonicotinoids: acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, thiacloprid, and thiamethoxam. They discovered that at least one of those was present in 75% of the samples. And 34% of the samples contained a concentration of the compounds known to be lethal to bees.
End quote.
It would appear some form of regulation or ban on these chemicals should have happened yesterday but has only been partially implemented in the EU.
Why are bees so important? After all, not everyone gets their sugar from honey.
Honey is almost a pleasant side effect of bees and their behaviours.
A post from One Green Planet dot org from back March 26 this year gives a few clues.
Quote:
A new study published in Nature Communications found that just two percent of wild bee species contributes 80 percent of the crop pollination visits observed globally. This means that if this small percentage of bees disappears … then 80 percent of our agricultural system will collapse.
Seventy of the top 100 food crops grown worldwide rely on pollinators, this is equivalent to 90 percent of the world’s nutrition. It might sound unbelievable, but without bees we can say goodbye to food such as apples, almonds, oranges and avocados.
End Quote.
Indeed we would be left with plants which are either wind pollinated or which reproduce asexually. So basically things like cereals, wheat, rye, maize, sorghum and so on, potatoes and pineapples! I love pineapples but really I would prefer other fruits too. Some herbs could continue through propagation by cuttings, so rosemary, sage and the like. It does seem we would be left with a very dull diet with very poor nutritional outcomes.
Bees matter! Bees matter a lot. As do those birds which assist in the pollination process and the other insects, butterflies, some wasps and the like.
We have a choice. Fill every cell of every food plant with a poison to kill insects, including bees and move to a diet of spuds, bread and pineapples or end the use of systemic and other, I would argue, all other pesticides. This will mean a necessary change in the means of production. Monocultures will have to go. Alley cropping is one solution which still maintains some economies of scale while adding the benefits of habitat for beneficial insects and birds, reducing soil erosion, protecting crops and livestock and increasing tree numbers. There are solutions. I have argued elsewhere in this podcast and on the blog
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/published-books/long-pieces-and-ideas/
that supporting a large number of smaller farmers would bring even more benefits to both the farmers and society as a whole. We could start by converting and rehabilitating every or maybe nearly every golf course and earth and turning them into local organic food producing hubs.
There are ways, we must seize them before it is too late. Live in hope and grow at least a little of your own food.
To that end, the one square metre garden handout is still available. email me at square@worldorganicnews.com and it’ll be in your inbox pronto! There’s a link at the top of the show notes.
And with that I’ll finish up for this week.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back at the same time.
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Scientists found bee-killing neonicotinoids in 75% of honey sampled from around the world — Quartz
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/61084/scientists-found…the-world-quartz/
journal Science
Why Bees Matter so Much to Humans
http://www.onegreenplanet.org/environment/why-bees-matter-so-much-to-humans/
Converting Golf Courses in: In Defense of a Modern Yeomanry
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/published-books/long-pieces-and-ideas/
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Petit Paradis: The New Earth
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/60996/the-new-earth-petit-paradis/
Why Zero Waste Matters — Regenerating Our World
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/60890/why-zero-waste-m…rating-our-world/
Zero Waste International Alliance
Want energy storage? Here are 22,000 sites for pumped hydro across Australia — Random Thoughts
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/60898/want-energy-stor…-random-thoughts/
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)
Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES)
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 9th of October 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we begin with a post from Petit Paradis: The New Earth. This post commences with a quote from David Holmgren’s book PERMACULTURE: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability.
Quote
The image of clean green technology where we do not need to mess with nature or kill anything to provide for our needs is in the final analysis, an illusion. That illusion appears to have substance only because generations of the world’s most affluent urbanites have been disconnected from nature.
End Quote
This quote is call to reality. The post goes on to articulate the ways the poster’s neighbours are all doing a little bit to reduce their footprint on the planet. From growing veggies amongst the roses, to a few abundant fruits trees in each backyard. This is a great way to build community.
Podcast footnote:
Building a community, is a shorthand way of saying: Getting to know other people. Finding out what we have in common with them and building upon those shared thoughts and activities. It means allowing the things we disagree with, politics, religion, sporting teams to not interfere with that which unites us. You know, seeing others as our friends not competition. Fellow citizens rather than competing consumers.
End podcast footnote.
The poster has even bigger dreams.
Quote:
We are taking in green waste from other gardens, newspapers from other sources, cardboard boxes from multiple places. It is very reminiscent of when we first started to create soil at petit paradis. My mind drifts along such thoughts as ‘What if every fourth house in the street did this sort of thing with their garden? There just wouldn’t be a fraction of the waste going to land fill. And the produce grown could go to the houses that supplied materials.’
End Quote
Imagine such a world. A world where 25% of households were producing food from the collected unwanted organic matter from the other 75% and feeding them with the surplus.
Bill Mollison, the other half of Mollison and Holmgren (quoted at the start of this episode) suggested that just ten percent of households moving from consumption to production would be sufficient to turn the world around. So the suggestion of 1 in 4 would have huge beneficial effects. But for this to happen at four households would have to be talking to each other above and beyond a nodded head when passing in the street.
Mollison also, as I have quoted before had a definition of waste that I try to keep in mind, especially when the topic comes up in conversation: Waste is simply a resource in the wrong place.
This leads nicely to our next post: Why Zero Waste Matters — Regenerating Our World.
This post starts with the most basic of questions:
Quote:
When you think of throwing something away, where is ‘away‘? Does it truly vanish once it is discarded into the rubbish bin? No — the only place it vanishes from is your eyesight. It actually goes directly to the landfill....
End Quote
And landfills are a disaster. The embedded energy in each item placed therein is lost. The embedded energy refers to the amount of emergy used to create the product which is being buried. Take place panes as an example. Huge amounts of heat energy was used to turn sand into glass and then to shape the molten glass into window panes. Such items can be re-used as windows again, or framed up to create season extending cold frames in the garden and so on. Broken glass can be recycled through glass factories where less energy is required to reshape the many pieces that would be required to start with sand.
Now not everything can be recycled I hear some people say. True enough, the microbeads of plastic which are essential, apparently to the beauty industry to place layers of makeup and sunscreen on skin are essentially on a one way trip from factory to environment, increasingly the oceans and the species living therein.
I could go on but the point is, I think made. We need to go cold turkey off oil based plastics. There are alternatives, hemp springs to mind and other cellulose based products that can be made from current “waste” products. Remember Bill Mollison when you hear that word.
The aim should be to achieve zero waste. In that case all resources would be in their proper places and we would have no need for landfills.
To quote from the post and their quote the Zero Waste International Alliance, zero waste is defined as such:
Quote:
“Zero Waste is a goal that is ethical, economical, efficient and visionary, to guide people in changing their lifestyles and practices to emulate sustainable natural cycles, where all discarded materials are designed to become resources for others to use.”
End Quote.
Even when this goal is achieved we will still need some form of energy to keep the world moving, to reconfigure that broken glass and etc. One of the stumbling blocks/opportunities in the renewable sector is storage. Elon Musk is making a fortune with chemical storage, more commonly known as batteries. There are other forms and our last post for this week tackles one of them.
From the blog Random Thoughts comes the post entitled: Want energy storage? Here are 22,000 sites for pumped hydro across Australia.
I’ll start with a quote from the authors of the post:
Quote:
With the support of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), we have identified 22,000 potential pumped hydro energy storage (PHES) sites across all states and territories of Australia. PHES can readily be developed to balance the grid with any amount of solar and wind power, all the way up to 100%, as ageing coal-fired power stations close.
End Quote.
The idea behind pumped hydro storage is pretty straightforward. In the same way excess energy produced by say a rooftop solar panel would be stored in a battery, the excess energy generated by a solar farm would be used to pump water from a lower level to a higher one. Then when the sun goes down and the TVs come on, the water flows from the upper level to the lower, generating hydro electricity as it does so. The thing is the pumps and the hydro generators are the same piece of kit. This is a mature technology. It has been used for decades on the Snowy Hydro scheme where snow melt is pumped about between storages and then flows downhill to produce electricity and send irrigation water west to the inland parts.
We have this technology, with all the kinks worked out, solar PV and wind are now cheaper per kilowatt hour of output than building coal or even gas fired power stations. What we don’t have is the political vision, the drive or the will to move to this form of energy stabilisation. Too many parliaments seemed to be if not in the pocket of multinational fossil fuel producers but at least at their beck and call.
Again, I’m some what tired to say, we need to raise hell. We need to maintain the rage. Another summer of heat wave records here in Australia, and I fear, bushfires, may be the push necessary to get things moving but only if individuals and groups make it clear to our elected representatives we will stand with them if they stand up to entrenched interests. We built the Snowy scheme, we can build, if not 22,000 pumped hydro sites, at least 1000 to prove the concept on the ground and then ramp up.
I would also like to mention I still have the one square metre garden handout available. email me at square@worldorganicnews.com and it’ll be in your inbox pronto!
And on that note, I’ll call stumps on this week’s episode.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
Petit Paradis: The New Earth
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/60996/the-new-earth-petit-paradis/
Why Zero Waste Matters — Regenerating Our World
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/60890/why-zero-waste-m…rating-our-world/
Zero Waste International Alliance
Want energy storage? Here are 22,000 sites for pumped hydro across Australia — Random Thoughts
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/60898/want-energy-stor…-random-thoughts/
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)
Pumped hydro energy storage (PHES)
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
FREE .PDF One Square Metre Garden: square@worldorganicnews.com
Blog: www.worldorganicnews.com
New temperature records expected as NSW, Queensland brace for second spring heatwave. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-26/bom-records-will-fall-as-eastern-australia-braces-for-heatwave/8988650
Why is Africa building a Great Green Wall? http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-41391844/why-is-africa-building-a-great-green-wall
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 25th of September 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
Insert Living an Organic Lifestyle here.
And on that note, I’ll call stumps on this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 18th of September 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
I’d like to begin this week with a big shout out to FarmerHarper!
And I quote:
So glad to stumble on this podcast 5 stars
End quote.
Thank you for the review and rating FarmerHarper, you have indeed given this podcaster an enormous thrill!
Now to this week’s focus.... Stranded Assets!
Floods in South Asia, fires across Europe and the US west and north and, of course, those hurricanes of late all point, if not directly, but perhaps cumulatively to evidence of the climate reacting to CO2 concentrations above 400 ppm.
And into this 46 degree celsius (that’s about 115 degrees F) heat waves here in Australia’s east last summer, twice, and I see no reason not to act.
Are but the economy I hear some people screaming. The economy indeed. Do we have any evidence from the past which help point us in a direction of least suffering, economically?
Well yes. When we think about winners and losers in any change from fossil fuels to renewables there are obvious losers. Owners/operators of coal and gas fired power plants spring to mind. These industrial structures have a major byproduct of CO2. So they will have to be abandoned. Re purposing is difficult. There have been some attempts to replace coal with biomass, trees, but these have not been pursued with any great gusto. Their advantage would be a carbon neutral cycle, in theory. Growing trees would suck up the CO2 burning dead trees would produce. The problem, at present, is getting the dead trees to the power plants without spending CO2.
So it seems, eventually, these power plants will need to stand idle. Those with shares in the companies who own them will be left with stranded assets. There, we got to those words, eventually.
There is a history of stranded assets. Vast hoards of bronze ingots buried around the time the iron age kicked off spring to mind. I saw this phenomenon on a documentary but can’t find a reference at present. So as bronze became an old technology, those holding it were left holding a stranded asset. The world continued on. Not good if your entire wealth was held in bronze ingots but the world rolled on.
More recently, shareholders of typewriter companies where in a similar situation. And typewriters are instructive.
Let me come back to typewriters via a circular excursion.
There have been calls for a price on carbon for a few decades. In the same way this mechanism was used to phase out CFCs to protect the ozone layer. That situation was different. There was one major producer of CFCs, DuPont, I believe, and they were happy to phase out CFCs as they had other products they could sell, surprisingly, at higher prices.
With carbon, we do not have one dominant producer happy to move onto newer products for greater profit.
What we have is newer technologies which will replace the fossil fuel industries in the same way tractors replaced horses. Not good if you’re a horse, great if you make tractors. Not good if you own a coal fired power plant, great if you manufacture photovoltaic cells. Given the continually falling price of both photovoltaic cells and wind turbines, the need for a price on carbon is reduced to an argument in favour of two things. One, a price on carbon will speed up the de-carbonising of the world economy: and Two, the traders who helped build the fossil fuel economy are best placed to replace that economy by making money trading carbon credits.
I can see the first argument but would suggest it is unnecessary. Rather than price carbon, simply remove the subsidies given to coal miners, electricity producers who use coal and gas and the vehicle manufacturers.
The renewable sector is now at scales sufficient to continue lowering the unit prices of solar cells and wind turbines. We haven’t seen the full development of fuel cells, hydrogen producing algae, wave energy and who knows what else we dream up.
How does this relate to typewriters? I hear you ask. I’m so glad you did. A new technology will triumph if it has obvious advantages. So household level solar panels reduce household power bills, co-incidentally offering an afternoon air conditioning demand buffer as the panels produce most electricity as the need for that electricity is at its greatest during the hottest part of the day.
This is analogous to the introduction of the PC in 1982. Those first PCs were nothing special, at the same time the solar PV panels were nothing special either. Yet in places where it cost upwards of $20,000 to connect to the grid, they had a market. Clearly the adoption of PCs has been greater and quicker than solar PV but renewables are catching up.
Now there was no need for a typewriter tax to encourage the adoption of PCs. I’m also fairly sure that typewriter manufacturers weren’t receiving subsidies to produce typewriters. So this is where the typewriter/fossil fuel industries diverge.
Clearly there are advantages to moving to renewables, cleaner air being the most obvious but there will be stranded assets. All round us if we look are they stranded assets of previous technological change. It is worth remembering, the Stone Age didn’t end because we ran out of stone. We don’t need to use all the oil and coal in the world to move onto newer technologies. We certainly don’t need to keep subsidising these. Especially as so many electricity producers were privatised in the name of economic efficiency and a neo-liberal agenda during the 1990s and beyond. Failure is an integral part of the neo-liberal agenda, so we can, in good conscious, let these enterprises fail. Assisting the workforce to retrain would seem reasonable but surely the shareholders, who took the profits in the “good” years have no claim in the “bad”.
Price signals alone, on a level playing field, will be us, as a planet, to where we need to be. Stones, bronze ingots, horses have all had their time in the sun, now is the time to assign fossil fuels to the same list of outmoded technologies.
And on that note, I’ll call stumps on this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
More Trees Less Assholes
http://moretreeslessassholes.org
The Harappa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harappa
Deforestation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 11th of September 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
We begin this week with a quote from a Facebook post I saw.
Quote:
The forests are screaming and few are the people who listen to their cries.
End quote.
That's from the Facebook page More Trees Less Assholes. A link is in the show notes.
It could be, of course, be that many are unaware that they can even listen. As a species we are rapidly approaching the point where more people will be living in urban agglomerations than in rural settings.
For a species with an arboreal heritage, that relied upon wood as the primary fuel source and who obtained a large proportion of its food from trees, this is a major change in living arrangements.
Trees are, as we all know, the lungs of the world. Especially so when in contiguous forests. The synergy of a forest is remarkable. From the edges where the number of eco-niches is exponentially larger than deeper within the forest to the communities of animals living amongst the trees to the biota within the soil, forests have a balancing effect.
Sinks for carbon dioxide, they return oxygen as part of the ecosystem.
In massed formations they mitigate the speed of water run off in high rainfall events. This is a thing we humans have failed to see, basically, since we started living in sedentary communities. This is an oft repeated story. After the arrival of agriculture, (and how that started is whole other podcast) a culture establishes itself in a fertile river valley. The annual crops provide abundance. Usually during a prolonged period of good rainfall. The population grows, slowly at first and then exponentially. As the population grows, the pressure on the tree cover of the valley sides grows too. More trees are cut down to provide fuel for heating and cooking, the food supply extends into more marginal land as the tree cover is removed. You can see where this might be headed. Eventually there are no trees left for fuel within the valley. The neighbouring areas are accessed for fuel. With the removal of the tree cover from the hill sides, the incidence of mudslides, soil erosion and flooding increases. A point is reached where the soil loss is so great food production suffers, flooding increases and Nature then throws into the mix a prolonged drought. The drought is probably linked, in some way to the removal of tree cover and the huge amounts of water vapour a forest produces being lost to the local microclimate. There are any number of civilisations which have come and gone through this pattern. The Harappa culture is a good example. Link in the show notes.
Another example from the nineteenth century occurred along the Mississippi River.
And I quote for the Wikipedia page Deforestation:
Quote:
In the 19th century, introduction of steamboats in the United States was the cause of deforestation of banks of major rivers, such as the Mississippi River, with increased and more severe flooding one of the environmental results. The steamboat crews cut wood every day from the riverbanks to fuel the steam engines. Between St. Louis and the confluence with the Ohio River to the south, the Mississippi became more wide and shallow, and changed its channel laterally. Attempts to improve navigation by the use of snag pullers often resulted in crews' clearing large trees 100 to 200 feet (61 m) back from the banks. Several French colonial towns of the Illinois Country, such as Kaskaskia, Cahokia and St. Philippe, Illinois were flooded and abandoned in the late 19th century, with a loss to the cultural record of their archeology.[97]
End Quote
Nowadays we can overcome the effect of soil loss in one area by shipping food, primarily grains, around the world. But, and this is a big but, eventually we will be without sufficient tree cover if we are not careful. The rate of deforestation has slowed which is a good thing but that’s little different from saying, I’m losing blood at a slower rate so I should live 7 more minutes and not 3 after an accident.
And now to the quote I started with:
The forests are screaming and few are the people who listen to their cries.
To fully understand a forest and all it offers requires a change of perspective. The screaming can, indeed, be heard if only we listen. If we see a forest as x cubic meters of timber or space for y head of cattle we miss the point.
Bare with me as I introduce to some listeners a new concept: shinrin yoku. This is a Japanese term often translated as “Forest Bathing.” The idea is a person wanders into a forest space, sits and listens. Allowing the sounds, the breezes and the impressions of the forest to gently encompass them. It is diametrically opposed to “bushwalking” with its emphasis on getting to a point, a peak, a lookout, a stream and then coming back.
I will admit “Forest Bathing” sounds a little, “remember to wear flowers in your hair.” but I can confirm it is a practice with much to recommend it. Instead of charging across the landscape, climbing peaks and “conquering” in air quotes, the landscape, this practice, as I have discovered it, is far more about become a part of the forest. Whilst sitting, bathing is not too strong a word, within the arboreal embrace, I have seen many a bird come within arms reach, felt changes in temperature as breezes wafted by and on a number of occasions had macropods hop by without seemingly to see me some few feet away from them. Both wallabies and kangaroos, from juveniles to fully grown adults.
I have “felt/heard/perceived” older trees telling me their time was close, I have had great stresses lifted by simply sitting with giant eucalypts and angophora. I think we are the poorer for destroying these vast reservoirs of interconnected lives. I understand the imperative to feed people but we already grow sufficient food to feed everyone on the planet. Hunger is largely a matter of political will and transport. For that matter continued deforestation is largely a matter of political will and lobbyist donations.
Losing the forest cover of the world will lead to tipping points in climate on their own. With so much removed since the advent of the steam engine and so little being replanted we are with a much reduced ally in the fight against climate change. Whilst we remove mangroves for housing, Amazonian rainforest for cattle and soybean production, whilst we clear hillsides for wood chips, we are removing a ballast from the climate systems which would be mitigating the weather effects we currently observe. Trees are, after all, large lumps of carbon dioxide in a form modified by life forces. Hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons are all powerful weather events. Forestry on land and mangroves on the coast mitigate their effects. Mangroves absorbing tidal surges and forests reducing the speed of water runoff.
We are the poorer for forest losses, they are screaming for our attention, we need to take action, probably 50 years ago but we need to take action today. There are things we can do. Moving from trees for paper, housing and fuel to hemp for these products will have two effects. More trees, that’s a win! Better control of soil erosion given the massive root systems of hemp, that’s another win. A more productive system. Clearly hemp needs to be part of a rotation system of cropping, simply growing a monoculture of hemp will only attract pests and diseases, we are in a natural system called life on this planet. The rules are simple. Diversity brings a greater level of protection when compared to monocultures. The danger is the large immediate returns in the first few years of monocultural production. Once trapped into those returns, especially when accompanied with debt, leads to pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers to maintain the “magical” returns. These cost soil over time and then water quality. This should all sound familiar as it’s the same trap we’ve fallen into with cereals, pine plantations and fish farming.
We can change the current paradigm, indeed we must. If this decade’s weather has told us anything, it has screamed that we need to change. If we do not lead this change, if we do not heed the screaming of the forests, we will have change imposed upon us. As new points of equilibrium in ecosystems across the planet establish themselves, we may just find there is less space for our species and that would be a shame. Vile, despicable, violent as we can be so too can we produce poetry, music, harmony and love. I think I would miss us if we somehow managed to destroy ourselves.
And on that note, I’ll call stumps on this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
More Trees Less Assholes
http://moretreeslessassholes.org
The Harappa
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harappa
Deforestation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deforestation
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 4th of September 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
The Fukuoka Alternative.
From Home Farmer Volume One
Available here: http://www.smallfarms.net/xcart/product.php?productid=16269
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
India's Farmers Revive Traditional Grains in Face of Severe Drought
https://www.voanews.com/a/india-farmers-revive-traditional-grains-face-severe-drought/3996412.html
India's Farmers Revive Traditional Grains in Face of Severe Drought
https://www.voanews.com/a/india-farmers-revive-traditional-grains-face-severe-drought/3996412.html
The Center for Indian Knowledge Systems
http://www.ciks.org/
Suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers linked to climate change, study claims
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/31/suicides-of-nearly-60000-indian-farmers-linked-to-climate-change-study-claims
Dr Vandana Shiva
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva
TED talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER5ZZk5atlE
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 28th of August 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we focus on the organic sector in India! I must apologise at the very beginning of this episode for any butchering of Indian names and any mispronunciations. I am trying my best but realise I’ll get some of the names woefully wrong. Please forgive me.
Quote:
"The crop has been poor in Attapady, especially in the eastern part where the rains were deficient. We normally cultivate almost all vegetables right from shallots. But the climate is changing. It's no more about rain or no rain. It really shows on the vegetation," said Reji Joseph, a farmer at Attapady.
End Quote.
It is the people on the front lines who are our canaries in the mines. Despite the mixed metaphors, the effects are clear.
I have reported earlier on a farmer here in Australia who now cuts silage 8 to 10 weeks earlier than his father did. I think we can say the the effects are being felt as the concentrations of carbon dioxide move passed 400 ppm.
Other farmers in India are reacting to this.
Quote:
For Nel Jayaraman, the realization that hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides were making farmers more vulnerable to extreme weather came slowly.
In fields near the town of Thiruthuraipoondi in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Jayaraman saw yields falling and farmers' debt rising as their reliance on modern seeds and pesticides grew, even as the rains became increasingly fickle.
End Quote.
Nel though is something of a trend setter and a contrarian. He decided, on land farmed by his family for generations, to leave the chemical system based on hybrid seeds to return to organic methods and local cultivars. In that time he has revived, saved, would be a better description, over 150 local varieties of rice. In the process he has come to be their advocate. These varieties are more drought tolerant and this is important as his state, Tamil Nadu, is in its worst drought in more than a century as the monsoon failed to arrive in 2016. Let that sink in: The monsoons failed to arrive.
All this needs to be seen in the context of the so called “Green Revolution”. As Indian population rose following independence in 1947, governments embraced the Green Revolution based upon hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers and pesticides. There was an increase in yields but, even at the time, there questions being raised.
Quote:
.....there has been criticism that the benefits were overstated, that the cultivation methods damaged the land and drained groundwater, and that the gene pool for staple crops narrowed, leaving farmers fewer options when faced with disease and drought.
End Quote.
As a result of this, organisations like The Center for Indian Knowledge Systems set about saving and promoting the indigenous varieties. The Centre
Quote:
.....has revived dozens of traditional rice varieties that are resistant to pests and disease, capable of dealing with floods and drought, and that have valuable medicinal properties.
"Particularly for coastal regions such as this, you need varieties that can handle the higher salinity of the soil and groundwater, and are resistant to drought," said Subhashini Sridhar at CIKS in neighboring Nagapattinam district.
"You need a large and diverse genetic pool to preserve these qualities," she said, citing the example of the aftermath of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which hit Nagapattinam hard.
End Quote
The other advantage of local seed varieties is they can be saved each year. They were selected for organic methods and so chemical fertiliser inputs are not necessary. In general, these seeds are somewhat lower in yield but with way lower input costs and this is critical. The rising costs, over time, of hybrid seeds and chemical fertilizers combined with falling yields following spells of drought has led to huge debt burdens for many of India’s smallholders. The suicide rate amongst this population is terrifyingly high. A Guardian article from the first of August puts the figure at 60,000. This is a high price to pay for “modern” in air quotes farming methods.
But there is hope. Rather than just being producer driven, and this is a good thing, the demand for organic grains is also rising as India grows a middle class of substantial size.
Quote:
A move to more healthful eating in India's cities has also sparked demand for traditional grains and organic fruits and vegetables, for which consumers are willing to pay more.
About 37,000 farmers in the delta region are now cultivating traditional rice varieties, said Jayaraman.
End Quote
And it’s not just the southern State of Tamil Nadu, organic systems are being embraced across the Republic.
Quote:
The northeastern state of Sikkim became the first organic state in January 2016. Nine other states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka, have an organic farming policy.
End quote
There is hope. Remember the population of India is above the one billion mark. That’s quite a chunk of humanity and it is heading towards a fully organic approach which, combined with the decarbonisation of the Indian economy gives the whole world a map and a course of action.
Now let’s meet Hemel Patel. He represents the other end of the farming system.
Quote:
"I kept wondering why people in cities were not growing their own food. While I was in the process of quitting my job, I came across many citizens who were interested in organic farming but could not pursue it due to a lack of knowledge," he says.
End Quote
Hemel gave up an IT job to grow organic food through a startup called “Urban Soil”. He runs two day workshops teaching other urban dwellers the tricks of the trade to allow them the grow more of their food, where they are.
The pieces are in place. Yet no discussion of the organic farming sector in India would complete without a mention of Dr Vananda Shiva.
An advocate for organic farming methods, an anti-GMO activist and voice for farmers who see no way out of their situations other than suicide, Dr Vananda Shiva is a voice for the the unheard. I’ve included a link to one of her TED talks entitled: Solutions to the food and ecological crisis facing us today. I highly recommend a viewing.
The story of the Indian organic movement is one of sorrow, of hope and of a bright future. Lessons learned through the application of the Green Revolution, the effects of climate change and the judicious use of state funding point a way forward, not just for India but for smallholders across the globe. I think, from previous episodes, the importance of this sector for feeding the world, mitigating and reversing climate change and returning dignity to the marginalised has been established. Much work needs to done, both in India and the rest of the world but a path forward is available.
The work of individuals like Nel Jayaraman, Hemel Patel and Dr Vananda Shiva stands humanity on a good footing for the future. It is just the political will to stand up to multinational seed/poison manufacturers that is missing. I see a time, in the near future, if not now, when that tide too turns.
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
India's Farmers Revive Traditional Grains in Face of Severe Drought
https://www.voanews.com/a/india-farmers-revive-traditional-grains-face-severe-drought/3996412.html
India's Farmers Revive Traditional Grains in Face of Severe Drought
https://www.voanews.com/a/india-farmers-revive-traditional-grains-face-severe-drought/3996412.html
The Center for Indian Knowledge Systems
http://www.ciks.org/
Suicides of nearly 60,000 Indian farmers linked to climate change, study claims
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jul/31/suicides-of-nearly-60000-indian-farmers-linked-to-climate-change-study-claims
Dr Vandana Shiva
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vandana_Shiva
TED talk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER5ZZk5atlE
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Systemic Change Driven by Moral Awakening Is Our Only Hope
https://damnthematrix.wordpress.com/2017/08/17/systemic-change-driven-by-moral-awakening-is-our-only-hope/
There’s No App for That: Technology and Morality in the Age of Climate Change, Overpopulation, and Biodiversity Loss
Small Farms
http://journeytoforever.org/farm.html
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 21th of August 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we focus upon one post from Damn the Matrix Or why the world is going to hell, entitled: Systemic Change Driven by Moral Awakening Is Our Only Hope by Richard Heinberg.
Quote:
Our core ecological problem is not climate change. It is overshoot, of which global warming is a symptom. Overshoot is a systemic issue. Over the past century-and-a-half, enormous amounts of cheap energy from fossil fuels enabled the rapid growth of resource extraction, manufacturing and consumption; and these in turn led to population increase, pollution and loss of natural habitat and hence biodiversity.
End Quote
In essence, because we can extract more than the planet can replace each year we are eating our futures. Climate change is the point where we meet this overuse of resources as the planetary systems react to our actions. There are, I would argue, other points where this systematic misuse of resources will slap us in the face. One would be the plastic garbage pools in the oceans. These are less of an immediate issue to most people than heat waves which are direct experiences. And of course it’s not just heat waves. Increasing climate variability seems to be, from the viewpoint of the individual for more important than huge collections of plastics in the middle of oceans most people never travel across or simply fly over.
But the point of the article is well made. Climate change is a symptom not a cause. The cause of the visible symptoms is the overshoot.
So all the attempts in the world to de-carbonise the energy systems will not fix the problem of overshoot but might mitigate climate change but it’s not likely to end the arising of new symptoms. Much a like a medieval medico sniffing the urine of the patient to diagnose an illness caused by a disharmony in the four vital fluids would lead to changes in diet and therefore the scent of the urine, if the cause was actually cancer, it didn’t help. The medico was doing their best, they were just operating in the a false paradigm. Changing the energy system will change the temperature but will not stop the collapse of ecosystems. The ecosystems which support life itself. We are looking to “fix” in a reductionist manner, each symptom. The disease rolls on.
So a misdiagnosing of the current conditions as the disease is adding to long term creation of further symptoms.
Quote:
The human system expanded dramatically, overshooting Earth’s long-term carrying capacity for humans while upsetting the ecological systems we depend on for our survival. Until we understand and address this systemic imbalance, symptomatic treatment (doing what we can to reverse pollution dilemmas like climate change, trying to save threatened species and hoping to feed a burgeoning population with genetically modified crops) will constitute an endlessly frustrating round of stopgap measures that are ultimately destined to fail.
End Quote
As I have argued in earlier episodes, the Green movement, in particular are guilty, with the best of intentions, of this sort of stop gap approach. The hydra headed nature of transnational corporations means each “win”in air quotes by the Green movement is swamped by many other areas of planetary rape and pillage.
To understand this we need a system wide approach. There were hints this was becoming the new paradigm in the 1960s and 1970s. Both ecology as a discipline and such popular cultural expressions of the thought system in the novels of Frank Herbert based on the Dune series are examples. In Herbert’s first work, Dune, in particular, is an understanding of the complexity and self sustaining nature of ecological systems that underpins the novel. They have an inertia within them which resists external threats.
There comes a time when even this inertia is overcome. In the novels, the desserts are made to bloom, in the real world, rainforests are converted to soya bean and cattle production.
The danger is the greatest symptom becomes the focus of the spot fire chasing green movement.
Quote:
However, in recent decades, as climate change has come to dominate environmental concerns, there has been a significant shift in the discussion. Today, most environmental reporting is focused laser-like on climate change, and systemic links between it and other worsening ecological dilemmas (such as overpopulation, species extinctions, water and air pollution, and loss of topsoil and fresh water) are seldom highlighted. It’s not that climate change isn’t a big deal. As a symptom, it’s a real doozy. There’s never been anything quite like it, and climate scientists and climate-response advocacy groups are right to ring the loudest of alarm bells. But our failure to see climate change in context may be our undoing.
End Quote.
The author, Richard Heinberg, points out the “Reduce, reuse, recycle.” mantra is perhaps the only way to avoid the overshoot, year after year. It does mean a change in how we live that the techno fix of moving from fossil fuel to carbon free energy does not call for.
Quote:
The ecological argument is, at its core, a moral one—as I explain in more detail in a just-released manifesto replete with sidebars and graphics (“There’s No App for That: Technology and Morality in the Age of Climate Change, Overpopulation, and Biodiversity Loss”). Any systems thinker who understands overshoot and prescribes powerdown as a treatment is effectively engaging in an intervention with an addictive behavior. Society is addicted to growth, and that’s having terrible consequences for the planet and, increasingly, for us as well. We have to change our collective and individual behavior and give up something we depend on—power over our environment. We must restrain ourselves, like an alcoholic foreswearing booze. That requires honesty and soul-searching.
End quote.
In the process of powering down, removing tractors from farming, returning to diverse smallholdings where people are systems leaders rather than energy and energy equivalents managers there is hope. We no longer need ten offspring to produce food from smallholdings, we no longer need tractors and chemicals and outside inputs from corporations to feed the world and we definitely need to educate the female half of the world’s population. This last point is critical. The evidence shows that the higher the level of female education, the lower the family size and the less stress, therefore, on global systems. A more highly educated population maybe troublesome for authoritarian and even corporation driven pseudo democracies but it is imperative for the planet and its life sustaining systems.
