DeMything Soil Carbon

Giving soil carbon its due will require a re-evaluation of our agricultural methods. Most studies of soil carbon have been based on standard agricultural practices. But conventional agriculture and biomass breakdown are not alone going to deliver the soil carbon gains necessary to make agriculture part of the climate change solution. Independent scientist Christine Jones promotes "regenerative agriculture" to develop "liquid carbon pathways"-plants pumping stable carbon-rich compounds into the soil as part of their interaction with soil microbes - mycorrhizae in particular, that produce a stable carbon product called glomalin.

DeMything Livestock Methane

Unfortunately this article summary does not go into the real discussion - you need to purchase The Land newspaper to get that, but I think the gist of what its all about comes from reading the comments below the article. Livestock methane production can be a closed carbon cycle - but only if pasture is managed properly using 'healthy' grass fed livestock, ie the pasture remains an active living liquid carbon pump using microbial bridges.

Trees Can't Do It Alone

The winner of last year's national 'Raising the Baa' competition has concluded carbon farming to offset a farm's own emissions cannot work under the present rules, and that on farm carbon neutrality is a pipe-dream without soil carbon. This realisation came after planting woodlots and shelterbelts, then measuring the carbon sequestration. Unfortunately current carbon rules do not allow the inclusion of soil carbon.

Depleted Soils Making Us Sick

According to Dr Hungerford, a host of modern diseases have their roots in "... eating good food grown in bad soils, or good food that is not fresh. More of us are eating bad food that is neither fresh nor grown in good soils." After years of research and medical practice she has come to believe health starts in the soil.  

CSIRO research published last year found that simply adding superphosphate to a wheat crop reduced zinc levels in the wheat grains by 33-39% - to the point where people who got most of their zinc from the wheat in their diet would become deficient in the nutrient. The research suggested the phosphate destroyed arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in the soil too.

Advanced Nutrients Hotting Up Competition

Apparently Advanced Nutrients is expanding into the fertiliser commodity market with a range called AllFert. This Australian company aims to offer highly cost-competitive fertilisers, with their internationally distributed Black Urea leading the range  - a urea granule coated with humic acid - biological techniques are actually entering mainstream agriculture! Congratulations.

Sand Dams

Sand dams are being used in Africa as a solution to carting water many miles, but what I find particularly interesting is the fact that first it works so well, and that it fits into emerging theories on rehydrating landscapes by the likes of Peter Andrews, Christine Jones, Glen Morris etc. Why allow water to drain to oceans as fast as possible - why not allow it to permeate underground to then access it, clean and filtered, all year round - rivers, plants, animals and humans all benefit.

Livestock Killing Vultures

Eating carcasses of livestock treated with antibiotics is wreaking havoc on the health of Spanish vultures. Eating carrion from farms led to high levels of quinolones, a group of persistent antibiotics, in vultures' blood. You are left to only imagine what is happening to the intended audience for this meat - humans!

Rodent Contraceptives

China's authorities have scattered 200kg of rodent contraceptive pellets across the Tibetan plateau to control what they describe as a "plague of desert rats". But foreign zoologists say the epidemic of the small mammals is a symptom rather than the cause of grassland degradation, which is mainly the result of human behaviour such as the exploitation of water resources and over-grazing.

Crop and Pasture Journal

More from Crop and Pasture Science Vol. 60 No. 2:  

Plant mechanisms to optimise access to soil phosphorus. Although soils may contain a large amount of total P, only a small proportion is immediately available to plants. The ability of roots to effectively explore soil, the release of exudates (e.g. organic anions and phosphatases) from roots that influence soil P availability, and the association of roots with soil microorganisms such as mycorrhizal fungi are particularly important. These processes occur as a natural response of plants to P deficiency.

Google Earth Surveillance

Armed with vivid images from space and remote sensing data, scientists, environmentalists, and armchair conservationists are now tracking threats to the planet and making the information available to anyone with an Internet connection.

Organic Food Reaching the US Government

Advocates of organic and locally grown food have found a receptive ear in the White House, which has vowed to encourage a more nutritious and sustainable food supply. The most vocal booster so far has been the first lady, Michelle Obama, who has emphasized the need for fresh, unprocessed, locally grown food and, last week, started work on a White House vegetable garden.

