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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflondon@mindspring.com>
  • To: permaculture
  • Subject: Re: granite fertilizer? (fwd)
  • Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 12:23:43 -0400


On Wed, 24 May 2000 11:16:23 -0300, "Marsha Hanzi"
<hanzibra@svn.com.br> wrote:

>I agree with you on questioning how sustainable rock dust or any outside
>ammendment is. The one being sold here comes from a large quarry in one
>state, so there is a big hole being made there in favor of national
>agriculture. The proposal, which is much more sustainable, is to discover

Each morning upon arising I offer humble supplication to the gods of
the universe that they may strike the word "sustainable" from the
permaculture vocabulary; its too late for agriculture, even the gods
are powerless there.

Without holes in the ground you will have no quarries; no quarries, no
rock; no rock, no highways or roads to travel on.

How is one 300 (or 600 acre) acre hole going to impact national
agriculture so adversely. No roads, no way to get food to market.

>the rich rocks of every region and to use those, instead of depending on
>this one quarry, as is the case today, to supply everybody in Northeast

That's right, just rip up more holes all over the country to obtain
rock dusts that someone thinks are better than that already available
in the larger quarry - dusts that are could be had very cheaply that
are probably going to waste.

Watch out for the "sustainability" and "social justice" crowd, who
intent on reeducating the masses, would probably boycott sales if they
could get enough suckers on the front lines to demonstrate. :-))))

Have you looked at a MDSS on the dusts from that quarry? What is a
breakdown of micronutrients in the rock?

>Brazil. I know the person who is at the head of this quarry, and I
>perceive no social problems from this particular venture, whereas the rock
>dust they are produciong is largely being used by small farmers who want to
>get off chemicals, so I do not see anything unethical or antisocial in this
>particular venture-- which does not mean I t hink it to be sustainable in
>the long run. But as this is a once-only ammendment ( at least in our
>case) and only for the plots which are doing more intensive organic
>agriculture ( and not agroforestry), the use is minimal...

They should use more rock dust on their gardens and farms.

>We never used any outside amendment in our permaculture and agroforest work,
>but I have been working in one region which is so severly degraded that we
>have begun using the rock dust, with promising responses. We were unable to
>get organic mass going before-- even the native brush was takinig years to
>regenerate...It is a region subject to yearly wildfires. But I hope in the
>future to perfect our management techniques so that even in these harsh
>conditions we can revert the situation with no buy-ins of ammendments...

It works. Use more rock dusts - restore the land using this
inexpensive and effective method.


Lawrence F. London, Jr. Venaura Farm ICQ#27930345
lflondon@mindspring.com london@metalab.unc.edu
metalab.unc.edu/intergarden InterGarden
metalab.unc.edu/permaculture PermaSphere
metalab.unc.edu/intergarden/orgfarm AGINFO




  • Re: granite fertilizer? (fwd), Lawrence F. London, Jr., 05/15/2000
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: granite fertilizer? (fwd), Lawrence F. London, Jr., 05/24/2000

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