My friend, Mickyle Lamb, writes to me a question that he is considering deeply as he launches a business in gardening (Ecstatic Gardens can be reached at 541-9612). He is afraid that the two thrusts of purpose he is intuitively drawn to may not be, in some senses, compatible.
Here is the dilemma as I understand it: 1) support folks in creating and maintaining a lasagna-style mulch system garden bed "keyhole" style (almost circle shaped with a path in the middle; see Gaia's Garden) with the intent of making gardening "doable" and "successful" for those with little experience and/or time and 2) experiment with other additives such as biochar, mycelial inoculation, rock dust, etc., in combination, with the intent of adding as much richness and diversity to the soil as possible. The risk, as I see it, is "failure" in the garden.
The "failure," he expects, should not be great -- one nutrient or another not being as bioavailable. But secretly, I think, the question is: what if the client notices?
Here is a lesson from the garden: there is no contract or expectation that the earth will honor of its own free will. What is the relationship that you, as a contractor, seek with the earth to be in your integrity? What is the relationship you wish to promote in your clients as they "meet" the garden?
Our economy is potentially at odds with this course of experimentation and for good reason. Our cultural expectation of "what the Earth can do for us" reflects our transactional and monetary-based (time is money) rather than a need-based, giving economy which includes both short and long term needs of all species and the earth, to the best of our understanding.
My friend is right to be concerned. I will not answer to whether I think it is a "good" idea in terms of our current cultural-economic perspective; clearly risks are posed. But imagine the cutting-edge opportunity to shift awareness from packages of things we buy and add to the earth to a perspective that includes the earth itself in her many natural forms. Imagine if our commitment to gifting her stood unconditional of the short-term bounty she provides us, and our stewardship was not seen as specifically "ours" but one that includes and benefits our community.
For that is where I believe we must be headed. If that is not our hope, what is? My friend, are you willing to take the risk to deliver the gift of possible failure? To handhold a client through a crop gone down (they will, you know, whether you experiment or not; it's only our notion of "faulting" a cause that brings your concern) because that is part of the service you provide?
A midwife cannot promise a healthy baby. True wisdom is in letting go to support what simply is in the natural rhythm of things. The question is not, ultimately, to experiment or not experiment, but how to embrace the notion of "failure" in the garden. And Our Mother will teach us patience and share her abundance in depth and breadth.
Our hands must be in the earth, doing, in every moment possible to fulfill our part of the bargain, to live in balance. And this is the course I recommend. Do not wait for pocket books or theories to be tested. Live it with your hands. And the wisdom will be yours to share.
Calendar and Current Events
13 years ago
5 comments:
An amazing post, Kristin. You encapsulated a concept that I've been struggling towards at least since March, 2005, without finding a way to articulate it.
The key, I think, is in your own articulation of transactional monetary vs. need-based economies.
Our current model is, by it's nature, degenerational and destructive to society and the earth, because the focus is on how to set the right price to maximize profit. From this base, accumulation of resources becomes a virtue, not a vice; but excessive accumulation inevitably leads to waste. One person can only consume so much. Meanwhile, others are starving. What this means is that the economy is working as it's supposed to work.
Switching to a need-based economy, excessive accumulation would be seen as wasteful and shameful. Cooperation is valued at a higher level than competition, bonding society and making us all stronger and, I think, more effective.
I don't see how our current economic model can solve the problems this country is facing - Peak Oil and so forth. As Buckminster Fuller said, "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." The problem I've had in articulating a change is that I've been fighting the existing economy. This new model of the gift economy makes the old, divisive/competitive model obsolete. Thank you.
I hope you will come to share my passion in getting the word out on the wonderful solutions provided by TP soils.
I'm sort of the TP list cub reporter, most all my list postings, under shengar@aol.com, are news items, collaborative work, lobbying efforts with government, writers and journals.
Bellow are my collected stories and links that I promiscuously post to anyone who has an iron in this fire.
Thanks for your interest
Cheers,
Erich
the current news and links on Terra Preta (TP) soils and closed-loop pyrolysis of Biomass, this integrated virtuous cycle could sequester 100s of Billions of tons of carbon to the soils.
This technology represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.Terra Preta Soils a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration, 1/3 Lower CH4 & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too.
UN Climate Change Conference: Biochar present at the Bali Conference
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/steinerbalinov2107
SCIAM Article May 15 07;
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=5670236C-E7F2-99DF-3E2163B9FB144E40
After many years of reviewing solutions to anthropogenic global warming (AGW) I believe this technology can manage Carbon for the greatest collective benefit at the lowest economic price, on vast scales. It just needs to be seen by ethical globally minded companies.
Could you please consider looking for a champion for this orphaned Terra Preta Carbon Soil Technology.
