Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

--- On Fri, 9/24/10, pbunch@cox.net <pbunch@cox.net> wrote:
> Clearly importing nutrients from neighbors is a mid-term
> solution but what will the situation be if everyone in a
> given area is recycling the nutrients present in their
> systems? I suspect they will not give them up at a
> reasonable price. 

Exactly!  Importing organic matter free of charge is only possible in a 
wasteful society that considers "organic matter" as "waste" to be gotten rid 
off.  I now live in one of the poorest regions of Europe, if I were to ask my 
neighbor, who is a cattle farmer, for a load of manure; he would charge me 
100 Euros.  In Germany, most farmers would just give me a load of manure free 
of charge.  Another example, when we first moved here, I asked the local 
joiner's shop if I could have some saw dust and wood shavings for mulching.  
They told me to come and get as much as I wanted.  When I went back to the 
same shop two years later, they sold bags of the same stuff for 10 Euros a 
piece. There is no such thing as a free lunch.

Dieter Brand
Portugal



While good soil structure and a healthy
> flora and fauna provide optimal condition for local nutrient
> cycling, nutrients are inevitably lost to leaching and where
> produce is sold they are exported from the farm with the
> vegetables and other products. Sustainability is a long-term
> project and things like potassium and easily leached trace
> minerals may become limiting factors. Calcium also can be a
> problem in high rainfall areas. The natural geochemical
> cycles are the ultimate constraints on what we can do. Mass
> is conserved.
> 
> Eventually, and perhaps sooner than later the
> throughput  via the human population has to be
> addressed. I doubt if 6 billion people, with 9 billion in
> the near future, can be supported even with the best
> methods. 
> 
> 
> ---- Tradingpost <tradingpost@lobo.net>
> wrote: 
> > 
> > Intensive gardens can also be the cash crops, as it is
> with us. Since we don't have fields we import free
> amendments and mulch for intensive. In both cases nearby
> farmers have excess to get rid of and it gets recycled. The
> sources don't have to be esp fertile. Fertility - the crumb
> sructure and biologicals - is built up in the beds. 
> > 
> > paul tradingpost@lobo.net
> > 
> > 
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