permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

Friday, Jan 23 ,  9-10am Sustainable World Radio on KCSB 91.9 FM PST 
and streaming live on www.kcsb.org. Also found on 
www.sustainableworldradio.com, later in the month

Join Jill Cloutier of Sustainable World Radio for an interview  with 
Lorenz Schaller
 about Humanities Ancient Relationship with Edible Seed Crops
  The precious edible seeds of the earth - the cereal grains, 
grain-legumes, oilseeds and other precious edible seeds - have a 
history of small-scale cultivation and utilization which dates back 
more than 10,000 years.

 Lorenz Schaller's work and the mission of the Kusa Seed Society 
founded 1980 (www.ancientcerealgrains.org) is to increase humanity's 
knowledge and understanding of this very ancient relationship. 
Experience a conversion of humanity's relationship with sacred cereal 
grasses such as barley, amaranth, kamut, spelt, millet, oats, quinoa, 
and other edible seed crops from around the world. 

 Over time, his scientific knowledge merged with a deeper spiritual 
connection to the life cycles of the planet. He could see the bigger 
picture of how seed crops supplied most of the world with important, 
densely nutritious foods. These miraculous plants feed more humans 
and wildlife than any other food source

The Kusa Seed organization has operated continuously since 1980, 
regenerating rare seed, carrying-on public education work in the form 
of public lectures and color-slide presentations, and distributing 
seed and literature in accord with its mission. Lectures and 
color-slide presentations have been delivered to audiences numbering 
in the hundreds, and thousands of packets of rare seeds have been 
distributed to the public



ARTICLE FROM EDIBLE OJAI MAGAZINE SPRING 2008


Ancient Cereal Grains:
Lorenz Schaller and the Seeds of Our Past
BY CARRIE CLOUGH Edible Ojai. spring 2008

www.edibleojai.com/content/pages/articles/year2008/spring08/pdfs/ 
ancientCerealGrains.pdf

Have you ever had the opportunity to look
out onto a field of shimmering grass just
finishing its life cycle? Undoubtedly, you
have. Grasses cover more of the earth than
any other plant.

We live in Southern California, where,
in the summertime, the velvety golden
hillsides along many stretches of highway are
the work of our native grasses.
Not everyone can appreciate the brown
and yellow hue of summer dormancy, but
these colors are an important characteristic
of all grasses at the end of their life cycle.
This is the seeding stage. Without the seeds
of these mysterious and special plants, we
would have no hope of ever seeing such
landscapes again. We would also have no
hope of ever eating grains again.

The grains we know well are the grasses
humans have chosen to cultivate for thousands of years. They
are edible seed crops. Lorenz Schaller has devoted most of his
life to these seeds. This is why he founded the Kusa Seed
Research Foundation.

A longtime Ojai resident, Schaller is a remarkable steward
of his environment. Having worked as a gardener and
landscapist for many years, he developed a keen interest in the
ancient tradition of seed saving. He spent a number of his early
years researching and working in the biology department atCaltech.

Over time, his scientific knowledge merged with a deeper
spiritual connection to the life cycles of the planet. He could see
the bigger picture of how seed crops supplied most of the world
with important, densely nutritious foods. These miraculous
plants feed more humans and wildlife than any other food
source. He could see not only the important ancient tradition
of preserving heirloom grains, but he could also envision a solu-
tion to world hunger and the beginning of peaceful coexistence.
Lorenz founded Kusa in 1980. Kusa is a Sanskrit word
meaning sacred grass. The Kusa Seed Research Foundation is a
nonprofit foundation for the purpose of education and
scientific research, as well as preserving as many varieties of
heirloom cereal grains, grain-legumes and other precious edible
seeds as possible.

One of Kusa's primary concerns is the critical question of
seed ownership. For thousands of years, the rightful owner of a
seed has been the one who grew it. This paradigm has shifted
since the industrial revolution, and, more recently, with the
Green Revolution of the 1960s and the exploitation of genetic
engineering by companies like Monsanto. The intense
hybridization and genetic modification of cereal grains have
reduced our ability to evolve with nature.

