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Hello: Two books, three students and 5,000 pounds of biochar. These are connected only by the happy coincidence of populating this update edition, but they are not unrelated.
Texas mom Robyn O’Brien couldn’t really use the word “inconvenient” in her title at this point in time, so her wake-up call about diet, allergies and policies that endanger our health is called “The Unhealthy Truth.” The inconvenient part is the subtitle: “How our food is making us sick, and what we can do about it.” Her style in dealing with what disturbs her about our food system is both personal and motivational, according to the review by communications intern Betsy McCann, here for the summer on leave from doctoral studies in agricultural communications at Texas A&M. Read more >>
Asking why sustainable agriculture is so hard if it’s so right, Rhonda Janke listens to farmers, farming advocates, farm communicators and food leaders for clues and cues to that conundrum. She mostly wants us to listen, also, to more solidly ground our expectations of farmers in the immensity of their quest for right farming in an agricultural system gone so wrong. The review is by former intern Genevieve Slocum, now an environmental studies scholar at Columbia University. Read more >>
And the students: We’ve awarded cash prizes to three FFA students (and their advisors) who topped 46 other applicants in our first-ever essay contest. To find out what these vocational agriculture upperclassmen wrote on the theme “How Can Farming Restore Human and Ecological Health?” Read more >>
No other farming system beats chemical-free combinations of cover crops, crop rotations, compost and intensive grazing to pull carbon dioxide from the air and keep it in soil. Agriculture can and must do more to crank back global greenhouse gas emissions, however, so Rodale Institute has started to experiment with the long-term potential of biochar (see photo above). We want to discover what this slow-burned biomass can do to build up soil carbon and how farms can become more regenerative through its on-farm creation. More on this later, but for a sneak peek, look here >>
Taking stock of what’s working, what holds promise and what’s eroding our bodily and agricultural health are all part of living a life informed enough to be useful to others, and inspired enough to keep on going when we’re tempted to quit. If you are reading at least your second newsletter here, you are part of a community that is virtual and real and growing, and that is unwilling to yield to the immensity of all that we know is unsustainable—because we also know that makes it worth staying in the quest.
Greg Bowman at the Rodale Institute
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Asian Pacific conference
Sorry for the broken link.
The abstracts of the Asian Pacific conference are at
http://www.anzbiochar.org/2009presentations.html
Asian Biochar conference
There is real magic coming out of the Asian Biochar conference.
15 ear per stalk corn with 250% yield increase,
Sacred Trees and chickens raised from near death
Multiple confirmations of 80% - 90% reduction of soil GHG emissions
The abstracts of the conference are at
http://www.anzbiochar.org/AP%20BioChar%20Confer...
Biochar Soil Technology.....Husbandry of whole new orders of lif
Biochar Soil Technology.....Husbandry of whole new orders of life
Biotic Carbon, the carbon transformed by life, should never be combusted, oxidized and destroyed. It deserves more respect, reverence even, and understanding to use it back to the soil where 2/3 of excess atmospheric carbon originally came from.
We all know we are carbon-centered life, we seldom think about the complex web of recycled bio-carbon which is the true center of life. A cradle to cradle, mutually co-evolved biosphere reaching into every crack and crevice on Earth.
It's hard for most to revere microbes and fungus, but from our toes to our gums (onward), their balanced ecology is our health. The greater earth and soils are just as dependent, at much longer time scales. Our farming for over 10,000 years has been responsible for 2/3rds of our excess greenhouse gases. This soil carbon, converted to carbon dioxide, Methane & Nitrous oxide began a slow stable warming that now accelerates with burning of fossil fuel.
Wise Land management; Organic farming and afforestation can build back our soil carbon,
Biochar allows the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon, ( living biomass & Glomalins) in addition to the carbon in the biochar.
Biochar, the modern version of an ancient Amazonian agricultural practice called Terra Preta (black earth, TP), is gaining widespread credibility as a way to address world hunger, climate change, rural poverty, deforestation, and energy shortages… SIMULTANEOUSLY!
Modern Pyrolysis of biomass is a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration,10X Lower Methane & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too.
Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration, Bio-Gas & Bio-oil fuels, so is a totally virtuous, carbon negative energy cycle.
Biochar viewed as soil Infrastructure; The old saw;
"Feed the Soil Not the Plants" becomes;
"Feed, Cloth and House the Soil, utilities included !".
Free Carbon Condominiums with carboxyl group fats in the pantry and hydroxyl alcohol in the mini bar.
Build it and the Wee-Beasties will come.
As one microbiologist said on the Biochar list; "Microbes like to sit down when they eat".
By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders of life.
This is what I try to get across to Farmers, as to how I feel about the act of returning carbon to the soil. An act of pertinence and thankfulness for the civilization we have created. Farmers are the Soil Sink Bankers, once carbon has a price, they will be laughing all the way to it.
One aspect of Biochar systems are Cheap, clean biomass stoves that produce biochar and no respiratory disease. At scale, the health benefits are greater than ending Malaria.
A great example;
http://www.unccd.int/publicinfo/poznanclimatetalks/docs/Natural%20Draft%...
The biochar Fund is also doing amazing work in the developing world;
http://terrapretapot.org/
Also , I would like Rebut the BioFuelWatch folk's recent criticisms with the petition of 1500 Cameroon Farmers;
The Biochar Fund
http://biocharfund.org/
and to explain their program;
http://biocharfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=26&Item...
The USDA-ARS have dozens of studies happening now to ferret out the reasons for char affinity with MYC fungi and microbes, but this synergy is solidly shown by the Japanese work, literally showing 1+1=3
Senator / Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar has done the most to nurse this biofuels system in his Biochar provisions in the 07 & 08 farm bill,
http://www.biochar-international.org/newinformationevents/newlegislation...
Charles Mann ("1491") in the Sept. National Geographic has a wonderful soils article which places Terra Preta / Biochar soils center stage.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/09/soil/mann-text
Biochar data base; TP-REPP
http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node
NASA's Dr. James Hansen Global warming solutions paper and letter to the G-8 conference, placing Biochar / Land management the central technology for carbon negative energy systems.
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/0804/0804.1126.pdf
The many new university programs & field studies, in temperate soils; Cornell, ISU, U of H, U of GA, Virginia Tech, JMU, New Zealand and Australia.
Soil Carbon Sequestration Standards Committee. this group of diverse interests has been hammering out issues of definition, validation and protocol. The past week, this group have been pressing soil sequestration's roll for climate legislation to congress.
http://www.novecta.com/documents/Carbon-Standard.pdf
Along these lines internationally, the work of the IBI fostering the application by 13 countries for UN recognition of soil carbon as a sink with biochar as a clean development mechanism will open the door for programs across the globe.
http://www.biochar-international.org/biocharpolicy.html.
Reports:
This new Congressional Research Service report (by analyst Kelsi Bracmort) is the best short summary I have seen so far - both technical and policy oriented.
http://assets.opencrs.com/rpts/R40186_20090203.pdf .
This is the single most comprehensive report to date, covering more of the Asian and Australian work;
http://www.csiro.au/files/files/poei.pdf
Given the current "Crisis" atmosphere concerning energy, soil sustainability, food vs. Biofuels, and Climate Change what other subject addresses them all?
This is a Nano technology for the soil that represents the most comprehensive, low cost, and productive approach to long term stewardship and sustainability.
Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.
Cheers,
Erich
Erich J. Knight
Eco Technologies Group Technical Adviser
University of California Riverside advisory board member
Shenandoah Gardens (Owner)
1047 Dave Barry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
540 289 9750
Co-Administrator, Biochar Data base & Discussion list TP-REPP
I will be speaking at the first North American Biochar Conference, in Boulder Aug 12-15, about my efforts to network the many disciplines and organizations researching and implementing biochar systems.
Keynote speaker Secretary Tom Vilsack & Dr. Susan Solomon (NOAA's head atmospheric scientist) at.
http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=684390
My attendance is thanks to the folks at EcoTechnologies Group .
( http://www.ecotechnologies.com/index.html , they have also fully funded my field trials with the Rodale Institute & JMU)
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