[Terrapreta] eprida char - organic?

[Tom Miles]

Rich,

 

An organization of this kind could be productive at home and abroad. As
Bakary Jatta suggests acceptance in developed countries would encourage
acceptance in developing countries. For example, it would be possible to
work with organizations like the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
which in turn are supported by local organizations like the Rockefeller and
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundations. 

 

See http://www.agra-alliance.org/work/soils.html

 

Tom

 

 

From: Richard Haard [mailto:richrd at nas.com] 
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 8:03 PM
To: Sean K. Barry
Cc: Terra Preta; Tom Miles; Larry Williams
Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] eprida char - organic?

 

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 <mailto:tmiles at trmiles.com> 

To: 'Terra Preta' <mailto:terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> 

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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