[Terrapreta] TP theft.

[lou gold]

Hi Sean and All,

Since Brazil is a poor place, especially in Amazonian rural areas, TP most
likely does get stolen.

However, I recently saw something about "commercial mining" of it that
sounded very responsible. The guy extracted it but left the bottom 20cm. It
would grow "back to full depth" in 20 years. I'm suspecting that eventually
there will be specialty "nursery" plots growing "seed" or "starter"  TP  for
use in other locations, nearby and far away. .

I think this is a very attractive story for our messaging -- "sustainable
mining" with the TP growing back. It truly is sort of mind-blowing in terms
of standard popular expections about "dirt", and therefore an
attention-getter. And, as TP becomes more known and valuable, it might be
necessary to guard the original Amazonian plots against theft or
irresponsible forms of extraction.

Happy messaging to all,

Lou



On Nov 21, 2007 10:33 PM, Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com> wrote:

>  Hi Lou,
>
> I think I saw this way back, middle of 200, on a Cornell website , or
> EPRIDA, or Christosph Steiner.  I'll see if I can find it.  They had a
> picture and described the soil as so valuable that thieves come onto TP land
> and take it away to sell (the illegal part is its not their land).  It said
> also that if some TP soil is left on the ground, that it regenerates, but
> over time.  It is not possible, either, to ship TP soil out of Brazil.
> If one sat on 2 meters of the stuff, though, you would think one could
> mine out the bottom meter and a half and sell it, while still being able to
> grow crops.  The world needs a whole lot more soil turned into TP soil,
> though, more than all the TP soil you could ever find in the Amazon rain
> basin.  We are supposed to turn France into TP soil many times over!
>
> Regards,
>
> SKB
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> *From:* lou gold <lou.gold at gmail.com>
> *To:* Sean K. Barry <sean.barry at juno.com>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 21, 2007 7:56 AM
> *Subject:* question
>
> Hi Sean,
>
> Where did you get the idea that lots of terra preta is being mined
> illegally in Brazil?
> I have only seen positive references about how leaving a depth of 20cm
> allows it to
> grow back. Have I missed something?
>
> Just asking so that we can all polish our messages.
>
> lou
>
>


-- 
http://lougold.blogspot.com/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/visionshare/sets/
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