[Terrapreta] First Hello & General Background

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Gary,
 
  Thank you for the post.  I am also in Ontario and have been discussing
with others here in Ontario (and elsewhere) how we can move ahead with field
trials of biochar.  The lead people on this 'project' have been Linda
Lapelle, an organic farmer who lives south of Guelph (in Petersburg,
Ontario), and Douglas Prest, a socially responsible entrepreneur who lives
in Dundas Ontario.  We have many other people involved in discussions as
well.  Linda has even mentioned doing trials on (a small part of) her 250
acre organic farm and maybe even a neighbouring (conventional) farm.  Both
Linda and Doug have talked to OMAFRA about doing trials, but with little
coming out of it at this time. (I think that if others were to mention it,
this might help them realize that there is a real broad-based interest --
especially if it comes from the farming community.)
  We've also been talking about using Biochar on Rooftop Gardens with a
gentleman in Toronto by the name of Dennis Morrison as well, and have had
discussions and met with folks from as far away as Ireland and the US and SE
Queensland, Australia.  We had even met up recently (in Montreal) with a
gentleman who lives in Budapest, Hungary who has a system that creates a
biochar soil enhancement product from biowaste that he claims is one of the
most innovative and environmentally friendly systems to date, and he would
like to market, sell, install and support a new business based around his
systems in North America. (We are looking at the possibility of creating
somewhat decentralized regional biochar processors through farming co-ops or
'socially responsible' businesses rather than profit-only driven
businesses.)
  I would suggest you contact Doug and Linda as they are also interested in
"research and use of biochar from a gardening soil enhancement level" and
perhaps also "to the multi-product strategies of corporate players".  I'm
thinking that a 'critical mass' may have been reached here in Ontario to
start our own separate e-mail discussion list centering around Biochar and
the testing / application thereof.
Get back to us on what you think.
 
    Lloyd Helferty, Engineering Technologist
    Product Development and Support Specialist
    Thornhill, ON
 


  _____  

From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org
[mailto:terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of Gary Barei
Sent: May 28, 2008 5:29 PM
To: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
Subject: [Terrapreta] First Hello & General Background


Hello List Members!

I've been reading archived terrapreta list posts for some time now and have
enjoyed following links, photos and discussions that you have all provided.
Thank you.  

I live in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, (for about a year now), which has a fine
agricultural/veterinary tradition and University.  I am looking for
honest/fun/interesting opportunities in a sector that I can honestly
contribute to in a positive way.  The kids are gone to college, one in
architecture and one into computers.  Me? I'm an old "biotech" guy - B.Sc.
in Microbiology and Immunology, then some M.Sc. studies related to T-cell
development, lots of time in laboratories.  Then I got into the sales &
marketing / management end of things, mostly providing a huge array of
biotechnology products to private, commercial, hospital and government labs
across the country.  This allowed me to wear a tie and travel a lot, but
still keep current with my love for science, new technologies and
opportunities. Along the way, I've developed a pretty eclectic array of
interests - Hydrogen storage and biomass usage technologies among them.  It
was always fun providing the basic research reagents and tools to such a
broad base of scientific labs across the country - lots of people doing lots
of cool stuff ... and of course, some not so cool.

I've been a senior manager at companies like Amersham BioSciences,
Sigma-Aldrich and Fisher Scientific, among others.

I'm particularly interested in this list's discussions into research and use
of biochar from a gardening soil enhancement level to the multi-product
strategies of corporate players like Eprida, Best and Dynamotive.  Perhaps
my experience bringing lots of new technologies to markets in the biotech
sector can serve well in the renewable biomass and carbon sequestration
world!

In any event, I hope I haven't started off with a "too irrelevant" post and
I hope to be able to make a small contribution to your discussions.
Questions & comments are OK by me!

Kindest Regards,

Gary Barei


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