And don’t think smallholder food production leads to endless drudgery and peasant economies, quite the opposite in fact. It also leads to more biodiversity and more stable landscapes. There’s a link in the show notes to support this argument.
I can’t think of a better summary than the one from the article which inspired this episode:
Quote:
The good news is that systemic change is fractal in nature: it implies, indeed it requires, action at every level of society. We can start with our own individual choices and behavior; we can work within our communities. We needn’t wait for a cathartic global or national sea change. And even if our efforts cannot “save” consumerist industrial civilization, they could still succeed in planting the seeds of a regenerative human culture worthy of survival.
End Quote
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Systemic Change Driven by Moral Awakening Is Our Only Hope
https://damnthematrix.wordpress.com/2017/08/17/systemic-change-driven-by-moral-awakening-is-our-only-hope/
There’s No App for That: Technology and Morality in the Age of Climate Change, Overpopulation, and Biodiversity Loss
Small Farms
http://journeytoforever.org/farm.html
Contact:
podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Dealing with weeds through knowing their seed maturation process.
Surprisingly effective with side benefits.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
How farming giant seaweed can feed fish and fix the climate
https://kevinswildside.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/how-farming-giant-seaweed-can-feed-fish-and-fix-the-climate/
Sunlight and Seaweed: An Argument for How to Feed, Power and Clean Up the World
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 7th of August 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we are focussing upon a piece entitled: How farming giant seaweed can feed fish and fix the climate from the blog Kevin's Walk on the Wild Side. This covers a new book by Tim Flannery: Sunlight and Seaweed: An Argument for How to Feed, Power and Clean Up the World. Links in the show notes.
In the past, I’ve been surprised at some of Flannery’s statements. A while back he was surprised at how quickly solar rooftop panels had taken off in Australia. After all, he’s projected 2030 or thereabouts for the level of usage we achieved by 2015. Little did he realise that price signals, rising power bills and increasingly cheaper solar panels, would drive the uptake of this technology.
In this book young Flannery seems to have cottoned onto the possibilities of price signals combined with science. The sort of thing which created the Industrial Revolution and should reverse its unpleasant side effects, just in time, we all hope.
So to the article.
Kelp, a form of seaweed much less studied than it should be. You will recall the huge drop off in cattle methane production when fed seaweed as part of their diet from a few shows back. The phenomena discussed on this occasion continues the greenhouse gas abatement line.
Quote:
The kelp draw in so much carbon dioxide that they help de-acidify the water, providing an ideal environment for shell growth. The CO₂ is taken out of the water in much the same way that a land plant takes CO₂ out of the air. But because CO₂ has an acidifying effect on seawater, as the kelp absorb the CO₂ the water becomes less acid. And the kelp itself has some value as a feedstock in agriculture and various industrial purposes.
End Quote.
The kelp then becomes part of the solution to our current situation. But it is a supercharged part of that solution. The startup problems are enormous and subject to the vagaries of weather. The example cited in the article and the book is that of an enterprise off the coast of New Haven, Connecticut. Beginning in 2011 the kelp farmer, Bren Smith, was wiped out by storms, twice, Hurricanes Irene and Sandy. His enterprise 3D Ocean Farming is now profitable and ecologically stable.
Because once a critical mass is achieved, kelp forests will survive these storms. They are have further useful effects as the Chinese have been aware for centuries.
Quote:
The general concepts embodied by 3D Ocean Farming have long been practised in China, where over 500 square kilometres of seaweed farms exist in the Yellow Sea. The seaweed farms buffer the ocean’s growing acidity and provide ideal conditions for the cultivation of a variety of shellfish. Despite the huge expansion in aquaculture, and the experiences gained in the United States and China of integrating kelp into sustainable marine farms, this farming methodology is still at an early stage of development.
End Quote
There are other advantages to ocean cropping beyond those already discussed is the relative speed of growth. Seaweed grows like bamboo in the wet w=season and every season is the wet season for seaweed. Growth rates 30 times those of land based agriculture are common. This provides many opportunities. As trees remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to create timber so the growth rates of seaweeds suck much more carbon dioxide from the oceans than do trees from the atmosphere. As the oceans are huge carbon sinks, absorbing carbon as a buffer to excessive atmospheric carbon, they are also somewhat supercharged to feed seaweed. One of the consequences of ocean carbon absorption is the acidification of oceans. This in turn leads to shellfish suffering thinning shells and weakening of already threatened coral reefs.
The benefits keep piling up.
And there has been academic work on the potential of kelp farming for biomass production of methane at the University of the South Pacific way back in 2012.
Quote:
…could produce sufficient biomethane to replace all of today’s needs in fossil-fuel energy, while removing 53 billion tonnes of CO₂ per year from
the atmosphere… This amount of biomass could also increase sustainable fish production to potentially provide 200 kilograms per year, per person, for 10 billion people. Additional benefits are reduction in ocean acidification and increased ocean primary productivity and biodiversity.
End Quote
They further calculated that 9% of the ocean surface area would need to be converted to kelp farms. This is not inconsiderable area but a smaller area combined with terrestrial regenerative agriculture could still achieve useful results.
Dr Brian von Hertzen has gone as far as to design kilometre square arrays for creating oceanic permaculture structures:
Quote:
...a frame structure, most likely composed of a carbon polymer, up to a square kilometre in extent and sunk far enough below the surface (about 25 metres) to avoid being a shipping hazard. Planted with kelp, the frame would be interspersed with containers for shellfish and other kinds of fish as well. There would be no netting, but a kind of free-range aquaculture based on providing habitat to keep fish on location. Robotic removal of encrusting organisms would probably also be part of the facility. The marine permaculture would be designed to clip the bottom of the waves during heavy seas. Below it, a pipe reaching down to 200–500 metres would bring cool, nutrient-rich water to the frame, where it would be reticulated over the growing kelp.
End Quote
The possibilities this technology provides are only limited by our imaginations. The key is to avoid a monoculture of kelp which, in the wilds of the ocean, would be even more difficult to achieve than it is on land. Remembering that terrestrial monocultures are created with the use of herbicides, pesticides and artificial fertiliser, it seems financially prohibitive to grow anything other than a polyculture in the ocean. Win/win! I recommend you read both the article quoted from and Flannery’s monograph. There is hope in this time. The forces which created the industrial pollution, the rising levels of carbon dioxide, the possible release of methane from the tundra and rising sea levels will fight to maintain their entrenched positions of privilege within the economy but the alternatives are developing and developing in such a cost effective manner that price signals will overwhelm the rent seeking trenches being held by the remnants of the old order.
There is indeed nothing more powerful than idea whose time has come.
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
How farming giant seaweed can feed fish and fix the climate
https://kevinswildside.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/how-farming-giant-seaweed-can-feed-fish-and-fix-the-climate/
Sunlight and Seaweed: An Argument for How to Feed, Power and Clean Up the World
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
The industrial agriculture “feed the world” myth — Local Food Northland
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fN7
The Alliance to Feed the Future
King Corn
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 31st of July 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we are focusing on post from the blog Local Food Northland entitled The industrial agriculture “feed the world” myth. The myth discussed in this video and written presentation is the “We need industrial agriculture to feed the world now and into the future.”
This myth is prevalent, usually unchallenged and wrong. It is supported in the US by The Alliance to Feed the Future. I’ve put a link in the show notes. It worth a look just to check the members page. Here we find such health food producers as the National Frozen Pizza Institute, the Association for Dressings and Sauces, Flavor and Extract Manufacturers Association of the United States, The Fertilizer Institute, Grocery Manufacturers Association, International Association of Color Manufacturers, National Confectioners Association and Shelf-Stable Food Processors Association to name a few from the list of members. You can see a certain pattern in these members. They are not localised, wholefood types. Shelf-Stable Food Processors Association are not in existence to breed better tasting, longer shelf life tomatoes as much as they are developing better chemical preservatives to maintain the look but not necessarily the health properties of food, certainly not wholefoods. They were originally formed in 1923 as the National Meat Canners Association. There is a list of their aims and the fourth aim is:
Quote:
to inform the trade and public of the advantages of processed food product usage;
End Quote
Given the history of excessive salt, fat and sugar useage in the processed food sector, these might not be the best source of information on the best way to feed the world.
I’m not picking on the Shelf-Stable Food Processors Association, the National Confectioners Association is probably not a better source of information on farming and food production either.
So, let’s look the system of production The Alliance to Feed the Future is advocating for. It is the industrial, Henry Ford inspired, ways of doing things. As I’ve argued elsewhere, the Ford system is great for producing widgets and turning employees into robots but food production involves far more living things. A carrot seed is not pig iron.
To begin at the beginning: Seeds. In the industrial system seeds are highly interbred to produce hybrid types with certain characteristics. These characteristics are chosen to create a level of uniformity suitable to industrial processes. I’ll cover alternative methods and choices later but stay with me on this journey.
These seeds are sold on a one use only basis. Collecting a portion of this year’s crop to replant next year is not an option for at least three reasons. One: as hybrids they will not continue to grow true to type each year as the founding cultivars will exhibit their growth patterns over the years. This will result in very uneven growth rates, maturation rates and so on, Two: quite often and increasingly, these seeds are design to be infertile in the next generation. This is especially so with vegetable seeds. A friend saved the seeds from a halloween pumpkin so I could regrow them for her the next season. All of the flowers were male and therefore incapable of forming fruits. And lastly Three: producers are being forced to sign agreements as part of the conditions of seed purchase which prohibits them from seed saving and re-sowing.
Now that the farmer has these seeds in their soil, it turns out they are designed to grow with application of chemical fertilisers and water and set times. It just so happens that many of the seed sellers also sell fertilisers. Happy coincidence.
To obtain the greatest possible yield to cover the costs of these one off seeds, the necessary fertiliser and any pesticides to save their investment, monocultures are not only encouraged but probably essential to obtain a return.
Podcast sidebar:
Monocultures are the growing on one cultivar of one crop in one continuous paddock. The downsides of this are: a huge banquet has been laid for insects, herbivores and diseases which specialise in that crop. The one crop takes a particular set of nutrients from the soil. When the same crop is grown over and over on the same piece of land, more chemical fertilisers are required to obtain the same yield. Chemical fertilisers have been shown to kill off soil biota, leading to the need for more fertilisers and the loss of topsoil. A win/win for the fertiliser manufacturers but a growing spiral of increasing costs for the farmer.
End podcast sidebar.
The end effect of everyone growing the same crop, producing an identical output is commodification. If there is nothing to distinguish the end product of one farm from that of another then the product can and will be treated as a commodity. That being so, it traded on markets globally and the producer becomes a price taker not a price setter. In effect the farmer buys all his inputs at retail prices and sells at wholesale. This is not a recipe for sustainability. As a result, in the USA, the number of farmers has fallen to such an extent that the occupation “Farmer” is no longer counted in the census.
The other effect of this commodification of food is the processed food sector. For a more in depth look at that effect check out the 2007 film “King Corn”. As ever, there is a link in the show notes.
There are more unpleasant side effects of industrial ag but I’ll leave those for you to see in the video in the post from Local Food Northland.
Is there an alternative way to feed the world that does not destroy land, force farmers in debt cycles, produces healthy food and will feed the world?
I’ll glad you asked, Yes, of course there is. The system is sustainable, smallholder agriculture. It is currently producing 70% of world agricultural output. Let that sink in. Despite the huge subsidies involved in the US Farm Bills each year, industrial agriculture produces just 30% of the world’s food. If you’ve watched King Corn you will know most of that heads into processed foods which I would argue is directly linked to the obesity epidemic in the developed world and the rise in Type 2 diabetes as well. I could go on and have in the past but i’ll let it sit there for now.
The thing with regenerative or sustainable or conservation agriculture or Permaculture or biodynamic is these systems do not have the lobbyists poking the governments of the world to ensure their voices are heard. They tend to attract hands on, let’s just do the job types who are less inclined to force their snouts into the trough pulled by the gravy train of pork barrelers in the seats of government around the globe. Mixed metaphors aside, the only way to stop the industrialised juggernaut from wreaking more havoc upon the biosphere is get political.
That sustainable methods produce more per acre that monocultures, that they produce far less waste, that they grow soil and sequester carbon and that smallholders already produce 70% of the world’s food just doesn’t matter when the Empire is feeding the political process through lobbyists and donations. We need to get organised, we need to out compete The Alliance to Feed the Future with guerrilla campaigns to let our representatives know we’ve had enough of the misinformation, the corporate welfare, the debt enslavement of farmers and corruption of our food systems.
There is a cross roads approaching, if it is not already here. The earth, the soils are renewable, are re-growable, we can reverse the damage done to it, to those who tend it and those who consume her bounties but we need to act now. We probably needed to act yesterday but today is good enough. Hassle your local representatives, don’t let them get away with business as usual, plant some herb seeds, an apple tree or keep some chooks but do something. If ten percent of us, as the late Bill Mollison once said, moved from consumption to local production, we could change the world for the better. I would add to that and more quickly than we realise!
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
The industrial agriculture “feed the world” myth — Local Food Northland
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fN7
The Alliance to Feed the Future
King Corn
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Self-fuelling boat starts 6-year world trip using green energy, fuel cells — News
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fK1
Researchers put some of the wild back into domesticated wheat — Scientific Inquirer
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fKd
Episode 65 #worldorganicnews 2017 05 22
http://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/65-worldorganicnews-2017-05-22
Seaweed shown to reduce 99% methane from cattle
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fKl
Less Mowing, More Pollinators — Bee Branch Farm
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fKT
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 17th of July 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week a fuel cell, solar and wind powered boat, ancient wheat genes, seaweed for ruminants and do less to protect more!
From the blog News comes the post: SELF-FUELLING BOAT STARTS 6-YEAR WORLD TRIP USING GREEN ENERGY, FUEL CELLS
This vessel is covered topsides with solar panels and has a couple of vertical axis wind turbines. From the post:
Quote
Energy Observer will use its solar panels, wind turbines and a hydrogen fuel cell system to power its trip. The 5 million-euro (USD 5.25 million) boat heads off from Paris toward the Atlantic today. (July 16 2017)
The futuristic-looking 30.5-meter (100-foot) boat will rely on sun or wind during the day and tap into its hydrogen reservoirs at night. It produces its own hydrogen through electrolysis of seawater.
Originally designed in 1983, the boat enjoyed a successful career in open-sea sailing races before skippers Frederic Dahirel and Victorien Erussard and a French research institute converted it into the Energy Observer project.
End Quote
This vessel should not be necessary. Set up as a demonstration to show the practicalities of mixed source renewable power, it has some value. But surely we are at a point now where we no longer need to “prove” the viability of these technologies? Indeed the idea of solar and wind combinations was bigger back in the 1980s and 1990s. My uncle has an off grid place where he has both and has had for twenty plus years. As he said, usually when its cloudy there will be some wind.
So I applaud the Energy Observer project but let’s get this sorted people. The technologies are extant, the price is dropping and need is urgent!
Our next post is entitled Researchers put some of the wild back into domesticated wheat from the blog Scientific Inquirer. As climate changes, the industrialised, narrow gene pool in domestic cereals has come under some pressures already. Whilst they are good for producing large quantities of food in relatively consistent conditions, they don’t handle change well.
Back in episode 65 on the 22 May this year I discussed the flooding of the Svalbard seed bank in Norway. Link in the show notes. These seed banks hold ancient forms of the modern cereals. Researchers at the University of Kansas studied the genome of an ancient variety of wheat and compared it with modern cultivars.
Quote:
“The relative of wheat is called wild emmer, which is one of the founding crops of human society,” said Eduard Akhunov, professor of plant pathology and wheat genomics at Kansas State University. “Wild emmer was one of the first crops that was domesticated 10,000 years ago, which was a critical step in moving from hunting and gathering to an agricultural society.”
End Quote.
By having this ancient genome and comparing it with modern varieties, traits such as drought and heat tolerance can be spotted. With this knowledge, better breeding programs can adjust modern varieties by backcrossing and so.
Another quote.
“The small segments of the wild emmer chromosomes are being transferred to bread wheat, and these segments can carry some useful genes in there, and they can be used in (K-State) breeding programs,” Akhunov said.
“It is a valuable source for improving end-use quality of wheat, especially grain composition and the mineral content, and protein content,” he added. “There are a number of genes that are known to improve this trait, and they are coming from wild emmer.”
End quote.
This post reinforces the importance of seed banks around the world. I had some seed from an older variety of wheat from Egypt which I used in breadmaking. The differences were apparent. Great depth of flavour, a bit more water was needed in the dough making process and slightly nutty taste. Not dissimilar to Spelt in that respect but much better rising ability whilst proving. So I’m an advocate for this sort of research and that’s why I encourage you all to find your local seed banks and seed swapping groups to maintain as much variety in food crops as possible.
And now to piece from the Irish Times entitled: Seaweed shown to reduce 99% methane from cattle. This is brilliant. I’ve always included seaweed meal in my feed for stock for the mineral content and the iodine deficiencies here in Australia. To find this article was wonderful, especially as it draws upon work done here in Australia and in Canada.
Let’s get to the crux of the matter:
Quote.
Researchers at James Cook University in Queensland, Australia, found the addition of less than 2 per cent dried seaweed to a cow’s diet could reduce their methane emissions by as much as 99 per cent.
End Quote
So what’s the big deal about methane? Any number of vegan sites will point you to the vast amounts of methane belched by cattle and other ruminants around the world. Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2 but it also dissipates from the atmosphere in a matter of years not centuries. So removing methane from the meat supply chain will have a significant effect. If we added to this the removal of stock from Confined Animal Feeding Operations, feedlots in other words, they will no longer be standing in their own faeces but will be returning those faeces to the paddocks where the earthworms and dung beetles can incorporate the manures into the soil. This will raise soil carbon content by pulling it out of the atmosphere and into the soil where it belongs.
So with the addition of a small amount of seaweed to the diets of ruminants around the world and their return to rotational grazing we can pretty much positively affect greenhouse gas concentrations and feed people at the same time!
And finally for this week comes the post: Less Mowing, More Pollinators from Bee Ranch Farm. Not everyone is aware that allowing grassed areas to run to seed is actually pretty good for the grassed areas. It is also wonderful for pollinators. Given the obsession with bowling green lawns in the developed world, it is not surprising this source of food for bees, butterflies and other pollinators has been declining.
Here is something we can do to help these useful creatures by doing less ourselves. To my mind grassland never looks healthy unless it has a decent sward and blend of species. So I’ve never been fan of manicured lawns, sprayed relentlessly to kill off anything that might outcompete the grasses. By returning to more meadow like “lawns” and allowing them to flower we will be saving ourselves time behind a mower and providing food for pollinators. Win/Win!
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Self-fuelling boat starts 6-year world trip using green energy, fuel cells — News
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fK1
Researchers put some of the wild back into domesticated wheat — Scientific Inquirer
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fKd
Episode 65 #worldorganicnews 2017 05 22
http://worldorganicnews.libsyn.com/65-worldorganicnews-2017-05-22
Seaweed shown to reduce 99% methane from cattle
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fKl
Less Mowing, More Pollinators — Bee Branch Farm
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fKT
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Explainer: what can Tesla’s giant South Australian battery achieve? — Random Thoughts
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fJf
In defense of Yeomanry.
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/published-books/long-pieces-and-ideas/
Vermicomposting: Tips from First Timers — EcoBLOGic
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fIV
1.5 Acres of High Intensity, No-Till Vegetable Production – Neversink Farm — Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fJr
Rural New Zealand Quarter Acre Permaculture Farm / Market Garden — growingarden
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fJO
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 17th of July 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we look at the Tesla battery in South Australia, one version of vermicomposting and two examples of intensive, organic veggie production.
So to the Tesla Battery! The post entitled: Explainer: what can Tesla’s giant South Australian battery achieve? From the blog Random Thoughts explains: It was announced this past week that Tesla has won a tender to set up a 100 megaWatt battery in conjunction with the Hornsdale wind farm. A little background is necessary. Back in September 2016 a huge storm rolled across South Australia. A gas fired electricity generator was closed down by it operators on the ground that electricity spot prices were likely to be too low that day to justify running the plant. As the storm rolled in some wind farms were powered down and some high tension power lines were ripped out of the ground. Widespread blackouts resulted.
For some reason, some members of the farther right of politics in this country have a problem with wind power in particular and renewables in general. So the knee jerk reaction was to blame the wind farms even when transmission lines were ripped out of the ground. So electricity supply is political.
Will the new Tesla battery system help? Probably not a great deal.
Quote:
The project will incorporate a 100MW peak output battery with 129 megawatt hours of storage alongside Neoen’s Hornsdale windfarm, near Jamestown. When fully charged, we estimate that this will be enough to power 8,000 homes for one full day, or more than 20,000 houses for a few hours at grid failure, but this is not the complete picture.
The battery will support grid stability, rather than simply power homes on its own. It’s the first step towards a future in which renewable energy and storage work together.
End Quote
It is the grid stability and the example set which is the greatest outcome of this project. Once the idea of batteries set within the grid becomes established, price signals will complete the job. Now we don’t just need electric batteries. Batteries are nothing but a chemical form of storage. The authors of the post are themselves working on a different form of energy storage: off-river pumped hydro energy storage. This uses the mature technology of the hydro industry to storage renewable energy in the form of potential energy rather than chemical. By using renewable electricity to pump water from say the bottom of a mine to a reservoir at ground level, the energy is held and then released back through the system to turn the potential energy into electric by running the pumps “backwards” and allowing the water to pool at the bottom of the mine again.
The storage form is somewhat immaterial, it is the storage to stabilise the grid which is most important. Creative minds are being allied to this matter and the future look bright. There is even some argument that microgrids rather than nation wide grids are a better solution. Localisation and interconnection of generating nodes require less infrastructure and therefore less loss of power moving electricity from say a hydro scheme in one state to consumers in another. Indeed the local seems to be answer to many of the issues we face today.
I have argued elsewhere in the blog for localised food production in a piece entitled: In Defense of A Modern Yeomanry – Small mixed farms as the answer. Food, electricity, politics all better serve the citizenry if localised.
In that spirit we have a blog post from EcoBLOGic entitled: Vermicomposting: Tips from First Timers. Dealing with “waste” at a local level retains nutrients where they can be reapplied to local food growing systems. Traditional composting can be intimidating and time consuming. Vermicomposting, using compost worms to process organic matter is an alternative with a quicker turn around. It is my preferred method.
Long Quote:
In the I Love A Clean San Diego office, we have multiple team members who collect food waste to be brought back to their composting bins. This past June, Moriah and Lauren made their own vermicomposting bins and began their composting journeys! With a few simple tools, we enjoyed time in the sun making the bins and learning all the details of vermicomposting!
Both Moriah and Lauren have been using their vermicomposting bins about a month now. With that experience under their belt, we checked back in to see how the process has been going. Lauren explained, “I have to say it’s intimidating to have another thing to take care of in my household, but the simplicity and beauty of this natural process are what astonishes me the most, day after day.” Moriah shared how having Emily – our Education Manager and composting expert – in our office as a resource impacted her experience:
“Having Emily as a resource has been super helpful. She has even responded to Snapchats I’ve sent to her of the bin to let me know if it looks like it is healthy and thriving. Emily’s help and the resources in our office have led to a pretty healthy bin. The worms are breeding and eating everything much quicker than I expected!”
End quote.
The point being, it is possible to go from zero to an effective system quickly. The vermicompost is wonderful stuff, I think of it as rocket fuel for plants. Have a read of the piece for more info, it is well worth it.
To continue this local theme we have two video posts: From Permieflix: 1.5 Acres of High Intensity, No-Till Vegetable Production – Neversink Farm and from growingarden: Rural New Zealand Quarter Acre Permaculture Farm/Market Garden.
The principles explored in these videos are Permacultural in nature. Things like “Waste is simply a resource in the wrong place.” and “Ensure every part of the system provides at least two outcomes.” The income potential is quite staggering. As is the production without large investment in fossil fueled machinery. The systems basically run themselves, once set up and humans maintain the system, collecting useful surpluses.
Both videos run 20 minutes plus. Both would fit nicely with the idea I suggested in “In defense of Yeomanry.” Turning golf courses into market gardens. Even if we don’t liberate these landscapes just yet, the principles discussed in the videos are applicable to suburban backyards, suburban front yards and even to balconies in high rise apartments.
On that note I’m putting together a small eBook: The one Square Metre Garden - Year round veggies from almost no space. I’ll keep you posted when that comes out!
So we can live well, we can live healthily and we can did it with green energy if we put our minds to it.
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Explainer: what can Tesla’s giant South Australian battery achieve? — Random Thoughts
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fJf
In defense of Yeomanry.
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/published-books/long-pieces-and-ideas/
Vermicomposting: Tips from First Timers — EcoBLOGic
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fIV
1.5 Acres of High Intensity, No-Till Vegetable Production – Neversink Farm — Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fJr
Rural New Zealand Quarter Acre Permaculture Farm / Market Garden — growingarden
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fJO
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Climate change to disproportionately affect the poor — Iowa Environmental Focus
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fFD
Constructing an Alley Cropping Food Forest — Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fH0
SALT in the Philippines
http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/agpc/doc/publicat/gutt-shel/x5556e0y.htm
Atmospheric Water Harvesting, Peru — Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fF1
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 10th of July 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
We begin this week with a post from Iowa Environmental Focus: Climate change to disproportionately affect the poor. I’m pretty sure we can all agree that the lower down the socioeconomic scale one resides the worse off one is in the material life and to continue this trend, Climate Change looks likely to hit the poorest, the hardest.
Quote:
Researchers figured the economic costs of climate-related impacts like rising sea levels, more extreme weather and higher temperatures. They ran many simulations which calculated the potential costs and benefits of each phenomenon for a variety of industries and business sectors. They figured that on average, the U.S. will lose roughly 0.7 percent gross domestic product (GDP) per 1 degree Fahrenheit increase in global temperatures. This economic burden, however, will not be shared equally by all parts of the country.
The poorest counties in the U.S., which are mostly in the South and southern Midwest, are likely to suffer the most intense economic downturn, with some counties expected to lose more than 20 percent of their gross county product.
End Quote.
And the article goes on to suggest that not only will these areas suffer, wealth, such as it is in poorer counties will redistribute to wealthier areas in the North West and New England.
And these figures are just for the US. I would guess low lying areas of Bangladesh will not be making increases in GDP when they flood. These changes have been predicted and mapped for decades so it’s surprising such things still need to be explained. Any major changes, economic, climatic and most social changes do not bode well for the bottom half of society and haven’t for much of history. This why the post second world war economic situation, coming out of the great Depression was set up to ensure a greater level of equality across the classes, at least in the dominant parts of each culture. The irony is, in the US and here in Australia, the poorest have been sold a pup when they are told global warming is a political scam by the left. As the figures show from the post quoted, it is the very people who will suffer the most who have been sold the greatest lie.
On an up note a post Constructing an Alley Cropping Food Forest from Permie Flix provides a carbon neutral or even carbon positive solution for agriculture. And it is the agricultural sector outside the developed world which is among the poorest in the world. Alley cropping is a system of perennial plantings in an alley pattern which anchors soil, provides a permanent return while still allowing for the possibility of cash crops.
I first came across this in a Permaculture manual and an organisation called SALT, sloping agricultural land technology. The link in the show notes points you to an FAO program in the Philippines. The philosophy behind alley cropping as applied in the Philippines example is to anchor the soil. This is critical and think I’ve made this point before, everything starts with the soil. It is possible to choose perennials which can be cut and dropped to improved soil structure, nitrogen availability, animal feed and food.
The video post mentioned above works along these lines to build a permaculture food forest. The system is extremely flexible. I’ve seen it applied using saltbush in western Australia to provide drought forage for sheep while wheat is grown in the alleys. The wheat stubble or the whole plant in a drought year become available feed for the sheep. The sheep droppings fuel the soil which in turn feed the cereal crops. Everything feeds everything else in the system and the greatest outcome is growing depth of soil, soil activity and water holding ability of that soil.
By integrating the alley species into the whole system, they act as a framework onto which a sustainable food production system can grow. Depending upon the climate the water is pushed sideways, allowing it to penetrate to the subsoil. And so on year after year until irrigation becomes a thing of the past. I’d recommend you watch the video in the post as it goes into the site specific challenges they are meeting. After all not everyone listening to this show will need to protect food from bears but wild herbivores are endemic in most locales. The principles discussed are, therefore, applicable just about anywhere.
And finally this week, another post from Permie Flix entitled: Atmospheric Water Harvesting, Peru. Given the changes in rainfall distribution across the globe as climatic changes influence weather patterns this video post shows one solution to water harvesting. In this case the community had never had access to potable water close by their locale. Eleven hour round trips to the bottom of the valley to collect water was a problem screaming out for a solution. That solution, in this case, was extremely low tech. Shade cloth structures which trap the moisture in the air and funnel to storage containers. The video is only two minutes long and I would highly recommend you give it a watch. The technology is site specific and would be of little use in the desert regions of the world yet where it works, it is brilliant.
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Climate change to disproportionately affect the poor — Iowa Environmental Focus
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fFD
Constructing an Alley Cropping Food Forest — Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fH0
SALT in the Philippines
http://www.fao.org/ag/agp/agpc/doc/publicat/gutt-shel/x5556e0y.htm
Atmospheric Water Harvesting, Peru — Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fF1
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Could Ireland Use Hemp As Biomass? – Dublin Hemp Museum – Medium — Cannabis News World
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fBi
California to list herbicide as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight | Reuters — GLOBAL MEDIA SENTRY
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fCw
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 3rd of July 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
We begin this week with piece on the revival of an old plant: Hemp. Not the wacky tobaccy type but the “Grow Hemp for Victory” type from World War Two. A little background. Hemp has been grown for millennia as a fibre. It makes good, hard wearing cloth, Henry Ford used it to build a prototype vehicle, that is as the panels for said prototype vehicle and the navies of the world used it to create lines and ropes. A further aside, any rope under one inch in diameter is called a line or sheet and any line or sheet greater than one inch in diameter is called a rope. Hence the “Grow Hemp for Victory” push by the US government as they built huge numbers of naval vessels needing said, lines, sheets and ropes, the same government which napalmed the more mind altering cultivars of hemp in the second half of the twentieth century.
Anyway, DuPont invented nylon, nylon could replace hemp ropes on battleships and by coincidence all varieties and cultivars of hemp were banned not that long afterwards. Purely coincidental, nothing to see here.
Hemp has really deep root, is great for stabilising loose soils, produces much more that timber per acre and can be used as part of a crop rotation to clean soils and stabilise them. Now to the post entitled: Could Ireland Use Hemp As Biomass? From the blog Cannabis News World.
GlaxoSmithKline, the well known pharmaceutical company is commissioning a biomass generator in Co Waterford. It plans to use pelletised wood chips to fire the plant. Idea being these wood chips are carbon neutral as the trees are regrowing as the wood is being combusted and the CO2 is recycled back into timber. The blog article asks:
Quote:
So could hemp be used instead of, or in tandem with, other fuels?
Hemp is much quicker to grow than trees and other crops used in biomass. Farmers also might be more inclined to partake in such projects due to the shorter term commitments as opposed to growing trees. Growing hemp is better for the land that the use of forests. Hemp has multiple uses and any material not used for biomass can be used for other practical purposes.
End Quote.
Given the collapse of the US mandated war on hemp if not on all drugs, does this not make sense? I would suggest it does. Not all the hemp need be combusted, much of it would make useful other products as does the timber not used to create pellets. The problem with using wood is the demand for the pellets. In much the same way good, useable timber here in Australia has been chipped to supply the Japanese woodchip market, it seems not unreasonable to expect similar behaviours to meet contractual obligations for wood pellets to feed the biomass plant.
Hemp usage would allow these trees to stay in the environment where they do much good while substituting the hemp would bring economic return to farmers on an annual basis rather than say a 15 year cycle of tree growth. The irish agriculture and food development authority even conducted trials between 2008 and 2012 to assess the potential of hemp as a fuel. It appears to not only out produce wood but also benefit cereal crops grown on the same land after the hemp is harvested.
This is the sort of stop gap measure needed to move from fossil fuel to renewable energies. Burning anything will have unintended effects. The smoke, the air pollution etc. We have, though, developed technologies to mitigate these and this form of energy production is of a more renewable essence than burning coal or natural gas.
When we consider organic hemp, the benefits become even greater. The massive root systems of hemp would, with each harvest be adding carbon to the soil, feeding my much beloved soil biota and allow forestry to be more nuanced, mixed and permanent.
Hemp is also so old an agricultural product that cultivars for different climatic zones already exist even allowing for the lack of selection and plant breeding as a result of the war on drugs/non tariff support for DuPont and other plastics manufacturers. Hemp is, naturally, biodegradable, pun intended and so would not contribute the growing piles of plastic waste on both land and sea.
All in all, I see the use of hemp as a win/win for farmers, energy producers and the environment.
A second post this week also points to a win for the environment and its health.
The blog GLOBAL MEDIA SENTRY reports: California to list herbicide as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight.
That herbicide is, of course, the ubiquitous glyphosate, better known to many as Roundup.
Quote:
Glyphosate, an herbicide and the active ingredient in Monsanto Co's popular Roundup weed killer, will be added to California's list of chemicals known to cause cancer effective July 7, the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) said on Monday.
