Green Manure Resources
Animal Forage, Medicinal Plants, Plant Systems, Rehabilitation, Soil Conservation, Structure — by Rhamis Kent August 31, 2010
Editor’s note: Red clover is a useful leguminous green manure. Growing taller than
other clovers, it can be easily cut down with a scythe or other when it starts to
flower, so that it doesn’t scatter seed where you don’t want it.
You can never have enough information about Earth Repair/Ecosystem Restoration tools, techniques, and strategies. As most of you know, a couple among the many in use are green manuring and cover cropping.
Over the past year of my really digging into this topic I’ve come across a number of useful links to downloadable PDFs that allow for easy access and use.
Comments (4)Making The Case for Earth Repair Work – Part III
DVDs/Books, Economics, Food Shortages, Society, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Water Contaminaton — by Rhamis Kent August 19, 2010
In addition to my last two posts (here and here), here are a couple of additional information sources to help make the case for major investment to be made into global earth repair/ecosystem restoration work.
The United Nations Environment Programme recently published a report titled "Dead Planet, Living Planet – Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration for Sustainable Development: A Rapid Response Assessment" (15mb PDF). What makes this document so useful and important is that it presents compelling arguments for performing this work that speak to the concerns of business & economics just as much as it does of those concerned about the state of our global ecology and environment. Doing so will prove to be invaluable in helping to attract funding in amounts befitting the vital importance of this work.
Below, I’ve excerpted portions of the report’s summary that are of particular interest:
Comments (4)Making The Case For Earth Repair Work – Part 2
Biodiversity, Deforestation, Development & Property Trusts, Economics, Ethical Investment, Food Shortages, Global Warming/Climate Change, People Systems, Population, Rehabilitation, Society, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Village Development, Water Contaminaton — by Rhamis Kent August 5, 2010
Over the past couple of years, there has been quite a bit of attention paid to the purchase of massive amounts of agricultural land by rich countries and corporate entities in the developing world. Craig Mackintosh wrote about this on this site, as have many other very informative reports and press stories.
To summarize, there has been approximately US$100 Billion mobilized to purchase somewhere between 40 – 50 million hectares (roughly 100 – 125 million acres) of agricultural land worldwide.
Comments (6)Making the Case for Earth Repair Work
Economics, Ethical Investment, Global Warming/Climate Change, Society — by Rhamis Kent July 23, 2010
I put together a brief document for an acquaintance of mine who said she recently met Juergen Voegele, Chairman of the World Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development Department. She asked me to prepare something for him as it relates to what I had described as earth repair work – a term of course used often by Geoff, Paul Taylor and a number of others.
It was an attempt to make a case for having these efforts adequately funded given the importance of the work. This certainly isn’t an exhaustive, comprehensive reference (it was done with very short notice), but I’d like to think it conveys the basic premise behind the work and why it needs to be done – and, more importantly, deserves real financial backing.
Click to open (152 kb PDF):
Economic Support for Global Earth Repair Work & Ecosystem Restoration: Making The Case
Comments (3)The Food Nightmare Beneath Our Feet: We’re Running Out of Soil
Compost, Consumerism, Deforestation, Food Shortages, General, Rehabilitation, Soil Biology, Soil Conservation, Soil Erosion & Contamination, Structure — by Rhamis Kent May 1, 2010
It’s good to see someone from the American press shine a light on what is arguably the most pressing ecological issue facing us. It effects any and all aspects of environmental health and stability. Without significant efforts made to address the massive amounts of topsoil lost each year, all of our “environmentalism” rings rather hollow, I’m afraid.
The following article is highly recommended reading:
The Food Nightmare Beneath Our Feet: We’re Running Out of Soil
Further Reading:
Comments (0)Things That Can’t Go On Forever, and Things That Can: A Few Thoughts
Alternatives to Political Systems, Consumerism, Economics, Financial Management, People Systems, Society, Village Development, peak oil — by Rhamis Kent April 3, 2010
Properly defining and orienting permaculture is of prime importance in its being appropriately applied. I’ve found it to be a very useful personal exercise. Doing so prevents me from straying too far from its practical origins and helps to keep it from being transformed into some kind of Utopian, escapist ideal.
Comments (12)Permaculture & Detroit’s Urban Agriculture Movement: What is Done, Not What is Said
Aid Projects, Community Projects, Courses/Workshops, Demonstration Sites, Food Shortages, News, Society, Urban Projects, peak oil — by Rhamis Kent March 20, 2010
A million thoughts are racing through my head as I prepare for my upcoming trip to Detroit to teach a PDC next month. I’m hoping to develop relationships with those leading the urban agriculture movement in what many call "America’s first post-industrial city". This undertaking is hugely significant for the global permaculture movement, in general – and America, in particular.
Well over 80% of Detroit’s population is African American – the demographic most severely impacted by the economic disruptions seen most recently. With the collapse of the automotive industry, the city’s unemployment rate is officially 30% – although many say real unemployment is easily in the 50% range. The burgeoning urban agriculture movement that has emerged in its wake has been a revelation. However, it hasn’t been without its problems.
Comments (1)The Buffalo Commons
Biodiversity, General, Livestock, Rehabilitation, Soil Conservation — by Rhamis Kent January 3, 2010
Here’s an idea that should be embraced and championed by all earth repair advocates: The Buffalo Commons.
The Buffalo Commons is a conceptual proposal to create a vast nature preserve by returning 139,000 square miles (360,000 km2) of the drier portion of the Great Plains to native prairie, and by reintroducing the buffalo, or American Bison, that once grazed the short grass prairie.
Comments (8)Joel Salatin and the Expression of Chickenness
Animal Forage, Consumerism, Health & Disease, Livestock — by Rhamis Kent November 18, 2009
Joel Salatin runs one of the best examples of a fully functional & productive sustainable farming operation found anywhere in the United States at Polyface Farms. It may not fit the precise permaculture mold, but it does demonstrate what’s possible without the use of expensive and destructive chemical inputs & CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations).
He recently participated in the TEDxMidAtlantic (similar to TED Talks) series of lectures to discuss the significance of adopting more holistic, comprehensive methods in producing food and tending to the land. Very inspiring and thought provoking.
What are you doing to allow a chicken to fully express its essence of ‘chickenness’? Or a cow its essence of ‘cowness’? Joel has a few things to say about that.
Comments (3)The Vegetarian Myth: Food, Justice and Sustainability
DVDs/Books — by Rhamis Kent October 11, 2009
 The Vegetarian Myth |
We’ve been told that a vegetarian diet can feed the hungry, honor the animals, and save the planet. Lierre Keith believed in that plant-based diet and spent twenty years as a vegan. But in The Vegetarian Myth, she argues that we’ve been led astray–not by our longings for a just and sustainable world, but by our ignorance.
The truth is that agriculture is a relentless assault against the planet, and more of the same won’t save us. In service to annual grains, humans have devastated prairies and forests, driven countless species extinct, altered the climate, and destroyed the topsoil–the basis of life itself. Keith argues that if we are to save this planet, our food must be an act of profound and abiding repair: it must come from inside living communities, not be imposed across them.
Part memoir, part nutritional primer, and part political manifesto, The Vegetarian Myth will challenge everything you thought you knew about food politics.
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