permaculture

[John Fritz <johnfritz77@yahoo.com>]

As a practical, economic matter, it seems that, for me, incorporating swales 
on contour makes more sense than to buy a 60 h.p. tractor and keyline plow, 
or hire someone who has these implements and is adept at using them.  The 
only unknown variable is the efficacy of keyline landscaping, as a whole 
system,vs. swale earthworks on contour as a stand alone strategy.  What would 
I be losing if I just used swales to retain water in my soil, as opposed to 
the time and expense of having a complete keyline design adapted to my 
rolling land?   In particular I am thinking about the timeline of energy 
descent and the availability of a professional keyline design several years 
out (five, maybe more years) as opposed to obtaining the best swales that I 
can now afford, even if the contour lines are less than perfectly plotted.  
One other doubt that I have is the resiliance (sp?) of the plowing done by a 
keyline chisel plow.  I have never seen either a freshly
 completed keyline design, nor such a design after several years completion.  
One thing that is not clear to me is how the chisel plow lines hold up to the 
natural erosion that would seem to occur over time.  Swales seem to have more 
resiliancy as they are made on gradual sweeping lines that have vegetative 
protection, whereas keyline chisel plow lines appear to be akin to defiles in 
the soil and more prone to collapse due to erosion over time...with a 
resulting need to replow the contour lines.  Any corrections to my intuition 
are welcomed.
 
John Fritz, NW Arkansas.



>From raincascadia@yahoo.com  Mon Aug 31 14:53:22 2009
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Subject: [permaculture] Lester Brown on how to feed the world/land ownership
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Here is an interesting article that touches on land ownership, among other 
things.  Lester Brown (Worldwatch Institute) says that turning China's 
collective farms into small family farms resulted in a 50% increase in food 
production.  I believe Russia experienced the same thing.  Now, Cuba is 
turning its state farms over to private use.  There is plenty of evidence 
that small-scale food production is higher that large-scale and that private 
use is more productive than public or corporate use.  However, productivity 
is not the only factor to consider in design.
 
http://www.alternet.org/environment/142293/rethinking_food_production_for_a_world_of_eight_billion/?page=1



>From qazingulaza@gmail.com  Mon Aug 31 14:54:56 2009
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Subject: [permaculture] International Paper Treads Monsanto's Path to
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International Paper Treads Monsanto's Path to 'Frankenforests'

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid 601087&sid®HNB_XJRWGU

By Jack Kaskey

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- International Paper Co., the world's largest
pulp and paper maker, plans to remake commercial forests in the same
way Monsanto Co. revolutionized farms with genetically modified crops.

International Paper's ArborGen joint venture with MeadWestvaco Corp.
and New Zealand's Rubicon Ltd. is seeking permission from the U.S.
Department of Agriculture to sell the first genetically engineered
forest trees outside China. The Australian eucalyptus trees are
designed to survive freezes in the U.S. South.

Plantations of engineered trees would give International Paper a
competitive advantage by providing a reliable supply of lower cost
wood at a time when timberlands are dwindling because of development,
said David Liebetreu, the Memphis, Tennessee- based company's vice
president of global sourcing. Opponents are concerned that alien genes
may contaminate natural forests, echoing objections to modified crops
that Monsanto still faces.

"There is a potential to explode once they get these trees approved,"
said David Knott, who manages $1.3 billion as chief executive officer
of Dorset Management in Syosett, New York. He said he increased his
stake in Rubicon to 70.5 million shares this year to bet on ArborGen
because it has a customer base of large landowners and little
competition. "This could take off faster than Monsanto."

Monsanto's genetics, which were first sold in herbicide- tolerant
soybeans in 1996 and insect-resistant corn the following year, were
used in 88 percent of the world's 309 million acres of biotech
plantings last year. Monsanto's sales of seeds and genetics quadrupled
since 2002 to $6.4 billion last year.

ArborGen Sales

ArborGen may boost yearly sales to $500 million in 2017 from $25
million by following Monsanto's blueprint for commercializing
engineered plants, said Stephen Walker, head of asset management at
New Zealand-based Goldman Sachs JBWere Ltd., which owns Rubicon shares
and holds no stock in International Paper or MeadWestvaco. The
partners eventually might sell shares of ArborGen to the public,
International Paper's Liebetreu said.

The USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service may approve
sales of freeze-tolerant eucalyptus trees by late 2010, ArborGen Chief
Executive Officer Barbara Wells said. The company also is developing
trees that are easier to pulp and that grow twice as fast, said Wells,
a former Monsanto executive who has a doctorate in agronomy.

ArborGen's eucalyptus would become the first engineered forest tree
sold in the U.S., where disease-resistant plum and papaya trees
already are permitted, according to a USDA database. China has planted
about 1.4 million biotech black poplars since commercialization in
2002.

Increasing Risk

Engineered eucalyptus trees could be an ecological disaster, bringing
increased fire risk and extraordinary water consumption to a new
environment, said Neil J. Carman, an Austin, Texas-based member of the
Sierra Club's genetic engineering committee. Easier-to-pulp trees will
be weak, and hurricanes will spread their pollen and contaminate
native forests, he said.