Monsanto vowed to continue its legal fight against the designation, required under a state law known as Proposition 65, and called the decision "unwarranted on the basis of science and the law."
The listing is the latest legal setback for the seeds and chemicals company, which has faced increasing litigation over glyphosate since the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer said that it is "probably carcinogenic" in a controversial ruling in 2015.
End Quote
This looks not dissimilar to the anti tobacco fight from last century. It would seem the only way to end the use of this particular product and the others produced by the agricultural poisons industry will be through legal action. This needs to be done in conjunction with education programs. There is a charming, if deadly, naivety regarding these chemicals. It seems as if they must be safe because why would the government allow a company to sell dangerous products? Especially in a democracy. Profit, unfortunately has its own drivers and quarterly profit statement will quite often trump long term damage to people, the environment and alternative methods. See above, hemp vs Dupont, for another example of corporate market manipulation benefits.
We need to support these counter measures wherever they appear. The listing by California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment is a small step in the right direction.
We live in a time of great flux, many things thought impossible are now coming to pass. We can but apply ourselves in the hope the changes coming and already started are the benefit of all the biome, not just for the benefit of shareholders. I recall a cartoon on Facebook where a father is sitting in a post apocalyptic scene around a campfire and telling his children: Yes, we destroyed the environment but for one glorious moment we provided exquisite shareholder value.
Let’s not take the world in that direction!
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Could Ireland Use Hemp As Biomass? – Dublin Hemp Museum – Medium — Cannabis News World
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fBi
California to list herbicide as cancer-causing; Monsanto vows fight | Reuters — GLOBAL MEDIA SENTRY
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fCw
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 19th of June 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This is the world organic news for the week ending 26 June 2017. Jon Moore reporting. This week I’m out of town and so I’m presenting for your listening pleasure, episode 3 of the Real Food Chain, a podcast I co-host with Rich Bowden. Check it out in iTunes! This episode is about gut health and fermented foods. I’ll be back next week with the usual roundup of ideas from the blogosphere on all matters organic. Until then here is episode 3 of the Real Food Chain.
Episode 3 The Real Food Chain
Contact Us
www.realfoodchain.wordpress.com/contact-us/
Host links: Jon Moore's World Organic News.
Rich Bowden's Rich Bowden Writing
Mel's links and suggestions:
Emu Wellness Facebook Page
Recommended site by Melinda: Dr Axe -- (excellent information and graphics)
Recommended author by Melinda: Dr David Perlmutter. Books available here.
Welcome to episode 3 of The Real Food Chain podcast!
This month our program is based on a fascinating interview The Real Food Chain's co-host Jon Moore conducted with Melinda Blundell, owner of Emu Wellness, a holistic lifestyle training company based in the Lower Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, Australia. Mel's a functional nutritionist, presenter and wellness advocate and has spent the last five years teaching people the benefits of wholefoods and balanced gut health after making dietary changes that completely eliminated her own physical and mental symptoms.
In the interview, Mel talks about such issues as the relevance of gut health to mental and physical health, as well as the destructive effect on good gut bacteria caused by antibiotics and the Western diet (think processed food!). She describes the way science has now confirmed that our gut biota can determine, not just our health, but moods and can even help reduce depression. Mel uses her own experience to show how people's health and lives can be changed by a more holistic, gut biota-focused diet.
"We're not just what we eat, we are what we absorb," -- Melinda Blundell.
Interested in finding out more about gut health? Why not register for one of Mel's gut health workshops? More details here.
Now sit back and enjoy episode three of The Real Food Chain's podcast.
Mel's links and suggestions: Emu Wellness Facebook Page
Recommended site by Melinda: Dr Axe -- (excellent information and graphics)
Recommended author by Melinda: Dr David Perlmutter. Books available here.
Host links: Jon Moore's World Organic News.
Rich Bowden's Rich Bowden Writing
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
New “Instantly Rechargeable” Flow Battery could Dramatically Change EV Market — Great Things from Small Things .. Nanotechnology Innovation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ftX
Old Energy Left Behind — Equivalent of 7 Gigafactories Already Under Construction; Tesla Plans 10-20 More — GarryRogers Nature Conservation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fvj
Ode to a little stream – Off Grid Power, Part 2: Micro-Hydro — through the luminary lens
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fvW
Solar paint offers endless energy from water vapor: Breakthrough by RMIT Researchers — Great Things from Small Things .. Nanotechnology Innovation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fwZ
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 19th of June 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
Back in episode 67 I spoke about the need to replace fossil fuels as the the first big step we could take to start solving our global and local issues of concern. I summarised the current situation thusly:
Quote:
Climate change appears to be accelerating, we are bathed in chemicals from the 1950s, antidepressants could be endemic in the biosphere, the politics of our times point to towards the greater possibility of nuclear war, industrial agriculture is creating antibiotic resistant pathogens and we have huge numbers of refugees on the move across the globe.
End Quote.
All of these issues except for, perhaps, nuclear annihilation, were related to fossil fuel use.
This week we bring good news in this respect.
The big problem with renewables has always been intermittency and our reliance on large grids to deliver electricity. The energy density of storage has been the problem. This can be divided into two broad areas. Battery capacity and time to recharge said batteries.
We start with a post from the blog Great Things from Small Things. Nanotechnology Innovation entitled: New “Instantly Rechargeable” Flow Battery could Dramatically Change EV Market — Great Things from Small Things.
Quote:
Purdue researchers have developed technology for an “instantly rechargeable” battery that is affordable, environmentally friendly, and safe. Currently, electric vehicles need charging ports in convenient locations to be viable, but this battery technology would allow drivers of hybrid and electric vehicles to charge up much like drivers of conventional cars refill quickly and easily at gas stations.
This breakthrough would not only speed the switch to electric vehicles by making them more convenient to drive, but also reduce the amount of new supportive infrastructure needed for electric cars dramatically.
End Quote
The possibilities this releases are significant. No longer will electric vehicles, telephones, laptops, basically anything mobile which uses electricity, have to wait for as long as it takes to recharge the batteries. Filling stations, with the same turn around time as petrol stations become a reality. The effect of this is to make electric vehicles, in particular, more like fossil fuel vehicles from a user’s point of view. No longer does the driver have to keep one eye on the charge level calculating how much available power is on hand to get home to the power point. No longer do these filling stations have to rely on a swap out/swap in system of batteries. We pull in attach the power cable, recharge in minutes, pay and drive off.
The magnitude of this is mind boggling. It means the move to much quieter, non-polluting vehicles is now a doable proposition. Part of the problem solved.
A post from GarryRogers Nature Conservation entitled: Old Energy Left Behind — Equivalent of 7 Gigafactories Already Under Construction; Tesla Plans 10-20 More.
The unit cost of batteries, that is, energy storage has been a stumbling block to renewable electrification of the economy. But and this is a big but, change is afoot!
Quote:
“In an interview with Leonardo DiCaprio during late 2016, Elon Musk famously claimed that it would take just 100 Gigafactories to produce enough clean energy to meet the needs of the entire world. As of mid 2017, in the face of an ever-worsening global climate, the equivalent of 7 such plants were already under construction while plans for many more were taking shape on the drawing boards of various clean energy corporations across the globe.
End Quote
Once the economies of scale kick in, the marginal cost of production will fall quickly and this is using existing battery technology. I’m pretty such young Musk will have set his factories up in such a way that the technology breakthroughs from places like Purdue discussed above can be incorporated into the manufacturing process at little cost.
We are, actually this time, on the cusp of great change. Great change driven by as much by price signals and by good intent. By the way price signals always win out. Consider the battle between Beta Max and VHS back in the day. Betamax produced a superior product, apparently but VHS produced a much cheaper product. MP3 vs Vinyl. I could go on but I think the point is made. Once the electric vehicle is at 80% of a fossil fueled vehicle, economies of scale, price signals and popular opinion will kill off the internal combustion engine.
The problem then facing us is the generation of electricity from renewable sources. We have two posts that explore opposite ends of the solution.
The blog “through the luminary lens” brings us the post: Ode to a little stream – Off Grid Power, Part 2: Micro-Hydro. In this post an upgrade of the micro hydro system in conjunction with a set of PV solar cells gets the job done on a remote smallholding. The maths, engineering and construction are impressive. The post show h=what can be done at a household level when the resources are at hand.
The other end of the scale is another post from the blog: Great Things from Small Things .. Nanotechnology Innovation and is entitled Solar paint offers endless energy from water vapor: Breakthrough by RMIT Researchers
In this piece researches at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology have developed a paint.
Longish Quote:
Researchers have developed a solar paint that can absorb water vapour and split it to generate hydrogen – the cleanest source of energy.
The paint contains a newly developed compound that acts like silica gel, which is used in sachets to absorb moisture and keep food, medicines and electronics fresh and dry.
But unlike silica gel, the new material, synthetic molybdenum-sulphide, also acts as a semi-conductor and catalyses the splitting of water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen.
Lead researcher Dr Torben Daeneke, from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, said: “We found that mixing the compound with titanium oxide particles leads to a sunlight-absorbing paint that produces hydrogen fuel from solar energy and moist air.
“Titanium oxide is the white pigment that is already commonly used in wall paint, meaning that the simple addition of the new material can convert a brick wall into energy harvesting and fuel production real estate.
End Quote
Hydrogen, a sometimes forgotten fuel source is very clean, when burned it produces heat and water. Nothing else. Imagine that. Hydrogen can used to create steam like fossil fuels or passed through fuel cells to directly produce electricity.
The future, dear listeners, is looking bright. We are now in a race against time. The CO2 in the atmosphere will take centuries to dissipate if left to its own devices. We can with the technological changes discussed today stop adding to the CO2 load in the atmosphere.
As discussed in many other episodes we can use regenerative agriculture to sequester that carbon in the soil where it belongs, where it helps to feed the world. We are as, I said, on the cusp. Let’s not let this opportunity slip through our fingers this time!
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
New “Instantly Rechargeable” Flow Battery could Dramatically Change EV Market — Great Things from Small Things .. Nanotechnology Innovation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ftX
Old Energy Left Behind — Equivalent of 7 Gigafactories Already Under Construction; Tesla Plans 10-20 More — GarryRogers Nature Conservation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fvj
Ode to a little stream – Off Grid Power, Part 2: Micro-Hydro — through the luminary lens
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fvW
Solar paint offers endless energy from water vapor: Breakthrough by RMIT Researchers — Great Things from Small Things .. Nanotechnology Innovation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fwZ
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Can “Regenerative Farming” Save Us From Global Catastrophe — GarryRogers Nature Conservation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-frv
Advantages Of Organic Farming — Organic Farms
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-frf
5 reasons why Sustainable Agriculture is good for the environment and you! — Crop Connect Chronicles
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fqB
Clean energy too big to be shut down by Trump – San Francisco Chronicle — Economics Outside the Cube
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fsr
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 12th of June 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we begin with a post from the blog: GarryRogers Nature Conservation entitled: Can “Regenerative Farming” Save Us From Global Catastrophe?
Garry is not completely sure but he provides the article for our consideration. To give you some idea:
Quote:
“A growing corps of organic, climate, environmental, social justice and peace activists are promoting a new world-changing paradigm that can potentially save us from global catastrophe. The name of this new paradigm and movement is regenerative agriculture, or more precisely regenerative food, farming and land use.
End Quote
This is a subtle shift in thinking but it is critical. Thinking of food, farming and land use as separate and interconnected rather than just “agriculture” forces us to consider how each component can be regenerative. Regenerating the sector and those which support it. Regenerative land use is supported by composted food wastes from urban settings which in turn supports the farmer and then the food consumer, or as I like to think of them, people.
The article though has a different spin on this interconnectedness of the parts and I quote:
Quote:
“The basic menu for a regeneration revolution is to unite the world’s 3 billion rural farmers, ranchers and herders with several billion health, environmental and justice-minded consumers to overturn “business as usual” and embark on a global campaign of cooperation, solidarity and regeneration.
End Quote
Clearly I too was discussing the end of “business as usual” and have been since the first of February 2016, but I think the quote pretty much nails both the problem and the solution in one go. Not a lot of room there for Roundup, monocultures and seed monopolies. A vision worth pursuing, I would suggest.
And while I could, no where, find it stated, my understanding of regenerative agriculture is that it must be, by its very nature: Organic.
As I say this we can segway nicely into our next post from the Blog Organic Farms with their post: Advantages Of Organic Farming.
This is a lovely piece of confirmation bias. The piece offer five areas of advantage:
1 Tastier and healthier food
2 Lower use of pesticides
3 Soil management
4 Cost-effectiveness
And of course,
5 Environmental friendliness.
I will just add that is post was not written by someone who has English as their first language but it is worth a read. As ever, all posts and references have links in the show notes.
I will focus my attention on benefit number 4. Cost effectiveness. This is something I’ve wondered about for a long time. Especially on a mixed farm where manures are available as part of the processes of farming, the costs of organic farming should, nay must, be lower than that of chemical based farming. Clearly the organic system will not compete against CAFOs, that is confined animal feeding operations or feedlots as they are also know. But I’m not sure that is either a fair comparison or that CAFOs represent anything akin to farming in any way. They are modelled on the ideas of Henry Ford’s factories not on regenerative, life affirming interconnectedness of existence. I’m pretty sure I’ve ranted elsewhere on these systems and will let it go through to the keeper on this occasion.
The post though does provide some thoughts on the cost effectiveness of organic farms:
Quote:
As compared to conventional farming, biological production stays more cost-effective. The main reason behind this fact is that organic production does not use artificial fertilizers that affect the overall production cost. Additionally, when fertilizers are used, the crop will require an excess amount of water that also increase its cost.
End Quote.
Extra water as a consequence of chemical fertiliser use was not something that I’d read nor considered before. If any listener has thoughts on this I’d love to hear them. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com. I’d love to hear from you on this or anything else on your mind.
And on the same theme, from the blog Crop Connect Chronicles we have the post: 5 reasons why Sustainable Agriculture is good for the environment and you!
As you would expect there’s some overlap with the previous piece but sufficient variation to give this piece a deeper look:
Their five reasons are:
1 Environmental Conservation
2 Reduction in Pollution
3 Healthy food for you
4 Social and environmental impact
and
5 Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems.
Click through the link, you’ll find the full article interesting.
And now to our final piece for the week from Economics Outside the Cube: Clean energy too big to be shut down by Trump – San Francisco Chronicle. Again this is a piece in support of my argument last week. Both that we need to end the use of fossil fuels and that the renewable sector is now too large to be stopped by centralised paid for governments. Certainly a punitive tax could placed on all solar panels and wind turbines to subsidise, I don’t know, say coal mining, but I suspect the political backlash would be unbearable for any incumbent government.
A shortish quote form the piece:
Quote:
Trump’s move on Thursday sent a “shock wave” through the renewable energy sector, Mark Bauhaus, a partner at Just Business, a San Francisco tech incubator. But the business opportunity in the so-called decarbonization of the economy is “bigger than the Internet,” he said.
“We have to remake the economy for low-carbon, clean energy, efficient everything: transportation, agriculture, appliances, houses, generation, all the grids,” Bauhous said. “The fact that the federal government is going backwards doesn’t change that inexorable momentum.”
End Quote.
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
CONTACT: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
Can “Regenerative Farming” Save Us From Global Catastrophe — GarryRogers Nature Conservation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-frv
Advantages Of Organic Farming — Organic Farms
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-frf
5 reasons why Sustainable Agriculture is good for the environment and you! — Crop Connect Chronicles
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fqB
Clean energy too big to be shut down by Trump – San Francisco Chronicle — Economics Outside the Cube
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fsr
Links
Analysing wastewater reveals population health - The Science Show - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fqo
Sydney’s Toxic Green Olympics
https://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/Olympic.html
Antidepressants in Stream Waters! Are They in the Fish Too?
https://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/antidepressants_fish.html
This year’s new global solar capacity on pace to potentially pass 2016 record due to lower costs — Financial Post
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fo5
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 5th of June 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we begin with a post linking to the ABC’s Science Show from 3rd of June 2017. The segment is entitled: Analysing wastewater reveals population health. Not surprisingly, given the unfettered nature of chemical production from 1945 until the momentum of Silent Spring led to the establishment of environmental protection legislation across the nations outside of the Iron Curtain in the 1970s, many of these chemicals persist. Not just in the environment, that is waterways, soils and so on but also in newborns. Yes we are, in fact, part of the environment so that’s not as surprising as we might at first think. To quote from the segment summary:
Quote:
Some chemicals, produced for the manufacture of goods and services don’t readily break down in the environment. Some can persist for years, decades or longer. The pesticide DDT was banned in 1972 in the US, but can still be detected in the environment and in people.
End Quote.
These chemicals are very persistent. Back in day, when the land was being prepared for 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, the site selected had issues. Yet Sydney 2000 was considered a very green games. A quote from “Sydney’s Toxic Green Games” suggests it started well behind scratch:
Quote:
The area has been home to a number of unpleasant industries since early in the century. Part of the site once housed the State Abattoirs (1907 to 1988) and the State Brickworks (1911 to 1988) which included a quarry for clay and shale to make bricks. The Navy's armaments depot is currently on the site but is likely to be relocated. In the mid-1980s when it became evident that the brickworks and the abattoirs were nearing the end of their operating lives, the area was designated for redevelopment. It is surrounded by chemical industries, a fuel terminal, a large petroleum products storage area, an oil refinery and a prison. Unoccupied parts of the site have also been subject to years of waste dumping.
End Quote.
The point I’m trying to make is we are all walking around to some lesser or greater extent on contaminated lands. There are clearly areas of concentration yet the segment from the Science Show points out DDT in newborns! Even if we manage to avoid a three degree rise in global temperatures, and in my darker moments, that seems unlikely, we still have this lingering contamination throughout the biosphere.
And it’s not just industrial chemicals, antidepressants have been found in fish downstream from sewage works. I quote:
Quote:
The antidepressants were found in fish collected over 8 kilometers (approximately 5 miles) downstream of the location of the wastewater discharge. The scientists detected several commonly used antidepressants in water, streambed sediment, and the brain tissue of white suckers, a native fish species. Fish collected upstream from the wastewater discharge did not have antidepressants present in their brain tissues.
End Quote
So we are in varying degrees wading through a cocktail of carcinogenic and mind altering and who knows what other types of chemicals. Does these things bioaccumulate? In other words do they become more concentrated as we move up the food chain. Does a little antidepressant in fish ground up and fed to pigs which are then eaten by humans become a significant dose in our species. Given the horrors of factory farming, a little prozac might ease the suffering of pigs but do we want to be bathed in the stuff ourselves?
I would like to have the ability to give consent before consuming antidepressants but I and you may have no choice.
What are we to do?
Let’s take a deep breath and review where we stand.
Climate change appears to be accelerating, we are bathed in chemicals from the 1950s, antidepressants could be endemic in the biosphere, the politics of our times point to towards the greater possibility of nuclear war, industrial agriculture is creating antibiotic resistant pathogens and we have huge numbers of refugees on the move across the globe. What is it that connects all these?
After many days of unpleasant intense and years of background consideration of these problems, the one thing which seems to connect all these issues is oil. The chemicals were created through the use of petrochemicals, climate change is clearly connected to fossil fuels, industrial agriculture is critically dependant upon oil and the refugee movements can be traced back to political decisions related to control of oil supplies. The threat of nuclear war does not seem to be directly attributable to oil but is just the icing on the cake.
So, is there any hope?
I believe so. Despite the US pulling out of the Paris agreement, despite the Australian government’s obsession with the Adani coal mine in the Galilee basin and all the vested interests in the fossil fuel world, price signals will, eventually trump rent seeking. Pun intended.
A piece from Financial Post entitled: This year’s new global solar capacity on pace to potentially pass 2016 record due to lower costs is one of many posts I’ve added to the blog in the past three years.
A quote from the Financial Post piece:
Quote:
New global solar capacity will continue to grow this year, after lower costs drove it to record levels in 2016, and could surpass 80 gigawatts (GW), Europe’s solar industry forecast on Tuesday.
Solar photovoltaic (PV) module prices have fallen 80 per cent since 2009 as capacity has risen and technologies improved.
And a record 76.6 GW of new solar capacity was installed and connected to the grid last year, 50 per cent up on 2015, solar power association SolarPower Europe said in a report.
End Quote
Soooooo, the price of solar PV continues to fall, the price of oil to produce is heading the other way, especially when we reach or reached peak oil. Add in wind, geothermal, wave and who knows what else and the end of the age of oil should be nigh. The researchers are doing what needs to be done, the public, when they can are being driven by price signals. Australia now has the highest level of rooftop solar PV in the world, makes sense on a sun drenched continent. Mega battery factories are coming on line so we can store the energy when the sun shines for when it doesn’t!
What appears to be the one stumbling block is the huge amount of money thrown around by lobbyists for fossil fuels in the democratic system. Hammer your local representatives, annoy your governments, hassle your local councils, make waves, yell, kick and scream. The age of oil has got to end for the health, safety and future of a viable biosphere. A biosphere that can support life, that is not laced with carcinogenic man made chemicals, that is not drenched in antidepressants and that sustains all life within a climate range we have enjoyed for the holocene. It will take time for the CO2 concentrations to drop, it will take time to develop and research bacteria capable of converting the background chemical contamination to a more benign form but it can be done. That it can be done by removing money from politics hit me as so simple yet that does not mean, necessarily, that it will be easy but it can be done. Indeed it must me done.
And on that happy note we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
Analysing wastewater reveals population health - The Science Show - ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fqo
Sydney’s Toxic Green Olympics
https://www.uow.edu.au/~sharonb/Olympic.html
Antidepressants in Stream Waters! Are They in the Fish Too?
https://toxics.usgs.gov/highlights/antidepressants_fish.html
This year’s new global solar capacity on pace to potentially pass 2016 record due to lower costs — Financial Post
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fo5
Links
The Truth About Factory Farms
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ffR
6 Reasons Local Food Systems Will Replace our Industrial Model BY
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fgH
Ridiculous! “EU declared Monsanto weed killer safe after intervention from controversial US official” | The Guardian
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fjt
Luscious grass
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fjq
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 29th of May 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This we begin with an infographic from the blog The Internet Post entitled: The Truth About Factory Farms.
What can I say? The horrors of factory farming should be well known by now yet as a form of food, and I use that word loosely, production continues. The business sense of bringing every component to one place, performing a production activity and then sending out a finished product makes some sense if you’re building a car or mass producing widgets. When it comes to food, living things, then it makes far less sense. Plants do not fit into this system and animals less so.
Let me explain. Even in a given population of corn seeds each seed is similar but not identical. The great advantage of industrial production is consistency of inputs. So the steel going into each car is of the same standard but factory farming cannot rely upon this. The variation in maize seeds may not matter but the different growth rates of chickens, pigs, cattle or sheep makes for some unpleasant outcomes. “It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.” is a quote which is cruel enough when applied to people, when it’s applied to chicken production it leads to dead chickens littering the shed floor. The non-standard, so to speak, are discarded.
Not only are the meat chickens living with their dead, they are also standing in their own faeces. And waste is an issue. According to the infographic at least 2 billion pounds of nitrogen rich manure is created as a waste, that’s over 1 billion kgs or over 1 million tonnes of nitrogen rich manures each year, just in the US.
Manures that are distributed across pastures by field raised animals end up where they are needed. The manures are not concentrated to the extent they pollute waterways nor aquifers. Free range animals that collect their own food from those same fields do so in rotation. This allows the manures to be biologically assimilated into the soils, the animals to be on fresh ground and the pastures to re-grow. Yes this takes a little longer than the factory system but it benefits the soil by assisting in growing soil carbon, allowing fungal networks to thrive in undisturbed soils and reduces the risks from flooding as the soil actually holds more water.
Compare this to a flood event at a factory farm. Loss of livestock, massive concentrations of manure flowing through the landscape and the loss of the fertilising elements in those manures. All of this is just a part of the unpaid for cost in a 99 cent hamburger. The environmental services organic, free range operations provide are not always included in their cost to the consumer either. The difference being, factory farms unpaid costs have a negative effect on the biosphere and organic production’s unpaid costs have a beneficial effect.
In essence the two systems are competing for our dollars. Any system which forces an animal into conditions where it cannot express its innate animal-ness is something to be avoided. It will cause suffering. That a chicken’s brain is not as large as a cow’s is irrelevant. Suffering is suffering. As custodians of other animals we have a responsibility to them. Jamming them together for the sake of efficiency or Return On Investment is no excuse. What we can do we must. But simply refusing to purchase factory farmed meat is not enough. The taxpayer subsidies involved in every step of the factory process from land acquisition to cheap corn feedstock give the system an inertia which can only, in my opinion, be overcome by political actions.
That being said our second post of interest this week is from the blog agribusiness global and is entitled: 6 Reasons Local Food Systems Will Replace our Industrial Model. A short piece, apparently truncated but to quote:
Quote:
When I was growing up in south Missouri in the 1940s and early 1950s, our family’s food system was essentially local. I would guess close to 90 percent of our food either came from our farm or was produced and processed within less than 50 miles of our home. There were local canneries, meat packers, and flour mills to supply grocery stores and restaurants with locally grown food products.
End Quote.
This was the case across of the western world. It was not a garden of Eden but it was resilient. Interdependence and inter reliability helped to keep to system stable. Things change. The cultural effects have been sufficient to raise eyebrows with the death of small communities, the growth in farm size and loss of community. Again to quote from the post:
Quote:
Over the years, the local canneries, meat packers and flour mills were consolidated into the giant agribusiness operations that dominate today’s global food system. Supermarkets and fast-food chains replaced the mom-and-pop grocery stores and restaurants.
End Quote
Yes, this has happened all of the industrialised world but it is reversible. Most of these changes occurred not just for economic reasons but as a result of rent seeking and subsidy dispersal. Whenever you see the word subsidy read someone else’s money given to corporations. As subsidies were used to create the world food system we are subjected to now, subsidies can used to build a safer, carbon neutral or even carbon negative food system. As with all these things, oil, factory farming, coal and fossil fuel electricity producers, there are entrenched interests who have money to throw through lobbyists at politicians. So that again leaves us to organise. The types of people drawn to local food systems, to organic farming are almost by default, single minded individuals with little love of politicking so I am again left in a quandary.
Either their will have to be a major, catastrophic event to wake people up and lead to real change or that change is going to be incremental from the grassroots up. Neither option fills me with much hope. A catastrophe will bring much suffering and dislocation, incremental change will leave the food system as is for too long.
And incremental change is often reversed. In a post from The Guardian 24th May 2017: EU declared Monsanto weed killer safe after intervention from controversial US official.
Quote:
European Food Safety Authority dismissed a study linking glyphosate to cancer following counsel with an EPA official allegedly linked to the company and who figures in more than 20 lawsuits.
The article describes that individual as:
Jess Rowlands, the former head of the EPA’s cancer assessment review committee (CARC), who figures in more than 20 lawsuits and had previously told Monsanto he would try to block a US government inquiry into the issue, according to court documents.
And from further in the same piece:
Greenpeace said that news of an European Food Safety Authority-Rowlands connection made a public inquiry vital. “Any meddling by Monsanto in regulatory safety assessments would be wholly unacceptable,” said spokeswoman Franziska Achterberg. “We urgently need a thorough investigation into the Efsa assessment before glyphosate can be considered for re-approval in Europe.”
End Quote.
This is, obviously, not good news but it highlights the interconnectedness of corporations, governments and non-elected regulatory bodies. I hope we can all see the nature of the opposition, the vested interests, to real food, to healthy future, to clean water and air.
On an up note I now bring you a post from Apple Shed Creations, entitled: Luscious grass. I love this post, it’s about running sheep through an orchard. It represents an combined animal, plant approach that is the future, if we choose it.
Quote:
Next week we welcome the sheep back into the orchard. I think they will enjoy the luscious green grass and shade under the trees!
End Quote.
Sheep are ideal to run in conjunction with orchards. They love the shade and the windfall fruits and they feed the trees. I have fond memories of a particular small orchard that was in my care and shropshire sheep cleaning up the windfalls just prior to mating time. The extra sugars from the fruit seemed to bump up their condition and they dropped lots more twins after I started making this a part of their year.
And on that happy memory we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
The Truth About Factory Farms
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ffR
6 Reasons Local Food Systems Will Replace our Industrial Model BY
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fgH
Ridiculous! “EU declared Monsanto weed killer safe after intervention from controversial US official” | The Guardian
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fjt
Luscious grass
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-fjq
Contact Us
www.realfoodchain.wordpress.com/contact-us/
Hello and welcome to episode two of the Real Food Chain podcast! I’m Jon and we’ll hear from my co-host Rich later in the show.
This month’s focus is urban farming here in sunny Australia. Rich will be talking with Margaret Paton about her experiences growing food in her Blayney backyard using permaculture principles.
Before that let’s have a deeper look at urban farming.
This system of food production has much to recommend it. Food miles are reduced to zero. This strips all the green house gasses out of transport. If you also urban farm organically, and I’ll assume we’re all on that page, then you’re building soil carbon. Pulling CO2 out of the atmosphere and holding it in the soil, where it belongs. You are also not adding to the demand for poisons to be sprayed on your food. Basically a win, win, win situation!
In the upcoming interview Margaret talks about an extremely small garden which was her inspiration. This is worth bearing in mind. The amount of food we can grow in a small space is quite astonishing. Most of us have seen commercial market gardens and they are spread out affairs. Looking more closely we see this is not for the benefit of the plants but to allow tractor access for spraying of artificial fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides. If we grow in spaces better suited to humans and plants we can stack the plants quite closely. This has the advantage of shading out weeds, reducing water loss through evaporation and wildly increasing productivity.
Another benefit from small scale urban farming is the harvesting method. Instead of removing the whole lettuce to ship it off to a market, we can pick the outer leaves as we need them, allowing the lettuce to continue to grow. This maintains ground cover and means we don’t need to eat a whole lettuce before it goes off. You will notice flavour changes over the growing season but these are not off putting. I’ve done this and four lettuce, some silverbeet and a patch of rocket I trimmed in sections weekly kept four people in salad greens for seven months.
There is, as I’ve said much to recommend urban farming. Much to recommend permaculture too but I’ll let Margaret tell her take on that philosophy.
So here is Margaret Paton with co-host Rich.
Margaret's Interview here.
I hope that’s got you thinking. 10% of your food sounds like a good first target to aim for. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this. You reach us through the contact page on the website at www.realfoodchain.wordpress.com/contact-us/ which is also in the show notes.
Equally if you think you’d make a great guest or know someone else who would contact us at the same page. We’d love to hear from you.
Next month we plan to look at gut health and what we can make and do for ourselves to support this part of our health.
Until then, goodbye.
Links
What happened to the “fail-safe” Svalbard seed vault designed to save us from crop failure.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ffT
Washington Post: preposterously warm winter
Inside Climate news: began melting at an alarming rate
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 22nd of May 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we bring troubling news. The seedbank at Svalbard was flooded. I’m sure we can all understand that mixing seeds and water is not ideal for long term preservation of said seed stocks. There is, though, much more to this than first meets the eye.
Svalbard was the doomsday defense for humanity’s food seeds. So far above the arctic circle and never above -18degrees C that’s around zero degrees F, the facility was set up as a set and forget operation. The ground temperature rarely varied, the ground continually frozen, a safe place for our food seeds.
All this sounds great but and I quote:
Quote:
The Arctic experienced a preposterously warm winter last season, and the permafrost, which has been thawing in recent years, suddenly began melting at an alarming rate. The region near the seed vault experienced heavy rain when it should have been snowing. The resulting breach at Svalbard is making experts question the “fail-safe” nature of the vault.
End Quote
Where are we now? For a start Svalbard is not longer set and forget, it’s monitored daily. The seeds are, apparently, still safe. It is also worth remembering that Svalbard is not the only seed bank in the world. It is, as a seed library, a lender of last resort but it’s collected seeds are also held in other seed banks across the globe. Maybe putting some samples of all our seed types in one place may have been more of an ”all your eggs in one basket” sort of decision. Equally I can see having everything in one place is great for research and convenience.
The water never reached the seed collections. This is a good thing.
Quote:
Water flooded into the entrance tunnel to the vault after the unusual season, the Guardian reported Friday (May 19).Thankfully, the water froze before it reached the seed storage areas (to preserve their viability, seeds are stored at -18 Celsius, or just below 0 degrees Fahrenheit).
End Quote.
But, perhaps more than the seed saving implications are the climate change signals this flooding points to.
Permafrost is high in contained methane. That is methane that is locked away from the atmosphere. Methane in the atmosphere is CO2 on steroids. It does however wash out of the system relatively quickly. It is gone in a few years not few centuries as is the case with CO2.
So to the big question: Was the warm winter just experienced in the Northern Hemisphere a one off or sign of things to come? There is no way to tell. The nature of these things is multivariable and difficult to predict. What I’ve noticed in the past twelve months is a strange slowing of weather events. Last southern Summer when the permafrost was melting in the northern hemisphere, we in Australia were subject, twice, to a series of low pressure systems lining up from the north west to the south east. These had the effect of funneling desert air which is, not surprisingly, hot down from the deserts into New South Wales. Temperatures of 46 degrees C, or around 115 degrees F into regions where this is not common. Yes we’ve had hot spells before but this was different. The systems stayed in place for days, almost a week. In the past a hot spell of around 40 to 42 would last two days, or so, and then we’d be hit with a southerly cold change. Not this time. The systems broke up slowly and the temperatures returned to “normal” in air quotes, temperatures of 30 - 35 degrees C. We are now in Autumn and a similar slowdown in systems is occurring. We were fortunate last weekend that the predicted systems bringing rain drifted off shore before dumping a month's average rainfall in a day. We still had rain but most of it fell over the ocean. The point here was the forecast for an extremely slow moving system, again.
