Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>]

Yes, it can be done, as Rodale's book on composting outlined several  years 
ago. But there is a tradeoff. Taking the gases for energy leaves the manure 
without the nitrogen to add to the soil, and without the nitrogen it's hard 
to compost. Rodale recommended composting manure to preserve its nutrients, 
then adding it to the soil, rather than just spreading it on the fields to 
lose much of its nutrients to the air.

"... compost manure and bedding with plenty of coarse, vegetable material - 
weeds, plant debris, and so on. Adding rock phosphate stabilizes nitrogen and 
prevents its volitalization as ammonia, as well as boosting the phosphorus 
content of your compost."  p.125 The Rodale Book of Composting, 1992.

paul, tradingpost@riseup.net
---------------
The outstanding scientific discovery of the twentieth century is not 
television, or radio, but rather the complexity of the land organism. Only 
those who know the most about it can appreciate how little we know about it.
   - Aldo Leopold in  Round River, 1933
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 4/27/2006 at 9:46 PM Kathy Moore wrote:

>Animal maures can also be utilized to produce alternative energy or
>methane
>gas along with fiber for composting or land application for plant
>nutrients.
>  Perhaps concentrated feeding operations also have this in mind as a
>means
>to confine manures so they won't have to transport them far for their
>alternative energy production operations?  It would make their operations
>sustainable in a sense.  Seriously, I think it is about monopolizing all
>food and energy production including manures.
>Kathy Moore
>
>
>From: Mark Nagel <activism98201@verizon.net>
>Reply-To: activism98201@verizon.net,Healthy soil and sustainable growing
><livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
><livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
>Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Fertilizer use by crop in Brazil
>Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:55:44 -0500 (CDT)
>
>Thanks Paul.
>
>I was going to mention the report's comments about poor use of organic
>fertlizers, but felt that this would suggest a solution, when in fact
>there
>isn't any solution when, as you note, you're exporting (and burning) your
>minerals.
>
>One can see that as natural gas prices increase there will be a push to
>utilize animal manures.  This should be a no-brainer, but unfortunately
>industry will look to scale this up.  Scaling up will likely mean that
>more
>animals will be raised and more forest land cleared for them.  And at some
>point there's going to be contention between land for the animals and land
>for agriculture.
>
>It's really a shame that we're heading down the biofuels path, as this
>just
>perpetuates the inefficiency of long-distance food transport.  And I see
>it
>as a wicked trap to suck small food producers into the corporate web,
>where
>they'll fall prey to the big conglomerates (and loose their land).
>
>Anyone want to speculate on how long it is before agribusiness and
>big-energy combine?  ADM and Exxon for example?  As we here are all to
>familiar with, food IS energy!
>
>BTW - Wouldn't marginal land produce less energy dense biomass?  In order
>to
>make up for this lesser density more land would be required.  And marginal
>land isn't likely going to be nice flat or gently rolling land, which
>means
>that it'll be fairly difficult (read energy intensive) to cultivate.
>
>
>Mark Nagel
>Everett, WA