The main hurtle now is to change the current perspective held by the IPCC that the soil carbon cycle is a wash, to one in which soil can be used as a massive and ubiquitous Carbon sink via Charcoal. Below are the first concrete steps in that direction;
S.1884 – The Salazar Harvesting Energy Act of 2007
A Summary of Biochar Provisions in S.1884:
Carbon-Negative Biomass Energy and Soil Quality Initiative
for the 2007 Farm Bill
http://www.biochar-international.org/newinformationevents/newlegislation.html
Bolstering Biomass and Biochar development: In the 2007 Farm Bill, Senator Salazar was able to include $500 million for biomass research and development and for competitive grants to develop the technologies and processes necessary for the commercial production of biofuels and bio-based products. Biomass is an organic material, usually referring to plant matter or animal waste. Using biomass for energy can reduce waste and air pollution. Biochar is a byproduct of producing energy from biomass. As a soil treatment, it enhances the ability of soil to capture and retain carbon dioxide.
Tackling Climate Change in the U.S.
Potential Carbon Emissions Reductions from Biomass by 2030by Ralph P. Overend, Ph.D. and Anelia Milbrandt
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
http://www.ases.org/climatechange/toc/07_biomass.pdf
The organization 25x25 released it's (first-ever, 55-page )"Action Plan" ; see; http://www.25x25.org/storage/25x25/documents/IP%20Documents/ActionPlanFinalWEB_04-19-07.pdf
On page 29 , as one of four foci for recommended RD&D, the plan lists: "The development of biochar, animal agriculture residues and other non-fossil fuel based fertilizers, toward the end of integrating energy production with enhanced soil quality and carbon sequestration."
and on p 32, recommended as part of an expanded database aspect of infrastructure: "Information on the application of carbon as fertilizer and existing carbon credit trading systems."
I feel 25x25 is now the premier US advocacy organization for all forms of renewable energy, but way out in front on biomass topics.
There are 24 billion tons of carbon controlled by man in his agriculture and waste stream, all that farm & cellulose waste which is now dumped to rot or digested or combusted and ultimately returned to the atmosphere as GHG should be returned to the Soil.
Even with all the big corporations coming to the GHG negotiation table, like Exxon, Alcoa, .etc, we still need to keep watch as they try to influence how carbon management is legislated in the USA. Carbon must have a fair price, that fair price and the changes in the view of how the soil carbon cycle now can be used as a massive sink verses it now being viewed as a wash, will be of particular value to farmers and a global cool breath of fresh air for us all.
If you have any other questions please feel free to call me or visit the TP web site I've been drafted to co-administer. http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node
It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal (Clorox), Novozyne the M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of EPRIDA , Dr. Antal of U. of H., Virginia Tech folks and probably many others who's back round I don't know have joined.
Also Here is the Latest BIG Terra Preta Soil news;
The Honolulu Advertiser: "The nation's leading manufacturer of charcoal has licensed a University of Hawai'i process for turning green waste into barbecue briquets."
See: http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/antalkingsford
ConocoPhillips Establishes $22.5 Million Pyrolysis Program at Iowa State
http://www.conocophillips.com/newsroom/news_releases/2007news/04-10-2007.htm
Glomalin, the recently discovered soil protien, may be the secret to to TP soils productivity;
http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2003/030205.htm
Mycorrhizae Inoculent;
http://www.mycorrhizae.com/
The International Biochar Initiative (IBI) conference held at Terrigal, NSW, Australia in 2007. The papers from this conference are posted at their home page; http://www.biochar-international.org/home.html
Here is my current Terra Preta posting which condenses the most important stories and links;
Terra Preta Soils Technology To Master the Carbon Cycle
Man has been controlling the carbon cycle , and there for the weather, since the invention of agriculture, all be it was as unintentional, as our current airliner contrails are in affecting global dimming. This unintentional warm stability in climate has over 10,000 years, allowed us to develop to the point that now we know what we did,............ and that now......... we are over doing it.
The prehistoric and historic records gives a logical thrust for soil carbon sequestration.
I wonder what the soil biome carbon concentration was REALLY like before the cutting and burning of the world's forest, my guess is that now we see a severely diminished community, and that only very recent Ag practices like no-till and reforestation have started to help rebuild it. It makes implementing Terra Preta soil technology like an act of penitence, a returning of the misplaced carbon to where it belongs.
On the Scale of CO2 remediation:
It is my understanding that atmospheric CO2 stands at 379 PPM, to stabilize the climate we need to reduce it to 350 PPM by the removal of 230 Billion tons of carbon.
The best estimates I've found are that the total loss of forest and soil carbon (combined
pre-industrial and industrial) has been about 200-240 billion tons. Of
that, the soils are estimated to account for about 1/3, and the vegetation
the other 2/3.
