Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>]

> -----------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:43:26 -0500 (CDT)
> From: <activism98201@verizon.net>
> Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Biofuels could increase  global
>         warmingwith     laughing ga
> To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
>         <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID:
>         <17997529.18084521190630606820.JavaMail.root@vms074.mailsrvcs.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> The point, or rather question is: what is the question/problem that we're 
> trying to address?
>
> Rapidly liberating biomass that is "already in the cycle" isn't any solution 
> to the problem of CO2 emissions.  We already know that it isn't an answer to our energy 
> needs.  The only question that it's applicable to is: how to make the rich even richer?
>
> The agrofuels mania WILL make things worse.  It threatens our ability to grow 
> food as it creates large-scale monoculture plantations, which mine our 
> topsoils as it wipes out our (CO2 sequestering) forests.
>
> If the question is about energy, then that's an issue that's better left off to another 
> group.  But suffice it to say, our ability to grow food shouldn't be sacrificed by our 
> _desire_ (read "non need") for fuel to run machines.
>
> The following clearly identifies agrofuels as the big scam that it is, that 
> it clearly is NOT an acceptable solution for sustaining life: 
> http://www.grain.org/seedling_files/seed-07-07-en.pdf
>
>
> -Mark Nagel
> Everett, WA
>   

As it applies to this list, I think the information on biofuels is 
important because we can find quantitative data to use for designing 
better small farms. Just as farmers of old had to allow for land to feed 
their horses, a modern small farmer should be able to decide if they 
have enough land and time to run machinery. Biofuels should never be 
considered as a replacement for oil if the oil was being used to 
entertain people with a nice, long drive to a job that didn't do 
anything useful. However, if the oil was being used to lift painful 
burdens or improve lands that otherwise couldn't be improved upon, then 
biofuels may be worth considering. The Net Creative gain is the 
important part, I think. In some cases, it is worth growing enough to 
fuel a tractor for a few hours a year. Small farmers could also look 
toward tractor sharing, machinery sharing, etc. It wouldn't pay to have 
a tractor to run it for a few hours on one farm, but the investment 
could benefit several farms if they work out their timing issues. 
Farmers like to be independent, also. Those few hours in a few years may 
not be enough for the individual to justify a tractor, but if the 
tractor is going to last 50 years or more (as most of mine have), then 
it can be worth the investment.
It all comes down to typical business numbers and how long term your 
business plan works for. Biofuels aren't going to replace petroleum at 
the scale we have now. SOME biofuel systems (cellulosic, methane 
collection from manure digesters, corn-burning stoves) are highly 
efficient and provide a net gain when used properly. Others (corn 
ethanol, soybean fuel oils, feeding corn mash to cows) are destructive 
to soils, animals, and the  environment, and they discourage small scale 
operations.

I think that if things were evaluated on whether they work on a small 
local scale without large processing facilities, then they are generally 
useful, and not insignificantly: they can easily be replaced without 
bureaucratic inertia, and they don't endanger large numbers of people if 
any one of them fails periodically. It's not the 'most efficient' way to 
do things, but then, neither is a system that spends so much on 
advertising how great the system is and how much more you need to buy to 
keep the system running. If we took the average company's advertising 
budget and spent it on solar panels and electric cars.....well...you get 
the picture, but until the stock market fails, the 'leaders' won't.

Dan C.
Belgium,WI