Opposite ends of the world, Norway and Australia, changes in weather patterns. Anecdotal evidence, not data, yet. Toss in the rising sea levels and relocation of peoples in low lying Pacific Islands and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and we probably have enough effects to actually start marching in the streets to force our politicians to get of their behinds and make some actual decisions for our good not the good of lobbying vested interests stuck in a world of fossil fuels, industrial agriculture and subsidies.
A further piece in the puzzle fell into place for me back in January. I was watching a news report on farming and this farmer, a fourth generation farmer on the same piece of land stated he and dad used to start silage cutting in the first week of November, he starts in the last week of August. Ten weeks earlier, just let that sink in for a moment. Pasture growth has changed so much, he start harvesting feed for next winter, ten weeks earlier that he or his father had ever done before.
I think there are sufficient signs for us to take action. Svalbard may have been set up as our seedbank of last resort, the thawing of the permafrost and the flooding of the entrance may be off even greater value to us as a species. It may, nay, it should be the last warning we need to actually redesign, rebuild and renew our ways of doing things. Yes the world is preoccupied with the childish tantrums of North Korea and US politics, the Middle East and any number of other power plays yet these pale into insignificance before the bigger picture the flooded and frozen entrance to a remote seedbank has revealed.
To repeat someone else’s words, and I don’t know who or I would acknowledge them: Maybe it’s time to stop fighting over who created the Earth and start fighting those who are destroying our life support systems !
And on that thought we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
What happened to the “fail-safe” Svalbard seed vault designed to save us from crop failure.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ffT
Washington Post: preposterously warm winter
Inside Climate news: began melting at an alarming rate
�
Links
Pastured Pork Pros and Cons
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-f4y
The Top 5 Things I Have Learned Since I’ve Started Homesteading
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-f6X
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 15th of May 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
We begin this week with a post from the blog The Intrepid Homestead entitled: Pastured Pork Pros and Cons.
A whole new skill set is required for pastured anything. Pigs being pigs and innately intelligent bring their own issues.
The right breed is essential. Thankfully there were far sighted people who didn’t follow the Danish landrace highway to factory farmed pork. No these people kept alive the old breeds, not all of them but enough for pastured pork to be a thing. The old breeds like Gloucester Old Spot, Wessex Saddleback, Berkshire and Tamworth.
Three of the pros discussed are as follows:
Quote:
Your pigs will taste better than the average pig (assuming you feed them good food). Remember, you are what you eat and you are what you eat eats!
They’ll clear your land of more or less all vegetation minus large trees.
They’ll fertilize your land and any land downstream from your land
End Quote
Taste in meat is personal thing. The point is all pigs were one raised on “mast” which I believe is counted in the Domesday Book. Mast refers to things like acorns, beechnuts, hazelnuts and so on. It is possible to raise pigs on these resources now if you have them or access to them. Back in episode 22 the interview episode, Llew from the North Island of New Zealand told us about her pigs and how they were supposed to clean up the Macadamia windfalls. Unfortunately her pigs were standing on their hind legs to eat the low hanging nuts straight from the tree. Pigs are useful, all useful things have their limits.
John Seymour, of The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency fame recommended pigs as having a plough at the front end and manure spreader at the back. To his mind they were for cleaning land as well as fertilising. So putting them in after your potato harvest and they will clear any you missed. They’ll turn old pasture into a ploughed field as near as ready for sowing as you could ask.
There is also an established if small market for this type of pork which is good and means you shouldn’t have to eat nothing but pork three meals a day.
There is, therefore much to recommend pigs of pasture.
Now to the cons.
Longish Quote:
If you raise pigs in a field, forest, meadow, or pasture, that is where they’ll most likely be when you go to round them up for slaughter. This is NOT an easy task in many cases. Many YouTubers, movies, and bloggers have idyllic photos and videos of homesteaders and farmers frolicking with their pigs. That may be true for about 5 minutes, or on days when you and they have nowhere special to be. As soon as you roll up with a trailer and they see you salivating at the thought of eating them as ham and bacon – you’ll soon find out how belligerent a pig can be!
A pig is a like an impetuous 300lb bodybuilding two-year-old. Catching them requires work and ingenuity. It might also take some nerves. A caught pig makes a lot of unsettling noise. If you have to deliver a live animal to the butcher, it’s going to take some effort. On average, it takes us 70 minutes per pig to gather and place in a trailer. Oh, and that is for 4-5 strong and fit men.
End Quote
There are any number of stories from the Middle Ages of Royalty and Nobility being killed off early in boar hunts. Now a domesticated pig is not a wild boar but the point is well made. 300 pounds, or 140 kgs of annoyed pig can make quite a difficult proposition but others can do it so I guess we all can, if we want.
To quote again:
All in all, raising pigs has been a great experience – one that we intend to keep doing. However, it’s not without its challenges and knowing these beforehand can be helpful.
End Quote
And now from Little Redhead Homestead comes the post: The Top 5 Things I Have Learned Since I’ve Started Homesteading
Let’s get into them
1 It does NOT look like it does in the movies!!
2 All hands on deck!
3 Things really don’t go as planned
4 You will wake up sometimes and wonder what the point is.
5 It’s a slow process
I just have to quote from #1 It does NOT look like it does in the movies!!
Quote:
..the ugly truth of homesteading isn’t meant for the movies.
It can be beautiful and fun and romantic and whatever else you fantasize about, but there is another side to every coin and it involves poop, blood, death, cold, heat, splinters, animal bites and scratches, loose animals, plant diseases, smells, rain, wind that blows your sheet off your clothesline and smothers nearby seedlings (it’s happened!), aphids, rabbits eating half the strawberry patch you’ve waited all winter for (happened last week), being too sick to feed yourself, but still having to go out and feed animals. I could go on, but you get the picture!
End Quote
Naturally, the real world has little to do with tinsel town but the just quoted words sums up life in more of its red in tooth and claw reality than a comfortable city life can ever be. Don’t forget the start of that quote: beautiful, fun and romantic. In my experience these are just magnified because of their juxtaposition with the other things going on.
All of that being so I can understand point #4 You will wake up sometimes and wonder what the point is.
Quote
When you were up all night with sick kids, you’re pregnant, you’re hungry and you’re too cold to get out of bed, you are going to start thinking of reasons to quit and be normal. After all, it’s not like you can vent to many people about how hard it is. It’s not something many seem to empathize with these days. Just try to remember that it’s all worth the trouble and that being normal is for schmucks!!
End Quote.
And there is one thing in this life of which I am certain: Anyone who listens to this podcast is definitely not a Schmuck!
And on that happy thought we will end this week’s episode.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
Pastured Pork Pros and Cons
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-f4y
The Top 5 Things I Have Learned Since I’ve Started Homesteading
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-f6X
Links
Cricket Is Just a Better Chicken
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eZa
Joel Salatin: Polyface Farm
Small Scale Farming the Only Way Forward
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-f1B
UN Reports:
Wake Up Before it’s Too Late
UN report from 2010
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 8th of May 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
From the blog ilkkataponen comes an infographic post: Cricket Is Just a Better Chicken.
The premise of this infographic is industrial. The argument goes like this: insects use less water, pollute less and are a better form of protein for us than beef, pork, chevon, lamb or poultry. In a factory setting, cattle, pigs, goats, sheep and poultry suffer unspeakably in factory farming situations. Part of the argument in favour of moving to crickets or locusts or whatever insect you might choose is that they will suffer less because their living requirements are far less demanding than the “higher”, in inverted commas, animals. This is a questionable starting point. These animals do have nervous systems and, therefore, can feel suffering.
So let’s take a deeper look at this idea. Apart from the ick factor which is purely a consequence of most of us never having lived through a famine, the idea is has some merit.
The idea isn’t that we sit down, necessarily, to a plate of barbecued crickets on sticks, although that is one option. My understanding is insects will be bred, grown out on some sort of “waste” product, killed, dried and milled. That’s milled as in wheat through a grain mill. The end product is a protein based powder, perfect for adding to manufactured foodstuffs.
Hopefully you can see where this going. Feedlots or CAFOs as they are euphemistically called are not all that efficient. CAFO, of course, standing for confined animal feeding operations. So the “inefficient” in inverted commas, cattle are to be replaced with the far more industrially suited crickets. The cricket powder can then be combined with all sorts of things to create burgers, sausages, protein drinks and on and on.
Under the banner of cruelty free efficiency, cows are out and crickets, locusts, maybe some sort of beetle will be the food source of the ever growing urban agglomerations. Indeed if we take this to it’s logical conclusion, the pupae state of the insect’s life cycle may hold sufficient protein to save even more time and resources. Imagine, powdered maggots! Now this will need the marketing types to put it through their magical processes but maggots raised on dog droppings. The efficiencies are truly mind blowing.
I am reminded of a quote from Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms that goes something like this:
We humans are really good at hitting any target we aim at. It’s just that we don’t seem to ask if the target was worth hitting.
I hear you ask, could there, perhaps, be another way of feeding the world that doesn’t involve the incarceration of chickens, pigs and cattle or the mass raising and processing of insects?
I’m glad you asked.
The blog: TAUNTON FARMERS MARKET brings us an interesting post entitled: Small Scale Farming the Only Way Forward
Longish Quote:
The UN has commissioned several reports in recent years regarding climate change and the effect agriculture has on it and, as a consequence, world hunger. The reports make interesting reading, especially in regard to how changes in farming practices could have a profound impact on slowing global warming and alleviating poverty and hunger throughout the world. ‘Wake Up Before it’s Too Late‘, an extensive report drawing from over 60 experts worldwide, and an earlier document, UN report from 2010, both show that the only realistic way to feed the world in the future is to use organic and sustainable methods.
End Quote
These reports seemed to have been euthanized by ignoring them. Promoting local sustainable production of healthy, poison free food is going to ruffle some feathers. Pretty big feathers that are receiving government subsidies, good profit margins and healthy future growth projections. Yet we must, I believe, look more deeply into the material raised by the UN.
A short sidetrack.
Unlike quite a few people I’ve discovered online, I do not believe the UN is a stalking horse to place us all under their direct control. Further I don’t believe that such a conspiracy could be possible. I’ve worked at large organisations and spent time in the military. From these examples I have formed the conclusion we are just too erratic as a species for any global level conspiracy to work. Of the two causes of history, conspiracy or cock up,I’m firmly in the cock up school.
End podcast sidetrack.
The post points out that although the UN calls for a reduction in ruminant numbers to meet greenhouse gas emission targets this is not pertinent to smallholders:
Quote:
This is mainly an issue for industrialised livestock systems and not for smallholders. Due to carbon sequestration in pastures, pastoral livestock systems can even be carbon-neutral if herd sizes are adequately low.
End Quote.
Indeed, as I discussed last week, when talking about soil carbon, having stock on pasture, distributing their manures themselves is a great way to build soil carbon. Having the farms closely co-located with the people being fed has other advantages too:
Quote:
20-40% of food is lost globally, mainly as a result of wastage in industrialised countries. Avoiding losses and wastage would reduce the output needed and the corresponding GHG emissions.
End Quote
We’ve discussed this before too. It’s not just the waste, which is a concern itself but the food kilometres or miles. Transport of inputs to feedlots, transport of outputs and weather the manures are processed at all, all add to the carbon footprint of industrial meat. You can see why the cricket idea could appeal but I’d prefer to see smallholders encouraged and supported by the political system. I’m not holding my breath for that to happen. The advantages of smallholdings make them viable, if debt free, without government initiatives. They can, therefore, become a sort of economic insurgency movement until enough are up and running.
Imagine a world where food traveled from as far afield as your nearest golf course. Imagine that golf course redistributed as a series of smallholdings, interconnected, supporting each other and feeding their local communities. Think on this the next time your pass any golf course and imagine what could be.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
Cricket Is Just a Better Chicken
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eZa
Joel Salatin: Polyface Farm
Small Scale Farming the Only Way Forward
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-f1B
UN Reports:
Wake Up Before it’s Too Late
UN report from 2010
LINKS
What I said at the NOSB meeting last week
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eU7
UNFI Foundation
http://www.unfifoundation.org/Pages/MissionandPriorities.aspx
Soil carbon 'a saviour' in locking up carbon
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/soil-carbon-%E2%80%98a-saviour%E2%80%99-in-locking-up-carbon/8460928#transcript
Strezelechi
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 1st of May 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
I’d like to start this week with a big thank you to dsearlybird12’s comment on Podbean: “interesting and pertinent”! Thank you!
Now to the blog: Organic Matters by Melody Meyer and a series of posts on the National Organic Standards Board.
Melody spoke on behalf of United Natural Foods. She spoke about the need for market driven solutions within the organic food sector.
Quote:
It’s the dollars and cents, the economic growth that organic represents for producers, manufacturers and retailers. For consumers, it’s the option to have an informed choice through the USDA label. Expanding and preserving that choice helps consumers avoid persistent pesticide exposure. It helps correct the environmental degradation of non-organic production methods.
End Quote.
I found this thought provoking. The “market” in inverted comments is a social construct. Defined by the governments of the world, the rules for markets are decided, not so much by Adam Smith’s unseen hand, but by that unseen hand operating within the rules decided in unseen smoke filled back rooms. So with a little tweaking and whole lot of subsidy redistribution, the market could be made to work for rather than against the organic movement. The way the system is set up now, farmers who do not use poisons have to spend thousands to prove this is the case. Those farmers who regularly douse their crops in poisons, pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilisers are free to sell whatever they want based on the 50% death rules.
50% death rules? I hear you ask. Yes. A poison is determined safe for human consumption on the following basic idea. Lab rats are fed a poison. The length of time it takes to kill half of them is the key to human food safety. Once the 50% death rate is reached, a conclusion is reached and the remaining 50% of surviving rats are euthanized. There are, therefore no data on long term effects of these poisons only their immediate acute effects. Sounds like a system designed for chemical manufacturers rather than human food consumers.
Changing these rules of the market would immediately increase the safety of foods and give the organic sector a huge boost.
I would suggest as individuals the way to overcome this bias and the many others embedded in the non-judgemental, values free, “market” which determines the best price for both consumers and suppliers, is to avoid anything, and I mean anything which does not have a certified organic label. Now there may be perfectly safe insecticides out there but we have no way of knowing giving the testing regime currently in place.
Who knows how safe the cockroach and spider sprays are that are used on homes, well used on all buildings really. We are after all inhabiting these structures, not ingesting them until half of us drop dead!
Now to the other end of the food system, the soil!
This from an interview with Robin Batterham, a former federal chief scientist in Australia. Robin was a guest on the long running Radio National program the Science Show. The title for this interview gives us a clue: Soil carbon 'a saviour' in locking up carbon.
Now the science around soil carbon is messy. The soil is, after all, a living thing.
Quote:
It is not fully understood, far from it, although with genetic typing these days we can understand much more of the thousands of interactions that go on. That's one whole side which is how do you encourage more of the bacteria and the fungi so that you get actually more carbon in the soil, you get greater root penetration, you get greater water retention and so on.
End Quote.
Robin’s argument is that we have sufficient knowledge, if not the ability to accurately measure soil carbon to starting the process of moving agriculture from artificial fertilisers and poisons to regenerative agriculture. Noting the following ways soil carbon is lost:
Quote:
We lose it essentially by two methods. One, we clear native vegetation and turn it into intensive agriculture. That almost inevitably results in loss of carbon from the soil. That's one. The other is that by extensive use of tilling, which changes the oxidative state of the soil and changes the balance between fungi which tends to not want it to be too oxidative and bacteria, by use of pesticides which similarly affect the biota, by use of extensive fertiliser application in a form which is not readily absorbed by plants, we just slowly, surely grind carbon down.
End Quote.
Robin gives rough measurements on the amount of soil carbon lost here in Australia. It seems we’ve moved from a soil carbon content of 3-4% in the time of Strezelechi, a Polish Nobleman, explorer and scientist who came to the colony of NSW in 1839 to a level closer to 1% nowadays.
Reversing this loss would pull more carbon out of the atmosphere than has been dumped into it by industry. Not a reason to stop the move to renewables but, on soil fertility grounds alone, reason to move to regenerative agriculture.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
What I said at the NOSB meeting last week
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eU7
UNFI Foundation
http://www.unfifoundation.org/Pages/MissionandPriorities.aspx
Soil carbon 'a saviour' in locking up carbon
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/scienceshow/soil-carbon-%E2%80%98a-saviour%E2%80%99-in-locking-up-carbon/8460928#transcript
Strezelechi
LINKS
The Benefits of Drinking Organic Coffee
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eRv
ANZAC DAY
How I Went From Tormented Veteran, to Peaceful Homesteader.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eQD
Why mulch?
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ePw
Organic OU
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eMu
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 17th of April 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
I’d like to start this week with a big thank you to hunnybunny73 from Gypsyhomestead. You may recall I quoted from this blog last episode and received a delightful comment on the About page of the blog. Thank you hunnybunny73, I was touched by your kind words and yes, we are saving the world, one cabbage at a time!
Now to this week’s stories.
We have a post from Muddy Waters Coffee Co. entitled:The Benefits of Drinking Organic Coffee.
Now this podcast and the blog a fueled by copious amounts of coffee so it’s always great to find some bias confirmation. The post offers four benefits of organic coffee:
1 It’s Chemical Free
2 It’s Nutritious
3 It tastes better
4 It’s healthy
Seems far enough to me!
Now onto a more serious matter. This episode is being released on the 24th April. The eve of ANZAC day, the day when we here in Australia and in New Zealand remember our war fallen. ANd so we have a post entitled: How I Went From Tormented Veteran, to Peaceful Homesteader from the blog Pointerpooch homestead.
The author gives a brief explanation of how he was affected by war, how a half hour in a bunker changed his life and not for the good. Then and I quote.
Long Quote:
I sank into depression and the torment of feeling useless and ashamed. Then, more than anything, I wanted to revisit my childhood and get lost in the innocence that was there.
I began to yearn the smell of wet earth. I began craving the feeling of earth on my bare feet. I wanted to be in the silence that follows a storm. I wanted to watch rain drip off verdant leaves. I wanted to feel the dampness come off a field of vegetables. I wanted to smell the spiciness of tomato leaves. Above all other things: I wanted to watch things grow.
I started small, with only a couple of plants. A few corn stalks and a few tomato plants. Most walk-in closets have more space than my first garden did. I planted the seeds directly in the ground. I decided that even though I knew it would be easier to start them indoors, I liked the idea of the seed going in the ground.
When my first tomato plant popped its little jagged leaves out for the first time I was hooked, but it was more than simple pride in mastery over nature. It was more than a feeling of anticipation of harvesting my own tomatoes. I felt in control of something. I was responsible for something. I felt connected to something. I felt connected to the earth. I was growing my own nourishment. I was tending the very thing that was keeping me alive: Food.
End Quote.
And our author was away. Turning his life around. I’ll leave the rest of the post for you to read. The main thing I got from this post was the return of wonder through growing food. It is a thing of joy and excitement to me too whenever a seed thrusts through the soil into the light. That such a process is also healing for many, is no surprise.
Now let’s turn to more mundane matters. From the blog Royal Crest Farm comes the post: Why mulch?
Why indeed? There are many reasons to mulch, the primary being biomimicry. To put that another way, if mulching is good enough for Nature, it’s probably good enough for all of us.
The post however provides the following reasons for mulching:
1 Weed Control
2 Moisture retention
3 Prevents Soil Erosion
4 Maintains soil nutrients
5 Controls pests
6 Polishes up the look of your garden.
All but number 6 Polishes up the look of your garden, is a confirmation of why mulch is a part of natural systems.
Now to a post about the organic farm at Oakland University. Started by Dr Fay Hansen whose voice will the first one you hear talking about the setup of the farm.
Audio of Dr Hansen inserted here.
The farm is a full production outfit. From propagation of seeds through to planting out, growing and harvest.
Dr Hansen believes one of the benefits of campus and k-12 gardens is the reconnection with food it provides for students.
Audio insert of “potatoes” here.
There’s an example of an interdisciplinary project with some students from the engineering faculty which is worth a look.
Audio of engineer inserted here.
There is good work being done at OU I recommend you checkout the entire ten minute video. It’s is well worth your time.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
The Benefits of Drinking Organic Coffee
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eRv
ANZAC DAY
How I Went From Tormented Veteran, to Peaceful Homesteader.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eQD
Why mulch?
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ePw
Organic OU
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eMu
Links:
The Real Food Chain
The Real Food Chain Facebook Page
The Real Food Chain Twitter Page
World Organic News (Jon’s site)
Michael Pollan interviewed by Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman
The Real Food Chain podcast No.1 The first podcast for The Real Food Chain gave us — co-hosts Rich Bowden and Jon Moore — a chance to say hello and discuss our aims for this new Oz-themed wholefoods show.
We chatted about how wholefoods is really a return to the past of food production. We explore how organic food is not a new concept at all, but a return to the ways our grandparents farmed and ate real food — sans chemicals.
Key quote: Organic food is what they used to call food ~ Jon Moore In the second half of the show, you can hear me (Rich) talk about who we are aiming at reaching with the website and podcast. The answer is it’s ordinary people, like us. Those of you who are interested in organic foods for health foods but may not be able to afford the premium that organic grocers attract. Or perhaps you need to change your diet to improve your health for medical reasons. Or you may be a young Mum or Dad looking for the best for your kids’ diet but looking at ways to keep costs down.
I talk about our idea of making The Real Food Chain a reference point for anyone interested in real foods but something more. I want it to have that distinct Aussie accent. Taking inspiration from around the world yes, but keeping it local for Australians. I add that each podcast will be based on a relevant wholefoods topic and Jon and I will be interviewing guests who will give us an insight into organic food.
Topics we’ll be covering in future podcasts:
- Fermenting foods
- Gut health
- Where to find affordable organic food
- Growing your own organic produce
- Cooking with wholefoods
- Breadmaking
- Farmers’ markets
- Heirloom tomatoes
- And much, much more.
Links:
The Real Food Chain
The Real Food Chain Facebook Page
The Real Food Chain Twitter Page
World Organic News (Jon’s site)
Michael Pollan interviewed by Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman
LINKS
5 things I learnt from living on a permaculture farm
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eEP
5 Things I wish I knew About Homesteading Before I Started
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eFj
5 Things To Love About Homesteading
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eFJ
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 17th of April 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we are on a journey of fives. 5 Things I learnt from Permaculture, 5 Things I wish I’d known about Homesteading and 5 Things to Love about Homesteading.
From the blog: She Googled and She Went comes the post: 5 things I learnt from living on a permaculture farm.
This is a really good read. Practical, common sense stuff for everyone. I’ll quote two of the five things learnt.
Quote:
Do every job with pride, and of course, use your brains.
There are many ways to get things done – in permaculture, the word that stuck with me was optimisation. Using edges to achieve a multiplier effect and maximise output.
And
Find your purpose, and the people who share it.
Being a permaculture newbie, I was surrounded by people who had already been researching on how to build their earth bag house or build their solar panel system. Everyone had a piece of land they owned or intended to own (and land outside of the city is very affordable, my friends), and here I am, a city girl from Singapore who always casually said I would retire on a farm but never really knew what that meant.
End Quote.
Purpose, pride, working with your brain and with others. This is a pretty fair way to live a good life. Permaculture is as much or as little as want. I heard a podcast a few years ago where the guest was explaining the difference between purple permaculture and brown permaculture. He was definitely in the brown camp. The brown is all about the landscape design, terra forming and farming for profit without damage or, if you like sustainably. The purple is all that plus peace, love and mung beans. To be fair, the brown permaculturalist wasn’t attacking the purples just pointing out the differences. This article gives another perspective on what Permaculture is and what it can teach. I’ll leave the rest of the article for you to read if you feel drawn to it.
Our next two posts come from the blog Gypsyhomestead and are closely interrelated: firstly 5 Things I wish I knew About Homesteading Before I Started and secondly 5 Things To Love About Homesteading
Things to know before you start:
1 Location
2 Choosing the Right Animals
3 The Cost
4 Predators
5 Physical Labour
Let’s look a little deeper
1 Location
Quote
Another mistake in the location was the land around us. Yes it’s beautiful farmland, but at the same time that’s part of the problem. It is big farmland, belonging to those that are crop farming, which means chemicals. There are a lot of chemicals that are spread by tractor and airplane.
End Quote.
Finding like minded people is difficult at times but worth the effort. Learning to live with or accepting the ways of the locals can be difficult, it can be impossible. Organic production under aircraft borne spray drift, for example is impossible. Do not rush into that dream property.
- Choosing the Right Animals
If you’re not going to consume what they produce, have a plan to deal with the excess. Can anyone really eat three dozen eggs each for eight months of the year? And remember good fencing makes for good neighbours!
- The Cost
Quote:
I know this is probably a pretty obvious no brainer. While I was aware of the cost of feed, fencing and all of that I failed to factor in vets and medication. I knew there were things I needed to keep on hand, but when it came to emergency farm calls those quickly brought home the grim reality that depending on the situation, vet and so on, it could really eat up any profit you earned and can cost hundreds of dollars for just one visit.
End Quote
On a personal note, I was in one part of my life 75 ks from town and veterinarian decisions we easy. A bullet costs far less than a vet visit.
- Predators
Longish Quote:
I only bring this up because I have run into a situation that has costed me quite a bit of money and a large loss of livestock this past winter. When I think of predators, I think fox, coyote, raccoon, skunk, weasels, possums, I did not think of rats. Yes rats, barn rats to be exact. First of all I wasn’t even aware we had them in the first place. Secondly they are dangerous and destructive to animals and feed. I lost all of my quail to these creatures as well as 2 hatches of chicks and a feed barrel has a hole chewed right through it.
End Quote.
Rats really are an evolutionary success story. They are also filthy, disease carrying vermin which need to be hunted down and eradicated. You cannot suffer them to be on your place. Really, I know people keep pet rats but wild, feral or whatever term you want to use, rats, they must be exterminated.
- Physical Labour
Quote:
I would have totally set things up differently to reduce some of the physical labor that is needed due to not smart decisions at the onset, labor that could be greatly used elsewhere. Getting a routine for your place is a good way of keeping control of your physical labor efforts.
End Quote.
In essence you need to have run a homestead wrongly before you can know how to run it well. Be prepared for huge amounts of physical labour until you learn to let the stock do the “work” for you.
That’s all very sobering for those thinking about living the homestead dream but be not put off for Gypsyhomestead also speaks of the positives. What she loves about homesteading:
1 The Simplicity
2 Being self reliant
3 The Ability to do things your way
4 Peace and Tranquility
5 The Ability to create.
Given that we all make some of the five errors listed previously, these five benefits are, whilst mostly intangible, more than enough to sustain anyone through the setup phases and through the setbacks as they come. Numbers 3 and 5 especially meant much to me when I was living out of town and will again when I get back out there. The ability to do things my own way and the ability to truly create are priceless commodities. These should never be forgotten, especially when the goats have escaped, again, or it hasn’t rained properly for three years or when you’re elbow deep in a ewe pulling a stuck lamb.
Homesteading is about reconnection with Nature and all its travails and joys. That being said, Homesteading does not, I repeat DOES NOT, require large swathes of land. Certainly it is easier on few acres than a backyard but backyard homesteading is a thing and is possible. So too is urban homesteading that just takes a little more creativity and the search for land is half the fun.
Think about those five things to love about homesteading:
1 The Simplicity
2 Being self reliant
3 The Ability to do things your way
4 Peace and Tranquility
5 The Ability to create.
Surely they are reasons enough to start or continue your journey!
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
5 things I learnt from living on a permaculture farm
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eEP
5 Things I wish I knew About Homesteading Before I Started
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eFj
5 Things To Love About Homesteading
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eFJ
LINKS
Humus and Clay...
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eAT
John Seymour
Masanobu Fukuoka
Daikon radish
Start your own Organic Garden: 7 tips!
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eB5
Sustainability Through Compost Tea.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eDW
Ten Acres Enough
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 10th of April 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we focus on the soil!
From the blog of LaToya M. Crick Soil Food Web Consultant comes a post on humus and clay.
Quote:
Clay and humus play an important role in soil structure and plant growth, however, too much of one of them is frustrating and too little of the other is a pending death sentence.
What is clay?
Clay in soil is a fine-grained natural rock or soil material and appears in deposits due to weatherization. ( If you are living in Brazoria County, Texas then you are living on a deposit- ha!) Clay can appear in soil in various colors from white to dull grey or brown to deep orange-red. A clay particle is finer than silt and sand and according to geologist and soil scientist, a clay particle is less than 2 micrometer.
And from further in the post:
Now, what about Humus?
Humus is the end product of decomposed organic matter that was had by soil microbes. It can be seen as the chocolate/black gold of the earth and acts as an anchor for soil nutrients. It appears in color ranging from dark brown to black and smells earthy and is fluffy to the touch. Humus is negatively charged and has a high cation-exchange-capacity (CEC) that helps the soil retain water and positively charged elements that are beneficial to plant health.
End Quote
The funny thing about clay and all soils for that matter is a thing I learned from John Seymour. It your clay content is too high, add organic matter to your soil. Organic matter, it turns out feeds and creates humus. At the other end of the soil scale: sandy soil the solution is to add (pauses for effect) organic matter which it turns out feeds and creates humus.
You can see where this is heading. Clay soils have their own particular needs when it comes to incorporating organic matter. The drill in the olden days, the 1970s, was to dig deeply and bury organic matter. Can you guess what the solution is today? Yep, raised bed no-dig gardens. It turns out the soil is capable of pulling the organic matter down into the clay soils and invigorating them. Clay pans can be a problem. That is hardened clay layers under the level at which the shovel or the plough reached. On acreage sized land units, a ripper can be employed to shatter the pan. This lets water and organic matter into the soil profile. This is especially beneficial when the rips are along the contour lines of the paddock. Masanobu Fukuoka used an alternative method the release these clay pans. He broadcast daikon radish seeds. His compacted clay problem was in an orchard so that ripping was not an option. These radishes grow upto a metre in length and as thick as a man’s forearm. By their very growth habits they loosen compacted soils.
Once loosen and with organic matter spread on top, either in no-dog garden beds or spread across paddocks by slashing them or grazing them, the process of humus creation can occur. Clearly this is not a “quick fix” solution but it is one which works with Nature and her rhythms. When that occurs we are moving in the right direction. I might also add here that artificial fertilisers will destroy humic acid in very little time. This means more are needed in the next growing season and so on. The slower Natural way is less expensive too as a rule.
Having sorted your soils the next step is to garden. DR. EDDY BETTERMANN MD delivered a post: Start your own Organic Garden: 7 tips! These are useful and so I’ll repeat them here to pique your interest. Have a read of the article if you need more on this. Link is, of course, in the show notes.
- Plan your garden before planting your crops, it’ll help you reap the best harvest possible.
- Less is More It may seem like a good idea to plant every edible plant that you love to eat… but it may be better to start with a small, manageable garden in the beginning.
- Choose Productive Plants Choose plants that grow well in your climate and geography. Think locally.
- Share and Barter If you buy a large packet of seeds and have extras, share with your friends and neighbors.
- Go Organic With Your supplies Organic seeds can be bought locally or by mail order. Do not use chemical pesticides, herbicides, or any other synthetic chemicals.
- Complement Your Plants Research traditional methods of natural gardening to grow plants that complement one another such as permaculture.
- Have Fun! Gardening can be an incredibly grounding family affair.
Having your garden up and running, the question of feeding or fertilising comes to mind.
The blog Permie Flix has a video post this week entitled: ECOSOIL SUSTAINABLE FARMING WITH COMPOST TEA. If that title doesn’t tick all the boxes then I don’t know what will. The video runs for some 30 plus minutes and is well worth your time.
Compost teas are a specialised form of liquid fertiliser. The have their adherents and I too am one of them. A particularly interesting book: Ten Acres Enough set in the USA state of New Jersey and written in the 1870s gives a good account of how to make and use liquid fertilisers. I’ve included a link to a pdf copy of this book. Whilst it has financial figures from its time which are basically meaningless now, the how to information is useful. A word of caution, the author advocates for ploughing bare fields between produce crops to increase soil moisture. Apart from that, he makes good sense.
Back to the post ECOSOIL SUSTAINABLE FARMING WITH COMPOST TEA. This video is produced with a smallholder, farmer in mind but the principles and techniques can be down scaled to the garden or you could join with fellow gardeners to create larger volumes to use amongst yourselves. I suspect a community garden would also be a good place to centrally produce these teas in bulk. They feed the humus creation process at a good rate of knots. Nudging Nature without pushing her to breaking point.
So look after your soil, grow food in it and feed that soil with liquid fertilisers for a blooming good garden!
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
Humus and Clay...
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eAT
John Seymour
Masanobu Fukuoka
Daikon radish
Start your own Organic Garden: 7 tips!