"These are Frankenforests," Carman said. "You are tampering with
Mother Nature in a big way by putting genetically engineered trees out
there."

The group won a court order in 2007 requiring Monsanto to pull
modified alfalfa plants from the market while the USDA reviewed their
environmental impact more thoroughly, and Carman said a similar
strategy may be used against modified trees.

ArborGen says that genes won't spread because its trees grow on
plantations, not in forests, and are engineered to be infertile with
impaired pollen production.

Tree Plantations

About 4 percent of the world's 8.5 billion forest acres are
plantations, and 2.6 million hectares (6.4 million acres) of new
plantations are added annually, according to the United Nations.

"It's through plantation forests and increased productivity that you
protect native forests," ArborGen's Wells said. "We pursue products
that we know are environmentally safe."

ArborGen, based in Summerville, South Carolina, was created in 2000
when the three partners pooled their tree-research assets and
intellectual property. The venture sells about 300 million
conventional tree seedlings a year to 2,000 customers in the U.S.,
Australia and New Zealand.

Rubicon derives most of its value from ArborGen, one of two ventures
it owns. International Paper and MeadWestvaco, a cardboard maker, are
so large that their 33 percent stakes in ArborGen aren't material to
earnings, the companies said.

Sustainable Hardwood Source

The papermaker's main interest in ArborGen is the potential of
modified trees such as cold-tolerant eucalyptus to provide a
sustainable source of hardwood for pulp, Liebetreu said. That becomes
more important as the U.S. starts to make biofuels from timber, which
may double harvest pressure in the U.S. South, International Paper
said in a June 9 letter to USDA.

"If you could go back and buy Monsanto when it was just starting to
develop genetically modified seeds, would you do it?" said Walker of
Goldman Sachs JBWere. "I think so."

Parallels with Monsanto aren't a coincidence. Wells, 54, spent 18
years at that company, including four years introducing modified
soybeans in Brazil. ArborGen Chief Science Officer Maud Hinchee and
James Mann, vice president of business development, also worked at St.
Louis-based Monsanto.

ArborGen Pricing

ArborGen may charge 20 times more for its engineered trees than its
cheapest seedlings and two to three times more than its best
conventional products as it claims a share of the revenue landowners
gain from growing high-quality wood faster, according to Rubicon's
July update. Monsanto's modified corn and soybean seeds are priced to
grab as much as half the increased income farmers realize from higher
yields and lower pest-control costs.

ArborGen became the world's largest seedling producer when it bought
assets from its parent companies in 2007, making it the only tree
developer with its own market channel for genetic technology, Wells
said. Others developing gene-modified trees, including FuturaGene Plc
in the U.K. and SweTree Technologies in Sweden, lack seedling
businesses and aren't yet pursuing permission for commercial sales.

Monsanto's research into genetically modified trees is limited to a
Brazilian collaboration on eucalyptus and citrus trees at Alellyx SA,
which Monsanto acquired in November after the project began,
spokeswoman Kelli Powers said.

Faster-Growing Trees

ArborGen next plans to seek U.S. approval to sell loblolly pine, used
for lumber and paper, engineered to mature in 18 years rather than 26.
In Brazil, ArborGen plans to seek approval for eucalyptus that matures
in four years, rather than seven, and eucalyptus with reduced lignin.

Extracting lignin, a brown polymer that hardens trees, is one of the
most expensive and polluting parts of making pulp, said Graeme P.
Berlyn, professor at Yale University's School of Forestry and
Environmental Studies.

"They definitely will find a market if they can do what they claim,"
Berlyn said.

There is a small chance some modified trees will produce pollen and
fertilize conventional relatives, Berlyn said. Populations
contaminated with low-lignin traits could be weakened and vulnerable
to breakage for thousands of years before evolution eliminates the
inferior genetics, he said.

"All of this is a bit troubling," said Berlyn, who edits the Journal
of Sustainable Forestry.

Expanded Testing

While ArborGen awaits approval to sell cold-tolerant eucalyptus, it
also is seeking USDA permission to expand a 57- acre test of the trees
to 330 acres, mainly in Texas, Florida and Alabama.

ArborGen is working with different eucalyptus species than those that
have become pests in California, and the biotech trees are "unlikely"
to prove invasive in the U.S. South, according to the USDA. The draft
environmental assessment on expanded field testing drew thousands of
comments opposing the USDA's conclusion that the research poses an
insignificant risk.

The proposed field tests involve 260,000 experimental trees and are
tantamount to commercial approval, the Sierra Club's Carman said. If
the field tests are approved, the Sierra Club may sue the USDA to
compel a more thorough study, known as an environmental impact
statement, he said.

In 2007, the U.S. District Court in San Francisco ordered the USDA to
conduct such an assessment of Monsanto's Roundup Ready alfalfa and
blocked further sales after the Sierra Club and organic farmer groups
challenged the plant's approval. The USDA hasn't yet released an
assessment of ArborGen's application to commercialize modified
eucalyptus.

Approval would set ArborGen on a path to sell 275 million engineered
seedlings a year by 2018, assuming its first five modified trees are
permitted, contributing to after-tax cash flows of as much as $700
million, according to an April report commissioned by Rubicon.