This is interesting, to say the least, and bears out what many of us
are discovering and know.... that healthy soil and organic methods
*can* provide more food than "they" say is possible.
Another section talks about the nutrient density and makeup of organic
compared to factory farmed food.
Biotic means organic, in this article.
Posted to aus.gardens also as David was asking about perma/polyculture
and sustainability recently, and because those of you in Oz seem to be
a bit ahead of us here in the US........in regard to this matter, at
least. ;-)
Charlie
Full article at:
http://carolynbaker.net/site/content/view/465/
and
http://www.counterpunch.org/goff04242008.html
excerpt:
Another Agriculture is Possible
Many well-substantiated studies show that intensive biotic polyculture
-- that is, the cultivation of many species of food plants in a small
footprint, using biotic soil amendments and nutrient recycling --
produces far more food per hectare than factory farming; uses far less
water; and builds, rather than destroying, topsoil.
Although more human ingenuity, care, and attention are required, the
adoption of permaculture principles and techniques reduces the drudgery
of food production considerably; the permaculturist is assisting food
to grow rather than forcing it to grow (or more hubristically,
"growing" it), which is much less work all round than our cartoon
cultural memory of dawn-to-dusk backbreaking peasant labor (which
became backbreaking to pay "tribute" and debts to people with weapons
and ledgers, not survive).
What intensive biotic polyculture does not do is maximise money
profits, minimise labour inputs, or facilitate large-scale extractive
cash-cropping.
For these reasons -- not for any failure to produce food for eating --
it is derided by industrial agribiz "experts" as impractical,
inefficient, inadequate, etc. In fact, poly/permaculture's abundant
success in producing food for eating is one of the things that makes it
a frightening prospect for those who control people by controlling
people's access to food.
What they don't want us to know is that it works. Eisenia hortensis --
the European nightcrawler (earthworm) -- under ideal worm-farming
(vermiculture) conditions double their volume through reproduction
every 90 days. Each individual worm can eat approximately half its body
weight each day. A pound of E. hortensis, then, can consume a
half-pound of non-oily, vegetable kitchen scraps each day. The majority
of that mass is excreted as an extremely high quality compost, with a
bit of fluid (worm tea) left over (considered by many to be the organic
uber-fertilizer). So, potentially, one pound of worms can convert
around 180 pounds of kitchen scraps each year into the highest quality
organic soil additive. Every five pounds of worm-castings can convert
one-square surface-foot of soil into a super-producer for a four
months. So one pound of worms can sustain 12 square surface-feet of
garden throughout the year for the highest levels of productivity.
My own [Stan's] anecdotal evidence, without using worm castings but
using simply composting mulch on organic compost over non-compacted
soil, is that in 12 square surface-feet, one can grow three species of
food, with six plants each... producing okra, tomatoes, cu***bers,
peppers, peas, bush beans, etc. Mixing them, and adding a couple of
marigolds and aromatics (like mint or parilla) seems to keep the little
critters from taking more than their share. Last summer I had one
cu***ber vine that produced around 50 mature cu***bers, totalling well
over 20 pounds of food, for around three months. By rotating seasonals,
it is easily conceivable to take a 12 square-foot plot in a temperate
zone and raise 100 pounds of food a year... being very conservative.
Neither Syngenta, nor Cargill, nor Archer-Daniels-Midland want you to
know this.
They want to sell you mass-produced food, for money... which you have
to work for. Let us not forget that Enclosure (forcing people off the
land, or separating them from their land) was the method used to compel
people into the monetized industrial economy in the first place. A
12-foot garden bed is three-feet by four-feet. How many of these can
you build on a half an acre? The key is always in the design.
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