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market-farming - Re: peat moss substitute

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Betsy <blevy AT rsocsun.tamu.edu>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: peat moss substitute
  • Date: Thu, 25 May 2000 08:56:07 -0700


Peat is mined. It is the plant equivalent of fossils or fuel oil. It takes
hundreds of
thousands of years to form,
and it is absolutely not the case that it is "building up." There are vast
areas in the
U.S. and elsewhere that are sterile moonscapes due to peat mining - left
without a
topsoil of any sort, and too acidic to form another in anything like typical
time
(although it takes hundreds of years to form a few inches of topsoil too).
There are
mountains of coir in some areas, the problem is not stripping coconuts to
provide the
coir, it's what to do with the coir after you've processed the coconuts for
food use. I
agree that doesn't mean it's sustainable to ship coir thousands of miles to
use in
temperate climates as peat substitute, but peat is sure as heck a
nonrenewable resource,
and some say using mining it is depleting another important carbon sink.

Liz Pike wrote:

> Peat is a finite resource?? And coir fiber that must be shipped thousands
> of miles from the South Pacific is a better substitute?? Sorry, I'm still
> skeptical. From what I've read, peat is building up faster than we use it.
> Can we possibly grow/strip/ship that many coconuts to replace it?? This
> sounds like another "pc" issue to muddy more farming waters. Please send
> proof, enquiring minds wanna know.
>
> "Annually, peat moss accumulates at more than 70 times the rate it is
> harvested." The Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association. (Concern for the
> environment was one of the driving forces behind the formation of the
> Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association, and remains so today.)
>
> Here's a link comparing the 2 products:
>
> http://www.peatmoss.com/pm-coir.html
>
> Liz Pike
> Morningstar Gardens
> Pollocksville NC
> ICQ 46954468
>
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