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Resilient Communities: Is Global Financial Collapse a Local Opportunity?

2012-07-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

Resilient Communities: Is Global Financial Collapse a Local Opportunity?

How to Avoid the Fate of the Soon to be Extinct Middle Class: Don’t confuse financial freedom with real freedom.

John Robb | Resilient Communities | 14 June 2012

I’ll dive into: 1. How to avoid the fate of the soon to be extinct global middle class; 2. Three simple ways to improve your resilience; 3. Life after a corrupt government collapses. What’s going on in Libya. The answer is surprising.

Improve Your Resilience:
Compost on as large a scale as you can. Devote a section of your yard or a property you own to a compost pile. Recruit your neighbors to throw grass and leaves on it. Let it cook.

Plant green manure in as many places as you can. Green manure is a collection of plants that both fertilize and break up the soil (deep roots). Everything from clover to sunflowers to peas to wildflowers. Keep planting as necessary to turn the soil into something that can support even the most demanding plants. I’ll have more details on the best practices for green manure in the future.

Buy as much local land that can be converted into organic farmland. It’s a good investment even in the current economy. Demand for organic food (food that isn’t poisonous) is increasing at 20% a year, while organic farmland is increasing at 8%.

Resilient Communities: Is Global Financial Collapse a Local Opportunity?

How to Avoid the Fate of the Soon to be Extinct Middle Class

John Robb | Resilient Communities | 14 June 2012

The sun is finally out after two days of rain. My kids are finishing up school today and I’m headed outside soon to work on some projects. Life couldn’t be better.

You can’t say the same about the global economic system though. For example, I read earlier this week that the US Federal Reserve cautioned that the net worth of American families was near levels they hadn’t seen since 1992.

That bad news sets the stage for today’s letter where I’ll dive into:

1. How to avoid the fate of the soon to be extinct global middle class.

2. Three simple ways to improve your resilience

3. Life after a corrupt government collapses. What’s going on in Libya. The answer is surprising.

The Vanishing Middle Class

Bloomberg did a little digging and found out it was even worse than the Fed’s warning suggests. The median net worth of US families was $11,000, or 12%, LESS than it was in 1983. It gets even worse: today’s net worth is lower even with TWO people working outside the home, not one. I suspect the numbers from the EU and Japan are nearly the same.

The destruction of wealth we’re currently seeing with the “Big Reset” of the financial system, isn’t something that started in 2007. It’s a process of decay that started decades ago and the Reset’s financial panics are merely the latest symptoms — the sharp sounds of a rotten tree snapping in high winds.

It also implies the primary victims of the Big Reset will be the hundreds of millions of economically independent households currently in the global middle class. In other words, we’re going to see the death of the proverbial golden goose of the modern economy, as the Big Reset strips them of their remaining wealth and the means to ever earn it back.

How? Through a series of financial panics like the one in 2008 and the one we’re currently seeing in Europe.

To me, the world that emerges from this crisis is almost certainly going to be a grim place to live. Fortunately, I think we’ve already figured out a way to avoid this fate.

How? Here’s a start (it’s a tough concept to wrap your head around given how indoctrinated we are):

Don’t confuse financial freedom with real freedom.

This confusion is one of the big reasons why the global middle class is going to perish so rapidly.

Here’s why.

Financial freedom — the idea that if you accumulate a sufficient number of financial assets, your life will never be constrained — is mostly an illusion. It’s not going to last.

As we are finding out every day, financial assets are akin to a collection of poker chips you get for gambling in a corrupt global casino. A huge casino, run by mobsters (note how few of the people responsible went to jail for the 2008 financial collapse), that’s about to declare bankruptcy in a way that negates all legal constraints. So sure, while financial assets offer quite a bit of freedom and flexibility today, who knows what those assets will be worth in the near future (if anything).

What’s the solution? Rely on history. History teaches us that real freedom — freedom and flexibility for you, your family, and your community — is tied to the ability to produce things that you can use. Global systems may come and go, but food, energy, water, and products that you can produce locally endure.

Focus on that.

The good news is that making things locally has become MUCH easier than it used to be.

NOTE: Local production is also proving to be a great place to set up a business right now. I’m currently working on a new report entitled, Resilient Jobs: Making a Good Living in the Local Economy.

Three simple ways to Improve Your Ability to Produce Locally

Want to improve your resilience with the minimum amount of work possible?

One simple way to do this is to invest in high quality soil. That’s it.

Great soil gives you the option of producing in the future, if you need it. You don’t even have to farm or garden it to improve your resilience.

Here are three ways to do that:

Compost on as large a scale as you can. Devote a section of your yard or a property you own to a compost pile. Recruit your neighbors to throw grass and leaves on it. Let it cook.

Plant green manure in as many places as you can. Green manure is a collection of plants that both fertilize and break up the soil (deep roots). Everything from clover to sunflowers to peas to wildflowers. Keep planting as necessary to turn the soil into something that can support even the most demanding plants. I’ll have more details on the best practices for green manure in the future.

Buy as much local land that can be converted into organic farmland. It’s a good investment even in the current economy. Demand for organic food (food that isn’t poisonous) is increasing at 20% a year, while organic farmland is increasing at 8%.

When a Corrupt Government Collapses Can Conditions Improve?

Conventional wisdom is that without a big central government in control, social and economic conditions can quickly become feral. Zombies roam the streets while good people hide in terror. That hasn’t been my personal experience.

Here’s an interesting example from Libya that suggests the opposite may be true:

The major urban areas are run quite effectively by militia coalitions (or understandings) and local businessmen. The cities of Tripoli (the capital), Misarata, Zintan and Benghazi are all relatively peaceful and bustling. Misarata is also the largest container port and locals repaired that facility and are running it 24/7. To the surprise of shipping companies, the numerous bribes and bureaucracy typical of the Misarata port for decades are gone. The corruption may return, but for the moment the locals are proud of it and the importers and shipping companies are making the most of it. Misarata is also important because it contains about half the militia gunmen in the country. Any new national government will have to convince Misarata that the new rulers are fit to rule Misarata. However, this dynamism is unlikely to last. An authoritarian and corrupt National Transition Council is trying to “unite” the country.

Here’s a question for you: what would happen in your community if there wasn’t a big central government in charge? Would things fall apart or would you find a way to make do? I know my answer.

Your willing to believe in a better future analyst,

JOHN ROBB

» » » » [Resilient Communities]

The man who farms water || Help American Agriculture, Demand Hemp

2012-03-16T13:20:00.002-07:00

The man who farms water

by Brad Lancaster, PDI & Tools for Small Farmers

[ALN Editor's note: This article was originally published in the April 1996 issue of the Permaculture Drylands Journal (PDJ), and was reprinted in PDJ in summer 1998 as part of their "the first ten years" issue. PDJ is a publication of the Permaculture Drylands Institute (PDI). PDI is currently undergoing reorganization under the auspices of the Permaculture Institute. Back issues of PDJ are available from the Permaculture Institute. For more information, contact: Permaculture Institute, USA | Casa Las Barrancas Farm | PO Box 3702 Pojoaque, NM 87501 USA | Tel/Fax: +1 (505) 455-0270 | Email: pci@permaculture-inst.org | Our thanks both to the Permaculture Institute and to the author for permission to reprint this article.]

"Having to support a family of eight, Mr. Phiri turned to the only two things he had, a three hectare family landholding and the Bible. He didn't use the Bible only for spiritual guidance or inspiration, he also used it as a gardening manual. Reading Genesis, he saw that everything Adam and Eve needed was provided by the Garden of Eden. 'So,' thought Mr. Phiri, 'I must create my own Garden of Eden.' Yet he also realized that Adam and Eve had the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in their region, while he didn't have even an ephemeral creek. 'So,' he thought, 'I must also create my own rivers.' He has done both."

Meeting the water farmer

While traveling through Southern Africa in the summer of 1995, I heard of a man who was farming water. I set out to find him without much of an idea of where I was going. Soon I was packed in a colorful old bus roaring through the southern countryside of Zimbabwe at about 30 miles per hour. The scenery was beautiful with rolling hills of yellow grass upon red earth and small thickets of twisting, sometimes umbrella-like trees. I faded in and out of sleep until nine hours later when we were in Zimbabwe's driest region. We crested a pass of low lying semidesert vegetation to see below us a vast high veldt prairie of undulating hills covered with dry grass and often capped with barren outcroppings of granite. Trees were sparse. I was reminded of the open grasslands of southeastern Arizona. In fact, all was covered by a wonderful expanse of clear blue sky, as one would see in the arid southwestern United States. The bus crept down into the dry grassland and stopped in the small rural town of Zvishavane. This was the area where the water farmer lived. As the sun was setting, I walked off to find a spot to lay my sleeping bag and went to sleep.

In the morning, I hitched a ride with the local director of CARE International. She took me to a row of single-story houses. One of these was the simple office of the Zvishavane Water Resources Project. There on the porch, reading the Bible, sat the water farmer.

As my ride came to a stop, he sprung up with a huge smile and warm greetings. Here at last was Mr. Zephania Phiri Maseko. When he learned of how far I had traveled, he burst into a wonderful laugh. He told me that lately visitors from all over the globe seemed to be pouring in almost daily. Nonetheless, each one is an unexpected surprise.

In the landrover bouncing over worn and eroded dirt roads toward his farm, Mr. Phiri was talking, laughing and gesturing-endless streams of poetic analogies and stories. The best story of all was his own.

In 1964, he was fired from his job on the railway for being politically naive against the White Rhodesian government. He was told by the government that he would never work again in any position.

Having to support a family of eight, Mr. Phiri turned to the only two things he had, a three hectare family landholding and the Bible. He didn't use the Bible only for spiritual guidance or inspiration, he also used it as a gardening manual. Reading Genesis, he saw that everything Adam and Eve needed was provided by the Garden of Eden. "So," thought Mr. Phiri, "I must create my own Garden of Eden." Yet he also realized that Adam and Eve had the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in their region, while he didn't have even an ephemeral creek. "So," he thought, "I must also create my own rivers." He has done both.

Mr. Phiri's Farm Site Plan Key: [1] Granite dome [2] Unmortared stone walls [3] Reservoir [4] Fence with unmortared stone wall [5] Swale/terrace [6] Outdoor wash basin [7] Chickens and turkeys run freely in courtyard [8] Traditional round houses with thatched roofs [9] Main house with vine-covered cistern and ramada [10] Open ferro-cement cistern Kraal [11] Cattle and goats [12] Courtyard garden [13] Swale [14] Dirt road [15] Thatch grass and thick vegetation [16] Fruition pit in large swale [17] Crops [18] Dense grasses [19] Well with hand pump [20] Donkey pump [21] Open unmortared wells [22] Reeds and sugar cane [23] Dense banana grove

Learning to farm water

His farm is on the slope of a hill facing north-northeast (providing good sun exposure to the site, as it is in the Southern Hemisphere). The top of the hill is a large, exposed granite dome from which storm runoff once freely flowed. The average annual rainfall is 570 mm (just over 22 inches). However, as Mr. Phiri points out, this is an average based on extremes. Many years are drought years when the land is lucky to receive 12 inches of rain.

When he began, it was very difficult to grow crops successfully let alone make a profit, due to the frequent droughts and zero equipment or capital for irrigation from groundwater. He spent time observing what would happen when it did rain. In small depressions and upslope of rocks and plants, the soil moisture would linger longer than in areas where sheet flow went unchecked. Thus began his self education in rainwater harvesting-and his work. Over a period of 30 years, he has created a sustainable system that provides all his water needs from rainfall alone.

"You start catchment upstream and heal the young before the old/deep gullies downstream," says Mr. Phiri. Beginning at the top of the watershed, he built unmortared stone walls at random intervals on contour (that is, along lines of equal elevation). These walls slow the flow of storm runoff as the water moves through the spaces between the stones. This makes the water running off the granite dome more manageable as it is directed to unlined reservoirs, which like everything else, were built with nothing more than hand tools and the sweat of Mr. Phiri and his two wives. The larger of the two reservoirs Mr. Phiri calls his immigration center. "It is here that I welcome the water to my farm and then direct it to where it will live in the soil," he laughs.

"The soil," he explains, "is like a tin. The tin should hold all water. Gullies and erosion are like holes in the tin that allow water and organic matter to escape. These must be plugged."

Mr. Phiri's "immigration center" is also a water gauge, for he knows that if it fills three times in a season, enough rain will have infiltrated into the groundwater to last for two years.

The smaller reservoir directs water via a culvert to an above-ground ferro-cement cistern that feeds his courtyard in dry spells. He has another cistern, shaded by a lush granadilla creeper, collecting water from his roof. Aside from these two cisterns, all water harvesting structures on the farm aim to infiltrate the water into the soil as soon as possible. Near the home is an outdoor wash basin from which all greywater is drained to a covered, unmortared, stone-lined, underground cistern where the water quickly infiltrates.

Water harvesting structures

From the top of the watershed to the bottom, there are numerous water-harvesting structures such as check dam walls, gabions, terraces, swales and fruition pits.

The government had put in large swales many years ago throughout the region, but they had put them just off contour so that they'd stop sheet flow erosion and carry the storm runoff to a central drainage. The erosion problem was solved, but all the lands were being robbed of their water. So Mr. Phiri dug large "fruition pits" about 10' x 6' x 4' in the basins of all his swales. When it rains, the pits fill with water and the overflow runs into the next pit, and so on up to his property line. Long after the rain, water remains in the fruition pits percolating into the soil. Around the pits, thatch grasses are grown for erosion control, building and sale.

Mr. Phiri has also planted many thriving fruit trees along the swales to provide food, shade and windbreaks. They're watered strictly by rain and the rising groundwater in the soil. As Mr. Phiri explains, "I am digging fruition pits and swales to plant the water so that it can germinate elsewhere."

"I have then taught the trees my system," continues Mr. Phiri. "They understand it and my language. I put them here and tell them, 'Look, the water is there. Now, go and get it.'" Neither basin nor berm for holding water is put around them; rather, roots are encouraged to stretch out and find water.

A diverse mix of open-pollinated crops such as squash, corn, peppers, eggplant, reeds for baskets, tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, peas, garlic, onion, beans, granadilla, mango, guava and paw paws, along with such indigenous crops and trees as matobve, muchakata, munyii and mutamba are planted between the swales. This diversity gives him food security, for if some crops fail due to drought, disease or pests, others will survive. The use of open pollinated varieties enables Mr. Phiri to collect, select and use his own seed from one year to the next.

Nitrogen-fixing plants abound. The pigeon pea is one example, and is also used for fodder and mulch. Mr. Phiri has found that fertilized soils don't take and/or hold water well. As he says, "You apply fertilizer one year, but not the next and the plants die. Apply manure and nitrogen-fixing plants once, and the plants continue to do well year after year. Fertilized soil is bitter."

The food and fruit Mr. Phiri produces is anything but bitter. He's been generous in his abundance, giving away trees to anyone who wants them. Unfortunately, as Mr. Phiri points out, the majority of the trees he gives away die when people do not implement rainwater-harvesting techniques before planting. He propagates his trees in old rice and grain bags near one of three open wells near the bottom of his property. Mr. Phiri describes the open wells with another analogy. "Water is like blood-it is always attracted to the wound. Gullies are wounds. Blood goes to the wound to coagulate and heal it. It does this with gabions and swales where the gully is filled with fertile soil." With this knowledge, Mr. Phiri anticipated that the water harvested throughout his land would seep into the soil and make its way to the wounds below; he dug his three wells at the bottom of his land.

Wells of abundance

The soil is his catchment tank. In times of drought, his neighbors' wells go dry (even those that are deeper than Mr. Phiri's), yet Mr. Phiri's wells always have water "into which I can dip my fingers," for he is putting far more water into the soil than he takes out.

Except for one well, which is lined with a hand pump for household water use, all are open and lined with unmortared stone. "These wells," explains Phiri, "are those of an unselfish man. The water comes and goes as it pleases, for you see, in my land it is everywhere."

In times of severe drought, Mr. Phiri will draw from these wells to water annuals in nearby fields. He uses a donkey pump, also known as an Egyptian Shaduf, which is simply a hand pump that uses an old tractor tire to pump the water. A crank opens and closes a bladder (the tire) like an accordion, creating the needed suction. A lush, natural wetland lies below the wells at the lowest point of Mr. Phiri's property. Here, Mr. Phiri practices aquaculture in a series of three reservoirs. As the smaller two dry up, the fish are harvested or relocated to the largest. It is also here that Mr. Phiri densely grows bananas! Dry lands all around him, yet here on Mr. Phiri's farm is a thick forest of bananas! Sugarcane, reeds, and grasses such as elephant grass are also grown on and leading up to the banks to hold the soil. His livestock benefits from the dense grasses, grown to sift the water as it enters the reservoirs. This prime fodder is reserved for his cows when in calf.

When Mr. Phiri began, he was forced to appear in court three times for violating laws that prohibited cultivation in wetlands. These were laws that had been around since colonial times. Finally, on his third court appearance he was able to convince the magistrate to come see his farm. Upon seeing Mr. Phiri's work, the magistrate dropped all charges on the spot.

Within the soil of the farm lie the Tigris and Euphrates rivers; the reservoirs are where they surface. The cycle of Mr. Phiri's Garden of Eden, starting to be noticed after 30 years of obscurity and sometimes scorn, continues to grow. Of the last three decades Mr. Phiri says, "Sure, it's a slow process, but that's life. Slowly implement these projects, and as you begin to rhyme with nature, soon other lives will start to rhyme with yours." He and the non-governmental organization he created, the Zvishavane Water Resources Project, are spreading his techniques. He has influenced CARE International in his region to the point that, rather than giving away food, they now implement Mr. Phiri's methods so that people can grow their own food.

He has also gone to schools where the teachers were striking due to lack of water and the harsh conditions in dusty, windscraped classrooms. He taught the teachers and students how to harvest the rainfall, and together they've turned the schools into lush gardens and now have no reason to strike. "Remember, children are our flowers," says Mr. Phiri, "give them water and they will grow and bloom."

Mr. Phiri's project is very much at the grassroots level (a big reason why it works), yet the Zvishavane Water Resources Project is always in need of funds. If you'd like to help, write to Mr. Zephania Phiri Maseko, ZWRP, P.O. Box 118, Zvishavane, Zimbabwe.

Author information

Brad Lancaster is a permaculture teacher and designer in Tucson, Arizona. You can reach him for comment by email at bradlank@aol.com. This article will be incorporated into an upcoming book that Mr. Lancaster is writing about water harvesting techniques.

Additional web resources

Permaculture in Zimbabwe
This page from the web site of the Sixth International Permaculture Conference & Convergence lists three centers of permaculture education and design within Zimbabwe.

Introduction to Permaculture: Concepts and Resources
These pages from the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA) web site are an excellent starting point for learning more about permaculture design. Numerous links to other permaculture-related web sites around the world are included.

Rainwater Harvesting Campaign, Center for Science and Environment
The CSE is one of India's leading environmental NGO's. One of its focuses is on promotion of rainwater harvesting. Although its primary focus is on India, this web site offers much information that is pertinent to rainwater harvesting around the globe.

Harvest Rainwater Guidelines
This document comprises one section of the online Sustainable Building Sourcebook, part of the Green Building Program of the city of Austin, Texas, USA. It provides guidelines for sizing rainwater harvesting systems for urban dwellings. The site will be most useful to residents of the USA as the numbers given are not in metric units; however, the general guidelines and principles outlined may be useful to those in other geographic regions as well.

Bountiful Harvest
As this online document demonstrates, the author of this article knows quite a bit about rainwater harvesting himself. "Bountiful Harvest" is an article from the Tucson Weekly that chronicles the activities of Mr. Lancaster and others in harvesting rainwater from their homes in and around Tucson, Arizona, USA.

About the Arid Lands Newsletter: Tools for Small Farmers

Source: Arid Lands/Tools for Small Farmers

Help American Agriculture, Demand Hemp

by Son of a Farmer

June 14, 2008

Oh, the Irony of this title. Few of you remember when Hemp was not considered an evil of Mother Nature. Before 1937, who knew one plant could be stomped into oblivion by the Powers of Corporate Greed and the Blindness of Corrupt Government?

Now, some 70 years later Hemp is making its undeniable comeback. It is the one plant that can help turn around agriculture, as well as the economy here in America. This multifarious plant can be used to make anything.

Click here to urge your U.S. Congressman(woman) to pass HR1009 - the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007. This was originally introduced by former Presidential nominee Ron Paul of Texas.

Do not fall for ridiculous propaganda. This plant is harmless. It is not marijuana (which in its rightful place, is neither evil nor harmful.) You can’t get stoned on it. Getting high on Hemp is the equivalent of getting drunk on O’Douls (non-alcoholic beer.) And that can’t happen. Trust me, I was once a very bored 16-year-old boy.

Let our voices shout and our commitment push this plant back to where it belongs - in the Earth of American fields, afterall it was the father of our country, George Washington, who said, “Sow the Indian Hemp seed everywhere.”

Source: Son of a Farmer

The Coming Great Depression || Gardening and Seed Saving

2012-03-13T13:29:00.003-07:00

The Coming Great Depression,

by Charles Hugh Smith, SurvivalBlog

Saturday November 29 2008

I have been asked to address the coming Great Depression which is slowly but surely enveloping the globe. The irony of doing so in Thanksgiving week is not lost on me, and I want to preface my commentaries by saying that I do not tackle the subject cavalierly. There will be great suffering, on many levels, and the entire point of analyzing the situation is to lay the groundwork for alleviating the suffering by getting to the root causes of the financial, social and environmental disasters which are unfolding globally.

Let's start with the view of the U.S. from orbit. The first thing you notice from actual orbit (as opposed to "the long view" metaphor) at night is all the bright lights. In the daytime, you would see thousands of contrails from all the commercial airliners in the air.

The one key fact about all this energy usage is that about half comes from overseas; it is purchased from other nations and shipped great distances. This energy comes in the form of liquid petroleum, a highly energetic and easily transportable form of energy of which the "cheap and easy to get" kinds are now in permanent decline.

To those who don't believe in "Peak Oil," please note that regardless of all other conditions, estimates, theories, etc., the cheap-and-easy-to-get oil will soon be consumed. Every other form of fossil fuel will be costly to extract and refine.

Switching to a metaphorical "view from orbit," we see the primary fact of the U.S. economy is that it no longer produces a surplus. The nation consumes more than it produces, and has borrowed the difference for the past 27 years--more or less the time period of "The Great Bull Market" from 1982 through 2007.

These two facts are not unrelated; it was not mere coincidence that borrowing at every level of the U.S. economy increased in that time frame until it reached unimaginable quantities (and velocities) in the 2002-2007 timeframe.

From time immemorial, civilization has required a surplus to be earned from the labor and harvest of a tribe or people. If you consume the entire fruits of your collective labor, you have no surplus to trade with other peoples, no surplus to invest in roads, ships, additional fields, waterworks, armies, permanent structures (religious, communal or private), no "savings" for lean times, and certainly no surplus to pay anyone in the tribe to practice art or music.

An economy which creates no surplus cannot save any surplus to invest ("money" is nothing but a means of exchange and a store of surplus labor/energy). That economy is doomed to eating its seed corn, after which it collapses. Throughout history, ecological/environmental changes (unremitting years of poor rainfall and harvests) and/or regional conflict (unending wars which consume whatever surplus remained) have led to the downfall of great civilizations.

Now an empire has certain advantages over a tribe or city-state or even a nation. Through its power, both "hard" (military) and "soft" (financial, cultural influence, diplomacy, threats, etc.), the empire can coerce vassal states to sell their surplus goods and services at immense discounts to the empire, which then consumes the goods or re-sells them at enormous profits.

The empire can also create and sustain markets in vassal states for its goods and services, which it sells at a premium either directly or via the legerdemain of currency manipulation/control.

But when the empire consumes more than it gathers in surplus, then it too declines. It can mask the decline by stripping assets and surpluses from vassal states for a time, but eventually this exploitation reaches extremes which power revolutions and rebellions. With its surpluses gone and its populace weakened by decades or centuries of living off the fat of the land, the empire loses its military grip over the vassal states.

Once it has lost its ability to extract resources and goods at a discount and its markets for its own overpriced goods, the empire declines to mere nationhood or implodes into various political pieces (nation-states, client states, federations, etc.)

At home, the empire's populace has grown accustomed to consuming the surpluses of others. Creating surplus has been replaced with an obsession with consuming surplus, in ever more extreme and outlandish fashions. Both the refinement and brutality of human nature reach apogees in this blow-off of others' surplus; violent bloodsport games are enacted (in stadiums or via computer screens), absurd costuming and spectacles become commonplace, rare and exquisite foodstuffs are imported, prepared and squandered, and every excess in religion, art and sport is surpassed by an ever more outrageous waste of surplus.

Borrowing, either outright loans or via the legerdemain of depreciating currency, grows to the point where everyone is indebted to someone somewhere. Entire governments balance precariously on the high taxes extracted from the few remaining productive enterprises in the home empire, and on funds borrowed to pay the interest due on previous gargantuan loans. (See French and Spanish empires for examples.)

"Rights" abound in the empire doomed to implosion/decline: not just the right to free speech and the right not to be unduly harassed by authority, but the "right" to bread, shelter, entertainment, etc. When the bread runs short, the ugly mobs demand their "rights;" ironically, when bread becomes a "right" (a.k.a. an unearned entitlement), then it suddenly becomes scarce.

And when it becomes scarce, then the quality plummets, and those demanding their "rights to decent bread" ate issued weevil-riddled biscuits. And since there is no surplus, and no incentive to create surplus (whatever surplus is created is quickly appropriated by the debt-burdened government), then those lined up for their "rights" have to take the weevil-riddled bread and like it. Or not.

And then the mobs have to be controlled with a "whiff of grapeshot" (Napoleon) or they consume the crumbling bones of the empire piece by piece until nothing remains except resentments, unanswered demands, and eventually, either ruin or nostalgia.

That's how you get a global Depression.

Two totalitarian empires were attempted in the 20th century, both based on an unparalleled propaganda machine, unparalleled state control of every aspect of the economy and society, and the coercion offered by great military and secret-police organizations.

Both empires failed. Complete expropriation of rights and property is exploitation to such an extreme degree that it sparked resistance, and the old model of empire, i.e. one built on and sustained by wealth creation via trade and "soft power", had a great defender (the U.S.) Blessed with immense resources, a large and active populace and popular political principles, the U.S. created a "win-win" alliance which destroyed the Nazi empire militarily, and ground down the Soviet empire, which was doomed from the moment it failed to create any surplus on its own.

Now the U.S. empire faces unprecedented challenges, just at the point in time it has succumbed to all the temptations of debt and consumption of others' surpluses which brought down previous empires. The home populace of the empire is restive with demands for "rights" even as its own productivity (as measured by the surplus of production over consumption) has declined into deficits which require stupendous borrowing just to sustain current spending on "bread and circuses."

Even worse, an illusion of "growth" and "wealth" has been created by the FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) economy in which shuffling paper and bits of data pass for actual productive activities when in fact they created nothing.

The cost structures of the unproductive parts of the economy (government, medical care, etc.) have skyrocketed at rates double or even triple the growth of the economy as a whole; the total tax burden (property taxes, payroll taxes, junk fees, permits, income taxes, business taxes, phone taxes, fuel taxes, sales taxes, etc.) have outraced both income and the overall economy, channeling whatever surpluses have been created into unproductive bureaucracies consumed with paper shuffling.

Like the frog being boiled alive, we do not seem to be aware of the heat rising. To take but one example: it now costs at least four year's pay to go to a hospital in the U.S. and have a medium-scale operation. The numbers are less important than the ratio, but those of you "in the business" know that if we take the median wage in the U.S. as $40,000, then a few days in the hospital is one year's pay (not intensive care, mind you, just a "regular" stay), the operation a year or two's pay, and another year for post-op care and medications. Intensive operations cost ten year's pay, of course, if not more. Did an operation and a few days in a hospital cost four year's pay in 1970 (the last gasp of the 25-year postwar Bull market)? No.

Now that we all have the "right" to operations which cost 4 to 5 or even 10 years' pay, where are all those decades of pay going to come from? The math is painfully simple. If we all get to have medical care which consumes (costs) 5 year's pay, then collectively we each need to save $200,000 or pay "medical care" taxes equivalent to $200,000 in order to pay for that consumption.
And if we also have the "right" to consume medications which cost another year's pay or two, then we better make it $300,000 each, or maybe $500,000 because we also have the "right" to unlimited MRI tests, etc.

But we as an empire have chosen the "easy way out" just as previous empires did: borrow the surpluses of others to consume, either directly via selling Treasury bonds, state and local government bonds, mortgage-backed securities, etc., or the appropriation of their wealth via management of our currency which they are forced to use.

Ironically (or not), once this care becomes a "right" (i.e. nearly "free" to consumers) it suddenly becomes scarce (expensive) and the quality goes down. Any system set up on this model eventually implodes under its own weight: cost structures with essentially no limit (no worker can be fired, no test denied payment, etc.) skyrocket, demands for "rights" increase, and the system collapses when there is no longer enough surplus wealth appropriated from abroad to pay the rising costs.

That collapse of high cost structures no longer supported by surplus wealth appropriated from trading partners is the essential cause of the coming Great Depression. Once the U.S. has to face its vast deficit between its saved/invested productive labor and its consumption, then the high cost structures will topple one after the other: first the auto makers, and eventually the entire Medicare/Medicaid industry.

The math is painfully simple: no cost structure can grow at two or three times the rate of the overall economy forever. We're about to experience the breaking point, and whether we in the home empire state like it or not, consumption will have to realign to match production minus savings for investment. Borrowing to fill the difference has worked for a long time, but it never works forever.

Source: Survival Blog [Related: Seed Armigideon: Survivalist Seeds: Patriots Never Run Out of Food!!]

Gardening and Seed Saving

by Carolyn W. SurvivalBlog

I see some people making choices that concern me because these choices may cause them problems if they really have to survive on the food supplies that they have stored for TEOTWAWKI. I am no great expert, but my husband and I have been concerned about the possibilities of having an economic disruption since the early 1970s when a friend let us borrow some tapes by Robert Preston [, the author of the influential book "Famine and Survival in America"]. We have learned quite a bit, but still have a long way to go. If this article can at least encourage people to actually try to grow a garden and save seeds from one or two plant varieties this summer then I will feel that the time spent writing this article will be well spent.

I see some people writing to this blog saying that they have their MREs stored and it sounds like they figure the food supply is taken care of. Please look at the MRE packages and notice the sodium content. It is usually fairly high. Eating several meals per day with a high sodium content may not be good for your health. Also the day will come when the last MRE has been eaten and another food source will need to be found.

I also see people buy a #10 can of seeds for their survival storage program. They may even have had these cans since the Y2K scare so that the seeds are nine or ten years old. Onion and parsnip seeds are only good for about two years. After that their germination rate declines rapidly. Many other seeds will be viable for 4-6 years depending on how they are stored and the type of seed. Yes, I know Egyptian wheat grows after hundreds of years in storage, but I do not have their storage methods. Potatoes and garlic need to be grown each year. A few other considerations to think about would be: are the seeds in the can right for your soil and length of growing season where they will be grown? Will the seeds grow foods that you are used to eating? Will your growing season be long enough for the plant to mature not just to produce food but go on to produce ripened seed? Have enough seeds been stored to grow gardens for several years in case of crop failure?

Finally I wonder if lack of experience will be a problem when it comes to growing a garden for food and seed. I have been growing a garden for close to 35 years that is large enough to put potatoes, beets, carrots, and cabbage in the root cellar and canned vegetables in the pantry. I have saved seed from lettuce, beans, peas, tomatoes, parsnips, beets, and squash, but even with this experience I am not sure I would be ready to survive without the ability to purchase items from outside sources. Let me encourage you to try following some of the procedures I outline in the rest of this article and learn some new skills that may be useful to you and your family in the future.

Gardening is a skill that is best learned by doing it.

Soil and Growing Conditions
Different areas of the country have very different growing conditions. When we lived near Los Angeles I had a small backyard garden all year long. Tomatoes and zucchini grew in the summer, while broccoli and onions were grown during the winter. The length of our growing season changed dramatically when we moved to a northern state. In this location our frost free time period is from the beginning of June to the middle of September. The winter temperatures can get to -35 degrees which puts us in a zone 4 for hardiness. This is important to know because it tells me that I need to order seeds with a shorter growing season, onions that like longer hours of daylight which occur in the northern areas of the USA, and fruit trees that can withstand - 35 degrees during the winters. Most seed catalogues have maps of the USA with colors that show the hardiness in each zone.

I have had soil tests done through the local Agriculture Extension Agent. I know that the soil is some what base rather than acid, it has a bit if a salt content, and tends to be more clay rather than sand. With this information I know that I do not want to add wood ashes to the soil which would make it even more base. Instead I add manure, gypsum, sulphur, grass clippings, leaves and as much garden wastes as I have. I do not have time for the cute little composting devices. I do what is called sheet composting which means spread it over the garden area and let it rot over the winter then till it in when spring comes. This has the added benefit of holding the soil in place over the winter. Since I plan to eat what I grow I do try to grow as organic as I can, but I do use commercial fertilizer and a few other products to help me get a crop worth all of my time and effort. During the first few years of gardening in a new area the preparation of the soil will be most critical. Through improving the soil a better crops will result. If you are planning to garden in a very large area you need a way to till up the soil. Spring can be a very busy time so digging up the soil by hand would not be a very good choice. We have a four foot rototiller on the back of our 20 horsepower garden tractor. I also have a small Mantis tiller to help with smaller areas and weeding between the rows.

Choosing Seeds
Saving seeds from every variety grown in the garden each year may not be a realistic goal for a beginning seed saver. Most seeds will be viable for several years. A better goal might to choose a few varieties of seed to save successfully, thus gaining experience and confidence as the years of gardening go along. If open pollinated seeds, which are sometimes referred to as Heirloom seeds, are chosen as part of a storage program they will breed true to the parents. In most seed catalogues the hybrids will usually have an F1 after the name of the plant indicating that they are hybrid. Being a hybrid does not make the seeds bad, it is just means that two different varieties were crossed to create the hybrid seed. This is often done to create a plant that will grow more vigorously. When seeds from the hybrids are grown in later years the offspring will have some variations, but they will grow plants. For some crops that are prone to inbreeding depression a few different traits may even be a good thing. This is a topic that might be worth some study.

Some of the time I choose seeds that I know will produce plants with specific characteristics such as store for a long time. Some onions taste great because they are sweet and mild, but they do not store well and I want to have food to eat after the long winter and into the next spring. Therefore I choose onion seed that says that it is for a storage onion. Seeds of Change sells seed for Nutri-Bud Broccoli that was bred to have a higher nutrient content which may make this variety worth choosing. Lutz Green Leaf beets are an old time variety that grow very large red table beets and as an added bonus the leaves are as good to eat as Swiss chard. These beets also keep in my root cellar until early March. Seeds that mature quickly in the cool spring temperatures are also desirable. Seeds of this type would be spinach and Hakurei Turnips which take 38 days to mature.

I have grown cabbage for enough years to know that the early varieties will not last in the garden until the end of the growing season, so I only grow enough to eat right away in the summer or use for making sauerkraut. Many of the large late green varieties seem to attract pests such as aphids and green cabbage worms. In my garden the later types of Red cabbage grow without much trouble and store very well in my root cellar. A good book that may help you decide which variety of vegetable to grow for winter storage is Mike and Nancy Bubel’s Root Cellaring Natural Cold Storage of Fruits & Vegetables. Get several seed catalogues and read up on what the different varieties have to offer. I often order from the following companies: R.H Shumway, Vessey's, and Johnny Seeds. These companies seem to carry varieties that grow well in my shorter season.

Starting Seedlings
Some seeds need to be started indoors before the ground is warm enough for them to grow, or because their growing season is too long for my climate. One of the first things that I plant is onions seeds in a container. They can be planted where I live in early March. By March the days are starting to get longer, and we usually are finished with the bitter below zero cold weather. I have an unheated greenhouse that gives some protection to the plants. I will start enough seed to have about 40 onions that will be saved to produce seed and more onions to eat over the coming winter. About 2 months before I plant the garden I start the peppers and tomatoes. Since I can eat the vegetables that they produce and save seeds from the same plant I do not need to grow many extra plants for seed saving.

About four weeks before the planting of the garden I start seeds for cabbage and broccoli. If I plan to save seeds from cabbage I need to know that it is a biennial like the onions it will not produce seed until the second year. The cabbage will need to grow this year, be dug up roots and all, stored in the root cellar at about 40 degrees where the roots can be kept damp. Next spring I will plant the cabbages in the garden again. An X will be cut in the top of each head of cabbage to allow the three to five foot stalk to emerge and produce seed. I also need to know that it can be cross pollinated by other members of the cabbage family which include broccoli and cauliflower. Another small bit of information that might be helpful is that you may need to grow 20 to 40 plants for the seed to maintain genetic diversity and avoid inbreeding depression. Some good books on this subject are Suzanne Ashworth’s Seed to Seed which is very readable for the person who is beginning to learn about saving seed. Another resource is Carol Deppe’s Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties which has more technical information. The cabbage that is grown for seed will not be available for food therefore I need a few more plants to eat this year. So lets say that I grow a minimum of 30 plants and hope that they all survive and mature. Each plant will require about a square yard of garden space. Thirty square yards of land just for cabbage. The books say that you need to grow 100 to 200 corn plants to maintain genetic diversity plus the corn that I plan to eat. This is getting to be a really big garden to weed and care for!

Now that I have decided how many seedlings I need to grow of each vegetable I can start to think about the soil, water, and sunlight that the seedlings will require to mature into healthy plants. I have found that regular garden soil is too heavy for the seeds to be started in. Regular soil may also have damp off disease which will kill the young sprouts. Some years I have tried to save money by using less expensive potting soil, but the young plants did not grow as well. Now I buy large bags of Miracle Gro potting soil at Costco in the spring and life is good. What I will do when I can no longer get this potting soil will be a future learning experience.

I start my tomatoes and peppers in trays on my kitchen table because the greenhouse is still cold at night in April. As soon as the little sprouts are up I take then outside during the day to get sunlight so that they will be strong enough to be planted outside when the time comes. As the little plants grow I often repot them to larger containers so that they do not become root bound and stunted. Each time that the plants are repotted they take up more space. Thirty cabbage plants, the trays of onions, along with the broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, and peppers take up a lot of space. As the weather becomes warmer at night I move the seedlings out to the greenhouse permanently. Shane Smith’s book Greenhouse Companion is a good resource for more information on using greenhouses. I have purchased greenhouse supplies from CharleysGreenhouse.com and TekSupply.com.

Season Extending Techniques
Over the years that I have gardened in my short season location I have actively experimented with various methods that would extent the length of my 3-1/2 month growing season. One of my favorite season extenders is a cold frame. It is a box with hinged lids and has an open bottom. The cold frame is set on top of well prepared garden soil and anchored down so that the wind does not blow it away. Can you tell that the last advice is the voice of experience speaking? I usually set my cold frame out in the garden by mid-March and let it warm the soil for a couple of weeks. When my soil thermometer reads 45-50 degrees in the morning I plant cool weather crops. By cool weather crops I mean leaf lettuce, spinach, onions, beets, carrots, radishes, Swiss chard, turnips, peas, and a few others. A word of caution: even though the outside temperature may still feel chilly heat can build up in the cold frame on a sunny day to the point of cooking the young plants. A cold frame needs to have one of the lids opened a bit to vent the heat and closed again as the day cools. I am not always home to do this. Therefore I found a solution which is the Univent Controller. It is a solar powered unit that will automatically open a cold frame lid when the temperature reaches between 60 and 70 degrees and close the lid as temperatures cool. I have seen the Univent Controllers for sale by CharleysGreenhouse.com and TekSupply.com. Both companies also have cold frames for sale with aluminum frames and twin wall polycarbonate glazing.

A cold frame can also be used to extend the growing season into the fall. Often the carrots I grow during the summer are not very sweet and mature too early to store in the root cellar. As a result, I have been marking off a patch of the garden that is the same size as my cold frame. I make sure this is in an area with deep, well dug, weed free soil, and plant carrots in the middle of July. When the cold weather arrives in September I put the cold frame over the carrots and they continue to grow until mid-November. By then the cooler weather conditions have made the carrots noticeably sweeter and the root cellar is cool enough to store the carrots for several months.