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eB5
Sustainability Through Compost Tea.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eDW
Ten Acres Enough
LINKS
Silent Spring By Rachel Carson
Greenpeace Australia “Victories” Page
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/about/greenpeace-victories/
Australia's 'angry summer' smashes unprecedented extreme weather records
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2016/s4632148.htm
THE DEBATE OF OUR TIME | Forgotten soil
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-cnD
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 3rd of April 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we are off on a tangent.
The Trump Administration’s reversal of the Obama Administration’s executive orders regarding coal, climate change and the EPA forced me to think about what is going on in this world.
Over my lifetime there have been many environmental battles. From the “No Dams” campaign in Tasmania which ran from 1976 to 1983 to actions on Roundup and GMOs we, on the side of Nature, have had some wins, many losses. The problem is we organise and effect change on single issues meanwhile the destruction of soil, of landscape, of the very atmosphere we breath continues as if the self repairing nature of complex systems will somehow save the day. That is if those doing the destruction even think there is a day to save.
I heard an argument in favour of one type of mining, kaolin mining. The point being that without this particular mineral, glossy magazines would not be glossy. For the wonder of fashion magazines, old style pornographic material and certain business cards, open cut mines rip the Earth bare to collect the kaolin. It is then processed to make it useful to the paper industry.
Anyone who has seen an open cut mine will be in doubt it does damage to the land being mined. Apart from the possible destruction of aquifers, the spoil from these mines has a tendency to leach into nearby waterways, the native flora and fauna are displaced at best, or destroyed at worst. All so we can images and text on glossy paper.
Certainly technological changes have led to less demand for the physical magazines but when I last checked a newsagency, the number of glossy magazines was still quite considerable.
“But if we are to stop this activity we will throw people out of work!”, I hear you say. True enough. Yet the whalers of the late 1970s converted into whale watch tour operators on the 21st century. Now I know miners are unlikely to find jobs in tourism but the point is other uses can be made of the resources and other forms of employment found for workers. The problem is, mining is a dangerous business. This led to it becoming unionised in many parts of the world. This in turn led to higher production costs to meet improved safety standards and higher wages for unionised miners. It is unlikely a tour guide’s income will match a miners. I’m not attacking miners in this piece nor any other worker, two of my great grandfathers were waterside workers and both of grandfathers unionised manual labourers in the scrap metal and brewery industries.
I understand the dignity of work and the soul destroying pointlessness of it too at times. What I’m getting at here is the dislocation which will occur when we finally make the change from extraction to circularity. That move though looks ever more distant.
“Capitalism” in air quotes, won the Cold War. Despite the fact the excesses of capitalism were kept in check by the counterbalancing forces of communism, once communism was overwhelmed by fax machines, food and computer technologies, capitalism returned to its pre 1917 preoccupations of monopoly formation and profit extraction.
We are, therefore, faced with not just a changing climate but a more militant and strident form of capitalism than the one which reacted to Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring back in 1962. The continual doomsday predictions of GreenPeace, the Australian Conservation Foundation and others since the 1970s has got them to the same point of irrelevance as the boy who called wolf once too often.
To my mind these large activist organisations have become little better than the corporations and governments they “oppose” in air quotes. Full of well meaning individuals but caught up in the very system they are attempting to change. I’ll give you an example from the Greenpeace Australia “Victories” page:
Quote:
May 2010. Sweet success for Kit Kat campaign: you asked, Nestlé has answered
Nestlé agrees to stop purchasing palm-oil from sources which destroy Indonesian rainforests.
End quote.
You will note this has nothing to do with actually reforming the food system which makes the need for a Kit Kat possible. It is varying from where the fat in these snacks is sourced, or more accurately not sourced. Yes it may help orangutans but it doesn’t make much difference to the global food industry.
There are many such organisations, I’m particularly picking on Greenpeace. The problem is these organisations become a sort of ghost corporation. Similar structures, legal arrangements and so on. The only difference is they measure their success not by dollar returns to shareholders but by publicity pages like the Greenpeace “Victories” page and the dollar amount of donations.
There have been wins but most of these are single issue wins. Meanwhile multinational corporations keep strip mining, clear felling, monocultural agricultural practices and poisoning water supplies, air and soil. The air pollution issues around the Beijing Olympics weren’t caused by organic smallholders but by industries operating without the environmental controls we take as the norm in the West. Without the legislated air and water quality standards we too would be experiencing the same levels of pollution. These laws impose costs on enterprises.
So we managed to reduce air and water pollution in industrialised counties after the damage had been done. Yet fish from Sydney Harbour cannot be eaten for fear of contamination levels from an old and now “rehabilitated” battery manufacturing site.
Things are not good. Things need to change. Large organisations become what they attempting to overcome. What’s to be done?
I’m afraid it’s going to come down to individuals. We are out there. We are doing what needs to be done and we are doing it without fanfare, without publicity, without recognition.
My hope is World Organic News is spreading the word. Spreading the word on two fronts. Highlighting those who are walking the talk and spreading the word on how to do what others are doing. We need a movement, we need a grassroots movement! And yes that pun is intended.
The first step we can make is with our consumption. Where we spend our money makes a difference. Don’t buy anything in a package, don’t buy anything with a health claim and then start growing your own. When this starts, don’t buy hybrid seeds. Only plant heirloom or heritage seeds because they are open pollinated and you can save the seeds to replant next season. In doing this you are selecting for plants adapted to your locale, your micro climate.
The great joy of growing your own is you will have a surplus. This means you can share with neighbours and friends. They taste the gloriousness of home grown and some will also start the process themselves. A movement indeed!
Despite the calls for the end of coal and oil based economies, where these meet the reality of climate change are not just in transport and energy production but in agriculture. Fossil fuels are used to create synthetic fertilisers, to move them to farms and gardens and, on larger production units using tractors, to distribute them across the landscape.
And this isn’t the point where they do most damage! It is in the soil that artificial fertilisers are most likely to influence climate change. By killing off soil biota they release soil carbon. The oceans have been doing a stellar job absorbing excess carbon but even they have limits.
A return to humus based agriculture and gardening will have a major effect on climate change by sucking carbon our of the atmosphere and locking into the soil where it belongs. Where it will grow better plants and hence animals.
The blog Forgotten soil posted back in august 2016 a piece entitled: THE DEBATE OF OUR TIME. It is all about humus and soil health. And yes whether we are to use humus or chemicals to feed our soils and hence our plants and thence ourselves should the debate of our time but, sadly, it is not.
So join the movement, do it quietly in your backyard, do it in a windowbox or in plant pots or across broadacres. Do it where you are now. We will find one another, we will feed ourselves, we will mitigate climate change and then we can reverse it but we must start. We must take our first faltering steps. Remember in each seed we plant is a revolution. A revolution in food, in health, in climate and in humanity!
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This may or may not help others to find us but it gives this podcaster an enormous thrill! Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
Silent Spring By Rachel Carson
Greenpeace Australia “Victories” Page
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/about/greenpeace-victories/
Australia's 'angry summer' smashes unprecedented extreme weather records
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2016/s4632148.htm
THE DEBATE OF OUR TIME | Forgotten soil
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-cnD
Links
No Dirt Gardening!
http://wp.me/s5Cqpo-55805
A "Natural" Experiment: GMO farming.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ewG
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 27th of March 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
We begin this week with post from farmer406: No Dirt? No problem: Strawbale Gardening.
Quote:
The concept of growing food from a bale of straw was odd at first until I thought it through. Commercial growers have been using alternative growing mediums for years, so why not scale it down for the backyard Do-It-Yourselfer? It is, of course, different than growing in dirt.
End quote.
The idea is to line up a row of straw bales into garden beds. Turn the bales so as to have the stems facing vertically and the bale twine on the sides. This allows for better water retention and the twine doesn’t rot as quickly, usually lasting the entire first season.
The bales are then wetted and some sort of fertiliser added to the top. This done to start the decomposition process. A fish and or kelp based fertiliser is applied and the bales begin to decompose. Into the spaces between the lines of straw, seedlings or seeds are placed. Continue as per any other garden bed.
The advantages of this system are numerous. Good organic matter, great drainage, heated beds at the start of Spring (from the decomposition process), no digging (always a plus for me), almost non existent weed issues, especially if the bales are clean of weeds to start with and a ready made pile of organic matter for next seasons garden beds.
This also a great way to start gardening on compacted soils, thin soils, soils likely to be a bit wet at the start of Spring and excessively sandy soils. All these conditions, except for the excess water require the incorporation of organic matter to render them suitable for gardening. With straw bale gardens you start the process above the soil and let the soil biota, earthworms and microbia do the incorporating for you.
I used a variation of this method by using the straw a bedding for dairy goats over winter and piling the bedding, complete with manures and urine, into garden beds. In all cases the organic matter boost and a food harvest is the outcome.
I have also seen these done with spoiled bales of lucerne hay, that’s alfalfa for those listening in the Americas. To my mind this is overkill but it does bump up the nitrogen levels especially in the second season so it might be an option depending upon your rotation plans.
However you do it, it is a viable option as far as I can see.
Compared to our next post: Doubts About the Promised Bounty of Genetically Modified Crops as reported in the blog: SEPTISPHERE.
To sum up the thrust of the post before we dig a little deeper,
Quote:
Twenty years ago, Europe largely rejected genetic modification at the same time the United States and Canada were embracing it. Comparing results on the two continents, using independent data as well as academic and industry research, shows how the technology has fallen short of the promise.
End quote.
The big sales pitch with GMOs back in the late 1908s and 1990s was the promised reduction in pesticides. This has occurred but not in isolation. Whilst the pesticide use has fallen, it is still being used and alongside this use is a huge jump in herbicide use. Let me explain the process of GMO farming. GMO seeds are designed to be resistant to pests and to withstand the application of herbicides. That being the case, each cell of the GMO plant contains a pesticide which is deadly to insects and, apparently, safe for humans and other non insect animals to consume. Therefore there is no need to spray insecticides. Now the resistance to herbicides means a farmer doesn’t need to till between the rows of plants to remove weeds. They just need to spray a herbicide, a herbicide who’s patent coincidently is owned by the GMO seed producers. So the claimed benefits of GMO farming are less pesticides, less tillage and better weed destruction.
The reality is a little more complex. The one thing which appears to have been overlooked is a thing the scientific community like to call: Evolution. “How does that work in this situation?”, I hear you ask. Well, I’m glad you asked.
By spraying the one herbicide the GMO plants were resistant too, glyphosate, you might know it as Roundup, over the populations of weeds, year in and year out, the farmer is in reality changing the local environment of the weed species. Creating a new ecological niche is another way to think of it. Once the weeds were growing in competition to the plough, the crop and the application of herbicides, now the weeds species are living in a niche where resistance to the herbicide alone will ensure reproductive success. It is worth remembering that reproductive success within a given niche is the sole purpose of the evolutionary process.
So not surprisingly, over time, the GMO farming sector has been carefully selecting for weed species with an ability to survive being sprayed by Roundup and then reproducing. Even less surprising is the seeds these plants scatter on their demise are, mostly, also resistant to Roundup. It would appear the resistance to Roundup is on a sliding scale and so further applications of this herbicide were found to be effective at removing many of these semi-resistant individual plants. Can you see where this is heading? Yes, much more herbicide is used in the USA and Canada than in Europe. Ah but I hear you cry, much lest pesticide is also used in North America. Yes but so too is that figure falling in Europe, mainly through the use of ecological methods such as crop rotations, companion planting, interplanting and the retention of hedging which acts a base for insect eating birds and predatory insect species.
Toss in the World Health Organisations findings in 2016 that Glyphosate is a probable carcinogen and the longer term prospects for GMO farming look poor. Remember glyphosate is marketed as Roundup the most ubiquitously used herbicide in not just agricultural settings but also in suburban gardens and local authority weed reduction plans.
If only ten percent of us turned those lawns into straw bale gardens, the use of glyphosate would plummet. The two posts I’ve highlighted this week represent alternative ends of the agricultural spectrum. We have, in the West, since the second world war handed over our food production from the garden level to the industrial. If you think of the health changes in that time, one thing stands out. Body mass, in the both West and the industrialising nations of the world. The experiment has been run on the GMO method and the side effects are, I believe, not worth the expense. So line up your straw bales, shorten your supply lines and taste real food again!
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
No Dirt Gardening!
http://wp.me/s5Cqpo-55805
A "Natural" Experiment: GMO farming.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ewG
Links
World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
organic food shouldn’t be considered special. instead, cheap food made with harmful chemicals should be considered shitty. – crimson highway
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-etp
Hugelkultur: a first time for everything | Life, Death, & Radishes
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eta
Here’s the link to: The World Organic News No Dig Gardening Book
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 20th of March 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we begin with spirited post from crimson highway entitled: organic food shouldn’t be considered special. instead, cheap food made with harmful chemicals should be considered shitty.
As I said this is a spirited piece and if you click through be aware of strong, even offensive language. The point though, is well made. As we have discussed in earlier episodes, the health costs of chemically forced, pesticide laden food are not included in their sale price. That zillions of carrots can be grown across a landscape and put up on your supermarket shelves for under a dollar per kilo is suggestive of something screwy.
Indeed on the matter of price, I have long wondered why oranges shipped across the Pacific from California should be cheaper to purchase than oranges grown a few hundred kilometres away. This questioning received a bit of kick along during this Irish sojourn. Not oranges but bananas being the focus. How could bananas from Coff Harbour, a mere six hours from home be more expensive than bananas in Ireland? Even when comparing bananas to bananas through currency exchange, they were still cheaper in Ireland. I was informed by the locals these Irish bananas were flown in from the Caribbean! A 13 hour flight away! So as I said there is something screwy in the price signals and market mechanisms when it comes to food. Then when we toss in the concerns raised in crimson highway’s post, someone somewhere is rent seeking and passing the costs on to someone else.
A quote form crimson highway:
Quote:
it should be the duty of the companies using harmful farming techniques to inform their customers of the destructive processes that go into making cheap products, and their products should be openly advertised as sub-standard. it’s backwards that shit that is grown normally is considered special and marketed as healthy.
End Quote.
There is a pic that regularly pops up on my facebook feed with a basket of fresh fruit and vegetables and the words: Eat organic food or as your grandparents called it: Food!
Speaking of food, our next post comes from the blog: Life, Death & Radishes and is entitled: Hugelkultur: a first time for everything. Hugelkultur we have touched on before.
From the post:
Quote:
There are an endless number of ways to coax nature into working with you in the organic garden. So clearly my first choice was to pick the most labor intensive. Yes, I chose the one that begged for digging.
End Quote
To start the system off does require some labour but so does every system in the setup phase.
Another quote:
Quote:
The German technique of hugelkultur is defined by the burying of wood, preferably wood that is already overcome by fungi and starting to get crumbly, but any wood will do as long as you give the bed or mound time to age before you plant it.
And a little further on.
You can dig a trench or hole to bury large pieces of wood followed by smaller sticks and twigs, then leaves, and finally top it off with soil. Alternatively, a hugelkultur mound begins by laying the stuff on top of the existing ground and working your way up to a giant about 6-8 feet high but I thought that would weird out the neighbors too much.
End Quote.
So we either dig or pile. Your choice in the end. This is the case with Hugelkultur, it is the case with garden beds. You should know my preference by now! See in the show notes for a link to: The World Organic News No Dig Gardening Book
So Hugelkultur can be either ig or no-dig. The point of the timber and decomposing timber at that is the soil food it provides. Already decomposing timber means the wood won’t suck nitrogen out of the pile and will in fact continue to feed the soil life around it.
This is my last episode whilst on holidays here in Ireland. I’ll be putting together some of my thoughts from this trip and releasing them as supplemental episodes which will just appear in your feed.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
organic food shouldn’t be considered special. instead, cheap food made with harmful chemicals should be considered shitty. – crimson highway
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-etp
Hugelkultur: a first time for everything | Life, Death, & Radishes
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eta
Here’s the link to: The World Organic News No Dig Gardening Book
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Why Vertical Farms Fail | The Urban Vertical Farming Project
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eqj
Orchard understory – Mortal Tree
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eq8
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 13th of March 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we begin with some soul searching and self analysis from the blog The Urban Vertical Farming Project and their post: Why Vertical Farms Fail. This is an unusual post as it is brutally honest. It is therefore, extremely useful. It is a summary of a panel discussion which you can find by following the link in the show notes.
There are three main points the post brings to light: 1) If you can’t sell it, don’t grow it! 2) Focus on trying to do one thing well and 3) scissor lifts and why they don’t work.
Let’s look at these one at a time. If you can’t sell it don’t grow it! This is certainly the case when the growing system is seeds in one end and food out the other. Knowing your market is essential given the higher costs of land in urban settings which is where we find most vertical farms. This is generally a good idea anyway but there will be times when produce cannot be sold for whatever reason. A plan “B: is essential. In a traditional smallholding unsaleable produce is generally turned into pigmeat of some sort. Depending upon the produce it can also go to feed dairy cows, dairy goats beef cattle, sheep and or rabbits. Clearly this is not an option for most vertical farms so correct market analysis is essential.
Item 2) Focus on trying to do one thing well. Seems obvious but if you got step one wrong, being good a growing something nobody wants, whilst personally gratifying is not a long term sustainability option for the enterprise! The blog points out that they are producing half a dozen income streams themselves at present but are looking to specialise in just one. Be that providing seedlings for others, servicing restaurants or something else the final goal is to specialise. I can see the sense in this and also the dangers. Growing vertically, indoors removes the weather variations inherent in other farming systems. It does not remove the market fluctuations and food fashions. So I guess you makes your choice and lives with the outcome! Now, and I know you’ve all been waiting for point 3: scissor lifts and why they don’t work. I’m afraid you’re going to have to click through to discover why this is the case. Links, as ever, in the show notes.
Now we move from a production method which attempts to control as many variables as possible to one which attempts to work with variables and create a surplus through them. I’m talking about Permaculture and a post from Mortal Tree entitled: Orchard understory. It provides a list of companion plants for orchards. In permaculture, the idea is for each plant or animal in the system to provide at least two services. Bees, pollinate and provide honey, apple trees provide apples and blossoms for bees and windfalls to feed pigs and so on. This interlocking of species, services and returns is one of the keys to the philosophy. The more of these supporting, interlocking combinations we can engineer into our food systems the more stable they become and just as importantly, the more productive they become.
Now this philosophy can be employed in a backyard, a sheep station or, as in this case, an orchard. To further explain the interlocking and companion nature of the orchard understory I think a quote is helpful.
Quote:
Here are 5 important roles companion plants can play in the orchard: Living Mulches produce large quantities of organic matter that can be cut back to decompose around tree bases, enriching the soil. Dynamic Accumulators have long taproots that bring up minerals from deep subsoil. Cut foliage throughout the season to break down around trees, creating dark nutrient-dense soil. Nitrogen-Fixers transform nitrogen from the air to the soil where it can be absorbed by tree roots. Beneficial Insect Accumulators contain nectar sought by predatory insects (aka beneficial insects, including braconid wasps, syrphid flies, and lacewings) that feed on fruit-tree pests. BIAs also attract orchard pollinators. Pest Confusers have bitter aromas that deter and confuse insect pests from eating fruit.
End Quote.
They level of detail is impressive. The outcomes are too. Remember the word Permaculture is blending of Permanent and Agriculture and also that counter intuitively, the more complex the system, the more stable it becomes.
So we have seen two different approaches to food production this week. One attempts to control for as many variables as possible and the other tries to create as many variables and fall back systems within each system that it can handle change. I lean more towards the latter but I can see the place for urban vertical farming. Maybe we need both!
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Why Vertical Farms Fail | The Urban Vertical Farming Project
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eqj
Orchard understory – Mortal Tree
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eq8
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Conventional not Organic Farmers Should Pay a Premium | Positive Health Leadership
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-emE
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 8th of March 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we begin with a very interesting notion: Conventional not Organic Farmers Should Pay a Premium from the blog: Positive Health Leadership.
This is an idea that’s been rolling round in the back of my mind for sometime.
From the post:
Quote:
Currently, organic farmers pay a premium to grow and sell organic food – while conventional farmers pay nothing additional. This also translates to a higher cost to consumers for organic food. Thus it is a deterrent from buying or growing organic food. Despite the premium costs associated with organic foods, reports suggest purchases of organic foods are growing dramatically, over 100% per year.
End Quote.
There’s more to this than meets the eye!
A further quote:
Quote:
From a systems perspective, organic farmers are a positive contributing interdependent component of the whole system. Organic farmers improve the system while contributing to it, by providing healthy food to humans, without taking away from the whole system. Conventional farmers on the other hand are not able to function without getting external inputs in the form of petroleum fertilizers to be able to produce their output. The fertilizers then hurt the whole system in many ways such as contributing to climate change, leaching carbon, and by hurting other species such as bee’s and in many other ways.
End Quote.
To all these points we can add: the long term health costs of obesity and type 2 diabetes; the probable link between glyphosate and cancers, the known links between organophosphates and organochlorines and cancers. And those last two chemicals are persistent in the environment taking generations to decompose to safer compounds. Then we can add in the unaccounted for, financially, carbon effects of manufacturing and transporting pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers.
These health costs are not included in the cost of food because in most governing systems agriculture and health are separate departments. A silo effect takes over and as an example from here in Australia and I imagine elsewhere in the world, salmonella is endemic in the guts and housing systems used to produce chicken meat. Rather than the Departments of Primary Industry financing a cull of infected birds and systems it is left up to the Department of Health and the Food Safety Authority to enforce strict cooking controls to ensure the salmonella is destroyed just prior to consumption.
I know, this is ridiculous. It exposes so many more people, from the stock handlers to the factory processors to the cooks and then exposes the public if an error occurs in the cooking process. If anyone is infected, the health systems bears the cost.
And if you want to produce organic food for sale you need to pay a rent to an authority who will allow you to put a logo on your food. If you wish to continue depleting soil carbon, encouraging erosion, over producing a commodity (in the USA and the EU at any rate) you will be paid a subsidy to do so.
Quote:
If polluters paid a premium, the system would change from encouraging the use of polluting methods to supporting, encouraging, nurturing and reinforcing health promoting practices. Such a change could have dramatic positive effects on the quality of our personal and planetary health. This change would also make organic, not petroleum laced food, the less expensive and natural, or default choice.
End Quote.
So what’s to be done. We can lobby, annoy, become the squeaky wheel and make life as difficult as possible for the non-organic sector. We can buy organic, grow your own, swap seeds and still the Monsantos and Bayers of this world seem to steam roll along. I see a time coming, however, where the mounting evidence will overwhelm even the legal departments and the lobbyist’s cash. We can must support independent science, we must stand behind those doing the detective work. Too many have been attacked and vilified using the “Tobacco is healthy” playbook from the 20th century.
There is change coming and any of us who witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall, the dissolution of the USSR and the economic rise of China can simultaneously see both the suddenness of change and the years of work to bring it about. We are and have been since WW2 fighting against chemical oil based food systems and the data is well and truly in, now we fight the entrenched interests, the political inertia and then we win!
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Conventional not Organic Farmers Should Pay a Premium | Positive Health Leadership
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-emE
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Five Notable Organic Gardening Methods | Garden Variety
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ej0
Keyhole Garden Images https://www.google.com.au/search?q=keyhole+gardens&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU695AU695&espv=2&biw=1296&bih=648&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjiyL_c8aTSAhXKjpQKHfEgCuQQ_AUIBigB
Hugelkultur Images
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=keyhole+gardens&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU695AU695&espv=2&biw=1296&bih=648&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjiyL_c8aTSAhXKjpQKHfEgCuQQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=hugelkultur&*
Lasagna Garden Images
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Deep+Mulch+Gardening&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU695AU695&espv=2&biw=1296&bih=648&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiY7JD98qTSAhVDtpQKHQPbAWIQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=+Lasagna+Gardening
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 27th of February 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we focus upon five gardening ideas! These come from the blog post: Five Notable Organic Gardening Methods by Garden Variety.
Four of these techniques are no-dig and one involves intensive digging. I assume by now you know my preference is for no-dig but I realise there are people out there happy to bend their backs and turn the soil.
We’ll begin with the digging system: French Intensive Gardening. The post gives a good description of the process.
Quote:
The French Intensive Gardening method was re-established in a two acre garden plot just outside of Paris in the late 1800’s. The purpose was to grow an abundance of vegetables year round in a several mid-sized growing beds for the home and markets. Generally, a wide bed (5ft in width) is dug approximately 12 inches in depth. The soil from this bed is placed to the side. At the bottom of the trench, the soil is turned another 12 inches and then loosened with a sturdy garden fork and 1/3 yard of compost added. An additional bed is dug utilizing this same technique. After this is done, put the reserved soil from the first bed is placed back into the trench and mixed with 1/2 yard of compost (or manure).
End Quote.
This double digging and moving soil about can be done within the confines of a single bed. A spade’s width of soil is removed at one end. The soil under it is dug and loosened. The next spade width of soil is turned onto the first and the second dug and loosened and so on until the end of the bed is reached and the first soil removed is added to the last spade width of the garden bed. Manures and compost being added throughout the process.
As you can see this system requires a large amount of effort and it comes from a time when labour costs, let alone personal time costs, were much lower. The idea of double digging was to aerate the soil and to bury potential weed seeds. The bed was left bare to the elements until the plantings covered the surface area.
The system works and is productive. It provided food all year round and that’s a good starting point for any system. Sorry you listeners in Canada, the Northern parts of the USA and Scandinavia. I won’t even glance at our listeners in Russia.
The annual soil turning and the surface of the garden bed left exposed seems to point against this method. I’ve heard it argued that this a good first year technique, especially when the soil is compacted and/or a pan have formed below the surface. Masanobu Fukuoka, of The One Straw Revolution, faced just this problem in his orchard. He overcame this not by digging but by broadcasting daikon radish seeds and allowing this three foot monster radishes to loosen the soil for him. Your choice.
Now to the no-dig methods.
We start with Keyhole Gardening. This system relies on a garden bed with a walkway cut into it. Usually circular in form The beds are uber raised to waist level. The post explains:
Quote:
Keyhole Gardening was introduced in Africa by the Consortium for Southern Africa Food Security Emergency (C-SAFE) to help ailing and frail Africans grow their own produce with minimum effort by means of a specialized raised bed. The bed, which is waist high and in the shape of a keyhole, allows for standing and leaning for long periods and is built using stacked rocks, bricks, wood or pieces of concrete. A compost bin is placed in the center of the bed and as material breaks down, the resulting composted nutrients are added to the soil.
End Quote.
There is much to recommend this system. The appealing circular nature of the beds is great for setting it’s size to the reach of the gardener. Circles aren’t overly efficient in space use but maybe you could interconnect hexagonal beds like a beehive? Anyway I’ve provided a link to the google images page for keyhole gardens in the show notes.
Now we come to Hügelkultur!
Quote:
Hügelkultur (a German word for hill mound) is a growing method that is believed to have originated from Eastern Europe thousands of years ago. Widely utilized by permaculture enthusiasts, it is based on the concept of natural occurring decomposition of plant material in forests; ergo fallen trees, branches and other plant material which over time has decayed and created a healthy biomass of rich hummus. The process of layered debris is continuous thus creating an organic, lush, green ecosystem teeming with beneficial life.
End Quote.
I believe this system is also good for extending the growing season as the heat generated by the decomposing pile of organic material maintains a level of warmth into Autumn/Fall. I saw a man using these gardens in mountainous country when frosts can arrive at most times of the year. It takes some time and effort to set up a hugelkultur garden but the work tends to be maintenance over time rather than a re-start each year. I’m not sure how long these garden last but I’m assuming five years as a minimum. Again I’ve put a link to images of Hugelkultur gardens in the show notes.
Onto Deep Mulch Gardening.
Quote:
The Deep Mulch Gardening method was made popular by gardening expert Ruth Stout in the 1960’s, offers a low maintenance-no work philosophy. Garden beds are covered in large amounts of hay, straw, leaves, pine needles, sawdust and vegetable waste periodically to create a barrier to deter weeds and enriching existing soil underneath as it gradually decomposes. When starting a new bed, it is recommended to mulch at least 8 inches thick over a planting area.
End Quote.
This system can be used on top of the French Intensive beds if you’ve given up on digging. The idea is to mimic Nature, always a good starting point, by laying an 8 to 12 inch (20 to 30cm) layer on the garden bed as per the floor of a forest. Idea is to save the soil from temperature extremes and drying out alternating with flooding. The mulch acts as a sort of leveling tool for water flow. Mulch also attracts biota to both live within it and to assist in its decomposition. I’ve used urine soaked goat bedding as a mulch over yellow very sandy soil. Within one growing season the soil was black, rich in humus and at least 18 inches, (50cm) deep. I can, therefore, confirm this system works.
A variation on this system is the Lasagna Garden.
Quote:
The Lasagna Gardening movement was conceived by Patricia Lanza and is a method of layering compostable material on top of a planting area to form a large mound which, over time, will decompose into viable and loamy soil and compost. The material normally used for layering is wet newspapers, peat moss, sand, compost, grass clippings, shredded leaves and wood ash.
End Quote
This is a more formal version of the deep mulch system. First year production can be less than expected but not necessarily so. Either way, production increases each year as the material decomposes and feeds the soil. As with the other no-dig systems, Lasagna gardens need to be topped up each year with organic materials. This is a whole easier than double digging. If we let the soil systems do the work for us, we will find they do so 24 hours a day every day of the year. If we keep the soil covered, not with plastic but with organic matter, we will protect it, we will be nurturing it and it will support us in return.
A link to the google images page for Lasagna gardening is in the show notes.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Five Notable Organic Gardening Methods | Garden Variety
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ej0
Keyhole Garden Images https://www.google.com.au/search?q=keyhole+gardens&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU695AU695&espv=2&biw=1296&bih=648&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjiyL_c8aTSAhXKjpQKHfEgCuQQ_AUIBigB
Hugelkultur Images
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=keyhole+gardens&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU695AU695&espv=2&biw=1296&bih=648&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjiyL_c8aTSAhXKjpQKHfEgCuQQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=hugelkultur&*
Lasagna Garden Images
https://www.google.com.au/search?q=Deep+Mulch+Gardening&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU695AU695&espv=2&biw=1296&bih=648&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiY7JD98qTSAhVDtpQKHQPbAWIQ_AUIBygC#tbm=isch&q=+Lasagna+Gardening
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
The Push & Pull Technology – Foolish Family Farm
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ehh
Push-Pull
http://www.push-pull.net/
Rice – Duck – Azolla – Fish Cultivation: An Example of Sustainable Farming – Foolish Family Farm
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ehk
The Azolla Foundation
http://theazollafoundation.org/features/rice-duck-azolla-loach-cultivation/
Paying Off the Farm! Regenerative Agriculture.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ehA
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 20th of February 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week the focus is upon creative thinking! Two posts from Foolish Family Farm on creative techniques based upon the observation of Nature get us started: The Push & Pull Technology and Rice – Duck – Azolla – Fish Cultivation: An Example of Sustainable Farming.
The Push-Pull Technology comes from sub-Saharan Africa. It uses plants to to create safe growing environments for cash crops.
Quote:
Stemborers, parasitic striga weeds and poor soil fertility are the three main constraints to efficient production of cereals in SSA.
End quote.
Cereals here refers to maize production. Understanding the life cycles of both the stemborers and the striga weed is essential in creating a defense against them.
Long Quote:
The technology involves intercropping maize with a repellent plant, such as desmodium, and planting an attractive trap plant, such as Napier grass, as a border crop around this intercrop. Gravid stemborer females are repelled or deterred away from the target crop (push) by stimuli that mask host apparency while they are simultaneously attracted (pull) to the trap crop, leaving the target crop protected. Desmodium produces root exudates some of which stimulate the germination of striga seeds and others inhibit their growth after germination. This combination provides a novel means of in situ reduction of the striga seed bank in the soil through efficient suicidal germination even in the presence of graminaceous host plants.
End Quote.
The two part nature of this approach appeals to me. Not only are the pests driven away from the cash crop, they are given alternative target crops which keeps them occupied. This is quite simply working with Nature not against it. The alternative is to wear the losses these “pests” cause or to spray insecticides and herbicides with all their inherent dangers to both the health of the farm workers and to the soil microbiome.
This sort of solution is only possible with a thorough understanding of the biology of the crops, the insects and the weeds. It is a long term solution without the quite considerable annual cost of poisons. A win/win situation for local people and soils. A not so good solution for the shareholders of poison companies.
There are links to the both the post and the Push-Pull website in the show notes.
The next solution comes from East Asia. Dr Furono has solved a series of problems in organic rice production by combining rice with ducks, fish and a water borne cover crop.
Quote:
The operations simultaneously raise Aigamo ducklings, loaches (a species of fish), rice and Azolla. The ducklings provide integrated pest management, replacing pesticides and herbicides by naturally controlling predaceous pest populations and digging up or eating competing weeds.
The loach and duck waste, combined with the nitrate fixing properties of Azolla, increase soil nutrition and maintain productivity levels that are comparable to conventional farming operations without the need for costly synthetic fertilizers. The Azolla plants can later be harvested for animal feed.