Connecting Consumers to Farmers

The underlying idea, broadly called traceability, is in fashion in many food circles these days. Makers of bananas, chocolates and other foods are also using the Internet to create relationships between consumers and farmers, mimicking the once-close ties that were broken long ago by industrialized food manufacturing. For example, beginning this month, customers who buy its all-purpose whole wheat flour in some Wal-Mart, Safeway and other grocery chains can go to findthefarmer.com, enter the lot code printed on the side of the bag, and visit with the company's farmers and even ask them questions.

Organic Sales Down

Perhaps the sale of organic produce will be hit hard by the economic downturn - though it would be interesting to know if the statistics being used are only gleaned from supermarket sales - are people really only just taking their business away from supermarkets and turning to local outlets or even growing more themselves? Have the sales of conventional alternatives jumped by the same amount?

Food Waste in Australia

According to a 2005 study by the Australia Institute, Australians bin a staggering $5.3 billion of food a year. "When people or restaurants throw away their food, they also waste all the resources, fuel and energy that went into getting that food from paddock to plate," chef Kylie Kwong says. In addition, food rotting in landfill is a major producer of methane. One solution is to cut back on portion sizes - another way is charging for it -  New York's Hayashi Ya Japanese restaurant has introduced a gluttony surcharge, with customers paying 3% extra for not finishing their food!

No GM Plants on Refuge Land

A federal judge in Delaware has ruled that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife should not have permitted farming with genetically modified crops on a national wildlife refuge. While not big news in itself, if you read between the lines, the judge is accepting that GM crops can pose significant environmental risks, including biological contamination, increased weed resistance and damage to soils.

GM Crops Will Cost You

North American speakers at a controversial series of forums across Australia state: "It [GM canola] doesn't yield better than conventional crops and it costs more to grow, but now Canadian farmers don't have a choice as non-GM canola has been eliminated by genetic contamination."

GM Wheat and Pasture Yields

Preliminary trials in Victoria show that genetically modified wheat could lift production yields by about 20% and GM pastures could economically boost the dairy, beef and wool industries. Curiously milk production also lifted....mmm, 20%. Given that such research is generally 'confidential', it it difficult to take this seriously without more information. The comments below this article are interesting.

Climate Change Heretic

Freeman Dyson's scientific credentials are A grade, but many are wondering if this octogenarian is now losing his reasoning because he does not agree with current climate change hypotheses. Climate models, he says, take into account atmospheric motion and water levels but have no feeling for the chemistry and biology of sky, soil and trees. Like myself, he doesn't deny CO2 increases and sees coal pollution as worst than its CO2 footprint. But see what you think.

An Ice Age Cometh?

Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously. All four agencies that track Earth's temperature report that it cooled by about 0.7C in 2007. And then there is the evidence of decreased sunspot activity...I suspect there is a little tongue in cheek with the fear-mongering at the end of this article.

Legalising CO2 as a Pollutant

The US Environmental Protection Agency is about to declare heat-trapping gases to be dangerous pollutants - and the implications will be enormous for all sorts of reasons. One concern is that the agency's regulatory powers have previously been applied mainly to pollutants that do damage on a regional level, like nitrogen oxide and hydrocarbons. By contrast, carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping gases that the E.P.A. proposes to regulate do harm on a global scale. What will this all mean legally?

The Woes of the Ethanol Industry

The ethanol industry must be wondering where the bottom is. Profits are slim or no-existent, and about 20% of all US plants are shut down. In addition, ethanol's main by-product, which is sold as livestock feed, has raised potential food safety concerns including elevated rates of E. coli in cattle, and often contains antibiotics left over from making ethanol. Yes, apparently antibiotics are used to make ethanol!

Energy Independent Farms

The hydrogen powered tractor is an early wavelet in a tsunami of electric-powered vehicles rolling off drawing boards around the world. This concept is at the centre of New Holland's vision for the "energy independent farm", in which farmers use wind, solar or biomass technology to generate their own electricity. Interestingly, hydrogen's main disadvantage at the moment is that the fuel cells are currently large and heavy - a setback in an electric car, where space and weight are at a premium, but much less so in tractors and combines - an ideal utility for it.

