Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["John Smith" <mikakigr@gmail.com>]

I had tried to post this privately to Greg but he has set up his e-mail to reject all mail from people he doesn't know. Instead of answer his questionnaire I'll post it here for everyone. :-)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Smith <mikakigr@gmail.com>
Date: Jun 21, 2006 10:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] the myth of America feeding the world/ wasCompost tea and bugs in a jug
To: gregandapril@earthlink.net

ACT is aerobic compost tea. CLA (Conjugated Linoleic Acid) look at http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/general/resrpt2003/article3_2003.html
The  thread has been mostly about ACT - haven't noticed the CLA so much.

John Smith

 

 

 

On 6/21/06, Greg and April <> wrote:

Ok, I have been looking at this message for a week now and still can't figure out what CLA and ACT is.    Can someone give me a clue?

 

Greg H.

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Robert Norsen

To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 0:16

Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] the myth of America feeding the world/ wasCompost tea and bugs in a jug

 

I have to agree with some of your message, Paul.   Feeding cattle grain and hay is a severe waste. Meat in general is not efficient calories for people. 

 

Some problems with solving the entire problem by eliminating beef.
Beef or other meat is essential in human diet.  We need less than we eat of course.

The market is not going to give  up beef easily

Normal pasture grass produces on typical beef cattle, 1 pound of added weight per day. 

It takes a long season, lots of water, huge area to produce an animal ready to send to the feed lot.  Yes the feed lot is an atrocity both for humane animal treatment, degrading to look at or breath down wind and can creat some of the most dread diseases, fails to incorporate CLA in the "finished" beef.   So the product is sadly not good food.   

 

 Without ACT it takes a lot of water just to keep the grass growing.

One advantage of ACT in addition to deep roots and slime that saves water, when plants are short of nutrients they pump more water in an effort to sustain nutrients for plant growth.  Bacteria at the roots, by being eaten by protozoa, feed the plant roots efficiently.  The plants there by need and  use less water.  Proof?  Test were made where ACT and water was applied equally to side by side areas.  The ACT area thrived green  while the water only area suffered damage from drought. 

 

Act provides more efficient food production.

Betsy Ross reported 2 to 4 times the weight gain per day.

The grass, with ACT is building the soil, building deep roots etc,  not detroying the soil.

The ACT enriched grass is good enough to market directly from the pasture.  Much more efficient.

Much more economically useful to the rancher. 

Eliminates need for expensive, vile feed lots.    

Elliminates the hazard of some dread disease.

Would squash, tomatoes, corn, beets potatoes etc...  produce more food calories per acre?.

With more water, more labor,  heavy loads of fertilizer -  Would we be more than self sufficient for food if we grew, marketed and ate more garden stuff, less meat?  Of course.  Can ACT help make meat more efficient, better food, less imposition on the land?   Looks that way.   

Saves one helluva lot of oil and CO2 by elimination of hay, grain, growing, harvesting, transport.

 

There will be ridicule that ACT can't do all of this and it ain't  proven.  Well  like Tom, one very capable contributor, adds at the end of his message -

 

" Those who say it can't be  done, please step out of the way of those who are doing it!!"

 

Science long ago proved that a bumble bee can't fly.  But not being aware of that the Bumble Bee  does fly and makes a little honey every day too.  That is more than you or I can do!!

 

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