Grow Up - Forward The Evolution - Latest Comments

Re: Why is biochar beneficial?

Erich J. Knight — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 01:49:50 -0000

Biochar Soils.....Husbandry of whole new Orders & Kingdoms of life

Biotic Carbon, the carbon transformed by life, should never be combusted, oxidized and destroyed. It deserves more respect, reverence even, and understanding to use it back to the soil where 2/3 of excess atmospheric carbon originally came from.

We all know we are carbon-centered life, we seldom think about the complex web of recycled bio-carbon which is the true center of life. A cradle to cradle, mutually co-evolved biosphere reaching into every crack and crevice on Earth.

It's hard for most to revere microbes and fungus, but from our toes to our gums (onward), their balanced ecology is our health. The greater earth and soils are just as dependent, at much longer time scales. Our farming for over 10,000 years has been responsible for 2/3rds of our excess greenhouse gases. This soil carbon, converted to carbon dioxide, Methane & Nitrous oxide began a slow stable warming that now accelerates with burning of fossil fuel. Agriculture allowed our cultural accent and Agriculture will now prevent our descent.

Wise Land management; Organic farming and afforestation can build back our soil carbon,

Biochar allows the soil food web to build much more recalcitrant organic carbon, ( living biomass & Glomalins) in addition to the carbon in the biochar.

Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration (= to 1 Ton CO2e) + Bio-Gas & Bio-oil fuels = to 1MWh exported electricity, so is a totally virtuous, carbon negative energy cycle.

Biochar viewed as soil Infrastructure; The old saw;
"Feed the Soil Not the Plants" becomes;
"Feed, Cloth and House the Soil, utilities included !".
Free Carbon Condominiums with carboxyl group fats in the pantry and hydroxyl alcohol in the mini bar.
Build it and the Wee-Beasties will come.
Microbes like to sit down when they eat.
By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders & Kingdoms of life.
( These oxidised surface charges; carbonyl. hydroxyl, carboxylic acids, and lactones or quinones, have as well a role as signaling substances towards bacteria, fungi and plants.)

This is what I try to get across to Farmers, as to how I feel about the act of returning carbon to the soil. An act of penitence and thankfulness for the civilization we have created. Farmers are the Soil Sink Bankers, once carbon has a price, they will be laughing all the way to it.
Unlike CCS which only reduces emissions, biochar systems draw down CO2 every energy cycle, closing a circle back to support the soil food web. The photosynthetic "capture" collectors are up and running, the "storage" sink is in operation just under our feet. Pyrolysis conversion plants are the only infrastructure we need to build out.

Another significant aspect of low cost Biomass cook stoves that produce char is removal of BC aerosols and no respiratory disease emissions. At Scale, replacing "Three Stone" stoves the health benefits would equal eradication of Malaria & Aids combined.
The Biochar Fund :
Exceptional results from biochar experiment in Cameroon
http://scitizen.com/screens...
The broad smiles of 1500 subsistence farmers say it all ( that , and the size of the Biochar corn root balls )
http://biocharfund.org/inde...

Recent NATURE STUDY;
Sustainable biochar to mitigate global climate change
http://www.nature.com/ncomm...

For those looking for an overview of biochar and its benefits, These authors have done a very nice job of distilling a great deal of information about biochar and applying it to the US context:

US Focused Biochar report: Assessment of Biochar's Benefits for the USA
http://www.biochar-us.org/p...

Re: The practical side of things

ofer — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 15:16:10 -0000

It is great to read that,

As part of my studies at the faculty of agriculture in israel I choose the organic agriculture- (10 years ago)and we visited few farms( what can be better from that)

As we were small group of 6 students that studies a wide selection of courses from lands management- we asked one of the farmer (that was very successful) why not to replace the 2 working personal that using strimmer all day with few goats.

Do not get me wrong, I do respect and support you and they all had your motivation for a positive change

Re: gasifier

Ethical investor — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 06:19:47 -0000

So what is happening withthe gassifier? how is it going. Put video on you tube Please?!

Re: Carbon Negative Food Production & Soil Fertility Restoration

Peter Norrish — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 01:18:41 -0000

Sounds great but fails to address major missing link. Sewage needs to be treated as a resource to close the biological loop but the "organic" organisations don't allow this to happen. Anything that is wasted, rather than used as a resource, becomes a pollutant.

Re: Aims & Mission

Kelly — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 23:32:12 -0000

I am delighted to see a group calling for a new revival of agriculturally based rural living. Since industialisation, the move has been towards disenfranchising the common man from the land and his own food production in favour of suburban life and dependency on mass-produced food. With the recent awareness of Permaculture smallholding there is renewed interest in small plots of land as a mixed food and fuel source instead of rural acreages as holiday homes and equestrian hobby farms. Land has become artificially expensive because of the ring-fencing of suburbia, so government should make incremental steps that would allow self sustaining land based permaculture smallholding projecteers to build homes from strictly controlled non polluting natural materials similar to what has been allowed in Wales. Can a family be supported on a 1 acre site? My experience is that 5 acres for food and fuel is easy, one acre, maybe with time, but so what if it needs 2? That`s still great.

Re: Forward The Evolution

Darren — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:41:46 -0000

Talking about grass roots solutions... Here's another call for grass roots led solutions to our predicaments.

The co-operative movement has been doing very well during the financial crisis and has a lot of resources to aid in co-operative/mutual endeavours. I'm sure that co-ops are the way forward - democratise and equalise the economy!

"A co-op is an autonomous association of people or businesses united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise."

http://www.mutuo.co.uk/late...

