[Terrapreta] IAI Conference. International Agrichar initiative

[Tom Miles]

Michael,

 

Thanks for here port and congratulations to Stephen and the other hosts and
organizers for what sounds like an inspiring and educational conference. We
look forward to seeing the conference posters and presentations and hearing
comments from those who attended. 

 

The continuing role of this and other lists should be to bridge the gap
between the research, the sources of charcoal, and the intentional use of
charcoal in soil. We will all try many things based on information from a
wide variety of sources and we are bound to see many failures. Hopefully
interaction on this list can increase our probability of success. 

 

Tom   

 

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Michael Bailes
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 2:59 AM
To: terrapreta
Cc: Stephen Joseph
Subject: [Terrapreta] IAI Conference. International Agrichar initiative

 

I.A.I. Conference. International Agrichar initiative
Some initial thoughts and reactions.

A two day talk fest near Sydney, NSW Australia just finished. 
About 150+ people attended.
Wall to wall Ph.D's in every discipline know to man, soil biology,
engineering, accountancy, economics, microbiology, microbiology, material
science, archeology, ecology, agriculture and even two farmers and two
gardeners. 
No politicians, little (virtually nil) press.

The I.A.I. hopes to have all the papers up on their website in two to three
weeks. (depending on author copyright permission) 
The papers/proceedings will be well worth a day or two's browse if you are
seriously interested in TP.
 Hopefully they will also have the poster presentations which I found
especially interesting and did not get time to study in more detail. 
 I took extensive notes of lectures  and would be happy to help explain any
lectures that might be a bit brief and truncated in a web PP presentation.

I will make a few posts about the conference over the next little while when
my head stops spinning. 
People were very nice, friendly and talkative even if sometimes suffering
from a touch of Aspergers
Judging from the limited number of people I was able to talk to (I should
have stayed for dinner and field trips) and some good guessing there was:- 
No one from hypography , I person from permaculture,(the guy who started the
TP link there) and about six-8 from this Bio, Terra preta mailing-list.

 People really wanted more info. I tried to get the organizers to promote
the various net forum (s) but failed.(They set a cracking pace with little
time for digression) 
 Perhaps Hypog and TP list will be mentioned when all the papers come out.

 All presentations where excellent.
Power Point and USB devices have certainly changed the world of "chalk and
talk"

Again on the small sampling of people I was able to talk to; People seemed
to divide into
1) those who want to make money from selling char machines,bio-oil, green
coal, big agribusiness etc 
2) those who had research careers in the area and tended mostly (but not
always) to focus on minutiae
3) those who really didn't know much about TP at all. and were looking for
more information. They looked a bit bemused by it all 
4) people concerned about global warming
5) those wanting to do, or encourage more research.

I sat down to lunch yesterday with a farmer from Bolivia, a person from
Epidra USA, a NZlander connected with their Govt primary industries; and a
Englishman who explains new technologies to business. Quite a range of
countries and occupations. 

[B]The lecturer comment that sticks in my head the most?[/B]
 Dr. Johannes Lehmann, (Cornell soil scientist and an author of Amazonian
Dark Earths) had a great photo of TP soil going down a metre or two. There
were stacks more pottery shards in the soil than I ever imagined there would
be. Some quite big bits, slabs almost, all the way down though the soil. 
 I asked about this and he said not all TP soils have pottery " If you go
back to before they had pottery say 6,000 years ago you just get stone age
artifacts."

If you think about this I think he was telling me that there is 6,000 year
old soil in Brazil /tropics that is still fertile after all those years..!!!


No wonder TP has not seeped into our collective consciousness yet.
 It would be easier to believe in fairies at the bottom of my garden!

-- 
Michael Bailes.
"Human beings, 
who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of
others,
are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
Douglas Adams, "Last Chance to See" 

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