Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Phil Bunch" <pbunch@cox.net>]

IMHO this is one heck of a good topic. Perhaps we could explore it a bit.
BTW I'm all for looking at externalized costs.

-----Original Message-----
From: livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org
[mailto:livingontheland-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Ryan
Albinger
Sent: Monday, December 24, 2007 7:34 AM
To: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Ethanol from Coffee

A quick look at fuel effcientcy here:

30 miles at 15 miles per gallon hauling 1500 pounds of manure = 2.66
gallons of fuel per ton of mannure

30 miles at 6 miles per gallon hauling 25 ton of manure = 0.2 gallons of
fuel per ton of manure

The large confinement operation can haul organic material at 10x effcientcy
or another way said, can grow 10 times the crop from the manure for the
same input in fuel hauling.  OR even if the large confinement grows
food/feed at 1/2 the effciencty of the smaller grower, the confinement guy
is still producing crop at 5 times the fuel effcientcy of the smaller
farmer.

Just because there is less gallons used, in general, doesn't mean it is
effecient.  We need to be cognizant of the means to the end result in this
energy budget.

On a another note, how many chickens are needed to supply yearly nutrient
needs on 1000 square feet of garden space?

Ryan