Linking Land Clearing to Drought

A recent Australian study suggests that land clearing over the past 200 years may have been as significant a factor in this country's droughts and changing climate as increasing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Another study theorises that a ‘biotic pump' causes inland rain, and that ‘even localised clearing might ultimately switch entire continental climates from wet to arid, with rainfall declining by 95 per cent'. Land clearing could be of the same level of importance as greenhouse gas emissions when it comes to climate change.

Soils Absorb Methane

Climate science has found the greenhouse gas methane can be absorbed by soil. Healthy soil bacteria absorb more methane per day than a cow produces in an entire year. Methane from grazing animals has captured world attention, but policy makers are ignoring the other side of the story that some soils will take more methane than livestock emit.

The Benefits of Mycorrhizae in Soil

Mycorrhizae have been identified as the primary soil organic matter (carbon) stabilization mechanism in sandy soils. It is also known that crop fungicides obliterate mycorrhiza, and soils treated with them can benefit from re-inoculation with mycorrhizae spores. Also high levels of phosphorus suppress mycorrhizal activity.

Why Agriculture Should Be an Offset

Agriculture is closely tied to food security and it has traditionally held a special place in public policy. If the policy goal is to reduce greenhouse gases, then agriculture may be well positioned to contribute to the reductions in a way that limits the affect on food production because: it could be a significant source of offsets; agriculture would be costly to regulate; offset revenues in agriculture would assist in offsetting the higher costs of inputs affected by greenhouse gas reduction policy; offsets would in general encourage creativity in the reductions, as opposed to regulations that increase costs. 

Drought Linked to CO2?

Drought experts have for the first time proven a link between rising levels of greenhouse gases and a decline in rainfall. Scientists said the rain had dropped away because the subtropical ridge - a band of high pressure systems that sits over Australia's south - had strengthened over the past 13 years. [Note all the proof comes from modelling - and there are some great comments on this by Roy Spencer]

Pollution Limits Rainfall

As severe drought threatens crops in northern China, a new study has suggested air pollution could be reducing valuable rainfall. The number of water droplets in clouds is higher when there is a greater number of aerosols, but the study found water drops in polluted areas are up to 50 percent smaller than in clean skies. These smaller drops are often not large enough to fall. [There is no mention of the biological links to cloud seeding here]

Overgrazed to Cell Grazing

It can even happen in the arid Northern Territory. Chris and Marie Muldoon won the inaugural National farmers Federation (NFF) Innovation in Agriculture Award for Sustainability by converting an overgrazed weedy property in the Douglas Daly district. In 4 years they have increased their stocking rate by 50%.

Bokhara Postmortem

More than 100 interested graziers and local people attended the field day at Bokhara Plains in July. The audience was presented with the fundamentals of cell grazing, with many participants not having any previous exposure to the concept. Graham Finlayson maintains there is huge potential for carbon maximisation in the NSW Western Rangelands.

Natural Sequence Farming in a Nutshell

This is a great short summary of Natural Sequence Farming as described by one Natural Sequence Chapter president - Jim Arnold. [It's common sense, isn't it?]

Soil Carbon More than Just Credits

Ken Newcombe believes that soil carbon credits could eventually have dual currency as an indicator of environmental health and sustainability. Dr Newcombe co-developed the international Voluntary Carbon Standard, designed to give rigour to the voluntary carbon market and believes markets will evolve over time that will reward other attributes, and not just the soil carbon itself.

Good Governance

In 1997 Allan Savory (of Holistic Management fame) wrote a paper outlining approaches to Government and Governance for African countries, which has implications for all nations. An underlying premise is that desertification leads to poverty, social breakdown, violence, political instability, and genocide. In fact, desertification leads to most of the symptoms African governments, and development agencies assisting them, grapple with, and from which millions of people suffer and die. A new tool that would overcome many decision limitations is a holisticgoal....imagine developing one for Australia! The logic of this argument is incredibly compelling, and the hometruths alarming for all  nations.

