Healthy soil and sustainable growing

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

Ken Hargescheimer - isn't this your work? I don't see your name on it tho.

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

Biointensive Mini-Agriculture
http://www.bagelhole.org/?page=114

For home gardening it means: less work, less irrigation, improved soil,
higher yields and no poisons. There are unlimited opportunities in market
gardening, mini-farming and mini-ranching. People can have a comfortable
income, a high quality lifestyle, provide a great service and a great way
to raise children. A lady took a BIMA course, went home to Alaska, prepared
her land and grossed $20,000 the first year. Then had a six months winter
vacation! Houston with over one million people has almost no vegetable
production in the five surrounding countries.

BIMA allows people to feed themselves on a local basis that provides total
community food security and is a proven food production system that is
ecologically sound, economically viable and socially responsible.

It creates a healthy soil for growing healthy plants to provide healthy
food to feed healthy people [KH]. For the human population to be healthy,
we need to consume healthy foods [organic] which come from healthy animals
eating healthy plants grown in healthy soil [C Scheaffer, VMD/holistic].

Food Production: Agriculture is in a crisis worldwide. The Green Revolution
is not ecologically sound, economically viable nor socially responsible. It
makes farmers depend on, even an economic slave to, agribusiness and
multinational corporations, CargillMonsanto, ConAgra, NovartisADM and
others. Their goal is to control the world's food supply from research to
production to consumer by controlling seed, fertilizers and chemicals.
These seed must have chemicals sprayed on them to produce and seed can not
be saved for the next crop. Other corporations are beginning to market
irradiated food which may be dangerous to our health. [Request: ÒWho Will
Feed The WorldÓ by email, 12 pages of articles; www.nfu.org;
www.moffa.org; www.inmotionmagazine.com; AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER -Monitoring
Corporate Agribusiness. Free from: Avkrebs@earthlink.net] The Congress,
President, USDA [^partner in a GEg patent?; 30,000 grants; onjy 34 for
organic, family farming], most land-grant colleges and most ag extension
services are part of the problem rather than part of the solution and uses
our tax dollars. The world's farmers can produce all the food the world's
population requires, regardless of how high it goes, using BIMA.

^000200000B1100000AEE^B0B, ÒUrban Ag has the potential to provide many
benefits to cities - in nutritional improvement, hunger reduction, income
generation, enterprise development and environmental enhancement. The poor
and unemployed can grow their own food. Farming converts degraded and
unkept vacant lots into healthy, green areas. Waste [grass, leaves, trees,
sawdust, manure, food waste] can be composted and used on the farms as well
as recycled water. City governments must recognize the potential of urban
agriculture and accord it the status given to other industries and economic
activities in the city.Ó Urban Ag Network, urbanag@compuserve.com. Books:
Urban Agriculture - Food, Jobs and Sustainable Cities; A Patch of Eden, H P
Hynes; www.cityfarmer.org. Urban gardening is very important socially,
economically, esthetically and recreationally. Cultivating Havana: Urban
Agriculture; 1999,Food First

Urban Micro-entrepreneurship: Most urban agriculture is directed by NGO's
but there are unlimited opportunities for private BIMA all over every city.
Employment is limited and most are low pay. Urban homesteading and BIMA are
a realistic option: socially and financially. Book: Entrepreneurial
Community Gardens, G Feenstra, 1999.

Economic development is a major concern for most towns and cities. BIMA is
very effective economic development. It benefits local people. Thirty
experienced families can sell $40,000 each in the local farmer's market.
That is Òcreated wealthÓ. That is $1,200,000 added to the local economy
each year. This wealth stays in the city rather than being sent to a
corporate office somewhere; even abroad.

Rural: There is a grassroots movement back to family farming. BIMA is the
answer and is being used by the many Ônew' people entering agriculture as
well as innovative farmers. Web: //sunsite.unc.edu/farm-connection;
www.cfra.org.

Micro-entrepreneurship: Employment opportunities are limited and most are
low pay. BIMA is a realistic option: socially and financially.

Organic: Gardeners and farmers have been organic since the beginning of
agriculture until the discovery of certain chemicals in WW II [to kill
people then, insects now]. No one has the right, moral or legal, to poison
the air, soil or water. ÒOrganic gardening and farming is more than
avoiding chemicals. The organic method requires a change of attitude and a
different thought process.Ó [H Garrett, DMN;
www.whitehawk.com/dirtdoctor]. Organic does not require the purchase of any
outside inputs except seed and maybe organic fertilizer. The present
generation knows nothing about raised beds or organics because their
fathers and grandfathers have used chemicals since the 1950s. Therefore,
they must be taught. [Read: From The Good Earth, M Ableman; Web:
www,purefood.org; www.foodsecurity.org]

Note: A salesman sales chemical fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, etc
to a farmer and gets paid by the chemical company from the sale. Promoters
of organic gardening and farming have nothing to sale.

