[Terrapreta] Biochar included in U.S. Farm Bill

[Kevin Chisholm]

Dear Sean

There are a number of ideas that go beyond Biochar.

Sean K. Barry wrote:
> Hi Kevin,
>  
> That's easy pie for me.
>  
> Spend it on ...
>  
> making charcoal.
>  
> designing systems to make charcoal more cleanly and less expensively.

What areas of charcoal making could benefit from research and 
development funding?

The item "designing systems to harvest bioenergy from non-food crops." 
shouldn't take much work, in that massive work has already been done and 
proven in the Forestry and Agriculture sectors.

The item "exporting carbonization/pyrolysis technologies to poor, rural 
economies all over the world." is good. What technologies would you 
propose to export?

The items marked "X" below seem to have merit on their own, but seem a 
bit removed from Biochar.

Best wishes,

Kevin
>  
> X building nuclear power plants.
>  
> X building more efficient and powerful electric cars.
>  
> X building geothermal heating and cooling into all the places that 
> people live and work.
>  
> designing systems to harvest bioenergy from non-food crops.
>  
> X developing cultivars that produce lots of biomass per hectare.
>  
> exporting carbonization/pyrolysis technologies to poor, rural 
> economies all over the world.
>  
> X finding those "Super Seeds" that somebody hid from the India people 
> when Indians designed them.
>  
> X policing the heavy taxation of fossil carbon pollutant mining and 
> oil exploration interests.
>  
> X educating our children to "find another way" and to teach their 
> children and grandchildren to do the same thing regarding "fossil 
> carbon resources."
>  
> X buying compact fluorescent bulbs for every electric bulb socket in 
> the world.
>  
> X turning NO COMMUTE jobs into the norm for people.
>  
> X sending an army of ECO-WARRIORS around the world instead of combat 
> soldiers.
>  
> ...
>  
>  
> Shall I go on?  I can go on ... I can spend $3 MILLION dollars every 
> 15 minutes just like any WAR MONGERING f**k you'd ever find.
>  
> Regards,
>  
> SKB
>  
>  
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Kevin Chisholm <mailto:kchisholm at ca.inter.net>
>     *To:* Sean K. Barry <mailto:sean.barry at juno.com>
>     *Cc:* terra pretta group <mailto:Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org> ;
>     Biopact <mailto:biopact at biopact.com>
>     *Sent:* Monday, May 12, 2008 12:58 PM
>     *Subject:* Re: [Terrapreta] Biochar included in U.S. Farm Bill
>
>     Dear Sean
>
>     The Research Community could do a lot with $3 million.
>
>     What would be good projects on which money could be sensibly
>     spent? How
>     would you suggest that anything more than $3 million could be
>     sensibly
>     spent?
>
>     Best wishes,
>
>     Kevin
>
>     Sean K. Barry wrote:
>     > Hi Lorenzo,
>     > 
>     > $3 BILLION would be better.  Maybe $300 BILLION might make a dent. 
>     > Only $3 million is an insult.  Ethanol subsidies, oil subsides,
>     > automotive company subsidies, and other farm subsides far exceed
>     this
>     > by many decimal magnitudes.  A little something is not better than
>     > nothing.  This US Senate/House is still to bent on
>     self-preservation
>     > in their seats, pork-barrel for their individual states, and on
>     boot
>     > licking the oil-moguls of this world to be any good yet!
>     > 
>     > Regards,
>     > 
>     > SKB
>     > 
>     > 
>     >
>     >     ----- Original Message -----
>     >     *From:* Biopact <mailto:biopact at biopact.com>
>     >     *To:* terra pretta group <mailto:Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org>
>     >     *Sent:* Monday, May 12, 2008 11:51 AM
>     >     *Subject:* [Terrapreta] Biochar included in U.S. Farm Bill
>     >
>     >     Hi,
>     >     on May 8, the U.S. Senate-House conference committee on the new
>     >     Farm Bill announced its final farm bill conference
>     agreement. The
>     >     bill includes $3 million per year funding for biochar research,
>     >     development & demonstration.
>     >     
>     >     I thought this was good news, and wrote a short press release on
>     >     it (see attachment), to be published by the Biochar Fund.
>     >     
>     >     Comments and corrections are welcome. Please don't
>     distribute this
>     >     text yet.
>     >     
>     >     Best, Lorenzo
>     >     
>     >     Press release:
>     >
>     >
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     >
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>
>