Farmers Help Clean Up Watershed

Research started on a small lake with a relatively small watershed, where farmers were asked to change their management practices to limit manure and fertiliser flow into the catchment. It often reduced their costs with less inputs, and within two years of the adoption of some of the management practices, nearby streams showed "significant" reductions in phosphorus, nitrates and soil loss. In one sub-watershed, reductions averaged about 56%.

Incitec Chasing Independent Research

Five out of eight Incitic Pivot Limited (IPL) regional agronomists have been dismissed in recognition that the farming community is growing wary of fertiliser advice based on research internally generated by the company. IPL will use the funds freed up by the sackings to fund independent research and advisory services that will carry more credibility with the farming community. The intention is to develop the concepts of an "agronomy community" and a "nutrient portal", where people can share and access information as needed.

Food Profiteering?

Despite food price inflation running at more than three times general inflation, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman, Graeme Samuel, says these figures don't necessarily mean shoppers or farmers are being ripped off.

Artificial Food

A company has launched several new top-note flavour ingredients including a roasted meat odour, a nutty flavour and a tropical flavour. One of the new ingredients is 2,4,6-Trimethyldihydro-4H-1,3,5-dithiazine [say that quickly!], delivers a roasted meat odour reminiscent of roast beef... [what's wrong with the real thing??]

Home Grown or Imported Food?

The UK government is calling for a radical rethink about food production and processing. It forms part of the country's first food strategy rethink since the Second World War. Should the nation put its trust in home production or food imports from the world market? Only about 60% of the food eaten in Britain is produced in Britain compared with about 80% in the early 1980s. The arguments for home grown are rather convincing.

Injecting Eggs with Antibiotics

Injecting antibiotics into eggs just before they hatch is a procedure widely used to help prevent disease in densely packed chicken raising sheds. The FDA ruled against this widespread practice, only to renege on it after pressure from the poultry industry came to bear. What is concerning is the antibiotics now being used are top-shelf last resort drugs, and resistance is already appearing.

Plastic Pallets Leaching Chemical into Food?

A campaign has begun to highlight the hazards posed by a chemical (Deca), which is used as a flame retardant on plastic pallets used to transport food and other goods. There are fears the chemical could leach into food during the process known as hydro-cooling. This involves submerging stacked pallets filled with fruits or vegetables in water or by dripping water over the pallets.

Ecological Society of America - Continued

I have dipped into the first half of the second day of the Ecological Society of America's 2009 Annual Meeting and found these snippets of interest from different papers:

We measured carbon flows to wood production [of Eucalyptus], foliage production and total belowground carbon allocation (the sum of root production, root respiration, and mycorrhizal production and respiration). Apparently genetic improvement has altered partitioning of annual photosynthesis from belowground to wood production.

This inter-disciplinary study (community ecology, microbial ecology, biogeochemistry) stresses the importance of considering belowground and aboveground interactions simultaneously to better understand the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems.  

N₂O emissions [from soil] strongly depended on the combination of the drought treatment and the fertilizer application. The addition of ammonium nitrate and cattle urine caused much higher emissions than the application of cattle feces. 

Results suggest that soil-litter mixing is an important driver of leaf litter decomposition in the drylands of southern New Mexico. Soil-litter mixing may be particularly influential on biogeochemical cycling in drylands where increased soil erosion has occurred as a consequence of grazing and shrub encroachment. [Bring back the marsupial litter mixers to Australian landscapes!] 

Interestingly, un-grazed areas within the region exhibited the greatest increases in woody plant cover. Burned areas exhibited a sudden decrease followed by a rapid rate of increase as woody plants regenerated from root systems. Grazed areas burned at frequent intervals experienced the lowest increases.  