In Spring I have used the Agribon garden cloths over curved wire supports to form mini greenhouses, These can be used to harden off young plants before they are planted in the garden or protect early plantings. Agribon comes in several weights. The heavier weights can be used for frost protection, and light weights can be used for insect control as floating row covers.

I have found some pup tent shaped cold frames made by FlowerHouses.com that are self supporting with net covered vents. I have used mine for four years and so far it is still in very good condition. These structures are tall enough to be put over Brussels sprouts in the fall and keep them growing until Thanksgiving.
Even things like placing bales of straw on the north side of plants allows warmth to build up in the soil faster. After I have planted the young plants that I have started from seed I usually cover them with empty plastic gallon milk jugs that have had the bottom cut away and the lid removed. The milk jug can be placed over the young plant and dirt scraped up against the sides of the milk jug to keep it from blowing away. The soil also provides more insulation. By the time that the plant grows to fill the milk jug the weather has warmed up. I try to remove the milk jugs on a day that is a bit cloudy to give the plants a day to adapt. The milk jugs can have a string threaded through their handles and hung out of the sunlight for use next year.

A couple of books that I have found useful are Eliot Coleman’s The New Organic Grower and The New Organic Grower’s Four-Season Harvest. Lewis Hill’s book Cold-Climate Gardening is also very useful.

Planting the Garden
Every seed packet and most gardening books tell you how to plant the garden so I will merely make a few comments about things that have been helpful to me. I do keep a spiral notebook journal to record information about the garden. I draw a simple map of where I plant each vegetable so I can rotate crops in a progression that takes three or four years to complete. I also record the dates that I start seeds indoors and plant seeds in the garden. I also notice and record whether these dates should be moved for better results. After a few years there is no need to guess when to plant each crop. I have learned that even with my short growing season I can plant one block consisting of three rows of corn by the end of May and plant another block of the same variety three weeks later. This extends the length of time I have fresh corn on the cob and I do not have to can all of the corn in a short period of time.

When I am planting the seeds I have learned to leave more space between rows than I think is needed. One yard of space between rows of corn, potatoes and at least a yard between tomato plants will be filled up by the end of the summer. After the plants come up do not be timid about thinning the plants to the proper spacing. If this task is neglected plants will not mature to the proper size. Dropping a few radish seeds in the row when planting carrots or Swiss chard will help mark the location of the row for weeding purposes. Both carrots and chard are slow to sprout. This is a form of companion planting which is discussed in greater detail in the Rodale Publishing book Successful Organic Gardening.

Gardening Companion Crop Planting
When the potatoes are 6-8”tall I hoe the weeds one last time and cover the whole area where they are being grown with a thick covering of old alfalfa hay. The hay mulch will deter the weeds for the rest of the summer, and it keeps the potatoes that grow near the surface from turning green. The green parts of potatoes have the same chemicals that are in the plant’s stems and leaves. These chemicals are not good for people to eat. After the potatoes are dug up at the end of the summer the hay mulch is tilled into the soil. One of the things that I still need to learn is how to grow new seed potatoes. I have planted potatoes that grew in my garden for several years, but after 2-4 years they do not sprout or produce as well as they should.

The first year that a garden is grown in a new location the crops may be hard hit by the local insects until a way to control them is found. I have trouble with a few bugs on a yearly basis. I try to deal with them in an organic way because I know that I will be eating what is grown in my garden. I use Bull’s-Eye Bioinsecticide form GardensAlive.com for cabbage worms and a Rotenone/Pyrethrins spray for Colorado Potato Beetles. Both products are organic and can be used with in a day of harvest. For aphids I use Concern Multi-Purpose Insect Killer with Pyrethrins as the main ingredient. This is ordered from Woodstream company at 1-800-800-1819. I am very satisfied with the results from these products. Depending on where a garden is located plans may need to be made to keep animals out. A tall fence will hold some animals out. We also use an electric fence around the sweet corn to discourage raccoons.

Storing the Vegetable Harvest
By late summer all of the hard work and planning have paid off producing a lush garden with a bountiful harvest which needs to be preserved in some way for the coming winter. There are many ways of doing this such as freezing, canning, pickling, dehydrating, and root cellaring. All of these methods have advantages and disadvantages, but most of them require some kind of equipment and as always practiced skill.

Freezing is quick and easy. Peppers can be frozen after they have had the stem and seeds removed. I chop peppers up either by hand or using a food processor and put them in zip lock bags before freezing. Other vegetables should be blanched which means cooked in a basket over boiling water for 5-8 minutes depending on the type of vegetable. Freezing depends on a steady supply of electricity. Food stored in this manner should be eaten with in a year or at most two. Having enough freezer space for a whole garden might be costly.

Canned vegetables will store longer that frozen ones. A kettle for hot water bath canning of high acid foods such as fruit and pickles is needed. A pressure canner is a requirement for canning low acid foods such as corn, beans, peas, beets, pumpkin, some tomatoes, and meat. Using a pressure canner is the best way to eliminate most of the chance of food poisoning. Having to deal with Botulism poisoning is not something to risk. When a pressure canner is purchased there should be a booklet giving instructions on how to use it. Ball and Kerr canning lid companies sell booklets with detailed directions for canning foods safely. I have seen these books for sale on Amazon. After a few years of use a pressure canner will need a new rubber gasket that fits in the rim of the lid. Sometimes these need to be ordered from the manufacturer a few weeks ahead of time. Canning lids have become harder to find and more expensive with fewer people involved in home canning. The best price I could find this past summer was $1.41 for a dozen regular size lids at Wal-Mart. They did not have wide mouth lids at the store where I shop. Stores usually only carry canning supplies from mid-summer through early fall. Real canning jars are safer to use than empty glass mayonnaise jars which are not made as heavy and now often are plastic. Sometimes canning jars are sold at yard sales. Be sure to check the rim around the opening of the jar. Chips out of the glass rim will prevent the lid from forming a vacuum seal. My voice of experience wants to say that glass top cooking stoves may not be built to hold the weight of a loaded pressure canner. The glass cooking surface can crack and are expensive to replace. Some of the modern electric burners on stoves do not heat up as hot or as quickly as needed for an efficient canning process. An older second hand stove can be wired to operate in the garage just outside of the kitchen door. This has the added benefit of keeping the heat out of the hot summer kitchen. With 30-40 minutes for a canner filled with seven quart jars of corn to heat up, 85 minutes processing time, and 30-40 minutes cool down time that is a lot of heat in the kitchen.

Dehydrating can be used for some foods such as herbs, jerky, and fruit leather. Other foods that are dehydrated will be changed by the process and will be best used in soups and casseroles. Plans for building your own dehydrator are available in many books. There are also commercial units available.

Many bulky foods such as potatoes, beets, carrots, and cabbage will store for quite a period of time if they can be kept a little cool. This is why a root cellar can be a good choice. Onions, garlic, and winter squash like temperatures between 45 and 50 degrees. A cool basement pantry where canned food is stored would be a good choice for them. Check them on a regular basis for spoilage. The saying “One bad apple spoils the barrel,” is true for all root cellared vegetables. There are many plans for all sorts of root cellars available in books. About eight years ago we decided that it was time to build a legitimate root cellar that had most of the qualities my husband and I had read about. A 12 x 12 foot hole was dug 8 feet deep. The forms for pouring the cement were prefabricated from Styrofoam and reinforcing materials. They were called Logix Blocks which are commonly used for home construction in our area. These Styrofoam forms are left in place after the cement has been poured. The advantage of this type of material is that cold from the surrounding soil will not be transmitted through the cement into the root cellar. A small well insulated steel building was constructed above the foundation. We even glued a layer of [foam] insulation to the inside of the door.

The floor of the root cellar is dirt covered with gravel which allows humidity to be higher and keeps the vegetables edible for a longer time. A large vent was placed in the roof to allow the rising heat to escape. The vent can be plugged up during very cold below zero weather. In the west wall a hole was drilled for a four inch plastic pipe which makes a 90 degree turn inside the root cellar and continues down almost to the floor where a second 90 degree turn is made. This lets cold air into the root cellar since cold air sinks. We had the root cellar wired for electricity. My husband bought two thermostats from Charley’s Greenhouse and wired them in series. The first thermostat, which is an Easy Heat Model SL1 made in Ontario Canada, measures the temperature outdoors. When the temperature is below 40 degrees it supplies power to the second thermostat. The second thermostat which is a Charley’s Greenhouse Weatherproof Thermostat, measures the temperature inside the root cellar. When the temperature is above 40 degrees it allows power to continue on to a muffin fan located in front of the 4 inch pipe opening near the floor. The fan pulls more cold air into the root cellar when it is needed. During extended periods of below zero weather we unplug the thermostats and plug in a small space heater set to maintain the temperature at 40 degrees. I still have potatoes that have not sprouted or withered by the following May.

Like art and cooking, the way a person goes about gardening is developed with practice and becomes a personal style. All of the skills and materials needed take time to acquire. It is my hope that the information in this article will help people move more quickly along the learning curve. Skills need to be practiced. The worst thing that will result from growing a garden next summer is that better food will be available, exercise provided, and peace of mind resulting from experience gained.

Source: Survival Blog [Related: Survivalist Seeds: Patriots Never Run Out of Food!!]

The Worm Man: Organic Way to Repel White Fly, Red Ants & Pests from Your Garden! | Worm Casting Applications

2009-08-25T15:06:00.004-07:00

Is There Really an Organic Way to Repel Fire Ants and Other Insect Pests From Our Yards?

Ball Point Wren

The Worm Man

Not long after my fire ant column, "Go Away! Ant That Means YOU" made it into the San Diego Union-Tribune I received a phone call from a reader, a Mr. George Hahn.

After our initial confusion (I thought he was an editor--he thought I was a reporter) Hahn explained that he owns California Vermiculture, the company that produces Wormgold earthworm castings.

My disappointment at not being hired as a columnist was great, but I got over it. Besides, Hahn's subject matter was pretty entertaining.

For those of you who don't know, worm castings are a polite way of saying worm POOP. And Hahn was on the phone to tell me he has the organic solution to California's recent fire ant invasion: worm poop.

The Enzyme

According to Hahn, worm castings contain an enzyme called chitinase. Insects avoid chitinase because it dissolves chitin, the main ingredient in their exoskeletons. If a plant contains a high level of chitinase, Hahn says insect pests like aphids, spider mites and whiteflies shy away from it. He claims they won't walk on it, either.

In other words, when a plant absorbs chitinase with other nutrients from the soil, it makes them taste bad. Insects may take a bite but will say "blech!" and go looking for better tasting chow. If they step on chitinase, they'll cry, "Aieee!" and hurry off to a chintinase-free zone.

To be honest, at first I thought Mr. Hahn was just another overeager salesman and I wished I had thought to pay Pac Bell for an unlisted number. But his enthusiasm was hard to resist and the information he faxed me was interesting.

In addition to general product information about Wormgold (Hahn's brand of castings), he included a copy of a letter written to him by Randall Ismay, Horticultural Consultant for Water and Landscape Consultants of Laguna Niguel.

The Fire Ants

In this letter, Ismay states that he reluctantly yielded to Hahn's prodding and distributed a one-inch thick layer of castings over several dozen confirmed RIFA mounds. To Ismay's astonishment, he observed that, "literally all visible ant activity ceased completely. In every single instance, without even one exception."

Ten weeks after Ismay's initial tests, the fire ants did not reappear in the treated areas.

The Whiteflies

In Hahn's information packet there was also a clipping of a Los Angeles Times article dated Saturday, May 27, 2000 by garden writer Julie Bawden Davis.

Davis wrote that she had been battling whiteflies on her hibiscus plant for over two years without success. But one month after spreading a one-inch layer of worm castings around the base of the hibiscus, she noticed "that the whitefly population had dwindled. Three weeks later there were absolutely no whiteflies on the plant. It's now back to its healthy self and producing lots of blooms."

The Suits

Hahn says he called the California Department of Food and Agriculture to tell them worm castings might be a non-toxic solution to the RIFA dilemma, but was immediately accused of illegally promoting an insect repellent without authorized government approval. They warned him that such claims could result in prison time.

"Heck," Hahn says he told them, "you're going to send me to prison because I tell people to spread worm poop in their back yards? It's already sold everywhere as a fertilizer!"

This is true. Worm castings have long been known to be an excellent organic fertilizer and are sold in countless nurseries all over the world. The stuff doesn't burn and is odor-free, unlike other manure products.

The Professors

Nevertheless, I wanted an expert opinion. I forwarded Hahn's packet of information to the horticultural department at two California universities to ask some experts what they thought about all this.

Dr. Robert Rice from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was kind enough to send me this response:
I haven't seen any data to support Mr. Hahn's claims in the scientific literature. Mr. Hahn repeatedly refers to scientific evaluation yet does not cite the published sources. . . there are too many variables and the whitefly could have gone away for a completely different reason which coincided roughly with the application of the earthworm castings. So, I am not discounting the possibility that the castings have some repellent properties but until it was evaluated under controlled conditions I am skeptical.

An opinion from another California university was more blunt:
If this stuff really worked we (entomologist, PCA's and people in horticulture) would be recommending the material. Personally, I think he is trying to make money. There is a sucker born every minute! The worm industry was in its heyday a few years ago and people lost money in the "worm business." I believe in biocontrol but it doesn't work in every situation. A lot of claims without any documentation.

Hahn admits he needs scientific research, not just anecdotal evidence to back up his claims. Currently, he says his worm castings are being used in a study at the Quail Botanical Gardens Pinetum in Encinitas, California. And in anticipation of receiving government approval of his worm castings as an insect repellent, he has also applied for a patent.

The Hardhead

Being the hardhead that I am, I decided I'd like to see for myself if this stuff works. While we don't have fire ants in our neighborhood yet, most of San Diego is suffering from an overabundance of Argentine Ants and whiteflies.

I purchased Wormgold worm castings and spread it over an area in my yard where Argentine Ants are a serious problem (I refrained from applying it in my kitchen).

With my neighbor Sophie's permission, I also spread the stuff under her hibiscus plants, which are dying a slow death from whiteflies, as are most hibiscuses in the San Diego area.

I made note of my experiences in a log, but summarized the results of my experiment here.

You might want to experiment in your yard, too. Follow the instructions for using worm castings and let me know what happens. If you give me permission, I'll print your experience on this site.

Remember, Hahn is not claiming worm castings will kill fire ants or other insect pests. Rather, he is saying the castings will repel them.

If it works as Hahn says, when we treat our yards with castings, we should observe insect pests moving to a chitinase-free area, like the neighbors' yards. If so, this might upset the neighbors, but so what? Tell them to get their own worm poop.

The Disclaimer

* I am not receiving any compensation (not even a free bag of poop!) from George Hahn, California Vermiculture, or any other agency.

* I am not a gardening expert. I am, however, a mom who prefers to use natural solutions for her insect pest problems. (See "Babies on Board.")

* You want a truly scientific opinion on this topic, go talk to a scientist.

Source: BallPoint Wren

"Worm Cast Applications" by George Hahn, California Vermiculturist

Worm Castings have been known as the best item possible to make all plants to grow better. New applications have been researched by several universities and have been field tested for confirmation. Any landscape or growing application will benefit immensely from the use of worm castings.

Improved Growth: Extensive university testing has been performed by Ohio State, Cornell University, UC Davis, and the Australia SIRO to prove the results with worm castings. These tests have shown improved flower size, bloom quantity, quality, and color. Fruit and vegetable tests have resulted in yield improvements from 15% to 57% as well as improvements in taste and appearance.

100% Organic: The general public has come to correctly support non-chemical answers. Worm castings have been known since the time of Charles Darwin's research as the best way to healthy soil and healthy plants and 100% organic. A common cry is for solutions that are not chemical based so we don't risk potential health problems.

Non-Toxic: The skull and cross bones found on agriculture chemicals is absent on worm castings because they are non-toxic. Parents do not need to fear for their children or pets with worm castings.

Can't Burn: Since worm castings are 100% organic they don't have the salts found in synthetic fertilizers. The absence of these salts means that there is no possibility that plants can be damaged using worm castings.

Odor-Free/Odor Elimination: Worm castings are the only animal waste that does NOT have a manure odor. Worm castings have the fragrance of rich healthy soil.

Odor Elimination: Testing has shown that worm castings are very quickly effective at odor elimination. Mix 20% worm castings with composted dairy manure, horse manure, chicken manure, or compost and all objectionable odors are eliminated within eight hours. You can now use these effective organic fertilizers without offending odors. Worm castings are more efficient and cost less than half than activated charcoal.

Fungus Control: Four major university research projects and testing has shown that the complete soil food biology found in worm castings will quickly control fungus problems. Within a few weeks plants suffering from fungus problems will show significant improvement that lasts. All ground fungus is quickly brought under control. Nitrogen is released in the fungus control process providing added plant growth. (This is published research information and can be given to buyers in a generic form).

Insect Repellency: Testing has shown that several microorganisms found in worm castings stimulate the organisms in plants that work as repellants for a large array of insects. The repellants increase to a level that the insects find the plant nectar distasteful. The insects then leave. The effectiveness has been seen for aphids, white fly, and other bugs that feed on the plant juices. Plants tested included but are not limited to: begonias, various citrus, hibiscus, various house plants, morning glory, roses, solanum, and zylosma. The number of individuals who have successful applications now exceed 1,500. This research is on-going. A patent application is in process as well as a bio-pesticide registration.

Fire Ant and Common Ant Repellency: Ants can detect the natural repellency organisms when they walk over worm castings. They find the worm castings highly objectionable. An immediate negative reaction can be seen by ants when worm castings are applied. The ants leave areas covered with a ‡ inch layer but will begin to walk across the layer after a few weeks. Apparently some change happens to the top layer. Red fire ants will leave their nests within 24 hours of a single application. We are working with the top research scientists for the application on red fire ants. The ant revulsion has many applications.

How Does the Insect Repellency Work?

My best understanding and explanation is: The relationship between the enzyme chitinase and insect repellency is well documented from academic research. (Extensive research work is now being done to genetically alter plants to produce a high level of chitinase). Using worm castings is a non-toxic, and organic methd of doing the same without genetic alteration. The enzyme chitinase will dissolve chitin and chitin makes the exoskeleton of a bug. If the level is below detection then it is not toxic to the bug and they can NOT detect it. Increase the level of chitinase above this level and the bug is repelled by the nectar of the plant rather than attracted to it. The bugs reaction to chitinase is similar to our reaction to sour milk. One drop of sour milk mixed into a glass of sweet milk and you will drink the glass with no negative reaction. However, mix in three tablespoons and no one has to convince you to not drink the milk.

Using worm castings triggers the chitinase production level. At this point I can't name the trigger organism. I have a theory that I am researching. I should be able to name the organism soon. Applying the worm castings to the soil at a 10% - 20% mix results in the level of internal chitinase increasing. The 10-20% mix comes from research by Ohio State, Subler, Edwards, et al, regarding the optimum mix for optimum plant growth. Applying a ‡ inch layer to the top of a plant equates to 10%. A 1 inch layer to 20%.

The detection level for the bug is in the range of 1 million cfu/dwg. We have tested plants covered in white flies. The level of chitinase producing organisms is usually less than 300,000 cfu/dwg. One particular hibiscus tested at 260,000 cfu/dwg prior to application. This 10 foot tall hibiscus was covered in white flies. Three months after application the white flies had left the plant totally. The chitinase level had increased to 670,000,000 cfu/dwg.

The speed of repellency is in direct relation to the size of the plant. Spider mites will leave house plants in about two weeks. Aphids will leave roses in less than two months and it will take about three months for all of the white flies to leave a ten foot tall hibiscus.

It appears that this mechanism works for nearly every plant. I have included a list of the plants tested. All of the plants listed were tested by 11 nursery managers/staff and two garden writers. All tests to date have shown success. (These tests were NOT performed by California Vermiculture). We have performed our own tests and shown efficacy have relied on tests by others as support data. Nearly every one of these testers scoffed at the possibility of worm castings being able to repel insects.

The manager of Steven's Nursery told me that he could not accept insect repellency. I agreed that the idea sounded outrageous but offered samples for his personal testing. He had Joseph Coat roses that had been plagued with aphids for over six years. He said that there was not a single spot on these roses bigger than the size of a dime NOT covered in aphids. He applied a 1 inch layer in the watering basin. In less than two months, all aphids were gone. He has now applied worm castings to all of his roses. He now has not a single aphid anywhere.

Nursery managers have asked their clients to apply worm castings and observe the possible pest repellency effects. The number of people who have seen success in their own tests exceeds 1,000. I have asked how many of their clients have complained of no positive results. Not one complaint for lack of results has been made to date except for Gina Wright. You read the article by Gina Wright in Decor & Style. You need to know the whole story. In a later article, Gina reported that her aphids were all gone but the white flies were still evident though greatly reduced on her hibiscus and abutilon. I contacted her to do some testing to determine why she still had white flies. She reported back that she had spoken too soon. All white flies are now gone.

I have registered the use of worm castings for insect repellency as a patent. The patent search shows no one else has made this claim. Dr. Scott Subler says he is familiar with the industry and no one else has tied together this effect. Dr. Subler also did Not believe my radical reports but now says this is the first ever, organic, non-toxic method to provide for insect repellency. Dr. Subler are working together to assmble the needed academic documentation. We should have several research projects underway before the end of the year.

I am working with the EPA Biopesticides to get registration as both a fungicide and a pesticide. The director and his staff are very supportive. I should have registration for non-food applications before the end of the year. Food applications will take longer.

Source: Hidden Valley Nature Arts

Food, Inc. Documentary Movie Removes Shroud of Secrecy || Betting the Farm: Longterm: Global Population driver of Food Price Spikes

2009-06-11T10:52:00.003-07:00

Food, Inc. Documentary Movie Removes Shroud of Secrecy

Keith Rockmichael || Sustainablog

For those in America who have yet to read The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Fast Food Nation or even The Jungle, the new docu pic Food, Inc. smoothly stirs the boiling pot of food production controversy while allowing those not familiar with the dark secrets of the food production industry to enjoy a film in bite size nuggets.

With Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser a co-producers and Omnivore’s Dilemma writer Michael Pollen one of the consultants (in addition to being on-screen participants) the film offers a solid, well presented structure that offers not only scary, gut wrenching even stomach turning scenes in meatpacking plants, chicken coops and but offers a silver lining into the future of food.

Producer/Director Robert Kenner weaves the film through the various food landscapes from the cramped chicken coops of Maryland to the aerial CAFO vistas to the open grasslands of Polyface Farms. Inside one of the chicken coops live chickens that wallow in their own filth and barely have room to move. Factory farm shots show downer cows being uplifted by forklifts to be transported to the slaughterhouse. The film makes a point of showing people how dangerous and unregulated our food system remains.

Besides showing the torturously nauseating animal conditions, the film doesn’t forget the human factor and the social justice issues. Food, Inc. follows undocumented factory farm workers being arrested while making the point that the huge company that they work for should be the ones under the squad car lights. Kenner also captures the human element in the case of one California family that must decide between fast food hamburgers and broccoli as a result of economic hardship. (Guess which they choose?) Food, Inc displays the bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, insecticide-resistant soybean seeds, and even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but also shows the new strains of e coli—and the deadly results.

But the film is not all about “dishonest food” and the “ugly truth” as Kenner captures lively footage of environmentally progressive owners such as Stonyfield Farms’ Gary Hirschberg and Polyface Farms’ Joe Salatin who both proudly declare and demonstrate how food can be produced honestly and without a wall of secrecy. Like the Wizard of Oz, Food, Inc. reveals that cow behind the curtain.

Already this docu pic has several large food conglomerates just a tad worried with companies like Monsanto and the American Meat Institute creating their own websites in response to the film. It’s curious why it took till now to get a response from these food giants because according to the filmmakers representatives from Monsanto, Tyson, Perdue and Smithfield, declined to be interviewed for the movie.

Food, Inc. comes off less like a documentary and more like a food based 1984 where the food conglomerates act like Big Brother. Parts of this film appear to be as scary as any recent horror film. But consider, most horror films are works of fiction while this film deals with stuff that sits on your dinner plate.

Source: Sustainablog

Betting the farm

Over the long-term, the rising global population will be a fundamental driver of the rising price of food.

Garry Whit | The Standard

Monday, June 01, 2009

You are going to have to get used to the fact that you will have to spend a greater proportion of your income on food in the future - after decades of spending less.
That's according to Joakim Helenius, chairman of Trigon Agri, an integrated soft commodities producer in the Ukraine and Russia. He believes that food inflation has only just started - and he is not alone.

Commodities perma-bull Jim Rogers thinks people should not buy shares - he says they should buy commodities instead, especially agricultural commodities.

"I can think of very few industries in the world where the fundamentals are getting better. But the fundamentals of commodities are getting better, full stop," Rogers told CNBC last month.

The price of most commodities has jumped significantly this year, as the global economy slowly stutters toward recovery.

Gains in oil and metals prices may not have much further to go but many believe that the situation with food is different.

Soybean futures have risen 48 percent since their low, with sugar futures rising 40 percent to three-year highs.

The Indian government is so concerned by developments that it has outlawed trading in any new sugar futures contracts until the end of this year.

The government obviously believes that speculation by investors was the source of recent price rises.

However, many argue that there are fundamental trends driving the increases. The rise in food prices is inevitable, they say. Helenius says there are long-term and short-term factors at play - and these factors have combined to create a bull market in soft commodities.

Over the long-term, the rising global population will be a fundamental driver of the rising price of food.

Last year, Ban Ki Moon, secretary general of the United Nations, predicted that world food production had to increase by half by 2030 to meet rising demand.

Then there is global warming. Dry places are getting dryer and wet places are getting wetter and this is playing havoc with farming.

South America has suffered from a protracted drought this year and many crops have failed. Changing weather patterns are likely to mean this will continue.

Stephen Johnston, partner at Canadian agricultural investment firm Agcapita Partners said: "The fundamentals in the agricultural commodity markets remain unimpaired as they are driven primarily by a large increase in demand coming out of the emerging economies of China and India. We believe that the secular bull market for agricultural commodities is intact."

Rising wealth leads to rising food consumption but it also leads to more meat consumption. Raising cattle or sheep requires significantly more grain and stimulates demand for soft commodities.

It has been estimated that between 2001 and 2007, emerging economies accounted for a 26 million tonne average annual increase in consumption of major food stocks.

Short-term factors are also having an impact and these are responsible for a significant amount of recent gains. One factor is the credit crunch.

"The financial crisis is hitting both sides of the supply and demand equation," Helenius says. "Poorer countries do not have the finance to import the food that their countries need, but it is hitting the supply side as well. Farmers cannot get the finance they need to buy the inputs that go into growing food."

Ukraine is a perfect example of this. Because of the financial crisis its agricultural output is set to fall by about a third this year, meaning there will be little food to export after it has met its internal needs.

Helenius believes that the financial crisis is hitting the supply side of the equation harder than the demand side and that is why food prices are likely to continue to rise. There is also the question of the outlook for the dollar. The US Federal Reserve may soon be forced into more quantitative easing, whatever the consequences for the dollar.

One of the major contributors to the last commodities boom was a weakening US currency. Commodities are used as a hedge to protect wealth.

A tumbling dollar is likely to cause food prices to rise as well. Debased currencies stimulate an appetite for investment in real assets.

In a recent note to clients, Eliane Tanner, a commodity analyst at Credit Suisse said: "A shift by central banks across the globe towards quantitative easing will lend support to commodity prices over the longer term."

Food inflation has been stubborn.

Last week, Northern Foods, one of the UK's largest suppliers of packaged food to supermarkets, said it was here to stay for the foreseeable future. "We anticipate that next year will be equally challenging, with the continuation of food inflation," it said.

With demand for food continuing to rise significantly as the global population rises and gentrifies, the fundamental arguments for continued rises in soft commodity prices and all that means for inflation are easy to see.

If you are expecting the price of your weekly shopping basket to fall soon, it may be best not to hold your breath.

Source: The Standard

Dangers & Rewards of Home-Gardens || Indoor Survival Garden || Tire Garden || Survival Gardening: Lazy Tomatoe Growing || Rule of 3 & Survival Seed

2009-06-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

Dangers and Rewards of the Home-Garden

Survivalist Blog

I am amazed by the thought process of some survival authors who go to great lengths to convince readers that raising a garden is not a viable survival strategy. After all, having a garden makes you a target, hungry people want food and will rob you of your harvest.

A Yellowstone eruption or asteroid strike could put enough crap into the atmosphere that you would not be able to raise a garden for several years. Yep, this is true - but what is the point?

If you do not plant a garden for fear of having it taken you are guaranteed to produce nothing. If you are raided by looters or Blackwater thugs and they are able to take your crop you have nothing.

I would rather spend a little time planning and planting with the possibility of getting a harvest, then do nothing and guaranteeing failure. By this logic someone with more support and firepower could take your food storage, should we not store food because we could lose it?

This is non-sense, why avoid planting a garden because you are afraid it will be taken? I am not saying it will not happen, it could; but there are steps that can be taken to minimize the risk. Like not planting in rows, the three sisters or growing in a secret greenhouse .

We can learn a lot from the marijuana growers, who come up with some ingenious ways of hiding their illegal crop from authority's. Around here growing weed is big business, growers hide fields deep in the forest and under the cover of indoor grow rooms.

Every fall the police put on their camouflage BDU's, and head to woods in search of the illegal plants, state choppers flying overhead. Yet they find only a small amount of what is out there very seldom making an arrest. It always seemed strange to me that they only seek out the fields when it's harvest time...

Post collapse hiding our food crops could be requisite to filling our gut with fresh produce. Somehow the idea of consuming only ground wheat gruel, day after day – month after month doesn't seem very appealing. Combined with beans it will keep you alive, but after six or eight months of this diet you will die of boredom if nothing else.

Grain can be sprouted and young sprouts eaten raw or dried and ground into a flour providing some nutrient content not found in the basic grain, sprouting is an excellent survival technique and one you should use, but nothing beats fresh corn, squash or green beans to build moral and fill, that empty spot in your stomach.

My grandfather remembers the Great Depression, he said they survived because they raised a huge garden putting up the surplus to live on through the winter.

One year he recalls the garden getting hit by a drought and subsequent attacks by locust. You can still see that look of pain and uneasiness in his eyes and on his face when he recalls going to bed hungry nearly every night that year.

I think the potential rewards of the survival garden outweigh any potential risk. Don't you?

Source: Survivalist Blog

Indoor Survival Garden

Survivalist Blog

Keeping your garden safe and out of sight, from hungry looters and refuges after the collapse could mean the difference between life and death for the survivor. Having a traditional garden planted in rows is an open invitation to trouble, as every hungry unprepared person passing by will try to raid your garden, for a easy meal.

Sure you could just shoot them. But like I have said before, don't draw attention to yourself or your location. You want to look just as pathetic and unprepared as everyone else. If you can avoid a confrontation, by laying low and out of sight, you have won the fight already. Why risk a firefight that could lead to a family member being killed or wounded, if it can be avoided? We are not military planners and no one in our group is expendable.

Avoid planting in rows. The Three Sisters Garden works well to conceal your crop if planted in a way as to blend in with a stand of tall weeds. Don't make trails leading to your garden, that could be followed by someone wondering by. Don't leave trash around the site, and cover any exposed dirt after digging with leaves or whatever was covering the site before you started digging. Try to make your garden blend into it's surroundings as much as possible.

Produce can be grown in sunny rooms using natural light. One way would be to take the roof off of an old shed, barn, garage or storage building and replacing it with corrugated fiberglass sheets used to build greenhouses, you can get the fiberglass sheets at any good hardware store. The walls and floor of the building should be painted white or covered with aluminum foil, to reflect sun-light back onto the plants. I like the pant best, but the foil works well.

Any windows should be covered with heavy plastic, to keep anyone from looking in. Window blinds are a good idea. They can be worked in such a way as to let light in, and at the same time make it difficult for a passerby to look in.

The grow room should also have vents covered with screen cut into the walls to let air circulate. The vents should be cut up high next to the roof to keep anyone from looking in. Four 6x12 inch vents, will be fine for a modest size grow room of say 15x30 feet.

You can set the containers with plants on a table, so they can be closer to the source of light, the more light you can give the growing plants the better they will grow. If electricity is available the light can be supplemented by adding Fluorescent light fixtures, above the planting tables. Keep the light fixture about 2-3 inches from the top of the plants, moving the lights up as the plants grow taller, while maintaining the 2-3 inch distance. Remember, the more light the better.

With a little work the secret garden can look like only an old out-building, from the outside, but have a thriving garden hidden inside. Granted, if would be difficult to grow enough produce to feed a family using this method, it works best when used to grow smaller plants like tomatoes and peppers. This plan is best when used as a supplement to other gardening methods.

Source: Surivalist Blog

Tire Garden

Survivalist Blog

I love building useful things from junk, like this root cellar and smoker built from old refrigerators, or this efficient dryer from a cardboard box, or even a generator from used car parts and mower engine, so it should come as no surprise to anyone that my survival garden would continue in the same tradition.

I am sure some of you are wondering what in the hell is going on here. What has Creekmore been smoking? Working on a garden in December? I have never been a procrastinator; I prefer getting chores over with as soon as possible. The quicker I get things done and over with, the sooner I am free to loaf.

Come planting time all I need to do is start the seed and transplant the seedlings to the garden area. No need to be rushed digging up the soil or working in compost etc., and by starting early I can be assured any organic matter added to the soil will be fully composted before the start of the growing season.

The dirt at the homestead kitty is hard clay and rock, the topsoil was striped away years ago by the mining company. My only option if I wanted a garden was to put in raised beds. I needed something free and permanent, using old car tires for planners made sense. I found all the tires I wanted for free and they are permanent.

After hauling the tires up to the homestead kitty, I started the generator and plugged in the jigsaw with metal cutting blade and cut out the top around the tread of each P235/75R15 tire, leaving one side of each tire intact. This side will act as a reservoir to hold water, while allowing the roots to grow through the center and into the ground under the tires.

Each P235/75R15 tire has six squire feet of growing space when you cut out one side up to the tread. A garden of seventeen tires will have a growing area of just over one hundred squire feet. Anyone who has ever worked a raised bed will tell you more produce can be grown in a smaller space, because the whole area is being used, with no wasted space for rows and the plants can be grown closer together.

I made cages from five foot tall concrete reinforcing wire with six-inch squire openings, for several of the planters. These will be used to grow tomatoes, green beans, cucumbers and squash. Large trash bags can be thrown over the top of the cages to act as a greenhouse (clear bags) or to protect the plants from frost, early in the season.

Source: Survivalist Blog

Survival Gardening: The lazy way to grow tomatoes

Survivalist Blog

Gardening is hard work, all the bending, stooping, pulling, planting, picking, plucking, composting and other chores can leave you exhausted by the end of the day. In a survival situation, time will be at a minimum and energy should be conserved if possible.

Negative gain

For example; if you burn 500 calories chasing a squirrel through the trees, but only extract 150 calories from the meat, that is a loss and a slow way of starving to death.

If there is an easier way of doing something, I am all for it. Why do three times the work for the same amount of gain?

My solution is the tire garden, correctly done, they entail little work after initial set up and produce more than the traditional row garden in the same amount of space.

Advantages of the tire garden

* Reduced soil compaction - plant roots need air to grow with the tire garden you avoid stepping on and compacting the soil.

* Plants can be spaced closer together in a tire garden because you do not need places to step. This increases productivity per square foot of space.

* Tire gardens tend to drain away excess moisture better than the ordinary garden, but retain a reservoir of water within the bottom wall.

* Soil conditions and types can be controlled more efficiently in a tire garden and they can be varied easily from bed to bed and for different plants.

* Tire gardens can extend you're gardening season. They tend to warm up a little sooner in the spring and remain productive later in the fall.

* Less weeding, plants in a tire garden are spaced just far enough apart to avoid crowding but close enough to shade out weeds.

* Using difficult sites. Growing in tires makes gardening possible on sites where you otherwise could not grow plants.

Cutting

I use a jigsaw with metal cutting blade to cut out the top around the tread of each tire, leaving one side of intact, this is the bottom and acts as a reservoir to hold water but still allowing proper drainage, the roots can grow through the center and into the ground, so there is no need to worry about plants becoming root bound.

A P235/75R15 tire has six squire feet of growing space when you cut out one side up to the tread. A garden of 17 tires will have a growing area of just over one hundred squire feet, with no wasted space for rows.

Tomato growing tips

For tomatoes I try to keep the soil pH in the 6.2 – 6.8 range, you can check this with an inexpensive pH test kit found at most nurseries, or hardware stores.

To make your soil more alkaline add hydrated lime in small amounts until reaching the desired level. If your soil needs to be more acidic, sulfur may be used to lower the pH. Details on lowing / raising pH levels can be found here.

I mix top soil with potting mix at a ratio of three to one. Three gallon top soil, one gallon of potting mix, I also like to mix two parts composted cow manure to one part chicken manure. If you have it Vermiculite, pearlite, and/or peat moss mixed in will "lighten" the soil, helping the roots to breath.

Mulch

After the plans become established I like to spread a thin mulch of grass clippings or wood chips around the plants to conserve water and impede weed growth, this in itself will cut the work load by at least 25%, not to shabby for what amounts to maybe 15 minutes of effort per tire.

Recommended products

Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times, by Steve Solmon, this book covers everything you need to know about growing food in hard times. If you garden you need seed, The Survival Seed Vault carries non hybrid seed prepackaged for long term storage.

Rest and relaxation

Remember what I said at the start of this article ; energy should be conserved if possible, set back, read a book and watch the garden grow.

Have tips on raising tomatoes or making gardening easier – tell us about it in the comments so we can all enjoy more time in the shade.

Source: Survivalist Blog

Rule of 3 and Survival Seed

Survivalist Blog

Let’s face the facts; no matter how well prepared or how much we have put back against the day of need, our survival foods will eventually be depleted. Storing a years worth of food, keeping it rotated and replaced with fresh stock is difficult enough, trying to lay back sufficient foods to last five years or more, becomes next to impossible for the average survivalist.

Sure it would be easy enough to put away hundreds of pounds of wheat, after all if kept dry and sealed from pest, it will last forever. All is well and good, until wheat is all you have to live on; some people can develop adverse reactions to wheat and eating only foods made from wheat day after day, would likely increase this allergic response in some people.

This is why I urge readers to stock an assortment of foods or at least wheat, assorted beans, oats, honey and other stables.

Knowing the limitations of my food storage and the need to restock eventually the pantry, I began to look into sources of renewable foods that will ensure my survival after my stocks are used up.

Never become dependent on one source of food, remember the survivalist rule of threes – three separate and distinct methods or sources of supply. Here at the homestead kitty I am working toward providing myself with such independence.

Take food for instance, I have my food storage which is the first line of defense against hunger, backed up by hunting, trapping, foraging, small livestock, and my raised tire gardens.

When it comes to survival gardening, obviously you must start with seed; therefore it becomes necessary to have a source of viable seed on hand. Look for non-hybrid ("heirloom") varieties, you want to be sure the seed saved from year to year will breed true and continue to do so. Hybrid varieties for the most part are unpredictable and seem to only do well during the first year of planting.

Most garden varieties should be included in your stock. Include such vegetables as: artichoke, asparagus, beans, beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, chives, corn, cucumber, eggplant, garlic, gourds, kale, leeks, lettuce, mustard green, onions, parsley, parsnips, peanuts, peas, peppers, pumpkin, radishes, soybeans, spinach, squash, sunflowers, swiss chard, tomatoes, turnip, watermelon, zucchini etc; In general put back seeds that grow well in your area and of foods you like to eat.

Never use a microwave oven to dry seed. You can use a conventional oven if you keep the door open and the seed is heated to no more than 100 degrees. Package the seed in moisture-proof containers and store it in a refrigerator or deep freezer. A moisture-proof container is one that stores seed safely while submerged in water. Use sealed cans or jars, rather than plastic bags.

In general the drier the seeds, the longer they will store. There is a chance of producing what is known as "hard seed" if moisture is reduced below eight percent. Hard seed resists germination under favorable conditions because it does not absorb enough water.

