[Terrapreta] eprida char - organic?

[Richard Haard]

Nice summary statement Sean. You are exactly right but how do we get  
from here to there.

Charcoal amendments also offer benefits to gardeners and growers who  
are not fixated on 'organic'. Why not develop appeal to the whole  
Monty? Just in North America we are looking at a multibillion $ retail  
market alone. The issue is not that you or any producer of product  
have an excellent product (or advice) to provide but  the reality  
sandwich -  How do you get the consuming public to accept charcoal as  
an additive they would want to buy and use? Simple statement of fact  
as you put forth below is not enough. I have some ideas along this  
line.  Ahem

I think we need a non-profit to coordinate the  effort of getting  
charcoal in use in agriculture. A book or books and DVD's have a much  
longer lifespan than an article or a blog posting especially if it  
appeals to pop culture. I'm thinking of Lee Fryer's book, Food, Power  
from the Sea, that came out on seaweed /fertilizer in the 70's (still  
in print). Or the British predecessor , Stephenson and his book,  
Seaweed in Agriculture and Horticulture.

These books have lives of their own. We need pop books and video's to  
educate the public. Now we live in a new era with new means of  
communication. We have Youtube for one example of who offers a special  
set of services to non-profits. Another dimension is available so why  
not get organized and use it to create a grass roots movement to get  
the public and government to recognize the world saving features of  
sequestering charcoal, in every dimension from self help to retail  
products.	

Check this out  http://www.youtube.com/nonprofits

  - the Youtube Nonprofit program, Broadcast your Cause with
Premium branding capabilities and increased uploading capacity
Rotation of your videos in the "Promoted Videos" areas throughout the  
site
The option to drive fundraising through a Google Checkout "Donate"  
button

all  we would need is  501c3 status
				
Where there is a developing demand for agricultural charcoal and  
products with this as a component the producers will come to play. We  
have a paradigm change coming too. Local/regional production of food  
and manufactured goods are a luxury now but is rapidly developing into  
a necessity because of energy resource depletion. The way I am viewing  
things from here because of the nature of the feedstock - waste wood  
and agricultural waste, charcoal production will be decentralized. so  
why not create a centralized group to aid the emerging industry and  
the emerging practice of sequestering charcoal.

Just to make this a case study of this -  what came along with Frier's  
Seaweed book was public speaking events. ' speaking Tonight is Sean  
Barry author of Charcoal and the new agriculture' or Larry williams or  
whomever does this. Such a book could also be a series of  
contributions from this site edited by Tom.

What came along with this kind of public promotion of seaweed was a  
series of demonstration programs. Fryer worked the corn belt in the  
70's and set up the kinds of demonstration programs with farmers in  
the same way the hybrid corn growers promoted their new seed strains.  
I followed this for a while during this period to learn his modus  
operandi. When it was time to read the results he did it with  
audiences and seminars on the topic with hundreds of people.

During the early 1970's I also developed seaweed fertilizer and feed/ 
food supplement products. We deployed a standard product and market  
testing  process - make some product and take it to the consumer.  
Getting merchants to give us shelf space was easy. We emulated the  
Fryer model by a research program, by attending home and garden shows,  
and conducting consumer intercepts and interviews. Over a 4 year  
period (starting up twice between 1973 and 82' ) we opened a market  
for our line of retail fertilizer and animal feed supplement. It all  
came to a rolling stop when the state decided our small scale harvest  
of bull kelp disturbed fish habitat.

The point is that it is not easy or cheap to do this and perhaps what  
we need is a MBA (mutual beneficial association) a non profit category  
recognized by government funding agencies to promote the various ways  
uses of charcoal in agriculture with open source information and  
encouragement of emerging business ventures. Such an organization  
could also solicit and receive industry support. And get public  
support to further the mission of using charcoal to counterbalance  
carbon emissions.


best

Rich

On Jan 14, 2008, at 3:45 PM, Sean K. Barry wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> Maybe we could convince OMRI that charcoal is a substrate that  
> enhances and improves the performance of the fertility management  
> practices they already undertake.
>
> What Charcoal amendments to soil offers Organic growers:
>
> Charcoal can be promoted as a universal "carbon balancing" mix; a  
> safe, ecology promoting, soil and soil mixture additive.  If the  
> current soil amendments they now give their farmland soil and the  
> microorganisms it holds are what these need to "hold" nutrients in  
> the soil and "deliver" the nutrients to growing plants, then just  
> add charcoal into that soil to improve that, and water it.
>
> Charcoal can be a gardners helper for all sorts of fertility  
> management practices.
>
> Charcoal in soil can loosen "tight" soils, giving it greater  
> friability and tilth, which allows deeper water and root penetration.
>
> Charcoal in soil mixtures with your fertilizer can improve the  
> resilience of that fertility which you work so hard to put into a  
> garden.  It can help bring the nutrition from composted waste into  
> the soil and to growing plants faster.  Regardless of your fertility  
> management practices, charcoal in soil can enhance the performance  
> of those materials.
>
> Charcoal in soil can help beneficial qualities in soil stay and  
> renew themselves in your garden soil.
>
> Charcoal in soil promotes the growth of humic acids and plant  
> symbiotic organisms that help plants get nutrients from the soil.
>
> Charcoal as a mixture additive to soil with all of your other  
> fertility management practices is good for your garden or farm.
>
> Charcoal as a mixture additive to soil with all of your other  
> fertility management practices adds nutrition to the foods coming  
> from your garden or farm.
>
> Using charcoal amendments into soil is good for the environment and  
> it is also one of the best things you can do to reduce the effects  
> of Global Warming and Global Climate Change.  Using this bag of  
> charcoal in your soil takes problematic carbon CO2 directly out of  
> the atmosphere with every bag you use.  "Carbon credits" paid some  
> part of the production of this charcoal for use in soil.
>
> If we all bought one ton of "Charcoal-in-soil" Mixture Enhancer,  
> then we could halt the rise in atmospheric CO2 this year.  We could  
> offset the 6 GT (billion ton) flux of carbon into the atmosphere  
> every year with a 6 GT of "Charcoal-in-soil" investment every year  
> (6 billion people each sequester a ton of charcoal into soil every  
> year).  Earth could be a stupendous garden!
>
> Using "Charcoal-in-soil" you can sell licenses to buy "Carbon  
> Credits" to all the other guys.
>
> Regards,
>
> SKB
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tom Miles
> To: 'Terra Preta'
> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 4:01 PM
> Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] eprida char - organic?
>
> I looked at an imported product from Japan earlier this year that is  
> essentially charcoal based. It is OMRI approved but I can’t remember  
> whether it carried nutrients. I think it might have been a charcoal  
> + bone charcoal kind of mix.
>
> Tom
>
>
> SKB>Yes, that sounds about like what I heard from OMRI when I talked  
> to them about Organic Material SKB>certification    in Minnesota.   
> They want to know about materials and processes.
> JF>I have talked to the Organic Growers Association and they wont  
> touch any product unless certified organic. To do JF>what I have  
> started with my"new product" will cost $690.00 for the OMRI and  
> whatever the lab people will charge. JF>OMRI don't do the testing.  
> They give us a rule to follow, we & Lab must follow their direction  
> and make sure all the JF>t's are crossed an i,s are dotted. This  
> will take me up to 4 months IF I get samples into the lab now. I  
> only hope they JF>accept cow manure that is dried at 300C to kill  
> any pathogens. As mentioned earlier, raw, and pasteurized manures  
> JF>are labeled as restricted.
>
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