[Terrapreta] TP,TP list and the Third world

[Sean K. Barry]

Hi Richard,

I hope you had a nice trip?  It sounds so.  You make two very important points in this posting, I think; 1) farm-scale charcoal production is not 
industrial scale, and 2) the feedstock types available to farms are not the same as those available to industry.  Neither of these bars anyone from the development of a farm scale "Clean Charcoal Kiln" that uses unconventional feedstocks and can produce charcoal with ZERO EMISSIONS of potent GHGs and other pollutants (and perhaps harvest some usable bioenergy).  What you have observed (again) simply serves to better define the objectives of our work.  Thank you for this.

Regards,

SKB


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Richard Haard<mailto:richrd at nas.com> 
  To: bakaryjatta<mailto:bakaryj at gamtel.gm> 
  Cc: Terrapreta<mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 
  Sent: Sunday, April 27, 2008 6:03 PM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] TP,TP list and the Third world


  Bakary Jatta 


  This is for you rather than the entire TP reading list. I am a small scale farmer in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. I just visited Tobago, an Island off the coast of Venezuela and natural tropical rainforest habitat. I am quite interested in encouraging use at small scale producer level. I agree with you that the industrialists and their equipment manufacture do not have anything to offer charcoal users at our scale. There work is valuable but so is ours and we should not beat each other up.


  During my visit to the island which was for a family wedding ceremony we took time to explore back roads and trails looking for evidence of small scale agriculture. We did find some examples and unfortunately we were only able to spend a few days and did not have much opportunity to meet and discuss farming with these people. What we did notice is that the lush rampant vegetation on the island is a constant problem. Everywhere we went people were burning vegetation to dispose of this biomass, yet we saw no evidence of efforts made to make excess biomass into charcoal. We looked over these burn piles and noticed very little charcoal was formed. 


  Here is a picture of a woman burning vegetation, making much smoke and most likely no charcoal


  http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/2447354452/<http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/2447354452/>


  Here is a picture of a very nice, well managed small scale farm. As the Island of Tobago is very hilly this farm is on a side hill. We noticed a simple diversion in a stream and plastic pipe leading towards a gravity sprinkler system on the hill. Notice the rampant vegetation surrounding this farmers field. Here is a source of vegetation that can be charred and spread on this field. I do not believe any of the industrialists on this list have any equipment to serve this persons need. It would be very easy with a machette to gather and store to dry several tons to many of biomass per year at this site and to distribute the biochar in the field shown. 


  http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/2438757067/<http://www.flickr.com/photos/rchaard/2438757067/>


  In my opinion there is agriculture that is the walking dead ( the fertilizer and energy intensive kind ) and there is agriculture of the past and also of the future and what is practiced today by millions of people. 


  For myself I am experimenting with charcoal production that will yield 1 ton or more per year of charcoal from agricultural waste I have accumulated and stored. This will give me an assured supply for my studies and also for a small scale farmer as the field shown above this quantity would have a beneficial effect on his crops, reduce his need for fertilizer and improve soil water holding capacity. 


  I need a technique that is a step larger scale than the oil drum method for this need. Our first test last year we obtained a good yield of charcoal with a buried pile technique which is what I am attempting to improve at this time. 


  Rich Haard


  On Apr 27, 2008, at 2:13 PM, bakaryjatta wrote:


    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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