When planted, the seed gradually absorbs water, germinates and produces seedlings over an extended period. A seed lot containing 50 percent hard seed is little better than a lot containing 50 percent dead seed, because neither produces a stand of seedlings when they should.

Beans and peas are particularly subject to this condition and therefore should not be dried as completely as other seed. If they have been over dried, they germinate better if exposed to a humid atmosphere for two weeks before planting.

Source: Survivalist Blog

Victory Gardens: Growing a Greener City: Community gardens benefit the neighborhood, the economy and the environment

2009-06-09T13:16:00.000-07:00

How a greener city gets growing

Community gardens benefit the neighborhood, the economy and the environment, advocates say

By Meredith Cohn | meredith.cohn@baltsun.com

May 26, 2009

Mark Smallwood in his Woodberry garden. (Baltimore Sun photo by Patrick Smith / May 14, 2009)

As a regional "forager" for Whole Foods, Mark Smallwood spends much of his time making sure the green grocer stocks local food, usually from commercial farms. But if he has his way, some products will come from even closer: Baltimore's community gardens.

To make that happen, he has hatched a plan to vastly expand the number of city residents who know how to grow fruits and vegetables - as well as how to cook, preserve and sell them. He's negotiating with the city for a site, likely in northern Baltimore, large enough for gardening classes and some individual plots. And he's applying for grants to cover some of the costs. "There's no reason why you can't grow your own food in the city," said Smallwood, an organic farmer who points to his own planted Woodberry yard as evidence. "This is a years-long project that aims to get a lot of people involved."

Local community gardens (Baltimore Sun photo by Patrick Smith / May 14, 2009): Mark Smallwood is planning a side project to teach urban farming, cooking, selling, and canning.

Smallwood said many seeds are already planted: He's one of many urban and suburban dwellers growing food at home or in community gardens from Upper Fells Point to Rodgers Forge. And people are turning out in droves at area farmers' markets in downtown Baltimore, Towson and Annapolis, among others, fueling a nationwide increase in markets by more than 25 percent since 2004, according to government statistics.

Across the nation and Canada, there were 18,000-20,000 community gardens last year, the American Community Garden Association estimates. A Baltimore group has tracked nearly 100.

Mark Smallwood will model his community project after his own garden.

Miriam Avins, a local gardener, is working to preserve them. She used a fellowship won in 2007 from OSI-Baltimore to create a land trust called Baltimore Green Space (baltimoregreenspace.org), and it bought the Upper Fells site.

Neighbors had worked the abandoned public property between two Pratt Street rowhouses for years before they began to worry that rising property values would tempt the city to sell to a developer. There are 13 individual gardens, and those who tend them say it's been a gathering spot, a beautification project and a food source.

Garden Wall: (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum / May 18, 2009) A wall separates the garden from East Pratt St. but residents of rowhouses have a bit of nature to look at.

One plot is tended by Jan Mooney and her husband Kurt Schiller, who is the garden manager. It has flowers, lettuce, black beans, herbs and other plants.

"We're big on sharing," said Schiller, as he pointed to the varied collection of flowers and food. "This is a big asset to us and the community."

Chives: (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum / May 18, 2009): Chives blossom in several of the gardens.

The neighborhood began trying to buy the property in 2002, but city officials wanted $40,000. They settled for about $4,000, including taxes and transfer fees, after Avins and council members joined the cause. Avins says city officials have since had a "real change in thinking" about the benefits of gardens. Baltimore's new Office of Sustainability recently hired her to create a formal process for selling to the trust at little cost.

Beth Strommen, manager of the office, said the city has a plan to develop more "community managed open spaces" that could be a garden or other use. They also are pushing more backyard vegetable gardens and urban farms that can sell food. Together, she said, they are good for neighborhoods, the planet and the economy.

Local community gardens: (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum / May 18, 2009): Salvia blossoms in the garden.

"They strengthen communities by giving them recreational space or healthy food," she said. "They are good for the environment because if they're green they're not polluting. ... And they are good for the economy because they stabilize communities and increase property values."

The city's effort is ongoing. But more immediately, officials are looking for more candidates for the trust. Avins and the local green activists group Parks and People Foundation have been documenting community managed open spaces. They've counted 93 so far, mostly on city property that Avins said could have been left to drugs, litter or ill-suited development.

"A lot of properties were simply abandoned," said Avins, who got the trust idea after the garden she started next to her home in Waverly was threatened by a developer. "Instead, they've become beautiful gardens, green spaces that raise quality of life and property values around them."

Local community gardens: (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum / May 18, 2009): The garden has developed in what was a vacant lot in Upper Fells Point.

Others in and around the city are finding ways to use private property for community gardening. In Rodgers Forge, for example, Joseph Hamilton has started a blog called the (theforgefarm.blogspot.com/) Rodgers Forge Farm Initiative to account for gardens there. It also aims to hook up those with time but no space and vice versa.

In Baltimore, Smallwood calls his garden program City Fresh - borrowed from a similar program in Cleveland. The effort, he said, will create a healthier population and a more sustainable city by expanding on existing gardening and developing nascent interest.

He wants to involve church and community center kitchens for cooking lessons and food pantries. And he plans to open a cannery for preserving and teaching local teens to sell to groceries such as Whole Foods, restaurants and the public. With his employer's blessing, he then plans to repeat the process around Baltimore and other cities.

Local community gardens: (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum / May 18, 2009): There are 13 gardeners who have a variety of things growing from flowers to herbs to vegetables in Upper Fells Point.

Back in his Woodberry yard, Smallwood shows off his garden filled with raised beds of vegetables and herbs. He has a greenhouse with some egg laying chickens and starter plants. There's a beehive in the back near a compost pile. There's also a rain barrel with goldfish to eat the mosquito larvae and a cat and two dogs to keep watch.

"To save space, you plant the beets and radishes together, which are the slow growing and the fast growing, and you plant the tall plants like tomatoes with anything that needs shade," he said, launching into a lecture he plans to give in his future community gardeners. He has more: on soil, on timing, on organic fertilizer, on conservation.

He explains how the food can be made into meals in his future community kitchens, and how it can be preserved as sauerkraut, pickles and preserves in the canneries he wants to open.

Wheelbarrow: (Baltimore Sun photo by Jed Kirschbaum / May 18, 2009): At the south end of the garden a rusty wheelbarrow leans on a pile of mulch.

"Anyone can do this. Get a pot and some dirt and you can grow something."

Community Gardening Resources
Baltimore Green Space, preserves community-managed open spaces: baltimoregreenspace.org

Baltimore City's Office of Sustainability, implements the city's sustainability plan: cleanergreenerbaltimore.org

Civic Works' Perennial Nursery Program, offers free plants and workshops to urban community gardens: civicworks.com

Maryland Cooperative Extension, offers expert advice and workshops by master gardeners: mastergardener.umd.edu

Parks & People Foundation's Community Greening Resource Network, promotes community gardens: parksandpeople.org

Source: Baltimore Sun

Victory Gardens: Depression and Growth of Community and Urban Gardening: Bay Area's new crop of gardeners digging in

2009-06-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

Bay Area's new crop of gardeners digging in

Patricia Yollin, Special to The Chronicle

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Sometimes at night, Cameron Crotty goes outside with his flashlight and hunts for earwigs. Maybe they are the saboteurs in his vegetable garden. Or maybe not.

Elizabeth Singh and her son, Arjun, walk to the family garden at her home in San Anselmo. (Eric Luse / The Chronicle)

"I had no idea how many bugs there were in my backyard," said the 40-year-old, who lives in Bernal Heights. "A lot of the leaves on my plants have holes in them. It's like this horror movie."

Still, he insists the struggle is worth it, and he's far from alone in his quest. Crotty is part of a trend sweeping the country: More and more people are growing their own food.

Bruce Butterfield, research director with the National Gardening Association in Vermont, says he hasn't seen anything like it since the 1970s, when a recession and oil embargo prompted many people to take up vegetable gardening. The current economic crisis is having a similar effect.

"It's been a super-wake-up call," Butterfield said. "And California is leading it because of the value placed on fresh produce in the state."

Mary and Joel McClure started this community garden next to their home in San Francisco. (Eric Luse / The Chronicle)

W. Atlee Burpee, the world's largest seed company, is enjoying its biggest sales spike in 30 years, said its president, Chris Romas.

"We are confident there will be a longevity to this," Romas said from his Pennsylvania office.

Blair Randall, director of the Garden for the Environment, a San Francisco nonprofit, said, "The taste of something coming from your own garden is noticeably different. And there's the sublime process of taking it from seed to fruit."

The National Gardening Association released a study in March indicating that 37 percent of U.S. households will grow vegetables, fruit, herbs or berries this year - a 19 percent increase from 2008. And 21 percent of food gardeners are first-timers.

Motivated by recession

Thirty-four percent of those surveyed said they were motivated by the recession. It's no wonder: An average investment of $70 can yield 300 pounds of fresh produce worth $600, according to the study.

Bartlett pears from this two-year-old fruit tree in the community garden started by Mary and Joel McClure. (Eric Luse / The Chronicle)

People also cited better flavor, higher quality and safer produce as reasons to garden. In the Bay Area, the fervor has been fed by the sustainable-food movement, the books of Michael Pollan and last year's Victory Garden near San Francisco City Hall, said Hilary Gordon, who teaches classes at Garden for the Environment.

"Now everybody is talking about food production," said Gordon, as she roamed through the organization's demonstration garden in the Inner Sunset. "People are saying, 'I can grow my own lemon. I don't need a lemon from Israel.' "

Elizabeth Singh plants seeds with her son, Arjun. At left is her daughter, Soraya. (Eric Luse / The Chronicle)

Ellice Richmond, a buyer at East Bay Nursery in Berkeley, where sales of vegetable seeds have jumped 23 percent from last year, said, "I've never seen it be this crazy. But it's therapeutic for people to get out in the garden and touch the earth."

That's part of the appeal for Elizabeth Singh, 33, of San Anselmo, who is growing vegetables in her front and back yards and on her deck.

"It's my form of meditation," Singh said. "I hate to do things like exercise."

A leaf-lettuce mix in a container on her deck looked impossibly perky.

"We just snip away at it when we need to," Singh said.

Her expansive vegetable garden includes Swiss chard, beets, strawberries, artichokes, carrots, red peppers, watermelon and zucchini.

She pointed to a 'Japanese Black Trifele' tomato plant, acquired at a special sale at the Marin Art & Garden Center in mid-April that opened at 9 in the morning. Out of 2,500 plants, only about 20 were left when she arrived at 10:30 a.m.

Family affair

Singh's 6-year-old son, Arjun, likes to watch the gardening process, while his sister, Soraya, 3, helps with the watering. On a recent afternoon, both children seem particularly entranced by ladybug larvae on a soaker hose.

"When I was a kid, I didn't have interest in it, but it definitely rubbed off on me," said Singh, whose parents were hard-core gardeners in New England. "Now I want to have a simpler and more self-sufficient life, and to teach my kids where food comes from. I hope it rubs off on them."

Mary McClure checks on fruit trees in the community garden in San Francisco's Bayview. (Eric Luse / The Chronicle)

Singh says she is glad she has space, but it's not necessary. Nursery buyer Richmond said container gardens have definitely caught on. Community gardens are also popular. About 1 million U.S. households are involved with them, according to the National Gardening Association study.

Two years ago, Mary McClure started a community garden on a forlorn lot next to her home in San Francisco's Bayview district, the city's historic food shed.

"My husband and I got tired of looking at weeds," said McClure, 56, as she unlocked the gate to Bridgeview Garden, where bumblebees were buzzing and fava beans were poking through the fence.

Now the hillside garden is terraced and an orange-and-yellow mural, studded with white phoenixes, covers the concrete wall below. A crop of vegetables had just been harvested, and nine fruit trees were coming alive.

The food helps feed Bridgeview Drive's elderly residents, said McClure, retail manager of a furniture company. She added that the produce garden first lady Michelle Obama is starting at the White House has been a big hit in the Bayview.

"It's gratifying," McClure said. "And it's a validation of what we've been doing here."

Elizabeth Singh and her family grow artichokes. (Eric Luse / The Chronicle)

Maddening, magical

For McClure, who grew up on a farm in Kansas, growing vegetables is easy. For Crotty, it has been a mysterious and maddening process - but also a magical one. His tomatoes, peas and radishes are flourishing, and a subtropical kaffir lime tree is inexplicably thriving, but lettuces and cucumbers are "problem children," he said.

"It's really challenging, and I didn't expect it to be," said Crotty, a writer and editor in high-tech marketing. "I've gone on the Internet to figure out what's eating my plants. I must have looked at every pest in the world."

Randall, 32, whose organization ran the Victory Garden in Civic Center Plaza, said, "I don't think you're learning unless you're making mistakes."

Singh plants seeds with Arjun and her daughter, Soraya. "I want to have a simpler and more self-sufficient life," Singh says. (Eric Luse / The Chronicle)

During World War II, when the nation was called upon to grow victory gardens, people knew how, Randall said. He noted that 40 percent of the produce consumed in the United States in 1943 was grown at home.

"The connection is still there," Randall said. "But the knowledge isn't."

Gordon said aspiring gardeners should start with culinary herbs and then fruit trees before graduating to vegetables. And they should educate themselves through books and classes tailored to where they live.

"People spend a lot of money and get discouraged trying to grow vegetables not appropriate for the site," she said. "And you have to water and feed your vegetables much differently than trees or ornamental plants. It's like having a pet - though it's more like having a cat than having a dog."

Tomatoes are the most popular among home gardeners when asked which vegetables they planned to grow this year. (Craig Lee / The Chronicle)

Top 10 vegetables

A survey of 2,559 U.S. households conducted in January by Harris Interactive for the National Gardening Association found the most popular vegeta-bles among home gardeners, when asked which vegetables they planned to grow this year:
Tomatoes (86%)
Cucumbers (47%)
Sweet peppers (46%)
Beans (39%)
Carrots (34%)
Summer squash (32%)
Onions (32%)
Hot peppers (31%)
Lettuce (28%)
Peas (24%)

Ready, set, grow

Books: Highly recommended by gardeners is "Golden Gate Gardening: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Food Gardening in the San Francisco Bay Area & Coastal California," by Chronicle columnist Pam Peirce.

Classes and events: Garden for the Environment (gardenfortheenvironment.org) in San Francisco at Seventh Avenue and Lawton Street. (415) 731-5627.

Inspiration: Chronicle staffer Jane Tunks, a novice gardener, is using The Chronicle's rooftop garden as her classroom. To read her stories, go to sfgate.com/ZHDV.

Web sites: National Gardening Association (garden.org) and Burpee seed company at (burpee.com).

Victory Garden: There's a new one in the Bay Area. It debuted in April and is located on the UC Berkeley campus, close to Memorial Glade.

Nursery: Among the biggest in the region is the East Bay Nursery, 2332 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley, (510) 845-6490. eastbaynursery.com.

S.F. community gardens: www.parks.sfgov.org/site/recpark_index.asp?id=27048

San Francisco Garden Resource Organization (SFGRO): www.sfgro.org/.

Source:

Will More Food Simply Boost Population? || Growing Food in Times of Scarcity || The gentle art of non-gardening

2009-06-07T09:33:00.000-07:00

Will More Food Simply Boost Population?

Andrew C. Revkin & Lalo de Almeida | New York Times

Soy beans bound for China from Brazil fill the hold of a freighter.

I recently explored whether it was sufficient to pursue an energy revolution as a means for smoothing the path toward a stable, prospering population. The perfect nonpolluting cheap energy source might simply increase our appetites (Jevons Paradox) and encourage ever-rising populations given that energy easily translates into water and food.

Now, a reader has mused on whether the same question applies in agriculture, in a comment on a meeting at Princeton on growing more food with fewer greenhouse-gas emissions. If we come up with new technology or practices that greatly boost crop yields, creating a second Green Revolution, doesn’t that simply boost the planet’s carrying capacity?

If that happens, isn’t the result an eventual expansion of human numbers and the human imprint? Or do we only have to consider the secondary consequences once we’ve at least gotten the tool kit for boosted supplies of energy, water and food on hand? Basically, do we need a “values revolution” as well?

By 2050 or so, the world population is expected to reach nine billion, essentially adding two Chinas to the number of people alive today. Those billions will be seeking food, water and other resources on a planet where, scientists say, humans are already shaping climate and the web of life. In Dot Earth, reporter Andrew C. Revkin examines efforts to balance human affairs with the planet’s limits. Supported in part by a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Mr. Revkin tracks relevant news from suburbia to Siberia, and conducts an interactive exploration of trends and ideas with readers and experts.

Source: New York Times

Growing Food in Times of Scarcity

Steve Quayle

Today I got a call from a very good friend and one that has contact with some pretty prominent people. He was so sad, scared and worried, didn't want to pass on bad news but felt he should let me know. One of his close friends has a good source of information plus a high security clearance informed him that over the summer you would see more and more deployment by the military, come the end of summer into the early fall there "WILL" be martial law. The food source is being dried up gradually. Food will become so scarce and expensive families will be going hungry. This will be the start of a civil uprising and the military will be called into service to quell the looting, stealing, killing and destruction of property. This is all planned. Believe it or not but at least take the time to prepare for it just in case.

I am not telling you this is the gospel but I know where the information came from and it is certainly a credible source.

People, it more than likely cannot be stopped.. WAKE UP...You can still protect your family from most of the hard times with some planning. Do you want to see your children's eyes with hunger in them? Do you want to be on your knees begging for food ? I don't and I won't.

It is the beginning of spring now. Plant every square inch of land you can find, buy pots, buy dirt, buy food and put it away now while it is still here.

Those of you that say you don't have room... MAKE ROOM.. there are so many ways to increase space for your gardens, use your imagination.

How about a wall of food? simple, use PVC pipe, hook it to a rack or your fence or your patio supports. I have done this before just to see if it worked and to dress up a area of our patio that was not that attractive. I used 6" PVC pipes 10 feet long. just packed with good dirt and wired screen over the ends to allow drainage. Drilled holes in the pipe and planted. I grew flowers but vegetables can be grown just as easily. Just think.. put the smaller plants on the top tier, larger ones below. The only drawback is watering which with smaller containers you have to do regularly or you could just install a drip system?

How about planting your potatoes, asparagus and peanuts in bags? Easy to do and so much more prolific in production. Find some of the Tyvec we used for banners and signs during the campaign, cut into 4' lengths, stitch up two sides making a sack, poke holes for drainage in the bottom and add dirt. Plant all those potato eyes in the bags, add more compost or good dirt. As the plant grows add more dirt and when they are ready to harvest just dump out the bags, there are your future dinners. One bag can produce up to 30 pounds of potatoes. Do the same for Peanuts. The bags can be lined up alongside your garage, house, any out of the way place. ( Don't try using paper bags they will of course fall apart when wet)

How about all of those hanging baskets you saved from last years flowers? Cut holes in the bottoms and use coffee filters to keep in the dirt. Plant your cukes, squash, any vining plant in these and watch them grow. Easy to harvest and prolific producers as long as you keep them moist and fertilized. Ever heard of the upside down planters? Make your own.

I spent a couple of hours yesterday starting some seeds for the garden. Easy and relaxing work. I splurged and bought some new 6 pack containers which comes with a bottom tray and a top clear plastic dome cover to protect the seedlings from being washed away by heavy rain, cold, etc.

I like to use a sterile medium, Peat Moss and Perlite, it is free of diseases and bugs and insures a good start to your little plants. Use one part Perlite with 20 parts peat and you will have a perfect medium for starting anything.

Get your hands dirty and fill your little pots with the mix, leave about a half inch on the top of each section. Put in your seeds ( usually 2 seeds per container) add more soil to cover the seeds and press it down to insure good contact with the medium... Make sure you wet your peat mixture down before filling the containers. Peat is hard to wet totally and takes some mixing by hand to insure it is wet all the way through.

Then just cover and wait for nature to take its course:

Tim brought in a truck load of ruined hay to mulch our garden with and will get that on the garden tomorrow. Then the real work begins.. planting peas, beans, okra, peppers, eggplants and all the greens I love so much.. collards, kale, mustard and broccoli. These will do well even with some cold nights left to go.

Please people stock up your pantry, have enough food for your family for at least 6 months. A year would be better but I know how much it costs. Don't listen to the experts, buy what you normally eat no need to stock up on items that are recomended but you rarely eat. Make sure you have enough salt, sugar, oil, coffee, tea, chocolate and spices of all kinds. These will be the things people forget to store up on and will become good items to barter. Flour is already becoming scarce in our area, corn meal the same, Meat will become so expensive it will be out of reach for most of us but by buying now and canning it ( freezing is ok but if your power is cut off your meat will spoil so I just can it all) I must have 10 cases of hamburger canned, beef stew, Chicken "N" dumplings, Pork Chops, vegetable soups and spagetti sauce all ready to go. Just open the jar and heat and eat. So much better than the store brands and you know exactly what is in them. Roasts can be canned also very easily. If you don't have a pressure canner yet get one by hook or crook. It will be a Godsend if things go sour and I think they will shortly.

Think about building a dehydrator, easy to build, I used one of those closet bags for hanging suits etc and replaced the plastic with screen wire. Added shelves and I can hang it outside in the fresh air with all the vegetables on it to air dry. The indians did it hundreds of years ago and it is still a good idea. Dried food lasts a long time, can be stored easily and is ready to just add water and heat and eat.

Everyone is busy buying all the expensive water purifiers.. why? Build one.. easy.. look at how a alcohol still is built, make a small one. You will be making distilled water in no time. I made one out of a old pressure cooker just take off the jiggler and attach a metal or glass tube ( The first one I made used Aquarium tubing )to run to your water bottle. fill the cooker, turn it on and just watch the water start coming out of the spout. All the impurities will remain in the cooker and only pure steam will be put out to condense back into water. Add a pinch of salt to make it have some taste and you are in business.

When you go to the flea markets, yard sales etc make sure to snap up any and all canning jars and lids, you will need to can your produce for the next winters use.

Please take heed and start today. There is no time to lose and if you wait you may be one of the ones that are just begging for help from our wonderful Government which means you have to obey. You have to comply, you have to agree to be what ever they want you to be or you could just be left to starve !

DO NOT make your plans known to your neighbors unless they are also doing the same thing. When the SHTF there will be so many people on the streets looking for food for their families you will be a target. Just remember even a honest hardworking Christian will turn to anything to feed his children. He will steal, lie, even kill to keep his children from starving. Wouldn't you?

Source: Steve Quayle

The gentle art of non-gardening

by Gene Logsdon | Organic To Be

About ten years ago, I planted some bibb lettuce, and though it is my favorite kind (Buttercrunch), I haven’t planted it in the garden since then. Haven’t had to. It comes up every year all on its lonesome. All I have to do is not take care of it very well, that is let it go to seed and sprawl all over. Nature does the rest. The lettuce blooms and reseeds itself helter-skelter. All I have to do is keep the tiller away when the seedlings come up in early spring. The neat thing about it is that, as you can see from the photo, the lettuce grows so thickly that hardly any weeds grow up in it, but only around it.

This non-gardening drama repeats itself every year. The most amazing aspect of it, and I don’t know why, is that this “wild” lettuce is ready to eat before the lettuce that I plant early in the cold frame, coddled with compost and protected with a plastic cover on cold nights. The “wild” lettuce grows faster. If I had any brains, I would quit the cold-frame lettuce, but so far I just don’t have enough faith in nature to do it.

Nor does this “wild” lettuce show any signs of decreasing in quality or taste. I presume that coming from seed now for many years, it does not carry the hybrid vigor or quality of the original Buttercrunch but it makes mighty fine lettuce anyway.

Non-gardening, or as my very particular sister calls it, “slop-gardening,” works for radishes, kale and sometimes broccoli in my experience. I would assume that with a little luck and laziness, anything that matures seed in one season can be non-gardened.

If when harvesting potatoes, you miss some, they will sprout and grow in the Spring if they are in the ground deep enough not to get frozen over winter. They grow just as well as the new crop I plant in the standard manner. I have often considered planting my spuds in the fall rather than spring and not have to battle mud and early frost in spring planting. But again, I don’t have enough faith.

Onions growing from onion sets, left in the garden in the fall will often overwinter and grow new tender, little stalks very early in the spring. Peas allowed to mature from an early crop will drop seed which will sprout and grow if you get sufficient August and September rains. Mine are usually too late to make peas before frost but I know gardeners who regularly plant peas for a fall crop and get one.

A non-garden will of course look the part. It will be all raggedy-annie and will require some hand-weeding. But if you can rid yourself of the Germanic impulse that most of us carry in our genes and get accustomed to a lack of weedless, straight row-ness, you soon realize that you don’t need an absolutely weed-free garden to get food from it. And of course, some of the weeds taste good too.

I don’t imagine that non-gardening will ever become popular because it requires, as I keep saying, in a trust in nature or in fate that few of us are willing to stake our food supply on. But it is fun to think about. When I was a child on the farm, we picked lots of food from the wild including strawberries and raspberries and many other kinds of wild fruits and nuts. My wife’s family picked wild blackberries for market. Dandelions were the usual early spring salad. But we never thought that perhaps most of our garden food could come from wild-like plantings. We had passed from the hunting and gathering era of human progress and by heaven we were going to sweat and slave to get our food from a settled, stable agriculture and horticulture.

Asparagus comes closest of all our domesticated vegetables to being a product of non-gardening and indeed it does grow wild and many people gather it that way. And now I know that I can trust nature to give me plenty of lettuce without having to plant the stuff. I keep asking myself how far in this direction a crafty gardener might go. I keep hoping someone will do it. As I say, I just don’t have enough faith yet.

~~

Gene and Carol Logsdon have a small-scale experimental farm in Wyandot County, Ohio. Gene is author of The Mother of All Arts: Agrarianism and the Creative Impulse (Culture of the Land), The Last of the Husbandmen: A Novel of Farming Life, and just released: Small-Scale Grain Raising, Second Edition: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains, for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers.

Source: Organic To Be

Organic seed to be produced in the Klein Karoo || Mulch Benefits for Organic Farmers || Project helps emerging farmers go organic

2009-06-06T08:52:00.000-07:00

Organic seed to be produced in the Klein Karoo

Farmers Weekly | Organics South Africa

30 December 2005

New legislation will require organic farmers to use only organically produced seed to grow crops and feed livestock, but no one in South Africa produces 100% organic seed. Now empowerment company Diverse International has taken the gap in the market and set up a community seed production project in the Klein Karoo, an area hit hard by poverty and unemployment.

The project, known as the Klein Karoo Organic Initiative (KKOI), will improve the lives of the people of Zoar, a tiny village between Ladismith and Calitzdorp in the Western Cape. Chairperson Liz Eglington says the project, run from the farm Amalienstein, will create jobs and alleviate poverty by producing and marketing organically produced fruit and vegetables.

Hendrik January, Liz Eglington, James Jacobs and Magdalene Barry believe the organic seed project could eradicate poverty in the Zoar community

Most of the world's organic producers use non-organic seed in their operations. But pending South African legislation will soon restrict fruit, vegetable, herb and cereal producers to using only certified organic seed if they wish to maintain their certified organic status. Even the feed used in organic animal production will have to be produced from organic seed.

Unfortunately, there is no organic seed available in South Africa. Empowerment group Diverse International identified this shortage as a market opportunity and launched the National Organic Seed Project.

The group has spent over four years planning the project and has established partnerships and relationships with various government departments, seed companies, overseas buyers and funding organisations to support the project. They lacked only the farmers to grow the seed.

Zoar is ideally situated for organic seed production, given the Klein Karoo's dry climate. The mountains that separate the valleys help prevent contamination from neighbouring non-organic farms.

Klein Karoo ideal for organics

Only a few places in the world are suitable for organic seed production. The Klein Karoo, with its dry climate, is one such place and is already one of the country's largest seed-producing regions.

It is also ideally situated for organic production because several mountain ranges separate the land, helping prevent agrichemical contamination and cross-pollination from neighbouring non-organic farms.

Diverse International approached the KKOI to spearhead the project because they were already involved in organic production in the area.

Eglington believes the project will do more than benefit commercial farmers - it will transform the entire Klein Karoo.

"Many small-scale farmers in the Klein Karoo are struggling to survive, never mind remain sustainable, and most lack access to markets," she says. "But farmers can be empowered through the production of organic seed. Organic seed can even be produced in people's backyards and then sold to a central marketing agent."

The first step in realising this dream is to set up a training centre to teach farmers organic seed production techniques. Initially, Eglington and her KKOI colleagues wanted to buy a farm from which to provide the training. But they found this was too expensive, and it would be better to conduct the training on an existing farm. After thorough analysis and research, Amalienstein was identified as the most suitable project site.

Amalienstein is owned by the South African government, and was made available to the Zoar community under the Land Redistribution for Agricultural Development programme. Unfortunately, the 7 000ha farm currently runs at a substantial loss. Of the 5 000 people living in the community, fewer than 30% are employed on the farm.

"There isn't any work here," says Hendrik January, chairperson of the Zoar Community Trust. "A handful of people are employed at Amalienstein and on other farms in the area. The rest of the people depend on seasonal and piece work."

Small-scale farmers are organic farmers

Amalienstein is ideal for the National Seed Project as it already has the required infrastructure and the storage facilities. Existing enterprises on the farm, such as the dairy and small-scale farming projects, will continue, but as organic projects.

James Jacobs, a Zoar Community Trust member, says most small-scale farmers are already farming organically because they cannot afford agrichemicals. For most of these farmers the switch to organic farming will be natural.

"The organic seed initiative will have many spinoffs for the community," Jacobs says. It will not alleviate poverty - it will eradicate it."

Eglington believes the project will create many job opportunities, and not only in agricultural production.

"Our vision is to turn the entire Zoar community into an organic village," she says. "First we want to set up the organic training centre. To do this we will need trainers and administrative staff. Compost, compost teas, organic sprays, pesticides, repellants and fertilisers will be made from material sourced from Amalienstein. This will create job opportunities in the making and marketing of these products."

The farm will produce organic seed and seedlings for international and local markets, while vegetables and fruit, and other byproducts of seed production, will be sold or consumed locally. The production of value-added organic products, such as herbal and medicinal plants, essential oils, soaps and even cosmetics, is also planned. This will again provide production as well as marketing and processing opportunities.

Community ownership

Eglington emphasises that KKOI and Diverse International don't want to take over Amalienstein.

"We need a training centre and Diverse International needs seed. But we want the community to take ownership of the project and benefit from it. We will supply expertise and support as long as the community needs it."

As Amalienstein is owned by the government, KKOI will require approval before it starts anything new on the farm. Eglington has met with Western Cape agriculture MEC Cobus Dowry and says he's willing to look at the feasibility document of using Amalienstein for the seed project. She says Dowry wants the entire Zoar community to buy into the project before approving it.

Kannaland district mayor Magdalene Barry is optimistic the project will take off.

"Zoar is sitting on a goldmine," she says. "All the community leaders have bought into the dream. Now we only need the community to vote and commit to the project - and that will be easy since the benefits of the project are very transparent and people have been suffering under poverty for a long time."

Source: Organic South Africa

The benefit of mulch to organic growers

Farmers Weekly

Certified organic growers have to adhere to the rules laid down by the governing body. They are restricted in what can be sprayed and what fertilisers to use. However, there is no requirement for a healthy soil organic content. The organic content of the soil makes a huge difference to the nutritional content and taste of the vegetables and provides for much easier management and general health of both the foliage and root system.

To maintain and increase the soil humus content, combining no-till with the addition of organic material – in the form of organic mixtures, manures and compost, all applied to the soil surface – will ensure success.

Organic growers should not be tilling the soil and accelerating the depletion of soil carbon, and these fertilisers work very well when placed on the soil surface.

They will enter the soil by the action of earthworms and soil microbial life. tHIS process is slow and effective. An additional refinement which is ideal for organic growers is the use of surface mulch. This can consist of many organic materials but dry grass is the most abundant and easily procurable.

Some may worry about weed seeds brought in this way but this mulch layer prevents weeds from growing. If any weeds poke through, throw more mulch on top. This means no weeds, which is extremely important for organic growers who aren’t permitted to use herbicides.

The mulch placed over the layer of organic fertiliser will provide perfect conditions to activate the soil organisms which take the manures, etc, down into the soil. The point of contact between the soil/organic fertilisers will also become moist and, with the fertility of the organic content, start to decompose.

When the soil is partially broken down, the earthworms will spring into action and consume this material, which is greatly enriched when passing through the earthworms before being deposited in the root zone.

Not only will available nutrients be released as a byproduct of the mulch and manures, but the populations of many beneficial microorganisms are increased by this process.

it’s so gradual, this form of decomposition doesn’t cause a negative period in the soil. Initially there are few earthworms present, soil fungi will do the job.

When more fertilisation is required, a concentrated organic fertiliser, such as that supplied by Talborne Organics, can be placed over the mulch before irrigation. The same can be done with chicken manure but when it comes to compost or kraal manure, it is best done occasionally and preferably when the mulch needs topping up, so the fresh mulch can be placed on top. The more the mulch is decomposed, the greater benefit to the soil’s organic content.

Bill Kerr ((016) 366 0616 or e-mail alphaseed@lantic.net). |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Project helps emerging farmers go organic

Farmers Weekly

The organic farming industry could provide 100 000 jobs within the next seven years through the Organic Freedom Project (OFP), a newly established non-profit organisation focused on helping developing farmers to farm organically.

Heinrich of the said the project is currently focusing on Levubu in Limpopo but has plans to expand to the Lowveld, KwaZulu- Natal and the Eastern Cape. Anglo Coal, who are co-sponsoring the together with Pick ‘n Pay, stated that this project will create new jobs for miners after mine closures and retirement.

Anglo Coal’s unused land, among other land, will be used for organic farming. The mining company identified farming as a means to ensure job creation and the development of entrepreneurs. As far as crops are concerned, the will mainly focus on soya, alternating with canola and sunflower, said.

The oil produced by the soya will be used by Pick ‘n Pay for diesel trucks that the company hope to implement in the near future. The rest of the soya oil will be used for bioparaffin, which will be sold through Pick ‘n Pay. Soya will also be used to create textile fibres, which will be transformed into clothing and sold in this chain store. The remains of the soya will be used as cattle feed. The OFP has also discussed the possibility of brewing organic beer with South African Breweries.

Organic farmer Tim Jackson, however, warned that this project is a recipe for disaster. “It took me 65 years to become an organic farmer,” he said, pointing out the fact that the OFP wanted to train developing farmers in a much shorter period of time. But Schultz said it’s easier to teach upcoming farmers how to farm organically than established farmers. “We’re trying to develop farmers who aren’t stuck in a rut with their ideas of farming.” He added that he wants to help all farmers.

Another point of concern raised by Jackson was the fact that existing farmers will probably be at the losing end of this deal. “If Pick ‘n Pay wish to go organic, then I suggest they get proactive in supporting the existing farmers,” Jackson said.

However, Ernst Kloklow, general manager of Organics SA, believed this project could be wonderful for the whole organic farming industry. He said this will not take anything away from any SA organic farmers, but rather add to their benefits. When faced with a local oversupply farmers will always be able to export, Kloklow said.

Source: Farmers Weekly

Soil Fertility: Feed the soil to feed the plants || African Bees to the rescue as colonies vanish? || Dung Beetles Saving farmers’ little helpers

2009-06-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

Feed the soil to feed the plants

Farmers Weekly

International soil expert Kinsey believes that feeding the soil by providing it with all the necessary nutrients in the right amounts to achieve optimum fertility should be the main focus of every farming operation.

He told delegates at a recent SA Biofarm course on soil fertility in Johannesburg that plant and foliar feeds should be applied to ensure plants have sufficient nutrition. However, the problem with most feeders is that they don’t build soil fertility and this can become an extremely expensive type of production. Soil feeders, on the other hand, if applied at the correct dosages, can help to improve soil fertility and provide nutrients to the plants. Correcting soil nutrient levels is much better than simply feeding the plant.

The Albrecht method

The Albrecht method was developed by Dr William Albrecht, a US scientist who found that the decline in soil fertility was caused by a lack of organic material, major elements and trace minerals in soils, which then yielded poor crops. He said major elements must be present in the soil in certain ratios and as soil can only contain a certain amount of nutrients, an excess of one nutrient would result in the deficiency of another.

Nitrogen, phosphates, potassium and soil pH used to be the only factors in soil fertilisation programmes, but Dr Albrecht included all the other essential elements. He also explained that the composition of ideal soil is similar to that of humus. Where humus consists of 50% minerals and 25% air and water respectively, the ideal soil contains 45% minerals and 5% humus with the same percentages of air and water.

Hence Dr Albrecht concluded that “the basic make-up of the plant and animal kingdom as it decomposes and becomes humus, matches the nutrient make-up of the most productive soils.”

Accepting your soil type and improving it

However, it’s impossible to change your soil into humus, just as it’s impossible to change a specific soil type like clay into sandy soil. So, says Kinsey, it’s better to accept your soil type and work to improve its structure by getting the relationship between the minerals, humus, air and water right. This will create the optimal conditions for plant growth.

There are various ways in which a farmer can try to affect the soil structure. One way could be through stimulating soil biology by using manure, compost, mulches and biological stimulants. But this would probably not make a significant difference to the soil structure if there isn’t sufficient air and water available to foster soil microbial life.

Another way would be through physical means, such as deep tillage. “This could have a temporary effect by breaking up hardpans, but it should not be considered a long-term solution without first correcting key nutrient levels,” Kinsey says. The ideal method to address soil structure is to correct the chemistry of the soil, as this affects the porosity and the availability of nutrients.

Albrecht said calcium should represent 60% to 70% of the exchange capacity of the soil, and magnesium between 10% and 20% (see the article Biological Farming: putting more fuel in your soil’s tank in Farmer’s Weekly, 18 April 2008). These levels will vary according to the type of soil.

A clay soil, for example, should have lower magnesium and higher calcium percentages than a sandy soil, because magnesium tends to tighten the soil, while calcium tends to loosen the soil. Higher calcium levels help to improve soil aeration. In sandy soil, a high magnesium level closer to 20% would improve the soil’s water-holding capacity.

It’s all about balance

Another factor is that calcium and magnesium should ideally total 80%. The soil will become hard and increasingly unmanageable if these elements exceed 80% of the mineral content. Kinsey says correcting these levels results in a huge change in production, but if finances are limited, he advises farmers to correct the calcium levels first. “By correcting the calcium and magnesium levels, you not only affect the soil structure, but also the availability of other nutrients, as these get into the plant over the back of calcium,” Kinsey explains.

“Once the soil structure is improved, soil biology and water efficiency also improve.” And when farmers have balanced the calcium/magnesium levels, they can continue to balance and correct the levels of other nutrients. Kinsey cautions, however, that soil can’t create something that isn’t there. “Balancing calcium and magnesium might help to make elements available that used to be tied up, but that’s only if there were enough of these elements present already.

“Soil can’t produce elements. If you removed them via production, you need to reintroduce them.” In terms of balancing the other major cations, potassium should be around 3% to 5%, hydrogen between 10% and 15% and the other bases between 2% to 4%.

Then phosphorous, sulphur, and all the micronutrients need to be built up to their minimum levels. Kinsey recalls that one of his clients took 10 years to balance his soil due to his limited fertiliser budget. The crop yield however, improved significantly during this time. He goes on to say that even though crops have different nutritional needs, all will thrive in a well-balanced soil.

“Plants will do much better in a soil with the right nutritional balance than in a soil that has the right pH but doesn’t have sufficient nutrients,” Kinsey concludes. “Once soil balance has been established, farmers can continue to fine-tune the amount of fertiliser.

Contact SA Biofarm on (012) 333 4222 or www.sabiofarm.co.za. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

African bees to the rescue as colonies vanish?

Farmers Weekly

A returning bee communicates with hive-mates by using specific movements that indicate the source of nectar.

The mystery of disappearing bees has scientists scrambling to find answers, farmers fearing the worst and environmentalists predicting its devastating effects. Pablo Macfadden investigates.

Across the United States and parts of Europe, bees are dying off and no one knows why. Hives have simply emptied. In America at least 24 states have recorded the phenomenon. Some reports say that half the country’s bee population has been wiped out in a matter of months. In some areas 90% of bees have disappeared. The Americans call it colony collapse disorder, or CCD. There are other names for it, like “vanishing bee syndrome”. CCD originally appeared in North America, where it appears to affect the introduced western honeybee.

