Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

SOIL, FOOD AND PEOPLE CONFERENCE
A GROW BIOINTENSIVE Model for the New Century
http://www.growbiointensive.org/newsletter/may2000/intro.html


Small-scale, even personal-scale farming is not a new concept. It is as old
as agriculture itself. One study of 15 countries, primarily in Asia and
Africa, found that per-acre output on small farms can be as much as four to
five times higher than that on large ones. Russia, over the years, has
often produced 30% to 50% of its food on household plots of less than an
acre each representing as little as 3% to 5% of all Russian farmland. Dr.
Robert Netting, an ecological anthropologist, after decades of field
studies of Nigeria, Mexico, the Swiss Alps and Asia, observes that
small-scale, highly diversified agriculture is the most ecologically sound,
efficient and stable method of food production. The productivity of
small-scale farms is also being widely recognized by agricultural
economists who call it the "inverse relationship between farm size and
productivity."

"GROW BIOINTENSIVE" practices with an average buildup in skill and soil
fertility can enable farmers to produce approximately double the averages
of conventional farming techniques in a given region, and sometimes more.

Jeavons continued to observe that there are additional "economies of
small-scale" with the "GROW BIOINTENSIVE" approach. Per unit of production,
"GROW BIOINTENSIVE" can use 67 go 88 percent less water, 50 to 100 percent
less nutrient input in the form of purchased organic fertilizer, and 99
percent less energy, compared with conventional agricultural practices.

The practical result is that a complete balanced diet for one person for
one year can be grown sustainably - meaning feeding the soil at the same
time with enough carbon - in as little as 4,000 square feet assuming a
vegan diet with a significant number of calories being obtained from root
crops which produce a large number of calories per unit of area - such as
potatoes, sweet potatoes, burdock, garlic, salsify and parsnips. "GROW
BIOINTENSIVE" has been shown to work well in virtually every climate and
soil where food is grown - and it is being used in over 100 countries. In
the first test in the difficult Siberian climate in 1995, GROW BIOINTENSIVE
growing areas averaged yields that were 286% higher than US conventional
averages. In another test in India, by the end of the third growing season,
low-income families with no previous farming experience, in sandy soil, and
with only fresh manure as fertilizer, were producing yields that were equal
to 75% to 100% of those being obtained by the good farmers in India. In
Mexico, when the government provides assistance to people with no food, the
cost is reportedly US$800 to 1,000 per person. Yet, GROW BIOINTENSIVE
practices have been taught to people there by the nonprofit organization
ECOPOL at the cost of about US$3.20 per family of six.
conference participants
Conference participants listen on.
Translators were provided for several languages.


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These things are key, because by 2014 the amount of food-growing area
worldwide may well be as little as 9,000 square feet - and about 4,500
square feet if half of the area is left in wild to preserve the plant and
animal genetic diversity so necessary to our global ecosystem.

In contrast, current conventional agricultural methods - both chemical and
organic - require approximately 31,000 square feet to grow an average diet
- and 7,000 square feet for a vegan diet.

To meet the world soil challenge, "GROW BIOINTENSIVE" has the capacity to
build up to 1 inch of farmable soil in as little as 8.5 years and the 6
inches necessary for farming in as little as 51 years. In contrast, the 6
inches of farmable soil we are depending on now globally first began being
formed 3,000 years ago in 1,000 BC, at a time when the Romans had primitive
forms of chariots. In California, this soil-building process is slower and
first began about 12,000 years ago, in approximately 10,000 BC during a
world period of time known as the Iron Age.

Instead of "growing crops", we need to start "growing soil", John observed.
Fortunately, to "grow soil" we need to grow crops, so we have not "lost"
anything. Instead, we get both. It's a win-win solution. In the process, we
will have changed our perspective, however. Our goal will not just be to
harvest but to grow soil fertility!

In addition, "GROW BIOINTENSIVE" practices can significantly help lessen
the global warming challenge. If the whole world were practicing these
techniques, we actually could tie up as much as 30 years' worth of surplus
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the form of increased crop biomass
per unit of area and increased organic matter in the soil in the form of
compost.


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One of the ways in which to grow soil and sufficient diets in a small area
is with the "60-30-10" approach. 60% of the farmÕs growing area is grown
in seed and grain crops, such as maize, wheat and amaranth. These compost
crops produce a significant amount of calories for diet and a large amount
of carbon for compost per unit of area. 30% of the area is grown in special
root crops, such as potatoes and sweet potatoes. These diet crops produce a
large amount of calories per unit of area. 10% of the area is grown in
salad or salsa crops for the additional vitamins and minerals needed to
produce a complete diet.

"The choice is ours", Jeavons continued. "We can have a century of
increasing desertification and increasing scarcity of per-capita resources,
farmable soil and food, or we can transform the current global challenge
into a situation of abundance and, more important, of enough for everyone.

"As Candide noted, the whole world is a garden. And what a wonderful place
it would be if each one of us took care of our part of the earth, our
garden. It's that simple. That's how the global challenge can be
transformed into bite-sized pieces, and we can all take responsibility for
our piece. "Yet 'GROW BIOINTENSIVE' practices are not the answer. You are
the answer - each one of us is. It's how we use these practices, to build
up the soil or to deplete it, that will make the difference. We hope that
you will become part of that process."