[Terrapreta] TP,TP list and the Third world

[bakaryjatta]

Dear list members,

Terra Preta seemed to be a good idea and therefore I started to put it into practice immediately. After all, we in the third world are in need of better food production. Global warming or not, around here we have run out of enough shady trees, so we don't doubt things are heating up. Rain, on which we rely for crop production, is unpredictable and has diminnished in overall quantity , except for localized cloudbursts causing extensive damage. So I really want to know all the in's and out's of the system and promote the concept. Through a dial up internet connection that is agonizing slow and for practical purposes excludes downloads of lots of learned documents and photographs.

Now, to my dismay I discover that I have to spend a lot of time scrolling down digests untill I come upon another line that is actually new information, of possible use, after I try it myself. After all, there are so many things reported and called lies or unscientific, so I cannot just go ahead and trust it will be a good thing to spend energy and resources on. Of course, I also grit my teeth when I see all the sparring between the partners in the exercise of asserting one knows or is better than the other. That is not a pastime of use to the third world, where one looks for people to solve environmental problems financed by carbon credits From what I found out at a meeting about the subject, the man on the ground will receive very litle after the brokers and bureacrats are through with it and he has fulfilled all the required conditions plus his actual work on the ground.

When it comes to the proper production of Biochar, made according to approved standards by an agency still to be decided on, where is the equipment, where will it be based, who is going to pay for it, how is it going to be get to the third world farmer, and how is he or she going to apply it?

Perhaps it would be easier to get the corporations handle the whole deal. Put the third world population on welfare and rations while Corporate science and technology takes over the land and fixes it like it has fixed modern productive society elsewhere. The elite and the banks they own will ensure it is economically viable and the Governments will assist the banks when they fail with taxpayer's money.

Of course, I am not going to wait for anybody. I must get a crop planted regardless of environmental uncertainties. Also, I will continue to use my inefficient retort made from a barrel. I am not illegally cutting trees and producing charcoal the traditional way. BTW, Government officials and law enforcement officers are the consumers of the charcoal. I wonder whether they will ensure future biochar will meet the production standards to be decided on, when ever it  actually gets produced here. Or do we have to import it like we do 70% of our food?

Dear people, please get real ! Think outside the (still very confortable) box you are in.

If I want to make my char more efficiently, it looks like I have to find information to do so elswhere. 

Thanks for trying to save the world from all those people who don't do things right.

Love you all anyway.

Bakary Jatta,

Bwiam village, The Gambia

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