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MLT NEWSLETTER

SPRING 2015


Cultivating Resilient

Communities





MLT Board of Directors:


Rita Bober
Norm Bober
Ken Dahlberg, Chairperson
Maynard Kaufman
Ron Klein
Suzanne Klein
Michael Kruk
Jim Laatsch
Lisa Phillips, Treasurer
Michael Phillips
Thom Phillips, Managing Director
Jan Ryan, Secretary
Jon Towne, Newsletter Editor


As I count them, this is MLT's 79th printed newsletter since 1979. Even though this and the previous 78 issues can be read by any one with internet access on the website, we recognize that some may want to “save a tree” and receive the newsletter by another personal means besides snail mail. If you wish, we can send the newsletter via a pdf to your email box instead (or both). Send your email to tomar@i2k.com to make is so.

Maynard is not the first to recognize that increasing organic matter in soils sequesters C02, but as he points out there has been very little attention given to this seemingly obvious corollary. This notion aligns with the longstanding goals of MLT to reconfigure the food system to be sustainable by focusing on “right sized”, local, energy efficient(minimize fossil fuel use) and organic. Organic farming seeks to optimize organic matter levels in soils as does carbon farming for different but compatible purposes. The third article after Maynard's two contributions is Rita's who branches from her compendium of useful plants to reflect on her place and responsibility on this living but threatened planet.

HUBRIS OR HUMUS

Maynard Kaufman

The General Assembly of the United Nations has declared 2015 the International Year of Soils. This can help to sharpen the focus on a neglected strategy in the mitigation of climate change. This focus on soil includes an emphasis on preventing further soil degradation, such as that caused by plowing, which leads to the loss of carbon in the soil as its organic matter is oxidized and escapes as carbon dioxide. It also includes the recognition that soil can serve as a sink for the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere which causes global warming. This excess carbon can be sequestered in plants and soil by photosynthesis and stored in the soil as humus. The word humus is related to human and humility, and can be used to characterize a non-invasive and human-scale approach to reducing global warming.

Although soil has been largely ignored in the discussion of climate change, the fact is that better farming methods, such as growing crops organically and without tillage, are already being practiced. Ranchers are also adopting methods of rotational grazing which restore organic matter in the turf. These methods emerged as farmers and ranchers tried to restore soil fertility. For many of them the issue of reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was secondary. Such methods should have the support of climate scientists and agricultural bureaucracies, along with a more complete reformation of farming methods that can restore carbon from the atmosphere to the soil. This can be done quite naturally, without the hubris involved in “geo-engineering.” Hubris is a Greek word implying arrogance resulting from excessive pride. Unfortunately, the focus on technology among many mainstream “scientific” thinkers seems to have blinded them to the power of biological processes. But, as the conservation policies after the Dust Bowl have illustrated, it is better to work with nature rather than try to control nature.

A second issue, also ignored by general writers on climate change, is that carbon dioxide is not simply a pollutant to get rid of, but a much-needed resource for soil improvement. Organic matter, which is necessary for soil fertility, is 58% carbon. So-called “carbon farmers” (see their website, Carbon Farmers of America) affirm that it is possible to do both: sequester carbon in the soil and thereby also improve the soil. This “both-and” emphasis is articulated in a new article by Adam Sacks and colleagues on reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide to pre-industrial levels. This article, which has been published in a book entitled Geotherapy, generally supports my thinking in this paper with more scientific evidence.

Where does the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere come from? The conventional answer is that two thirds comes from burning fossil fuels. This has led many climate change activists, such as Bill McKibben of 350.org, to urge that emissions should be reduced by reducing the burning of fossil fuels. This strategy has failed for a quarter of a century, and emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rise. People want to continue an energy-intensive lifestyle and developing countries need fossil fuels to develop. And, of course, the fossil fuel companies are happy to provide the fuel and make record profits. So we do need CCS, (carbon capture and sequestration), but not the kind promoted by technological entrepreneurs, which imagines the development of a machine that could capture carbon in the air and then sequester it into an old well in hopes it would stay there. Rather, photosynthesis is a natural process using the energy of sunlight to “capture” carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and sequester it in soils and plants. And it is free, although the sequestration requires some effort.