End Quote
Here we see through the lens of Permaculture, the concept of dual use. The fish and the ducks both eat pests and fertilise the paddys. The Azolla blocks the growth of unwanted plants and provides nitrogen fixing as well as proving cover crop and animal feed duties. Stacking these four species together creates an output greater than the sum of its parts. Again removing poisons from the system, allowing the earth to begin the process of cleaning herself through time. Healthier soil, healthier food, healthier people. What’s not to like?
A link to both the article and to the Azolla Foundation is in the show notes.
Now we come to the pointy end of regenerative agriculture where the theory and practice meets the reality of financing the whole thing.
Ridgedale Permaculture brings a series of video presentations but I will focus upon one: Paying Off the Farm! Regenerative Agriculture. This longish, by modern terms, video, 16 minutes, shows how the good folk at Ridgedale both financed their 10 ha, 25 acres and how they plan to be free and clear in five years. Barring droughts, floods, fires and pestilence they seem to be on a winner. They openly discuss their costings and income which is very generous of them. I would recommend you watch the entire video. It might just be the spark you need to make the leap into the organic farm you’ve always dreamt of.
A little forewarning! Next week will see the podcast as normal but the three following weeks I will be traveling through Ireland. I have a mobile recording setup so things should sound the same. Additionally I hope to speak with people who are getting their hands into the dirt of Ireland. I have a tentative booking with a beekeeper and another with a grower of tree based labyrinths. All in all I think I’ll have quite a bit of interesting content to share with you over then next few months. Not sure yet if these interviews will be added to the weekly podcast or published as supplements but they are coming so look out for them.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
The Push & Pull Technology – Foolish Family Farm
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ehh
Push-Pull
http://www.push-pull.net/
Rice – Duck – Azolla – Fish Cultivation: An Example of Sustainable Farming – Foolish Family Farm
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ehk
The Azolla Foundation
http://theazollafoundation.org/features/rice-duck-azolla-loach-cultivation/
Paying Off the Farm! Regenerative Agriculture.
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ehA
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Addressing smallholder farmers’ needs with green manure cover crops and agroforestry in Zambia
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eay
Improved manure management – getting more from a limited resource | Africa RISING
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ebT
Conservation agriculture – a system to adapt to climate variability and declining soil fertility in Zambia | Africa RISING
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-edg
Soil networks become more connected and take up more carbon as nature restoration progresses – Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eeh
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 13th of February 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This weeks focus is Small Holders!
I saw a graphic on facebook the other day showing the production from industrial farms Versus smallholders. 30% of the world's food production coming from the industrial sector and 70% from smallholders.
This is a sector in need of support. Starvation or rather the threat of starvation tends drive systems to stability. If we change something we might well starve next winter. This is quite understandable yet something over which we have no control is changing, The Climate.
Watching an edition of Landline on the ABC last month I heard a farmer here in Australia telling the interviewer he was certain the climate was changing. His evidence? Silage making used to start in the first week of November, late Spring. Now He starts in the last week of August, two and a half months earlier. Even Alice Springs, in the dead centre of the Australian Continent is now regularly receiving rain during winter. So when the people on the ground can see the changes we need to take heed.
Smallhalodings are more resilient as a rule. They have greater tree cover, deeper soils full or organic matter and are by their nature not monocultural. A variety of crops and livestock are kept. This means some form of production will always occur barring a ten year drought. And these are happening too.
The blog Africa RISING brings us three posts: Addressing smallholder farmers’ needs with green manure cover crops and agroforestry in Zambia, Conservation agriculture – a system to adapt to climate variability and declining soil fertility in Zambia & Improved manure management – getting more from a limited resource.
The danger for smallholders is the enticement of the petrochemical industry and the call of “The West”. Perhaps fortunately inorganic fertilisers are 3 to 5 times the price they are in Europe. Growing as if these fertilisers had been applied but not doing so depletes the soil and leads inevitably to the collapse of the system. A poverty trap of enormous proportions.
Africa RISING provides a solution. An example from Zambia:
Quote:
In Eastern Province of Zambia, farmers are being offered a range of solutions by Africa RISING that provide a way out of this poverty trap. These technologies, options, and approaches include drought- and stress-tolerant maize germplasm, conservation agriculture (CA), improved rotation and intercropping with grain legumes, agroforestry, and green manure cover crops.
End Quote.
In effect, apart from the seed selection options, a return to the traditional smallholder’s way of farming.
That being said, pretty much the entire globe is now trapped in a money system of some sort. The need for income has also driven many mixed livestock/cropping smallholders to feed off crop residues rather than leave them on the soil surface to protect that precious resource.
Quote:
The use of CA (CA = Conservation Agriculture) principles (minimum soil disturbance, crop residue retention, and diversification through rotation and intercropping) hinges on the ability of farmers to retain sufficient surface crop residues to protect the soil from erosion, runoff, evaporation, and excessive temperatures. However, farmers in mixed crop-livestock systems face competing demands for these residues because they also feed them to their animals. Green manure and selected agroforestry species are therefore grown to improve the soil, generate biomass for ground cover, and provide fodder; some also produce high protein grain for food, feed, or for sale on the market.
End Quote
This is the way I’d like to see more of the world’s agronomic resources put to use. It overlaps rather nicely with the methods and principles of Permaculture.
And the system has been tested in the fire of El Nino.
Quote:
Conservation agriculture systems have been successfully tried and tested in eastern Zambia since 2011. More than 20,000 farmers have been exposed to CA by SIMLEZA-Africa RISING, the predecessor project of Africa RISING, which continues to sensitize and train more farmers. Farmers benefitted from increased use of CA technologies by gradually increasing crop yields leading to a solid yield benefit of 117% (1942 kg/ha) in a manually direct seeded maize crop following cowpea as compared with the conventional practice in the 2014/2015 cropping season. Rip-line seeding led to a 109% yield benefit (1993 kg/ha) as compared to the conventionally tilled practice. It is the years with seasonal dry-spells and erratic rainfall, such as this last El Niño year, where CA provides its greatest benefits to smallholder farming systems.
End Quote.
This stuff works, this will feed the world without any doubt. I used to think some large broad acre grain producers may be needed to cover severe drought and flood conditions. Upon reflection and through a real estate search of north western Europe I discovered nearly every village had a grain mill, local varieties of wheat were grown, well, locally. A return to this sort of diversification may be still be an option. Either way a workable transport system is essential to move foods from areas of surplus to those of deficiency.
The principles of Conservation Agriculture are well established as workable. The previous quote showed how it can be introduced: by running it next to paddocks not using the CA principles. Seeing is believing.
Our last article this week is from the blog Permie Flix. They tend to specialise in Permaculture related videos but this is a written post. Soil networks become more connected and take up more carbon as nature restoration progresses.
These underground systems just become more fascinating for me with each passing article. Not only do these fungal communities communicate between trees, pass nutrients in exchange for sugar they also sequester carbon! I wonder what would happen if we ended deforestation and then started reafforestation? Do you think we could first ameliorate and then reverse the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? It’s almost as if the great forests of the world act as a buffer to atmospheric variations. Who'd have thunk it?
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Addressing smallholder farmers’ needs with green manure cover crops and agroforestry in Zambia
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eay
Improved manure management – getting more from a limited resource | Africa RISING
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ebT
Conservation agriculture – a system to adapt to climate variability and declining soil fertility in Zambia | Africa RISING
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-edg
Soil networks become more connected and take up more carbon as nature restoration progresses – Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-eeh
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Agroecology: A Multifacted Solution | The Green Economist
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e8p
Eating from the Garden | smallholding dreams
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e9U
Grid Storage Reality | Power For USA
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ea1
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 6th of February 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
The blog smallholding dreams brings us a post: Eating from the Garden. This post addresses the alleged shortage in the UK of courgettes, that’s zucchinis for everyone outside France and the UK and Iceberg lettuces.
Quote:
Apparently, there is a shortage of iceberg lettuce and courgettes in the shops – um duh of course there is, it is winter. Seriously people, what happened to eating seasonal, local food?
End Quote.
What indeed? We had a similar situation here during the drought of 80-85 when farmers weren’t able to feed themselves let alone their stock. This was an “ah ha” moment for me. Somewhere between settlement and the post war “get big or get out” wave sweeping through agriculture, our farmers, at least enough of them, had moved from homesteaders to agribusinesses.
Yet the effort and space required to grow our own food is really quite small.
Quote:
You really don’t need a lot of time (or space) to grow veggies, I work full time at the day job and at weekends I am the shepherd, beekeeper, dog (and goat) trainer, chick-hatcher cheese-maker and chicken killer/butcher here on the smallholding as well as growing all our fruit and veggies. It is amazing what you can do with a few hours a week.
End Quote.
Even in a suburban setting, vegetable production is not that difficult. We did it a few summers back on a four radius circular garden. By having your food at hand, you just need to pick the number of lettuce leaves you need for each meal. The same thing applies to silverbeet, spinach and so on. Beans and peas keep producing, pretty much as long as you keep picking them. Zucchini and squash produce so heavily you’ll get sick of eating them. One square metre of rocket can be trimmed in strips and it will continually regrow.
Yes, this gardening will likely lead to chicken ownership and we all know chickens are the gateway stock to small mammals but that’s not a bad thing.
In fact, before you know you too will be dreaming of a smallholding.
The blog The Green Economist brings a post entitled: Agroecology: A Multifaceted Solution. They make the interesting point in regards Asia and sub-saharan Africa.
Quote:
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), smallholder farms provide up to 80 percent of the food supply in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Although farmers work small plots of land (average size is 2 hectares), they produce a variety of crops with high yields and very few inputs such as manufactured fertilizer.
End Quote.
Agroecology may be answer for all the world. Small area farms, 2 hectares, or 5 acres in the old money, can produce an enormous amount of food. Feeding not just the farmers but sustaining nearby urban settlements. By staying small, the workload for each farm is not excessive but incomes can be.
A turnover of $100,000 per acre is not unheard of in the developed economies. In that situation, four acres are put to animal husbandry to enrich and maintain the acre of produce.
The article goes on to document the application of agroecology in Uganda. Well worth a full if you feel so inclined.
Hand in hand with clean food, produced by viable farmers we need a solution to our energy dilemma. Whilst renewables are now the least expensive way to generate power, the question of storage is continually thrown up in argument against a fully renewable system.
The blog Power For USA with their post: Grid Storage Reality provides a workable solution.
Quote:
There currently is 20,000 MW of pumped storage in the United States, with the potential for an additional 31,000 MW. While substantial, it still falls far short of the storage capacity needed to eliminate a large portion of fossil fuel generating capacity.
End Quote.
Yet this is both workable and is working. A similar system is in place in Scotland and another is being built in Queensland, Australia. Basically pumped storage relies upon the potential energy of a mass at a higher altitude over one at a lower altitude. Water is held in a reservoir. This reservoir is connected by pipes and pumps to a reservoir at a higher altitude, that is, up hill. In the Queensland example an old gold mine contains the two reservoirs. As excess power is generated, say from solar panels during the day, that excess is used to run pumps and drive the water from the lower to the upper reservoir. At night, when demand exceeds supply, the water runs back into the lower reservoir turning the pumps “backwards” so to speak, turning them from pumps to generators.
This is old, well tested, mature technology. We’ve had hydroelectric power for over a century. The hydro parts of this system are proven. The setup in Scotland has been running for at least ten years and is also proven. In that case they use off peak, that is cheaper electricity, to drive the water uphill and they sell electricity to the grid when the prices are higher. It is a simple matter to replace “off peak” with renewable energy.
What’s stopping us? The usual, vested interests, financing, the urgency for the need to change hasn’t dawned yet, who knows what else? We can do this, we can “make do” with current level of battery technology and use that to cover the gaps pumped storage can’t cover. Batteries will continue to improve but we have a technology we can use now. The more quickly we move the better.
On this technology and on the ideas of agroecology discussed earlier. We can make the leap from polluting to clean, we can make the leap from centralised food distribution to individual food sovereignty. Indeed
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
Agroecology: A Multifacted Solution | The Green Economist
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e8p
Eating from the Garden | smallholding dreams
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e9U
Grid Storage Reality | Power For USA
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-ea1
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Bacteria Surf the Fungal Web – Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e5R
Endless economic growth – Joy of Reading
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e6p
Let’s all build an environmental mindset. – The Food Geographer
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e6s
Quote:
-
Food growing – volunteer at an urban farm
-
Vegetarian cooking – ask someone to teach you
-
How to make your home more sustainable – turn your apartment into a garden!
-
Recycling schemes in your area – contact your Council, support Hubbub’s new coffee cup campaign
-
Air pollution – plant more trees, sign a campaign every week
-
Wildlife conservation – vertical farming, or identifying bird songs to help conservation
-
Improving public transport and biking – write a letter to your government rep.
-
Young people and education – learn how to teach or host workshops at school
End Quote.
World Organic News No-dig gardening book
Sustainable House: click here
Zero Waste Movement
The Real Food Chain
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 30th of January 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week’s show marks the one year anniversary of the podcast! Those of you who have been with us from the beginning, thanks, and to those you have joined us on the way, also thanks. It is an humbling and gratifying thing to see the stats improve over the year. It is also very motivating so, once again, thanks to all my listeners.
A post from Permie Flix this week seemed appropriate for the one year anniversary: Bacteria Surf the Fungal Web. Regular listeners will know my obsession with the fungal webs beneath forest communities and our need to preserve these structures from clear felling and ploughs. This video from the Scientific American Blog shows actual bacteria travelling along these fungal super highways. The video is only 1 minute 31 seconds long but seeing the bacteria moving along these fungal pathways will change the way you see the world forever. So much goes on underground, out of sight and until recently, out of mind. We are just scratching the surface on this world, pun intended. Have a look and change your life! Link in the show notes.
In contrast to this system of balance and flow comes a post from the blog: Joy of Reading entitled: Endless economic growth.
Quote:
The Western monopoly capitalist paradigm that allows big money to chase after more for the profit of the few, using Mother Earth as a disposable factor of production, is neither sustainable nor logical based on modern science and natural law.
End Quote.
I’ll admit this sounds a little Malthusian but I can live with that. The point is well made. Converting Nature into, not so much pieces of paper with an agreed value of exchange but now into arrangements of electrons to do the same job does seem like a fool’s errand. Many people no longer live in poverty as a result of this system but it is possible to, and I would, argue their poverty was a result of the system in the first place.
There is change afoot.
Quote:
Endless economic growth based on finite natural resources is finished. It is a mind-centered egotistical fantasy to thrive at the expense of other Nations.
The death of the paradigm has already begun.
End Quote.
To follow on from this blog The Food Geographer brings us a call to action: Let’s all build an environmental mindset.
Quote:
I have found myself in a situation that I think many people are in: Caring about the environment, but feeling paralysed by the enormity of the task at hand, and how ‘little’ they feel in comparison.
End Quote.
This sums up our dilemma succinctly. Yet thefoodgeographer provides solutions:
Quote:
I think what we need is a mindset shift, which will then lead to an action shift. Here are my simple suggestions:
Remember that, unless you are the next Gandhi, you alone cannot change the entire world.
End Quote.
So we each can do a little. In so doing we will discover the next Seymour, Mollison or Fukuoka. Thefoodgeographer suggests skills we could learn, improve on and/or pass onto others:
Quote:
-
Food growing – volunteer at an urban farm
-
Vegetarian cooking – ask someone to teach you
-
How to make your home more sustainable – turn your apartment into a garden!
-
Recycling schemes in your area – contact your Council, support Hubbub’s new coffee cup campaign
-
Air pollution – plant more trees, sign a campaign every week
-
Wildlife conservation – vertical farming, or identifying bird songs to help conservation
-
Improving public transport and biking – write a letter to your government rep.
-
Young people and education – learn how to teach or host workshops at school
End Quote.
Now we could call this the Noble Green Eightfold Path to save ourselves and our communities.
Let’s examine each of these in turn.
- Food growing, my eBook on no-dig gardening is a great starting point, even though self praise is faint praise, I am quite proud of it. Click here. We can all grow some food and surprisingly large amounts of it in small areas. Local urban and community gardens and farms are also ways into this wonderful activity.
- Vegetarian cooking, a simple google search will help if you are driven in this direction.
- A sustainable home is possible. Even a more sustainable home is a good start. Michael Mobbs in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia has done it and will show you how: Click Here. He lives off grid in an inner suburban terrace house. He generates his own energy and much of his own food. So it really is doable.
- Recycling, this is so 1970s I shouldn’t even have to mention it. Maybe a look at the Zero Waste Movement might help.
- Air Pollution. All pollution in fact is a problem. Think of Bill Mollison’s quote: Waste is a resource is the wrong place. Starting there can and will change the world dramatically.
- Wildlife conservation is as much a given as recycling, I’d have thought but to that we add the specialisation of pollinator protection. No bees, little food variation. Pineapples, wheat, rice and potatoes. Not much of a diet. So this is an area we call make a difference.
- Public transport, pushbikes and so on as well as the move to electric vehicles helps. Provided the electricity is green, this will also help with #5, air pollution.
- Youth, it’s a cliche to say they are the future but educating children on these matters works. Way back in 1972, I had a teacher who, I see now, while a sufferer of anxiety, instilled in me the path towards this podcast. It all started with the wastefulness and pointlessness of coloured toilet paper. Yes such a thing did and I assume may still exist. Simple changes seem to make the biggest differences. After all, white toilet paper and even recycled white-ish toilet paper is much better for checking bowel health as well as planetary health. So, little things in the minds of children can have exponential change.
So there we have a Green manifesto and a set of steps to save the world. Let’s aim high!
To that end a friend and colleague of mine Rich Bowden and myself are starting a new podcast and blog in the near future. The Real Food Chain. There’s a link to the Facebook page in the show notes. The podcast will be interview based so keep your eye and ear out for that one. I’ll let you know when it launches.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in our second year next week.
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Bacteria Surf the Fungal Web – Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e5R
Endless economic growth – Joy of Reading
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e6p
Let’s all build an environmental mindset. – The Food Geographer
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e6s
Quote:
-
Food growing – volunteer at an urban farm
-
Vegetarian cooking – ask someone to teach you
-
How to make your home more sustainable – turn your apartment into a garden!
-
Recycling schemes in your area – contact your Council, support Hubbub’s new coffee cup campaign
-
Air pollution – plant more trees, sign a campaign every week
-
Wildlife conservation – vertical farming, or identifying bird songs to help conservation
-
Improving public transport and biking – write a letter to your government rep.
-
Young people and education – learn how to teach or host workshops at school
End Quote.
World Organic News No-dig gardening book
Sustainable House: click here
Zero Waste Movement
The Real Food Chain
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Urban wheat crop grown on Narrabri footpath provides bumper harvest - Rural News - ABC News
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dXH
The Benefits of Perennial Wheat – Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e2D
Why a Topbar Beehive? – Bee Conscious
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dY3
Where did Nature go? – human meets nature
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e0A
Rachel Carson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson
This is the World Organic News for the week ending 23rd of January 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week begin a man who took steps to save himself time and grow food in one action. Suburbia is known for its nature strips or lawns from the fence to the road. We can either turn these into food forests or mow them to comply with the middle class, lawn is king paradigm. Guy Roth from Narrabri in western New South Wales had a problem.
Quote:
I had nothing but khaki weed, pig weed and bindi-eye.
End quote.
I might add here the Guy Roth is also known as Dr Roth cotton researcher.
So faced with this the Roth family ploughed and planted wheat! That was back May 2016. In December, they harvested. The crop took some losses from cockatoos and other parrots but in the end he harvested 20 kilos of grain. That’s about 44 pounds in the old money. The good Dr plans to make some bread from the harvest. A link to this story is, of course, in the show notes.
Staying with wheat, the blog Permie Fix has a video post from Washington State University on that little known variation of wheat, Perennial Wheat. This is something that’s come up in an early podcast, I’m sure but this post let’s you see the stuff. Kevin Murphy, Assistant Research Professor narrates the video and explains the benefits and the drawbacks of this plant. The benefits? Less ploughing, fossil fuel usage, spraying and fertiliser use. The drawbacks? Mainly yield. The video is about the need for further research to increase yields through crop selection, testing in different climates and so on. A quick two minute video, so worth a look.
While we’re on the subject of slightly out of the box ideas, The blog Bee Conscious brings the post: Why a Topbar Beehive? Topbar? I hear you ask. Yes. We are, I’m sure all familiar with the Langstroth hives dotted around the globe. It is the favourite of commercial beekeepers. A mature technology, it’s limits and strengths are well known. The great advantage of the topbar design is its closer approximation to natural conditions. That said, the greatest worry with a topbar is the possibility of cross combing. That is each vertical sheet of comb not remaining independent of its neighbour. If the space between cobs exceeds the “bee space” the bees will attempt to fill the space with comb. So the initial setup and measurements for a topbar are critical. That done, the output from a topbar hive is different from the langstroth. The latter is designed for honey production and very little else. The top bar still produces honey but also beeswax. In the langstroth the comb is supplied and the bees fill it. In the topbar a line of wax is provided and the bees build the comb of this. It also then available for harvesting. In the langstroth system the comb is uncapped and left in the frames after the honey is spun out.
I have read that it is possible for the langstroth frames to accumulate pesticides in the “permanent” frames whereas this can’t occur with the topbar system as the wax is replenished each year. But having to build combs means less energy/time for honey collection. You makes your choice and lives with the decision.
human meets nature brings us a post of great import: Where did Nature go? The image of Rachel Carson at the top of the post sets the tone. For those of you who may not have heard of Rachel Carson, she published Silent Spring back in the 1960s which showed the reality of the bioaccumulation of DDT in the environment and its effect on eggshell thickness amongst other things. I’ve placed a link in the show notes if you’d like to know more.
Back to Where did Nature go? The author, not political in nature, has noticed something from the past couple of years.
Quote:
---there has been three huge political issues in the last couple of years that even I couldn’t miss. The first was the Scottish independence referendum – I’m Scottish so that was very much unmissable! Second was Brexit and third is the ongoing drama of the impending Trump presidency.
More than the political back and forth, the in-fighting and one-upmanship I’ve been struck by the absence of one key issue, thee key issue, during these debates – the relationship between humans and nature and the worsening environmental crisis.
End Quote.
Well might we ask: Where Did Nature Go? Particularly with the removal of all mentions of climate change from the White House web site on the day of inauguration. Yet the post ends on a positive note which I think we all need at the moment.
Quote:
Nature just isn’t sexy, yet; but I don’t believe that people don’t care, they do. In many cases our hands feel tied because of the societal and power structures that we exist within. We are at a tipping point, things are changing rapidly; things can change for the better, but only if we give it the attention it requires. It’s said that whatever we give attention to will grow. Let’s hope that the political spectacle will soon calm down and our attention will be drawn back to the most fundamental of human concerns – our very survival, and the survival of all that enchants our lives in this place.
End Quote.
I would disagree with “Nature just isn’t sexy” but otherwise I concur. Let’s get out there and hassle our elected representatives until they have no choice but to respond. We seem to be living in a time of change so let’s drive it!
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard,could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
WORLD ORGANIC NEWS in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Urban wheat crop grown on Narrabri footpath provides bumper harvest - Rural News - ABC News
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dXH
The Benefits of Perennial Wheat – Permie Flix
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e2D
Why a Topbar Beehive? – Bee Conscious
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dY3
Where did Nature go? – human meets nature
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-e0A
Rachel Carson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Carson
Links
World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Composting:
Composting 101: Take One | Zero Waste McMinnville
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dVC
Composting: 101 – Rustic Edibles
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dVJ
THE USE OF THE VERMICULTURE – micelasite
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dWE
brewing compost tea. | Dank47
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dWX
Journey to Forever - Composting
https://journeytoforever.org/compost.html
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 16th of January 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
Compost! Yes for our listeners in the snowy, frozen parts of the Northern Hemisphere, now is the time to be composting. Spring is on its way, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
This week has seen quite a few posts on the gentle art of composting.
From the blog Zero Waste McMinnville comes a post composting 101. An interesting background story where the author was introduced to recycling is instructive in itself. But it’s all about the composting this week. So the author has moved on from a plastic bucket.
Quote:
Our plastic container on the kitchen counter has recently been replaced by a designed compost bin. It has a filter and is easy to clean. With the lid kept in place there is no odor nor any enticement for fruit flies to gather.
End Quote.
Composting is about coming to terms with the flows of Nature. Smells and fruit flies are part of the deal. To keep ourselves healthy we must take measures like tight fitting lids and filters or remove the material from the house as quickly as possible. We are dealing with a living thing or more accurately a number of living things. The interconnectedness of these lives is what makes or breaks your compost. Composting in an aerobic process. That is, it occurs in the presence of oxygen. Anaerobic decomposition, without any oxygen, is used to produce biogas and that is whole other story.
Funnily enough the blog Rustic Edibles also has a post entitled Composting: 101. Rustic Edibles describes their method:
Quote:
We maintain our compost pile with vegetable and fruit scraps, egg and seafood shells, coffee and tea grounds, leaves, grass cuttings and cow manure. It’s also good to alternate layers of brown and green material in order to keep the pile healthy. And of course turning the pile is good for aeration although a compost pile on the ground does permit aeration from worms and other healthy organisms.
End Quote
Now there is much debate amongst composters and I have tried both methods, turning the pile and leaving it. I can’t see much difference in time or outcome but conduct your own experiments.
It’s a bit academic as I prefer to use a different method again: Vermiculture. That is the use of compost worms. I find the output from the worms a better matrix in which to plant but that’s just me, oh, and the blog micelasite with their post THE USE OF THE VERMICULTURE. The give a succinct but powerful explanation of the process and its benefits.
Quote
This method is simple, effective, convenient, and noiseless. It saves water, energy, landfills, and helps rebuild the soil. The worms ability to convert organic waste into nutrient-rich material reduces the need for synthetic fertilizers. We violate nature’s ability to complete the life cycle process when we send food down the garbage disposal, or bury it in a landfill. We deplete the soil and deprive nature from rehabilitating itself when we bypass this natural life cycle recycling process.
End Quote
Well put. Closing cycles is a merely matter of remembering the words of Bill Mollison: “Waste is simply a resource in the wrong place!”
And landfills and garbage disposals are probably two greatest wrong places we deposit resources.
In summary the post nails the advantages of vermiculture. (As an aside, this post was written by someone for whom English was not a first language. I will quote them verbatim.
Quote:
The Vermiculture has every more future day, since it helps the man to recycle the remains of most of the organic matters that it produces both of animal and domestic origin, avoiding the contamination and simultaneously helping him in the systems of agricultural, forest production and of gardening, putting at its disposal a product completely ecological and recognized like ideal for the food of any class of plants and germination of seeds.
End quote.
But wait there’s more!!!
Compost and vermicompost may also be used as the basis of a tea. brewing compost tea by Dank47 covers the first and probably only mistake you can make with compost tea: anaerobic digestion. Bubbling air through the water and the compost tea bag will ensure wild bacterial growth and wonder fertiliser! It really is good stuff.
So whether you turn your compost pile or don’t, whether you let compost worms do the decomposition for you or not and whether you make tea or not pick at least one method and do that.
A quote from the site “Journey To Forever” will inspire!
Quote:
It's estimated that a human with a compost fork and a watering-can, carefully piling up organic matter with the correct C/N ratio, water content and aeration so that it cooks away at high temperatures and emits jets of steam, can make as much topsoil in a year as nature can make in a century, and nature definitely approves.
End quote.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard,could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here
Composting:
Composting 101: Take One | Zero Waste McMinnville
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dVC
Composting: 101 – Rustic Edibles
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dVJ
THE USE OF THE VERMICULTURE – micelasite
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dWE
brewing compost tea. | Dank47
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dWX
Journey to Forever - Composting
https://journeytoforever.org/compost.html
Links
Australian Podcast Awards Click here
How organic farming will save us all – if we can throw away our antiquated notions of what it means | National Post
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dUo
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 8th of January 2017.
Jon Moore reporting!
The week, indeed, this year begins with an article from the National Post entitled: How organic farming will save us all – if we can throw away our antiquated notions of what it means. And the title says it all. We live in times of minutely defined identity. Each of us is encouraged to define ourselves as some combination of words that describes our family status, sexual orientation, voting intentions, lifestyle and who knows what else. That people have bought into this way of seeing themselves means they must also place others within a category or combination of categories. Hence I quote from the article:
Quote:
If there is a stereotype of the organic farmer it’s that they spend their days wrapped in droopy clothes made of hemp and burlap, becoming one with nature while foraging for chanterelles.
End quote.
The truth, of course, is much bigger than this. Yes there are organic farmers like those described but and I quote again from the article:
Quote:
Yet the reality of many organic farmers couldn’t be further from the truth. For those serious about agriculture free of synthetic chemicals, farming is a complex system that requires endless days of laborious work, with the potential to yield lucrative results.
End Quote.
Indeed the business of organic farming is as much a cerebral one as it is physical. A knowledge of so many disciplines is required: agronomy, entomology, soil science, animal husbandry, meteorology, algebra, accounting, hydrology, history and I could go on but will spare you. Quite often these things are just within the lifetime of each organic farmer’s experiences, sometimes they need to be studied.
The author, Claudia McNelly goes on to use one farm as an example. Brent Preston gave up an office job to grow food or as he is quoted later in the piece, grow soil.
Quote:
Well-managed, nutrient-dense soils are the guiding light to finding success in self-sustaining, organic agriculture. “It’s not just something that can be done for 10 years or 100 years until the soil is exhausted,” says Preston. “The goal is every year your soil is better than it was the year before.”
End quote.
Now we know, or should by now know, chemical based farming destroys soil health. Dead soil is just dirt and dirt blows away. The death of soil through chemical agriculture is, or usually is, a slow process. This is the deal with the devil I’ve discussed in earlier episodes. 1% soil loss of soil per year for increased short term returns. Unfortunately 1% per year is a compound interest situation. This means not much appears to be happening for five, ten maybe even twenty years but the bill will come due and these bills always come at the worst time. Drought, flood and/or fire seem to accompany these payments.
Cover crops, rotational grazing and cropping are all part of a system which grows soil. Again a lengthy quote:
Quote:
For millenniums(sic), crop rotation – the practice of moving crops and livestock around to ensure too much of one nutrient is never depleted – was the go-to method for maintaining soil health. During the Middle Ages, three-field rotation – a system where one field is allowed to rest every crop cycle – took over. This was the standard method of farming until less than a century ago, when increased food production became the goal. This meant that all available farmland would be put to use to grow crops.
End quote.
This meant that all available farmland would be put to use to grow crops. This was the deal with the devil. Not only was monoculture encouraged as scientific, the use of a single variety across all locations was encouraged or, in some locales, mandated from above. Locally adapted varieties were lost, generations of selection tossed into the dustbin of history. We still have time to retrieve some of these species but we must act quickly. We can also start the process of selecting for local varieties by using open pollinated, non hybrid varieties ourselves. Each season selects for the next, evolution is relentless and uncaring. We can work with it or be steam rolled by it.
Above all, organic farming is about people. Organic farms tend to be smaller than say, corn or wheat farms yet they are far more profitable on a per acre basis. Once cereal subsidies are removed, they become more so.
Quote:
Organic farms generate more money per acre than their conventional counterparts. Even though they are not as big, they are usually far more profitable. “The amount of money we generate per acre on the farm is many multiples per acre of what our neighbours produce growing cash crops,” says Preston. A well-run small-scale organic farm will generate somewhere in the neighbourhood of $40,000 gross sales per acre. Corn and soy, known as “cash-crops” generate an average of $300 per acre, according to a 2016 paper published by the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois.
End quote.
It is the huge number of acres planted to corn and soy which make them viable and which are destroying soil at an increasing pace across the globe.
In essence the difference between a broad acre monoculture and a small area organic farm is one of thought. Much more planning, thinking and pondering is required of the small area farmer than the broadacre ploughing enterprise. The latter may have fed the world during the 1960s and 1970s but it was the improvements in transportation world wide that did much more on that front. We have managed to grow more food than the world population needed since about 1850. Political indifference, poor transportation and wars are the reasons most people have starved. Ireland was, after all, exporting wheat to England as her citizens were starving to death during the potato famine.
Independant, small area farmers, Yeoman, if you like, have, throughout history been a troublesome, cantankerous class. A ballast against change, think of the lack of revolution in the UK in 1848, the cutting edge of revolution, the US war of independence and the manpower for classical Greek and Roman republican armies. These people are thinkers, they have to be to survive. Given the inane, mindless consumerism of our current “developed” world I would suggest we need cantankerous thinkers more than ever. Joel Salatin springs to mind. Our soils certainly need their care and attention. Take your position, even if you only grow a rosemary bush in a plant pot, you have made a statement. Annoy your representatives until we see the end of subsidies for big ag and those funds redirected to farmer’s markets, school ag education programs and a world of shorter, safer food supply chains. Nothing changes until those in power are forced to change. Let’s make our local food producers the new celebrities! Just think how different our world can be.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard,could please follow the link in the show notes and vote for World Organic News in the Australian Podcast Awards Click here Thanks in advance.
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
Australian Podcast Awards Click here
How organic farming will save us all – if we can throw away our antiquated notions of what it means | National Post
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dUo
2016 12 31
This the World Organic News yearly roundup episode. And what a year its been!
