Guest guest Posted January 5, 2009 Report Share Posted January 5, 2009 Regarding veganism and sustainable agriculture, this message was posted on the Jersey Zoo listserve two days ago. I thought it was intriguing and relevant. Transcript here : Thanks to all involved for resurrecting Gerald Durrell's 1988 New Year message. During the last 40 or so years I have moved from espousing a halt to population growth and the adoption of a steady-state economy through a realization that we have so far overshot the carrying capacity of our supporting ecosystems that very Rapid Population Decline during the next century is called for. However as I have finally allowed news of the productivity of human altered 'terra preta' soils in the Amazon, and recent papers about the effect of charcoal on soil fertility, to sink into my consciousness – I am a little more optimistic about our ability to feed ourselves while we orchestrate the population contraction that will allow us to glean most of our food from self managing, species diverse, deep rooted, nutrient conservative [close to natural] forest and prairie/grassland ecosystems that are similar to those sustainably exploited by our hunter gatherer ancestors. I am pasting a short email exchange (below) that may be of interest to some of you. Peter Salonius ================================================================================\ ========== ------------------------------ ** Laird, David [David.Laird] *Sent:* Thursday, January 01, 2009 14:59 *To:* Salonius, Peter *Subject:* RE: Maybe there is hope for SOME cultivation agriculture Peter, I just read your internet article. Overall I agree with most of your analysis. Biochar is part of the answer and will make food production more sustainable. Mostly, I think it can buy time. For example, if we had global use of biochar on ag soils, perhaps we could make our phosphorous reserves last 300 to 500 years rather than 60. A global one-child-per couple policy is critical, but will be almost impossible to achieve. David ------------------------------ ** Salonius, Peter [Peter.Salonius] *Sent:* Wed 12/31/2008 10:42 AM *To:* Laird, David *Subject:* Maybe there is hope for SOME cultivation agriculture Hello David A. Laird Just read 'THE CHARCOAL VISION: A Win-Win ………….. and Water Quality' Agron. Journal. 100(1): 178-181, 2008. I have been suspicious about the role of charcoal in Chernozemic soils but your " guess " of 5 to 15% of the C in Midwestern prairie soils as a legacy of 10,000 years of prairie fires - is the first I have seen in print. So maybe there is a 'terra preta' aspect to the fertility of these soils. I went to agricultural college with a fellow who said that on their farm on the Canadian prairies (Vermillion) they had not needed to use fertilizer YET (early 1960s). You will see in the email string (below) that I have been writing off cultivation agriculture on most of the world's soils as unsustainable, see: http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4628 While I remain convinced that the global human population must shrink drastically, knowledge of the 'terra preta' phenomenon has modified my ideas about how rapidly this should happen. I will follow this message with another (too much stuff to incorporate in one email). Peter Salonius ------------------------------ ** Salonius, Peter *Sent:* Wednesday, December 31, 2008 11:59 *To:* 'Culturequake Info' *Subject:* For the Permaculture designer/ organic farmer Chuck As I have become aware of your roles as " permaculture designer " and " organic farmer " I am pasting a message I sent yesterday to the Exec. Director of the outfit I work within. I have been tempted to get into the nuts and bolts of the " terra preta de indio soils' phenomenon for a couple of years -- especially after reading David Montgomery's recent book 'DIRT' which I am now reviewing for a forestry journal. You may already have delved into the intricacies of the role of charcoal in acid, low fertility soil types. Peter Salonius Research Scientist, *Canadian Wood Fibre Centre * Natural Resources Canada - Canadian Forest Service Government of Canada P. O. Box 4000, 1350 Regent Street South, Fredericton, New Brunswick, E3B 5P7, Canada Tel.:(506) 452-3548, Fax: (506) 452-3525 Email: psaloniu Chercheur scientifique, * Centre canadien sur la fibre de bois * Ressources naturelles Canada - Service canadien des forêts *Gouvernement du Canada * C. P. 4000, 1350, rue Regent sud, Fredericton (Nouveau-Brunswick) E3B 5P7, Canada Tél. :(506) 452-3548, Téléc. : (506) 452-3525 Courriel : psaloniu ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ George I have become fascinated by the possibilities (see message to Derek and Suzanne (below). Suzanne's husband Luc was at one time associated with DYNAMOTIVE ( www.dynamotive.com) who use FAST PYROLYSIS to produce BioOil, char and electricity from wood –AND-- there is interest in Ontario in taking MOBILE FAST PYROLYSIS to harvesting sites so as to reduce the bulk of forest fuels and decrease transport costs. The paper I sent Derek and Suzanne (below) is more technical than you probably have time to read ---- however I have unearthed two VERY SHORT NOTES appropriate for executive class personnel: 1. BLACK IS THE NEW GREEN at: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v442/n7103/full/442624a.html at the end if which you will find a link to: *Johannes Lehmann's page on Terra Preta*<http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/terra_preta/TerraPretahome.htm\ >at : *http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/index.html *<http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/index.html> where there is some good further reading --- --\ ----------------------- ---- including (at the very end of the Terra Preta de Indio section) as: SCIENCE BRIEF: 2. TERRA PRETA: Soil Improvement and Carbon Sequestration at: http://www.css.cornell.edu/faculty/lehmann/research/terra%20preta/Flyer%20terra%\ 20preta%20landuse%20strategy.pdf ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ So George, you may want to forward this material that has to do with a new avenue for