"High desert location" is not fully informative to direct you to resources
which have been proven to work in similar conditions. Most of the conceptual
modules making up the living systems have been proven from the equator to
near arctic conditions (with some adaptations).
Water is a critical limiting resource necessary for abundant life. The
Sierra Club published a book called "WATER" which had two stunningly
ingenious solutions people have used to extract water from the air: One in
the canary islands takes ten years to begin producing, but extracts enough
dew to grow melons. The rockhouse & the rock wall condensor was likewise
inspiring that human beings can be so smart when all around us we see them
seemingly so helpless in the face of minor problems.
More than water, however, microfarming requires customers, because it is
defined as profitmaking. Without customers, it doesn't really matter how
much abundance you produce beyond what you can consume yourself. If your
area supports sufficient people to have customers, there must be a water
source available.
You will have to be more descriptive. Sometimes water falls intensely in the
wrong seasons, producing a "desert-like" biogeography. Impounding that
moisture during the brief rainy season might get you by all year long. It
requires surplus land to enable rain-catchers, ponds and cisterns to serve.
The Dogon people in Africa get by with cisterns filed by the run-off from
their rooftops, but their lifestyle limits them to three-gallons per day in
the dry season. Obviously, they need a larger catchment area than a hut roof
if they were going to be micro-farming for profit.
Sincerely, Lion Kuntz
------Original Message------
From: Edna M Weigel <eweigel@juno.com>
To: lionkuntz@email.com
Sent: March 24, 2000 11:35:16 PM GMT
Subject: micro-farming
I like yoiur concepts. If you form a group of like minded people, I'd
like to join them even though many of your ideas most likely won't work
in my high desert location without modification. I enjoy what you've
put onto SANET. Let me know if you form a new discussion group.
Sincerely,
Edna Weigel
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