Greetings All,
I have been toying with the idea of pulling together a course for a community
college on Food Policy: Sustainability and Security - something like that - and
am wondering about the availability of curriculum or even textbooks?!. Any
suggestions as to where I should look?
Many Thanks!
Valerie Frances
Arlington, VA
sanet-mg-digest wrote:
> sanet-mg-digest Wednesday, April 5 2000 Volume 01 : Number 1741
>
> In this issue:
>
> Micro-Farming in North Carolina
> Frito response
> Compost Use in Potato Production
>
> See the end of the digest for information about sanet-mg-digest.
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 16:02:16 -0400 (EDT)
> From: Lion Kuntz <lionkuntz@email.com>
> Subject: Micro-Farming in North Carolina
>
> =================================
> <LP> Subject: experimentation
> <LP> From: Liz Pike <pike@always-online.com>
> <LP> Date: April 3, 2000 5:57:04 PM EDT
> <LP> To: lionkuntz@email.com
>
> <LP> Lion,
>
> <LP> I am serious about wanting to experiment with your hypothesis of 2
> <LP> acres. I'm forever a learner, and am curious as to this working.
> <LP> Large farms are becoming history, and 2 acres is more achievable than
> <LP> the 10-100 people assume is needed for farming/sustenance.
>
> <LP> 2 acres is the limit, correct?? How much room is taken up by the
> <LP> house and buildings?? What buildings are needed, size,etc?
>
> <LP> I will start reading through your website. I have studied John
> <LP> Jeavons, Alan Chadwick and Eliot Coleman extensively, among others.
> <LP> I'm really interested in incorporating Coleman's current greenhouse
> <LP> set up into the 2 acres.
>
> <LP> Let me know if you have any further thoughts, suggestions on this.
>
> <LP> I am currently building a website for market farmers. This will be my
> <LP> first project!!
>
> <LP> Liz Pike
> <LP> Morningstar Gardens
> <LP> Pollocksville NC
> <LP> ICQ # 68142830
> =================================
> Hello Liz Pike
>
> I will offer every advice or assistance to any experimental test you set up.
> Please be informed that I sometimes do not check the email for days,
> and sometimes cannot respond immediately to email which requires
> thoughtful contemplation or investigative research before answering.
>
> My writings on Micro-Farming are to stimulate adoption or experimentation.
> Nothing is particulary rigid, and there is a lot of wiggle-room to adapt and
> adjust to better fit some local circumstances or limitations.
>
> Two-to-Five acres is a general rule of thumb for obtaining a median income
> without excessive work-load, by a ruggedly independent farmworker who
> will not depend on hired help. However, in truly adverse climate conditions,
> such as eastern Washington state, where annual precipitation is about 9
> inches, coming mostly as snow in the deep winter, more land (which is
> cheap because of the adversity) might be needed to gather the year's
> water ration into impound ponds without stealing from the needs of the
> local ecology.
>
> In North Carolina, two acres is plenty if you have markets within one hour
> transportation time from your micro-farm. Five acres allows more perennial
> crops (cane berries, fruit and nut orchards, asparagus, artichokes, etc.)
> More land if you have it is nice to provide sanctuaries for wildlife and
> endangered species.
>
> Beyond rugged individualism, micro-farmers can be important contributors
> to their local economy by hiring help and expanding operations. This is
> communiy-building as a service, since it isn't necessary to expand or employ
> for personal profit. I recall that you said you enjoy hiring people and like
> the companionship as you work. Employees are a problem wih chicken
> slaughtering, as federal regulations do not allow farmer-processed chickens
> if they have employees. It might be necessary to maintain two separate
> businesses (including all the paperwork involved) if butchered chickens
> are offered to customers, with you alone handling the chickens.
>
> Local and state licencing and regulations apply to the other livestock
> and fish, plus any value-added products you include in your operation..