Raised beds: They have been used in Asia [Indonesia, China, Vietnam, PNG],
Latin America [Mexico, Guatemala, Bolivia, Peru], Europe [France] and USA
[NE Indians] for centuries. I saw a few while living in Guatemala. Because
of chemicals they were abandon but there is a worldwide movement back to
using them. 80,000 km2 are being restored in Peru/Bolivia. They work.

Everyone should use and I teach:

A. Organic, biointensive, double dug, permanent raised beds with green
manure/cover crops/mulch/-compost. This can double or even triple the
yields while reducing the labor by half compared to traditional gardening.
This works [USA: Chadwick Garden & market garden, Ecology Action, MOA,
NFRDC; Mexico, ECOPOL; Philippines, IIRR; Kenya: Manor House Ag Center;
Chile: Centro de Educac^on y Tecnolog^a; Vietnam: VACVINA] and the proof is
there for all to see.

B. Organic, biointensive, permanent raised beds using no-till, green
manure/cover crops/mulch/-compost. This works and the proof [Honduras:
COSECHA, CIDICCO; Japan: M Fukuoka,; IIRR: Philippines; Chile, CET; USA: M
Cain, AR] is there for all to see.

BIMA boasts two advantages no other production system can claim. First, it
is easier on the soil than mechanized methods. Second, it is the least
expensive method in terms of capital outlay. For very small farms
[mini-farms] this method is not only economically viable but superior to
the alternatives. Jeff Rast, Center for Small Acreage Farming, Countryside
Magazine, Nov/Dec 98.

Only hand labor with hand tools are used but with sufficient land use power
hand tools, scythes, wheel hoes with implements, push planters and
spreaders, etc. A plow [moldboard, rototiller, etc] is never used. [Read:
Plowman's Folly, E H Faulker; Weeds-Control Without Chemicals, Walters.
Video: Necessity of Organic Resides, R Parnes]. Transportation can be a
bicycle, tricycle, quadracycle [pickup and/or passengers] with trailers.
[Info: address above].

C. Organic, permanent raised beds [80Ó-100Ó wide] with green
manure/cover crops using no-till machinery. Axles are extended to fit over
the beds so the wheels run in permanent tracks. This works and the proof
[Morrison, USDA/ARS, TX; Deep Bed Farming Society, CO; S Groff. PA; EPAGRI,
Brazil] is there for all to see. [Video: No-Till Vegetables, S Groff]

D. Agroforestry: Trees [food, oils, chemicals, medicinals, spices,
beverages, crafts, lumber, forages, firewood, windbreaks, industrials, etc]
should be a planned crop. www.winrock.org; www.treesftf.org;
www.unl.edu/nac.

1. Forestry: Forest must not be cleared but manage-harvested for natural
crop production using raised beds for specific crops. This works and the
proof [Brazil: Instituto de Permacultura da Bahia, Costa Rica, IANI] is
there for all to see.

2. Alley Cropping: Raised beds between rows of trees. This works and the
proof [USA; Nigeria, IITA; Philippines, IIRR, BMRLC; Costa Rica, IANI] is
there for all to see.

Without a water system, bucket drip irrigation should be used. A kit [US$25
ppd] irrigates 200 feet of vegetables by filling a five gallon bucket each
morning and each evening. Two kits will irrigate enough vegetables for a
family of seven on a vegetarian diet during the dry season. [Kenya]. Can be
adapted to irrigate trees, etc. [Video: Third World Irrigation Update, free
with first kit or $5 ppd.]

Financing: Requirements for beginners: handtools, seed, fertilizer, water,
misc for $400 or less. Micro-loan programs [no collateral required.
failures-2%], cooperatives, ag incubators, foundations may be needed.
Contact: The Intervale Foundation, 802-660-3508 fax 3501

Cooperative: tools for loan, purchase in bulk and sell, rent land, farmer's
markets, library, training classes, micro-loans, savings bank, rent
value-added processing plant, etc for members only.

Land: Use land, free, owned by individuals, companies, churches,
governments, schools, non-profits and the tax office [Repossessed land in
Lubbock TX may be farmed free]. People will donate land to non-profit
groups. The food bank in Lubbock TX has been given: various vacant lots, 25
A orchard; 5 A. farm and Jan 99, 48 A urban farm.