More recently an increasing number of analysts have argued that much more than a third of atmospheric carbon dioxide has come from deforestation and plowing the land which oxidizes the organic matter in or on the soil. How much carbon was lost in this way depends partly on how far back in time emissions of carbon dioxide are counted. William Ruddiman, while acknowledging that industrial emissions may be greater now, also counts emissions from deforestation and plowing going back to the beginning of agriculture thousands of years ago. While estimates of past emissions are not likely to be accurate, the loss of organic matter from the soil is excessive. According to the Australian soil scientist, Christine Jones, 50 to 80% of the carbon has been lost from the soil. (See her website, www.amazingcarbon.com).

If over half of soil carbon has been lost, the soil can easily accommodate at least twice as much as still remains in it. Percentages of organic matter in soils, now down to 1 to 2% in cropland, should be at least twice as much. Undisturbed prairie soils can contain 10 to 20% of organic matter. In fact carbon constantly moves between air and soil and water, and the soil has a vast capacity to sequester carbon. The authors of the Sacks article, mentioned above, claim that replacing just half of the soil carbon that was lost in the past 10,000 years has the realistic potential for reducing atmospheric carbon to a pre-industrial level of 280 parts per million. The oceans are also a carbon sink, but as they become increasingly acidic as a result of absorbing too much carbon, oceanic life is damaged.

The Need for More Organic Farming 

Soils that are rich in organic matter and humus provide a habitat for microbial life that can feed the plants growing on it. It is this lack of organic matter that has made chemical fertilizers an easy substitute. But chemical fertilizers, according to soil scientists such as Christine Jones or Elaine Ingham, actually disrupt and destroy organic matter and humus in the soil. They are thus addictive, creating a need for more and more, and this is a problem since they require fossil fuels for their extraction and/or manufacturing. Moreover, chemical fertilizers emit even more carbon dioxide. They also emit nitrous oxide, which is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas. At best chemical fertilizers are a temporary technological fix.

Now, as we think ahead to a time when fossil fuels, as well as the minerals used to make fertilizers, are likely to be increasingly expensive, it will be necessary to restore organic matter, which is 58% carbon, in the soil. A variety of methods have been proposed to accomplish this and some are suitable for large farms and ranches. These include the Rodale strategy of no-till organic farming with cover crops, grazing ruminants in rotational grazing patterns as specified by Allan Savory in the Holistic Management system, deep sub-soiling using the Yeomans chisel plow, avoiding chemicals for pest control or chemical fertilizers, and pasture cropping, in which annual grains are grown in dormant perennial grasses. Other strategies, such as burning organic materials in the absence of oxygen (pyrolysis) to form biochar and spreading it on soil, returning composted manure to the soil, and gradually substituting perennial for annual food plants, as promoted by permaculture, can be useful in large or small operations. Brian Rumsey reviewed the relevance of perennial food crops under development at the Land Institute to climate change in the Summer, 2014, issue of the Land Report, and found that perennial crops best mimic the productivity of the native prairie with deeper roots and less tillage. All these approaches will also require the avoidance of chemical fertilizers, fungicides, and patented GMO pest control practices.

Soil carbon scientists agree with older organic theorists, such as Sir Albert Howard, that plants thrive best in association with mycorrhizal fungi that not only help to deliver nutrients to plants, (grass and trees) but also help to build soil structure and the aggregation of soil particles in the humification process. Once organic matter is humified it tends to remain in the soil for decades or even centuries. And all this is helped by cover crops that grow as much as possible on a year-round basis and provide “fuel” for soil microbes.

Rattan Lal, a soil scientist at Ohio State University, is a strong advocate of sequestration of carbon in soils and plants, and he suggests this could be done mainly by avoiding tillage. He does acknowledge that getting the parts per million of carbon dioxide down to pre-industrial levels would happen gradually over a period of 50 years. Other writers and practitioners, such as the Carbon Farmers of America, who are more optimistic about building and storing organic matter in soil, suggest that it could be done more rapidly. Allan Yeomans thinks it could be done in ten years. In any case, carbon sequestration in soil not only restores soil fertility, it buys time to implement the use of more renewable sources of energy and modes of energy conservation which can reduce the burning of fossil fuels.