>
> The butchershop is the most critical building on the property. It requires
> a walk-in cooler and a backup power generator capability. You are in
> hurricane country. Hygenic concerns dictate this not be a multipurpose
> building, that it be constructed vermin-proof and easy to clean. It can be
> combined with value-added food processing operations (such as
> canned soups, juices, jams, jellies, pickling, relishes, etc.) but is not
> part of the green grocery harvest washing, packing and storage
> operations which take place elsewhere. If you cannot accomodate these
> requirements for meat and fish marketing you cannot benefit from the
> important contributions these make to the overall picture.
>
> The sizes of buildings are dictated by the intended volume of use. That
> in turn is dictated by your ambition, and a sensible sober growth plan.
>
> Lest anyone accuse me of promoting a "get-rich-quick" plan or "easy
> money" scheme, let me repeat what I have been publishing consistently
> for the past two years: It is estimated that it takes two years of diligent
> learning (through practice, apprenticeship, and/or wide & deep reading)
> to accumulate the skill set necessary to manage the diverse operations
> of small livestock and varied plant cultivation.
>
> Perhaps you have already invested that two years (as your writings
> indicate that you have.)
>
> Then it takes time to build up your living systems, who are eager to
> fulfill their own imperatives, so that they can take over a good portion
> of the work-load. The worms are going to be your tractors, tilling and
> conditioning, and adding valuable fertility, to your growing soil. Building
> up their numbers takes time and investments of labors and cash.
>
> One can begin immediately using "Bio-Intensive", "Square-Foot" or
> similar practices on traditional raised beds on open fields. However,
> until one applies livestock management principles to the worm
> (and optional mushrooms) crops, you will not be receiving the help
> from the worms and will have to be double-digging yourself.
>
> As the worms increase, the chickens, ducks, and fish numbers can
> increase. So until the worms are both digging the soil AND feeding
> other livestock, there is a time lag of reduced profitability because you
> are importing feeds. There also is a time lag until you can be freed
> from soil tillage. This does not mean ZERO profitability, in fact it
> can be sustaining even at these lower levels, but it means that the
> synergy of whole food-chain webs has not yet been achieved to
> vastly decrease labor while sharply increasing over-all net production.
>
> There are a variety of less expensive optional ways to make the
> worm-mushroom-plant beds. Some are cheap, temporary and need
> replacement in a few years. I have ideas on long-term (50+ years)
> concrete or "earth"-crete beds which can be installed over years if
> one is not in a hurry to obtain maximum productivity in the shortest
> possible time.
>
> One further reply to your question about buildings and housing. It is
> preferable to live on the land being Micro-Farmed, but it is possible
> to be housed off-site down the road a piece. Greenhouses are not
> optional -- they are required to intensively use the small land area
> more of the year. A greenhouse built onto the side of a residence can
> make very important contributions in home heating cost-savings during
> the winter, as well as reduced costs of keeping the greenhouse itself
> from freezing throughout the cold months. More than one greenhouse
> is recommended, although they can be shared workspaces enclosing
> a variety of activities.
>
> On my website, but not here posted to Sanet, I sometimes describe
> modular building panels made of fiberglas. These can be built on the
> micro-farm, in fact built in a workshop made of the same modular
> panels being created there. (This is part of the two-years learning
> curve I mentioned above). Fiberglas panels can be transparent,
> translucent, or opaque; assembled into quonset-huts, domes,
> pentagons, octogons, silo-shaped, A-frames, cubes and rectangles,
> as well as carport-type roofed open spaces. The techniques I have
> worked out permit transporting a small temporary building on the
> roof-rack of small car, assembling or dismantling it by one person
> with only a few simple hand tools in a couple of hours. With this kind
> of technology It is not very germaine to describe buildings in terms
> of permanent structures of specified square-footages.