Contrary to the claim of many corporate agronomists that
biotechnology is the solution to global starvation, genetic
manipulation has little to do with feeding the world's poor and
everything to do with money. If a biotech company can patent
a genetically engineered seed, it is, by law, entitled to receive the
profits from that seed, no matter where it is grown in the world.
This is how the exchange of seed becomes a business transaction
based on patent rights and a new economy of biotechnology is
engendered.

Wheat "crises" are the result of market forces selling half of all
wheat production as animal feed. It is perfectly good for human
consumption, but human consumption alone is not as profitable.


Therein lies the failing of a market-driven food supply.
Kusa began as a means of preserving an ancient tradition
that is in danger of being stripped away from us. With a highly
developed knowledge of seed storage and safekeeping and over
30 years of research, the Kusa Seed Research Foundation is a bea-
con of light for our present and future. It is the sort of work we
should all be doing, but many of us could use some instruction.
Growing grain is easier than growing vegetables. It doesn't
require very much water and doesn't need a lot of attention.
The only real challenge is a change of lifestyle. Most would
probably rather save the time and effort it takes to sheaf and
harvest grain and just go buy the grain instead. These are busy,
sleep-deprived times in which we are living.

But what if this was a community activity? I have a
wonderful book entitled Dry: Life Without Water, which
chronicles some of the driest places in the world with a series of
essays by science journalists. One of the most beautiful
depictions is of the women of a village in a mountainous region
of Morocco who have been growing and harvesting wheat for
thousands of years. It's an activity of which the women have
always been in charge, since they are ones who bake the bread
and put food on the table. It's the perfect cycle of fertility.
I love to imagine myself in a group of women, harvesting
and collecting grains of wheat or barley, chatting and laughing
about life, and having the time and the opportunity to do so.
Knowing how to begin such an event in one's modern, indus-
trialized life takes time but, fortunately, only a little bit of land.
It also takes education, which is where Kusa can provide us with
a tremendous local resource.

I asked Schaller his ultimate goal for Kusa.
"The ultimate objective of the Kusa Seed organization is to
establish and operate a Seed Learning Center, also called a Seed
Sanctuary, where the edible seed crops the organization is
conserving will be archived, regenerated and cataloged. This
headquarters property will have accommodations for 30 resi-
dential students. Students will be able to enroll for a short stay,
as a means of studying and working with the edible seed crops
first-hand. Enrollment will be tuition- and scholarship-based."
Schaller's passion for teaching was clear after I attended one
of his slide-show presentations in San Luis Obispo. This was
the first time I met him. It was a bread-baking, artisanal food-
crafting workshop organized by the Sustainable Agriculture
Resource Consortium (SARC) under the umbrella of Cal Poly.
Lorenz showed us a beautiful slide show of communities
around the world growing grain for subsistence, and doing so
sustainably.

What touched me most about his presentation was a
postcard that he had designed for Kusa. On the front of the
card were four Chinese characters that read: "Earth-Body-Not-
Two." There is no separation of our humanity from the rest of
nature. We are one and the same.

With the announcement of Norway's Global Seed Bank
receiving its first several million seeds from around the globe,
the protection of seed crops is of universal concern. Whether
any of these seeds are genetically engineered remains to be
disclosed, but with the rate of species extinction rising due to
climate change, the protection of seeds is of utmost
importance.

It's almost springtime now. After all the rain we've had, the
landscape is filled with new green shoots and budding growth.
This is the time of new beginnings. Make an effort to
commune with nature in whatever way seems intuitive to you.

Maybe that means going for a walk along one of Ojai's many
beautiful trails, or sitting outside and looking at your garden.
Maybe it means you want to start planting some seeds.
Visit the Kusa Seed Research Foundation website at
www.ancientcerealgrains.org.