Cleaning Soils Using Iron

A slurry of microscopic iron particles is being pumped into the ground to neutralize a plume of toxic pollution. The iron cleanup procedure, called nanoscale zero-valent, can easily move through the soil between grains of sand or dirt and when the particles come into contact with the contamination, they bond to it and neutralize it. The iron also removes oxygen from the soil and groundwater, making conditions even better for the growth of microbes that further break down the contaminant. But it may also produce toxic by-products.

Nanoparticles Harm Microbes

Nanoparticles in sunscreens, cosmetics and other consumer products may pose risks to the environment by damaging beneficial microbes. The findings suggest that these particles, which easily end up at sewage treatment plants after being washed off in showers, could eliminate microbes that play vital roles in ecosystems and help treat wastewater. They don't mention all the microbes that keep our bodies alive and well in this article, which can only increase the concerns.

Shampoos Stimulating Drug-Resistant Microbes

Fabric softeners, disinfectants, shampoos and other household products are spreading drug-resistant bacteria around Britain, scientists have warned. Detergents used in factories and mills are also increasing the odds that some medicines will no longer be able to combat dangerous diseases. Soil samples from many areas have been found to contain high levels of bacteria with antibiotic-resistant genes.

Good for US but Not Australia?

I heard about this a few years ago from someone who travelled to the US and witnessed the vapour-recovery system being used in petrol stations. They were told that it was all to do with the health of the consumer. Interestingly it is now being mandated in California, but I have not heard a whisper of it being used in Australia.

US Farm Subsidies Pullback Defeated

The United States Senate Budget Committee has defeated an attempt by the Obama Administration to end direct farm payments to farms with more than $500,000 in gross sales.

Thorium Competing with Uranium

Thorium is a slightly radioactive element, a cousin of uranium. Advocates say that adding thorium to a nuclear reaction would help reduce the volume of nuclear waste that is produced and help prevent civilian nuclear fuels from being converted into weapons-grade material. So, could thorium, which is found in the sandy beaches of India, Australia, and the United States, be part of the answer?

Agro Drill for Sale

The owner loves this machine, but is gearing up to retire. On offer is an 18 run Agro Drill modified to 10 inch spacings to suit pasture cropping.  The extra tynes come with the machine if needing to convert it back to conventional spacings.  It has 2 seed/fertilizer boxes. The machine is only 2 years old and has had little work and is in excellent condition.  No synthetic fertilisers have been put through it to cause any corrosion. A new Agro Drill is $30,000, and this one will be listed with a dealer for $21.000. It is being offered to FTSU subscribers at $18,500. Call Lee directly on (02) 6723-2889.

Pathway to Intimacy

I have a selfish reason for promoting this course being held in Inverell 4-5th April - more people are needed to run the next level up, and as a graduate I am waiting for that to happen....it is a most wonderful journey. The course outline includes: understanding and celebrating sacred sexuality; experiencing deeper intimacy and love within relationships; developing clear communication skills; learning tantric yoga, meditation & breathwork; releasing blockages that limit your relationship; understanding feminine & masculine energies.

Holistic Management Course Change

The Holistic Management Course originally set to start in March this year has been moved to May - starting 21-22 May.

Agriculture, Greenhouse & Emissions Trading Conference 

This Australian Farm Institute conference in Maroochydore Qld 6-7 May will provide a comprehensive, industry-wide analysis of the implications of an Australian emissions trading scheme, providing delegates with an opportunity to discuss this issue with leaders of Australian agriculture and international speakers from the USA and New Zealand.

Modern Farmers 1st National Congress

In addition to bringing farmers across Australia together for this major two-day event in Brisbane 22-23 June, the NFF is extending invitations to agribusiness, government officials, agricultural teachers and students, researchers and academics to explore the issues, developments, opportunities and challenges for Australian agriculture...It covers a wide range of topics and hosts speakers who hold differing points of view on many of the topics including GM.