The Challenges Ahead

If reformed food production techniques make it possible to take carbon dioxide from the air and fix its carbon in the soil, and thereby also make the soil more productive, it may be that the nightmare of global warming will be delayed, thus providing more time to make the changes needed to reduce its most extreme impacts. But the lure of money seems to deter many of us from thinking about a sustainable way of life, so we need a shift in values. One such really fundamental and necessary shift is to convince governmental leaders to move beyond their obsession with economic growth in the money economy as they continue to promote the production and burning of fossil fuels. How can we learn to recognize the illusory nature of money in comparison to the gifts of nature? How can we give up the dream of material progress and, instead, seek contentment in learning how to work with nature rather than to transform nature with technology? And how can we gear into the coming post-petroleum era, which opens opportunities for more people to be involved in food production and participate in the planting and harvesting of perennial plants and trees?

These questions relate to the main concern in this paper: planning for a future in which the use of fossil fuels will be severely constrained. These fuels make climate change worse, they are already expensive, and impending shortages will make them more expensive. A shift to no-till organic agriculture is necessary rather than continued dependence on petrochemicals which add carbon dioxide to the air rather than organic matter to the soil. Although too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is a pollutant, carbon is a valuable resource in the soil. So even if carbon dioxide could be buried deep in the earth or under the oceans, as geo-engineers propose, as much as possible should first be incorporated in the soil to build up organic matter. Organic matter provides the nutrients to make plants grow, develops soil structure that can withstand extreme weather by absorbing more water in heavy rain and hold that moisture in dry periods, and because it is 58% carbon, it adds carbon to the soil. The humification process, which converts that carbon into living and productive soil, makes sure it remains there. Above all, we will need more such naturally productive soils to provide enough food with far less dependence on petrochemical inputs. We will need, in short, a transition to a reformed version of organic farming. The United Nations focus on soils in 2015 can support this transition.

If this is all as obvious as it seems, why is it not happening? Of course it has already begun, largely through the independent efforts of farmers and ranchers. But it has not yet garnered much support from the Land Grant universities, which have a history of resisting organic methods. They have received financial support from agrochemical industries and look forward to more. As the cost of agrochemical inputs continue to rise, however, and as the possibility of building soil fertility by restoring organic matter is demonstrated on a large scale, it will be imitated widely. Farmers and ranchers are attentive to the success of others, and many read reports of such successes in independent farm publications. And as the movement grows, it will attract governmental support, especially as it reduces the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Eventually the mitigation of global warming will be the major cultural project. This can be done by ordinary humans with humus, in a humble manner, without the hubris of a large-scale technological project that could make things worse.

Bibliography

Bates, Albert, The Biochar Solution: Carbon farming and Climate Change. New Society Publishers, 2010.

Broecker, Wallace and Robert Kunzig, Fixing Climate. New York: Hill and Wang, 2008.

Fleming, James Roger, Fixing the Sky: The checkered history of weather and climate control. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010.

Goreau, Thomas, et. al., editors, Geotherapy. Boca Raton: CRC Press, 2015.

Hamilton, Clive, Earthmasters. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.

Henson, Robert, The Rough Guide to Climate Change. www.roughguides.com. 2011.

Hillman, Mayer, et. al., The Suicidal Planet. New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2007.

Lal, R., J. M. Kimble, R. R. Follett, and C. V. Cole, The Potential of U. S. Cropland to Sequester Carbon and Mitigate the Greenhouse Effect. Boca Raton: Lewis Publishers, 1999.

Lehmann, Johannes, and Stephen Joseph, (editors) Biochar for Environmental Management.  Earthscan, 2009.

Ohlson, Kristin, The Soil Will Save Us. Rodale Press, 2014.

Rodale Institute, “Regenerative Organic Agriculture and Climate Change,” 2014.

Ruddiman, William F. Plows, Plagues and Petroleum. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999.

