permaculture

["wenshidi@yahoo.co.uk" <wenshidi@yahoo.co.uk>]

Not everybody has access to coconut fibre, but you may be interested to learn 
that the windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) will grow very well in cold 
climates and at high altitudes.  It does very well in my own preferred locale 
in the Tibetan foothills where is has been used for millenia as a source of 
coir type fibre.
I was recently given a very interesting paper on the many uses of this plant 
in Chinese history by Frederick Essig, Professor Emeritus of Biology at USF.  
I you send me an email off list, then I would be happy to share a copy with 
you.

Hope that this helps

Chris

--- On Sun, 4/10/11, David Muhl <dmuhl65@yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: David Muhl <dmuhl65@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [permaculture] Eliot Coleman's seed starting mixture
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Sunday, April 10, 2011, 3:14 AM
> True...the import/export of coir
> around the world is (mostly) a byproduct of coconut
> plantations of various sizes, and it's pretty obvious that
> monocrop agriculture does not lend itself to
> biodiversity.  However, for those that live in climates
> where coconut palms grow, it can be a renewable resource if
> harvested as needed at the local level for local use, and
> not treated as merely an export commodity.  This is not
> currently an option for many of us, but it is for some.
> 
> For anyone that might be feeling guilty about their
> "commercial" coir use and orangutan habitat destruction, it
> should be clarified that 90% of the worlds coconut coir
> production occurs in India/Sri Lanka.  Coir is made
> from coconuts, and since "Oil Palms" don't produce coconuts,
> people need not feel guilty about their coir use affecting
> orangutan habitat in Borneo and Sumatra.  My
> understanding is that the damage in these areas is due
> primarily to timber and "oil palm" production (followed by
> rubber, cacao, coffee, cinnamon, and mining operations).
> 
> 
> > On 4/8/2011 2:18 PM, Paul Cross
> > wrote:
> > > I've often wondered why people seem to think coir
> is
> > ecological. It is
> > > produced as a byproduct of industrial agriculture
> that
> > destroys
> > > rainforests and plants monocrops of palms. As
> > permaculturalists we have
> > > to recognize that any outside input impacts the
> site
> > from which it was
> > > taken. Maybe in our accounting that is
> acceptable, or
> > maybe it is not.
> > > We can think we're doing good by washing our
> dishes in
> > coconut oil soap
> > > instead of petrochemical detergents, growing
> seedlings
> > in coir instead
> > > of peat, but the orangutans who lost their
> habitat to
> > palm plantations
> > > don't see it that way. We're always causing
> impacts.
> > 
> > To back you up on this here's something I picked up
> on
> > recently:
> > 
> > "The biggest problem agriculturally is that the most
> > profitable crop 
> > here and in Indonesia is palm trees for palm oil, the
> > universal cooking 
> > oil in this part of the world.  Problems are that
> palm
> > oil is hideously 
> > viscous and overwhelms anything cooked in it.  In
> > addition, there is no 
> > life form that can survive in a palm oil forest. 
> Zero
> > ecological balance."
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> > chrys@thefutureisorganic.net
> > and paul@richsoil.com
> > 
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