marketing Canadian wood OR you may suggest others that I should contact about these ideas. Peter Salonius =============================================================================== ___________ ** Salonius, Peter *Sent:* Monday, December 29, 2008 16:14 *To:* Sidders, Derek; Wetzel, Suzanne *Subject:* Until I talked to Derek about his recent article in Canadian Silviculture entitled 'GROWING WOOD FIBRE FOR ENERGY' , I had given no thought to 'carbon credits' as a forestry crop – that may enter into economic profit/loss analyses for forest cropping systems (including purpose grown short-rotation woody crops on agricultural land) /// but also to justify early entry into natural stands to begin to break up their age structure in preparation for LIGHT REGULAR ENTRY STRIP HARVESTING regimes designed to approximate natural gap replacement regeneration dynamics in temperate Acadian and Great Lakes St. Lawrence forest regions. Early entry to strip cut immature wood would not be an attractive proposition if conventional pulp/paper or dimension lumber products producers were the only buyers in the region. If you have not read the following paper, you might give it a quick look-see. With my agricultural background, I am intrigued with the possibilities of enhancing soil fertility (the terra preta angle) with bio-char from wood pyrolysis at the same time as creating heat AND carbon credits. Cheers Peter Salonius +++++++++++++++++ Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change (2006) 11: 403–427 _C Springer 2006 DOI: 10.1007/s11027-005-9006-5 *BIO-CHAR SEQUESTRATION IN TERRESTRIAL* *ECOSYSTEMS – A REVIEW* *Read at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/etm7526m07672103/fulltext.pdf * ------------------------------ ** Culturequake Info [info] *Sent:* Saturday, December 27, 2008 23:34 *To:* Salonius, Peter *Subject:* Re: Roots of Power and Excessive Scale Hello Peter, Great minds think alike. I specially like your reference to the soil food web at the beginning of your essay on the Oil Drum. Bravo! You would like my book Culturequake<http://www.amazon.com/Culturequake-Modern-Culture-Birth-World/dp/14\ 25110436/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product>, but I am sure you already know most of what is inside—I do devote chapters to overshoot and overpopulation. There are also more essays that you probably already saw in the culturequake.org website. My partner Karen just got back in town and I look forward to delving into your essay in more detail. I am working towards a more serious line of thinking over the next year or two. I am trying to develop a new meme that will be more likely to be replicated instead of our agricultural revolution meme(s) that are destroying our home as I put it. Let me know if you have had any similar thoughts. Best Wishes, Chuck Burr ================================================================================\ == On Dec 24, 2008, at 9:29 AM, Salonius, Peter wrote: Hello Chuck Burr I've just read your piece entitled 'End Power and Reduce Scale' (circulated by Culture Change)in which you mark the transition from hunter gathering to agriculture as the point at which sustainable tribal organization gave way to unsustainable " civilization " and hierarchical power structures based on control of the wherewithal for life. I have maintained, in a 'somewhat well referenced article' posted on THE OILDRUM, October 20, 2008, that economic and population growth, facilitated by the shift from hunter gathering to farming, have been responsible for the environmental destruction that has been escalating for the last 10,000 years. I think you will agree that IF my thesis, which is the culmination of my ~ 42 year investigation into the relationship between humans and their supporting ecosystems, is correct -- then the 'population bomb'-that continues to make natural resource management problematic-exploded a long, long time ago, see: 'Agriculture: Unsustainable Resource Depletion Began 10,000 Years Ago' at; http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4628 My 'guesstimate' for sustainable human numbers in the 100s of millions, if true, suggests that the present global population has so far overshot the carrying capacity of its supporting ecosystems that most analyses of the relationship of excessive human numbers to SPECIFIC ASPECTS of environmental damage are simply indulgent academic exercises. There are more people on the planet (and have been for millennia) than it can sustainably support. Many of us have concluded that even TWO CHILD FAMILIES -- that would only slowly stabilize the human population -- are not an adequate response to this problem; we require the adoption of NO or ONE CHILD PER FAMILY behaviour to orchestrate the Rapid Population DECLINE that is necessary now. ----- I expect that anyone, who is truly interested in the reasons that open-ended population and economic growth are so widely espoused, will find great interest in reading: 'MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE GLOBAL MONETOCRACY' at: http://www.gaiandemocracy.net/GD_LI_GMCY.html -which discusses the current debt-based global money creation system that is responsible for much of the open-ended growth that has rapidly increased our rate of environmental destruction in the last few centuries. FIRST, Instead of the banks creating money by issuing debt (a system that requires open-ended environmentally destructive growth to encourage people to borrow)- - money creation/printing (when required) should be the responsibility of government -AND- money created/printed should be spent into the economy by government on infrastructure projects (such as road, bridge, water distribution system and sewer REPAIR) that are approved by democratic referenda. SECOND, We might actually be able to convince the voters that a STEADY-STATE economy would be worth pursuing; this would logically require programs that would orchestrate a stabilization or even a reduction of human population numbers. Peter Salonius Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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