Lately, European beekeepers claim to have experienced a similar phenomenon in Poland, Spain and Germany. Hives that have CCD often resemble ghost ships, with no adult bees and no signs of dead bees. Often food stores, both honey and pollen, are intact. Bee grubs are left abandoned.

If CCD continues to wreak havoc across the US, its effects could be catastrophic. For example, orange and almond crops, which rely on bees for their pollination, would fail. Zac Browning, vice-president of the American Beekeeping Federation, is reported as saying “Every third bite we consume is dependent on a honeybee to pollinate that food source”.

Various culprits

While no one knows what causes CCD, scientists, beekeepers and even some conspiracy theorists have singled out one or two suspects. These include urban development, new pesticides, parasites, GM crops, an HIV/Aids-like disease and cellphone radiation.

In the last few weeks the phenomenon of mass bee die-offs has begun to feature in the media. The news is so big that local bee researcher Dr Mike Allsop, of the Plant Protection Research Institute in Stellenbosch, received over 30 calls from journalists in a matter of days.

Allsop keeps in contact with bee scientists in the US and has been monitoring the crisis closely. He believes that US bee populations have been in decline for decades, and is one of those scientists who thinks that chemicals might have something to do with it. “I think that bees have just had enough. In the US they use new pesticides and chemicals to deal with problems and don’t allow natural selection to take place.,” Allsop said.

South African bees are more free-ranging and beekeepers are less likely to use chemicals, allowing natural selection to weed out the weaker colonies, he explained. Some researchers are pointing to a new class of pesticides called neonicotinoids that don’t kill the bees but instead hamper their ability to navigate and find their way back to their hives.

Another suspect is the varroa mite, also called the “vampire mite”. It has even been suggested that this blood-red parasite, which started infiltrating hives in the US in the 1980s, has introduced new bee viruses. The only problem is that the varroa mite has not been found in all the hives affected by CCD.

Bee stress

Another theory is that bees are dying off because they are simply stressed out. Beekeepers are increasingly taking on pollination contracts. They load beehives, one on top of the other, onto trucks and travel from orchard to orchard pollinating crops. It has become big business, and is now a bigger money-spinner than honey-making. In the US a single beehive can travel thousands of kilometres in a matter of months, all on the back of a truck. To keep the bees’ energy levels up, they are fed syrup and protein supplements.

Another explanation could be that these days bees are exposed to more pesticides and herbicides over a wider area. The genetically modified (GM) plant industry has also been singled out, with pesticides for GM crops possibly contributing to the spread of CCD. Again, some scientists say there is not enough evidence to blame GM crop pesticides. Another problem with this theory is that the majority of colonies that are dying in the US are nowhere near GM crops.

There is also a belief that plants poisonous to bees are the culprits, or that it might be new virus, like Aids in humans, that affects the bees’ immune system.

Cellphones have also been fingered. There are thousands of articles on the Internet about the effects of cellphone radiation on bees. The belief is that electromagnetic waves released by cellphone towers could be disrupting the bees’ communication system, so they are unable to make their way back to their hives. Allsop says he has a problem with the theory. “I have searched for these articles, some of which have been printed in reputable newspapers. But they all quote a single German research study. I tracked down that study; it was published in 2003, cites no data and is actually just a proposal to conduct research on cellphones and bees,” he said.

Decline in SA wild bees

In South Africa, there don’t appear to be the mass bee die-offs seen in the US. “Here, CCD is not on our radar. Our bees are happy and healthy,” said Allsop.

However, Hans Blokker of the South African Bee Industry Organisation (SABIO) said that they weren’t sure if CCD was a problem, and were having urgent meetings about it. Organic bee farmer Tim Jackson, on the other hand, says that over the years he has noted a decline in the number of bees.

“In Pretoria in 1995, we used to be able to catch between 16 and 18 wild bees in a day. We have only caught one this year. There are just no wild bees,” he explained. “ Interestingly, beekeepers around our cities have also noticed a dramatic drop in feral swarms in recent years.

To ensure new swarms of wild bees, the professional beekeepers have been travelling as far as the Lowveld and even KwaZulu-Natal to trap swarms. Thus an invasion of the Cape bee was blamed for the decline of the African bee on the Highveld, but this has never been proved,” he said.

But there might just be a saviour. The African bee, long demonised by the American press, could one day save the US farmer. While scientists are scrambling to find a cure for CCD, one researcher, Prof May Berenbaum of Cornell University, has proposed crossbreeding US honey bees with African bees.

Africanised or “killer” bees, as they are known in the US, are considered more aggressive but they also appear to be resistant to CCD. But for American beekeepers to embrace the African bee would require a change in mindset.

“In South Africa, probably between 10 and 12 people are killed by bees every year. In America, where they sue you if you spill a cup of coffee on them, there is no place for aggressive bees. But when the almond farmers are losing millions of dollars and facing collapse, they might just start considering Africanised bees,” said Allsop.

Contact Hans Blocker at SABIO on (011) 678 2996 or fax (011) 476 6308. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Dung Beetles: Saving farmers’ little helpers

Without dung beetles, both animals and people are left vulnerable to dung-breeding parasites.

Dung beetles can restore the health of farming ecosystems, reports Cornelia du Plooy.

But their survival is threatened by toxic anti-parasitics. A toxicity rating system for animal health products now gives farmers an indication of how to use these products safely.

In Egyptian mythology the scarab beetle was Lord Khephera, god of rebirth, creative energy and eternal life. Today, both farmers and conservationists hold scarabs in the highest regard. Their dung-burying not only improves soil fertility, aeration and water penetration, but also prevents the accumulation of breeding media for pests and parasites like flies, ticks and nematodes.

The scarabs’ vital role was recently brought under the spotlight at a workshop held by the Dung Beetles for Africa Organisation, hosted by the University of Pretoria’s Zoology Department. All the assembled experts, from scientists to leading cattle farmers, agreed that the use of toxic anti-parasitics should be limited. In the dung of animals treated with these anti-parasitics, the residual toxicity is killing off dung beetles. Already in the US, forage has been fouled by dung pads left unprocessed because of a lack of dung beetles.

This has resulted in annual losses of millions, and an explosion in dung-breeding parasites and fly populations, causing higher parasite infestation in livestock and even human infant mortality. “Farmers are faced with yet another growing dilemma - increasing tick and nematode resistance to anti-parasitics, which in turn demands more potent and longer lasting poisons,” warns the University of Pretoria’s Dr Ute Kryger.

In turn, these more expensive anti-parasitics have serious environmental impacts, particularly on dung beetles.

Drive to reduce toxicity

“We aim to determine the environmental toxicity of available anti-parasitics, inform the farming community about their ecological toxicity and publicise the importance of dung beetles in agro-ecosystems,” says Kryger.

If the use of anti-parasitics toxic to dung beetles is reduced, effective dung beetle communities will be able to process dung, reduce parasite breeding grounds and improve pasture health and productivity, as well as parasite-borne diseases of both livestock and people. Increased animal health will also lead to increased annual turnover. “Very few of the anti-parasitic chemicals available to local farmers have ever been tested against dung beetles or under local conditions,” says Kryger.

In 2003, local ecotoxicological anti-parasitic screening work led the University of Pretoria to register a dung-beetle-friendliness trademark. This indicates the effect of anti-parasitic products on non-target species with a star rating system.

“Novartis Animal Health has become the first manufacturer to subject its cattle anti-parasitic products to assessment,” says Kryger. The absence of the trademark means that the product hasn’t been tested for non-target toxicity. One star means the product’s use should be limited to stock feedlots, and it shouldn’t be used in pastures. Two stars means the product is suitable for occasional use in the pasture, while three stars means the product has a minimal impact on dung beetles and is considered suitable for regular use in the pasture.

For more information, contact Carmen Jacobs or Werner Strumpher at the Scarab Research Group, Department of Zoology & Entomology, University of Pretoria on (012) 420 3754, fax (012) 362 5242, or e-mail dungbeetlesforafrica@zoology.up.ac.za.

Source: Farmers Weekly

Organic windfall for bankrupt soil || Does Compost Tea Work? || Soil health, from Compost, Thelema Vineyards Success

2009-06-04T07:33:00.000-07:00

Organic windfall for bankrupt soil

Farmers Weekly

The torrential rains of February and March 2000 drowned many fields north of the Soutpansberg in Limpopo Province. At the time, Bertus Otto noted that the crops in his conventionally fertilised lands were yellow and sickly – “really bankrupt”, even though he’d cultivated his lands for 33 years, ploughing, subsoiling, fertilising and practising good crop rotation.

In stark contrast, the natural veld adjacent to his farm, Secrabje, was in full bloom. “So my neighbour, Nature, was a far better farmer than I was,” he admits.

Well-thought-out organic idealism

Bertus realised that for over three decades he’d been doing something wrong. Now, for the past seven years, Secrabje has been one of SA’s few totally organic commercial farms.

Bertus believes the first crucial question every farmer considering the switch to organic production needs to ask is: why do want to farm organically? Is it a conscience, financial or ideological issue? His main reasons for switching to organic were his passion for nature and the need for a sustainable market. “I never liked the idea of farming with chemicals,” he recalls.

“Today you’ll spray a crop, tomorrow you’ll find many friends – birds and even bats – lying dead all over the fields. It would be like entering a family graveyard.”

Since going organic he’s noticed a significant increase in wildlife on the farm.

“Nature is coming back. We’ve also embarked on a programme to identify bats, and to breed some species.”

Study your market place and secure it

Once Bertus decided to go organic, he discussed the way forward with his sons. “We wanted to make ourselves irreplaceable,” he recalls. Their first step, and the first thing farmers need to do before going organic, Bertus stresses, was finding a buyer for their produce. If they hadn’t, they might have wound up without one, especially while their farm was in the process of conversion.

The Ottos approached a few potential clients. None were interested, until they heard the word “organic”. Then they wanted to know how much space they had to allocate. But Bertus warns farmers not to believe organic farming opens up an “easy” new world. A lot of hard work lies ahead. There are also a few organic products, such as bananas, that no longer get a price premium as they’re so common on the market. On the other hand, products such as pumpkin, butternut and sweet potato are in high demand by baby food manufacturers.

“When you listen to the inner circle talk at one of our largest food stores, you hear they want a third of their company’s products to be organic by 2012,” says Bertus. Going organic is a great way to make yourself irreplaceable in the market, he stresses.

“You only have to look at whether there’s a market for your product. But the first thing all supermarkets want to know is whether your production is sustainable – whether you can deliver daily.”

Forget everything you know

Although it probably wouldn’t be tasty, Bertus is prepared to eat all the nutrients and inputs used on his farm, and is still looking for a chemical farmer that can say the same. “I don’t have the guts, but otherwise I’d even be prepared to eat the compost,” he jokes.

He had to discard everything he’d ever learned about chemical farming. “All plant nutrients come from nature. Who do you think you are to take them back to nature?” challenges Bertus. He believes all processes needed for good soil happen naturally.

But human help is sometimes needed, for example, to help return plant waste to impoverished soil, stimulating the natural processes that increase productivity. “Have you ever seen a fertiliser truck in the Knysna forest?” he asks. “How did that world become so fertile without it? And more importantly – how does it remain intact? Branches break, fall down and decompose to litter, then to compost, which is “mined” by microorganisms, bacteria and fungi. The digested compost is the perfect food for plants.

But these microorganisms die when synthetic chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides are applied.” Bertus believes this starts a cycle which disrupts nature.

“Do you realise chemical farming isn’t sustainable?” he asks. “You need to ask yourself why so many chemicals are being withdrawn from the market. They’re a risk to humans and the environment. Nature doesn’t tolerate bad genes. It all boils down to the proverbial survival of the fittest.”

Carbon, carbon, carbon

“Get your soil’s organic carbon level right and you’re halfway there,” says Bertus. Unfortunately this is easier said than done. Secrabje’s soil had been practically depleted of organic carbon from 1967 to 2000, while Bertus was farming chemically. “The soil’s carbon content needs to be around 3%,” he explains. “The higher the production you want from your soil, the higher it needs to be.”

Especially in the hotter parts of the country, crop residues should be worked as deeply into the soil as possible. “When the organic carbon levels are correct, re-evaluate irrigation. Water will be used more efficiently for plant production, and you might need to apply less of it.” Today Bertus no longer takes soil samples unless they’re required for EurepGAP or other certification.

Every now and again he’ll take leaf samples, and tries to do this in temperatures around 25ºC.

Finding compost near you

Organic farmers constantly need compost. Bertus recommends identifying suitable compost sources nearby, or the process won’t be sustainable, as transporting bulky raw material can be very expensive. “Look around your area and see what’s readily available,” he advises. “Urban areas always have a surplus of plant biomass. Animal waste and green manure are excellent, as they accelerate the process.”

He’s identified 80 sources of compostable material in the vicinity of his farm. As it contains no residue, packhouse waste is a very valuable compost component. As for compost processing, Bertus opts again for the natural solution. “You can’t manage compost as well as the land can,” he says. “Work it into the ground and let it ferment there.”

Contact Bertus Otto on (015) 575 9912 or 082 449 2434, or e-mail m.a.otto@lantic.net. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Does compost tea work?

Farmers Weekly

The use of compost tea in South Africa is a relatively new fertiliser innovation and has been met with huge scepticism by some agriculturists. Those who have incorporated it into their production cycles are convinced it really makes a difference. Glenneis Erasmus speaks to a few farmers and specialists.

The pros and cons of compost tea is currently a hot topic among agriculturists. While some outright reject it as rubbish due to lack of scientific proof and standardised recipes, measurements and applications, there are those who swear by it. “It’s true that scientific proof helps to build confidence in a product, but anecdotal evidence abounds. One can’t discount some farmers’ experience or say that compost tea doesn’t work, just because the results aren’t scientifically substantiated,” says Jako Pieterse who has his own company, Ecosoil, that specialises in compost production.

A laboratory manager at the Soil Foodweb Institute of South Africa, Stephanus Malherbe agrees, “I’ve seen many farmers achieve improved yield and soil health with what I considered to be rather poor-quality compost tea. I’m not advocating the use of substandard compost tea, all I am saying is the cost of synthetic fertiliser is rising astronomically, making it increasingly difficult for farmers to remain profitable. Scientist would be much more useful if they followed up on the findings of farmers and helped them to identify what works.”

Duncan Dicey who farms at Nooitgedacht in Wolseley affirms that it definitely isn’t a quick fix or stand-alone solution to production problems. “Compost tea application should be incorporated into other sustainable production methods to enhance soil and plant health. We’ve been using it for two seasons and have seen significant improvements in our soil structure. We’re hoping that in the long run it will re-establish soil health and help us become less dependent on synthetic fertiliser that depletes the soil.” Obvious improvements This aspiration to reduce fertiliser costs doesn’t seem too far from being realised.

Before starting Ecosoil, Jako was a fruit-farm manager at Karweyderskraal near Hermanus for 15 years. During his last five years, the use of compost tea in a fertigation system helped reduce the amount of minerals being leached from the soil.

The average phosphorous levels in the orchard increased from 38,3 parts per million (ppm) in 2000 to 55,1ppm in 2004, while the manganese content went from 7ppm to 10ppm. Sulphur increased from 7,1ppm to 27,2ppm and carbon increased from 2,2ppm to 2,5ppm. Nitrogen applications were cut by 70%. Jako, along with Soils Alive that also specialises in compost production, have recently been involved in studies on potato production in the Sandveld.

So far the yield increase in the potato cultivar FL2006, treated with compost tea and other biological products, has been 11%. In a control cultivar the yield was 43,4t/ha, while the FL2006 achieved a yield of 48,2t/ ha, with a fertilisation reduction of 20%. The results are even more significant considering the potatoes were harvested three weeks earlier than usual due to a shortage of potatoes for the potato chip market.

The increased number of beneficial microorganisms in the soil has improved soil health and structure, making compost tea one of the most powerful tools organic farmers have to enhance production. Bruce Gilson, who farms fruit organically on his farm Tierhoek situated in the Breede River Valley, can’t imagine farming without it.

“Combining compost and mulches significantly improved our soil structure. The soil is softer and smells better. There’s an abundance of earthworms indicating healthy soil. Healthy soil results in fewer pest and disease-related problems.”

Ferdie Richter who farms just outside Keimoes agrees, “We have three blocks of sultana grapes right next to the Orange River. The two blocks treated with compost tea showed a higher resistance to downy mildew than the untreated block. The increased resistance reduced my disease-control costs.”

The most remarkable thing about compost tea is that it makes it relatively simple and inexpensive to achieve dramatic results. Bruce adds, “We make our own compost tea and use it on a regular basis as foliar feed through fertigation. Our tea consists of about 10ℓ of good quality compost, 2ℓ of fish emulsion and 2ℓ of kelp, all diluted in 1 000ℓ of water. The mixture is aerated and brewed for between 18 hours and 20 hours and is then ready to use.

Around 100ℓ of compost tea is applied to the orchards every week from July and August, until the first autumn rains the following year, at a cost of only R0,10/ℓ”. Even so, there is a lot of criticism of the use of compost tea. It’s difficult to distinguish beneficial from non-beneficial organisms or measure good quality.

Stephanus confirms this, “The most effective way to identify organisms is through DNA testing. Such tests are expensive and time- consuming – farmers can’t afford to wait months to get results.

Making use of the old, culture technique takes only two days. The problem is that microorganisms are volatile. If somebody posts the tea and it takes two days to get to us, the sample no longer reflects what the farmer has in his tank.” This, however, should not be seen as an obstacle, according to Stephanus. “We look at the sample through a microscope and identify the extent of the biodiversity, as different microorganisms have different functions. The more diverse the range of microorganisms, the healthier the soil is likely to be,” he says. He advises farmers to ensure that their compost is of good quality and to rather have it analysed.

Jako agrees. He believes compost used for compost tea should be purpose-made. “There’s not enough attention to detail in the making of ordinary compost. Controlling temperatures and ensuring aerobic conditions throughout the heap to prevent a build-up of pathogens are imperative,” he says, adding that the more diverse the starting material, the more diverse the finished product.

Contact Jako Pieterse on 072 906 1636.

Does Compost Tea or not?

Claims that there is no scientific evidence that compost tea actually works seem unfounded. A literary review by Dr Steve Scheuerell and Dr Walter Mahaffee published in Compost Science and Utilization, 2002, summarises findings by numerous scientists on the benefits of aerated and non-aerated compost teas. There is debate over whether it’s necessary to aerate compost tea or not. Jako feels that it’s necessary, as beneficial microorganisms need oxygen to multiply. Another advantage of aerated compost tea is that it’s quicker to produce – between 18 hours and a couple of days, depending on the organism diversity needed in the finished product.

Non-aerated compost tea can take up to 21 days before it is ready. A disadvantage of aerated compost tea is that it requires mechanisation for continuous air addition. Scheuerell and Mahaffee point out that non-aerated compost tea is associated with lower costs, low energy input and more documented reports of plant-disease control.

There have been reports that non-aerated compost tea could cause phytotoxicity and provide an optimal environment for human pathogen regrowth, but the two authors did not observe phytotoxic symptoms when they used non-aerated compost tea as foliar spray or potting-mix drench, nor have they come across any documented evidence to substantiate such claims. Low oxygen conditions are ideal for most human pathogen growth anyway.

The authors point out numerous reports by producers and the scientific community that reveal disease suppression in crops. For some plant diseases, the level of control is considered inadequate for conventional agriculture. However, organic producers with limited control options, consider even this partial disease control as a better option than no disease control. Much of the anecdotal evidence lacks sound experimental design, objective assessment strategies or supportive dates.

The article suggests the growing number of producers using compost tea is strong evidence of measurable benefits. A better understanding of compost tea and its uses is needed. Scientists are urged to follow up results of growers with replicated field trials to illuminate the extent that compost teas will provide a reliable disease-management tool in the future.

Source: Farmers Weekly

Soil health, from Compost – the bedrock of Thelema Vineyards success

Farmers Weekly

Situated on the Helshoogte Pass outside Stellenbosch, Thelema Mountain Vineyards was nominated the second-best cellar in SA in a 2007 reader poll by Wine magazine.

This internationally acclaimed cellar is one of Wine editor Christian Eedes’ top 10 favourites. Thelema’s owner and cellar master Webb seems unaffected by the hype. At the age of 28 he left his life as a charted accountant in Durban to study winemaking full-time at the University of Stellenbosch.

In 1983 Gyles bought a derelict plum, apple and pear farm, where today Thelema produces 25 000 cases of premium wine on 50ha of mainly decomposed granite high-potential soil. Cultivars include Sauvignon Blanc, Rhine Riesling, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz and Merlot.

Irrigation water is stored in a farm dam fed by winter rain draining off the Simonsberg Mountain. Growth precision G yles believes in combining natural balance and cutting-edge technology to produce excellent wines year after year. The vertical shoot positioning (VSP) system, which arranges shoots to grow upwards, is used to balance growth with grape production. Gyles says his perfect VSP vine has a 12cm spur spacing, and two buds left after pruning.

During spring, two shoots should grow with 17 or 18 leaves each. Two bunches will form on each shoot, and after vertical shoot growth of 1,2m, these bunches will ripen to suit requirements. “In practice, we manage each block according to its potential,” he says. “If growth is too vigorous, the fruit won’t ripen. As a corrective measure, we’ve experimented with the double Guyot pruning system, where instead of pruning the shoots, new leaders are developed each season.” Soil health the natural way n the vineyards, Gyles showed Farmer’s Weekly the friable soil structure and the abundance of living organisms present.

Sample holes were dug, and we were amazed at the depth of root penetration and the amount of hair root development. “That looks like healthy soil and vines to me, so I’m happy,” observed Gyles. He sees soil health as the foundation of quality wine and an intrinsic part of sustainable production. “About six years ago we noticed a decline in our production,” he recalls. “Plant vigour was going down, so we had soil samples analysed. The results showed an alarmingly high count of plant-parasitic nematodes, and very few other living organisms.”

“We were advised to use an extremely costly, intensive chemical programme, which would have set us back R30 000/ha, but nematologist and retired academic Professor Bertus Meyer suggested using ompost to restore soil balance naturally – a cheaper, and far more environmentally friendly solution.”

With the help of Barbara Von Wechmar, an expert on composting, Thelema set out to rebuild its soil. “At first we bought compost, which we placed on the bunkies and covered with straw,” explains Gyles.

“Buying these materials was expensive, but we had to start somewhere. In the meantime, Barbara taught us how to make our own compost with material available on the farm. “Cellar waste is notoriously difficult to decompose, but with the correct inoculants, which she supplied, even grape skins can make excellent compost. Thelema can now use all its cellar waste for composting.” Recently Thelema bought a mower with a side chute so that cover crops could be mulched, instead of buying in straw.

Barbara’s technique also doesn’t require the windrows to be continually turned by expensive machines. Today Thelema removes all pruning material from the vineyards, chips it and adds it to the compost mixture. This helps prevent disease, as the heat generated by the compost wind row kills the pathogens in the cuttings.

Compost extract is prepared with an aerator and applied through the dripper irrigation, according to Barbara’s prescriptions. “In 2005 the lab recommended we chemically treat 12 vineyard blocks,” says Gyles.

“This number came down to one block in 2007.” Cover crops Viticulturist Conrad Schutte explains Thelema’s cover crop strategy. “We use cover crops for weed control and to suppress vine vigour in some blocks. We use as little herbicide as possible, and our ryegrass has been manageable up to now. Blocks with very vigorous vine growth are planted to a permanent cover crop.

We use fescue (Festuca arundinacea), which the rep claimed is the same grass as on Newlands,” Conrad smiles. Pruning intensity and production is carefully monitored. If a decline is noticed, every alternate row is cleared of fescue and an annual crop such as triticale is established instead. Blocks with medium vigour are planted to triticale, and low-vigour is remedied with purple vetch, a natural nitrogen fixer, mixed with triticale. Irrigation management Irrigation is managed with the help of a pressure bomb and a continuous capacitance soil moisture probe.

As Conrad explains, “We used to use a conventional moisture measurement system until two years ago. But it was like taking a photo. It didn’t tell you what was happening in-between measurements. The new probe system takes electronic measurements every 30 minutes, which can then be downloaded onto a computer.”

This allows for far more accurate irrigation management. “For instance, during véraison (when the berries change colour), we don’t want undue moisture pressure on the vine and irrigate accordingly,” says Conrad. “Other stages require the vine to be stressed, so we limit water to achieve the exact amount of stress required. “The better our information, the better we can manage this process.

We also combine data from Aqua Check test strips with pressure bomb samples that measure leaf and stem water potential, because while the soil might be at the correct moisture level, the plant may not be functioning optimally due to root disease or some other factor. “Together with experimental plot data from sample vines, we get a clear picture of our vineyard’s condition.

This also helps us predict the crop size so the cellar can budget for the right number of barrels, and the marketing department can do strategic planning,” concludes Conrad.

Contact Thelema Mountain Vineyards on (021) 885 1924, e-mail wines@thelema.co.za or visit www.thelema.co.za. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Soil Health: Balance of Biology || Biological farming: Fuel in Soil's tank|| Soil Fertility Analysis: Albrecht Method || Cuba's Green Revolution

2009-06-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

Soil Health: Balance of Biology

Farmers Weekly

While many farmers are sceptical about biological farming, Pietermaritzburg professional natural scientist Howard Alborough believes that one day this method will be accepted as the way to go. “There are two extremes in farming,” says Howard. “The one is the 20th century approach where the over-use of chemical fertilisers and control agents, as well as long-term monocropping, has depleted the soil of organic material and microorganisms.

The other is organic farming which, in a sense, is an overreaction to the 20th century approach. I believe the answer rests somewhere in between, using organic principles in conjunction with the minimum use of chemicals.” A lso referred to as reduced chemical farming, biological farming is all about growing crops by using as few herbicides, pesticides, chemical fertilisers and fungicides as possible, while maintaining and in most cases increasing yield and farm profit.

It also reduces erosion and leaching, and decreases insect, weed and disease pressure. Building a foundation The basis of biological farming is to create healthier soil by replenishing organic matter and beneficial soil microorganisms. robust soil foodweb with millions of oxygen-loving microorganisms per gram of soil is needed to achieve soil balance and health. “One teaspoon of organically rich soil can host 600 million to 1 billion organisms,” says Howard. “These may be comprised of 15 000 species. In comparison, soils that have been abused and have little organic material, may contain as few as 100 bacteria, and very little else.”

Research by the Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences and Newcastle University in Australia has found that by increasing the soil humus content and carbon levels, food produced has a higher nutritional content than conventionally grown produce, and livestock are healthier. Converting to biological farming is a three-year process and acts as a consultant to farmers through his business, Growit Trading. In the first year, fertiliser applications are reduced by about 15%, based on a soil analysis, followed by a 20% to 25% fertiliser reduction in the second year and a 30% or more reduction in the third year.

Bigger root mass in sugarcane The first step of any programme is to get the organic material back into the soil. One way of doing this is by increasing root mass. Howard is running trials with the SA Sugar Association to increase sugarcane root mass. “When cane is harvested, most of the root mass dies back, typically leaving about 30t of root material per hectare,” says Howard. “We then apply products containing the right mix of bacteria, fungus and herbal extracts, and this can push root growth and increase root mass to up to 90t/ha, three times the original size. All that mass is then decomposed into the soil.

That means the farmer has about 60t/ha of compost he didn’t have before he cut the cane.” Bigger root mass also improves plant health. “By creating a bigger root structure, which in many plants has extensive webs of mycorrhizal fungi attached to it, the plant can access more nutrients and water in the soil, and it grows faster,” explains Howard. “Cell formation and structure is improved, which in turn means that viruses and fungi find it more difficult to penetrate the plant, so, lodging is reduced.

Further, water stress is reduced and there is improved tolerance to frost.” Increased organic matter also loosens up the structure of soil, resulting in better moisture retention, less water runoff and reduced fuel consumption and wear-and-tear on machinery used to work the soil. Howard’s methods are usually combined with a minimum-till system, designed to reduce disruption of the soil ecology. Accelerated composting Another way a farmer can increase soil organic matter is by incorporating organic material such as chicken litter, pig and cow slurry, woodchips, cane tops or residual crop material into the soil. While transporting this material from a 50km radius is viable, the most cost-effective option is to use residual crop material and left-over root mass that is already being produced on the farm.

By adding products that contain enriching microorganisms to the soil, organic content is biologically enhanced. While traditional organic enrichment methods can take nine to 12 months to break down sufficiently for on-field application, Howard can speed up the process to anywhere between 30 and 75 days. “This is achieved by applying biological inoculum that contain high numbers of specific, naturally occurring microorganisms,” he explains.

“If we can produce 10 000kg of compost in 30 to 40 days, rather than a year, it reduces the costs, such as the cost of equipment, the labour needed to turn it, and the space.” The biological inoculum also retains nitrogen and ammonia and reduces pathogens, which ensures a healthy production environment – an important consideration when one is dealing with slurry. “Slurry loses up to 75% of available nitrogen and if it is not applied correctly, if can do more damage than good to the soil,” stresses Howard.

“Soil is an aerobic environment and its microorganisms require a lot of oxygen. Slurry is typically an anaerobic environment with anaerobic organisms. If you pump slurry onto soil, the two sets of organisms go to war at a microscopic level.” Slurry application also requires between three months and a year before soil health starts improving. “The soil first has to recover,” says Howard. “But by simply adding products that contain beneficial soil organisms before it’s pumped onto the field, slurry can be turned into readily available organic fertiliser.”

New biological products Products that go hand-in-hand with biological farming are still relatively new in SA. “They have been on the overseas market for about 10 to 15 years and locally for only about five years,” explains Howard. “This field is developing all the time and in the last three to four years, local manufacturers have been producing local equivalents although their technology is lagging slightly. New technology has taken a lot of the complication out of the application of the products to the soil and the programmes are relatively simple to follow.” More advanced products also have built-in disease control.

“This is achieved by controlling soil pathogens and improving the immunity of the plant through a homeopathic-like approach such as using plant antibodies to make the plant more tolerant to disease.” Howard explains that a relatively inexpensive biological programme corrects soil balance and can, in some cases, double crop yield. “South African farmers are still sceptical, but trials have shown that biological farming can increase yield from about 80t to 200t/ha,” says Howard. “Farmers typically produce 10% to 15% more yield using 50% or less fertiliser. IIIn India reports indicate massive increases in cane yield from about 80t/ha to 250t/ha.”

According to Howard there are also reports that because plant cell structure is improved, fruit lasts two to three weeks longer on the shelf and trees hold fruit better during drought as the bigger root systems can access more water.

Contact Howard Alborough on 072 210 4292 or e-mail info@growit.co.za |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Biological farming: putting more fuel in your soil's tank

Farmers Weekly

Production on farms across the world has become stagnant or even started to drop, in spite of new seed varieties and other production-boosting innovations. In an attempt to reverse the situation and remain sustainable, many farmers are applying more and more fertiliser to combat the effect of poor soil fertility on yields and using stronger pesticides to fight off the growing amount of pests “suddenly” plaguing their farms.Recently, Alan Perry of the US’s Farm Technologies Network presented a course in SA on the Albrecht method, hosted by the local biological farming company Biofarm Institute (see box: The Albrecht method).

He believes the situation is so bad, some farmers’ production methods resemble a war against nature. Others have rebelled by embracing the organic movement.

Is ‘organic’ overrated?

Alan feels that the term “organic” has become highly overrated during the past 20 years, and definitely isn’t a long-term solution to decreasing soil fertility.
“You have farmers who produce organically by neglect and good ones who do it by design,” he says. “In some cases the neglectful ones do far more damage to the soil than traditional producers, as they don’t know what’s happening in their soils and rarely take soil samples.

Alan adds that in many instances “organic” has simply become a marketing ploy to sway consumers to pay more for products, in spite of little evidence they’re actually better than traditional produce.“Consumers are becoming disillusioned with these products, especially in Europe, as they don’t live up to the claims made by the organic movement,” he says. “They don’t taste better, give people more energy or make them less ill.”So what should farmers do about the escalating production challenges? Chemical and pesticide costs have increased by over 60% in some cases since last year, so that many farmers can no longer afford to feed the soil high amounts of fertilisers.

Alan believes biological farming is the answer. To reduce production costs and maintain high yields of healthy produce, we need to incorporate the best of both organic and traditional production methods, to find a way to farm with nature, he says.

Get to know your soil’s fuel tank

The first step is knowing what’s in your soil and to know you have to measure. Soil analysis is essential, and various methods are available. SA Biofarm uses the Albrecht method. Cornelius Oosthuizen, SA Biofarm’s CEO, warns that different laboratories have different procedures for measuring the contents of the soil and processing the data – results therefore differ from one laboratory to another.He advises farmers who want to use the Albrecht method to ensure their analyses are done by the Perry Laboratory in the US, as they follow the exact procedures set out by Dr Albrecht and to ensure the data is interpreted by an SA Biofarm-approved consultant.

The first thing farmers should establish is their soil’s nutrient-holding capacity. This is determined by the Total Exchange Capacity (TEC) of the Albrecht soil analysis. “If you think of production in terms of a car, then the TEC would represent the size of your fuel tank,” Alan explains. “A car with a small fuel tank would have to fill up more often to drive from Cape Town to Johannesburg than a car with a large fuel tank.

“The same applies to production – soil with a low TEC needs to be fertilised more often, but with less fertiliser than soil with a high TEC, to get the same production results. Sandy soil has a low TEC.

”The disadvantage of soil with high TECs is that it’s much more expensive to refill with nutrients and restore to optimal conditions than soil with a low TEC. It’s also much quicker to correct soil with a low TEC.Once you’ve determined the size of your soil’s “fuel tank”, you’ll know the amount of fertiliser your soil can absorb.“If you don’t know the size of your tank, you can easily oversupply the soil with fertiliser,” Alan explains. “All superfluous fertiliser will be lost, as would be the case if you overfilled a car with petrol.” Once the soil’s nutrient-holding capacity has been determined, the next important step is establishing how much of each nutrient and major element is in the soil and what percentage of the TEC it represents.

When these are compared to the optimal percentages in a fertile soil, any imbalances can be corrected, making these nutrients more readily available for absorption by the plant.

Boosting soil’s TEC

Changing the soil’s TEC is very difficult, as it would be like changing the soil type: clay is clay and sand is sand and there’s little you can do about that. However, the soil’s storage capacity can be increased by raising its humus content, as the humus provides new storage places for nutrients.

Cornelius points out that the TEC of humus is extremely high – usually between 100 centimol per kilogram (cmol/kg) and 400cmol/kg, “Say for example you have humus with a TEC of 225cmol/kg. You add 20t/ha of this humus to a depth of 150mm. You would increase the storage capacity of a sandy soil by 2cmol/kg. This would be like doubling the TEC of sandy soils in the Sandveld.”Two “in-field” ways to raise humus levels in the soil are by working plant residues into the soil and “green manuring”, whereby crops are planted and worked into the soil before they set seed. Green manuring is especially effective as the nutrients are still in a liquid form and therefore easier for soil microorganisms to absorb.

Compost, extracts and teas

Adding good quality compost is another important way to raise humus levels. Producers can buy in compost at first, and later make their own as they become more confident. “Making good quality compost is an art that’s perfected over time,” Cornelius says. “Compost can be made using either windrows or static piles. You can also use inoculants to improve its quality.”

Adding good quality compost teas or extracts to the soil is another means of building humus content. In both cases, water serves as medium for the compost, though Cornelius adds there’s still confusion about the difference between compost tea and compost extract.

According to him, compost extract is simply compost that’s been diluted in water and aerated, whereas with compost teas, inoculants such as humic acids, kelp and so forth are added to enhance microorganism content. Both have a positive part to play in biological farming.

“Farmers who use compost tea usually also use compost, because the tea isn’t as effective in adding humus to the soil,” says Cornelius. “But compost tea gives your compost feet and can be applied regularly throughout the year.” He warns, however, that compost tea must be applied as soon as possible as it usually doesn’t have a long shelf life.

Fertiliser and compost partner up

To prevent fertiliser from washing away or getting lost in the soil, Cornelius advises farmers to add it into the compost before applying it to their lands. He suggests adding organic minerals such as rock phosphate, animal bones (rich in calcium and other elements) or sunflower husks (rich in potassium) to the compost.

The compost’s microbes will help break down these elements and make them more readily available for plant absorption. In general, these forms of nutrition are much cheaper than chemical fertilisers. A word of caution, though – these additional nutritient sources should only be added once the compost has stabilised. If they’re added during the thermal stage, the microbes will break the food down, extending the composting process, says Cornelius.

Contact Cornelius Oosthuizen of SA Biofarm on (012) 333 4222 or e-mail info@sabiofarm.co.za. |fw

The Albrecht method

The Albrecht method was developed by Dr William Albrecht, one of the first scientists of the 20th century to observe that “food is fabricated soil fertility”. noted that the decline in soil fertility is due to a lack of organic material, major elements and trace minerals in the soil. This lack or imbalance of nutrients was responsible for poor crops and in turn, the pathological conditions in animals fed deficient feeds, as well as many diseases and disorders in humans.

Dr Albrecht’s work was revolutionary as nitrogen, phosphates, potassium and soil pH were the only factors considered in soil fertilisation programmes at the time. He extended this list to include all the other essential elements.

Dr Albrecht travelled the world to identify the soil composition of high-yielding land. With the exception of one or two basic elements, he found that soil which contributes to good yields has similar mineral composition, whatever the crop.

He posited that major elements in the soil must be present in specific percentages and as the soil can only contain a certain amount of nutrients, an excess of one would inevitably lead to a deficiency of another.

Source:

Learning from Cuba's green revolution

Farmers Weekly

SA could learn from CUBA’S organic production system, says Michèle Schubert, an agricultural development technician and consultant who recently visited Cuba to study their efforts at attaining food security via a specially created department for urban agriculture. She says that, by 2005, more than four million tons of food had been produced from organic gardens or urban agriculture in Cuba.

According to Michèle, 75% of all imports and 53% of oil imports simply fell away when the Soviet bloc collapsed. “The biggest impact was on food as the Cuban population had relied heavily on imported food. In addition, their monoculture-type agriculture depended on 80% of all pesticides and fertilisers being imported from the Soviet bloc,” she explains. The solution was to turn all available open city land into gardens and to grow food organically. “By 1998, 8 000 officially recognised gardens had been developed in Havana, cultivated by over 30 000 people and covering some 30% of available land. By 2004 these Havana city gardens were producing 300 000 tons of food, from 28 000 gardens employing 100 000-plus people,” Michèle says.

What helped Cuba was that the country has a highly skilled, educated population and although it only has 2% of the Caribbean population, it has 11% of all the scientists in the region. Many of them, says Michèle, were influenced by the ecology movement and were critical of the intensive agricultural system. “But as they had started developing alternatives to chemical dependency, they were eventually given the green light to continue and expand. This led to the establishment of over 200 biocontrol agents countrywide who assist farmers with pest control,” she says.

The focus on urban agriculture stems directly from a popular movement that was started in the early 1990s to address health and nutrition issues. It was a government decision that Cubans start getting a sizable part of their caloric intake from fresh vegetables, fruits and nuts. Today, children’s nutrition is a top priority.

“Within the urban areas, beside the vegetable and fruit production, there is also honey production and bees are bred for pollination purposes. Farmers combine vegetable production with chicken-keeping and keep other animals in or near the gardens to supply the manure needed for compost production. Biopesticides/botanical pesticides are produced and used. No harmful chemicals are applied because these gardens are urban and have to be safe for people working in and living near the gardens.

“Cuba’s organopónico (disused demonstration hydroponics plants) and the heurtos intensivos (intensive gardens) cultivating salads, herbs and vegetables in raised beds with a high ratio of compost to soil, are run like businesses. As the products are sold and the profits paid out, the people have an incentive to work. The land is made available by the state for as long as it is being cultivated, and for the workers it makes economic sense to produce quality food for the local population.

“In SA, many government departments grapple with the transition from directly giving food parcels to the insecure and vulnerable towards enabling food production. If we were to establish Cuban urban agriculture in the form of city/township gardens in the Western Cape, for example, we would have to concentrate on compost production, either vermi-composting (using earthworms) or ‘hot’ compost using an effective activator like manure and/or comfrey. Increasing soil fertility breeds healthier, more pest-resistant plants and gives better results,” says Michèle.