Lorenz Schaller is a remarkable writer and has written
much informative literature about grains. For more informa-
tion about the Seed Sanctuary, visit the Seed and Literature
catalog on the website and click on "Church of Grain."
Carrie Clough is a native of Santa Barbara who has recently
moved to Santa Barbara. She is a certified nutritional chef and has her own
personal chef business, MANZANITA, specializing in nutritious
cuisine.With a great love of native plants and seasonal produce, she
seeks to meld the two worlds of ecology and gastronomy into one
beautiful, edible tapestry. Visit www.manzanitachef.com.
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PRESS/SOCIAL MEDIA RELEASE 
Rogue German Ship Fertilizing Southern Ocean in Dangerous 
Climate Geo-Engineering Experiment

- Precedent set that private researchers can experiment on 
Earth's shared biosphere without oversight. Protests highlight 
oceans are not carbon dumps, a biosphere cannot be engineered. 

January 20, 2009
By Earth's Newsdesk, a project of Ecological Internet
http://www.ecoearth.info/newsdesk/
CONTACT: Dr. Glen Barry, glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org

(Seattle, WA) -- RV Polarstern, a German research ship from 
the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, is 
to dump twenty tons of iron sulphate over 300 square 
kilometres of the Scotia Sea, off Chile's coast, near the 
Antarctic Peninsula. The chemical cargo -- normally used to 
treat lawns and sewage -- is likely to provoke a massive algal 
bloom big enough to be seen from outer space. 

German and Indian scientists are hoping the experiment will 
show that such manmade algae blooms can provide a quick fix to 
climate change by absorbing carbon into the sea. In fact, it 
is a desperate attempt to put off hard climate change policies 
by using technology to further create a human dominated 
"Frankensphere". Along with other geo-engineering proposals 
such as space mirrors and aerosol release, seeking to engineer 
the biosphere holds great risks of unintended consequences 
such as further climate destabilization and global ecological 
damage.

The experiment breaches the global moratorium on ocean 
fertilization activities recently agreed under the U.N. 
Convention on Biological Diversity and defies agreements 
against dumping of wastes in the sea. Ocean fertilization 
treats oceans as carbon dumps, and will severely deplete 
already troubled marine ecosystems. 

"This is one of the first of many coming attempts to begin 
'geo-engineering' the biosphere as a desperate measure to 
address climate change," notes Dr. Glen Barry, Ecological 
Internet's President. "Geo-engineering won't work -- the 
atmosphere is simply too complex -- and trying will almost 
certainly make things worse. It diverts from sufficient 
emissions reductions, conservation and efficiency, and 
renewable energy solutions to stop climate change and restore 
global ecological systems." 

Along with other geo-engineering proposals such as space 
mirrors and aerosol release, seeking to engineer the biosphere 
holds great risks of unintended consequences such as further 
climate destabilization and global ecological damage.

Global protest has already led to a review of the experiment. 
And in recent days 1,200 people from 63 countries have sent 
hundreds of thousands of protest emails from Ecological 
Internet's Earth Action Network to the German government[1]. 
They have demanded the experiment be cancelled, and Germany 
agrees to a permanent ban on large-scale geo-engineering 
experiments and implementation, until all other options are 
exhausted, and global geo-engineering protocols are in place.

[1] TAKE ACTION: 
http://www.climateark.org/shared/alerts/send.aspx?id=ocean_geo-engineering

###ENDS###

Ecological Internet provides the world's largest and most used 
climate and environment portals at http://www.climateark.org/ 
and http://www.ecoearth.info/ . Dr. Glen Barry is a leading 
global spokesperson on behalf of environmental sustainability 
policy. He frequently conducts interviews on the latest 
climate, forest and water policy developments and can be 
reached at: glenbarry@ecologicalinternet.org.

DISCUSS RELEASE:
http://www.climateark.org/blog/2009/01/rogue-german-ship-fertilizing.asp

To subscribe visit:
http://www.ecoearth.info/shared/subscribe/

*********

[posted to Permaculture list]

Everyone's entitled to their opinion.. and all I'm doing here is adding my 
own. But to call all such approaches a "quick fix", and to say bioengineering 
"is a desperate attempt to put off hard climate change policies by using 
technology to further create a human dominated  'Frankensphere'"? Really?