Sacks, Adam, et. al., “Restoring Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels to Pre-Industrial Levels: Re-

Establishing the Evolutionary Grassland-Grazer Relationship.” In Goreau, Geotherapy, 155-193

Schwartz, Judith D, Cows Save the Planet. Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013.

Shepard, Mark, Restoration Agriculture: Real world permaculture for farmers. Austin, TX: Acres, USA, 2013.

Smith, J. Russell, Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture. New York: Devin Adair, 1950.

White, Courtney, Grass, Soil, Hope: A Journey Through Carbon Country. Chelsea Green Publishers, 2014.

Willey, Zack and Bill Chameides, Harnessing Farms and Forests in the Low Carbon Economy: Howto create, measure, and verify greenhouse gas offsets. Duke University Press, 2007.

Yeomans, Allan, Priority One: Together we can beat global warming. Australia: Keyline Publishing Company, 2005.


BOOK REVIEW OF GEOTHERAPY

Maynard Kaufman

This book may be seen as one of the most important published this year. It is edited by Thomas J. Goreau, Ronal W. Larson, and Joanna Campe, and each of them wrote introductory essays that comprise the first 100 pages of this 600 page book. The subtitle of the book is “Innovative Methods of Soil Fertility Restoration, Carbon Sequestration, and Reversing Carbon Dioxide Increase.” It was published by CRC Press early this year.

What makes this book important is that it is the most comprehensive and fully-documented collection of scientific articles that explain the best and quickest way to mitigate global warming. It is, as the editors put it, “the down to earth solution to global warming [that] takes carbon from the atmosphere where it does the most harm and puts it in the soil where it does the most good.” But, unlike the three or four anecdotal books published on this theme during the last couple of years by journalists, Geotherapy is backed by empirical science. This may be what it takes to get the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to recognize soil as a major carbon sink. Failure to do this has opened the door to dubious proposals of geoengineering that are mainly designed to make money for technological entrepreneurs. These are vigorously refuted by the editors.

The failure to formally recognize soil as the only effective sink for carbon has also allowed carbon dioxide to rise to over 400 parts per million in the atmosphere, a level that is dangerously high. It is urgent that this level of carbon dioxide is lowered as soon as possible. Its warming effect on the earth has already begun and it is likely to increase the distortion of our weather. Also, since urban citizens are largely unaware of the importance of soil, this topic is crucial.

The 34 chapters in the book include about ten on the use of biochar and another ten reviewing various modes of soil remineralization and other organic additives. One of the best chapters is on the sequestration of carbon by grazing methods, significant because grasslands extend over 40 % of the globe. These highly technical chapters surely lend scientific authority to the book, and they are framed by the introductory editorial essays at the outset and by the editors' succinct conclusion at the end of the book which leave the reader with its main message: the need for political pressure to recognize soil as the place to put the excess carbon from the atmosphere to restore organic matter. Once this is clear, governmental agencies can support such projects.

Thomas Goreau, the main editor of this book, reported that he was the Senior Scientific Affairs Officer for climate change who was present when the UNFCCC was formulated in 1989, and he explains, (pp. 44-45) how it was flawed by politicians who put national and corporate interests ahead of the need for a global treaty based on sound science that would recognize all sources and sinks of greenhouse gases. He explains how the UNFCCC could be reformed to be effective, beginning with the recognition that soil is the only carbon sink that is adequate to prevent the ravages of climate change.

The Call of the Earth


By Rita Bober


Sixty-five million years ago, the dinosaurs became extinct. In fact, there have been five extinctions since Earth became a living, breathing entity. Now we are in the sixth extinction according to Elizabeth Kolbert in her book, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. An extinction is when the diversity of life on earth is suddenly and dramatically reduced.

Kilbert states that these five extinctions happened before there were human beings on the Earth. The evolution of humans began 2.6 million years ago. Because of our presence here, we have had an impact on what has transpired and are now leading to a sixth extinction. ”At this moment in time we are more and more consciously confronted by the reality of climate change, global pollution, acidification of the oceans, massive destruction of forests and wetlands and other natural habitat. All of it is contributing to the first man-made mass extinction of species that the planet has suffered, caused by industrialization and our addiction to a materialistic lifestyle. And we are all responsible—just by traveling in a car or a plane, we are actively participating in an ecologically destructive culture,” according to Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, a Sufi teacher and author.