However, she points out that community food producers would only be spurred on to work in such gardens if good results are achieved. “Finance would have to be raised for the initial job creation and wages. Also, mechanisms need to be developed so that interdepartmental job creation and nutritional improvement can be effectively worked out and implemented,” she says.

Contact Michèle Schubert on 082 718 4334. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly :: Documentary: The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, by The Community Solution

Soil health is 'agricultural homeopathy' || Soil microorganisms thrive on organics || Toilers of the soil: the earthworm workers

2009-06-02T05:49:00.000-07:00

Soil health is 'agricultural homeopathy'

Farmers Weekly

Prof Fey said the current trend of focusing on soil health is “agricultural homeopathy” and that farmers could make more discerning and self-interested decisions about crop nutrient management. Omnia obviously takes a different stance. Why is this?

I don’t think that it is a different stance, it is merely that we add to the “normal” approach. We follow a holistic approach embedded in the Nutriology® concept. The biological life in the soil is important and was neglected in the past. The soil is alive and if we neglect it we will not have the best environment for crop production. By managing the microbial diversity we aim to reduce the loss of pathogens in the soil and cycle nutrients within the root zone. If we want to farm sustainably, it is time to rectify not only chemical and physical degradation but also biological degradation.

According to Prof Fey, “consumers must realise that most people have an agenda. Knowing something about the scientific method will enable you to see through possible agendas and determine which advice is true, which is exaggerated and which is false. Ask for the data behind the claims, for the scientific paper … and where the research was undertaken.” Is there a way farmers can verify results from the Omnia lab, or are Omnia’s recommendations the final word the farmer must heed?

Farmers can have peace of mind because the Omnia lab is ISO (international) and AgriLASA (southern Africa) accredited. This accreditation means that this lab adheres to not only local but also international standards. We are confident of our methods and use well-documented guidelines as a point of departure. One must also remember that these guidelines are not recipes or rules cast in stone. The agriculturalists’ knowledge and experience make the information work to the benefit of farmers under their specific conditions.

Do farmers have any guarantee that their profits will increase if they make use of your services?

The Nutriology® business model is one of value-adding and aims to create prosperity. In the past we have had contracts with farmers under specific conditions where we guaranteed increased profitability. If the “current practices” win, we would pay out the difference, but if the Nutriology® approach wins, we want to share in the increased profits. I think that is enough proof of our confidence in our people, products and technology. It is also true that the benefits realised by the farmer will vary from year to year and from one area to the next. This is because many of our products help the farmer manage negative plant reactions that are a response to stresses such as heat, drought or cold. Our approach, in general, is to limit risk and to buy the crop time should such stress be experienced.

On the issue of new products on the market, Prof Fey said specialities such as humic substances, silicate compounds and bacterial inoculums sometimes boost plant growth. But he said that before farmers are taken in by arguments about how they work, they must remember that the soil already contains plenty of these substances. Why do you feel it is important to boost them in the soil?

Soils in SA are generally low in organic matter. We do not think that it is economically feasible to increase the amount of humic substances across a field, but prefer to create pockets of potential close to the crop’s root system, using humic substances especially combined with microelements. Regarding the bacteria (Omnia does not sell bacteria), one needs carbon in the soil to feed them. It is not only bacteria that are important but also fungi, protozoa and nematodes. This is where the OmniBio™ technology can make a huge contribution by creating a well-balanced soil food web to the benefit of the crop.

Prof Fey claimed that the near-neutral pH target is an expensive myth perpetuated by advisers with horticultural appreciation of soil chemistry. He said lime does move, but slowly, and that coarse lime particles are only valuable if the crop takes 100 years to mature. Do you agree?

At the same symposium, Omnia presented a paper on liming, which was very well received. The essence of the paper is that the pH (acidity), the acid saturation, the cation concentration in the soil and the cation ratios must be considered. Just focusing on a single aspect can be very irresponsible and dangerous. Particle size is one of the factors that determines the quality of the lime. The smaller the particles, the quicker the reaction time.

Is there a growing demand in SA for advanced technology in farming?

You cannot improve what you do not measure, and the advantage of technology is the increase in the sensitivity of the information. The tremendous growth in OmniPrecise™ (Omnia’s precision farming service) and OmniSap® (plant sap analysis) is proof of the growing demand for advanced technology.

Do you think the push for technology in agriculture is greater in countries where farming is not subsidised?

Definitely. Our farmers are not subsidised and realise how important it is to reduce risk and optimise yield, which will result in improved profitability. Without subsidies, there is no room for error.

Are the services at the Omnia lab aimed only at the wealthy farmer, or can an emerging farmer afford them?

Soil analysis is a must for commercial and emerging farmers. We are involved in several emerging farmer projects and work hand-in-hand with other role-players to bring technology to the emerging farming sector to improve yields. Farmers who have an established relationship with us do not, as a rule, pay for the basic soil analysis.

Are the lab’s recommendations affordable?

The lab only does the analysis. The plant nutrient proposals are made by the agriculturists. If it is not economically feasible to implement the entire proposal, interventions will be prioritised. It often takes several years to build soils to levels that support optimum yields.

People have hinted that the sudden demand for biofuels will create a shortage not only of food but also of fertiliser. Do you think this will be the case?

Planning well in advance is important for any business. If the fertiliser is ordered well in advance, there should not be a shortage. Taking delivery is also important because of the dips and peaks in the fertiliser business in SA. The availability of transport during the peak season can be a problem if delivery is postponed until planting time.

Contact Omnia on (011) 709 8888. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Soil microorganisms thrive on organics

Farmers Weekly

Ecotoxicologists from Stellenbosch University have added local scientific evidence that organic farming is better for the long-term health of agricultural land. researchers demonstrated that soil organisms in a Western Cape vineyard, such as earthworms, mites and fungi, were more active in soil under organic management practices than conventional chemical treatment. A microcosm laboratory test was also done.

The study, by husband-and-wife team Prof Koot and Prof Sophié Reinecke and doctoral student Randal Albertus of the Department of Botany and Zoology, in conjunction with Prof Otto Larink of the Institute of Zoology at the Technical University of Braunschweig in Germany, was published in the scientific journal African Zoology. Prof Reinecke says the protection of soil biodiversity and its functions is a vital goal for soil ecotoxicologists and conservationists, who want to provide ecologically relevant, economically realistic solutions to agroecological problems.

Stop poisoning soil microorganisms

Soil organisms are, amongst other things, important for the decomposition of plant matter and for making nutrients available to plants. They also help improve soil aeration and structure. In developing countries, agriculture has increasingly turned to chemical biocides to manage pests such as weeds and fungal disease. Research shows this can accidentally poison beneficial non-target organisms, especially soil organisms, including earthworms.

The concept of organic farming has been developed and popularised in an effort to reduce or even eliminate the use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers. Organic farming aims to revitalise soils by adding organic matter. Farmers are expected to rely on local biological resources and environmentally friendly techniques to combat pests and fertilise the soil. The aim is to prevent poisoning beneficial organisms and promote natural soil processes.

In the study, experimental plots received either pesticides and full chemical weed control or organic treatment according to the Organic Standards of the British Soil Association. The bait-lamina test, used to measure the feeding activity of soil organisms, assessed the activity and abundance of soil life in the plots.

researchers compared feeding activity and moisture content, and showed that soil organisms were substantially more active in the organically treated plots than the conventionally treated ones. “We must be careful when drawing conclusions because of the many variables involved, but we believe this study provided some evidence that organic management promoted higher soil organism feeding activity in the short term, shortly after treatment, compared to conventional practices,” Prof Koot Reinecke summarises. “Organic management practices could contribute to the sustainable use of soil.”

More and more support for organics

The organic management concept is widely accepted in many circles despite limited scientific evidence. Already, soil biologists widely agree that adding organic material can, within limits, increase populations of various beneficial organisms, especially in poor soils. It seems to follow that this improves fertility and sustainability, though more sound evidence is still required. Sustainable agriculture relies on biological activity, but so far direct practical evidence for organic management’s real field value in this regard has been scarce. Relevant local research is even harder to come by.

Other South African research includes studies in sugarcane fields, where green cane harvesting with trash retention, a form of organic treatment, instead of burning, increased earthworm numbers and beneficial microbial biomass. – Staff reporter

Contact Prof Koot Reinecke on (021) 808 2861 or e-mail ajr@sun.ac.za. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Toilers of the soil: the earthworm workers

Farmers Weekly

CARMEN NOTTINGHAM’S INTEREST in earthworms came in a roundabout way. At university she studied languages and industrial relations, but never pursued a career in this field. It was living and working on a yacht in the Caribbean for eight years that first sparked an interest in biology. “Here I saw the destruction of the coral reefs. I returned to South Africa to study marine biology, but instead landed up in Johannesburg, far away from the sea. I decided to view the soil as the ocean of the land. Earthworms are like plankton in the ocean. They help to create the food base for all life,” she says. She started farming with Eisenia foetida earthworms, commonly known as red wrigglers, on her smallholding north of Johannesburg in 2001.

Although there are over 5 000 earthworm species, this is one of only three commercially viable species that will thrive in a waste management and recycling operation. “In terms of waste management, they are phenomenal,” she says, adding that this earthworm can also be used in management of human, animal and food waste.

The earthworms live in five 60m x 3m trenches. The trenches are exposed to direct sunlight, and the earthworms are most active at night and early morning. “This is when they do their work,” Carmen says. As earthworms are very sensitive organisms, the trenches are shaded from excessive heat and light with dark plastic during the day. “The earthworm’s whole body is a sensory organ,” she explains. The open trenches are ideal for the earthworms because in the event of extreme heat or too much rain, they can burrow deeper in. “I don’t make prisoners of earthworms.”

The process

In a day, an earthworm can consume manure equivalent to its body weight, says Carmen. It moves by continuously burrowing, ingesting material, digesting it and depositing the remains. Ingested material passes through calciferous glands that neutralise its pH. “The gut of the earthworm is very oxygen-rich, and many microorganisms are deposited in the castings,” she says, adding that this makes the Fertilis product rich in oxygen and microbes. When the manure is ready, it is collected from the trenches, and any stones, earthworms and earthworm cocoons are sifted out.

She says the manure always contains stones, as cows often swallow stones to get minerals. “When you start out, it will take about nine months of feeding and breeding before the process can become continuous. The more earthworms you have, the more manure can be converted. The way to do it is to continue feeding some trenches while sifting others. If you want to produce more, then feed quicker.” Three tons of cow manure will produce one ton of sifted Fertilis, but the potential food value of a ton of Fertilis can be up to 30 times that of plain manure.

Markets and growth

Her earthworm enterprise has grown along with the increasing demand for organic products and more sustainable ways of farming. “This growth did not take place overnight,” she recalls. “We experienced slow but constant growth. The number of trenches on the farm does not determine the viability of the business. Turnover is the actual indicator. We had 100% growth in the business last year.”

The nursery and farming industries are her main markets. The company Talborne Organics distributes her product to nurseries and farmers in Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Cape. The nursery market caters primarily for gardeners, but farmers can purchase Fertilis in bulk directly from the farm. In the commercial farming sector her product is successfully used in the planting of seeds and seedlings. Carmen also supplies large-scale farmers with the Fertilis fertiliser to produce compost tea. The fertiliser, dissolved in water and strained, is sprayed on to crops by commercial farmers.

Carmen is expanding her business into the Western Cape. She admits the expansion will entail more than setting up shop in another province. She won’t be able to use open trenches, as Cape winter conditions are too wet. “The earthworms won’t adapt well to extremely wet conditions,” she says. Further growth opportunities lie in waste management, and recycling and growing earthworms for food in the aquaculture industry. Transporting dairy manure is one of her biggest costs, and for this reason Carmen advises that an earthworm farm should ideally be established on or near a dairy farm.

She says it can be beneficial for a farmer to start an earthworm farm, but many conventional farmers see processing manure as an additional cost. “But in the long run it can save the farmer lots of money,” she says, adding that the greatest benefit of converting manure is that it creates a sustainable farming operation. “Waste must be used as an input for another production process. It is only in this way that sustainability can be created.”

As earthworm farming is very labour-intensive, labour is a major cost. Fortunately her business doesn’t require expensive mechanisation. “It is a hand process to mix manure and put it in the trenches. The earthworms do most of the work,” she says, adding that sifting and bagging is also done by hand. She cautions prospective earthworm farmers to obtain the manure from a reliable source – the earthworms will die if any antibiotics, in particular dewormers, are present in the manure.

Carmen recommends a farmer starts by rehabilitating a small field first. She estimates that it will take about two seasons to rehabilitate soil. “It is never too late to start. One person can do a lot,” she says. She believes it can be more cost-effective to farm organically. Initially the farmer will have to spend more to restore the soil’s balance, but once this is achieved the long-term costs will be reduced. “The farmer will have to use less chemical fertiliser because the plant will not be dependent on chemicals any more,” she says, adding that plants will be stronger, there will be less pollution of groundwater, soil health will be improved, and nutrient levels of plants will be higher.”

Contact Carmen at (011) 888 4215 or Talborne Organics at (011) 954 5763. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Soil Soldiers: Potassium, Sulphur & Phosphorous:: Potassium Truths || Sulphur: Vital for Soil || Phosphorous: Workhorse Nutrient

2009-06-01T05:24:00.001-07:00

Soil: Potassium truths

Farmers Weekly

Potassium should ideally represent between 2% to 7,5% of the exchange capacity of soil, depending on the type of crop produced, according to the Albrecht system. Woody plants require higher levels of potassium than most other crops. Sampling wine-producing soil in France, for example, revealed that premium wines flourished in potassium levels of between 7% to 7,5%, says soil expert, Dr Neal Kinsey. But for cash crops and pasture, the desired level is between 3% and 5%.

Yield and crop quality will be sacrificed once the potassium falls below 2% of the exchange capacity. D r Kinsey recalls that a California client never used potassium in his peach orchards because it simply wasn’t done where he was farming. A soil analysis indicated that this farmer’s land was potassium-deficient. By raising the levels, the size of the peaches increased to such an extent that he was able to sell almost all of them. Previously, only a quarter of his peaches satisfied the requirements of the market. The fruit was also less prone to bruising after the treatment

Potassium sulphate vs potassium chloride

Chemical potassium application should be governed by soil pH and the exchange capacity. Both potassium chloride and potassium sulphate are effective in raising the percentage of potassium in the soil at a pH (water) of less than 6,5. Dr Kinsey prefers potassium sulphate over potassium chloride, as chlorine can be detrimental to soil life. T his is confirmed by SA soil expert, John Fair. “Farmers often shy away from using potassium sulphate, because it’s far more expensive than the chloride form,” he says. “The truth is that potassium sulphate is more effective. It’s more stable and less prone to leaching.

And it doesn’t really cost more.” Potassium and sulphur, unlike potassium to maintain the levels on clay colloids only, thereby ensuring plants have sufficient potassium for optimal production at high pH levels. Anything extra is a waste. “At a potassium deficiency of 300kg/ha in soil with a pH above 6,7, it would be better to only apply 90kg/ha according to the plant’s needs. This is because the plant can only absorb around 90kg of the 300kg applied,” Dr Kinsey says. He adds that it’s better to split potassium applications for plants with high potassium needs than to provide a once-off application in such soil.

Manure and compost = potassium source

The potassium level in all soil, regardless of pH, can also be increased with manure and compost in a high potassium content. Dr Kinsey explains that the microorganisms in these materials help to make the potassium available to the plant, and stimulate microbial activity in the soil and help make potassium previously locked up, available again. But too much potassium has disadvantages. Excess potassium is a huge risk to livestock producers who farm on small pastures. Dr Kinsey had a client who started to lose all his best heifers.

An autopsy indicated the sodium and potassium levels in the bloodstream were higher than their calcium and magnesium levels. He attributed this to the fact that the animals were grazing small areas, resulting in a huge and toxic build-up of potassium in the soil due to all the high-potassium manure. The farmer had also not added other nutrients such as calcium to offset the impact of potassium. As high-producing cattle usually eat more than average animals, they were affected first. The farmer continued to lose animals until he identified the problem and provided calcium supplements and made the pastures safe by correcting the nutrient levels.

A bitter side-effect

Another problem posed by potassium and phosphate excess is that crops get a bitter taste, making them less desirable for human or animal consumption. This is often a problem on organic farms, as producers tend to think that one can’t overdo manure and compost. The higher the percentage of potassium above 7,5%, the more problems there are with weeds.

Dr Kinsey advises farmers to first balance all the other cations before trying to strip potassium from the soil. As mentioned earlier, potassium has a rather weak charge, which means that calcium and magnesium can easily displace it and help bring the percentage in line. Sulphur and sulphates can then be used to strip excess potassium if needed.

For more information contact SA Biofarm on (012) 333 4222 or visit www.sabiofarm.co.za. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Sulphur: vital but mostly lacking in soil

Farmers Weekly

Sulphur is essential for the production of plant proteins, chlorophyll, enzymes and vitamins. It promotes nodule formation in legumes, aids seed production and helps seedlings survive cool, moist soil conditions. International soil expert Neal Kinsey recommends that soil should contain at least 20ppm (parts per million) sulphur for optimal production of most crops. Woody plants and root crops will perform best at a sulphur level of 50ppm when all other plant nutrient requirements have been met. S ulphur is essential for root development.

Research indicates that wheat with sufficient sulphur shows a 50% better root development than wheat with a shortage. Similar results were found in citrus, wine grapes, cotton and maize. Addressing a sulphur deficiency will enhance crop growth and help lengthen the shelf-life of vegetables. Sulphur also helps improve the palatability and sweetness of crops. “People always talk about how sweet watermelons tasted in the past,” Kinsey says,” and the reason why they don’t anymore is because farmers are unwittingly applying less sulphur through fertiliser mixtures to soil than before.

A nitrogen excess often ties up copper so that it becomes unavailable to the crop, decreasing its palatability.” deficiency usually shows up in a light or yellow discolouration of young leaves. However, a leaf sample should still be taken, as leaf necrosis has many causes. Nitrogen and potassium deficiencies also cause leaf discolouration, but this starts on older leaves. Kinsey warns that when sulphur deficiency is evident on the leaf, there’s already been a negative impact on the crop. ccording to Kinsey, soil was already sulphur-deficient in the 1970s.

Levels have dropped even more because of changes in fertiliser composition. He explains that in the past, a sulphur deficiency was partially addressed by the fact that many fertiliser mixtures automatically contained sulphur, but this has been phased out. Shortages are further exacerbated by the continuous push for higher yields, as well as a decline in atmospheric sulphur deposition. Most soil that Kinsey has sampled is sulphur-deficient. Most affected is soil with a sandy or light texture, well-drained soil, or soil low in organic matter. Also, the cooler the soil, the less available the sulphur. Kinsey advises that sulphur, as boron and nitrogen, must be supplied regularly at slightly higher levels than the plant requires for optimal production because it leaches easily.

How to address a sulphur deficiency

Compost and manure are not good sources of sulphur. “You’re not going to get something for nothing. If animals or compost don’t receive sufficient sulphur, then they can’t produce it.” dding commercial sulphur is the best way to address a shortage. Kinsey stresses that farmers must base the sulphur product on the soil’s nutritional needs. Elemental sulphur is ideal when a quick boost is needed, but as it’s water-soluble, it soon leaches away.

Another drawback is that it only addresses a sulphur deficiency and therefore might not be economically viable when compared to other sources such as copper sulphate that also addresses copper deficiency, gypsum that will additionally raise the calcium levels, ammonium sulphate that doubles as a rich source of nitrogen, or magnesium sulphate which also provides magnesium. In John Fair’s Guide to Profitable Pasture, the author explains that he used ammonium sulphate on pasture, based on the going price of elemental sulphur minus the purchase price of additional nitrogen.

Ammonium sulphate was always a more economical purchase. He later found that gypsum was an even cheaper source and that it also increased the calcium levels. Kinsey always emphasises the importance of maintaining the right percentages of calcium and magnesium in the cation exchange of the soil (see “Elements vital to soil” in Farmer’s Weekly, 8 August 2008). “The closer the calcium/magnesium balance is to ideal, the less fluctuation will be seen in sulphur levels,” he explains. “Once equilibrium is achieved, it will also become more difficult for sulphur to leach away.”

A huge advantage of sulphur is that, when applying more than is needed, farmers will be able to strip the soil of excessive elements such as sodium, magnesium and or potassium – provided there is sufficient calcium in the soil. However, too much is never good so farmers should be careful not to overapply sulphur, as it can burn plants, cause phytotoxicity symptoms and acidulate the formation of iron.

Contact information: SA Biofarm: (012) 333 4222 or visit www.sabiofarm.co.za. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Phosphorous The workhorse nutrient

Farmers Weekly

According to soil expert Neal Kinsey, a sufficient supply of phosphorous at planting during the early stages and germination is essential for most grain crops to ensure rapid seedling growth. A shortage of phosphorous in wheat during seed set could cause pollination problems and small wheat ears that curve to one side. A sustainable supply is needed for maize production, as phosphorous is associated with good kernel set, making the kernels fill out right to the top of the cob.

However, since boron is also associated with good kernel set, farmers should determine which of these nutrients is deficient before applying one blindly to address kernel set problems. Insufficient phosphorous in pasture also increases bloat in cattle. Neal recalls a research trial on a new clover variety. “Half the farmers loved it, while the other half said it caused terrible bloating in their cattle. A soil analysis revealed that all the farmers whose animals suffered bloating had a phosphorous deficiency in their soil.” Neal proposes soil should contain at least 300kg/ha phosphorous, but preferably between 500kg/ha to 800kg/ha for optimal production depending on specific crop needs.

Phosphorous is measured in P2O5 as this is the form in which it’s usually bought. To calculate the amount of elemental phosphorous in this compound, divide the mass of by 2,3. P hosphorous is conveniently divided into soil feeding and plant feeding types. Neal feels it’s better to source manure or compost with a high phosphorous level as a soil feeder than buy a commercial soil-feeding phosphorous. “You get a far better biological effect and value for money,” he says. Farmers must remember the rule of excess and minimum – if you apply too much manure, the phosphorous or excess nutrients will leach into the soil, hurting the soil nutrient balance.

Phosphorous sources Pig manure is particularly rich in phosphorous, and usually contains more phosphorous than potassium, except in a dry year, when the soil’s low phosphate content carries over into pig feed. In contrast, cow manure usually has a high potassium and low phosphorous content. Hard and soft rock phosphates are also natural soil-feeding phosphorous sources, but may be harder to obtain and release more slowly than plant-feeding foliar feeds. Hard rock phosphates also release very slowly in a soil with a pH (water) exceeding 6,5, and need a healthy soil life to make them soluble. Soft rock phosphate is a good source if you need calcium and phosphorous.

Neal adds that most of his clients using rock phosphate don’t mind the slow release period, because they don’t have to reapply it for five to 20 years. Only legumes can use the phosphorous during the first year, as only in the second year will there be enough of it for wheat. Neal points out that farmers can work legumes back into the soil to build the phosphate level for the next crop. The granular size of the phosphate source also affects the rate of release.

To test whether the source is fine enough, John Fair, considered the father of biological farming in SA, advises in his book John Fair’s Guide to Profitable Pastures that around 60% must pass through a 100 mesh screen. Diammonium phosphates (DAP) and mono-ammonium phosphates (MAP) are the other commercial soil builders. Fair prefers DAP for pasture, because it contains more nitrogen. MAP is a better choice on soils with a pH (water) above 7,5.

Timing applications In general, soil-feeding phosphate can be applied at any time and the phosphorous will be available to the plant as needed. Plant-feeding phosphate, such as super phosphate or triple super phosphate, is usually cheaper but doesn’t build the soil and must be applied annually. Neal explains that plant-feeding phosphates will revert back to tricalcium phosphate, which only legumes can easily absorb, within eight weeks after application under optimal conditions. “Plant-feeding phosphates are usually highly acidic with a pH of 3 or less,” he explains. “In a soil with a pH (water) above 5,5 phosphorous will latch onto calcium to form tricalcium phosphate.

Under adverse conditions, this reaction can take as little as four weeks. The phosphorous is, in effect, lost to the plant.” Research confirms plants usually only take up 20% of the phosphorous in a plant-feeding phosphate under favourable conditions. The remaining 80% is usually represented by phosphorous already available in the soil. Under adverse conditions, plants take up 90% from the soil, and only 10% from the plant-feed.

Contact SA Biofarm at (012) 333 4222 or visit www.sabiofarm.co.za. |fw

Factors affecting phosphorous availability

Various factors influence phosphorous availability, starting with a direct link between the level of available phosphorous and other nutrients. “Soil high in sulphur needs more phosphorous,” says Neal. “If phosphorous availability is borderline, high zinc levels can impede uptake so more phosphorous is needed for production. Highly acidic phosphorous sources react with calcium, rendering the phosphorous unavailable to the plant.” Magnesium is vital to phosphorous metabolism. Without it, (see Farmers Weekly 8 August), phosphorous uptake will be impeded. Neal advises farmers to use plant-feeding phosphate until the problem is rectified. Plants can’t absorb phosphorous under cold conditions.

Apply it in warm weather for optimal uptake. Other factors include soil aeration, compaction and moisture. Microorganisms, such as mycorrhiza, convert phosphorous to plant-available form. They need sufficient air and moisture, but excessive moisture destroys them. Don’t apply chemicals toxic to them. Anhydrous ammonium can deplete mycorrhiza for up to eight weeks. Compaction influences aeration and makes it difficult for plant roots to penetrate the soil and get in direct contact with phosphorous. Place the phosphorous as close to roots as possible. Unlike other anions, phosphorous tends to stay where it’s placed, so application time and method are crucial to phosphorous availability.

Source: Farmers Weekly

Australia's Johnny Appleseed Low Energy Input NoTill Ecology Farming Innovator

2009-05-29T11:22:00.001-07:00

Australia's Johnny Appleseed Low Energy Input NoTill Ecology Farming Innovator

ABC Rural Online

Michael Mackenzie: Now conventional wisdom does suggest that to be an innovative farmer, you actually need to be working on the farm. But our guest today has a different theory. His philosophy is to use innovative practices on the farm to free up time to work off farm. But how can you be an innovative farmer if you're spending half your time away from the business?

It's something that cropping and cattle farmer Bruce Maynard, from Narromine, on the Central West Plains of New South Wales knows all about. Bruce not only runs a cattle and cropping property that's almost sustaining itself, he also works three days a week for his local Landcare office and on top of that, he has a number of other offshoot businesses that help to fill the coffers. Some of his mates call him lazy; he sounds more like a genius to be, and Bruce Maynard has popped into our Dubbo studios to have a chat. Hi, Bruce.

Bruce Maynard: Hi, Michael how are you?

Michael Mackenzie: I'm well, thanks. Do you mind being called lazy?

Bruce Maynard: No, it's a tag we're fairly happy with.

Michael Mackenzie: let's go back to the beginning: have you always been on the land?

Bruce Maynard: Yes, my working career has been on our family farm; I'm fourth generation on our property.

Michael Mackenzie: And did you stay on the farm from the moment you were born till now, or have you been elsewhere as well?

Michael Mackenzie: Yes, been pretty much on the place. I did spend a year away with Rotary Exchange straight after school, which was a wonderful broadening experience.

Michael Mackenzie: And being a fourth generation farmer, what kind of farming practices did you inherit from your parents?

Bruce Maynard: Well our property was a mixed sheep/wheat/beef farm, when I came back after school, and we were typical of our area, and we were conducting a lot of what was assumed to be best practice management at that time, and in some cases it's still recommended best practice. But over time, we realised that it wasn't as sustainable as it was being presented.

Michael Mackenzie: So in your parents' time, the kind of practices they practiced in that sort of mixed farm cropping situation, you obviously don't necessarily agree with any more, you don't think they are best practice.

Bruce Maynard: No, we began to take a broader and a longer term view about what we were doing, in fact what we found was a lot of the time we were doing things to make money for the immediate time, that sort of thing, but they were really against our long term interests, a lot of the short term things we were doing.

Michael Mackenzie: So in terms of farming innovation where you're standing at the moment, future planning is vital then.

Bruce Maynard: Yes, we like to try and take the 50-year and the 100-year view on things really, and try and design our surroundings to not only serve our family interests, but serve the natural processes as well.

Michael Mackenzie: Now as we mentioned, you've had a long family tradition of being on the land. Had you always wanted to be a farmer?

Bruce Maynard: No, I hadn't, Michael, no. I guess I finished up school and came back to the farm mid-'80s and that was a very, very difficult time; as a lot of farming folk would know, runs of bad seasons, coupled with incredibly high interest rates, above 20% and that sort of thing, and so it was a difficult time, and it was a decision to be made Well, do I stay and help out or do we finish up completely?

Michael Mackenzie: So your Mum and Dad were in fairly dire straits when you came back to the farm in the '80s, were they?

Bruce Maynard: Yes, we were having difficulties at that time, and that continued pretty much through the 1980s and we got to the end of that stage and really had sat down as a family and decided Well why were we doing what we were doing, and what did we want to do in the future? And the end result of that was really coming to realise that we weren't really there for the money in the long run. Yes, we did have to have enough to support ourselves in a decent standard, but really we were there for some bigger purpose as a family.

Michael Mackenzie: And what was that purpose?

Bruce Maynard: Really to hopefully hand things on in a better and better shape, as our generations went on. We really see ourselves now as just stewards and only land managers, even though we own the property, we're only temporarily there, and in our lifetime we should be looking to try and do as best we can and get our farm as close to its natural state as possible, and natural functioning, while still making an economic return.

Michael Mackenzie: I think that's a really wonderful philosophy and I think it's something that perhaps isn't discussed as much as it could be in the rural sector, and that is that Yes, of course you want to make a living and turn a profit when you're a primary producer but you've also got to bear in mind that perhaps you have some other long-term responsibilities, and that the use of the word 'stewardship' really rings true for me.

Bruce Maynard: Yes, I think when you ask groups of landholders at any time what's really important to them, you know, you get the answers that are very similar to if you asked a group of city people or in any other lifestyle, a good family life and enough money to get by and to be seen to be making a difference and a contribution. And all of those things at times we tend to leave aside if we're only reacting to the immediate emergencies in front of us.

Michael Mackenzie: So just take us to the time in the '80s, Bruce, when you and the rest of the family sat down around the table and decided OK, first, do we continue? OK, yes we do, we will continue to farm this land, but we're going to change the way we farm it. What year did that occur?

Bruce Maynard: Right, that was at the end of the 1980s, so I guess it was over a period of time, it wasn't just one meeting or one discussion at all. It gradually came out that very obviously we could do a lot better financially by selling up and going and doing other things, other industries, the rate of return would be higher. But so then given that, we then had to really question ourselves about why we were staying then; if that was the case then why were we there?

Michael Mackenzie: And in so making those decisions on perhaps changing the way you view the land and the use of the land, were you then put in charge of seeing that change through?

Bruce Maynard: Not necessarily put in charge, no. We've certainly adopted the attitude that it is the whole of our family that makes decisions about how we move forward.

Michael Mackenzie: Does that mean there's been conflict over issues at times?

Bruce Maynard: Oh yes, but we have disagreements and arguments about things, and that sort of thing, like every family; but in the end we drive towards a consensus about moving forward. And everybody's viewpoint is important. It's so vital, I felt, that we just weren't if you like, in the stereotypical image where the father or the main breadwinner makes all the decisions and everybody else gets carried along. All of us get together, and whatever we do on our farm has to serve everybody's interests.

Michael Mackenzie: So it's by consensus that decisions are made, and that can take time but I guess the results are rewarding. And what has that meant for the way the property now runs. We talked about the fact that traditionally it had gone through four generations of being a mixed property of sheep, wheat, beef, cropping; what's different now in your place in Narromine?

Bruce Maynard: Well it's vastly different from what it was before. We're now just growing beef and doing some cropping, but our place looks vastly different in that our paddocks now are becoming more and more complex grasslands with trees regenerating in them of their own accord, so the place is moving back towards an open woodland that it would have been in its natural state.

Michael Mackenzie: So you've stopped clearing, obviously.

Bruce Maynard: Oh yes, absolutely, and we don't do things like burning wood or anything like that, or 'tidying up' the place and so forth. We very, very importantly look at all the ecological niches that we can provide on our place. We try and make our business as simple as possible but the nature on our property as complex as possible. Whereas there's every societal pressure on all landholders to do just the opposite, to make businesses very complex, but to simplify everything out in the landscape.

Michael Mackenzie: By being almost monocultural in the kind of output from the property?

Bruce Maynard: Indeed, yes. And we go further and further away from that, and we continue to add complexity to it.

Michael Mackenzie: So how do you add complexity? Do you just let things slip away from your control, then let the environment take back what was its originally? Is that how it works?

Bruce Maynard: There's a little bit of that, but like all landscapes in Australia, they've been managed one way or another for 47,000 years, and our future is the same. There's no going back to a pristine state and that's virtually everywhere, whether it be locked up in a national park or whether it be completely privately owned. So we have to manage the resource as best we can, and we're all going to make mistakes as we move forward, but if our aim is just to continue to add diversity into the situation, then that's actually adding to our long-term wealth as far as we see it in the natural sense.

Michael Mackenzie: So you say at the moment though, the main purpose for land in your family is to raise beef, is that right?

Bruce Maynard: That's the tool we're using to get the landscape effect that we desire. So our landscape ideals are not just all altruistic to do the best we can there, we do still have to make money on the top of it. So we use predominantly cattle over the top to make the pastures more and more complex with more and more native species. We don't rely much on any of the introduced species at all such as lucerne or other pasture species such as that. And also along with that we do a method called advanced sowing, where we actually go cropping into our grasslands but we don't use any tillage or use any chemicals or any fertilizer, so we in fact grow a crop over the top of our native pastures, in addition to what they're doing.

Michael Mackenzie: To traditional farmers this must sound extraordinary. I mean you're planting seed but without tilling the soil; do you water the seeds in?

Bruce Maynard: No we don't, we actually place them in dry, which is a key to the advance sowing method, so in fact we're just trying to mimic nature here, and we're putting a seed in the ground and then when the seasonal conditions allow, that's when the plant will germinate.

Michael Mackenzie: This sounds extraordinarily lackadaisical I've got to say, here Bruce. No wonder you got this maybe a misnomer of being a lazy farmer; you're just chucking seeds all over the place and when it rains, it rains, and we'll see what happens. I mean, how do you maximise output from that.

Bruce Maynard: That's an excellent question and that's exactly the question that farmers will put to you straight away. They'll put it in a slightly different way because they'll ask you about yield, which is exactly what you've just asked me about maximising output. And my reply to that is that we don't care about yield, we care about profit, and natural processes.

Michael Mackenzie: Aren't they the same thing though?

Bruce Maynard: No, not at all. Unfortunately it's often confused and in fact this has been going on for decades, and worldwide. And if you can imagine since especially the Second World War, the amount of production that's increased off agricultural land worldwide has been massive. It's been quite phenomenal, the extra production. But at that same time, farming industry has become less and less profitable, we've lost more people out of our rural areas and our natural environment has been declining.

Michael Mackenzie: We've been talking about all those issues ad infinitum on this program this year, and that's because they're current, and you're right, that's very much the growing sense of what's happening in our rural areas.

Bruce Maynard: Indeed. And it's a trend, and it continues to happen, and I would suggest that one of the main barriers to that has been the thought process that has been to maximise production. I'd say to any farmers, I really don't care how much they produce, I care very deeply that they profit and that they look after their land, but I would not care at all what they produced. This is a very, very hard argument for most people to accept because we're talking about head versus heart stuff. And think about when you go and try and win a category at an agricultural show or the Royal Easter Show, you grow the biggest pumpkin, say, you don't win the prize for three little pumpkins that might be a bit funny-looking, but might have made more profit and look after the land, you win the prize for the big pumpkin.

Michael Mackenzie: We're talking to Bruce Maynard, who is our farming innovator hailing from Narromine in the Central West of New South Wales. And Bruce, let's put that last piece of the jigsaw puzzle in, when you're talking about maximising profit while still maintaining the environment. This is where you save on the means of production, don't you, rather than the outputs on production.

Bruce Maynard: Indeed, yes. It's exceedingly low cost to go and do the cropping method that we use.

Michael Mackenzie: Well can you give us the dollar terms and what the comparisons might be for people?

Bruce Maynard: In a very, very rough rule of thumb, and unfortunately I talk in old acre terms, but round our neck of the woods about $85 per acre would be a regular conventional cropping cost; we do it for $6. So relating that to the output side of things, you see we don't need to generate much to double our money, do we, versus the conventional croppers need to have a massive output to double their money.

Michael Mackenzie: It's so simple and yet it's obviously so hard to grasp for so many people, because as you say the whole agricultural sector is geared to maximum production, and increasing your yields every year, otherwise you're not doing well enough to keep your head above water. And what you're saying is you can balance the environmental concerns of your property and your stewardship and still make a comfortable living.

Bruce Maynard: Yes indeed, but it does take a big mindset change to look at our paddocks and see our cropping paddocks, they look like a mess because they might have 120 different species, a lot of those species being weeds, versus a conventional field, which is just all wheat or whatever and nothing else. So it takes a big change to accept that the mess looks better than the neat and tidy monoculture.

Michael Mackenzie: And are your neighbours coming around to your point of view?

Bruce Maynard: I think it's always hard to be a prophet in your own land, so the biggest change in adoption comes from people that are a bit further away from us. But we're starting to get a lot of progress, yes.

Michael Mackenzie: And do you laugh when people call you lazy then, knowing exactly what's happening there?

Bruce Maynard: Oh yes, well we got that because when we go sowing with our cropping method we sow from 9 to 5, and that's it. We don't go trying to chase any harder than that.

Michael Mackenzie: Now that's my kind of farming, Bruce. In the meantime of course, this approach to land use has meant - and very quickly, we're running out of time, I'd love to talk to you all day, but you have this other alternative life off-farm as well, and you're doing things with Landcare, and what else are you doing off-farm?

Bruce Maynard: We have some accommodation businesses which are some apartments and houses that we've been doing up since we've changed our farm methods, that's allowed me the time to go off-farm and do these other things. If we'd continued to do the old farming methods, I wouldn't have had the time or the opportunity to go and pursue these other interests.

Michael Mackenzie: OK, so there's that, the tourism angle, there's the Landcare, obviously which falls in very nicely with your philosophy about land use inside the property. Do you have sons and daughters who are looking forward to taking over your innovative approach?

Bruce Maynard: Well we'll see. They're 4 and 2 at this stage, so their minds are on other things at the moment. But yes, we'll see in time, but at least they'll have the opportunity to choose. Not only will they have one business, but they'll have multiple income streams so they'll be able to make some choices about what they want in life rather than feeling trapped into anything.

Michael Mackenzie: I've got a feeling you're the Narromine version of Johnny Appleseed. Do you mind me saying that to you?

Bruce Maynard: Well I don't know about that, but hopefully they say small stones in a pond sometimes can make big ripples, and here's hoping.

Michael Mackenzie: Bruce, it's been an absolute pleasure, thank you so much for joining us.

Bruce Maynard: Thank you very much, Michael, goodbye.

Michael Mackenzie: He is truly a farming innovator, I don't think he's lazy I think he's a genius. Bruce Maynard, who hails from Narromine, which is in the Central West Plains of New South Wales, truly a farming innovator. You can still make a great profit, you've just got to look at the means of production versus your yield. And of course the side benefit for his particular property is that he's maintaining an environmental balance that he can hand on to the next generation of land users in that particular region.

Source: ABC Rural Online

Soil Soldier: Nitrogen:: Nitrogen fertilisation: when to count on soil organic matter || Take care with nitrogen

2009-05-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

Nitrogen fertilisation: when to count on soil organic matter

Farmers Weekly

Last week, soil scientist Neil Miles discussed the role animals play in the nitrogen fertilisation of pasture. This week, he tells farmers how to get the most out of soil organic matter.

Pastures obtain nitrogen from three sources: fertilisers, animal excreta and the soil organic matter. For proper nitrogen fertilisation scheduling, farmers must allow for nitrogen to be released from soil organic matter. Matching nitrogen applications with grass growth Figure 1 shows typical daily growth data for perennial ryegrass in the high-lying, colder areas of the country, showing that it varies from approximately 20kg/ha/day of dry matter in mid-winter to over 70kg/ha/day in early summer.

