[Terrapreta] What is so bad about global warming?

[Frank Teuton]

Hi Kevin, et al

Doing R&D is of course not out of synch with earning a living....see for example the fine success stories of Eliot Coleman, a major innovator in small farming, and Joel Salatin, organic vegetables and meats respectively.....

A simple and relatively inexpensive way for small farmers to test an idea is to do a test strip in each different field condition they possess, and see if the test material results in improved growth.

Coleman already suggests using charcoal to create surface soil that heats up faster in the spring, for example....this sort of benefit is likely to be crop and season specific.

I support Kevin's resistance to being dogmatically bullied into biochar application with no regard for how it affects his bottom line.

Remember that farming is increasingly large scale corporations, with a great deal of experience 'farming the government'...and that all farming occurs more or less within a framework of society in which government plays a key role.

If charcoal incorporation into soil has an actual horticultural/agronomic benefit which supports it on its own terms in a particular application, so much the better; but, where it offers little or no benefit except in the global sense the farmer (corporate or familial) will need for the larger society to recompense him for his cost of incorporation. Indeed, where charcoal incorporation offers no benefit it might be best to just dump it into an old mine shaft at lower cost than agricultural application, right?

I think we all need to realize that this concept is still very much in the R&D phase and adjust our rhetoric accordingly.

My two cents,

Frank Teuton
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Kevin Chisholm 
  To: Sean K. Barry 
  Cc: Miles Tom ; Pilarski Michael ; Toch Susan ; Baur Hans 
  Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2008 11:03 AM
  Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] What is so bad about global warming?


  Dear Sean

  Sean K. Barry wrote: 
    Hi Kevin,

    The key question is: "What business do you want to be in?"

    If you want to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, then that is one thing, 
    but if you want grow things, than that is a different matter ...

    Why should I be limited to only that line of sight?  I can walk and chew gum at the same time.  I see the synergy of doing ALL of mining CO2 from the atmosphere to make charcoal for TP style charcoal-in-soil and growing things in TP-like soils attempts and helping others to do the same.

  Before you get into any Business, you must define that Business, and see a route to attaining the Business Goals. If my Business Objective is "Grow Turnips and Make Money", I might be able to do this, and I might proceed. If my Business Objective was "Grow Turnips, Sequester Carbon and Make Money", and if the actions of sequestering carbon were revenue neutral or revenue positive, then I would far prefer this route. If sequestering carbon was revenue negative to me, then I would not do it. 

  Perhaps you can find ways to make money sequestering carbon. Perhaps for philosophical reasons, you may even decide to include carbon sequestering in your Business Plan, even if it results in an incremental loss of profit. That is fine... it is up to you, because it is your business.


    If your objective is to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, then OK. If my 
    objective is to grow things more efficiently, with greater yields, and 
    at lower cost, fossil carbon emissions are a secondary consideration.

    What if past fossil carbon emissions and continuing present day fossil carbon emissions begin to effect things like: reduced annual average rainfall in your area, increased annual average temperature, longer sustained droughts, climate migration, the cost of energy to run your farming equipment, the cost and performance of fertilizers on your farm, etc?    Then will fossil carbon emissions be more of a consideration?

  As a Small Grower, I cannot afford to be a Missionary. The above points would be a worry or a concern, but I would not spend money to alleviate them.


    "What can Terra Preta do for my farm now?" sounds only like a greedy, short sighted, only myself supporting approach.  

  It would have sounded so much nicer if you said Small Growers must first stick to profitable business, so that they will still be around to do good over the long term. :-) Remember the very wise observation "The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese."

    Good for you and not necessarily good enough for the rest of us, perhaps? 


  Would you get into a Business that sequestered carbon, at a loss to the business? 

    There isn't just one pie and surely you will get yourself a piece.  The world has more than enough to go around when we all learn to share in it.  No one will take yours away.

  When we learn how to make money from Terra Preta, then I am sure it will come into widespread acceptance. If the Person or Company making or using TP can't make money off it, TP will not get done. 

  Lets find ways to show the World how to make money off Terra Preta.

  Best wishes,

  Kevin





------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Terrapreta mailing list
  Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
  http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biochar/
  http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
  http://info.bioenergylists.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20080317/0ae7cd05/attachment.html