Since man controls 24 billion tons in his agriculture then it seems we have plenty to work with in sequestering our fossil fuel CO2 emissions as stable charcoal in the soil.
As Dr. Lehmann at Cornell points out, "Closed-Loop Pyrolysis systems such as Dr. Danny Day's are the only way to make a fuel that is actually carbon negative". and that " a strategy combining biochar with biofuels could ultimately offset 9.5 billion tons of carbon per year-an amount equal to the total current fossil fuel emissions! "
Terra Preta Soils Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration, 1/3 Lower CH4 & N2O soil emissions, and 3X FertilityToo
This some what orphaned new soil technology speaks to so many different interests and disciplines that it has not been embraced fully by any. I'm sure you will see both the potential of this system and the convergence needed for it's implementation.
The integrated energy strategy offered by Charcoal based Terra Preta Soil technology may
provide the only path to sustain our agricultural and fossil fueled power
structure without climate degradation, other than nuclear power.
The economics look good, and truly great if we had CO2 cap & trade or a Carbon tax in place.
.Nature article, Aug 06: Putting the carbon back Black is the new green:
http://bestenergies.com/downloads/naturemag_200604.pdf
Here's the Cornell page for an over view:
http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/biochar/Biochar_home.htm
University of Beyreuth TP Program, Germany http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=taxonomy/term/118
This Earth Science Forum thread on these soils contains further links, and has been viewed by 100,000 self-selected folks. ( I post everything I find on Amazon Dark Soils, ADS here):
http://forums.hypography.com/earth-science/3451-terra-preta.html
There is an ecology going on in these soils that is not completely understood, and if replicated and applied at scale would have multiple benefits for farmers and environmentalist.
Terra Preta creates a terrestrial carbon reef at a microscopic level. These nanoscale structures provide safe haven to the microbes and fungus that facilitate fertile soil creation, while sequestering carbon for many hundred if not thousands of years. The combination of these two forms of sequestration would also increase the growth rate and natural sequestration effort of growing plants.
The reason TP has elicited such interest on the Agricultural/horticultural side of it's benefits is this one static:
One gram of charcoal cooked to 650 C Has a surface area of 400 m2 (for soil microbes & fungus to live on), now for conversion fun:
One ton of charcoal has a surface area of 400,000 Acres!! which is equal to 625 square miles!! Rockingham Co. VA. , where I live, is only 851 Sq. miles
Now at a middle of the road application rate of 2 lbs/sq ft (which equals 1000 sqft/ton) or 43 tons/acre yields 26,000 Sq miles of surface area per Acre. VA is 39,594 Sq miles.
What this suggest to me is a potential of sequestering virgin forest amounts of carbon just in the soil alone, without counting the forest on top.
To take just one fairly representative example, in the classic Rothampstead experiments in England where arable land was allowed to revert to deciduous temperate woodland, soil organic carbon increased 300-400% from around 20 t/ha to 60-80 t/ha (or about 20-40 tons per acre) in less than a century (Jenkinson & Rayner 1977). The rapidity with which organic carbon can build up in soils is also indicated by examples of buried steppe soils formed during short-lived interstadial phases in Russia and Ukraine. Even though such warm, relatively moist phases usually lasted only a few hundred years, and started out from the skeletal loess desert/semi-desert soils of glacial conditions (with which they are inter-leaved), these buried steppe soils have all the rich organic content of a present-day chernozem soil that has had many thousands of years to build up its carbon (E. Zelikson, Russian Academy of Sciences, pers. comm., May 1994). http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/carbon1.html
All the Biochar Companies and equipment manufactures I've found:
Carbon Diversion
http://www.carbondiversion.com/
Eprida: Sustainable Solutions for Global Concerns
http://www.eprida.com/home/index.php4
BEST Pyrolysis, Inc. | Slow Pyrolysis - Biomass - Clean Energy - Renewable Ene
http://www.bestenergies.com/companies/bestpyrolysis.html
Dynamotive Energy Systems | The Evolution of Energy
http://www.dynamotive.com/
Ensyn - Environmentally Friendly Energy and Chemicals
http://www.ensyn.com/who/ensyn.htm
Agri-Therm, developing bio oils from agricultural waste
http://www.agri-therm.com/
Advanced BioRefinery Inc.
http://www.advbiorefineryinc.ca/
Technology Review: Turning Slash into Cash
http://www.technologyreview.com/Energy/17298/
3R Environmental Technologies Ltd. (Edward Someus)
WEB: http://www.terrenum.net/
The company has Swedish origin and developing/designing medium and large scale carbonization units. The company is the licensor and technology provider to NviroClean Tech Ltd British American organization WEB: http://www.nvirocleantech.com and VERTUS Ltd.
http://www.vertustechnologies.com
Genesis Industries, licensee of Eprida technology, provides carbon-negative EPRIDA energy machines at the same cost as going direct to Eprida. Our technical support staff also provide information to obtain the best use of biochar produced by the machine. Recent research has shown that EPRIDA charcoal (biochar) increases plant productivity as it sequesters carbon in soil, thus reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide.
http://www.egenindustries.com/
If pre-Columbian Kayopo Indians could produce these soils up to 6 feet deep over 15% of the Amazon basin using "Slash & CHAR" verses "Slash & Burn", it seems that our energy and agricultural industries could also product them at scale.