I don't think anyone is saying we can just stop every other avenue of relief 
right now, and sit back in our RVs while scientists rejigger the environment. 
Obviously everyone's individual efforts are going to be vital to curbing 
emissions. And governmental, national approaches to emission reduction will be key 
to any success. But let's be realistic. No matter what enlightened 
individuals, communities and committed nations do, there will still be the push of an 
additional four or five billion newly affluent consumers in the coming couple of 
decades. And I don't think they'll be satisfied to be told they should just 
pedal their bicycles and eat local produce. Not when they've sat by for 
generations watching the world's privileged people drive to the store in Hummers and 
eat winter produce from across the globe. It's just not a realistic vision of 
the near future. An additional effort will, IMO, be needed.

Scientists exploring the field of geoengineering have been the very first 
people to admit that the approach "holds great risks of unintended consequences 
such as further climate destabilization and global ecological damage." Those 
are the people we first heard that warning from. They are unlikely to disregard 
their own warnings.

Previous experimental seeding with iron has yielded less than impressive 
results. A planned experiment on the scale of twenty tons is highly unlikely to 
destabilize our climate regime. It's a small, localized experiment dedicated to 
the furtherance of our knowledge as to how natural systems work.. and how they 
can be influenced.

Neither is it "dumping".. of either carbon (the material being dispersed is 
iron sulfate) or "waste". "Dumping" and "waste" are scare words, used to alarm 
us, and an indication that propaganda is to follow. Or, to be more kindly, we 
can say "heavy handed opinion".

Dr Barry then goes on to say "Ocean fertilization treats oceans as carbon 
dumps, and will severely deplete already troubled marine ecosystems."

Okay, again, not carbon and not dumps. Nor can he show us that such an 
experiment will deplete marine ecosystems.

He appears to be deliberately confusing us around the fact that we DO 
currently have a great and growing problem with "dead zones".. those offshore areas 
around the world where excess carbon and nitrogen are entering the coastal 
systems from huge agricultural zones (think the Mississippi) or population areas 
(think many of the rivers of Europe and China), and precipitating algal blooms. 
That is in fact a great danger.. and one that has famously been converting 
complex ecosystems into degraded  near deserts.. where the top predator is now 
the jellyfish.

But to seed planktonic nurseries with bioavailable iron? That's the material 
that actually forms the limit to growth of phytoplankton. And phytoplankton 
forms the base of the ocean's food chain. These are the tiny plants that nourish 
the rest of ocean life. It also acts as our principal living carbon sink.. 
being responsible for more CO2 fixation than all of the plants on the earth's 
solid surface.

It's an avenue that people up in 2036 might wish they had in their 
armamentarium of tricks, in the event that global climate change has not stopped, but 
pushed up to and beyond the brink of apparent reversibility. By that time they 
won't have the luxury of time to start exploring any backup plans. They'll want 
to try something ready and on the shelf.

By contrast, the plan being espoused by Dr Barry, by Eco Earth, by Eco 
Internet, by Climate Ark, by Forests.org, by Water Conserve, Ocean Conserve, 
Rainforest Portal, New Earth Rising and countless other advocacy groups.. is to have 
no backup plan. And to bank everything on the gamble that we can turn the tide 
of change by everyone agreeing to economize in their daily life. This 
eggs-in-one-basket approach isn't in total agreement with the human nature I've 
witnessed. To me, if the human race has a chance to totally screw something up, we 
can always count on them doing so.. with gusto. Especially if anyone asks that 
they deprive themselves.

So I feel we should absolutely do everything we can possibly do to tighten 
our belts, economize to the point where our lives fit into a smaller size and do 
daily work in the effort to avert catastrophe. 

And I think we should put forth great effort in proselytizing among the 
heathen.. knowing, as we do, that most of them don't exactly think the way we do. 

But I also think we should explore a few potential backup plans, in the event 
that all our efforts aren't quite good enough.

Still, that's my opinion, based on reading across the expanse of opinion. 
While Dr Barry is, well.. a doctor in the field. And one with very pronounced 
opinions. Here follow his credentials:

http://forests.org/staff/glen.asp

Further opinions on this topic would be welcomed, if anyone has an interest. 
And a preliminary google of further references, possibly "rv polarstern iron 
convention biological diversity", would no doubt be informative. When we form a 
conclusion based on hearing one side of a controversy we often come away with 
a limited view.

Michael