BIMA can produce flowers, dyes, vegetables, nuts, fruits, trees, grains,
fibers, herbs, spices, medicinals, oils, teas, sweeteners, fragrances,
seeds, ornamentals, industrials [lubricants, brooms, gums, waxes, oils,
rubber, emulsifiers, chemicals, paper], forages, feed grains, farm animals.
Market gardening has a average gross sales of $8,000 per acre with a few as
high as $30,000 with value-added. A family with 2-15 acres can earn a very
nice income.

Schools/Youth: Most young people do not know enough about agriculture to
know whether they are interested in it or not. They should have some
exposure to all of it. Should feel close to nature. 1. Gardens: Every
school [primary, junior high, high school] should have a gardening project
in every classroom. Foodworks, VT; Mountain School, VT;
www.connriver.org/mountainschool. Home Schoolers should have a cooperative
garden. [Yellowrose School, TX; request: BIMA-Youth; Our Wonderful Youth;
www.ahs.org; www.national.org.

2. Market Garden/Mini-Farm: Every high school should have a BIMA training
program as a career choice. [not part of Vo-Ag/FFA]; www.cityfarmer.org; AR
- anp@iocc.com; Chicago HS for Ag Sciences; Read: Entrepreneurial Community
Gardens,: Growing food, skills, jobs and communities. Freenstra, McGrew,
Campbell, 1999.

3. Mini-Ranch/Dairy: Many students will not garden but prefer livestock. It
is a rich educational experience to witness mating, birth, maturing, dying
and having to nurture animals. Read: Explorations in Urban Animal Ag, HPI

Training: BIMA should be offered in all youth detention centers, prisons
and jails [C Marcum, SF County Jail, CA]. Others: homeless [Homeless
Project, Fresh Start Farms, HGP, CA], gang members [video: City Farmers,
Survival in the Urban Landscape, 412-528-4839], welfare-to-work, etc. Most
people want to work; not take handouts. They should be trained as should
those seeking new careers, second jobs or part-time work. They have a
choice of micro-entrepreneurship or employment.

1. Market Garden: One food bank offers training for up to three years.

2. Mini-Farm: Training in additional crops and value-added.

3. Mini-Ranch/Mini-Dairy: Some people prefer livestock. [St Anthony's
Dairy, vallcorn@rp.net.net]

URBAN:

1. Home Garden/mini-ranch: Every home should have a garden to produce food
for the family and forage for small animals for meat. This assures that the
family, especially the children, do not consume chemicals. With experience,
a family can grow all their vegetables on 1000 ft2. Additional beds can be
used for forage for small farm animals.

2. Market Garden: High value, labor intensive crops are grown.

3. Mini-Farm: Additional crops requiring more land but less intensive
labor. Some of these crops are particularly adapted to value-added.

4. Mini-Ranch: Use raised beds for forage/grain. Small animals are in pens
which are over the beds and moved down the beds daily for grazing or cut
and carry. HPI has a bee project in Chicago. Houston has hundreds of
livestock. [DMN, Nov 98]. If neighbors do not complain, the city
authorities probably won't. Raise quiet animals [no roosters], keep clean
[no odors] and give each neighbor eggs or meat or vegetables every month.
Mini-ranching requires a little more investment and land but less labor.

5. Mini-Dairy Farm: Raised beds for forage/grain. HPI has a dairy goat
project in Chicago. There is a goat dairy in downtown Houston. Use milk
goats, dairy sheep and miniatures.

RURAL:

1. Market Garden: Has more acreage and uses larger hand tools or power hand
tools. The farmer who is willing to change can find a very profitable
niche.

2. Mini-Farm: Larger scale. Grow volume and/or industrial crops which
require more acres.

3. Mini-Ranch: Raised beds for forage/grain. Small animals are in pens
which are over the beds and moved down the bed daily for grazing or cut and
carry. Small livestock includes miniature swine [40#] and beef [15 meat and
dual purpose breeds]. There is a demand for organic, farm raised meat,
eggs, raw milk, etc.

4. Mini-Dairy: Use raised beds for forage & grain. Space for large dairy
animals. [cattle, water buffalo, goats, sheep] Grow all feed. 50 cow dairy
supports two families [CISA, PA].

Marketing: There is a nationwide, grassroots movement to buy local, buy
fresh, buy organic. There are many ways to market but the following are the
best.

1. Farm stand or curbside stand: Customers coming to you is low cost
marketing. People will drive to a farm to buy fresh food.

2. Farmer's Markets: The US government issues funds to families which must
be used only for fresh fruits and vegetables and used only at a certified
farmer's market. The USDA grants permission for farmer's markets to operate
on government property. Put them in housing projects. Web:
www.ams.usda.gov/directmarketing

3. CSA-Community Supported Agriculture: Customers pre-purchase shares of
produce.

4. Value-added: Use family labor to process in some way what is grown to
increase the selling price. Examples: solar dried fruit/vegetables,
jams/jellies, crafts, milk/cheese, dried flowers, etc. [equipment
manufacturers: Cecoco, Japan; milk processing, rafy-s@pladot.co.il].