Because of this range in growth rates, intervals between grazings tend to be long (typically 60 days) in the very cold period and short (18 to 21 days) during the early summer growth flush. Fertilisation schedules must match these wide variations. E xperience indicates that farmers tend to apply little or no nitrogen during the mid-winter period, and not enough for the pasture to realise its full growth potential during the spring/early summer flush.

The tendency to apply little or no nitrogen in June-July is understandable, when growth is slow and a long time between grazings is experienced. However, there’s essentially no release of nitrogen from the soil organic matter during mid-winter, and the pasture is critically dependent on nitrogen fertiliser for growth and survival during that time.

The amount required in winter is low, but intervals between applications shouldn’t exceed 30 days. In severely nitrogen-deficient pastures growth stops completely, and yields in spring are depressed since pastures are slow to grow, as conditions become favourable. Signs of nitrogen deficiency in ryegrass include a reddish-brown leaf colour (often mistaken for potassium deficiency) and a stark contrast in colour and growth between urine patches and the rest of the pasture.

In spring/early summer, pasture growth rate is at a maximum, intervals between grazings are short, and soil organic matter releases minimal nitrogen because of low soil temperatures. This creates a large demand for nitrogen fertiliser. Figure 2 shows a typical nitrogen fertilisation schedule incorporating the above information. Tapping nitrogen from soil organic matter S oil organic matter levels build up under permanent pastures. Nitrogen is present in the soil organic matter at a concentration of about 5% of the dry weight.

In fertile, productive soils, the ratio of carbon to nitrogen (C:N) in the organic matter is remarkably constant, and usually falls in the range 9:1 to 13:1. This implies that as organic matter builds up under the pasture, so do considerable amounts of nitrogen. fact, pasture topsoils may hold between 5 000kg/ha and 15 000kg/ha of nitrogen – over 95% of which is in the organic matter – which is available for plant growth. But researchers have found that, annually, between 3% and 6% of this nitrogen is released for uptake by plant roots. Since this release is facilitated by soil microorganisms, it’s maximised when soil temperatures favour microbial activity.

Thus the nitrogen supply from the soil organic matter peaks in the second half of summer and is minimal in winter and early summer when soil temperatures are low (Figure 3). The relatively low fertiliser nitrogen rates recommended for January to March (Figure 2) reflect these contributions from the organic matter.

On long-term, well-fertilised pastures in which soil organic matter levels have increased, farmers can save considerably by withholding or reducing nitrogen applications when the pasture can rely on releases from the organic matter (Figure 4). In kikuyu pastures, responses to nitrogen fertiliser are marked in the first half of summer, while less is required between January and March (Figure 5).

Contact Neil Miles on 084 577 7087. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Take care with nitrogen

Farmers Weekly

A plant needs sufficient NITROGEN IN the early stages of growth for a uniform, vigorous start. But with excessive nitrogen there can be less fruit-set, as well as an imbalance between leaf and fruiting, or even misshapen fruit.

On the other hand, too little nitrogen results in fewer fruit and a plant that makes smaller trusses higher up. And calculating the plant’s requirements in advance is a risky exercise, because each land is different depending on cation levels and climatic conditions, as they influence the breakdown of organic content to make nitrogen available. If sales representatives approach you with a weekly fertilisation programme for soil-planted tomatoes, your alarm bells should start to ring. But hydroponics are a different scenario.

Too many farmers ask for a fertilisation programme for their crop, often without even having had a soil analysis done. It’s important to get the cation levels right, but after that, nitrogen is the accelerator. You can use it to control growth and sufficient vigour of foliage, but don’t use too much, or you’ll lose yield and quality. For survival and productivity, the plant has a genetic programme designed to adapt to variable conditions.

This programme is active all the time and responds to conditions rather than your intentions. That’s why it’s important to frequently inspect and determine the plant’s status. It may seem okay to give the plant a good dollop of nitrogen when it’s young, but the plant could actually resort to its genetically programmed response, which helps it survive competition.

All the effort goes into vegetative growth to dominate before it sets fruit. This happenes because it’s pointless for the plant to start fruiting if it may be overwhelmed and not even survive. Small plants require little nitrogen and it’s really easy to overdo it. Watch the leaf colour and also whether the trusses are being filled to your liking. By the time that the plant has almost reached its full height, there will be a lot more nitrogen required as the weight volume of the plant increases rapidly.

If there’s insufficient nitrogen, the next biological mechanism would be to nurture the formed fruit, instead of risking energy on new fruit that it might not be able to feed. The result would be poorly filled trusses higher up on the plant. armers often wonder why they get different results for seemingly inexplicable reasons and in most cases, it’s because the application of nitrogen played a role

Bill Kerr (alphaseed@lantic.net or call (016) 366 0616

Source: Farmers Weekly

Conservation Agriculture (CA): No-Till Farming:: What no-till farmers need to know about nitrogen || No-till & biological farming: winning combination

2009-05-27T04:39:00.000-07:00

No-till & biological farming: winning combination

Farmers Weekly

Even though it’s combating erosion problems, reducing water evaporation and helping to keep soil cool, minimum tillage is failing to live up to expectations in many countries, says HF de Wet, a South African soil consultant currently working in Australia. “First, it hasn’t resulted in a significant rise in organic matter in the soil,” he explains. “This is because stubble needs to be incorporated into the soil to build soil organic matter.

Farmers using minimum tillage, however, leave the stubble on top of the soil.” Minimum tillage also hasn’t resulted in a major reduction in production costs. As a matter of fact, in some cases it’s even increased costs by creating new production challenges. For example, some farmers experience increased herbicide resistance because minimum tillage reduces the non-chemical options available to control weed problems, and farmers can’t burn or plough lands to get rid of weeds. Most also refrain from sending sheep or cattle to graze lands after harvesting, and thus reduce the weed seed bank, because of fears they’ll compact the soil.

While minimum tillage will remain an important production tool due to its ability to help prevent erosion, many Australian farmers are now incorporating biological farming methods into their production. Increasingly, these farmers are observing the way biological farming methods help improve soil quality and health, says De Wet.

Optimal nutrient uptake

With biological farming, instead of simply feeding the soil by adding more and more fertiliser, producers aim to create optimal soil conditions for nutrient uptake by using more natural products, such as rock phosphate, calcium or potassium silicon; by stimulating soil biology and by balancing soil elements. The idea is that by building a healthy soil, you’ll produce a healthy plant. De Wet explains the Australian government also offers farmers various incentives to increase the organic matter in their soil, due to rising concerns of global warming.

Farmers using biological production methods are also less dependent on chemical pesticides for weed and disease control. Experiments De Wet has conducted in Australia have obtained positive results using mineral fertilisation. During planting he applied Western Mineral Fertiliser, a mixture of rock phosphate, dolomite, calcium, silicate and microelements in sulphates. This increased phosphate uptake by almost 21%, compared to cases using the chemical fertilisers monoammonium phosphate (MAP) and diammonium phosphate (DAP).

“Unlocking” elements

From 1992 to 1996, De Wet conducted research at the Agricultural Research Council’s Small Grain Institute on the conversion of nitrogen, including soil mineralisation and nitrification.

His research shows that organic carbon and nitrogen, clay, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and pH are the main factors influencing soil mineralisation and nitrification. If any of these are out of balance, it can “lock up” other elements in the soil, preventing them from becoming available for plant absorption. De Wet later added soil temperature, soil moisture level and the fungi : bacteria ratio to this list.

“For example, if nitrogen is applied to cold or wet soils, very little of it would become available to the soil or plants, due to the anaerobic conditions associated with waterlogging,” he explains.

De Wet stresses that the fungi : bacterial ratio varies at different stages of plant growth. This is important, as specific bacteria and fungi are responsible for breaking down specific nutrients and making them available to other soil organisms or plants.

More roots, more wheat

Root development contributes up to 80% of the organic carbon in the soil. Plants with larger root systems absorb soil nutrients and moisture more effectively. De Wet’s recent research therefore investigates factors that influence root development. In the first study he applied 80kg/ha of MAP and 25ℓ/ha of urea ammonium phosphate when growing wheat. In one sample he added 5ℓ/ha of a calcium supplement. A control sample receive no additional supplements.

In the calcium-supplemented sample, the wheat’s root surface area was almost five times larger than in the control sample. Plant sap analysis also revealed that the wheat that received calcium, absorbed three times more phosphate.
However, the most important result was attained in terms of yield – the calcium-treated sample produced a yield of 2 781kg/ha, compared with the control’s 2 541kg/ha. Based on the wheat price, the increased production translated into an additional A,20 (R700,41).

The fungus factor

Another of De Wet’s Australian studies evaluated the impact of trichoderma – a type of soil fungi – on soil bacterial and fungal activity. Four treatments were applied. In the first sample, seed was inoculated with trichoderma. In the control sample seed received no treatment.

The third sample received liquid trichoderma, and the fourth sample a fungicide called Impact, both applied at planting. Seed inoculated with trichoderma yielded 80kg/ha less wheat than the control sample, at 1 450kg/ha. This translated into a loss of A/ha (R183,93/ha). The fungicide treatment destroyed all fungi in the soil – irrespective of whether these were beneficial and harmful – and yield was 60kg/ha less wheat than the control. Factoring in the increased cost of this treatment, this translated into a loss of A/ha (R191,28/ha).

Finally, applying liquid trichoderma gave the best results in terms of yield and economy. Yield was 100kg higher than the control, and profit increased by A/ha (R161,86/ha).

E-mail HF de Wet at meag@westnet.com.au. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

What no-till farmers need to know about nitrogen

Farmers Weekly

My interest in no-till came about purely by default. I had started farming on virgin soil in a poor condition, but noticed that the soil improved proportionate to my economic restraints which had caused me to cut back on tillage operations. M y intention was that would go back to normal tillage when the economic constraints passed. As a vegetable producer, no-till was the furthest thing from my mind. After a few years of minimal till and using only chemical fertilisers, noticed the organic content, and so the amount of humus in the soil, had steadily increased, improving the condition of the crops.

This led me to want to understand how that had happened. started to reflect on statements had heard at lectures at Cedara College 45 years earlier. n one of my flashbacks recalled being told that in a mixed farming system, it’s good practice to plant Eragrostis curvula on lands that have been over-farmed. The common Afrikaans name for this grass is oulandsgras (directly translated as old land’s grass). It’s a pioneer species that can survive on badly degraded soil.

We were told that after about six years, provided sufficient nitrogen was applied, the higher levels of organic material would transform the soil. We were advised to plant a cash crop like cabbages or potatoes after that treatment because the soil would then be sufficiently improved to produce a rewarding crop. But if too little nitrogen was applied, the soil would remain as poor as when we started. No explanation was provided and we all accepted the college’s advice because they had conducted trials. We were even given the amount of nitrogen to apply.

Unveiling the obvious

Another flashback told me humus had a carbon:nitrogen (C:N) ratio of 10:1. These thoughts troubled me and led me to assume that because had fertilised well, perhaps that was why the organic content on my virgin lands had improved so quickly. knew tilling the soil stimulated microorganisms to tackle the organic content and this knowledge was reinforced by a 50-year-old flashback to Weston Agricultural College.

On that occasion was told that when lands were initially prepared in South Africa, after ploughing out veld, the organic material ploughed into the soil provided drought relief through moisture retention, and in the process stimulated microorganisms. Furthermore, by applying lime and superphosphate, mineralisation (breaking down of humus and resultant release of beneficial micronutrients), would release nitrogen and make maize farming very profitable, but at the expense of organic content or humus.

Investigating a theory

Armed with these thoughts, started to phone agronomists and asked them whether there was a formula to determine how much nitrogen is required to maximise the formation of crop residue into humus. N o luck. They told me a narrow C:ratio crop residue would break down faster, but that the nitrogen content of the residue had no influence on the amount of humus formed. I replied that there had to be a formula and on one occasion I described the E. curvula scenario to them. Well-fertilised grass would yield about 10t of dry matter per annum, and there was agreement. But with insufficient nitrogen we could expect only about 3t. Agreement again. So why was the yield improved? After a moment’s silence, the reply was “you have a point”. I then started to contact agronomy professors at US universities.

The first two came back with vague statements like that nitrogen content does have a stabilising effect on humus. And then I had a breakthrough. I got hold of Prof Steve Thien at Kansas State University who not only confirmed my belief that there is a formula, but he mentioned that all his students have to do a project to prove the formula. Wow! I couldn’t believe knowledge of such economic importance has been so confined. It’s so profound it affects virtually every farmer and is especially important to understanding the mechanisms of no-till farming.

A theory in practice

To determine how much humus can be formed, we need to measure the amount of plant material or residue left in the soil after harvesting. So, pull out all the plants on 100m2 of land, including the roots because obviously they also count. Allowance must be made for other root structures left in the soil. As the crop grows, it uses the available nitrogen produced by microorganisms as they break down the previous crop’s residue after no-till .

The manner and frequency of application of nitrogen must be adapted to the requirements of both the crop and how much residue was left on the soil. It won’t help to band place all the nitrogen too far from the residue as it may benefit the crop and not humus formation later on. Legumes all have a C:N ratio narrower than 30:1 and therefore a surplus of nitrogen is left in the soil at maximum humus formation. This is why farmers who include legumes in rotations have faster soil improvement with no-till.

At the heart of the matter

My alarm bells rang some months ago when I read about trials being done in KwaZulu-Natal where various treatments were being tried to reduce a soil dwelling pathogen affecting no-till maize. A treatment with anhydrous ammonia as a nitrogen source produced good results. This product has an 82% nitrogen content and has a sterilising effect on the soil, effectively fumigating the area around the point of injection. This could account for suppression of the pathogen, but it also has another profound effect.

Once the area again becomes habitable to microorganisms, it will be re-colonised first by bacteria prompted to frenzied activity by all the nitrogen, but few other microorganisms to keep them in balance. They also use the soil carbon as a food source and in the process cause rapid mineralisation releasing more nitrogen into the soil. So, plants growing during this treatment get an extra dollop of nitrogen resulting in more vigour compared to the control. The extra nitrogen will be at the expense of soil organic content and the opposite is achieved of what we want from no-till.

Don’t underestimate nitrogen

This was illustrated to us by Graeme Sait, the CEO of NTS at a course last year. In tropical areas during the Second World War landing strips were treated with anhydrous ammonia to rapidly deplete humus and make hard surfaces. On the positive side, there are products available that can be sprayed onto crop residue to accelerate decomposition.

They usually consist of a range of microorganisms and the nutrients to increase their activity. Clearly, we can stimulate nitrogen-producing microorganism without nitrogen, even sugar feeds them, but a formula should be considered and it’s worth discussing this with your fertiliser representative. In theory, no-till just has to work. I suspect nitrogen has a major role to play in failures. Avoid compaction by only grazing livestock when the soil is dry. Once the organic matter builds up, the recovery from this compaction is much more rapid.

There are occasions when plough pans need to be broken up with a ripper, but once the build-up of humus changes the soil, input costs are lower. Study groups are necessary to share knowledge and experience. And there is something we should always keep in mind. If Israel is forced to attack Iran, the current oil price may seem a bargain. |fw

Source: Farmers Weekly

Conservation Agriculture (CA): No-Till Farming:: Fifteen years of no-till – the results || No-till success on the Orange River

2009-05-25T04:15:00.000-07:00

Fifteen years of no-till – the results

Farmers Weekly | Robyn Joubert

Karkloof’s no-till pioneer René Stubbs has been at it for 15 years. His maize silage yield has increased from 8t/ha DM in 1995 to 14,5t/ha DM in 2008, with a saving of up to 40 of diesel/ha in land preparation. On pastures, he saves up to 60 diesel/ha which is close to R90 000 for 170ha of annual re-sown pasture, bringing total fuel savings to R132 000 a year, writes Robyn Joubert.

René Stubbs has come a long way since he first dipped his toes into the milk industry in 1989. Not only has he built up his dairy from a small leased herd to his own impressive herd of 760 Holsteins in milk, René has also pioneered no-till farming in Karkloof outside Pietermaritzburg.

“When we bought Denleigh farm in 1986, the soils were shot,” he recalls. “The land had continuously been farmed to produce maize for an intensive beef operation, as well as potatoes and later carrots. The soils were full of harmful pathogens, had very little structure and contained hardly any organic matter.” René explains that the contour banks were huge and poorly constructed, leading to severe erosion whenever they had a big storm. Conventional tillage practices required tractors and equipment clocking up many working hours and he was faced with mounting bills to replace equipment which he couldn’t afford at the time. Despite his best efforts, René was unable to improve maize yields beyond 7t/ha. “The writing was on the wall – it was time to change the way we did things on the farm.”

The no-till movement was gaining momentum then and good experience was emanating from the US, Brazil, and locally. “We were seeing improvements in no-till equipment and people were starting to understand that with the right equipment, herbicides and technique, the system was feasible,” he says. “The price of glyphosate had also become more favourable and I was faced with an interesting challenge.” René, who is chairperson of Midlands Milk (Pty), uses two systems of forage production at Denleigh to support his dairy herd.

The first is maize silage and cover crops, the second is pastures consisting of kikuyu and perennial ryegrass for the summer and annual ryegrass for winter forage.
He has used no-till on maize for 15 years now and over that period, rain-fed maize silage yield improved from 8t/ha DM in 1995 to 12t/ha DM in 2002 and 14,5t/ha DM in 2008. In terms of pasture, René is going into the third year of no-till and expects to establish all newly sown pastures with this method.

Diesel savings and soil improvement

René estimates that on the maize fields alone, he saves 30ℓ to 40ℓ of diesel/ha in land preparation, which amounts to R38 000 a year on 110ha of maize silage produced. On the pastures, he saves 50ℓ to 60ℓ diesel/ha, which is close to R90 000 for 170ha of annual re-sown pasture, bringing total fuel savings to R132 000 a year.
“That’s not taking into account the savings of up to 900 tractor-hours per year between maize silage and pasture establishment. The money I’m saving could buy a new 65kW tractor every 11 years,” he points out.

Perhaps even more important for René than the economic aspect is the improvement in the condition of the soil. Soil pH has improved from 4,5 to 5 on average.
“We are consistently applying lime topdressings and gypsum at strategic times. The average soil acid saturation in 1995 for the entire farm was 16%, now it is close to zero.” With the acid saturation coming down, calcium levels have improved to just below 1 000mg Ca/ℓ in the soil. Magnesium increased at the same time. Soil organic carbon is increasing slowly but steadily.

On average, most of Denleigh’s soil contains over 4% organic carbon in 2008 compared to 2% in 1996, and that improvement comes on fields that produce maize silage alone, René says. “We have also seen a spectacular increase in the earthworms and other indicator species. Earthworms have improved from no earthworms per square metre in soil that had been ploughed for many years to 300 earthworms per square metre after three years of no-till. We work in an amazingly forgiving environment.”

Weeds have also been reduced significantly. “There has been an enormous change in weed species and reduced populations of grasses, especially stoloniferous types in maize and nutgrass in pastures.” A sharp decrease in soil pathogens has come as a welcome relief. “Soil pests like rootworm and wireworm, together with black maize beetle, were prolific 15 years ago and were costing us close to R500/ha to try and combat,” René says. “Now we no longer treat for any of them. We only use Eco-T from Plant Health Products, which helps restore the balance in the soil of predatory fungi, ensuring improved germination and plant health.”

Improving water, reducing erosion and returning wildlife

The no-till system has had a significant impact on the quality of catchment water. A Sappi water quality test repeated from 1999 to 2001, measuring the number of organisms in the water, found that while the Karkloof River was in “fair” health in the first two years, it was upgraded to “good” in 2001. “We have seen a significant improvement in water quality in the river as more farmers adopt the no-till method,” explains René.

Soil erosion has been reduced during heavy summer rainfall due to soil cover. “If the soil is tilled, cover is reduced and soil gets washed away. This fact drives us away from conventional to alternative cultivation methods.”
The increase in cover and food for wildlife has resulted in the return to the valley of some indicator species such as the wattled crane and the bald ibis and an improvement in the numbers of other species such as the guinea fowl.

Promoting no-till

René is emphatic that the no-till production system is effective, economically sustainable and environmentally acceptable. “The system works. However, it requires a thorough understanding and needs a long-term commitment to see it through. As we are the custodians of our farms, we have a responsibility to become sustainable, innovative and economical in the way we manage our farms for future generations.”

Contact René Stubbs on (033) 3302822 or e-mail denleigh@mweb.co.za.

Timeline of silage maize and cover crop system

Mid-September/mid-October: spray cover crop with glyphosate.
November: plant maize and apply pre-emergent herbicide spray.
November/December: nitrogen top dressing and post-emergence herbicide sprays.
April: silage-making and simultaneous seeding of cover crop. Plant cover crop in the same four-day period that maize silage is harvested to prevent the soil from drying out.
June to September: intermittent grazing of cover crop. If decent rain falls, put cows in to graze. But keep cows out if there is no rain or if it is muddy to prevent compaction.
June to September: this is the ideal time to take soil samples and make soil fertility corrections. Apply lime and gypsum.
September to October: allow cover crop to grow out.

Timeline of no-till pastures

The no-till method for pasture is based on ensuring planting is done at the right time. René says they generally plant for winter production in February.
Kikuyu over-sow:
Late February: spray the cover crop with glyphosate (400ml/65ℓ water) and mulch if necessary.
Early March: plant kikuyu seed and irrigate.
Annual ryegrass:
End December: stop grazing and bulk up organic matter.
Mid February: spray off with glyphosate (3ℓ/65ℓ water).
End February: spray off with glyphosate (1ℓ/65ℓ water).
End February: plant ryegrass into cover, band-applied fertiliser for pop-up.
Mid April: graze.

Source: Farmers Weekly

No-till success on the Orange River

Farmers Weekly

From his farm Rivierkraal on the Orange River, Jaco van Niekerk plays a leading role in local research into cultivars and no-till practices, which include soya production – both with Argentinian cultivars and for the proposed Sasol project – and alternative crops such as paprika. Jaco earned a BSc Agric from the University of the Free State in 1985 and started sheep farming with his father and brother on Winterhoek farm in the Strydenburg area of the Northern Cape.

In 1986 he bought the then 132ha farm with his father’s help. Today he farms on 1 139ha, including 440ha of irrigated crops, 3ha of pecan nuts and about 4ha under lucerne, planted between the centre pivots. O n sandy loam soils with a clay content of 10% to 12%, Jaco’s soya, maize and wheat respectively yielded 4,3t/ha, 14,9t/ha and 7,3t/ha this past season. He grazes his 130-strong commercial Bonsmara beef herd on the thick residue of his maize crop, while he also runs a flock of 600 Dorper ewes for fat-lamb production.

Soil: a lifelong fascination Jaco’s interest in soil structure and the damage done by conventional tillage, inorganic fertilisers and harmful chemical applications was nurtured by his father and reinforced at university. S eeking alternatives, he went on a farmer’s tour to the US in 1995, where he first learnt about conservation agriculture (CA) principles like minimal soil disturbance through no-till or direct seeding, permanent soil cover, the use of crop residue and/or green manure cover crops, multi-cropping and crop rotation.

CA not only reduced costs, but enhanced soil structure, increased humus content, nurtured microbial life, prevented erosion and increased moisture absorption. Jaco realised South Africa needed CA to become globally competitive.

Today, Jaco is reaping the benefits of no-till and crop rotation. Crop residue mulch captures rain and irrigation water, letting him use up to 30% less water, and cutting down on pumping costs. As Rivierkraal receives only 300mm rainfall per year, and with moisture retained due to no-till, weekly irrigation scheduling, done by GWK using a neutron moisture meter, is vital. The crop residue also forms a blanket that regulates temperatures and helps control weeds.

Thanks to the build-up of humus, Jaco also needs less fertiliser, while microorganisms and earthworms flourish in the wetter soil. Ahead of his time When Jaco adopted no-till, it was rapidly increasing worldwide. In 2001/02 an estimated 72,1 million hectares were under no-till, South Africa accounting for only 300 000ha. Jaco blames this on a lack of knowledge, citing the dearth of information on CA available in South Africa. “Farm machinery and diesel were more expensive here than in the US, but financial savings weren’t what motivated me to go no-till,” says Jaco.

“I wanted to save and enhance my soils for myself and future generations. But local farm machinery companies weren’t importing no-till equipment. Alongside other input companies, they were actively discouraging no-till for fear it would hurt their sales.

For example, I use only 6ℓ/ha of diesel to no-till plant, and only about 20ℓ/ha to plant, spray, combine and deliver the crop to my on-farm silos. In 2003 I managed to buy a Brazilian no-till Tatu planter for my maize and soya, and a no-till John Deere 1570 drill for my wheat. I’ve never looked back.” Jaco approaches his farming operations holistically.

His soils have been analysed and balanced on a grid basis according to the Albrecht system, with soil samples initially being sent to the US, before GWK took over. He plants weed- and pest-resistant GM cultivars which need fewer chemical applications and when selecting cultivars, Jaco first considers trials he has conducted himself, then other trials conducted in the area. Jaco believes that by balancing his soils, using GM cultivars and adopting CA principles, he has had to spray less for fungal diseases.

He didn’t have to apply chemicals to his soya for the last three years, or to his wheat for the last two. He has also found that weed populations have declined, allowing him to spray less pre- and post- emergent glyphosate to control them. Sound financial approach Jaco believes the key to success is sound financial management.

He prepares and monitors a monthly budget, so that any corrective action necessary can be dealt with immediately. He doesn’t, for instance, allow market prices to determine which crops he plants – with his own silos, he can sell his crops when the prices are right. He doesn’t believe in debt, and to avoid it, he doesn’t take out production loans, but rather buys and pays for his year’s seed and fertiliser at the end of February.

Shared prosperity Jaco also provides for his workers and their dependants. He and his wife Marlene sent their domestic worker on a Smile training course so she could teach at a nursery school for workers’ children. Jaco provides school transport, sponsors fees, clothing and a soccer team and pays doctors’ bills. And, since they receive a bonus based on the season’s profits, Jaco’s workers have nothing to worry about.

E-mail Jaco van Niekerk at rivierkraal@telkomsa.net.

Source:

[Humanure: Peak Phosphorus]: Canadian Sewage-Invention Creates Cleaner Fertilizer than Rock Phosphate | Humanure: the end of sewage as we know it?

2009-05-19T05:09:00.002-07:00

The sewage plant carries the sweet smell of valuable phosphorus

Mark Hume | Globe and Mail | May 18, 2009

VANCOUVER -- When the delegates at an international conference on wastewater gathered in Vancouver last week they found themselves pretty much ignored by the media.

No TV cameras trained on the podium. No reporters waiting to interview the authors of the 90 papers from 30 different countries.

With speakers talking about such things as "a thermochemical approach for struvite precipitation modelling," the indifference of the mass media was perhaps understandable.

But Ken Ashley, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia and one of the conference organizers, thinks the world missed out on a big story - about how to take sewage and turn it into highly valuable fertilizer.

"It may be the biggest uncovered news story on the planet," he said in a post-conference interview.

What brought the 200 delegates to Vancouver was a looming global shortage of phosphorus and a groundbreaking nutrient recovery system developed at UBC.

Phosphorus is one of the essential elements of fertilizer. Without it crops whither.

The phosphorous in fertilizer comes from rock phosphate, which is mined primarily in Morocco, China and the United States.

Like oil, rock phosphate is running out.

The United States, historically the world's biggest producer, is expected to exhaust its reserves in 25 years. China recently slapped a 135 per cent export tariff on phosphate, choking off exports. That leaves Morocco sitting on one-third of the world's remaining supply - and reserves there are declining in quality and quantity.

"Phosphate production is going to peak around 2035 and then tail off," Dr. Ashley said. "If we don't do something we are looking at mass starvation."

Almost nobody is talking about the problem, however, because it doesn't seem real.

"Food is so abundant now the idea that there could be serious shortages just isn't on anyone's radar," he said. "Food is so cheap you just don't think about it not being available ... but all that food is based on the fact that farmers are fertilizing crops with phosphate ... and when we run out of phosphate, it will be worse than when we run out of oil."

There are alternatives to oil. But phosphate can't be manufactured - so once the natural supply is gone, food production will plummet.

That's where the conference on wastewater and the UBC innovation comes in.

Several years ago Dr. Ashley was researching how to restore nutrient-poor salmon streams by adding slow-release bricks of phosphorous.

He was looking for a supplier when he learned a team at UBC, led by Don Mavinic, an environmental engineer, and Fred Koch, a research associate, was working on a method of recovering a substance known as struvite from wastewater.

Struvite is a chemical compound (magnesium ammonium phosphate) that forms as hard crystals inside the pipes in sewage treatment plants, where it creates expensive maintenance problems.

The UBC team had figured out a way to capture struvite.

Dr. Ashley wanted to get some to fertilize nutrient-poor watersheds and was able to persuade BC Hydro, which has a fisheries compensation program, to come up with about $400,000 to fund the UBC research.

The result was the development of a struvite reactor, a recovery system that is so cost effective that within five years a sewage treatment plant can pay for the system by selling the fertilizer it produces.

Half a dozen plants are now in operation, including one in Edmonton that gets 300 kilograms of struvite a day from the effluent produced by 200,000 people.

Dr. Ashley said if the reaction of delegates at the Vancouver conference was any indication, similar systems will soon be in place around the globe.

In Canada, sewage plants discharge three trillion litres of effluent a year. That wastewater is often so rich in nutrients it pollutes watersheds. A private company formed to licence the UBC discovery, Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc., can take that sewage, strip out the phosphorous and other nutrients, and produce a fertilizer, called Crystal Green, that is cleaner than the fertilizer produced from rock phosphate.

In a recent paper, Dana Cordell, a PhD student at Linköping University in Sweden, calculated the world's human population excretes about three million tonnes of phosphorus in urine and feces every year.

If that could be recovered, it would go a long way toward addressing the world's looming phosphorous shortage.

"Given that more than half the world's population now lives in urban centres, and urbanization is set to increase, cities are becoming phosphorus 'hotspots' and urine is the largest single source of phosphorous emerging from cities," she wrote in the journal Global Environmental Change.

Sewage plants have long been a big part of the pollution problem. Now, thanks to the work at UBC, they are about to become a big part of the solution.

One of the delegates at the Vancouver conference was Robert Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist and lawyer, who over the past 25 years has sued hundreds of U.S. sewage treatment plants for polluting rivers with effluent.

He is now a member of the Ostara board of directors.

Source: Globe and Mail

Humanure: the end of sewage as we know it?

For some eco-pioneers, solving the sludge problem means getting their hands dirty.
Catherine Price | Grist

Laura Allen, a 33-year-old teacher from Oakland, California, has a famous toilet. To be honest, it's actually a box, covered in decorative ceramic tiles, sitting on the cement floor of her bathroom like a throne. No pipes lead to or from it; instead, a bucket full of shavings from a local wood shop rests on the box next to the seat with a note instructing users to add a scoopful after making their "deposit." Essentially an indoor outhouse, it's a composting toilet, a sewerless system that Allen uses to collect her household's excrement and transform it into a rich brown material known to fans as "humanure."

Allen is a founding member of an activist group devoted to the end of sewage as we know it. Her toilet recently made an appearance in the Los Angeles Times—which might explain why she didn't seem surprised when I emailed her out of the blue to ask if I could use it.

Lifting the seat, she showed me a seal of insulating foam tape she'd put around its edges to prevent odors from wafting into the bathroom and then pointed out a funnel-like contraption hanging from the front of the toilet that diverted urine away from crap. The separated waste collected in two containers sitting several feet below the toilet seat, accessible through a hatch cut into the side of the house: the urine flowed into a plastic jug formerly used for olive oil, the feces into a bucket labeled "feta cheese." A year from now, once it's composted, Allen and her roommates will use this excrement to fertilize their fruit trees.

To most Americans, Allen's system would seem eccentric, if not downright weird. But while feta cheese buckets are relatively new creations, humans have used shit as fertilizer since the dawn of agriculture—the nitrogen in our urine is an excellent fertilizer, and feces, itself nutrient-rich, is a great soil amendment. It wasn't until the turn of the 20th century that water-based sewer systems became commonplace in the United States; after that, "sewer farms," where crops were irrigated with untreated wastewater, were commonplace. Even today, the majority of the world's population doesn't have access to flush toilets, making us the anomaly, rather than the norm.

As public health advocates will be quick to point out, the switch to sewers helps protects us from sewage borne diseases. But it also breaks the nutrient cycle: instead of returning nutrients to the land from where they came, we now reclassify excrement as waste and use chemical fertilizers to replace it. From an agricultural standpoint, the crazy thing isn't the idea of using our crap as fertilizer. It's how far we've strayed.

With this in mind, the idea behind our current system would seem to make sense: more than half of America's sewage sludge is applied to land. But there's a crucial difference between humanure and modern sludge, known in the sewage industry as "biosolids." Humanure is made from pure human excrement. It can still contain residues from pharmaceuticals that pass through our bodies, but it lacks the industrial chemicals or other contaminants that make sludge so controversial.

Biosolids, on the other hand, can count as ingredients everything that's dumped into our sewer system, including a mixture of domestic and industrial waste that can include heavy metals, toxic chemicals, and thousands of other pollutants—and its long-term effects on soil are impossible to predict. The main ingredient of biosolids and humanure—feces—might be the same, but when it comes to their potential to contaminate soil, the two materials are fundamentally different.

It's difficult to judge what will ultimately have worse consequences for agriculture and human health: spreading the contaminants in modern sewage sludge on soil or diverting sewage's nutrients away from land. (Both are bad in different ways.) But one thing is certain: creating pure humanure with our current wastewater treatment system would require segregating our waste streams at their sources, which, thanks to the way our sewers are piped, is impossible to do.

Allen left me alone so that I could experience her bathroom firsthand and then took me outside to see the next step in the process. We walked through a small chicken coop to three 55-gallon barrels full of decomposing feces arranged in a row next to the side of the house, each of which would sit for at least a year in order to compost thoroughly. Covered with netting to prevent flies and plastic lids to keep out rain, they didn't smell.

But then Allen reached for a compost auger—a corkscrew-like device with a hand crank that breaks apart the composting material and adds oxygen—and worked it into the compost. The air filled with the strong, unpleasant odor of methane, a byproduct of anaerobic composting.

"It must have gotten some water into it, that's why it smells so bad," Allen said, pulling up the auger and revealing some confused-looking earthworms. She examined the moist brown material clinging to the corkscrew. "This one's probably about seven months old."

Allen and her roommates' devotion to their toilet is unusual, but they're far from alone—a small but growing number of Americans is unhooking from septic tanks and sewer systems (or, in some cases, never hooking in) and composting their waste. If you want to get a sense of how excited people can get about the results, check out the website of a man named Joseph Jenkins. A slate-roofing contractor in Pennsylvania who's been shitting in a bucket since the 1970s, Jenkins and his followers dream of a day where entire cities might compost their excrement, with municipal collection services similar to today's recycling programs.

To help jumpstart the revolution, Jenkins self-published a guide in 2005 called The Humanure Handbook that features chapter with titles like "Crap Happens" and an illustrated character named "Tommy the Turd." For his first run, Jenkins could only afford to print 600 copies; he's now sold more than 33,000, and portions of the handbook have been translated into Spanish, Norweigan, Korean, Hebrew, Mongolian and Chinese.

The challenge these simple systems face, however, is that most Americans don't like the idea of homemade toilets. We don't like thinking about our shit, period. So a middle ground has emerged: commercially designed toilets that look what you're used to, but have composting systems built in.

The BioLet, originally a Swedish design, includes a heater to speed decomposition and aerates its contents with mechanized arms. The Sun-Mar has a built-in crank and a removable tray that catches finished material. The Envirolet, the American version of a design by a Norweigan company called Vera Miljö, uses a carousel system—sort of like a lazy Susan—to keep batches separate so that new waste doesn't mix with old. Biolytix, an Australian wastewater treatment system designed to fit into a conventional septic tank, comes pre-seeded with an ecosystem of worms, beetles and microorganisms that filter and break down waste.

Bio-Sun, Aquatron, Equaris, Phoenix—like "biosolids," they all manage to sound vaguely green while avoiding any allusions to the substance they're meant to treat. Talk to people who have owned them, though, and there's no getting around that what you're dealing with is shit. With a typical toilet, all you need to do is flush; with a composting toilet, everything you produce stays right where you left it—and some of these commercial designs, while tempting, aren't big enough to handle daily use. (Horror stories abound.)

Successful composting, while not rocket science, requires attention, devotion and considerable knowledge of the process; far from being an informational brochure, The Humanure Handbook, is 255 pages long. The environmentalist in me wanted to embrace the idea behind Allen's toilet—really, I did—but when it came to dealing with my own excrement, I was like most Americans: the only time I wanted to look back in the bathroom was to flush.

To find out if there were any way to create a composting toilet that wouldn't make an average American recoil in disgust, I traveled to Bainbridge Island, a 35-minute ferry ride from Seattle. My destination was IslandWood, an outdoor learning center tucked into 255 wooded acres of a former tree farm that's home to one of the country's only large-scale composting toilets. Known as the Clivus Multrum M-15, this particular system can handle up to 36,000 uses per year.

When I reached IslandWood, I was welcomed by Brian Bonifaci, the man responsible for maintaining the Clivus system. Dressed in Carhartt clothing from top to bottom, Bonifaci led me to the basement room where the compost was collected in two large, gray boxes. With sloping floors designed to make it easier to remove finished material, each bin was nearly 10 feet long and over seven feet high, with thick black pipes connecting them to four toilets sitting directly above.

After showing me a trap door where finished compost could be removed, Bonifaci opened a hatch on the upper part of the box so that I could see what was inside: a giant mound of feces, toilet paper, and wood chips. It was level except for an upside down cone that had formed where the most recent deposits had dropped. But even though my face was practically in the box, I couldn't smell its contents—an exhaust fan was constantly pulling fresh air into the bin and out a vent on the roof so that no odors could leak into the room where I was standing. (The same fan also pulled air down the toilet so the smell couldn't escape upwards into the bathroom.)

"What do you need to do to maintain this?" I asked Bonifaci.

"I add a bucket of wood chips once a week and rake down the cone when it gets too high," he said. "That's about it."

He explained that the fan helped aerate the pile, eliminating the need to turn the compost, and an automatic moistening system added just enough water to keep the material from getting too dry. Eventually, Bonifaci told me, they'd have to remove some of the compost from the bottom of the pile, but so far they hadn't had to, despite the fact that they'd installed the toilet in 2002—composting dramatically reduces the volume of waste.

But then again, IslandWood's facilities weren't exactly getting their maximum 36,000 uses per year—Bonifaci told me that some campers, fearful about the toilets' gaping black holes, simply held it till they got to a different building. So I called Don Mills, the sales director for Clivus Multrum, to find out more about what these systems' capacities really were.

Mills, who refuses to use the word "biosolid" unless he can add in a "so-called" before it, has strong opinions on the current way America deals with sewage.

"I'm calling that shit 'sludge' until I die," he announced when I used the word "biosolids" without his preferred modifier. "And I might die from it!"

He then launched into a tirade against land application. But when the subject switched to composting toilets, Mills became cautiously optimistic.

"Look," he said. "Selling composting toilets is an uphill struggle, partially because of the psychology around shit and also because of regulations."

But once you sell people on the idea, said Mills, "there's no capacity limitation with this technology. We can build it for as many people as would need to use any toilet, any place." If a bathroom is meant to serve more people than a single Clivus Multrum system can handle, you just add more bins or toilets. Clivus Multrum has a system installed at the Bronx Zoo, for example, that's designed for over 500,000 uses a year.

Mills explained that there are ways to make composting toilets less offensive—Clivus Multrum already has models that use a small amount of foam to "flush" the excrement to a hidden holding tank, which means the toilets don't have to sit directly over the composting bins and users don't have to look down onto a giant mound of shit. Less hands-on customers than Bonifaci can also contract Clivus Multrum to maintain the toilets for them.

"If this were something that were supported by the government," Mills said, "if the compost toilet was made a requirement, then many things would change." Toilets would be designed to be even more palatable to non-environmentalists, he said, and large-scale municipal collection systems would evolve to get the compost out of the toilets and onto fields.

