permaculture

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A good antidote is the classic, Farmers of Forty Centuries, by F.H. King.

paul@largocreekfarms.com
*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 9/25/2004 at 1:32 PM Rain Tenaqiya wrote:

>There were a couple of points I'd like to "correct:"
> 
>1.  Municipal sludge is nasty-  If the waste stream is properly designed
>so that industrial toxins are not entering it and if the sewage sludge is
>composted properly with a good C:N ratio so that it gets hot, there will
>not be significant toxins or harmful organisms in it.  King County
>(Seattle area) has been doing this for years and uses it for growing
>wheat, landscaping, and forestry.  They report that the level of heavy
>metals in the soil is actually diluted by adding the composted sludge. 
>Unfortunately, most of the nitrogen in sewage is in the liquid part, so it
>is not being recycled.
> 
>2.  Exporting crops from farms can be sustainable because plants are
>mostly water, carbon, and nitrogen-  It is common knowledge that soil
>fertility declines after only one to three seasons of exporting crops, and
>this is not just because of the loss of nitrogen.  Phosphorus, potassium,
>and other nutrients are mined out of the soil by plants and must be
>returned (a basic permaculture principle).  Furthermore, in cases where a
>nutrient exists in sufficient quantities only in a certain strata of the
>soil or bedrock profile, it will be lost forever once plants that are
>being exported have integrated the nutrient into their tissues.
> 
>Most of the "solutions" to agriculture involve the use of fossil fuels to
>move stuff around.  Very few advanced horticultural or agrarian cultures
>have been able to sustainably farm for more than a few hundred years, and
>this is without the use of fossil fuels.  Besides the rape of the planet
>that fossil fuel use entails, we need to come up with ways of providing
>for ourselves once fossil fuels run out.  It is pretty sobering when you
>start to look at alternatives.  It takes a lot of space and work to grow
>enough apples to produce ethanol for even very modest transportation use,
>for example.
> 
>Rain
>
>               
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