[Terrapreta] Your input needed: "Soil health" at Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels

[lou gold]

Thanks Kevin for your elaboration. It's good to discuss this with you.

I find that upon deeper consideration that we both agree and disagree or,
less presumingly, let me say that I both agree and disagree with you.

We surely agree that politics and government can make terrible mistakes and
cause major distortions. Subsidies for corn ethanol are a case-in-point.

But we disagree about thinking that some invisible hand of free market
economics can solve the problem. There is no free market out there to make
your test of letting everything "rise and fall on its own." The present form
of modern agriculture is ALREADY subsidized (in the industrial world) at the
level of one billion dollars a day. YES, of course, this has produced
distortions -- massive ones -- and the playing field has been so warped that
the free competition that you might like is not possible without the
countervailing force of government intervention.

But beyond the economic and political analytics lies something more
fundamental. The things that you want to see as separate (in good
reductionist manner) are in reality connected. Here is a single example: you
want to separate waste management and soil restoration? The dead zone of the
Gulf of Mexico is the result of fertilizer run-offs from Midwest
agriculture. If something can help the soil retain the fertilizer (perhaps
biochar) waste management and soil restoration become the same thing. The
healing lies in the connection!

I'm afraid Kevin that when I say "we must tie things together" that you
always imagine some "demon gummint" but I am talking about the healing that
comes from tying things together in a mind that is reaching beyond the old
separations.

When and if we can see things more as wholes and less in separation both
government and politicians will become more like important co-creators
helping to guide our collective ship of state. I understand that we have a
long way to go and I also understand the direction that I think best. All I
ask from others who disagree is that they think about it.

hugs, thanks and blessings,

lou



On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 2:06 AM, Kevin Chisholm <kchisholm at ca.inter.net>
wrote:

> Dear Lou
>
> lou gold wrote:
>
> > Hi Kevin,
> >
> > Don't you think we agree on the need to tie the four together?
> >
>
> That is where I think we disagree. I think that we specifically SHOULD NOT
> tie them together. Let them each rise or fall on their own merits.
>
> >
> > If they are separated (as you point out) there will be no biochar.
> >
>
> Waste biomass, on pyrolysis, can yield biomass char. This biochar has (at
> least) two uses... charcoal as fuel, charcoal as a soil amendment. What
> happens if I can sell charcoal for fuel (or other uses) at $300 per tonne,
> and if a Farmer can only afford to pay me $50 per tonne for biochar to add
> to soil? Are we to stop selling biochar to energy (or other) applications
> because the Farmer will not pay more than $50 per tonne? The purpose of this
> List is to find ways to promote char additions to the soil, if it is
> sensible to do so, NOT to attempt to regulate the biochar industry.
>
> > That's why I said they needed to be tied together. I didn't mean to
> > imply they they were (automatically) tied together.
> >
>
> And that is why I feel they specifically SHOULD NOT be tied together. We
> (at least I) don't know what a Farmer can afford to pay for biochar to add
> to the soil. Perhaps "New Terra Preta" is uneconomic. If it was uneconomic,
> then tying the development of a biochar industry to additions to soil would
> kill it dead.
>
> Perhaps they might work out wonderfully well together. For example, sell
> big pieces of charcoal to the heating market, and sell the fines into the
> soil amendment market. I do not know how things will want to "shake out",
> and accordingly, I think it would be a bad thing to "tie them together".
>
> If you want to encourage the use of biochar for soil amendment purposes,
> then work on getting a subsidy to encourage the use of biochar for soil
> additions. Imagine how people would be racing to their retorts if the
> Gummint was giving a subsidy equivalent to the subsidy now being given to
> support ethanol!
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Kevin
>
>
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