Humans have the capacity to make a difference. We have a thinking brain, we have creativity, and we have the capacity to use technology in a good way. If governments don’t do something, it’s up to us to make a difference. We can choose by the way we live. Southwest Michigan is only second to California in the types of fruit and vegetables we can grow. I wish we could grow almonds here, I sure will miss them when they are gone. We are surrounded by the Great Lakes, with a significant amount of fresh water. What if we thought of this land and water as sacred?

Our connection to this land came one Spring day as we walked to the hill on the east side of our acreage. It was right in the middle of the 15 acres of rolling hay field that we had been buying from our long-time friends originally from Detroit who lived nearby. We were going to work together to have a farming cooperative, sharing machinery and work. But that didn’t happen; the couple got a divorce and moved away.

We asked ourselves, “What should we do?” Should we keep this land and move away from the idea of community? Was this land the right place for us to spend the rest of our lives? So we sat on the hillside and pondered the question. The earth felt warm beneath us; a light breeze blew from the west stirring our hair. We could see the rows of trees surrounding our land on three sides swaying in the wind. The buds were just beginning to burst open like far away stars shining in the night.

From the earth we got a flowing, a sense that we belonged. We felt a deep yearning to be here in this place at this time. Our guts said, “Yes, this is the place to live.” So began our journey in living in harmony with our land. Robin Wall Kimmerer in her book, Braiding Sweetgrass, shares teachings on how to become Indigenous to place. That all the knowledge we need in order to live is present in the land. Our role is “not to control or change the world as a human, but to learn from the world how to be human.” And even though it has been over 25 years since we settled here, we are still learning.

Becoming indigenous to our place—how do we do that? Along the way we have found a growing understanding that we are not separate from nature and our land, but we are all part of one interdependent living organism that is our planet. We realize that the world is a sacred, interconnected living whole that cares for us and that we in turn need to care for the Earth, our Mother. We are learning to balance the outer world and the inner world, connecting our soul with the spirit that lives in all things. Most of us can relate to the sacredness of human beings, but many have forgotten that the Earth is also sacred, and that its soul can speak to ours. Indigenous peoples and their spiritual leaders know this and many of their rituals of daily life as well as their ceremonies and prayers are enacted for the purpose of looking after the sacred nature of creation, keeping a balance between the worlds. This sacred dimension nourishes our own soul and we need this in these trying times.

Connecting to the soul of the land—begin by taking time each day to give Thanks for all that you have been given. We have so many gifts to be thankful for. As you milk your animals each day or collect your eggs, connect with each animal in a conscious way giving and receiving each other’s gifts. When you see the first seeds emerge from the ground in your garden, give thanks for the gift of new life and continued hope that that new life represents. Have you ever talked to the wild animals that wander into your space? Sometimes we can connect with them and make deals where we honor each other’s space. We also can learn to share what we have with them and at times they share their lives with us. Do you have a sit-spot on your land where you can go and just “be” with nature? Ask a question, and listen for the answer. Be nourished by the Earth.

What about that community/cooperative lifestyle we envisioned? We are not farming cooperatively with our neighbors, but two families give support through sharing and caring about us. We exchange seedlings, grapes and grape juice making, parties and get-togethers, borrowing tools, bee hive making, vegetables and fruits shared, even making sauerkraut together. Through our Transition Town - Local Lawton, we share a seed bank at the Library, started a community garden, have a school garden for 4th and 5th graders, made a Local Lawton Food & Farm guide, started a Honey Bee Co-operative, have seed exchanges, and educational and reskilling programs. Community is where you make it. Like-minded people connect to each other.

In closing, Vaughan-Lee reminds us that “the world is not a problem but a living being in a state of dangerous imbalance and deep distress.” We can work on balancing the sacredness of the Earth with the soul that lives within us.



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