Nitrogen often constrains plants' ability to fix and sequester carbon under elevated CO_{2, and in nitrogen-limited systems, N fixation is the only means of acquiring "new" N.}  

Our results show that while nitrogen can increase decomposition of high C/N ratio litter, it does not lead to decreased soil organic matter (SOM) carbon decomposition. Thus, there is a disconnect between litter and SOM decomposition, and while it may be easier to manipulate litter loss rates with N additions, that does not translate to any effects on SOM loss.  

Paradoxically, litter decomposition often is positively related to its initial concentration of nitrogen, yet externally supplied nitrogen often has little or even negative effects on decomposition rates.  None of the proposed hypotheses can explain the inconsistent effects of litter versus externally supplied nitrogen on litter decomposition, so the paradox remains unresolved.

[Litter] decomposition rate was better predicted  by microbial community composition than any measure of litter chemistry.  

Some plant species hyperaccumulate the element selenium (Se) up to around 1%, dry weight.  Elevated levels of Se protect plants from a variety of both herbivores and pathogens. Interestingly, leaf litter with high Se decomposed faster than leaf litter with low Se.

Pesticide Timing Important

Most living things are governed by fairly regular daily oscillations in the activity of their genes. Vulnerability to pesticides are among things that oscillate with a bug's internal rhythms - its biological clock. Timing pesticide applications for peak potency could offer farmers more bang for their increasingly cash-strapped budgets - and dramatically lower the quantity of poisons spewed into the environment. It may also apply to plants and herbicides - and perhaps human vulnerabilities.

Food Security Needs Pesticides?

The European Crop Protection Association has expressed concern that restrictive EU regulation on pesticide use could stand in the way of global food security. [What about health and environmental security?] Fortunately The Soil Association did argue that organic production could provide that security.

Failure to Yield

Failure to Yield is the first report to closely evaluate the overall effect genetic engineering has had on crop yields in relation to other agricultural technologies. The increase in yields over the last 13 years was largely due to traditional breeding or improvements in agricultural practices. The report makes a critical distinction between potential - or intrinsic - yield and operational yield, concepts that are often conflated by the industry and misunderstood by others.

BHP Billiton Scandal

BHP Billiton and two other leading US energy companies operating in Australia have been caught up in a lobbying scandal that was aimed at defeating the landmark US climate change bill but is now under investigation by a congressional committee. The scandal involves 12 forged letters sent to members of Congress urging them to vote against the US climate change bill.

Iron Nanoparticle Concerns

Iron nanoparticles that are poised for use in large-scale pollution remediation can rapidly react with oxygen and cause lung cells to die.

The Fast Tracked Road to Riches

Three people have died and 509 are sick from poisoning by the heavy metals cadmium and indium, produced by a nearby factory in Southern China. Waste water and earth from the processing of the heavy metals have been dumped into a narrow valley at the back of the plant. The stream runs into a river 500m away that feeds into the main Xiang River, which provides drinking water for 20 million people. And this is only one example out of many, and the story is only getting out via the internet. [Industrialised nations perhaps have just as much toxins floating around -but the road to death and illness was a lot slower and subtle than now being experienced in China it seems]

Drug Money

For cocaine users, a rolled up $20 bill may be the most convenient tool for snorting the powder form of the drug. Or so it would seem from a new analysis of 234 banknotes from 18 U.S. cities that found cocaine on 90% of the bills tested.

Chevrolet Volt

General Motors announced Tuesday that its forthcoming electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Volt, will get fuel economy of 230 miles per gallon in city driving. "... these numbers are high because the electricity that's being used is not being counted in the calculation." Company officials hope the car, scheduled for late next year, will come to symbolize the "new GM" formed after bankruptcy and a federal bailout.

What's New...