Harnessing the work of this vast number of microbes and fungi changes the whole equation of energy return over energy input (EROEI) for food and Bio fuels. I see this as the only sustainable agricultural strategy if we no longer have cheap fossil fuels for fertilizer.
We need this super community of wee beasties to work in concert with us by populating them into their proper Soil horizon Carbon Condos.
Erich J. Knight
Shenandoah Gardens
1047 Dave Berry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
(540) 289-9750
Two sentences simply leap out at me, Kristin. "What is the relationship that you, as a contractor, seek with the earth to be in your integrity? What is the relationship you wish to promote in your clients as they "meet" the garden?"
I find myself still relating to the earth not as I would relate with my human friends, still leaning toward terms of 'what can you do for me and how can I make you do that?' And I noticed my awareness of this 'invisible' prejudice rising like a spring sow thistle into my conscious mind a few weeks ago as you and I were moving around your garden and you were sharing poetically around the mundane art of mulching. I came away from your words and our encounter that day with a renewed care for 'feeding the earth.'
And as your words keenly remind me now, how could personal 'integrity' not be an essential component of any ecological conscience that is foundationally coherent?
I never cease to be surprised at the depths gardening takes me to, the inner work it asks of us in stepping toward a reverential care for Creation - our fullest selves. And, of course, the dialog and care is entirely two-way in its Oneness. I note that the first bed I approached in the aftermath of the shift which followed your sharing, is now absolutely booming with healthy veggies. Yes, virtue grows from and blends with the land: we are one in heart, the earth and I.
When the dance of interbeing across the inner-outer spectrum, between the ecology of soul and manifesting world, is approached with conscious and kindly intent on the part of the Gardener, surely this is when we become most attentive to the wisdom inherent in Nature, to learning which of our understandings are in accord with Harmony, to becoming more fully human or divine or whatever words we choose to describe the glorious adventure of coming home to ourselves and our world in eternity.
I am reminded just now of the closing words of Rilke's Ninth Duino Elegy:
"Earth, isn't this what you want? To arise in us, invisible?
Is it not your dream, to enter us so wholly
there's nothing left outside us to see?
What, if not transformation,
is your deepest purpose? Earth, my love,
I want that too. Believe me,
no more of your springtimes are needed
to win me over - even one flower
is more than enough. Before I was named
I belonged to you. I seek no other law
but yours, and know I can trust
the death you will bring."
I am touched by your receiving of integrity in relationship to earth. It feels as if each comment left receiving the message so kindly sent through me allows me to absorb it yet a little more, so nourishing.
And the Rilke poem! My goodness, doesn't that hit the nail on its head? I will put that one up as a daily reminder of all that I aspire to.
Well, with great ambivalence I think I might respond.
I'm rather appalled and puzzled. I feel it must be words, the tangling of thoughts into these bits of sound.
It must be me, misunderstanding.
How can anyone look at the world or people or anything in terms of economics? But, more to the root of things, I'm a bit shy of the phrase, "meeting needs." How can I look at anyone and think, "what can I do for them, what can they do for me?" and certainly, "how can I look at the world or a patch of ground and think, "what will succeed here or what will fail?"
It is amazing to me. When I look at gardens or gardening it is always with one thought: can I learn to adapt here? What must I do and learn to eat here?
I'm wondering now. (uh-oh) There are two fundamental shifts in humans when intereacting with their world. One shift is from hunter-gather to herd-following/burn to promote favorite plant thinking where one can "help" the world provide something better. The next shift is to confine the herds and grow the plants where you want to live.
I believe that this trail always leads to looking at the world as a provider and looking at yourself as a provider and, voila! economics. Have, have not, needs to meet, needy, this basic dichotomy that has separated us from THAT out there.
There is no THAT. We ARE the garden. To build a garden for someone is to help them see that they are the garden. To relate with others is to overlap in our spaces so that there is no other.
But fascinating. Everything about you all is fascinating, you know. But it makes me feel strange sometimes to wonder if people actually do feel as if they are not trees or plants or worms in the mulch.
Hm. Well there are as many different gardens as there are gardeners, I guess. I feel that failure is merely a conversation a suggestion that I can learn something and adapt myself so that I shuck off these layers that grew up between us.
Interesting.
anne
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