I’ve identified four broad themes to 2016. Let’s get into them
Firstly, Cities. Perhaps the most unlikely place to find farming but here it is. Rooftop, vertical, empty lot and balcony/terrace farming/gardening as well as the suburban homesteader all featured this year in the blog and on the podcast.
Small areas, intensively planted and thoughtfully custodianed can produce huge amounts of food. That people are doing this is a sign of our longing for real food. That people are doing it in cities is a sign the long, fossil fueled based, supply lines may not be as safe as we are led to believe. It is also a sign people are looking for flavour. An heirloom variety of tomatoes that grows well in container on a balcony will never be capable of bulk transportation across 1000s of kilometres. It will however have flavour to balance its inability to travel.
On a more industrial scale, the Japanese plan to open a fully automated vertical farm harvesting, initially, 1000s of lettuce a day before diversifying into other leafy vegetables. As I’ve stated elsewhere, peopleless farming doesn’t sit right with me but it is an option during famines, disaster relief and so on when the need to feed people is greater than the need for human interactions with food. I just realised that argument can be extended to feeding people at anytime yet peopleless farming still doesn’t sit right with me.
The urban/suburban homesteading movement continues apace as more individuals and families see the benefits of growing their own. The homesteading side of this movement usually involves some sort of animals to add to the mix. This allows manure collection and increased soil health and productivity. I’ve seen people growing rabbits on this scale but the usual and animal is the chicken! The good thing about chooks is they will give you manure and an egg a day whether you have a rooster or not. With a rooster comes the joys of breeding but in some council areas roosters also bring noise complaints. And remember kids, chickens are the gateway stock to larger animals! It is a very small step from hens to backyard goat!
The second theme for 2016 is biotech!
This year has seen Washington State sue Monsanto for residues in the environment and the Australian High Court reject an appeal from Steve Marsh against a contamination of his land by a neighbour’s GMO canola pollen. Mixed messages! Burkina Faso has dumped BT Cotton and returned to standard types. Still chemically grown but a step in the right direction. To add to this small step against Monsanto, the World Health Organization declared Monsanto’s flagship pesticide Roundup a probable carcinogen. Probable is one step down from carcinogenic. The reason why Roundup only received a probable rating is a lack of evidence. The WHO will continue to collect data and review its rating of Roundup as it does for all the declared probable carcinogens.
Perhaps more troubling is merger between Bayer and Monsanto. Two enormous biotech, chemical and seed producers merging into a huge corporation. Could they use this market power for good or does that word not enter into the economic considerations? The point of corporations is simply profit. Sad but true. Individuals in positions of power within corporations may consider things other than profit but people come and people go. The corporation or one very much like it will continue to live for nothing but profit. So it augers not well for the biosphere from this merger. We will have more to say on this in 2017, I’m sure.
As many of us have noted and the BBC statistical radio show “More or Less” proved, 2016 was a year of high profile deaths. The one which impacted the organic movement most strongly was, off course, the passing of Bill Mollison. Bill’s passing marked the loss of the last of the triumvirate who influenced my path into and through the organic movement. The other two being John Seymour and Masanobu Fukuoka. So a particularly deep loss not just me but for many. What can I say that has not already been said? This world is a lesser place without Bill. Yet his work lives on. I have yet to find a country, even war torn one, without permaculture. The genius of Mollison’s and Holmgren’s work is the universality of the method. Across climate zones from Desert to Jungle Permaculture both has a place and is being implemented as I speak. Truly a legacy we will only truly understand with passing of time.
Despite or, if you are of that persuasion, because of, the political changes in 2016, World Organic News still believes there is room for hope in this world. We have the tools to feed the world. Feed the world healthy food which not only does not damage the biosphere but actually heals it. We have a rising number of young farmers across the developed world for the first time in generations and they are overwhelming organic practitioners. Do we see the start of a truly grassroots movement? World Organic News hopes so.
On another positive note, the positive outcomes from Paris COP20 in 2015 to Morocco COP21 there is a path forward on climate change. Even if we weren’t facing the challenges of climate change, a move to fossil fuel free economies would still make sense. The pollution from the fossil fuel industry will take centuries to remediate and that time is continuously being pushed back as we cling to this dirty fuel.
Perovskite solar cells continue to set new efficiency records, silicon solar cells are now the cheapest form of energy production. Despite the politically based claims against climate change one thing and one thing alone will drive both believers and skeptics and that is price. As economies of scale continue to kick in this price difference will only increase. Once this gains momentum the subsidies paid to fossil fuel producers will come under increasingly strong pressure. The question before us is one of timing. Can we make the transition in time?
There is also something we can all do. The organisation Kiss the Ground (https://www.kisstheground.com/) has a great series of videos explaining how, since about World War Two, carbon has been liberated from the soil and dispersed to the atmosphere. More importantly the videos explain how to move the carbon back to the soil.
And this is what organic methods can and will do! Surely this is hope enough to take us into 2017 with heads held high, ready to face the effects of our species’ actions and to do something about it!
I’ll be back on the 9th of January 2017 with a return to the weekly roundup of news, ideas and methods from the Organic World!
I am contractually required to mention that I have new microphone and hopefully the sound quality has improved. Let me know if you think it has improved.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
Perovskite solar cells hit new world efficiency record « Great Things from Small Things .. Nanotechnology Innovation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dzn
Australia can get to zero emissions, as rooftop solar booms « Antinuclear
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dBb
Electricity Network Transformation Roadmap
http://www.energynetworks.com.au/electricity-network-transformation-roadmap
Detroit’s Sustainable “Agrihood” | Suzanne's Mom's Blog
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dzF
How soil is lost | Make Wealth History
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dD0
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 12th of December 2016.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we begin with news from the academy! Those curiously named solar cells perovskites have hit new efficiency levels. The blog: Great Things from Small Things .. Nanotechnology Innovation brings us the post: Perovskite solar cells hit new world efficiency record.
Quote:
They’re flexible, cheap to produce and simple to make – which is why perovskites are the hottest new material in solar cell design. And now, engineers at Australia’s University of New South Wales in Sydney have smashed the trendy new compound’s world efficiency record.
End Quote.
This is wonderful news. Non fossil fuel based energy is the way forward. After generations of research focused on fossil fuels, bright minds are now and have been for a while driving alternatives. Perovskites are quick and cheap to manufacture, increasingly efficient but do suffer from some stability issues in open weather. There are workarounds to overcome these issues. The increasing efficiencies may make these drawbacks irrelevant. The research continues and with it hope for the future.
Even using “standard” PV cells it is possible to make great advances. The blog Antinuclear brings us a post entitled: Australia can get to zero emissions, as rooftop solar booms. Funnily enough if the price signals are sufficiently strong and the technology serviceable, individuals will make decisions which collectively benefit us all. This is what’s happened in Australia with rooftop solar cells. To such an extent, the CSIRO can see them as Australia’s pathway to zero emissions.
Quote:
Consumers using rooftop solar panels and batteries will produce between a third and half of Australia’s electricity by mid-century if the right policies are introduced, according to a roadmap from the CSIRO and power and gas transmission body Energy Networks Australia.
The two-year analysis also found an emissions intensity scheme for the electricity sector – a form of carbon trading that was to be considered by a government climate policy review until that plan was abandoned on Tuesday afternoon – would be the cheapest way to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
End Quote.
The report suggested the entire electrical grid could be zero carbon emitting when rooftop solar is coupled with batteries by 2050. Whilst this doesn’t deal with road transport and other emitters of CO2, the grid is a great place to start.
Now we move onto another great news story.
Suzanne's Mom's Blog brings us the post: Detroit’s Sustainable “Agrihood”. Given the economic disasters which have befallen Detroit in the past thirty years, this post is one of great promise. As vast swathes of greater Detroit have been abandoned following the crisis of 2008, land has become available for alternative use. To be specific for food production. From the blog post:
Quote:
“This week, the Michigan Urban Farming Initiative (MUFI) revealed its plans for the first Sustainable Urban Agrihood in the North End.
“Wait, an agrihood? It’s an alternative neighborhood growth model, positioning agriculture as the centerpiece of a mixed-use development. There are some agrihoods around the country, but in rural areas. This is the first within a city.
End Quote.
From the great pains of economic downturn comes the possibility of a better way to live. Food grown where it is consumed, employment, renewal and a future. I recommend a reading of the whole post. It is uplifting.
How soil is lost is a post from the blog Make Wealth History. I think we’ve made the point in earlier episodes that without soil, we are in dire straights. This post reminds us of how precious this resource is and how we are losing it.
Quote:
....soil is a self-maintaining system. In nature, it looks after itself. When humans intervene with agriculture, the balance can be lost and the processes interrupted. Soil works in tandem with the vegetation that grows from it, as a mutually reinforcing dynamic. Plants need soil, and soil needs plants. Unfortunately, we tend to clear the land completely in order to choose what grows from it, breaking that cycle. Then we haul away what’s been grown, keeping the grain as food and baling up the stalks, rather than letting the soil re-absorb the nutrients. The result is a gradual loss of fertility, and we have to make up the difference with chemical fertilisers.
End Quote.
Given the long history of agriculture and its increased pace with population growth, we could be in for trouble. So far extreme soil losses have been relatively confined to nation states. Think The US Dust Bowl of the Great Depression and the dust storms from northern China covering Beijing with topsoil in the late 1990s.
The post though provides some sobering statistics:
Quote:
Globally, the equivalent of 10 million hectares of arable land is lost every year. In the last 150 years, we have lost half the world’s topsoil. When land is exhausted, farmers move on and start somewhere else. The FAO estimates that 20 million hectares of farmland is abandoned every year.
End Quote.
The good news is we can reverse this. Permaculture, Natural Farming, Agroforestry and Biodynamic methods to name but a few options we already know work and are productive and sustainable. Remember the US Dust Bowl was reversed through good soil retention techniques. We can reverse, indeed, we must reverse this trend whilst we can.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
Perovskite solar cells hit new world efficiency record « Great Things from Small Things .. Nanotechnology Innovation
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dzn
Australia can get to zero emissions, as rooftop solar booms « Antinuclear
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dBb
Electricity Network Transformation Roadmap
http://www.energynetworks.com.au/electricity-network-transformation-roadmap
Detroit’s Sustainable “Agrihood” | Suzanne's Mom's Blog
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dzF
How soil is lost | Make Wealth History
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dD0
Links
8 Easy Ways to Lead a More Sustainable Lifestyle – The Mindful Bunny
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dw2
USDA: Organic corn and soy more profitable than conventional crops despite higher costs http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dxz
How ancient wisdom can help us adapt to climate change | ideas.ted.com http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dxK
become a farmer in seven days | The One-cow Revolution http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dyA
Transcript
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 5th of December 2016.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we have a series of good news stories! Yes things are not ideal in the world and we’re all dealing with changes over which we have no control so let the good news begin!
The wonderfully named blog: The Mindful Bunny brings us a post: 8 Easy Ways to Lead a More Sustainable Lifestyle!
Like many of us the concept of sustainability can be overwhelming and The Mindful Bunny is no different:
Quote:
Sustainability is the concept that allows the current generation’s needs to be meet without sacrificing the needs of future generations. This is important. The rate at which we currently use resources is not sustainable in the slightest. At first this problem is completely overwhelming. And no, you can’t fix it by yourself. This thought made me anxious beyond belief. After taking a step back I realized that I can make a difference. The little things do add up and leading by example has always served me well.
End Quote.
The eight suggestions start with low hanging fruit: Is waste really waste? Do I need to throw it away or not? Through to more challenging suggestions: Go Vegan sell the car and walk or ride a push bike.
The point of this post is that we can all make a difference. Even if we only choose to put the first few suggestions into practice we will make a difference. The way to change the world is by many of us doing small things to achieve massive outcomes. The Mindful Bunny gives us a good place to start!
The Genetic Literacy Project brings us a story that should be shouted from the rooftops, spread across the web and lead to such massive change we can all breathe a little easier. The post is entitled: USDA: Organic corn and soy more profitable than conventional crops despite higher costs. Let me just re-read that title so you’re sure of what I said. USDA: Organic corn and soy more profitable than conventional crops despite higher costs.
This is information we should spread far and wide! What many of us already knew has now been “proven” econometrically.
Quote:
The premiums organic farmers receive for growing those crops more than compensate for the higher cost of production, said Catherine Greene, senior agricultural economist with the USDA’s Economic Research Service.
End Quote.
I’d even question the higher costs of organic production. When we factor in the costs of pesticides, herbicides and annual seed purchases that do not occur in organic systems. These alone, on economic grounds, point towards organic systems. Given good design labour costs are little more than or even less than conventional systems. And all this is before we include the benefits to pollinators, soil biota, water systems and all life on earth generally. So spread the word on this post, spread it as far and as thickly as you can!
Following on with good news, the blog ideas.ted.com brings the post: How ancient wisdom can help us adapt to climate change. The author Coco Liu brings us four old ideas making a comeback, especially with regards to drought.
The first is an old variety of rice.
Quote:
“Floating rice is well adapted to floods,” Nguyen says. When heavy rains come, the plants grow at an accelerated rate so their foliage always remains above water — they can reach up to six meters (20 feet) in height. And since floodwaters can safely fill floating-rice paddies rather than swelling the river, the cities and villages downstream escape being submerged. “When we first reintroduced floating rice to the village of Vinh Phuoc in 2013, nearby farmers wanted us to teach them as well,” Nguyen says. His team is running a pilot program in two provinces in the Mekong Delta, and they plan to launch field work in Cambodia and Myanmar next year.
End Quote.
To achieve the best results on a society wide approach, the rice fields are not surrounded by dykes. This allows the flood waters to move sideways, so to speak, before flowing down stream. The benefits of this are food production from an adapted variety and less damaging flooding downstream.
The floating rice is less productive than hybridised “modern” varieties but work on this aspect of the variety is still to be done. It’s a balance thing where the costs of flooding are mitigated by less rice production but, obviously, massively larger straw production. This could be converted to protein by rabbits and or pigs so that the total food production rather than one output, grain, may be equal or even higher.
Another idea from the post relies upon understanding the archaeology of a region, in this case Bolivia. Floods and droughts in succession were mitigated in the past by canals and extreme raised bed gardening. These raised beds, some two metres in height, are called camellones.
Quote:
Since Saavedra experimented with the method in the Beni region in 2007, he’s seen good results: His cassava and corn harvests set new records for organic farming in the area. When severe floods came in 2008 — the worst Bolivia had seen in 50 years — the plants on the camellones were the only ones that survived. The crops in conventional fields were completely swamped and destroyed. Although the intensive labor required to construct a camellone — it takes a week’s work with machinery for each hectare — has deterred some farmers, Saavedra’s nonprofit organization Sustainable Amazonia has taught 500 families to use this method. Oxfam has endorsed the camellone technique and financed its development in Bolivia.
End Quote.
Perhaps it is worth remembering the words of Joel Salatin. I paraphrase, “We’re really good as a culture at hitting targets. What we’re not so good at is asking if we’re aiming at the right target.”
Coco then goes on to talk about an old tribal habit in Kenya of calling a council called a “Dedha”. It’s all about managing feed resources during drought by allocating grazing for the whole community. It is an interesting idea and not dissimilar to how commons were grazed in medieval Europe for the benefit all in the community.
The final idea suggested is... Duck not pesticides!
Quote:
... in northern China’s Heilongjiang Province. There, chilly springs used to hold back the hatching of pests. But with rising temperatures, that delay is fading away and pests are proliferating. Many farmers turned to intensive pesticide use, which has saved their crops — but killed large amounts of wildlife. “I was in a village where there were no frogs and no swallows. Instead, I saw empty pesticide bottles everywhere,” says Fang Yongjiang, a Chinese farmer and entrepreneur in the province. “The village was so quiet that it was scary.”
So Fang devised a chemical-free approach: using ducks to patrol the rice paddies, a technique that his ancestors relied on at least 600 years ago. The ducks feed on insects and weeds without consuming the rice plants; their droppings serve as fertilizer.
End Quote.
And you get duck eggs and duck meat. Using animals to the jobs of chemicals is really a no-brainer. It is a mimicking of Nature and it is always easier to work with the systems Nature has tested in the fire of evolution than to reinvent the wheel. Prety much all problems in agriculture and gardening have been solved already if we will only take the time to see them.
Our post this week comes from The One-cow Revolution blog and has the tempting title: “become a farmer in seven days”
Surprisingly, if you know what you’re doing, this is doable! From vacant overgrown block to farm in seven days! The first two days will give you some idea. A link to full article and all other articles mentioned are in the show notes. This particular post had me smiling extremely broadly.
Quote:
-
Day one
-
Buy or beg a goat, 50 ft. of airline cable, 2 swivels, a cinder block, and a bucket
-
Tether the goat in your worst briars and scrub; give her a bucket of water
-
Milk her, drink the milk
-
Cost: $100 or the sky’s the limit, depending on the goat
-
Day two,
-
Build a 4′ x 8’compost bin, put a dog carrier at one end, and install six pullets
-
Fill the other end of the bin with at least twelve inches of organic matter: wood chips, grass clippings, leaves, sawdust, even shredded paper
-
Add all your kitchen and table scraps, and let the chickens go at it.
-
Milk the goat, move her tether
-
Cost: $50 for the chickens, $30 for a roll of woven wire, scrounge the posts and dog carrier
End Quote.
And so it goes on for the rest of the week. Really worth clicking through.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
8 Easy Ways to Lead a More Sustainable Lifestyle – The Mindful Bunny
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dw2
USDA: Organic corn and soy more profitable than conventional crops despite higher costs
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dxz
How ancient wisdom can help us adapt to climate change | ideas.ted.com
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dxK
become a farmer in seven days | The One-cow Revolution
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dyA
Links
An Introduction to Factory Farming – Revolution In Media
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dsE
industrial agriculture described + a comparison of the benefits and disadvantages – ECOSYSTEMS UNITED
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-drL
World Organic News No Dig Gardening Book https://www.amazon.com/World-Organic-News-Gardening-Book-ebook/dp/B00U7G2OXI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474065878&sr=1-1&keywords=world+organic+ne
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 28th of November 2016.
Jon Moore reporting!
This week we begin with a post from the blog Revolution in Media entitled: An Introduction to Factory Farming by Larry Parker.
The author quotes the wikipedia definition of factory farming and then interrogates it.
Quote:
At first glance, one can’t help but notice a few interesting terms in this definition, like “controversial practices”, “intensive agriculture”, and “industrialized production”, words that certainly conjure up a set of powerful images. But of even greater importance than these is the phrase: “…making use of economies of scale to produce the highest output at the lowest cost.” And, what does this mean exactly for the purposes of a discussion about farm animals?
End Quote.
As we have discussed before on this podcast, it means a lifetime of suffering and misery for the animals. As Larry Parker, the author goes on to point out, the focus on the bottom line means the suffering of the animals is of little or no consequence. Over time these CAFOs, as they are called, have grown in size. Even the use of the word CAFO is part of the problem. The fully name for these factories is Confined Animal Feeding Operation. Let’s take a moment and look at those words. Confined, what we do to criminals, Animal, straightforward enough, Feeding, not raising, breeding, walking nor interacting just feeding and finally Operation, not farm but operation.
As I said these CAFOs have grown in size over time to achieve the sacred effect of economies of scale. Now this makes some sense if you’re producing widgets but in factory farming, we are dealing with live animals. Animal species that evolved in environments which did not include standing around eating and defecating and then standing in that. Do I need to carry on? These “business units” in air quotes, need to end and end yesterday. Yes, meat will be more expensive and maybe less plentiful but so too will the manure lakes be less plentiful. Stock will be back on pasture and nothing improves the health of pastures and stock than having the stock on pastures.
The underpinning of this whole system is a series of subsidies which producers dirt cheap corn. Remove the subsidies and people will stop growing so much corn. It is this one particular market manipulation which distorts the entire agricultural and food supply systems which is leading to distortions in the health system. Cheap corn equals cheap meat but it also equals cheaps biscuits, snacks and whole host of unnecessary foods contributing to obesity.
And corn is but one variation on this theme. It is grown all on its own across vast swathes of country. It is a monoculture. Given the excessive hybridisation of the seeds these monoculture arise from, they are almost, the same plant across those swathes of land.
The blog ECOSYSTEMS UNITED brings us a post: industrial agriculture described + a comparison of the benefits and disadvantages. And this is fascinating. As we’ve discussed before more food has been grown more In air quotes “efficiently” since the second world war. This post quantifies this:
Quote:
...this system has dramatically increased the amount of food produced – between 1960 and 2010 the production of cereals increased from 900 million to 2,500 million tons.
End Quote.
The post further points out:
Quote:
Industrial agriculture is a form of food production based on the assertion that a farm is a factory that requires inputs, such as pesticides, hormones, feed, fertilizer and fossil fuels, in order to produce outputs like meat, cereals, and plant products. The goal of industrialized agriculture is to increase yields as effectively as possible while reducing costs. These efforts are generally dependent on synthetic chemicals, large quantities of water, major transportation systems and mechanical technologies.
End quote.
And this is the dilemma facing the world. We can continue to produce monoculturally at the cost of oil based chemical inputs, what appears to be excessive water usage and oil based transportation systems. You can see the problem? Apart from the water usage, the other two underpinnings are based upon fossil fuels. The continued burning of fossil fuels will contribute to climate change and then areas of current food production will become unsustainable. We have an opportunity to affect change. COP Paris, COP Marrakech offer some hope but we actually have to do something differently or we will continue along our current path. Obviously!
There have been unintended consequences apart from those discussed above. The post makes this point in relation to pesticides.
Quote:
-
Despite there being a 10 fold increase in the amount of pesticides applied, there is double the crop damage by pests than past decades. This is attributed a lack of crop rotation;
-
$1 in pesticides equals $4 in protected crops, but 37% of crops are still destroyed by pests;
-
18% of pesticides and 90% of fungicides are carcinogenic;
-
Food is only tested for 40 of 600 agrochemicals and 3% of all chicken sold has illegal residue;
-
Bees contribute $40 million worth of labor annually, but 20% of bee colonies are adversely affected by pesticide application and 5% die outright;
-
50%-70% of pesticides applied by aircraft never make it to their intended location;
-
520 mite, 150 plant pathogens, and 273 weed species are resistant to pesticides and require reapplication. Likewise, 10% of all pesticide applications are due to resistance;
-
72 million wild birds are estimated to die from pesticides each year [this is a conservative estimate]
End Quote
It seems clear to me the time for change is here, or more accurately was here ten years ago. We still have time. Bill Mollison pointed out and I’ve quoted him several times so I’ll paraphrase: We need to move from consumption to production. If 10% of start growing fruit and vegetables we can change the world.
I’ve included an Amazon link to an eBook I’ve written on no dig gardening in the show notes. $1 is all it costs and will have you moving from consumption to production in no time.
We can do this, we must do this. The current paradigm is revealing itself as bankrupt. Food shortages shocked the world in the first decade of this century as a result of price rises. What happens when a series of unexpected events shuts down the transport system for more than the three days worth of food in the supermarkets? By each of growing something, locally, we cushion ourselves and our fellow citizens from these sorts of shocks.
Let’s get our hands dirty and bellies full!
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
An Introduction to Factory Farming – Revolution In Media
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-dsE
industrial agriculture described + a comparison of the benefits and disadvantages – ECOSYSTEMS UNITED
http://wp.me/p5Cqpo-drL
World Organic News No Dig Gardening Book
https://www.amazon.com/World-Organic-News-Gardening-Book-ebook/dp/B00U7G2OXI/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1474065878&sr=1-1&keywords=world+organic+news#nav-subnav
Links
Agricultural Revolution in a Shipping Container – High Tech Turn Key Solution for Food Insecurity and Safety – Recipes of My Home
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51320/agricultural-revolution-in-a-shipping-container-high-tech-turn-key-solution-for-food-insecurity-and-safety-recipes-of-my-home/
The Cover Crops | My Garden in the Grove
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51339/the-cover-crops-my-garden-in-the-grove/
New living wall launched could lead to 20% carbon reduction | Keep the pace of sustainability
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51408/new-living-wall-launched-could-lead-to-20-carbon-reduction-keep-the-pace-of-sustainability/
Why does Ireland only have 1,787 organic farmers? – Independent.ie
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51396/why-does-ireland-only-have-1787-organic-farmers-independent-ie/
Carbon farming for climate health | Looking Forward | santamariatimes.com
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51518/carbon-farming-for-climate-health-looking-forward-santamariatimes-com/
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 21st of November 2016.
Jon Moore reporting!
We start this week with a remedial solution. The blog Recipes of My Home brings a video blog entitled: Agricultural Revolution in a Shipping Container – High Tech TurnKey Solution for Food Insecurity and Safety
In times of food stress this urban farm in a shipping container is life saver. I see it being used to green food deserts, shorten supply lines and so on everywhere else. Ideal for places like Christmas Island where a fresh lettuce can cost upwards of $9. Lettuce, as a rule, doesn’t can very well so fresh is best. I see these modules as getting fresh food to people quickly whilst organic systems are created around them. They can act as a first response to poor diet, famine conditions and so on. I don’t see them as a permanent solution unless the inputs and hence outputs are organic. Otherwise we will still be using oil based resources. But as I said, these modules are a great stop gap measure.
The blog, Keep the pace of sustainability, brings us a post: New living wall launched could lead to 20% carbon reduction. This system grows trailing plants off scaffolding whilst a building is being built, renovated or whenever scaffolding is used. The makers claim is reduces noise pollution from the sight and saves up to 20% carbon emmissions. Not sure of that but it is the sort of lateral thinking we need to find every scrap of carbon sequestration we can.
My Garden in the Grove brings a more traditional way of saving soil carbon with the post: The Cover Crops. This is garden sized application of cover crops. For those who don’t know, a cover crop is one planted when the soil is not in productive use. Typically this is winter in temperate regions. Soil needs plants or it deteriorates over crops. This particular post points to an experiment using four different types of cover crop: Crimson Clover, Hairy Vetch, Austrian Winter Peas, and Buckwheat. As they say in the blog: A fun experiment!
A piece from the Santa Maria Times: Carbon farming for climate health. Reminds us we have, to a lesser extent been here before. This piece refers back to the US dust bowl of the depression era in the 1930s. As farmers were able to turn the Dust Bowl into fertile soils, we too can return to healthier soil.
Quote:
We are facing a global crisis today brought on by our own actions. Climate change threatens us more than the Dust Bowl. Yet, just as people took action back then to reverse the damage, we can do the same now.
End Quote
I’ve commented on this before but here we go again. By the application of oil based fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides in conjunction with ploughing we have, since 1945, slowly at first but with increasing rapidity, destroyed soil carbon, soil life and soil structure. Once we toss in deforestation the problem is obvious. Is it reversible? Yes, yes it is.
Permaculture, Natural Farming, common or garden back breaking organic double dug beds are better than drowning everything in fertiliser, herbicides and pesticides and you get food too.
When we think of Green and Clean countries which ones come to mind? Iceland? Maybe, New Zealand, probably, Ireland? Definitely. Plenty of water, soils from poor to wonderful so why are only 1.5% of irish farms organic? The EU average is 6-7%.
The answer seems to be that most farmers believe they are so close to organic anyway, the cost of registration seems prohibitive.
To quote Grace Maher, of the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association
Quote:
Farmers, she said, are very slow to convert to organic as many feel they are farming very close to organically, but don’t bother with the additional process and paperwork that is involved to get certified, and that directly affects the numbers of farmers converting to organic production.
But, for most farmers, she says turning organic would involve very little change except for a reduction in fertiliser usage.
End Quote
It could be that the hurdles set up, in particular, the costs need to be looked at. And this is a worldwide problem. I know someone who makes biscuits using organic ingredients as a part time hobby slash business and when he looked into obtaining organic certification the costs were enormous. $1000 to read his application, travel costs for someone to look at his kitchen and then annual fees. This seems like an area where removing private certifying bodies and institute a government certification system with low or nil subsided costs as these costs will be more than made back increased taxation revenue. Or we could use some of the subsidies paid to the fossil fuel industry and use them to promote organic certification. Things don’t have to be done they have been. We can force change upon a monolithic bureaucracy. Write to your elected representatives, not email, not sign an online petition, actually put pen to paper. Once all us in the organic movement do this, then we will see things change more quickly than we imagine.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Agricultural Revolution in a Shipping Container – High Tech Turn Key Solution for Food Insecurity and Safety – Recipes of My Home
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51320/agricultural-revolution-in-a-shipping-container-high-tech-turn-key-solution-for-food-insecurity-and-safety-recipes-of-my-home/
The Cover Crops | My Garden in the Grove
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51339/the-cover-crops-my-garden-in-the-grove/
New living wall launched could lead to 20% carbon reduction | Keep the pace of sustainability
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51408/new-living-wall-launched-could-lead-to-20-carbon-reduction-keep-the-pace-of-sustainability/
Why does Ireland only have 1,787 organic farmers? – Independent.ie
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51396/why-does-ireland-only-have-1787-organic-farmers-independent-ie/
Carbon farming for climate health | Looking Forward | santamariatimes.com
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51518/carbon-farming-for-climate-health-looking-forward-santamariatimes-com/
Links
Home Farming Robot – Englishery!
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51104/home-farming-robot-englishery/
Soundscapes in the Vineyard | Son Alegre Ecològic
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51080/soundscapes-in-the-vineyard-son-alegre-ecologic/
The 3 sisters – An Artist in Spain
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51030/the-3-sisters-an-artist-in-spain/
Weeds | Permaculture San Joaquin – Colombia
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51109/weeds-permaculture-san-joaquin-colombia/
Good Soil – Turnips and Toadstools
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51184/good-soil-turnips-and-toadstools/
Lindsey Brigham, “Good Soil”, Circe Institute
Transcript! This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 14th of November 2016. Jon Moore reporting!
We begin with an ominous post following on from last week’s episode: Home Farming Robot! From the blog Englishery!
It’s a video post showing the planting, watering and a growing season all handled by a farmbot. Water where it’s needed and nowhere else, a triumph of engineering. So we are not needed to grow food, produce goods or perform routine service tasks as the robots/AI takes these tasks from us. What are we to do? Storytelling is what makes human. Maybe there’s a ray of light there. Maybe?
Our next post of interest comes from the blog: Son Alegre Ecològic. It is intriguingly entitled: Soundscapes in the Vineyard.The post discusses the variations in soundscapes between vineyards. It is based upon the work of Bernie Krause.
Quote: Soundscape ecology is the bio- and geo-acoustic branch of ecology that studies acoustic signatures from whatever source within a landscape (the soundscape). The soundscape of a given region can be viewed as the sum of three separate sound sources: Geophony is the first sound heard on earth. Non-biological in nature, it consists of the effect of wind in trees or grasses, water flowing in a stream, waves at an ocean or lake shoreline, and movement of the earth. Biophony is a term introduced by soundscape ecologist, Bernie Krause, who in 1998, first began to express the soundscape in terms of its acoustic sources.
End Quote.
I find this approach fascinating. Can we use this information, long hidden or even ignored, to understand our world a little more deeply? I think so. This seems an area of investigation ripe with possibilities. Now we move from a newish field of endeavour to an ancient technique: The 3 sisters from the blog An Artist in Spain.
Who are these three sisters? I hear you ask. Well, they are corn, beans and squash. The 3 sisters idea is to combine the three plants to create a whole greater than the sum of its parts. To quote from the post:
Quote:
The sweet corn grows high and provides a strong frame for the beans to climb up. The beans are nitrogen fixing and increase the fertility of the soil, and the squash provides green mulch, reducing evaporation from the soil whilst protecting it from erosion by heavy rain. ....
...The idea isn’t to increase the yield of any one specific crop, but to increase the combined productivity of that piece of land whilst also maintaining (or preferably improving) the quality and integrity of the soil.
End quote.
The post goes on to explain that this is referred to as a plant guild in permaculture. They then decided to apply this principle to their lives. I’ll leave you to read the outcome but it is positive and enlightening. Following on with the Permaculture theme, Permaculture San Joaquin – Colombia posted on Weeds. This post calls not for a “see it and spray it” approach but a more nuanced, deeper understanding of “weeds” and what they can tell us. Quote: Every disturbance of vegetation is met with a reaction, be it fire, compaction of the ground, plowing (sic), erosion or anything else and weeds are the first emergency responders. Every plant has a ‘germinating condition’ directly connected to the process of disturbance and repair. When for example the soil gets compacted the plants with strong deep root systems emerge to break up the compaction. Is the ground too loose, for example after plowing (sic), then plants with a widespread system of small roots germinate to cast a net that holds the loose soil together.
End Quote.
Whilst most gardening authorities will tell you weeds are plants in the wrong the place, the approach suggested in this post would suggest “weeds” are plants exactly where they need to be to keep the soil safe. A safe soil will sustain not only the plants within it but all non oceanic life. Seeing weeds in this light, we can use them to guide us as we assist Nature to achieve the best soil in a given location. Imagine a situation where all soils were rehabilitated responding to the signals they are sending us through the “weeds” in air quotes. Just imagine... The blog Turnips and Toadstools brings us a timely reminder with the post: Good Soil.