Mill is not entirely optimistic—like me, he doubts that composting toilets will become mainstream in America any time soon. Manhattan's skyscrapers weren't built with humanure in mind, and as he himself admits, "the dry toilet at IslandWood is not something most homeowners would regard as satisfactory in their dream house."

But there are plenty of places in the world not yet hooked up to sewer systems—in fact, an estimated 2.6 billion people don't even have access to toilets. Just as many developing countries adopted cell phones without ever having built the infrastructure for landline phones, poor communities could skip sewer systems and develop an integrated system of composting toilets instead.

In India, where 18 percent of the population lacks toilets, a man named Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the Sulabh Sanitation Movement, is helping people do just that: he's developed a line of composting toilets that earned him the prestigious 2009 Stockholm Water Prize. According to the Stockholm Water Institute, the Sulabh Shauchalaya twin pit, pour-flush toilet is being used in more than 1.2 million residences and buildings in India, and its public facilities—spread across 7500 locations—are getting more than 10 million uses per day.

America's a tougher market. But if composting toilets were inoffensive to use, if someone else were responsible for dealing with the compost—just as right now someone else is responsible for treating our watered-down waste—it's possible to imagine new buildings and communities that incorporate at least some of the recycling schemes of which the humanurists dream. We probably will never eliminate American sludge entirely, but if we were able to divert even a small portion of our excrement away from the sewer system, treat it for pathogens and turn it into compost, we'd be reducing the amount left to deal with. The best solution for the future, it seems, just might be a modernized version of the past.

Back at IslandWood, I asked Bonifaci if I could try out the facilities, and soon found myself alone in the restroom. Thanks to the fan sucking air into the toilet, the only noticeable odor was a faint aura of lemongrass cleaning products and the lingering scent of lavender soap. Since the Clivus Multrum doesn't divert urine, when I sat down, I didn't have to aim. The biggest tangible difference between it and a conventional toilet was the breeze—which, if you're not expecting it, can be a little surprising. But there was no odor, no wood chips, no worry that in a week or two or three, I'd be responsible for handling the waste I'd just produced.

The experience was remarkably unremarkable. It required so little thought that when I got up, I didn't even need to turn back to flush.

Source: The Guardian

Dig For Victory: How Gardening Became Fashionable Again || The Starter Garden: The Manure Chronicles

2009-05-14T14:23:00.001-07:00

Dig For Victory: How Gardening Became Fashionable Again

There is one good side effect of the recession: the surge in popularity of allotments, gardening and growbags.

By Tim Richardson | The Telegraph | 08 May 2009

It's time to start digging for victory again Photo: GETTY

Dig for Victory is in the air again, only it's an economic war that Britons are now fighting. The news that growbag sales have increased fivefold this spring compared with last year is a good sign.

The pleasures of burying one's hands in the soil are no longer the preserve of horny-handed men with sheds, or fragrant ladies proffering trugs and scones, but cut across class and demographic boundaries. Everyone is at it, even if it's only windowboxes, balconies, or a cluster of growbags outside a front door in a block of council flats. Heavens, gardening is now even becoming fashionable among late twenty- and thirtysomethings in cities, with waiting lists for allotments within striking distance of fashionable areas.

In my own case, my wife and I – who are not thirtysomethings any more, alas – discussed the merits of an allotment, but opted to create a ''home allotment''. It was the potential journey to and from an allotment that put us off, not least because of the car use. So we turned over the little-used lawn in the small garden behind our terrace house in north London and laid simple brick paths around and through it. It's not exactly The Good Life, but it's possible for us to get home at eight or nine o'clock at night and do a spot of gardening for half an hour if we fancy it. Perfect.

We grow all kinds of salad leaves, beans, carrots and other veg, with varying degrees of success, it has to be said, while I have just managed to miss the seasonal deadline (again!) for putting in fruit bushes all around the edge of our new plot. It is rather impressive to discover that specialist fruit nurseries will not even consider taking money for bushes when buyers ask after the deadline. At least the world of fruit-growing has not gone financially haywire.

In fact, everything in the garden this year seems to be, as they say, lovely, with recent rain a promising prelude to a floriferous summer, and the best bluebell season in living memory underway. Meanwhile, Chelsea Flower Show is almost upon us, with ticket sales as strong as ever (despite a reduction in main show gardens from 21 to 13 this year), and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew is busy celebrating its 250th anniversary.

Growing your own dovetails with a new eagerness among consumers to buy British. Indeed, food is one area where that much derided attribute, patriotism, appears to be respectable again: by buying British we are not only helping the national economy, but also helping the environment by reducing food miles: just 10 per cent of fruit consumed in Britain is grown here.

The demand for good-quality British produce at a reasonable price contrasts with what is being offered by the fruit and veg industry. Even that most British of apples, the classic Cox, is being displaced by the Gala, the bigger, shinier interloper from New Zealand.

According to the trade body English Apples and Pears, the Cox's Orange Pippin, introduced in 1825, is soon to be overtaken by the blander Gala in terms of sales, as supermarkets offer cheapness above choice, and growers go under or feel compelled to concentrate on the most profitable and reliable varieties. Gala apples are also more disease-resistant.

Let us hope that the well-founded vogue among shoppers for English asparagus and strawberries above imported varieties will be translated into the realm of apples, encouraging growers to give us a wider choice of tastier British varieties, such as the Egremont Russet, which has been doing well wherever it is sold.

According to a recent report from the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, the area given over to fresh vegetables and fruit has fallen by 23 per cent in the past decade.

This seems at odds with the trend among consumers for counting food miles and choosing locally sourced produce above imported goods. However, it is easy enough in a supermarket to look at a label to find out where a product comes from, even down to a specific farm in some cases, but with processed or ready-made food – and nearly all restaurants – it is difficult to ascertain the origins of what you are eating.

One argument for growing fruit and veg and promoting the British market-gardening industry is the threat of global food shortages. Given our reliance on imports – some 1.2 million tons more of fruit and veg, compared with a decade ago – the country runs the risk of gazing at a fast-emptying national larder if there are water crises and poor harvests in Europe and Africa. Those imports we have come to rely on would then soon dry up.

It could be Dig for Victory, for real – and as in the 1940s, any rescue package would in national terms be less about resourceful gardening and more about reclaiming land for large-scale food production.

While I do not wish to encourage any food panics, it must make sense to bring back more of our vacant land into production. There is also an opportunity to rediscover an aspect of British heritage that has lain dormant for too long: our mania for vegetables and fruit, but particularly the latter.

Fruit for dessert, and not just exotic hothouse produce such as pineapples or melons, has for centuries been considered a delicacy at the English table. Those 18th-century dessert services by Royal Worcester and other English potteries, with individual apple or pear varieties lovingly painted onto each plate and bowl, are a reflection of the esteem in which fresh-picked fruit was traditionally held.

In some of England's foremost houses today it is still possible to enjoy fruit served as a dessert course in the traditional Victorian aristocratic manner, with fruit bushes or dwarf trees wheeled into the dining room on trolleys so that people can snip off their own fruit and enjoy that fresh-plucked flavour.

It was in the mid 17th century that fruit first became a potent status symbol – witness the celebrated painting of Charles I's gardener presenting him with the first pineapple grown in England. By the early 18th century the prime minister, the 1st Duke of Newcastle, was firing off baskets of peaches from his hothouse to political friends and rivals alike, just to demonstrate his wealth and power. But it was not just fancy fruit that was venerated.

The humble apple was the chief subject of patriotic poems such as Cyder (1708) by John Philips, a sensuous evocation of English agriculture that paints a picture of the country in a kind of Edenic state of ripeness:

''...whillst English Plains

Blush with pomaceous Harvests, breathing Sweets.

O let me now, when the kind early Dew

Unlocks th' embosom'd Odors, walk among

The well rang'd Files of Trees, whose full-ag'd Store

Diffuse Ambrosial Streams''.

Growbags and the Dig for Victory spirit are in the vanguard, but in time let us hope those ambrosial streams start flowing again as consumer demand in shops, supermarkets, restaurants and workplaces leads to a resurgence in British fruit and vegetable production.

So go on. Get Digging.

Source: The Telegraph

The Starter Garden: The Manure Chronicles

Michael Tortorello | New York Times

Published: May 6, 2009

I have no truck with chickens. I don’t eat them and I don’t like them. They are, to my eyes, savage and prehistoric, a fluffier breed of lizard. And yet, on a recent Friday afternoon I had an appointment to keep with 30 of them, on an odd little river island in downtown Minneapolis. The chickens had a glut of droppings — manure — and I had a new vegetable garden that needed fertilizing. I was hoping we could come to terms.

If I had started my garden at almost any point after 1940, I likely would have fertilized it with bagged chemicals from the store. These products come with clearly labeled dosages of the three essential plant nutrients: nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. Without this trinity, my starter garden would be a stunted garden — or a cemetery.

Initially, I’d been willing to experiment with chemistry. There’s nothing “natural” about a vegetable garden, after all; my patch would be the product of thousands of years of human meddling. But a few calls to green-gardening evangelists convinced me that spreading synthetic fertilizers is now considered roughly the equivalent of spanking a child: bluntly effective, but verging on criminal. And definitely not something you want to do in the front yard. These products work quickly but their effects don’t last, and they have a dirty habit of trickling into waterways.

If that weren’t bad enough, atmospheric nitrogen doesn’t just jump into the fertilizer bag on its own. “The estimate bandied around is that 1 percent of the world’s power goes into fixing” — or processing — “this nitrogen,” said Jeff Gillman, a professor of horticultural science at the University of Minnesota, and the author of “The Truth About Organic Gardening” (Timber Press, 2008).

The so-called organic fertilizers that have filled store shelves in the last dozen years seemed to provide a natural alternative. But some sources may strike urban gardeners as a little stomach churning: fish emulsion (ground-up seafood), for example, or blood meal (pulverized cattle). Seabird guano is another source, and I liked the idea of an albatross taking a 3,000-mile detour to deposit nutrients on my Midwestern lawn. But seabird guano is mined and shipped from distant shores.

“Some organic fertilizers aren’t as great as people think they are,” Mr. Gillman said of products made from guano and rock phosphate. “We’re using up this resource, which, although it’s natural, is not quickly renewable.”

As the father of a 1-year-old, I thought I already had enough poop in my life. But after a few calls to soil scientists and hardcore home gardeners, I started to believe that I might need more. Beyond manure’s nutrient value, gardeners credit it with improving the soil’s “tilth,” or loose crumb.

“It’s kind of a nebulous term,” explained Carrie Laboski, a professor and extension soil scientist at University of Wisconsin, Madison. “Manured soil over time may have a little more structure to it. Water penetrates it nicely, and it drains nicely.”

Barnyard animals don’t pay for market research, but there are signs that manure use is growing more popular among gardeners. Credit it to the faddishness of city chickens (whoever thought we’d be using that phrase?) or to the new presence of products like Moo-Nure at big-box outlets.

“I’ve been doing research on manure since the 1980s,” said Michael Schmitt, an extension soil scientist at the University of Minnesota, “and I don’t remember seeing this stuff — manure — in the stores. Bags of composted manure in Home Depot or Menards. It’s there!”

Many gardeners are holding their noses and going closer to the source. “More and more people are keeping traditional farm animals in urban settings now,” said Leslie Finical Halleck, a horticulturist and garden blogger in Dallas who is also the general manager of an independent garden center. “I was talking to my friend Julie the other day and she said, ‘Do you want to take chicken poop home with you?’ And I said, ‘Of course I do!’ This is what we talk about now.”

I knew I could scare up some big-animal manure on the far side of the beltway. But I didn’t like the idea of trekking in the minivan with my two tots — and hauling the stuff back with the windows closed. I remembered, then, meeting Greg McFarlane, an innkeeper and reggae drummer who built a chicken coop at his sister’s home day care center on the city’s north side. But when I called him about making a manure pickup, he had distressing news.

“Just the other week, my sister found all 13 birds spread out across the yard,” Mr. McFarlane said. “Some kind of raptor got them. Guts everywhere.”

I began hearing manure-gathering ideas from other urban gardeners. In New York, registered community gardeners can pick up composted “zoo-doo” from the parks department; on the West Coast, an East Bay Area farming activist has collected rabbit droppings from a pet store and soiled straw bedding from a racetrack; and a New Orleans educator has tried splashing her own urine on the compost pile beneath her fruit tree.

Call it prudery, but I wasn’t going that route. Instead I ended up on Nicollet Island, a stone’s throw from downtown Minneapolis.

The Nicollet Island Cooperative Henhouse is a low complex of sheds, wire fences and netting behind the garage of Phyllis Kahn, a veteran Democratic representative in the Minnesota State House. It’s home to those 30 chickens, as well as a dozen ducks and three geese, many of mixed breeding and outré plumage.

When I arrived, the birds were loose in the yard. “Now is actually a good time to visit us,” said a neighbor, Peat Willcutt, a 24-year-old farmer’s market manager (and “one of Minneapolis’s only male burlesque artists,” he added). “After the winter, the bedding is starting to smell,” Mr. Willcutt said, “and we try to keep the neighbors happy.”

In part, Mr. Willcutt and his confederates make nice by liberally passing out eggs — and manure for gardening. Today, they were ready to move some product.

Though four neighboring households share responsibility for the coop, Mr. Willcutt may be the cock of the walk. A few days earlier, he’d helped to heap straw and manure into a 12-foot-long pile that stood 3 feet high. Mr. Willcutt and his confederates call it “le fumier,” which is French for “compost pile” (and perhaps also a barnyard epithet). Inside le fumier, a reaction between the nitrogen from the manure and the carbon from the straw was heating up the mound: a thermometer poked into the center registered 135 degrees. The pile smelled like chicken manure — only more so, if that’s possible — and it was steaming in the crisp April air. This “hot composting” process, applied over a fortnight, would destroy weed seeds and dangerous pathogens like salmonella, which can otherwise survive in the soil for as long as eight months.

The specter of salmonella and E. coli (from horse and cow manure) may have scared gardeners off manure in the past. I’m not immune to a little hysteria, so I called half a dozen researchers — microbiologists, poultry experts and soil scientists — to ask about the potential health risks of introducing manure to my little dirt farm. The consensus view was that there is no consensus view.

“Those diseases seem to be fairly rare,” said Mr. Gillman, adding that the possibility of their appearing was something to avoid.

While acknowledging that there are “different philosophies on the subject,” Mr. Schmitt said, “from a scientist’s perspective, I think that sometimes people are overly concerned about the materials in manure.”

Ultimately, cautious gardeners probably can’t go wrong by following a short list of manure guidelines. Stay away from dog and cat excrement, which is especially loaded with pathogens. Avoid raw manure or add it to soil at least four months before planting (or six months for leaf plants like spinach or root crops like carrots). Use hot-composted manure, or manure that has been cold-composted for at least a year. And definitely don’t add raw manure next to vegetables that are already in the ground. (For more about manure safety, see the Starter Garden blog at nytimes.com/home.)

Mr. Willcutt and his neighbors helped shovel some aged compost into a pair of five-gallon buckets. The henhouse keepers — all of them save for Representative Kahn — are also members of an affordable housing collective on the island and they like to work outside the cash economy. In exchange for the fertilizer, callers typically provide everything from fresh tomatoes to gin. I offered some on-demand copy editing, and we had a deal.

We walked around to the front of the 1881 gingerbread fourplex where Mr. Willcutt’s housemate, Leslie Ball, showed me her raised vegetable beds. I’d simply need to spread my compost over the top layer of sandy soil in my yard, she told me, mixing it in a bit with a digging fork. The high tan husks of last year’s vegetables attested to her success. Here, practically in the shadow of the sterile glass towers of downtown, she had raised sweet corn that grew seven feet tall.

With that image fixed in my mind, I made a plan. Next week, I thought, I’m going to return to Nicollet Island with those empty dung buckets — and a few Mason jars of homemade banana wine. And I’m going to ask for more.

Source: New York Times

Impending Water & Energy Resource Scarcity Collision | Upside of Peak Fertilizer | Saudi Arabia of Fertilizer

2009-04-24T12:44:00.003-07:00

Report Finds Water Stress Rapidly Becoming Key Strategic Risk to Commerce:

Impending Water/Energy Collision

17 March 2009 | by Jack Rosebro

Water consumption or withdrawals per unit of energy produced, by energy type, in the United States. Source: DHI Group. Click Image to Enlarge

A Pacific Institute report commissioned by Ceres, whose Investor Network on Climate Risk advises investors with more than US$7 trillion in assets, concludes that impacts of declining water quality and availability will be “far-reaching” for business and industry in the developed as well as the developing world, and that companies which address water stress as a key strategic risk will be better positioned to adjust to negative effects such as reduced water allotments, rising water costs, community opposition, and increased public scrutiny of corporate water practices.

Among the increasing challenges is that while the sourcing, processing, and delivery of clean water is becoming more energy-intensive, the extraction and refining of fossil fuels and their substitutes is trending towards increasing water requirements per unit of fuel produced as energy companies work with progressively lower grade resources.

Processes such as oil extraction from sources such as tar sands and deep-water offshore oil wells, as well as the expansion of first-generation biofuels such as corn-based ethanol are setting the stage for a “water/energy collision” of resource management policies. “With increasing frequency,” write the Pacific Institute researchers, “we value energy production over water production.”

Citing a study by Danish water consultancy DHI Group as well as a study from the University of Texas, the researchers point out that the water footprint of renewable energy sources varies widely, and is particularly intense for first-generation biofuels made from sugar, starch, vegetable oils, animal fats, or other food-source feedstocks, rather than non-food sources such as cellulose.

Climate change. The report “Water Scarcity and Climate Change: Growing Risks for Businesses and Investors” notes that drought conditions are currently causing water shortages in Australia, Asia, Africa, and the United States, and that drought patterns are in many cases mirroring previously predicted effects of climate change. While climate change is projected to increase precipitation in some areas, it is also likely to destabilize freshwater supply in other areas by compressing precipitation and snowmelt into shorter and more intense periods, overwhelming existing catchment infrastructure and creating longer periods of drought.

The percentage of the world’s population living in water-stressed regions—currently one out of every three—is expected to double to two of every three by 2025 as declining water supplies are further stressed by increased water demand for irrigation, hydration, and industrial cooling in warming regions. Although desalination has the potential to reduce freshwater demand in relatively affluent coastal urban areas by providing an alternative source for drinking water, it remains the most expensive demand-management option due to its energy-intensive processes, and is particularly vulnerable to rising energy prices.

Last year, a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) forecast that the effects of rising temperatures would lead to “changes in all components of the [global] freshwater system” in the 21st century. The IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report, released in 2007, had also forecast that “climate change will challenge the traditional assumption that past hydrological experience provides a good guide to future conditions.”

However, the authors of the Ceres report note that “businesses and investors are largely unaware of water-related risks or how climate change will likely exacerbate them.” Industries which face the greatest risks include the agriculture, beverage, electronics, energy, apparel, pharmaceutical, forest products, and mining sectors.

Sectoral Water Risks

20th century world water withdrawals by sector, in cubic kilometers. Source: UNESCO. Click Image to Enlarge.

Apparel. Cotton production, which requires 25 cubic meters of water for every 250 grams of finished product—the approximate weight of a T-shirt—is both water-intensive and highly vulnerable to risk. Cotton is typically grown in arid regions converted to farmland; in Uzbekistan, for example, which is one of the world’s largest exporters of cotton, the extraction of water from rivers that supply the Aral Sea is a key contributor to its deterioration and desertification. Wastewater from cotton production degrades local water supplies, but many countries which export cotton have relatively weak wastewater regulations

Electronics. Semiconductor wafer production is extremely water-intensive: in 2007, Intel and Texas Instruments used a total of 11 billion gallons of ultra-pure water (UPW), which requires significant amounts of energy to purify. Eleven of the world’s fourteen largest semiconductor factories are located in Pacific Rim regions which are already water-stressed.

Food Production. The largest and fastest-growing use of water is embedded in modern food production. Although livestock production requires many times the amount of water per calorie of plant-based food production, agricultural water requirements have also intensified as a result of the conversion over the past century of many naturally arid regions, such as California’s San Joaquin Valley, Texas, and parts of Egypt and Pakistan, to high-volume farming regions.

Drought is expected to become more common in many of these areas, as well as higher surface temperatures, which dry out soils, evaporate snowmelt, and require accelerated water inflows. Beverage manufacturers also face direct competition with local communities for affordable drinking water, and bottled water sales are beginning to decline in some developed countries because of environmental concerns.

Biotechnology. Chemicals and microorganisms in biotech wastewater present a particular threat to local ecosystems. Synthetic chemicals are typically developed for persistence, and do not readily break down in nature when discharged by pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Forestry. Pulp and paper manufacturing is the third largest consumer of water as well as fossil-based energy in the United States. While the sector is at particular risk from climate change, forests are also key components of watersheds, influencing water availability, transport, and quality.

Metals and Mining. The mining sector is restricted by the location of ore, and water must be imported to support mining operations. Development of new sites may also face local opposition; Canadian mining company Barrick Gold, for example, plans to mine gold from beneath glaciers in Chile; Andean farming communities which rely on the glaciers for their water supply oppose the project.

Electric Power. The electric power industry accounts for more than a third of all freshwater withdrawals in the United States, with nuclear power plants requiring about 40% more water per kilowatt-hour produced than fossil-fuel power plants. Declining levels and/or warmer temperatures of cooling water supplies during periods of extreme heat and/or drought have triggered nuclear plant shutdowns in the US and Europe in the past five years. Hydropower-based generation is also at risk, particularly in the Western United States, due to drought.

The Ceres report poses five primary questions as discussion points for exploring the level of risk that a company’s water policy might pose to its own long-term economic health:
Does the company know and measure its water footprint, including wastewater discharges, and understand the relationship between its energy and water use?
Has the company assessed business risks associated with its water footprint, including both direct and indirect risks (e.g. supply chain), and developed contingency plans for potential future risks such as those associated with climate change?
Is the company engaged with key stakeholders, including consultation and collaboration with affected communities, government entities, and NGOs?
Has the company integrated ongoing assessments of water risk into its business planning, governance, and risk management structures?
Does the company disclose and communicate its water performance and associated risks, using comprehensible and broadly accepted metrics?
The report concludes by pointing out several cross-sectoral trends in water risk for businesses:
Typically, water risk is embedded more in the value chain, especially of raw material production, than in operations or assembly of final product. This risk is rarely reflected in corporate sustainability reports or security filings.
Industries that require large amounts of water withdrawals, ultra-pure water, or both face increased risk of competing directly with local populations for water access. Fallout ranges from reputational damage to shutdown or relocation of facilities.
Wastewater discharges for industries with large gray water footprints are an increasing problem as developing countries adopt environmental regulations.
Fragmented information about corporate water risk as well as underlying supply conditions often make it extremely difficult for investors to assess the true magnitude of the risk.
As water supply declines, the quality of available water also typically declines, requiring more treatment and increasing the amount of energy embedded in the delivery of adequate water supplies.

Source: Green Car Congress [PDF: Water Scarcity and Climate Change: Growing Risks for Businesses and Investors]

The upside to peak fertilizer

Thursday, Feb. 7, 2008 08:27 PST | Andrew Leonard, Salon

Synthetic fertilizer prices are spiking upwards all over the world, inflicting economic pain on farmers everywhere. Another sign of the peak oil apocalypse? The industrial production of nitrogen -- a key synthetic fertilizer ingredient -- is extraordinarily energy intensive. So when energy prices rise, so do fertilizer prices. And if you buy the thesis that without manmade fertilizer the world will be physically incapable of supporting a population of nine billion, then you start to get very nervous.

Opponents of biofuels have been quick to point the finger at the stampede to divert farming land to energy crops as another reason explaining the fertilizer market's failure to keep up with global demand. But that's only one factor. Population growth and the explosion of meat and dairy consumption in the rising middle classes of the developing world are also contributing to the worldwide agricultural boom. Even without rising energy prices, the surging demand for fertilizer would be overwhelming suppliers.

When demand rises, supply follows -- and sure enough, investment in synthetic fertilizer production is booming. Intriguingly, the global center for synthetic fertilizer production appears to be the oil states of the Mideast. A new study by the Doha-based Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting reports that UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman are expected to invest billions of dollars in the next few years ramping up ammonia and urea production.

Which drops a big fat dollop of synthetic fertilizer irony in our laps. The growth of energy crops is in part directly attributable to rising energy prices. But the demand for synthetic fertilizer to nurture those energy crops requires the consumption of even more fossil fuel, thus likely pushing energy prices further, and creating even more demand for energy crops. On second thought, that's not ironic. That's tragic.

The price-mechanism doesn't only work in the direction of encouraging more synthetic fertilizer. One news report, while predicting that the current imbalance between supply and demand could last as long as two years before new supply came on line, observed that in the meantime farmers might be forced to "consider converting to organic production."

So you can forget about the endless argument over whether organic food is healthier for human consumption than the product of the industrial agricultural system. If synthetic fertilizer prices continue to rise, organic food may end up cheaper than the alternative.

Source: Salon

'The Saudi Arabia of fertilizer'

One big corpration dominates the soon-to-be-prized potash market

Tom Philpott, Grist | 15 May 2008

Industrial agriculture currently stands as humanity's big plan for "feeding the world" as global population moves toward 10 billion and the earth warms. Increasingly, as oil supplies tighten and prices rise, we're looking to industrial ag to fill our gas tanks, too.

Unhappily, this relatively new form of farming relies utterly on three elements -- two mined (potassium and phosphorus) and one synthesized from natural gas (nitrogen) -- to maintain the productivity of soil.

In other words, unless we quickly move toward other agriculture models, we're likely to see increased geopolitical competition for these fertilizer resources, outsized power for the entities that control them -- and diminishing efforts to minimize the ecological effects of extracting them.

I've written before about Mosaic, the world's largest phosphorus supplier, and the devastations of its Florida mining operations. Two-thirds owned by agribusiness conglomerate Cargill, Mosaic has seen its share price rise seven-fold since the fall of 2006 (roughly when corn prices began to jump).

Now let's look at Canada's Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, whose shareholders, like Mosaic's, have enjoyed an ecstatic run of late. The company so dominates potash (potassium) production that one stock analyst has hailed it as "the Saudi Arabia of Fertilizer."

The analyst, Ben Johnson of Morningstar, has this to say about Potash's market position:
PCS is the world's largest potash producer, with 22% of world capacity. ... PCS is also the world's second-largest nitrogen producer by volume (with 2% of world capacity). ... PCS is the world's third-largest phosphate producer (with 6% of world capacity).
Wow, so in the big-three macronutrients, the company ranks one, two, and three. But it's the company's position in the potash market that really has investors licking their chops. Get this:
I feel [an] apt analogy would be to call [Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan] the Saudi Arabia of the "other OPEC" -- Organization of Potash Exporting Countries! ... PCS owns 22% of the world's potash production capacity, while Saudi Arabia accounts for roughly 13% of global oil production. Both enjoy low-cost positions in their particular markets, thanks to scale and the attractive natural resources they control. The Middle East has more than 60% of the world's proven oil reserves, while Canada sits on about 57% of the world's potash reserve base, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The analyst says that the company's dominant potash position has made it extraordinarily profitable as fertilizer prices have surged recently, pushed up by the biofuel boom and rising demand from Brazil and China. He writes that "gross profit per metric ton of potash sold nearly doubled to $97 in 2007 from $51 in 2004." He adds:
And there will be more to come. Given recent price announcements for potash, average selling prices will easily double from 2007 levels in the coming quarters.
Similar trends are playing out with nitrogen and phosphorous:
Unit gross profit in nitrogen has more than doubled from $45 to $94 over this same span, and phosphate unit margins have compounded an eye-popping 14 times from $4 in 2004 to $57 in 2007.
Several questions arise here. Is it really sustainable to "feed the world" -- much less move its cars -- using technologies that require ravenous doses of finite resources?

How long before big buyers in places like China start to balk at paying such elevated prices -- and supporting such monopoly-style profit margins? Already, we're seeing countries that are cash-rich and food-poor (think China and Saudi Arabia) buy up farmland in places like Brazil and Africa, the Financial Times reports.

Fertilizer, a critical input for industrial food, is darting down the unhappy path forged by crude oil. It looks set to become the globe's next "prize" -- to paraphrase Churchill's famous quote at the dawn of the oil age. Other ways of "feeding the world," of course, are possible.

Source: Grist

"Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic: Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don’t., by F. William Engdahl

2008-10-19T11:41:00.001-07:00

"Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic: Bill Gates, Rockefeller and the GMO giants know something we don’t.,

by F. William Engdahl, Global Research.ca

One thing Microsoft founder Bill Gates can’t be accused of is sloth. He was already programming at 14, founded Microsoft at age 20 while still a student at Harvard. By 1995 he had been listed by Forbes as the world’s richest man from being the largest shareholder in his Microsoft, a company which his relentless drive built into a de facto monopoly in software systems for personal computers.

In 2006 when most people in such a situation might think of retiring to a quiet Pacific island, Bill Gates decided to devote his energies to his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the world’s largest ‘transparent’ private foundation as it says, with a whopping $34.6 billion endowment and a legal necessity to spend $1.5 billion a year on charitable projects around the world to maintain its tax free charitable status. A gift from friend and business associate, mega-investor Warren Buffett in 2006, of some $30 billion worth of shares in Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway put the Gates’ foundation into the league where it spends almost the amount of the entire annual budget of the United Nations’ World Health Organization. So when Bill Gates decides through the Gates Foundation to invest some $30 million of their hard earned money in a project, it is worth looking at.

No project is more interesting at the moment than a curious project in one of the world’s most remote spots, Svalbard. Bill Gates is investing millions in a seed bank on the Barents Sea near the Arctic Ocean, some 1,100 kilometers from the North Pole. Svalbard is a barren piece of rock claimed by Norway and ceded in 1925 by international treaty (see map).

On this God-forsaken island Bill Gates is investing tens of his millions along with the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto Corporation, Syngenta Foundation and the Government of Norway, among others, in what is called the ‘doomsday seed bank.’ Officially the project is named the Svalbard Global Seed Vault on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard island group.

The seed bank is being built inside a mountain on Spitsbergen Island near the small village of Longyearbyen. It’s almost ready for ‘business’ according to their releases. The bank will have dual blast-proof doors with motion sensors, two airlocks, and walls of steel-reinforced concrete one meter thick. It will contain up to three million different varieties of seeds from the entire world, ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future,’ according to the Norwegian government. Seeds will be specially wrapped to exclude moisture. There will be no full-time staff, but the vault's relative inaccessibility will facilitate monitoring any possible human activity.

Did we miss something here? Their press release stated, ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future.’ What future do the seed bank’s sponsors foresee, that would threaten the global availability of current seeds, almost all of which are already well protected in designated seed banks around the world?

Anytime Bill Gates, the Rockefeller Foundation, Monsanto and Syngenta get together on a common project, it’s worth digging a bit deeper behind the rocks on Spitsbergen. When we do we find some fascinating things.

The first notable point is who is sponsoring the doomsday seed vault. Here joining the Norwegians are, as noted, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the US agribusiness giant DuPont/Pioneer Hi-Bred, one of the world’s largest owners of patented genetically-modified (GMO) plant seeds and related agrichemicals; Syngenta, the Swiss-based major GMO seed and agrichemicals company through its Syngenta Foundation; the Rockefeller Foundation, the private group who created the “gene revolution with over $100 million of seed money since the 1970’s; CGIAR, the global network created by the Rockefeller Foundation to promote its ideal of genetic purity through agriculture change.

CGIAR and ‘The Project’

As I detailled in the book, Seeds of Destruction, in 1960 the Rockefeller Foundation, John D. Rockefeller III’s Agriculture Development Council and the Ford Foundation joined forces to create the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, the Philippines.1 By 1971, the Rockefeller Foundation’s IRRI, along with their Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and two other Rockefeller and Ford Foundation-created international research centers, the IITA for tropical agriculture, Nigeria, and IRRI for rice, Philippines, combined to form a global Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR).

CGIAR was shaped at a series of private conferences held at the Rockefeller Foundation’s conference center in Bellagio, Italy. Key participants at the Bellagio talks were the Rockefeller Foundation’s George Harrar, Ford Foundation’s Forrest Hill, Robert McNamara of the World Bank and Maurice Strong, the Rockefeller family’s international environmental organizer, who, as a Rockefeller Foundation Trustee, organized the UN Earth Summit in Stockholm in 1972. It was part of the foundation’s decades long focus to turn science to the service of eugenics, a hideous version of racial purity, what has been called The Project.

To ensure maximum impact, CGIAR drew in the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, the UN Development Program and the World Bank. Thus, through a carefully-planned leverage of its initial funds, the Rockefeller Foundation by the beginning of the 1970’s was in a position to shape global agriculture policy. And shape it did.

Financed by generous Rockefeller and Ford Foundation study grants, CGIAR saw to it that leading Third World agriculture scientists and agronomists were brought to the US to ‘master’ the concepts of modern agribusiness production, in order to carry it back to their homeland. In the process they created an invaluable network of influence for US agribusiness promotion in those countries, most especially promotion of the GMO ‘Gene Revolution’ in developing countries, all in the name of science and efficient, free market agriculture.

Genetically engineering a master race?

Now the Svalbard Seed Bank begins to become interesting. But it gets better. ‘The Project’ I referred to is the project of the Rockefeller Foundation and powerful financial interests since the 1920’s to use eugenics, later renamed genetics, to justify creation of a genetically-engineered Master Race. Hitler and the Nazis called it the Ayran Master Race.

The eugenics of Hitler were financed to a major extent by the same Rockefeller Foundation which today is building a doomsday seed vault to preserve samples of every seed on our planet. Now this is getting really intriguing. The same Rockefeller Foundation created the pseudo-science discipline of molecular biology in their relentless pursuit of reducing human life down to the ‘defining gene sequence’ which, they hoped, could then be modified in order to change human traits at will. Hitler’s eugenics scientists, many of whom were quietly brought to the United States after the War to continue their biological eugenics research, laid much of the groundwork of genetic engineering of various life forms, much of it supported openly until well into the Third Reich by Rockefeller Foundation generous grants.2

The same Rockefeller Foundation created the so-called Green Revolution, out of a trip to Mexico in 1946 by Nelson Rockefeller and former New Deal Secretary of Agriculture and founder of the Pioneer Hi-Bred Seed Company, Henry Wallace.

The Green Revolution purported to solve the world hunger problem to a major degree in Mexico, India and other select countries where Rockefeller worked. Rockefeller Foundation agronomist, Norman Borlaug, won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work, hardly something to boast about with the likes of Henry Kissinger sharing the same.

In reality, as it years later emerged, the Green Revolution was a brilliant Rockefeller family scheme to develop a globalized agribusiness which they then could monopolize just as they had done in the world oil industry beginning a half century before. As Henry Kissinger declared in the 1970’s, ‘If you control the oil you control the country; if you control food, you control the population.’

Agribusiness and the Rockefeller Green Revolution went hand-in-hand. They were part of a grand strategy which included Rockefeller Foundation financing of research for the development of genetic engineering of plants and animals a few years later.

John H. Davis had been Assistant Agriculture Secretary under President Dwight Eisenhower in the early 1950’s. He left Washington in 1955 and went to the Harvard Graduate School of Business, an unusual place for an agriculture expert in those days. He had a clear strategy. In 1956, Davis wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review in which he declared that “the only way to solve the so-called farm problem once and for all, and avoid cumbersome government programs, is to progress from agriculture to agribusiness.” He knew precisely what he had in mind, though few others had a clue back then--- a revolution in agriculture production that would concentrate control of the food chain in corporate multinational hands, away from the traditional family farmer.3

A crucial aspect driving the interest of the Rockefeller Foundation and US agribusiness companies was the fact that the Green Revolution was based on proliferation of new hybrid seeds in developing markets. One vital aspect of hybrid seeds was their lack of reproductive capacity. Hybrids had a built in protection against multiplication. Unlike normal open pollinated species whose seed gave yields similar to its parents, the yield of the seed borne by hybrid plants was significantly lower than that of the first generation.

That declining yield characteristic of hybrids meant farmers must normally buy seed every year in order to obtain high yields. Moreover, the lower yield of the second generation eliminated the trade in seed that was often done by seed producers without the breeder’s authorization. It prevented the redistribution of the commercial crop seed by middlemen. If the large multinational seed companies were able to control the parental seed lines in house, no competitor or farmer would be able to produce the hybrid. The global concentration of hybrid seed patents into a handful of giant seed companies, led by DuPont’s Pioneer Hi-Bred and Monsanto’s Dekalb laid the ground for the later GMO seed revolution.4

In effect, the introduction of modern American agricultural technology, chemical fertilizers and commercial hybrid seeds all made local farmers in developing countries, particularly the larger more established ones, dependent on foreign, mostly US agribusiness and petro-chemical company inputs. It was a first step in what was to be a decades-long, carefully planned process.

Under the Green Revolution Agribusiness was making major inroads into markets which were previously of limited access to US exporters. The trend was later dubbed “market-oriented agriculture.” In reality it was agribusiness-controlled agriculture.

Through the Green Revolution, the Rockefeller Foundation and later Ford Foundation worked hand-in-hand shaping and supporting the foreign policy goals of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and of the CIA.

One major effect of the Green Revolution was to depopulate the countryside of peasants who were forced to flee into shantytown slums around the cities in desperate search for work. That was no accident; it was part of the plan to create cheap labor pools for forthcoming US multinational manufactures, the ‘globalization’ of recent years.

When the self-promotion around the Green Revolution died down, the results were quite different from what had been promised. Problems had arisen from indiscriminate use of the new chemical pesticides, often with serious health consequences. The mono-culture cultivation of new hybrid seed varieties decreased soil fertility and yields over time. The first results were impressive: double or even triple yields for some crops such as wheat and later corn in Mexico. That soon faded.

The Green Revolution was typically accompanied by large irrigation projects which often included World Bank loans to construct huge new dams, and flood previously settled areas and fertile farmland in the process. Also, super-wheat produced greater yields by saturating the soil with huge amounts of fertilizer per acre, the fertilizer being the product of nitrates and petroleum, commodities controlled by the Rockefeller-dominated Seven Sisters major oil companies.

Huge quantities of herbicides and pesticides were also used, creating additional markets for the oil and chemical giants. As one analyst put it, in effect, the Green Revolution was merely a chemical revolution. At no point could developing nations pay for the huge amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They would get the credit courtesy of the World Bank and special loans by Chase Bank and other large New York banks, backed by US Government guarantees.

Applied in a large number of developing countries, those loans went mostly to the large landowners. For the smaller peasants the situation worked differently. Small peasant farmers could not afford the chemical and other modern inputs and had to borrow money.

Initially various government programs tried to provide some loans to farmers so that they could purchase seeds and fertilizers. Farmers who could not participate in this kind of program had to borrow from the private sector. Because of the exorbitant interest rates for informal loans, many small farmers did not even get the benefits of the initial higher yields. After harvest, they had to sell most if not all of their produce to pay off loans and interest. They became dependent on money-lenders and traders and often lost their land. Even with soft loans from government agencies, growing subsistence crops gave way to the production of cash crops.5

Since decades the same interests including the Rockefeller Foundation which backed the initial Green Revolution, have worked to promote a second ‘Gene Revolution’ as Rockefeller Foundation President Gordon Conway termed it several years ago, the spread of industrial agriculture and commercial inputs including GMO patented seeds.

Gates, Rockefeller and a Green Revolution in Africa

With the true background of the 1950’s Rockefeller Foundation Green Revolution clear in mind, it becomes especially curious that the same Rockefeller Foundation along with the Gates Foundation which are now investing millions of dollars in preserving every seed against a possible “doomsday” scenario are also investing millions in a project called The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

AGRA, as it calls itself, is an alliance again with the same Rockefeller Foundation which created the “Gene Revolution.” A look at the AGRA Board of Directors confirms this.

It includes none other than former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as chairman. In his acceptance speech in a World Economic Forum event in Cape Town South Africa in June 2007, Kofi Annan stated, ‘I accept this challenge with gratitude to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and all others who support our African campaign.’

In addition the AGRA board numbers a South African, Strive Masiyiwa who is a Trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation. It includes Sylvia M. Mathews of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Mamphela Ramphele, former Managing Director of the World Bank (2000 – 2006); Rajiv J. Shah of the Gates Foundation; Nadya K. Shmavonian of the Rockefeller Foundation; Roy Steiner of the Gates Foundation. In addition, an Alliance for AGRA includes Gary Toenniessen the Managing Director of the Rockefeller Foundation and Akinwumi Adesina, Associate Director, Rockefeller Foundation.

