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  • From: Michael Meredith <meredith848 AT yahoo.com>
  • To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] soil
  • Date: Wed, 3 Jun 2009 05:19:15 -0700 (PDT)






----- Original Message ----
From: Michael Meredith <meredith848 AT yahoo.com>
To: michael meredith <meredith848 AT yahoo.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2009 7:56:57 AM
Subject: soil


ON CREATING ECOSYSTEMS, and ELIMINATING HUNGER

By Michael Meredith


There is a lot that can be said about eliminating hunger, but the basics,
of course, are food production. The present chemically driven agro-business
model is unsustainable, and causes disease. Fortunately, many simple methods
are available for increasing food production.
The root of agriculture, pardon the pun, is the roots. The roots of the
plants need nutrition, and lots of valuable animal and vegetable materials
are materials thrown away.
Composting, mulching (also known as sheet composting), and bio-gas (which
is a form of anaerobic composting), as well as fermentation (which produces
alchohol as a by-product), are all very good methods of recycling unused
organic materials to the soil. Often these products can be cycled through
animals, and this can become a regular merry-go- round of recycling.
A properly built pit latrine, or a composting toilet, can eliminate
disease, and fertilize crops, as very few pathogens will survive the high
temperatures of the composting, or being buried deep in the ground. It is
also worth noting that many people believe that the squatting position
reduces digestive and reproductive tract diseases. They point to many facts,
such as the virtual absence of such diseases prior to the introduction of the
porcelain throne, and the fact that African-American males have the highest
rate of prostate cancer in the word, meanwhile, in Africa, it is virtually
non-existant.
Many crops can be grown to increase the fertility of the soil. When the
Americans and Canadians arrived in the Great Plains in the mid 1800’s, they
found deep, rich topsoil going down six feet (they must have danced some jigs
over that one). Many people have advocated certain plants as a way to
increase fertility. These are often also crop plants with multiple uses.
The Indians in the Amazon basin built up soil by incorporating urine soaked
charcoal into it. The tierra prieta, as it is called, has not washed away as
most tropical soils do. This is a good way to recycle urine, and trace
minerals can also be added to the blend. Drinking urine has a long history in
medicine, it is claimed to cure many diseases, and is quite safe to drink, so
don’t worry about putting it in your garden.
Growing perennial vegetables, bushes, and trees, can reduce labor and other
inputs. Most intriguingly, establishing forest gardens can also provide nice
places to live, with ornamental, food producing plants and trees all around,
creating oxygen, flowers, and all the other things that human persons need
and enjoy. It seems that we now have 30% less oxygen in the air than 200
years ago, leading to many diseases. That is one reason why deep breathing
can cure disease, and house plants are considered to be beneficial.
Simple hole/hill farming methods will reduce labor and fertilizer inputs,
as only a tiny fraction of the land area needs to be tilled and watered. The
melons and squashes, which are most often grown this way, are some of the
most nutritious crops available. They can sprawl ten meters or more, covering
rocks, bushes, and even houses! The spacing of the holes means that bushes
and trees can also be planted in the holes, and do their growing meanwhile
many years of squashes are harvested. Moving latrines around is way to dig
the garden, and dispose of waste at the same time. The shape of the hole is
important, as a water collection area should be left at the surface to retain
water. In cross section, we have a funnel, diverting nutrients and water to
the plants roots, and holding moisture in the organic sponge. This is a
miniature version of the swales, which are often constructed to hold back
surface water, and divert it into the ground. Some of these
methods will turn a desert area into an oasis.
Foliar sprays are often used to control insects and disease, as well as to
fertilize crops. Fogging can be an effective way to water plants, so spraying
then becomes a multi-functional system. Some people claim great results by
playing music while they spray (study the sonic bloom method, and read “The
Secret Lives of Plants”).
There has been considerable research done with salt tolerant plants, which
can be grown in saline marsh areas. With more research, seawater could be
pumped into the Sahara desert, and enormous new farms would be created.
Although I have surely missed your favorite topic in this short summary, I
feel that I would be remiss in not saying a few things about ocean
agriculture before winding up (or down, as the case may be).
The best plan that I have ever seen, which gets past the pollution, and
poor nutrition of conventional fish farming, is a combination unit.
The deep ocean waters are nutrient laden. This creates many fine many
fishing areas in the world, such as off the coast of Chile. The deep waters
hit a steep continental shelf, and up-well, feeding ocean plankton, which
feeds the old food chain. By pumping water from the depths, and into a coral
lagoon, which has been surrounded by nets to keep out predators, a lively
fish farm can be created.
The dual- purpose part comes in when the difference in temperature of the
deep and surface waters is used to spin turbines, and to create solid fuels
from the energy. These OTEC plants have been thoroughly researched, but
never, as far as I know, in the dual purpose, and therefore more economic,
form presented here.
Of course there is also wave energy, solar energy, orgone energy, and
others out the kazoo, but this is an introduction to agricultural research,
so you’re going to have to study all that other neat stuff by yourself.




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