Health

Sugar Comeback

This is perhaps a more comprehensive article explaining the new trend by multinational companies of replacing high fructose corn syrup with natural sugar. Personally I would head towards the less processed option any day - admittedly in limited quantities. This was a curious admission: 'Market researchers say that with the economy so unsettled, people want to control what they can. Choosing organic, less processed or so-called natural foods is a relatively inexpensive way to do that.'

Environmental Estrogens

A discovery that two commonly used food additives are estrogenic has led scientists to suspect that other ingredients added to the food supply may be capable of altering hormones. More than 3,000 preservatives, flavorings, colors and other ingredients are added to food in the United States, and none of them are required to undergo testing for estrogenic activity, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

Cherry Picking Favourable Results

Drugmaker AstraZeneca "buried" unfavorable studies on its antipsychotic drug Seroquel, according to an internal e-mail. The e-mail was made public due to litigation over the medicine and its link to diabetes and other health problems.

Vitamin D Linked to Colds and Flu

The wintertime deficiency of vitamin D, which the body produces in response to sunlight, has been implicated in the seasonal increase in colds and flu, and now the largest study yet supports this association with people with the lowest blood vitamin D levels having significantly more recent colds or cases of the flu. The risks were even higher for those with chronic respiratory disorders such as asthma.

Melanoma is Not Linked to Sun

Dr. Robert Heaney explains why sunshine has been wrongly accused of being the main culprit in causing deadly skin cancer. I know that I personally had a melanoma cut out from between my toes many years ago - a place that barely sees sunlight, and while living in Japan discovered that melanoma rates were incredibly high, particularly with office workers who rarely see the sun...so the logic put forward here seems plausible.

Bleached Flour Blues

Nearly everyone knows that white flour is not healthy for you, but most people don't know that when white flour is bleached, it can actually be FAR worse for you. White flour contains a small fraction of the nutrients of the original grain, with the heat of the steel rollers having destroyed what little nutrients remain. But then it is hit with another chemical insult--a chlorine gas bath (chlorine oxide). This serves as a whitener, as well as an "aging" agent. The history of why flour came to be bleached is actually quite interesting - we have lost the art of aging flour.

Probing the Contaminated Vaccine Story

Because of laboratory protocols that are routine for vaccine makers, mixing a live virus biological weapon with vaccine material by accident is virtually impossible. So how and why did Baxter flu vaccines get contaminated with H5N1 (the human form of avian flu)?

Butter is Better

Goodness, a terrific article published in America, but written by an Australian - in fact a FTSU subscriber! It tracks the discoveries of Dr Weston A Price during the 1930s and the correlation between poor health and denatured foods, and in particular the healthy role of saturated fats like butter and tallow. A wonderful follow through to Dr Hungerford's article above.

Cartoon

Just love these!

Miscellaneous

Every major religion has referred to inner guidance in its teachings...and so begins an incredible journey into life, consciousness and its holographic projections whereby a cell works the same as a human works the same as the earth works the same as the universe. What an amazing synthesis of mythology, spiritualism, science, law and above all our relationship with nature.

Those interested in the Honour/Dishonour system will find parts of this interesting - particularly as it relates to inherent rights, admiralty law and our current bankrupt, corrupt and unsustainable money system.

Speaking of which - check out this speech directed at Prime Minister Gordon Brown given in the European Parliament 26/03/09. Daniel Hannan is a Conservative MEP for the South East of England and he certainly doesn't mince words. 

Events

For all April events

For all May events

* Pathway to Intimacy - Inverell NSW 4th - 5th April 2009.

* Agriculture, Greenhouse & Emissions Trading Conference - Maroochydore Qld 6th - 7th May 2009.

* Holistic Principles and Practice - Guyra NSW 21st - 22nd May 2009. 

* Modern Farmers 1st National Congress - Brisbane Qld 22nd - 23rd June 2009.

* Holistic Grazing Planning - Guyra NSW 23rd - 25th June 2009. 

Postscript

Gosh some people are clever - check out Eric Grohe's 3-D walls. The Miller's Brewery wall is extraordinary - imagine changing all blank walls this way!