Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[su do <speakingbeareturns@yahoo.com>]

It is called Raindance! <smiling>
--- TradingPostPaul <tradingpost@riseup.net> wrote:

> 
> So if we ask where we go from here, we need to focus
> on sustainable water
> use in feeding ourselves. We know humus-rich soil
> from organic matter
> decomposition is much more moisture-retentive and
> produces better food
> crops with far less irrigation. We know mulching has
> its place in
> conserving moisture and weed control. We know
> permanent bed/aisle systems
> alone can cut the need for irrigation and mulch by
> at least 50% (Not to
> mention, it doesn't water and fertilize weeds in the
> half that's
> non-growing aisles). And none of this is new; none
> of this is rocket
> science. Yet we can't expect corporate agribusiness
> to roll over and put
> resource efficiency ahead of profits. Or expect any
> level of government to
> develop intelligence. So to think outside the box,
> the alternative would be
> for millions more to grow our own food and supply
> our local communities,
> from small, sustainable, water conserving plots. 
> 
> Not so long ago I didn't know these things or didn't
> believe them. That was
> then. We're near one of those "desert cities"
> mentioned below -
> Albuquerque. This year in our new location we were
> able to cut irrigation
> to one-fourth of previous gardens, simply with
> permanent, framed beds and
> mulch and better amended soil. One overall weeding
> only, watering every
> four or five days in rotation. In a first year
> garden, we simply couldn't
> have started a fenced garden from scratch and in the
> same year got
> continuous crops out of it for three months of
> twice-weekly markets
> otherwise. And my thumb is no greener than anyone
> else's. We can conserve
> the water we've got left. 
> 
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
> 
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
> 
> On 10/18/2007 at 7:30 AM Douglas  Willhite wrote:
> Our Drinkable Water Supply Is Vanishing
> By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. Posted October 11, 2007.
> snip
> >The biggest drain on our water sources is
> agriculture, which accounts for
> >70 percent of the water used worldwide -- much of
> which is subsidized in
> >the industrial world, providing little incentive
> for agribusiness to use
> >conservation measures or less water-intensive
> crops.
> >
> >This number is also likely to increase as we
> struggle to feed a growing
> >world. Population is expected to rise from 6
> billion to 8 billion by 2050.
> >
> >Water scarcity is not just an issue of the
> developing world. "Twenty-one
> >percent of irrigation in the United States is
> achieved by pumping
> >groundwater at rates that exceed the water's
> ability to recharge," wrote
> >water experts Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute
> and Maude Barlow of the
> >Council of Canadians in their landmark water book
> Blue Gold: The Fight to
> >Stop the Corporate Theft of the World's Water.
> >
> >The Ogallala aquifer -- the largest in the North
> America and a major
> >source for agriculture stretching from Texas to
> South Dakota -- is
> >currently being pumped at a rate 14 times greater
> than it can be
> >replenished, they wrote. And, across the country,
> "California's Department
> >of Water Resources predicts that, by 2020, if more
> supplies are not found,
> >the state will face a shortfall of fresh water
> nearly as great as the
> >amount that all of its cities and towns together
> are consuming today," add
> >Clarke and Barlow.
> >
> >Demand is outstripping supply from the rainy
> Seattle area to desert cities
> >like Tucson and Albuquerque. And from Midwest
> farming regions to East
> >Coast cities.
> >
> snip
> 
> 
> 
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