To fill out the lineup, the Programmes for AGRA includes Peter Matlon, Managing Director, Rockefeller Foundation; Joseph De Vries, Director of the Programme for Africa’s Seed Systems and Associate Director, Rockefeller foundation; Akinwumi Adesina, Associate Director, Rockefeller Foundation. Like the old failed Green Revolution in India and Mexico, the new Africa Green Revolution is clearly a high priority of the Rockefeller Foundation.

While to date they are keeping a low profile, Monsanto and the major GMO agribusiness giants are believed at the heart of using Kofi Annan’s AGRA to spread their patented GMO seeds across Africa under the deceptive label, ‘bio-technology,’ the new euphemism for genetically engineered patented seeds. To date South Africa is the only African country permitting legal planting of GMO crops. In 2003 Burkina Faso authorized GMO trials. In 2005 Kofi Annan’s Ghana drafted bio-safety legislation and key officials expressed their intentions to pursue research into GMO crops.

Africa is the next target in the US-government campaign to spread GMO worldwide. Its rich soils make it an ideal candidate. Not surprisingly many African governments suspect the worst from the GMO sponsors as a multitude of genetic engineering and biosafety projects have been initiated in Africa, with the aim of introducing GMOs into Africa’s agricultural systems. These include sponsorships offered by the US government to train African scientists in genetic engineering in the US, biosafety projects funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank; GMO research involving African indigenous food crops.

The Rockefeller Foundation has been working for years to promote, largely without success, projects to introduce GMOs into the fields of Africa. They have backed research that supports the applicability of GMO cotton in the Makhathini Flats in South Africa.

Monsanto, who has a strong foothold in South Africa’s seed industry, both GMO and hybrid, has conceived of an ingenious smallholders’ programme known as the ‘Seeds of Hope’ Campaign, which is introducing a green revolution package to small scale poor farmers, followed, of course, by Monsanto’s patented GMO seeds. 6

Syngenta AG of Switzerland, one of the ‘Four Horsemen of the GMO Apocalypse’ is pouring millions of dollars into a new greenhouse facility in Nairobi, to develop GMO insect resistant maize. Syngenta is a part of CGIAR as well.7

Move on to Svalbard

Now is it simply philosophical sloppiness? What leads the Gates and Rockefeller foundations to at one and the same time to back proliferation of patented and soon-to-be Terminator patented seeds across Africa, a process which, as it has in every other place on earth, destroys the plant seed varieties as monoculture industrialized agribusiness is introduced? At the same time they invest tens of millions of dollars to preserve every seed variety known in a bomb-proof doomsday vault near the remote Arctic Circle ‘so that crop diversity can be conserved for the future’ to restate their official release?

It is no accident that the Rockefeller and Gates foundations are teaming up to push a GMO-style Green Revolution in Africa at the same time they are quietly financing the ‘doomsday seed vault’ on Svalbard. The GMO agribusiness giants are up to their ears in the Svalbard project.

Indeed, the entire Svalbard enterprise and the people involved call up the worst catastrophe images of the Michael Crichton bestseller, Andromeda Strain, a sci-fi thriller where a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood threatening the entire human species. In Svalbard, the future world’s most secure seed repository will be guarded by the policemen of the GMO Green Revolution--the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations, Syngenta, DuPont and CGIAR.

The Svalbard project will be run by an organization called the Global Crop Diversity Trust (GCDT). Who are they to hold such an awesome trust over the planet’s entire seed varieties? The GCDT was founded by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and Bioversity International (formerly the International Plant Genetic Research Institute), an offshoot of the CGIAR.

The Global Crop Diversity Trust is based in Rome. Its Board is chaired by Margaret Catley-Carlson a Canadian also on the advisory board of Group Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, one of the world’s largest private water companies. Catley-Carlson was also president until 1998 of the New York-based Population Council, John D. Rockefeller’s population reduction organization, set up in 1952 to advance the Rockefeller family’s eugenics program under the cover of promoting “family planning,” birth control devices, sterilization and “population control” in developing countries.

Other GCDT board members include former Bank of America executive presently head of the Hollywood DreamWorks Animation, Lewis Coleman. Coleman is also the lead Board Director of Northrup Grumman Corporation, one of America’s largest military industry Pentagon contractors.

Jorio Dauster (Brazil) is also Board Chairman of Brasil Ecodiesel. He is a former Ambassador of Brazil to the European Union, and Chief Negotiator of Brazil’s foreign debt for the Ministry of Finance. Dauster has also served as President of the Brazilian Coffee Institute and as Coordinator of the Project for the Modernization of Brazil’s Patent System, which involves legalizing patents on seeds which are genetically modified, something until recently forbidden by Brazil’s laws.

Cary Fowler is the Trust’s Executive Director. Fowler was Professor and Director of Research in the Department for International Environment & Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. He was also a Senior Advisor to the Director General of Bioversity International. There he represented the Future Harvest Centres of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in negotiations on the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources. In the 1990s, he headed the International Program on Plant Genetic Resources at the FAO. He drafted and supervised negotiations of FAO’s Global Plan of Action for Plant Genetic Resources, adopted by 150 countries in 1996. He is a past-member of the National Plant Genetic Resources Board of the US and the Board of Trustees of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico, another Rockefeller Foundation and CGIAR project.

GCDT board member Dr. Mangala Rai of India is the Secretary of India’s Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), and Director General of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). He is also a Board Member of the Rockefeller Foundation’s International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), which promoted the world’s first major GMO experiment, the much-hyped ‘Golden Rice’ which proved a failure. Rai has served as Board Member for CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center), and a Member of the Executive Council of the CGIAR.

Global Crop Diversity Trust Donors or financial angels include as well, in the words of the Humphrey Bogart Casablanca classic, ‘all the usual suspects.’ As well as the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations, the Donors include GMO giants DuPont-Pioneer Hi-Bred, Syngenta of Basle Switzerland, CGIAR and the State Department’s energetically pro-GMO agency for development aid, USAID. Indeed it seems we have the GMO and population reduction foxes guarding the hen-house of mankind, the global seed diversity store in Svalbard. 8

Why now Svalbard?

We can legitimately ask why Bill Gates and the Rockefeller Foundation along with the major genetic engineering agribusiness giants such as DuPont and Syngenta, along with CGIAR are building the Doomsday Seed Vault in the Arctic.

Who uses such a seed bank in the first place? Plant breeders and researchers are the major users of gene banks. Today’s largest plant breeders are Monsanto, DuPont, Syngenta and Dow Chemical, the global plant-patenting GMO giants. Since early in 2007 Monsanto holds world patent rights together with the United States Government for plant so-called ‘Terminator’ or Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT). Terminator is an ominous technology by which a patented commercial seed commits ‘suicide’ after one harvest. Control by private seed companies is total. Such control and power over the food chain has never before in the history of mankind existed.

This clever genetically engineered terminator trait forces farmers to return every year to Monsanto or other GMO seed suppliers to get new seeds for rice, soybeans, corn, wheat whatever major crops they need to feed their population. If broadly introduced around the world, it could within perhaps a decade or so make the world’s majority of food producers new feudal serfs in bondage to three or four giant seed companies such as Monsanto or DuPont or Dow Chemical.

That, of course, could also open the door to have those private companies, perhaps under orders from their host government, Washington, deny seeds to one or another developing country whose politics happened to go against Washington’s. Those who say ‘It can’t happen here’ should look more closely at current global events. The mere existence of that concentration of power in three or four private US-based agribusiness giants is grounds for legally banning all GMO crops even were their harvest gains real, which they manifestly are not.

These private companies, Monsanto, DuPont, Dow Chemical hardly have an unsullied record in terms of stewardship of human life. They developed and proliferated such innovations as dioxin, PCBs, Agent Orange. They covered up for decades clear evidence of carcinogenic and other severe human health consequences of use of the toxic chemicals. They have buried serious scientific reports that the world’s most widespread herbicide, glyphosate, the essential ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide that is tied to purchase of most Monsanto genetically engineered seeds, is toxic when it seeps into drinking water.9 Denmark banned glyphosate in 2003 when it confirmed it has contaminated the country’s groundwater.10

The diversity stored in seed gene banks is the raw material for plant breeding and for a great deal of basic biological research. Several hundred thousand samples are distributed annually for such purposes. The UN’s FAO lists some 1400 seed banks around the world, the largest being held by the United States Government. Other large banks are held by China, Russia, Japan, India, South Korea, Germany and Canada in descending order of size. In addition, CGIAR operates a chain of seed banks in select centers around the world.

CGIAR, set up in 1972 by the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation to spread their Green Revolution agribusiness model, controls most of the private seed banks from the Philippines to Syria to Kenya. In all these present seed banks hold more than six and a half million seed varieties, almost two million of which are ‘distinct.’ Svalbard’s Doomsday Vault will have a capacity to house four and a half million different seeds.

GMO as a weapon of biowarfare?

Now we come to the heart of the danger and the potential for misuse inherent in the Svalbard project of Bill Gates and the Rockefeller foundation. Can the development of patented seeds for most of the world’s major sustenance crops such as rice, corn, wheat, and feed grains such as soybeans ultimately be used in a horrible form of biological warfare?

The explicit aim of the eugenics lobby funded by wealthy elite families such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, Harriman and others since the 1920’s, has embodied what they termed ‘negative eugenics,’ the systematic killing off of undesired bloodlines. Margaret Sanger, a rapid eugenicist, the founder of Planned Parenthood International and an intimate of the Rockefeller family, created something called The Negro Project in 1939, based in Harlem, which as she confided in a letter to a friend, was all about the fact that, as she put it, ‘we want to exterminate the Negro population.’ 11

A small California biotech company, Epicyte, in 2001 announced the development of genetically engineered corn which contained a spermicide which made the semen of men who ate it sterile. At the time Epicyte had a joint venture agreement to spread its technology with DuPont and Syngenta, two of the sponsors of the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault. Epicyte was since acquired by a North Carolina biotech company. Astonishing to learn was that Epicyte had developed its spermicidal GMO corn with research funds from the US Department of Agriculture, the same USDA which, despite worldwide opposition, continued to finance the development of Terminator technology, now held by Monsanto.

In the 1990’s the UN’s World Health Organization launched a campaign to vaccinate millions of women in Nicaragua, Mexico and the Philippines between the ages of 15 and 45, allegedly against Tentanus, a sickness arising from such things as stepping on a rusty nail. The vaccine was not given to men or boys, despite the fact they are presumably equally liable to step on rusty nails as women.

Because of that curious anomaly, Comite Pro Vida de Mexico, a Roman Catholic lay organization became suspicious and had vaccine samples tested. The tests revealed that the Tetanus vaccine being spread by the WHO only to women of child-bearing age contained human Chorionic Gonadotrophin or hCG, a natural hormone which when combined with a tetanus toxoid carrier stimulated antibodies rendering a woman incapable of maintaining a pregnancy. None of the women vaccinated were told.

It later came out that the Rockefeller Foundation along with the Rockefeller’s Population Council, the World Bank (home to CGIAR), and the United States’ National Institutes of Health had been involved in a 20-year-long project begun in 1972 to develop the concealed abortion vaccine with a tetanus carrier for WHO. In addition, the Government of Norway, the host to the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Vault, donated $41 million to develop the special abortive Tetanus vaccine. 12

Is it a coincidence that these same organizations, from Norway to the Rockefeller Foundation to the World Bank are also involved in the Svalbard seed bank project? According to Prof. Francis Boyle who drafted the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989 enacted by the US Congress, the Pentagon is ‘now gearing up to fight and win biological warfare’ as part of two Bush national strategy directives adopted, he notes, ‘without public knowledge and review’ in 2002. Boyle adds that in 2001-2004 alone the US Federal Government spent $14.5 billion for civilian bio-warfare-related work, a staggering sum.

Rutgers University biologist Richard Ebright estimates that over 300 scientific institutions and some 12,000 individuals in the USA today have access to pathogens suitable for biowarfare. Alone there are 497 US Government NIH grants for research into infectious diseases with biowarfare potential. Of course this is being justified under the rubric of defending against possible terror attack as so much is today.

Many of the US Government dollars spent on biowarfare research involve genetic engineering. MIT biology professor Jonathan King says that the ‘growing bio-terror programs represent a significant emerging danger to our own population.’ King adds, ‘while such programs are always called defensive, with biological weapons, defensive and offensive programs overlap almost completely.’ 13

Time will tell whether, God Forbid, the Svalbard Doomsday Seed Bank of Bill Gates and the Rockefeller Foundation is part of another Final Solution, this involving the extinction of the Late, Great Planet Earth.

¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤ ¤

F. William Engdahl is the author of Seeds of Destruction, the Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation just released by Global Research. He also the author of A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, Pluto Press Ltd.. To contact by e-mail: info@engdahl.oilgeopolitics.net.

Source: The People's Voice

PPPINT: "The Financial/Economic 911 of 2008 was pre-planned", Pravda

2008-10-10T15:36:00.001-07:00

There is one little item that is particularly high on the current agenda. And that concerns the derivatives market, which in its totality approximates somewhere between 750 trillion and 1 quadrillion dollars of instruments as of 2008. In fact, the sub prime mortgage defaults are just a tip of the tip of the iceberg when compared to the real megilla – DERIVATIVES. This is what they’re really worried about, and having to cover for. Except this is a quadrillion dollar megilla that can’t be covered without unraveling the entire capitalistic system, and its fascist corpocracy and kleptocratic oligarchy... And then there is the teenie-weenie matter concerning the Federal Reserve, and its collection agency – the IRS.
~ PPPINT: Pravda: "The Financial/Economic 911 of 2008 was pre-planned", Pravda.ru ~
Karl Marx had it wrong. Class has, to be sure, been a major factor in history; but class itself is a derivative concept that is based on the ultimate causative power in history: sex. Marx’s famous formulation must be revised: The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of struggles based on the division of our species into two sexes, jealousies emanating from this division, exaggerations of the differences between the sexes, misunderstandings about sexual reproductive power, and metaphors derived from sex. Together, these closely related matters constitute the most important, but largely neglected, set of motive forces in human history. Control -- or the claim of control -- over the means of reproduction has been even more fundamental to history than has control of the means of production.
~ SeedArmigideon:: "The fact is one cannot begin to search for a solution to a 'Hell Hath No Fury....' problem that has yet to be accurately defined.." ~
"It is important to understand the distinction between information and intelligence. Information is an assimilation of data that has been gathered, but not fully correlated, analyzed, or interpreted. Intelligence, on the other hand, is the transformation of information into knowledge and insight." -- Admiral Jeremy Boorda, Joint Military Intelligence College
~ Santa Clausiwitz NSA PsyOps :: How Will World War IV (We Need to 'Cull' the Surplus Population) be fought? :: Slamdunk Tzu CIA PsyOps ~

The pre-planned Financial/Economic 911 of 2008,

T. Anthony Michael, Pravda.ru

WHAT: A pre-planned collapse of the US (and global) financial and economic systems.

WHO: The same characters who perpetrated the original 911.

WHERE: New York City & DC, of course. Plus a sideshow in Washington state.

WHEN: The days surrounding September 11, naturally.

HOW: Instead of painted drones, missiles with wings & big fins, and fake airplanes, they used the much more stealthy short seller.

WHY: To remake the economic/financial order of the world into a “PPP”.

WHY Really: Think about it ! And then ask yourself, “Cui bono?”

The 911 blueprint worked so magically for the world controllers that they were compelled to use virtually the same playbook. “If it ain’t broke, why fix it?

So, what’s the real deal here?

By analogy, let’s take a quick look at the 911 timeline and stack it up against the new 2008 Financial “911”, as it began to unfold earlier this year.

1. The Bear Stearns collapse that began in March 2008 is analogous to the 1st World Trade Center bombing in 1993. Just a warm up. This was preceded by a little failure back in January featuring Countrywide – the largest US mortgage lender.

2. The nationalization of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac marks the beginning of the new 911. Both in the DC area, they were the first to come down this time. Just as they struck at the heart of the military complex, this time they went for the jugular of the national real estate market. Remember – this is a financial 911.

3. Next came this year’s version of the twin towers, building 7 and other assorted NYC landmarks in the form of Lehman Brothers, AIG, Merrill Lynch, as well as Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs in their “new & improved” form. Basically took out the whole of American investment brokerage, heh?!

4. And, of course, we still have Washington Mutual out there in the boonies just like the one that “crashed” in a PA farm field. Update: WashMu is now history! As is another “little” bank by the name of Wachovia.

5. Their MO! What else, but controlled demolition? Throughout 2008, and especially this month of September, we have seen some of the world’s largest banks, brokerage houses, mortgage lenders, insurance companies and investment brokers go bust, as each of them fell perfectly into their own footprint faster than you can say: CONTROLLED DEMOLITION!!!

6. The 700 billion dollar Bailout Plan is just like the Patriot Act, isn’t it? Only this time it’s maybe a 1 or 2 page document (in its original form) that conferred absolute authority on the Executive Branch to do just about anything they want with the taxpayer’s money. And they want it rubber stamped now. Not tomorrow. NOW!!! Without discussion, or unnecessary congressional debate. Talk about Shock & Awe being used against the American people, and their elected representatives!?! “The Greatest Depression” never sounded more like “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, eh?!?!

7. Now we know we can expect further gyrations, panics and precipitous declines in the market and elsewhere, just as we had anthrax attacks in the Capital, beltway snipers in Maryland in October of ’02, the 3/11/04 train bombings in Madrid, and the 7/7/05 bombings in London. Not to mention the 50+ other synthetic terror events staged throughout the world to enforce compliance and create distraction.

8. The sudden and dramatic downfall of NY Gov Eliot Spitzer can also now be seen in its proper light. Having left the reservation one too many times, he simply could not be trusted to go with the flow. He had their numbers, their signatures (especially their MO’s), their addresses --- the whole ball of wax, as well as his own reputation to burnish. Eliot, to seal his fate, wrote a masterful expose on the subprime mortgage fiasco/fraud that was published in the WashPo just weeks before his public humiliation. He had recently testified before Congress in great revelatory fashion as well. The elimination of John O’Neil, Head of Security at the WTC complex, is quite similar, except that John O. – a great patriot – died on 911, having just been given the job.

9. To date, the most obvious and glaring example of this manipulated takedown is the case of a NY Senator. His letter to the FDIC contained confidential information that triggered the IndyMac bank collapse in July. California AG Jerry Brown was called to review the entire affair after the OTS Director explicitly blamed the letter for causing a run on the bank (3rd largest bank failure in US history). This episode is eerily reminiscent of Larry Silverstein’s order to, “Pull it.” just prior to the expertly controlled demolition of Building # 7on 911.

10. Just as 911 was perpetrated as a cover for: inaugurating the War on Terror, overtly advancing the NWO regime globally (in contrast to this previously covert operation), imposing a police state (Homeland Security) in the US (by gutting the US Constitution), UK and elsewhere, dominating and securing oil/gas reserves in the Middle East and Cacaucus (to include running energy pipelines through Afghanistan and stealing Iraq’s oil wealth via military invasion), jump starting the Afghan opium trade, etc., the ECO/FIN 911 of ’08 is a cover for many of these same agenda items. However, there is one little item that is particularly high on the current agenda. And that concerns the derivatives market, which in its totality approximates somewhere between 750 trillion and 1 quadrillion dollars of instruments as of 2008. In fact, the sub prime mortgage defaults are just a tip of the tip of the iceberg when compared to the real megilla – DERIVATIVES. This is what they’re really worried about, and having to cover for. Except this is a quadrillion dollar megilla that can’t be covered without unraveling the entire capitalistic system, and its fascist corpocracy and kleptocratic oligarchy.

11. And then there is the teenie-weenie matter concerning the Federal Reserve, and its collection agency – the IRS. The man standing behind this curtain has a lot at stake, especially in the form of mountains of evidence that will indict, and convict, the entire system. Lots of evidence was destroyed during and after 911, as will happen after many of these Wall Street firms are taken over, nationalized, liquidated, merged and disappeared. The veil, however, has already been lifted.

Does anyone see a pattern here?!

The real lesson to be gleaned from this analysis is that events of such enormity and consequence are rarely spontaneous and unchoreographed. Especially when they happen just weeks from an era defining presidential election. They have obviously been planning this one for a long time, and it has been fastidiously engineered to have a very definite effect and desired outcome – a permanent planetary plantation (PPP).

The execution, thus far, has been flawless. Even for those of us who stood there on the 1st 911, and knew it was a fraud while the buildings were coming down, this one is exceedingly more difficult to penetrate. However, penetrate we will, until every last conspirator is sitting before the TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION spillin’ the beans. The ultimate and lasting effect of these inquiries will be a New World Order of our making, not theirs. The only remaining, $64,000 question will undoubtedly be, “What do we do with them after we head them off at the pass?”

For the uninitiated, it may take quite a lot to wrap your mind around this extremely complex and convoluted plot, but, please, just be patient. As this drama plays out, the true intentions of the primary perpetrators will become manifest as they unwittingly reveal themselves by their handiwork. As Eliot Spitzer, no - Eliot Ness, nee – Sherlock Holmes once alluded to – a fingerprint inadvertently left as evidence is impossible to erase.

You see, the short sellers, unlike the “airplanes”, are still with us. Each one had a target to take down which they did with amazing speed and dexterity. And the myriad transactions that converged to topple their prey are all preserved somewhere, in some huge database, with multiple backups to serve as confirmation of trades of staggering amounts. AHHH! Nothing like computers, especially when they’re not confiscated and shipped off to China for permanent disposal.

May all financial wizards and economic soothsayers, henceforth, be inspired to stare into their crystal ball and divine the upcoming financial and economic events of global proportions with the keenest of acumen and sleuthing. As we shine the LIGHT of our collective awareness on these rapidly unfolding schemes, we will serve as beacons of revelation, and hope to the world.

Remember – we now know the script. We know the major players involved. We know their MO: Controlled Demolition. We are able to watch the crimes being committed in real time. Each of us has now been thusly notified, and empowered, to serve as a vector of dissemination of this critical information. So -----> LET’S GET BUSY ! ! !

T. Anthony Michael 9/22/08

TAnthonyMichael@gmail.com

Permission is expressly granted to copy, email, scan, attach, forward or post this article.

Source: Pravda.ru

"The only thing greater than the power of the mind, is the courage of the heart."

by JekyllMind MoonDuck Magic Island

Thus it was that the monetary system of the United States and every other country in the world was entirely an exercise in psychology, a thing of the mind, and as a result, so was every other aspect of the American economy. If money was simply a matter of communal faith, then so was everything else....
Holders of that faith included the governors of the Fed, because they truly understood it all -- or thought that they did. Individually they might joke that nobody really understood how it all worked, any more than any of them could explain the nature of God, but like theologians constantly trying to determine and communicate the nature of a deity, it was their job to keep things moving, to make the belief-structure real and tangible, never quite acknowledging that it all rested on nothing .... They were trusted, in the distant way that people trusted their clergy, to maintain the structure on which worldly faith always depended, proclaiming the reality of something that could not be seen, an edifice whose physical manifestations were found only in buildings of stone and the sober looks of those who worked there.
And, they told themselves, it all worked. Didn't it?
~ Cookstown Frankie McGuire :: “All the same, Mr. Fitzsimmons, if you're not confused, you don't know what's goin' on.” :: Col. Tom O'Meara, USAF ~

What is the Mandrake Mechanism?: It's the most important financial lesson of your life!!

The Creature from Jekyll Island (Excerpt)

THE MANDRAKE MECHANISM . . . What is it?

It is the method by which the Federal Reserve creates money out of nothing; the concept of usury as the payment of interest on pretended loans; the true cause of the hidden tax called inflation; the way in which the Fed creates boom-bust cycles.

In the 1940s, there was a comic strip character called Mandrake the Magician. His specialty was creating things out of nothing and, when appropriate, to make them disappear back into that same void. It is fitting, therefore, that the process to be described in this section should be named in his honor.

In the previous chapters, we examined the technique developed by the political and monetary scientists to create money out of nothing for the purpose of lending. This is not an entirely accurate description because it implies that money is created first and then waits for someone to borrow it.

On the other hand, textbooks on banking often state that money is created out of debt. This also is misleading because it implies that debt exists first and then is converted into money. In truth, money is not created until the instant it is borrowed. It is the act of borrowing which causes it to spring into existence. And, incidentally, it is the act of paying off the debt that causes it to vanish. There is no short phrase that perfectly describes that process. So, until one is invented along the way, we shall continue using the phrase "create money out of nothing" and occasionally add "for the purpose of lending" where necessary to further clarify the meaning.

So, let us now . . . see just how far this money/debt-creation process has been carried -- and how it works.

The first fact that needs to be considered is that our money today has no gold or silver behind it whatsoever. The fraction is not 54% nor 15%. It is 0%. It has traveled the path of all previous fractional money in history and already has degenerated into pure fiat money. The fact that most of it is in the form of checkbook balances rather than paper currency is a mere technicality; and the fact that bankers speak about "reserve ratios" is eyewash. The so-called reserves to which they refer are, in fact, Treasury bonds and other certificates of debt.

Our money is "pure fiat" through and through.

The second fact that needs to be clearly understood is that, in spite of the technical jargon and seemingly complicated procedures, the actual mechanism by which the Federal Reserve creates money is quite simple. They do it exactly the same way the goldsmiths of old did except, of course, the goldsmiths were limited by the need to hold some precious metals in reserve, whereas the Fed has no such restriction.

The Federal Reserve is candid. The Federal Reserve itself is amazingly frank about this process.

A booklet published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York tells us:

"Currency cannot be redeemed, or exchanged, for Treasury gold or any other asset used as backing. The question of just what assets 'back' Federal Reserve notes has little but bookkeeping significance."

Elsewhere in the same publication we are told: "Banks are creating money based on a borrower's promise to pay (the IOU) . . . Banks create money by 'monetizing' the private debts of businesses and individuals."

In a booklet entitled Modern Money Mechanics, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago says:

In the United States neither paper currency nor deposits have value as commodities. Intrinsically, a dollar bill is just a piece of paper. Deposits are merely book entries. Coins do have some intrinsic value as metal, but generally far less than their face amount.

What, then, makes these instruments -- checks, paper money, and coins -- acceptable at face value in payment of all debts and for other monetary uses? Mainly, it is the confidence people have that they will be able to exchange such money for other financial assets and real goods and services whenever they choose to do so. This partly is a matter of law; currency has been designated "legal tender" by the government -- that is, it must be accepted.

Excerpt: The Creature from Jekyll Island [Related: Rep. L. McFadden's Formal Charges & Petition: Fed. Reserve Board of Gov's; Comptroller of Currency & Sec. of US Treasury: Conspiracy, Fraud & Treason ::: The Secrets of the Federal Reserve: The London Connection, by Eustice Mullins ::: The US Federal Reserve Bank: Dirty Secrets of the Temple, by William Greider ::: The Money Masters: How International Bankers Gained Control of the Federal Reserve ::: StrategicGeoFinance: The Federal Reserve Great -- Armigideon Titanic - Train Robbery: What the Bailout Plan Means.. ::: SIGINT: Romeo Russian Roullette Geo-Finance-Chernobyl-Poker Intelligence Conspiracy...]

A Letter to the White Race!: White Man! | Africa, Don't Blame the Whites

2008-09-29T23:21:00.001-07:00

We regret to inform you that your kind has been slated for termination. We, the various Third World majorities of Africa, Asia, India, South America, and the Middle East assert that your long history of success at building civilizations, developing new technologies, creating stable governments, fostering good will, feeding much of the world, and increasing peace and prosperity even amongst the riotous hordes of our own homelands, has made us envious and resentful of you. We, who make up 92% of the global population, feel that we can no longer accept the great disparity between your success and our abject failure. The solution to this inequality should be obvious to all concerned.
~ A Letter to the White Race!: White Man! ~
"I sell guns to every army but the Salvation Army. There are over 550 million firearms in worldwide circulation. That's one firearm for every twelve people on the planet. The only question is: How do we arm the other 11?" -- Buck v Bell Whitey
Every faction in Africa calls themselves by these noble names Liberation-this, Patriotic-that, Democratic Republic of something-or-other. I guess they can't own up to what they usually are -- Federation of Worse Oppressors Than the Last Bunch of Oppressors. Often, the most barbaric atrocities occur when both combatants proclaim themselves freedom fighters. -- Thomas James Clarkson
~ E Pluribus Unum, Beyond Political Correctness & Angry Kafirs: "I am the BlackFoot RedRussian & I Hate Kaffirs!" ~
In Games, a racist is talked down to, laughed at, and maybe yelled at from time to time. We find it silly, some asshole comes here of any colour, never done anything except steal off his own mother, pimp off his wife, sell dope to poor people – this clown gets up and says, “I don’t like Armenians, they’re oily, smell weird, and got the brain-pans of salamanders.” This is comical, but not in a threatened environment where the integration is not genuine, and where such nonsense is greeted with horror. But in Delancey Street, we greet this kind of garbage with great gales of laughter. How can some black dope peddler come in here selling heroin to black children to keep them enslaved for the benefit of the landlords and the police structure, actually get up and rail at the white oppressor?
HE IS THE FUCKING OPPRESSOR!
~ John Maher: A Game of Chernobyl Poker is like an orgasm -- just words until you've had the experience : Delancey Street ~

A Letter to the White Race!: White Man!

September 2, 2008

WHITE MAN!

We regret to inform you that your kind has been slated for termination. We, the various Third World majorities of Africa, Asia, India, South America, and the Middle East assert that your long history of success at building civilizations, developing new technologies, creating stable governments, fostering good will, feeding much of the world, and increasing peace and prosperity even amongst the riotous hordes of our own homelands, has made us envious and resentful of you. We, who make up 92% of the global population, feel that we can no longer accept the great disparity between your success and our abject failure. The solution to this inequality should be obvious to all concerned.

We are planning to invade your ancestral homelands, little by little, and to facilitate this, we have the full cooperation of your controlled media and government, academia, and law enforcement organizations. While we, personally, do not control any of these entities ourselves, we are profiting endlessly from the crypto-Marxist system put in place many decades ago by an ethnic “fifth column” which operates with complete impunity at all levels of your political, academic, and media culture. Their interference in the natural development of your constitutional republics has been indispensable to our efforts to wrest from you the control of everything that you’ve struggled to build and maintain over the last century. Indeed, were it not for them, none of our present plans would have even been possible.

By carefully controlling and managing the schools, universities, media, and press, this “out group” has managed to convince the great bulk of your racial kinsmen that not only is resistance futile, but that it is immoral, barbaric, depraved, and unworthy of a “thinking” individual. By promoting the stereotype of a “racist redneck resistance”, they have made the idea of a struggle for White Identity a veritable sin in the minds of nearly every White person. In short: they have convinced European-derived peoples that a prolonged suicide is preferable to the unmitigated evil of “racism”.

While doing this, they have pushed, inch by inch, to open the borders of ALL White nations to our own sullen masses, throwing open the gates to invasion while assuring the public that “race doesn’t matter”. Since race, in fact, DOES matter (and no one knows it better than We), they have likewise put into place a totalitarian system of “hate speech” and “hate crime” laws, to further alienate and penalize those few Whites who might harbor some simmering resentments at the increasing decay of their society and culture. All of this is in keeping with the far-reaching plans of this particular ethnic “out group”, and has been sometimes referred to as the “Long March”.

The Out Group, who maintains a sense of racial cohesiveness hitherto unknown among even the most tightly-knit of all dispersed human peoples, maintains a grip on the press and electronic media that is nearly monopolistic in its all-encompassing reach. Since they are so thoroughly in control of these organs for the dissemination of propaganda, they are in the best position to spread hostility against the White peoples of Europe and America, inciting the minority against the majority in these lands: Black against White, Latino against White, Asian against White, Arab against White, Indian against White, and so on, and so forth.

This is facilitated by decades of brainwashing, beginning in early school years, portraying Whites not as the builders of a great civilization, or the admirable leaders of the Free World, but in a lopsided, entirely slanted way as oppressors, enslavers, genocidal “Nazis”, southern Klansmen, imperialistic Colonials, and toothless hillbillies just itching for a chance to lynch the first colored individual that comes along. This brainwashing not only inflames the minorities in these now racially-mixed “schools”, but also inculcates a sense of “White guilt” that the Out Group finds particularly useful in maintaining control.

Hence, you Whites have become a neutered, egoless herd of cattle, easily manipulated and posing no threat to the Out Group, who live in perpetual terror of your ever waking up to their plans. The Out Group has a long-running resentment and fear of White civilization, and thus have worked within that civilization to undermine its cohesion and sense of purpose. The promotion of homosexuality, pornography, drugs, divorce, illicit sex, moral relativism, atheism, communism, gun control, “anti-racism”, and “civil rights”, has been the greatest boon to this subversive faction, who are but a tiny minority among you, but who wield awesome, incomparable power.

Thus, in light of the fact that you are socially, morally, mentally, intellectually, and even legally castrated, We, the teeming masses of the Third World who thirst for what you have and what we can never obtain, are going to finally swamp your once noble and advanced societies, your pristine cities and unsullied neighborhoods, and rape your countries for everything they are worth.

We are going to move in, right under your noses, and set our churches, mosques, synagogues, and strange gods up in place of your own. We will ensure that OUR celebrations and festivities and holidays are observed, while YOURS are erased from the pages of history.

We will drain the public coffers of welfare, food stamps, and all forms of social aid available. We will swamp your children’s schools, change the language in which lessons are taught, form street gangs to terrorize and torment your family, steal, vandalize, harass, threaten, and cajole you until we get what WE want.

That it will be entirely at your expense is irrelevant to us.

We will beat and murder your sons; we will rape your wives and daughters.

We kill twelve Americans every day; your government could care less.

We have shut down hospitals with our teeming numbers. We have flooded the streets, demanding “special rights” for those millions of us that are here illegally.

We nearly had your major politicians ready to grant all of us an “amnesty” in the name of “diversity” and “equal rights”. We are filling up the ranks for unskilled labor. We are raping pre-teens. We are doing the jobs Americans won’t do.

As your global economy crumbles, and it gets harder and harder to feed your families, as your birthrate plummets and you face the eventual dispossession of the country your forefathers founded for YOU and YOUR posterity, just remember: there is nothing you can do to stop us. The Out Group has made sure that the law is on OUR side, not yours. No matter how piffling your criticism of us is, the Out Group will use their media to label you with shocking epithets and broad smears: racist, hater, bigot, neo-Nazi, nativist, White supremacist, domestic terrorist, etc.

If we want to, we can assault and kill you with near impunity. The media will not report it, and if they do, they will place the blame for the assault squarely on YOUR shoulders, not ours. In Jena, Louisiana, a White boy was beaten mercilessly by six black criminals. The media made the criminals into the victims.

We watch these developments carefully, and we like what we see. Soon, you will be a minority even in your own homelands (you are already a minority worldwide), and we will continue to squeeze and squeeze until there is nothing left of you. We will crush your countries, your cultures, and eventually, we will snuffle out your lives.

Beethoven, Mozart, Shakespeare, and all other bourgeois manifestations of your high culture will be vanquished forever. All of your legends and heroes will be spat upon, purged, and finally forgotten. Your cultural folkways will be transgressions; your identity will become a crime.

We come for your JOBS, your MONEY, your WOMEN, and eventually your LIVES. It will not be much longer now.

In closing, We, the huddled masses of the Third World yearning to “breathe free”, would like to thank the Out Group, the media monopolists and political plunderers who made all of this possible. We wish them well, and we know they wish us well, just as long as we don’t trespass upon their own homeland, which they stole fair and square several decades ago.

Adios, White man! You had a good, long run, but your day is over, and ours is just beginning. Your empire is at an end, and your race is no longer wanted here. We’ll have our fun with you while you still hang on by a thread, but soon, the thread will be cut, and the abyss yawns beneath you and the civilization your kind spawned.

Besides, many of you are even anticipating this with something akin to sick glee. After all, that’s how the TV set told them to feel. The brainwashing is almost complete, and the sheep are in line to shear.

Have a nice day!

Source: All White Nation

Africa, Don't Blame the Whites

Mfonobong Nsehe | American Chronicle

August 25, 2008

Recently, as part of an academic assignment at school, I was engaged in an intellectual debate with a few colleagues. We were seeking answers to the roots of Africa´s problems. It was an interesting discussion for me. Shockingly, the majority of my colleagues subscribed to the idea that the major cause of Africa´s social-political and economic problems was the legacy left behind by the colonial masters. As far as they were concerned, the colonialists ruined Africa for good. For the records, they had some strong arguments to support their claims. I do not intend to go into that.

Africa is known as the problem continent. And indeed, the problems are legion- Poverty, diseases, famine, poor leadership, religious conflicts, ethnic clashes and corruption are a few of them. With each passing day, the problems increase. For long, the economic and social underdevelopment of the African nation has been blamed on white colonialists who exploited the land and left Africa bare. Up till now, the blame game continues.

Africans are usually quick to blame most of its problems on the evils of colonialism. We sometimes blame the violence on the borders colonialists created that ignored ethnicity. Many African nations have been independent for four decades. If colonial borders were a major problem, how come they haven't changed them?

Colonialism cannot explain Third World poverty. Some of today's richest countries are former colonies, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. Some of today's poorest countries were never colonies, such as Ethiopia, Liberia, Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan. The colonialism argument is simply a cover-up for African dictators and people.

For as long as African keep bickering about the past without focusing on the future, the African people will continue to suffer. Pointing fingers at the colonial masters won't change the fact that the majority of people in Africa are living and dying in horrible conditions. The Europeans colonized Africa about 400 years ago. Right now, Africans are in trouble because they cannot manage their own problems. Instead of brainstorming and finding solutions to its numerous social and economic problems, the people hold out a begging bowl to the west in one hand, while punishing the remaining white people in the land with the other. (Does Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe and the Zimbabweans come to mind?)

We are responsible for our problems, but we prefer to blame others than to take a good look in the mirror. Fine, the colonialists were a bunch of bunch of greedy no-gooders, but if truths must be told, the self-interest of early colonialists pales in comparison to the personal greed of African leaders today. Those who blame Africa's problems on colonialism must not forget that the experience was not unique to Africa. Generally, the Asian countries that also experienced colonialism are doing fairly well. So what has Africa, or to be more precise, its leaders, been doing for the past 40 years?

What Africa needs is a lot of self-criticism. The fact that Africa breeds and worships figures like Mugabe, because of their own anti-white racism is disheartening. It's incredible that any white sends aid to Africa when Africans are anti-white racists.

You can't solve Africa's problems until the lies are all stripped away and you start comparing yourself to say Taiwan. Taiwan is not white, yet they have made amazing progress. They made this progress by managing their economy properly, and by working hard.

We need to strip away the black ideology that says that whites didn't do anything other than enslave blacks and are rich because of the exploitation of blacks. Taiwan didn't get rich because of that. So why do Africans think that that's how whites got rich?

And blacks enslaved blacks too; it's part of human history everywhere. So why isn't Africa rich due to the enslavement of themselves?

Were Africans better off under colonial administration than the despots who replaced them? Most African countries have had their independence for over three decades, yet, the report card our leaders have shown us are wars, famine and gross corruption. While it may be argued that Britain and other European countries did us more harm than good in colonizing us, it is high time we faced reality and realized that we are the architects of our own destiny. We need to choose what is good and bad, what future we want, and whether colonialism took us closer to what we want.

It's time we as Africans took responsibility for our troubles and stopped trying to guilt-trip the West into accepting responsibility for our problems. Since time immemorial, there have been empires- even African. These empires have always left great damage in their wake, but such damage is rectified through rebuilding and hard work, but not by laying blames and casting aspersions. As long as we look back in history to blame our troubles on the colonial masters, Africa will continually be the backward continent the whole world believes we are. To turn around the fortunes of Africa, it will take work and vision. And so Africa, enough with the blame games. Let´s shut up, re-examine ourselves, go back to the drawing board, rectify our mistakes and move on with our lives.

Mfonobong Nsehe is the founder of Echo Africa- a start-up Think Tank which tackles African development issues. E-mail: mfon.nsehe@gmail.com

Source: American Chronicle