>
> Like the permanent walled beds, these panels can be bootstrapped
> a little at a time until one discovers they actually have a surplus of
> them. Hen houses, greenhousing, rabbit hutch covers and grow bed
> cloches can be as temporary or as permanent as you want them to
> be. They have superior weather resistance and very high strength-to-
> weight ratio, impervious to termites, never need painting and about
> 30-year lifespan in their first usage with useful recycling options for
> after that. Sustainable resins for making fiberglas are already possible
> from ingredients grown on macro-farms with power traction, so this
> concept is not reliant on petroleum supplies for the long-term
> although that is the raw material source at present.
>
> One can transport three 1,100 cubic feet domes in the back of a
> pickup-truck without overloading the vehicle, and the cost at
> today's prices is about $300 per dome for materials. All windows,
> studs, trusses and joists are designed-in and built-in to the basic
> modular panels and fitting hardware. Doors are not included in the
> price above, and require adaptor fittings. Flooring and foundations are
> not included, and may not be needed for hen houses, small barns,
> workshops or sheds.
>
> Micro-Farming makes use of straw bales for a number of
> functions, if the material is locally available cheaply. Straw bales
> can effectively insulate grow beds through the winter for cloche-
> covered continuation of earthworm activiy or growing. Bales also
> can insulate the north side of greenhouses or provide windbreaks
> on other sides of greenhouses for a few degrees of micro-climate
> protection. If it gets weathered and soaked, what the hay? That is
> good preparation for the forthcoming uses as mushroom substrate
> and worm bedding. Straw and strawbales can be used for "root-
> cellers" for harvested cold-weather crops, and strawbales can make
> the walls of temporary storage sheds.
>
> I would like it if you would read the webpage about "failure"
> http://homepages.msn.com/VolunteerSt/lifesaviors/failure.html
> because I define failure where others might think they are
> succeeding pretty good. I think the page anticipates where
> some of your questions above arose from.
>
> I accept and welcome constructive criticism and error correction.
> If you see something in my writings which I stated badly or is
> just plain wrong, I will be happy to make the corrections and
> attribute your help in fixing the error.
>
> Sincerely, signed Lion Kuntz
> Currently in Eugene, Oregon, USA
> LionKuntz@email.com, LionKuntz@aol.com, LionKuntz@yahoo.com
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2000 15:19:22 -0500
> From: "Michelle M. Miller" <mmmille6@facstaff.wisc.edu>
> Subject: Frito response
>
> Following is Frito-Lay's response to my letter of concern about their GMO
> statement.
> - ------------------------------------------
> Thank you for contacting Frito-Lay.
>
> At the end of every year, Frito-Lay advises its contract farmers which
> varieties of corn and potatoes to plant. In late 1999, due to increasing
> questions from our consumers, we believed it was prudent to ask our farmers
> not to provide genetically modified varieties.
>
> Frito-Lay has no plans to market or advertise any type of "genetically
> modified-free" claim. We also buy produce on the open market, and since more
> than a quarter of the U.S. agricultural crop is derived from biotechnology,
> like most other food companies we could have genetically modified
> ingredients in our products.
>
> We hope this information is helpful.
>
> Frito-Lay Consumer Affairs
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2000 14:47:48 -0700
> From: "Storelli, Stephen" <sstorell@CIWMB.ca.gov>
> Subject: Compost Use in Potato Production
>
> Hello,
>
> I work for the State of California, Integrated Waste Management Board. I'm
> involved in a program that promotes the use of municipally derived compost
> to landscape and agriculture.
>
> We're toying with the idea of pitching municipally derived compost to
> California potato producers. I would like to review and assemble any
> technical information
> showing the benefits of compost on potato production, (disease suppression,
> yield, reduced pesticide, herbicide, fertilizer use, etc.).
>
> I was hoping you could point me in the direction of the literature (if
> available). If the literature looks promising, we would develop a fact
> sheet and meet with potato producers.
>
> Thanks for you help.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Steve Storelli
> State of California
> CIWMB
> (916) 255-2479
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> End of sanet-mg-digest V1 #1741
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