[Terrapreta] eprida char - organic?

[Gerald Van Koeverden]

I never could understand (nor accept) the "organic" distinction  
between "natural" and "synthetic" nitrogen.   The nitrogen in the air  
is no less natural than that which is found in manure...

It would be truly ironic if organic farmers could not directly  
benefit from Eprida's innovation.

Gerrit

On 14-Jan-08, at 11:11 AM, Frank Teuton wrote:

> The organic standards generally accepted globally forbid the use of  
> synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. To the extent that a nitrogenized  
> char soil amendment might be accepted at all, it would need to be  
> charged with nitrogen of natural origin.
>
> Some possible ways of achieving this include:
>
> Char in compost where the composting process is managed to release  
> some ammoniacal N and the char is placed to adsorb it;
>
> Char as part of a biofiltration process where N is scrubbed out of  
> compost gasses into the char
>
> Char in animal manure management where urine and feces are mixed  
> with char and the char adsorbs some of the N
>
> Most likely in all of these circumstances the char would also  
> become charged with substantial microbial populations.
>
> I think such complexed chars would be very acceptable to organic  
> certification bodies, as long as the char is from noncontaminated  
> origin materials, but not if synthetic N is used.
>
> My tuppence,
>
> Frank Teuton
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Sean K. Barry
> To: Gerald Van Koeverden
> Cc: Terra Preta
> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 9:11 AM
> Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] eprida char - organic?
>
> Hi Gerrit,
>
> I think "Nitrogen-oil free grades" refers to high nitrogen  
> fertilizer that is not made with petroleum or natural gas.
>
> Regards,
>
> SKB
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Gerald Van Koeverden
> To: Sean K. Barry
> Cc: Terra Preta
> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 12:51 AM
> Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] eprida char - organic?
>
> Sean,
>
> I did a quick scan of those organic farming regulations: the only  
> relevant applications I could find were on page 16 under the  
> heading "Synthetics allowed."
>
> 1.  The only entry for charcoal is "Activated charcoal (CAS #s 7440– 
> 44–0; 64365–11–3)—only from vegetative sources; for use only as a
> filtering aid."
>
> 2.  Nitrogen—oil-free grades.
>
> Doesn't look like even straight charcoal would be acceptable to  
> them as a soil amendment.  "Terra Preta" is not yet a part of their  
> lexicon.
>
> I don't know what an "oil-free" grade of nitrogen means.
>
> gerrit
>
>
>
> On 14-Jan-08, at 1:03 AM, Sean K. Barry wrote:
>
>> <summary-of-us-organic-regulation.pdf>
>
>
>
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