Ausmin continue to expand their range of fertilisers - Ausmin's FastGrow spreader blends are specially formulated soil conditioners that provide your paddock with a balance of minerals and trace elements along with activated carbon and viable beneficial soil organisms AND diatomaceous earth [a personal favourite!]. They also do up special blends to boost needed minerals in different soils. Prices start from under $200ex/tonne, ex Depot  Fastgrow Spreader Blends 16/08/2009,22:55 246.65 Kb

Ausmin's Carbon Power spreader blends are specially formulated transition fertilisers that provide soluble nutrients as well as minerals and activated carbon. This range is based a combination of Ausphos, a bio-activated rock phosphate, with Biobase, an Activated Mineral granule, along with basalt dust and a liquid NPK biofertiliser, Humabase that has been absorbed into diatomaceous earth. Extra N, P or K are then added to create our special blends.  Carbon Power Spreader Blend 16/08/2009,22:57 297.41 Kb

Soil Foodweb Newsletter

SFI's August newsletter is now available, though the file size is too large, so if you are interested in a copy, contact me. This month the newsletter covers: maintaining yields with reduced fungicides; regenerating grasslands for climate change; ancient barley DNA may aid water stress; benefits of organic food; alternative agriculture research results; holistic management links to priorities of society; words from Sir Alfred Howard; and biological wines.

Ecovillage Research Group Newsletter

I have just been alerted to the Ecovillage Research Group Inc.'s newsletter which may interest some of you. It covers the latest EcoVillage, Permaculture and Sustainable Living ideas and tips. 

Ecovillage Design Course

This is a 6 week intensive course at Crystal Waters 30th March - 8th May 2010. The main focus of this programme will be on food localisation, design and economics. Early bird discounts apply.

Springtime Design and Sustainability Experience  

This 4 week course incorporates the full Permaculture Design Certificate plus local food production (gardens, orchards, woodlots, small cattle, poultry, beekeeping) new business ideas, food processing, tool maintenance and other farm skills. At Crystal Waters 7th Sept - 2nd Oct 2010. Early bird discounts apply.

Permaculture Design Course

Presented by David Holgrem and other tutors in Seymour Vic 3-18th October, it is one of the more popular courses that includes a smorgasbord of field trips as well. Check out the photos and last year's testimonials.

Peter Andrews On Farm

Peter Andrews founder of Natural Sequence Farming and recently on Australian Story, is doing a farm walk in Yass 29th August. The field day is being organised and promoted by the local chapter of the Natural Sequence Farming Association and all are welcomed.  NSF Yass 09 13/08/2009,22:11 135.21 Kb

Note the recent 2009 summary on Peter Andrews written post the 2nd Australian Story update on his work.

RCS International Conference 2010

RCS's GrazingforProfit is about to approach it's twentieth year, so celebrations are in order! Past graduates, current ExecutiveLink participants, producers from across Australia, service industry professionals who support our environmental landscape, along with visitors from the USA and South Africa are invited to gather in Brisbane 20th - 22nd July 2010 for the occasion.

By-the-way, there are numerous RCS courses coming up around Australia - just check out the diary to see if there is one near you.

All Things Liquid

Bionutrient Solutions invite you to a liquid inject tour ex Moree 8th - 9th September. During the tour you will visit a number of operations who have invested in liquid injection and foliar products. There will also be guest speakers from other regions and states.  BNS Crop Tour 09 18/08/2009,00:11 237.99 Kb

Sustainable Living Expo 2009

Its on again this year in Armidale 25 - 27 September - and no doubt bigger and better. Armidale's SLEX is one of the most enjoyable sustainable expos which includes sustainable house tours, talks, demonstrations and sustainable exhibits. Come along and enjoy, or show off as one of the exhibitors yourself. 

Low Stress Stock Handling School

Dom and Belinda Makim of Barraba are planning to host a low stress stock handling school in October. I'll let Dom tell the rest of the story: "I completed one a couple of months ago, and was the world's biggest skeptic right up until day two of it! I have put the principles into practice where possible (I revert to my way occasionally) since then and am finding that my stock handling and movements really are much less stressful, on the animals, the helpers and myself. Particularly with the sheep, I rarely turn into a raving lunatic anymore!"

