permaculture

[Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>]

Thomas,
 
Thanks for taking the time to reply in such detail.
 
>…he (Fukuoka) always advised his students, not to 
> do as he did, but rather to find their own way.
 
This is a key phrase all who read Fukuoka ought to keep in mind.
 
>As he has not moved from his farm for several decades, 
>his experience maybe very much based on the particular 
>local environment.
 
I think with his experience as a biologist and farmer he was very well aware 
of different circumstances even if his foreign experience is limited to a few 
short visits.  Nevertheless, the oriental mind prefers to deal with the 
concrete and specific and has difficulties grappling with generalities.  
Thus, in my view, his description of farming techniques are to be understood 
as an expression of his specific experience and not to be used as generally 
valid rules.
 
>So what is reproduction exactly?
 
To many people the most salient or perhaps the most tangible fact about 
Natural Farming seems to be its rejection of plowing.  I don’t see it that 
way.  Anyway, for Fukuoka the spiritual dimension seems to take precedence 
over specific farming techniques.  But even if we leave aside the spiritual 
dimension, I think to grow food crops by the “natural soil fertility” without 
fertilizers (including organic fertilizers and all other external soil 
amendments or inputs) is at the heart of Natural Farming.  To avoid soil 
disturbance is just one means of achieving this end.  If farmers in your 
region find this works well under their local conditions, then by all means, 
use it.  If, on the other hand, cultivation without plowing is difficult or 
even impossible, you need to find other ways of maintaining soil fertility 
that are not destructive to your environment.  In fact, even in Japan, where 
conditions are most favorable, many Natural Farmers use
 plowing.  
 
I have tested this under very different and extremely difficult conditions.  
After 10 years of improving the very poor soil of this region, I can grow 
many crops without plowing and without fertilizers on a small scale with 
techniques that are more akin to mulched gardening.  For farmers in this 
region to grow without plowing is all but impossible.  Even chemical no-till 
wouldn’t work very well.  But I think it is better to plow than to use 
chemicals.
 
>I am pretty positive that in permaculture and natural 
>farming, a substantial amount of nutrients is absorbed 
>as organic compounds.
 
Do you mean absorbed (taken up) by plants?  That would appear to contradict 
what you said above about compounds being decomposed to inorganic ions before 
taken up by plants.
 
Incidentally, almost all Natural Farming pioneers (Okada, Fukuoka, Kawaguchi, 
etc.) take a very critical view of analytical science.  Fukuoka is of course 
a scientist himself, which seems contradictory.  But then, not all in life 
runs along the straight lines of human logic.
 
>Another reason may be the selection of varieties.
 
Natural Farming without seed saving is not possible.  Commercially available 
seeds were bred to be grown with soluble fertilizers.
 
>The decomposing organic matter supplied through 
>green manures is probably the most efficient way of 
>making nutrient bioavailable for the plants.
 
That may depend on circumstances.  In this region, traditional farming uses 
manure and plowing.  I try to use cover cropping, green mulching, mulching as 
much as possible, however, there are limits.  During 6 months of dry season 
with high temps and zero rain, all annual vegetation dies, and without 
humidity the dried vegetation doesn’t even decompose.  Hence, to use hey and 
straw for heap composting or for fodder which will then produce manure may in 
some situations be more efficient.
 
But I agree that in future farming with fewer and fewer farm animals, green 
manuring and cover cropping may be the only alternative to chemical farming.  
That is were Natural Faming may provide some useful working models..
 
Dieter
 
PS: Apart from not plowing, the other idea that has fixed itself in the mind 
of many is the necessity of using a clover cover crop or the like.  In fact, 
Kawaguchi like most other Natural Farmers in Japan doesn’t use clover or any 
other cover crop.  Instead they try to use the natural weed cover for growing 
food crops and only use weeding/mulching when necessary.
 



>From diebrand@yahoo.com  Mon Sep 21 05:51:43 2009
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Date: Mon, 21 Sep 2009 02:51:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
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Thanks Lawrence, that is that Bonfils text I was looking for.� I didn't know 
Jamie had put it on the net.� Is his site still active?
�
Dieter

--- On Sun, 9/20/09, Lawrence F. London, Jr. <lflj@bellsouth.net> wrote:


From: Lawrence F. London, Jr. <lflj@bellsouth.net>
Subject: [permaculture] [Fwd: Re: Svar: autumn Seedballs?]
To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Date: Sunday, September 20, 2009, 10:39 PM



More information about Jamie's (soucayrous) collections:

Soucayrous' Collections
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/souscayrous/

Emilia Hazelip's Synergistic Agriculture - Collected Papers
April 15, 2003, 151 photographs
"Here are 150 scanned documents left by Emilia, intended to form the body of 
her book on Synergistic Agriculture. I hope 
they can be of use to you. Souscayrous"
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/souscayrous/EmiliaHazelip-SynergisticAgriculture

Marc Bonfils' Agricultural Research
April 29, 2006, 109 photographs
"A selection of scanned pages from the work of Marc Bonfils. Known for his 
work on Winter Wheat, these pages include 
many other areas, especially Fruit Trees, Beekeeping and the reasons for the 
growing infertility of agricultural soils."
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/souscayrous/MarcBonfils-AgriculturalResearch

souscayrous' albums (the two above) on PicasaWeb
http://picasaweb.google.com/souscayrous

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>From tpj@life.ku.dk  Mon Sep 21 07:37:06 2009
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Dieter,
thank you very much again.


Den 21/09/2009 kl. 11.47 skrev Dieter Brand:
>
>> I am pretty positive that in permaculture and natural
>> farming, a substantial amount of nutrients is absorbed
>> as organic compounds.
>
> Do you mean absorbed (taken up) by plants?  That would appear to
> contradict what you said above about compounds being decomposed to
> inorganic ions before taken up by plants.

Yes, I mean absorbed by plants. Also organic compounds (amino acids
and even low molecular peptides) are taken up across the membrane by
specific transporters. So: no endocytosis! This transport however is
quantitatively irrelevant in conventional agriculture, where inorganic
fertilizers are applied. But may be well relevant in natural farming.
>
> Incidentally, almost all Natural Farming pioneers (Okada, Fukuoka,
> Kawaguchi, etc.) take a very critical view of analytical science.
> Fukuoka is of course a scientist himself, which seems
> contradictory.  But then, not all in life runs along the straight
> lines of human logic.

I have to admit that I share this critical view, as we ignore the
complexity of the system. I have been doing basic research ever since
my education out of pure curiosity, but have increasingly been
involved in applied projects in agricultural science. I don't think my
basic research can contribute here at all. Knowing about how to
influence the activity of a few membrane transporters will not have a
sustainable impact on farming but just serves as another technological
fix in a misguided system.
>
>
>
>
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