Quote:
Modern agriculture focuses on crop production over soil cultivation. Exhausted soil is boosted with fertilizers, then sown with thousands of rows of a single plant type, producing high yields but sterilizing the land. In much the same way, results-driven education teaches to the test in order to yield students who rank high on standardization, but whose minds are worked to exhaustion, unable to grow anything of their own.” -Lindsey Brigham, “Good Soil”, Circe Institute
End Quote.
This succinctly sums up the pact with devil made by industrialised agriculture since World War 2. By using soil as nothing more than a wide scale hydroponic medium for growing crops, that soil has been destroyed by 1% or thereabouts each year. Weeds become rampant but, as we know now, these “weeds” are trying to tell us what the soil needs. Instead of reading the soil through these weeds, more herbicides have been applied, the conditions conducive to weed growth has been encouraged and the cycle continually feeds up itself. Great if you’re selling herbicides, not so great if you’re thinking about the soil you’ll be leaving your grandchildren. And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Home Farming Robot – Englishery!
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51104/home-farming-robot-englishery/
Soundscapes in the Vineyard | Son Alegre Ecològic
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51080/soundscapes-in-the-vineyard-son-alegre-ecologic/
The 3 sisters – An Artist in Spain
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51030/the-3-sisters-an-artist-in-spain/
Weeds | Permaculture San Joaquin – Colombia
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51109/weeds-permaculture-san-joaquin-colombia/
Good Soil – Turnips and Toadstools
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/51184/good-soil-turnips-and-toadstools/
Lindsey Brigham, “Good Soil”, Circe Institute
Links
Why do we work? – Hawthorn Rising
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/50921/why-do-we-work-hawthorn-rising/
Organic egg industry pits factory farms against family farms | Agweek
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/50885/organic-egg-industry-pits-factory-farms-against-family-farms-agweek/
A Paradigm Project for the future – Location: Morocco : Augusta Free Press
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/50878/a-paradigm-project-for-the-future-location-morocco-augusta-free-press/
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 7th of November 2016.
Jon Moore reporting!
The blog Hawthorn Rising brings a post: Why do we work?
It begins with a quote from Masanobu Fukuoka author of The One Straw Revolution.
Quote:
“I do not particularly like the word ‘work’. Human beings are the only animals who have to work, and I think that is the most ridiculous thing in the world. Other animals make their livings by living, but people work like crazy, thinking that they have to in order to stay alive.”
End Quote.
The post goes on to suggest we currently need to work to cover bills, debts etc. and then end with the sentence:
Quote:
It wasn’t always this way, and needn’t be in the future either, however we would have to change our expectations drastically!
End quote.
This needs some unpacking. Let’s begin.
We work because we live in a system which has created a value for work. The protestant work ethic springs to mind. From this follows, amongst other things, the need for efficiency, rational use of resources, the abhorrence of idleness and so on. Fukuoka refers to the days of his childhood when the local farmers grew sufficient food for themselves and had a surplus by farming between Spring and Autumn, that would be Fall for the North Americans out there. During winter they and their soils rested. The farmers hunted rabbits, repaired tools, met and recuperated.
This meant they had time for reflection, for poetry, for being fully human. Whilst Fukuoka spoke against the idea of work, he was not opposed to labour. He happily put the hours in when they were needed. He was just opposed to the battery hen world of factories and offices.
If we take a further step back we can see the concept of work, of the protestant work ethic and economics in general are based upon the principle of shortage. My economics textbook began with the statement: “Economics is process where unlimited wants negotiate finite resources.” For most of human existence this has been the case. Fisher-gatherer-hunters solved this riddle by matching the carrying capacity of their domain to their population. As the species travelled out of Africa across five of the other six continents this wasn’t so great a problem. There was always more land, more resources and so on. Then in the years between the various points of domestication, The Fertile Crescent, Mesoamerica, East Asia and sub saharan Africa, the shortage of available resources was negotiated through power structures and work. Those in elite positions needed not to work and the great masses had to work or they starved. There were times when starvation came despite any amount of work but the general principle holds true.
Since the beginning of the industrial revolution this notion was solidified into reality. The need to work to justify an existence, to define masculinity, to not be a welcher on society became ingrained. This was reinforced through religion with statements like: “Idle hands do the devil’s work” and so on. This is the system which forced the notion of efficiency and productivity on the farmers of Masanobu Fukuoka’s part of Japan. They changed from farming for three seasons and contemplating for one to continuous production based upon oil derived fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides.
The system of Natural Farming developed by Fukuoka returns to a condition of continuously available food, minimal labour and community creation. On a technological level we are approaching a point where not just the drudgery of work but the highly paid work of solicitors, accountants and so on are about to be “roboticized”. That is the routine, the repeatable parts of all jobs are about to be replaced by machines who do not take holidays, become ill, strike or even demand wages.
Budweiser ran a proof of concept delivery across Colorado last month with a self driving truck. Think of how many people are employed in transport, think of the routine jobs in the admin in the transport sector which will also be replaced with artificial intelligence as the truck, cab and hire car drivers are removed from the roads by self driven vehicles.
We are moving from a world where scarcity defined our context. From this followed the “dignity” of work, the despising of the lazy and a questioning of the value of the creative. Once 90% of us don’t have a job, how do we eat? How do we define ourselves?
We are entering a new era. Fukuoka has shown us one way we can feed ourselves, be fully alive and labour with purpose and creativity. We are all heading into a world where the meaning of “work” is changing. We can and must ask ourselves how this world will function and what will be our purpose in this new environment.
We can all make preparation for the transition period coming. The transition from post industrial revolution to the Web 3.0 Revolution.
Change is upon us. The blog Agweek describes the struggle between organic egg production and factory farms. It’s particular focus is upon the factory like animal welfare status so many “organic”, in inverted commas, farms. A cage free organic egg farm still has low square footage per bird and access to sunlight and fresh air is designed for the birds to avoid. These conditions are not acceptable in an organic farm yet animal welfare, at least in the US, is not part of the organic certification process from what I can work out. This holds true for dairy farms as well. In these so called organic units cows are stall tied and conveyor fed as per industrial farms. The difference is the feed is from certified organic suppliers. This sort of misses the point.
It is not dissimilar to providing an open plan office for humans as opposed to cubicles. The humans are still tied to their desks even if the cage is now gilded.
But change, as I say is upon us. The blog Augusta Free Press posted a piece entitled: A Paradigm Project for the future – Location: Morocco. The post discusses the correct use of resources in a development project to achieve sustainability and longevity. It discusses a particular development project in Morocco. The point I draw from this is we have time to change our food production systems. The social changes coming will be seismic but we will still have to eat.
We can prepare for the change. The late Bill Mollison in a quote from my tribute episode summed up what we can and must do:
Quote:
“The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.”
― Bill Mollison
End Quote
Maybe this time, as a species, we can transition through change peacefully. It is indeed my hope.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
LINKS
UN Report Says Small-Scale Organic Farming Only Way To Feed The World | The Unveiling of The Hidden Knowledge
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/50748/un-report-says-small-scale-organic-farming-only-way-to-feed-the-world-the-unveiling-of-the-hidden-knowledge/
Maslow's hierarchy of needs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs
Making headway towards urban food security – Food Governance
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/50592/making-headway-towards-urban-food-security-food-governance/
A Farm Is Born – My Urban Farm
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/50464/a-farm-is-born-my-urban-farm/
What Makes a Good Urban Farm Site? – TheBreakAway
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/50686/what-makes-a-good-urban-farm-site-thebreakaway/
To till or not to till? Creating fertile soil | DIY Dynamics
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/50570/to-till-or-not-to-till-creating-fertile-soil-diy-dynamics/
The One Straw Revolution.
http://www.appropedia.org/images/d/d3/Onestraw.pdf
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 31st of October 2016.
Jon Moore reporting!
We begin this week with a reminder! The blog The Unveiling of The Hidden Knowledge reminds us of a UN report on Small Scale Organic Farming.
Quote:
Drawing on an extensive review of the scientific literature published in the last five years, the Special Rapporteur identifies agroecology as a mode of agricultural development which not only shows strong conceptual connections with the right to food, but has proven results for fast progress in the concretization of this human right for many vulnerable groups in various countries and environments.
End quote.
The report highlights not just food security but the right to food. Surely one of the most basic of human rights? It sits at the base of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: food, shelter and clothing.
It is worth pointing out the priority given to the methodology of agroecology. I and, indeed, others have placed Permaculture, Natural Farming and similar schools under this heading.
Given that many people and soon to be the majority of us will be living in cities, how is this agroecology to be applied to urban areas? As I’ve discussed before, growing food where it is consumed has much to recommend it: fresher food, short supply lines, fossil fuel use reduction and so on.
As the UN reports states, quote:
....in a context of ecological, food and energy crises, the most pressing issue regarding reinvestment (in food production) is not how much, but how.
End quote.
The blog Food Governance’s post: Making headway towards urban food security discusses this very issue. The author makes the point that this must be a bottom up process. Locals know what they like to eat and they understand their local microclimates better than outside “experts” or they very quickly learn them throughout a growing season. The danger avoided with a bottom up approach is the Green Revolution, one size fits all approach. Individuals with fruit tree skills meet with gardeners and they all meet with backyard chicken keepers and so on. Depending upon the locale small ruminants can also be worked into local food systems to provide dairy products and manures for the gardens. What is needed is seed funding, leadership and connections between people. Of these three things, the latter two, leadership and connections between people tend to be lost with increasing urbanisation, at least in the initial stages.
Yet progress is possible! The blog: My Urban Farm posted this week: A Farm Is Born. The author takes us through their process from reluctant starter to back breaking mattock work to sheet mulching to productivity on their test plot. Well worth a read as it shows the succession of thoughts and actions in response to heavy clay and restricted water supply.
This is one way of doing things. The growers made do and adapted to what was before them. The blog TheBreakAway posted a video entitled: What Makes a Good Urban Farm Site? This video describes what we could call the perfect setup. Great if you can get it. The previous post from My Urban Farm shows what happens more often than not. So we need to adapt, improvise and overcome. You know, the problem solving thing that makes us truly human.
The blog DIY Dynamics has an interesting post entitled: To till or not to till? Creating fertile soil. This approach to no till is a little different from the one I use. I just pile organic matter on top of garden beds or a layer of cardboard and newspapers when starting a bed. The system used in the blog post is this:
Quote:
A new technique that the farm has adopted in the last year is the no till method of bed preparation. By using a hand tool, called a broad-fork to manually aerate and lightly turn the soil. This helps to create an ideal habitat for micro-biotic organisms to thrive. The less you till the soil the more that these flora and fauna can establish their residence.
End Quote.
Thinking this through I can see the logic of the process. I just wonder at the potential damage done to my oft mentioned fungal communities. Maybe the occasional damage to them will release nutrients, maybe they will grow back more strongly or maybe, even in a biodynamic setting, the urge to touch the soil with tools is still too ingrained in the collective consciousness of gardeners across the globe to avoid.
It is this urge to fix the soil through manual labour which is the cause of so much frustration and time consumption in gardening circles. It is the biggest step we have to overcome before the food, flower and feed potential of soils everywhere are fully realised. The moment we realise Nature has been growing food long before we were trapped into domestication is the moment we are truly free. Nature will grow more than enough food for all of us, Nature will do it in a way that provides healthy, nourishing food and Nature will happily do it without the need for returns to shareholders, without the need to rely upon oil based fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides. We just need to shut our chattering mind off for long enough for her to be heard. And we can all do this. It is a simple process, not necessarily easy but simple.
I’ve included a link to a pdf version of The One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka as a great starting point. This is the story of how one person learned to listen, observe and biomimic. Highly recommended!
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
Links
Polyface Farm, Soil Carbon, Joel Salatin
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/35601/the-call-of-the-farm-the-polyfaces-vision-for-a-better-world-millennial-mutt/
Polyfaces Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/Polyfaces/?ref=page_internal
Joel Salatin
http://www.polyfacefarms.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joel_Salatin
Soil carbon from 2007
http://www.abc.net.au/science/features/soilcarbon/
**** This is the World Organic News podcast catch up episode. Jon Moore reporting!
Well at long last the voice is back, sort of and I have some thoughts to catch up on and some housekeeping too.
Housekeeping first. I heartfelt thanks to Angry Genghis for the review on iTunes. Really, thank you so much. I might point out though that I'm not in New Zealand but in Australia. The wonder of the interwebs is the dissolution of borders and the possibility of direct conversations across the globe. If anyone is doing interesting things out there and would like to be interviewed, drop me a line at: podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Now let's turn to the news!
I’ve had time to think these past few weeks and there has been one stand out idea stuck in my mind the few weeks. Soil carbon! The post from millennial mutt entitled: The Call of the Farm: The Polyfaces Vision for a Better World explains how we can reverse the excess carbon dioxide accumulated in the atmosphere by returning it to the soil. This has the added benefit of increasing the fertility of the soil. Why, I hear you ask, is there a need to place carbon in the soil? More correctly, back in the soil?
Well, I’m sooooo glad you asked. When the Second World War ended, there was an industry designed to pull nitrogen out the atmosphere. There had been a huge demand for this Nitrogen as part of the munitions industry. These people pushed for the use of this nitrogen as a fertiliser. Nitrogen is one of three key macro elements necessary for plant growth, Phosphorus and Potassium being the other two.
Now the application of synthetic Nitrogen has the effect of destroying humic acid and the fungal communities under the soil surface. The deal with artificial fertiliser is this: Increased short term production for 1 to 2% loss of topsoil. Seems like a good system to start with but, but in the end what happens is basically hydroponics in subsoil.
The process also releases soil carbon to the atmosphere both in the production of the synthetic Nitrogen and in the application to soil. So a return to organic farming, regrowing soil structure, humic acid, fungal communities and tree cover are relatively simple to introduce and effective. The UN argues only smallholder organic farming can feed the world anyway so let’s get to it!
I’ve included a link to an ABC Science page back in 2007 regarding a soil carbon conference in Orange, NSW. This idea is nothing new, the problem seems to be most climate activists are focused upon urban and industrial CO2: coal fired power stations and motor vehicles. If they look at the bush it’ only to point the finger at factory farms. As I think I’ve made clear before, they and I are on the same page with factory farms. But the “simplicity” of returning soil carbon seems to have passed the urban types by. This is a shame.
Polyface Farm, Virginia, USA is run by a contrarian individual: Joel Salatin. I have links to his site and the Wikipedia page in the show notes. He’s been walking the talk for decades so it is possible. In the same way Permaculture, Natural Farming and Biodynamic methods all work and are productive, we have a way forward. It’s under our feet.
And that brings us to the end of this week’s catchup podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back next week as usual.
Originally and episode on the podcast mrjonmoore audio adventures but it fits the World Organic News ethos.
Links
New Report Points To A Positive Future For Green Farming | National Trust Places
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/49523/new-report-points-to-a-positive-future-for-green-farming-national-trust-places/
Africa’s Top Cotton Grower Sees Good Crop After Monsanto Ban « GreenStitched
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/49495/africas-top-cotton-grower-sees-good-crop-after-monsanto-ban-greenstitched/
Cornell Online Permaculture course starts October 24. – Cayuta Sun Farm
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/49631/cornell-online-permaculture-course-starts-october-24-cayuta-sun-farm/
Can Trees communicate with each other? – ESP Adelaide
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/49492/can-trees-communicate-with-each-other-esp-adelaide/
Mycelium Miracle Workers | elizabethterp’s Blog
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/49486/mycelium-miracle-workers-elizabethterps-blog/
In what way is the soil dynamic, rather than a lifeless, static body? | Soils Matter, Get the Scoop!
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/49597/in-what-way-is-the-soil-dynamic-rather-than-a-lifeless-static-body-soils-matter-get-the-scoop/
Transcript
This is the World Organic News Podcast for the week ending 3rd of October 2016.
Jon Moore reporting!
We begin this week with a post from the UK National Trust: New Report Points To A Positive Future For Green Farming.
Quote
New markets worth millions per year could help to support farming methods that reduce flooding, provide clean water and restore wildlife, for the benefit of all.
End Quote
In effect the report highlights the need to feed the soil. Reduced flooding, clean water and restored wildlife all come from a healthy soil. Soil that is never bare. Healthy soil holds more water, mitigates floods and provides the grounding, pun intended, for good tree growth. To do this requires both a paradigm shift and its accompanying price signals.
To quote Patrick Begg, Rural Enterprises Director at the UK National Trust.:
“Farmers should be paid fairly for producing great food in a way that supports the long term health of our farmland. The Natural Infrastructure Scheme is about creating a market for services from farming that today go unrewarded – reducing flood risks, improving water quality and creating homes for wildlife, while at the same time opening up new revenue opportunities for farmers.”
End Quote.
This leads inevitably to penalising, maybe through taxation, those who use systems which destroy soils. I looking at you, chemical, fossil fuel based systems pushed by Monsanto and Bayer.
The doomsday scenarios they paint if farmers dare to walk away from them are shown to be mere bluster in a post from GreenStiched: Africa’s Top Cotton Grower Sees Good Crop After Monsanto Ban.
Not only have the cotton farmers of Burkina Faso dumped the poorly paying, on international markets, Monsanto short fibre BtCotton, their government is discussing compensation from Monsanto for the price difference between the short and long fibre production. Most production is still chemically based but removing the BtCotton is a good first step for this cotton dependant nation.
For those with an internet connection, the time and the inclination, the blog from Cayuta Sun Farm informs us of a Cornell Online Permaculture course starting October 24. This looks like a great course! You receive the info online, put it into practice where you live. Hands on and distance education at the same time.
Now to return to a pet subject of mine: Mycelium!
The blog ESP Adelaide, that’s ESP as in Eastern Suburbs Permaculture, produced a post: Can Trees communicate with each other? I hope by now we all know the answer to that one. Yes, yes they can and yes they do. In this post there’s a great video from Dr Suzanne Simard on her work from the last thirty years. Really, really worth a watch!
elizabethterp’s Blog follows this theme with a post:Mycelium Miracle Workers. This post points out the importance of the fungal communities and our dependence upon them. A thoughtful piece and I highly recommend you give it a read.
To quote but one paragraph:
We learn that some forms of oyster mushroom can neutralize soils made toxic with Roundup and other poisonous pesticides that have leached through our soil to infect plants they are designed to protect. When we eat the plants or medications made with plant extracts, we are in fact consuming poisons that make us susceptible to disease.
End quote.
The soil is, of course, what sustains most of us. I know there are small populations of humans who survive on seafood but for most of us, it’s the soil! Not surprisingly this the point the blog Soils Matter, Get the Scoop! Is making in their post: In what way is the soil dynamic, rather than a lifeless, static body?
Another quote will help:
... [Soils] are actually complex systems that support a suite of physical, chemical, and biological activities.
The processes that occur within a particular soil system are dependent upon what the soil is made of. So, soils within different environments will likely have their own unique sets of activities. Desert and tropical soils, for example, do not harbour all the same reactions.
End quote.
Soils are both a creation of their environment and creators of that environment. We are looking at complex, interdependent relationships between, soil, atmosphere, bedrock, plants, animals and mycelia. We are only just glimpsing into the wonders of this complexity. We alter it too quickly without understanding. It would appear, and let’s hope this is the case, the systems are, more or less, self correcting. They operate within given limits with feedback loops driving them to their own points of equilibrium. Yet we can move these balance points. North Africa, once the grain basket of the Roman Empire, is now a semi-arid desert. Given our deeper knowledge of soils, their self sustaining yet fragile systems, surely we should be doing more to protect what is left and to rehabilitate what has been damaged?
I think the blog posts discussed today, not only support this argument, they provide hope for the future. Change is happening, in a thousand ways in a thousand different places. From window boxes to rangelands, in the face of the continual assaults by those who would deny the life below our feet, the repair is underway .
And that brings us to the end of this week’s podcast.
If you’ve liked what you heard, please tell everyone you know any way you can! I’d also really appreciate a review on iTunes. This helps others to find us. Thanks in advance!
Any suggestions, feedback or criticisms of the podcast or blog are most welcome. email me at podcast@worldorganicnews.com.
Thank you for listening and I'll be back in a week.
I only knew Bill through his words. So I have decided to share some these with you as my tribute the quiet man who has already changed this world.
“The greatest change we need to make is from consumption to production, even if on a small scale, in our own gardens. If only 10% of us do this, there is enough for everyone. Hence the futility of revolutionaries who have no gardens, who depend on the very system they attack, and who produce words and bullets, not food and shelter.”
― Bill Mollison
“Though the problems of the world are increasingly complex,
the solutions remain embarrassingly simple.”
― Bill Mollison
“. . . every society that grows extensive lawns could produce all its food on the same area, using the same resources, and . . . world famine could be totally relieved if we devoted the same resources of lawn culture to food culture in poor areas. These facts are before us. Thus, we can look at lawns, like double garages and large guard dogs, [and Humvees and SUVs] as a badge of willful waste, conspicuous consumption, and lack of care for the earth or its people.
Most lawns are purely cosmetic in function. Thus, affluent societies have, all unnoticed, developed an agriculture which produces a polluted waste product, in the presence of famine and erosion elsewhere, and the threat of water shortages at home.
The lawn has become the curse of modern town landscapes as sugar cane is the curse of the lowland coastal tropics, and cattle the curse of the semi-arid and arid rangelands.
It is past time to tax lawns (or any wasteful consumption), and to devote that tax to third world relief. I would suggest a tax of $5 per square metre for both public and private lawns, updated annually, until all but useful lawns are eliminated.”
― Bill Mollison
“Stupidity is an attempt to iron out all differences, and not to use them or value them creatively.”
― Bill Mollison
“Sitting at our back doorsteps, all we need to live a good life lies about us. Sun, wind, people, buildings, stones, sea, birds and plants surround us. Cooperation with all these things brings harmony, opposition to them brings disaster and chaos.”
― Bill Mollison, Introduction to Permaculture
“Each such cycle is a unique event; diet, choice, selection, season, weather, digestion, decomposition and regeneration differ each time it happens. Thus, it is the number of such cycles, great and small, that decide the potential for diversity. We should feel ourselves privileged to be part of such eternal renewal. Just by living we have achieved immortality - as grass, grasshoppers, gulls, geese and other people. We are of the diversity we experience in every real sense.
If, as physical scientists assure us, we all contain a few molecules of Einstein, and if the atomic particles of our physical body reach to the outermost bounds of the universe, then we are all de facto components of all things. There is nowhere left for us to go if we are already everywhere, and this is, in truth, all we will ever have or need. If we love ourselves at all, we should respect all things equally, and not claim any superiority over what are, in effect, our other parts. Is the hand superior to the eye? The bishop to the goose? The son to the mother?”
― Bill Mollison
“Without trees, we cannot inhabit the earth.”
― Bill Mollison
“Animals are the messengers of the tree, and trees the gardens of animals. Life depends upon life. All forces, all elements, all life forms are the biomass of the tree.”
― Bill Mollison, Permaculture: A Designers' Manual
I have included a link to:
In Grave Danger of Falling Food - Bill Mollison
https://youtu.be/CjWaP0iQmWw
And so it is with a heavy heart I bring this supplemental episode to a close.
Vale Bill Mollison
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison
Want To Double World Food Production? Return The Land To Small Farmers… | Eco Snippets
http://www.ecosnippets.com/environmental/double-world-food-production-small-farmers?utm_content=buffer34e7c&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Small farms
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/49270/small-farms/
Organic agriculture combats the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria – A New Green World
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/49251/organic-agriculture-combats-the-rise-of-antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-a-new-green-world/
Factory farming, climate change, seeds saving, soil carbon and ancient barley.
Time to Drive Factory-Farmed Food Off the Market
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48847/time-to-drive-factory-farmed-food-off-the-market/
Our best shot at cooling the planet might be right under our feet – Climate Change – The New Economy
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48804/our-best-shot-at-cooling-the-planet-might-be-right-under-our-feet-climate-change-the-new-economy/
Ten Acres Enough:
www.forgottenbooks.com/download_pdf/Ten_Acres_Enough_1000213925.pdf
On Seed Saving – Pajamas, Books, and Chickens
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48894/on-seed-saving-pajamas-books-and-chickens/
The Green Revolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Revolution
Genome of 6,000-year-old barley grains sequenced for first time | Ancientfoods
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48794/genome-of-6000-year-old-barley-grains-sequenced-for-first-time-ancientfoods/
This supplemental follows on from episode 32. It explores a possible mechanism for the domestication of wheat. Or is that the domestication of humans by wheat?
Vegan Organics, Vegan Permaculture, The Origins of Farming.
Vegan Permaculture: Is It The Future? – Little Green Seedling
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48589/vegan-permaculture-is-it-the-future-little-green-seedling/
Beginner’s Guide to Veganic Gardening | gentleworld.org
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48541/beginners-guide-to-veganic-gardening/
Biointensive, John Jeavons
http://www.growbiointensive.org/
Two groups spread early agriculture | Ancientfoods
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48647/two-groups-spread-early-agriculture-ancientfoods/
Beech Cove! The Hustle: Double Digging.
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48219/the-hustle-double-digging-beech-cove-farm/
Make Dirt, Not Waste; A Guide for Easy Composting, and Why You Should Do it. – sustainableplanetblog
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48216/make-dirt-not-waste-a-guide-for-easy-composting-and-why-you-should-do-it-sustainableplanetblog/
Going organic won’t cost the earth – The Courier
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48250/going-organic-wont-cost-the-earth-the-courier/
What Would It Take to Mainstream ‘Alternative’ Agriculture? | Alternet
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48266/what-would-it-take-to-mainstream-alternative-agriculture-alternet/
Organic growth – Independent.ie
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/48282/organic-growth-independent-ie/
What Happens When You Stop Using Crop Protection
Food Insight
Your Nutrition and Food Safety Resource
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=48176
Small Farms Are Feeding The World | Colin Todhunter
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=48148
Food Insight
http://www.foodinsight.org/about
Permaculture
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture
Bill Mollison
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mollison
David Holmgren
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Holmgren
Natural Farming
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_farming
Masanobu Fukuoka
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masanobu_Fukuoka
From permaculture in Hawaii to food forests to a coal free energy system now!
Pumped hydro for the cloudy windless days and nights – The Science Show – ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47858
Cover Crop – From Across the Table
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47878
Planning an orchard as a forest ecosystem | Olives, pines, rocks
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47864
Urban farming on rooftops done by Farmbots would inspire office workers | EnrgResrch
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47854
Intro to Permaculture – “Abundant Land” Documentary – Makani Media
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47730
Roundup, soil health and growing your own!
How Widespread Is Roundup®? Is It In Your Urine? |theinternationalreporter.org
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47543
THE DEBATE OF OUR TIME | Forgotten soil
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47593
All New Square Foot Gardening (2nd Edition) by Mel Bartholomew | The Adventures of Merlyn Perilous
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47589
What is a keyhole garden? – What’s in That Yard?
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47602
Grow 53 Plants in 4 Sq Ft with a Garden Tower Vertical Container Garden | Heathen Women
http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47600
This week we explore the horror of factory farming, the wonders of agro-ecology, agroforestry and Permaculture! Why We Need to Eradicate Factory Farming – green peeps http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47081 Smallholder support at the Crossroads: Diminishing returns from Green Revolution Seed and Fertilizer Subsidies and the Agro-Ecological Alternative | AGRA Watch http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47045 Agroforestry benefits both farmers and the environment. – DESERTIFICATION http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47191 Producing an agroforest manual for rural people and NGOs | Tropical Botany http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47328 Understanding the Circular Economy http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47314 Why Permaculture? | fiddle farms http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47236 My Future in an Edible, Sustainable Ecosystem | Raw Biology http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=47288
This week: food production on rooftops in Brooklyn, more on fungal communities and tree ecosystems and perennial vegetables! These New Yorkers Quit Their Desk Jobs to Run a Farm—On a Brooklyn Rooftop — Fortune | Gemstars http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46997 Radiolab by WNYC on iTunes http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46967 No Such Thing As Waste – Grow & Flow – The Life Project http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46932 Empowering smallholders – DESERTIFICATION http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46910 Transitioning to Perennial vegetables | Divine Greens http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46553 Restoration through agroforestry in Brazil – Agroforestry World http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46677
“Core” composting – orlandoseednsoil http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46282 The Eco Truffle on Late Night Live – ABC Radio http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46278 Yes, trees do communicate. | LaToya M. Crick http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46271 India state aims to plant a record 50 million trees in a day http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46252 Monsanto and DuPont Announce New Weed Killer for GMO Crops – EcoWatch – Earth Network .news http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46140
Organic farming can feed the world! Make a start with a raised bed garden, why not try a keyhole garden? Can Organic Farming Feed the World? – A New Green World http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=45737 DIY Raised Garden Beds – catherinecontinued http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=46010 Keyhole Garden Update – Action is Eloquence http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=45822 https://whatswithwheat.com/
A new documentary "What's With Wheat?", Industrial meat production and the problems with lawns. What’s With Wheat? http://www.emuwellness.com/events/ www.whatswithwheat.com Home Bread Making https://soundcloud.com/mrjonmoore/bread-test-3 The danger of too much industrialised animal agriculture – The Cool Old School http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=45503 Why Our Lawns Are Bad for the Environment and How to Change Them for the Better | Transition Cornwall + http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=45408
This week I speak to Llew and Jason about living off grid on the northern tip of New Zealand's North Island. Joy, wonder, mistakes and food!
This week we start with the blog | Testament of a Millenial and their post: ‘Our Groundless Commitment to an Oxymoron: “Sustainable Growth” ‘ http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=45052 Vandana Shiva on feeding the world and saving the planet – Big Ideas – ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44794 Understanding Natural Farming with Larry Korn | Future-Proof Wexford http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44834
This week’s episode sponsored by JEMbiscuits! www.jembiscuits.com Contact Jon at: podcast@worldorganicnews.com This week we look at pest resistant edible plants, soap based sprays for aphids, the ubiquity of Roundup in air and water samples and a new carbon capture and storage technique. TheBreakAway 16 Edible Plants In My Garden That Have Natural Pest Resistance http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44355 Roundup Weedkiller Found In 75% of Air And Rain Samples, Gov. Study Finds http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44445 & 3 Easy Organic Aphid Control Techniques | The Living Farm | Our Green Nation http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44423 The Raxa Collective New Carbon Capture Method in Iceland http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44697
Sponsored by www.jembiscuits.com Transcript: http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?page_id=33605 Contact for feedback: podcast@worldorganicnews.com
This week’s episode sponsored by JEMbiscuits! www.jembiscuits.com Contact Jon at: podcast@worldorganicnews.com This week we look at the slug problem in some depth, a quick look at strawberry prop and are introduced to Masanobu Fukuoka and The One Straw Revolution! Slug Stories: Slug Traps | autoimmuneodyssey http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44238 Slug control | An Edible Life http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44146 Slugs and snails.. (or the sacrificial aubergine) | Ramshackle Avenue http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44088 Secrets Of An Allotment Slug – craftandothercrazyplans http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44388 Strawberry Prop: Strawberry Propagation Update. | freedomfarmtv http://www.worldorganicnews.com/?p=44149
A supplemental episode finishing our walk through John Seymour's Complete Book of Self Sufficiency.
This week we dive into compost, traditional and vermicompost before checking out vertical gardening in a polytunnel. Then a nod to two posts on square foot gardening. This week's podcast is sponsored by Jembiscuits: www.jembiscuits.com
This week we look at the concentration of power in the hands of a triopoly, what the food system really delivers and how we can fight back!
We dive into regenerative agriculture and its political implications before looking at wheat allergies, gluten and glyphosate.
This week we travel through heritage breeds, poo power, wee power,worm compost liquid fertiliser and soils. We take a look at skills and crafts from John Seymour's Complete Book of Self Sufficiency.
A trip through wave energy, kidding, The Organic Gardening Podcast and super weeds! We then stroll through Natural Energy from John Seymour's Complete Book of Self Sufficiency.
This week we look into the practice of aquaponics before wandering through the Food from the Wild section of The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency by John Seymour.
This week we look into compost! The essentially human nature of composting and the wonder of what it can do. We then continue through John Seymour's Complete Book of Self Sufficiency as we delve into the world of food preserving.
This week we look at Sterling College, Vermont, The effects of small purchase decisions, Indian farmers' suicides and the fruit from The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency by John Seymour
This week's podcast dives into the horrors of coal mining in food producing regions. The dangers to the water table and a possible threat to the Great Barrier Reef.
This week's podcast looks at three different takes on Permaculture. We then continue through John Seymour's "Complete Book of Self Sufficiency".
A walk through the benefits of and threats to honeybees, the art of crop rotation and the beginnings of John Seymour's Food from the Garden in "The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency."
Getting ready for Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, seed starting, keyhole garden beds. John Seymour's food for animals covers pigs, rabbits, poultry and bees.
This week we look at urban agriculture, converting lawns to gardens and we delve further into John Seymour's The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency
This week we dive into living with less stuff, mincome support and some thoughts on the coming changes within the IT revolution. We then continue our travels through The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency by John Seymour.
This week's podcast looks at a tree with forty fruit varieties, the zika virus and gluten intolerance. Then we continue our journey through John Seymour's "The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency"
Weekly podcast from World Organic News. This week we discuss compost, vermicompost, camel poo and bees. We begin a look at the life and work of John Seymour
The first episode of the weekly podcast from World Organic News. Covering the differences between traditional plant breeding and GMOs.