They need a minimum of 15-20 people. The school runs for 2 days, cost is $770inc for the first person from a business (rates reduce with more people) and can be claimed through Farmready. There is also a working dog school on offer too. Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it directly.

Health

Its About Profits, Not Health

After reporting for four years on the pharmaceutical companies for The New York Times, Melody Petersen, authored Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves Into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs. "I actually thought that [pharmaceutical companies] were a lot about science. That's what they tell the public. They are all about science and discovering new drugs. But as I started to follow their daily activities and talk to executives, I learned that really it was marketing that drove them."

Further Triclosan Concerns

Its not just Triclosan's build up in marine environments that's a concern - several other concerns have been raised. "As a consequence of the migration of triclosan from plastic materials to food, consumers ingested additional amounts of the biocide. Hence [Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment] is of the opinion that further exposure routes should be avoided and triclosan should not be approved as a food additive."

Flu Vaccination Ineffective Says Science

Here are some summaries of peer-reviewed scientific papers between 2005 and 2008. You'll notice that in all, the flu vaccination does not seem to be terribly effective - at all!  Influenza Vaccine Studies 13/08/2009,22:24 75.53 Kb

Chronic Silent Inflammation

If you want to live longer -- avoid heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and cancer -- then pick and choose your foods with care to quiet down parts of your immune system. The theory goes that long after the invading bacteria or viruses from some infection are gone, the body's defenses remain active. The activated immune cells and hormones then turn on the body itself, damaging tissues. The process continues indefinitely, occurring at low enough levels that a person doesn't feel pain or realize anything is wrong. Years later, proponents say, the damage contributes to illnesses such as heart disease, neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease or cancer.

Body Energy

[Science is catching up] The human body literally glows, emitting a visible light in extremely small quantities at levels that rise and fall with the day. Past research has shown that the body emits visible light, 1,000 times less intense than the levels which can be seen with the naked eye. In fact, virtually all living creatures emit very weak light.

Bacteria Help Fight The Flu

Bacteria present naturally in your body and sometimes found in food could keep cold and flu viruses at bay. According to a study, young children who drank a mixture of such bacteria, known as probiotics, had fewer colds, needed fewer antibiotics, and missed fewer days of school. [Of course if your digestive microbes are already active and healthy, you don't need to buy them in]

Don't Sleep Where the Cat Sleeps

From magnetised mattresses (which you can readily test for with a compass) or geopathic stress - there are many who believe they can have a negative impact on health. Cats, ants and termites tend to locate around geopathic stress points - and from personal experience, rabbits could also be included.

Cartoon

Miscellaneous

We have now reached a turning point for how ideas are created, spread and implemented.  First there was the "Factory Idea" - the idea that you could change the world if only you had an efficient enough factory that could churn out change, be it a product or an idea. Then came the "TV Idea," which says that if you have a big enough mouthpiece, you can win. It's the strategy of mass marketing average ideas using loads of ads. Now we're in a new model of leadership that emphasizes TRIBES.

Events

The calendar is playing up, so most of the links below are directed back to other websites where possible or to a contact email address. If there are no links, look to the related article above. 

* Peter Andrews on Farm - Yass NSW 29th August 2009.  

* Ecovillage Design Course - Crystal Waters Qld 30th March - 8th May 2010.

* RCS International Conference - Brisbane Qld 20th - 22nd July 2010.

* Springtime Design and Sustainability Experience - Crystal Waters Qld 7th September - 2nd October 2010.

* All Things Liquid - Moree NSW 8th - 9th September 2009.

* Sustainable Living Expo 2009 - Armidale NSW 25th - 27th September 2009.

* Permaculture Design Course - Seymour Vic 3rd - 18th October 2009.

Postscript

Come look through the most innovative car factory in the world - Volkswagen in Germany refer to it as the 'transparent factory'. Part assembly factory, part museum, its quite and clean. Wow, very futuristic, but operational right now.