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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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  • From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Agroecology Research Group
  • Date: Sat, 23 Dec 2006 12:52:58 -0700


This program at UC takes a little more study and committment than
permaculture. Some things in there I like.

paul tradingpost@lobo.net
----------------------------------------

from Center for Agroecology, University of California, Santa Cruz
http://www.agroecology.org/principles/princlist.htm

Principles of Agroecology and Sustainability
An interface to agroecology in list form
Use Renewable Resources
Minimize Toxics
Conserve Resources
Manage Ecological Relationships
Adjust to Local Environments
Diversify
Empower People
Manage Whole Systems
Maximize Long-Term Benefits
Value Health


The Full Principles List
Use Renewable Resources
Use renewable sources of energy instead of non-renewable sources.
Use biological nitrogen fixation.
Use naturally-occurring materials instead of synthetic, manufactured
inputs.
Use on-farm resources as much as possible.
Recycle on-farm nutrients.
Minimize Toxics
Reduce or eliminate the use of materials that have the potential to
harm
the environment or the health of farmers, farm workers, or consumers.
Use farming practices that reduce or eliminate environmental pollution
with nitrates, toxic gases, or other materials generated by burning or
overloading agroecosystems with nutrients.
Conserve Resources
Conserve Soil
Sustain soil nutrient and organic matter stocks.
Minimize erosion.
use perennials.
use no-till or reduced tillage methods.
mulch.
Conserve Water
Dry farm.
Use efficient irrigation systems.
Conserve Energy
Use energy efficient technologies.
Conserve genetic resources
save seed.
maintain local landraces.
use heirloom varieties.
Conserve Capital
Keep bank debt to a minimum.
Reduce expenditures.
Manage Ecological Relationships
Reestablish ecological relationships that can occur naturally on the
farm
instead of reducing and simplifying them.
Manage pests, diseases, and weeds instead of “controlling” them.
Use intercropping and cover cropping
Integrate Livestock
Enhance beneficial biota
In soils
mycorrhizae
Rhizobia
free-living nitrogen fixers
Beneficial insects
Provide refugia for beneficials.
Enhance benefial populations by breed and release programs.
Recycle Nutrients
Shift from throughflow nutrient management to recycling of nutrients.
Return crop residues and manures to soils.
When outside inputs are necessary, sustain their benefits by recycling
them.
Minimize Disturbance
Use reduced tillage or no-till methods.
Use mulches.
Use perennials
Adjust to Local Environments
Match cropping patterns to the productive potential and physical
limitations of the farm landscape.
Adapt Biota
adapt plants and animals to the ecological conditions of the farm
rather
than modifying the farm to meet the needs of the crops and animals.
Diversify
Landscapes
Maintain undisturbed areas as buffer zones.
Use contour and strip tillage.
Maintain riparian buffer zones.
Use rotational grazing.
Biota
Intercrop.
Rotate crops.
Use polyculture.
Integrate animals in system.
Use multiple species of crops and animals on farm.
Use multiple varieties and landraces of crops and animals on farm.
Economics
Avoid dependence on single crops/products.
Use alternative markets.
Organic markets.
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).
"Pick your own" marketing.
Add value to agricultural products.
Process foods before selling them.
Find alternative incomes.
Agrotourism
Avoid dependence on external subsidies.
Use multiple crops to diversify seasonal timing of production over the
year.
Empower People
Ensure that local people control their development process.
Use indigenous knowledge
Promote multi-directional transfer of knowledge, as opposed to
"top-down"
knowledge transfer.
Teach experts and farmers to share knowledge, not "impose" it.
Engage in people-centric development.
Increase farmer participation.
link farmers with consumers (CSA).
Strengthen communities.
Encourage local partnerships between people and development
groups.Ensure
intergenerational fairness.
Guarantee agricultural labor.
Ensure equitable labor relations for farm workers.
Teach principles of agroecology & sustainability.
Manage Whole Systems
Use planning processes that recognize the different scales of
agroecosystems.
Landscapes
Households
Farms
Communities
Bioregions
Nations
Minimize impacts on neighboring ecosystems.
Maximize Long-Term Benefits
maximize intergenerational benefits, not just annual profits.
maximize livelihoods and quality of life in rural areas.
facilitate generational transfers.
Use long-term strategies.
develop plans that can be adjusted and reevaluated through time.
Incorporate long-term sustainability into overall agroecosystem
design and
management.
Build soil fertility over the long-term.
build soil organic matter.
Add value to agricultural products.
Value Health
Human Health
Cultural Health
Environmental Health
Value most highly the overall health of agroecosystems rather than the
outcome of a particular crop system or season.
Eliminate environmental pollution by Toxics and surplus nutrients.
Animal Health
Plant Health







  • [Livingontheland] Agroecology Research Group, TradingPostPaul, 12/23/2006

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