5. Cooperatives: Enalbles the mini-agriculturists to work together to do
what they can't do individually in marketing and/or value-added processing.
[example-cheese making, jelly, etc]

BIMA Workshops:

Gardens/Mini-Farms workshops of 1 -4 days are available anywhere at
anytime. They are practical and how-to. I take two reference books
[English, Spanish, French, German, Russian, Hindi, Arabic] to donate, drip
irrigation samples and order free magazines [Spanish, English, Portuguese]
if there is a library. Demonstrate raised bed construction, mulching and
drip irrigation. Show videos/slides and networking. Display: books,
periodicals, newsletters, tools.

The only opportunity to learn practical, how-to BIMA is in my workshops or
in TN [gardening or mini-farming] on-farm workshops [five days each] in
June. Contact for info. Ken Hargesheimer

I ask one favor of every person who gets this; pass it on to as many others
as possible to encourage them to use organic gardening and farming.
Encourage the schools to teach it.

Request: BIMA-A Sustainable Farming System; BIMA-Info & Ideas [five pp],
BIMA-Third World, BIMA-Youth, Bucket drip kits by Email or SASE.

Can you imagine the beauty of your community with all vacant lots/land in
mini-agriculture, wildflowers, wildlife, forest, prairie, stream riparians
Tropical Small Farms

We must remember that one factor of the "Green Revolution" around the world
was mass migration of small property-owners to the cities to swell the
slums ( Sao Paulo Brazil now has 15 million people, at least half of which
are rural refugees). So when the Industrial Agriculture mega-business
people talk about "feeding the starving millions" they omit to mention that
these millions are starving because they were forced off their lands by an
agricultural model which was too expensive and too destructive for small
farms to hold up under. Our experience in Brazil mirrors what is said here
about the small farm. We have seen examples of successful small farms of
3-4 hectares of agroforests ( which is the appropriate model in the
tropics) earn US$300-400 per month, with practically zero costs other than
family labor. This means a comfortable margin of profit which permits a
very good life indeed. Marsha Hanzi. Instituto de Permacultura da bahia
Brazil. hanzibra@svn.com.br

    * Gaviotas - A Village to Reinvent the World, Alan Wiesman
    * Entrepreneurial Community Gardens Freenstra
    * Natural Pest Control Andy Lopez Andy@invisiblegardener
    * Garden-Ville Method Malcolm Becyk
    * Organic Manual Howard Garrett
    * Organic Gardener's Composting Steve Solomon Out of print, Reprint in
Fall 99
    * Farmer's Earthworm Handbook David Ernst
    * How To Grow More Vegetables Than You Ever Though Possible on Less
Land Than You Can Imagine, John Jeavons bountiful@zapcom.net Spanish,
French, German, Russian, Arabic, Kiswahilli
    * Plowman's Folly E H Faulkner
    * Weeds: Control Without Poisons Charles Walters, Jr
    * Growing Produce Family Style R Yoder 330-852-4687 [market gardening]
    * Rebirth of The Small Family Farm Gregson, Box 2542, Vashon Island WA
98070, $10 ppd
    * Solar Gardening Poisson 800-762-7325
    * Cold Weather Gardening Frank Ours Box 371, Parson, WV $7 pp.
    * From the Good Earth M Ableman
    * Four Seasons Harvest, Eliot Coleman
    * Winter Harvest Manual, Eliot Coleman
    * New Organic Grower, Eliot Coleman
    * You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide, Joe Salatin
    * Salad Bar Beef, Joe Salatin
    * Pastured Poultry Profits: Joe Salatin
    * One Straw Revolution, M Fukuoka, Japanese
    * Natural Way of Farming, M Fukuoka, Japanese
    * Road Back To Nature, M Fukuoka, Japanese

GARDENS/MINI-FARMS NETWORK

TTU: BS-Agriculture; Ecology Action: BIMA Workshop 97

TX: Lubbock, Dallas, Hereford, Nazareth, Happy, Amarillo

MS: Oxford; FL: N Ft Myers

Mexico, Rep. Dominicana, C^t^ d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Honduras Box 1901, Lubbock
TX 79408-1901

Tel 806-744-8517; Fax 806-747-0500; minifarms@aol.com

Workshops in organic, biointensive, raised-bed gardening, market gardening,
mini-farming, mini-ranching worldwide in English & Spanish