Re: Forward The Evolution

Darren — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:33:36 -0000

Talking about grass roots solutions... Heres another call for grass roots led solutions to our predicaments.

http://www.mutuo.co.uk/late...

Re: The Exhibition – Final preparations

admin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:41:13 -0000

Dead right, we need to be growing more (food) forest. At present biochar is not included in any carbon trading schemes, although it will possibly included in 2012. Nor is electricity produced from biomass currently included in the feed in tariff in the UK, possibly because of the chance of people abusing it and gasifing old growth, of farmers replacing food crops to produce energy. It's a shame that the Government of the day didn't work out a way of regulating to allow this, maybe by allowing micro- gasifiers up to 20kVa, or having massive penalties for inappropriate use? By not including biomass in the FIT they have dis-incentivised the ONLY carbon negative form of energy production at a time when we need to be removing CO2 as fast as possible. NOT just trying to reduce emissions.

Re: The Exhibition – Final preparations

Ethical investor — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 04:55:27 -0000

So with a gasifier you run a generator on the gas making electricity and the left over charcoal/carbon is not burned but crushed and used as a soil conditioner. Mixing the damp earth with the soil conditioner sequestered carbon imediately and permanently from the atmosphere generating an income from the Carbon Trading Scheme.

Local clean electricity generated from biomass replacing imported fossil fuels.
Soil improvement for growing biomass and organic crops. Generating in income to fund the gasifier.

Is this fantastic or what?
International finance and commodities trading capitalists directly funding imediate hands on physical carbon sequestration.
Not to mention local empowerment, local jobs, environmental improvement, food production.

Just don't burn down the rain-forests for biomass!

Re: The Exhibition – Final preparations

Become a Teacher — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 18:19:59 -0000

Simply wonderful photos of what looks to be a massive undertaking! I hope the exhibition is going well.

Re: our exhibition launch

admin — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:02:27 -0000

We are really happy about how the exhibition went.Next meeting with the core group on wed will tell us more about what people's reactions have been, feedback, where we succeeded in sharing knowledge and ideas, raising interest and what we will need to work on to improve it. These information have been collected by the excellent stewarding work of Roxanne.
It will be an interesting starting point for the next stage of the exhibition.
A few people have committed to join the project and will be at our next meeting with the wider group in two weeks' time. So, that's already a huge success!!!

Let's make this clear once again:
the exhibition was not and is not a fund raising event!!!

It's called 'forward the evolution' for a reason: it's about spreading our ideas, sharing what we know, hearing about what people know, think, are doing or want to do and but also having a bit of fun in between!!
The launch was a great testing ground to see if we can get the message across and hopefully get a bit of positive action going in the near future. We are campaigning to change planning law to allow access to land for the creation of low impact off grid ecovillages, whilst at the same time looking for land and like minded people to build a model community run on carbon negative electricity, so the more people want to get involved in whichever way the better.

The plan is to keep adding to the exhibition and finding ways to make it even more interesting and involving.

For the next few weeks it will be open to the public every Thursday evening, after each regular meeting with the wider group. We will show films and play some music too from 6 pm till 11pm at the Hippo.

I take this as an opportunity to thank all people involved in the creation, promotion and support of the exhibition. It was a huge effort and we couldn't have done it without your help and love.
(in no particular order) huge thanks to:
Roxanne, Clive, Lottie, Helen, Liberty, James, Dove, Jan, the band Anarchist Wood- particularly Emma, Tracy, Leyla, Andy and Nicky, Carlo, Dell, Guy, Mark, Dada, Nisha and Jack, Jim, Keith, Phil, Joeley, Louisa, Jeff, Leticia, Maxine, Tara, Seema, Pete, Jon, the Lammas community, Mare, Han, Louise, Freecycle... pls forgive me if i've missed somebody out.

Re: our exhibition launch

mali — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:12:44 -0000

What a cool exhibition! Find it very informative and really creative! Wish that exhibition could travel around to be seen by more people out there! I especially love the part with bill free house and examples of self built off grid houses,,wow!!! well done guys for pulling it all together! You rock!

Re: our exhibition launch

Jeff — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 05:35:04 -0000

Looking forward to it!

Re: our exhibition launch

Roxanne — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 04:51:55 -0000

Woot! Today! Excited!

Re: gasifier

pell grants — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 01:34:04 -0000

found your site on del.icio.us today and really liked it.. i bookmarked it and will be back to check it out some more later

Re: The Century of Self

Ralph Rosales — Sat, 29 May 2010 21:28:27 -0000

Really awesome read. Really!

Re: The Century of Self

Bruno Hall — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:06:45 -0000

If only I had a dollar for every time I came to growup.org.uk! Amazing writing!

Re: Need a job with a future?

cna training — Fri, 28 May 2010 19:52:31 -0000

Great site. A lot of useful information here. I’m sending it to some friends!

Re: Who, What & Why

Factual Solutions — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:31:44 -0000

Hi there growup.org.uk
A friend sent me your site to give my opinion on it.

I applaud your good will to move forward. Just as you, another movements are doing the same. The only movement, that i've found so far, that has a real and tangible solutions for the problems we are going through today is called THE ZEITGEIST MOVEMENT.

Now my views based on your Plan:
"To implement these solutions on a large scale"
GREAT - I LOVE IT

"laws must change to allow people to build off-grid low impact forest garden based eco-villages."
HMMM - you mean - find a solution through a corrupt system that created the problems we are in to begin with? This sounds like asking the mafia boss to change their own "rules" to benefit the people they abuse....but if you can do it, go for it.

Again - in the ZM there are 400,000 members and counting and their proposals are just like yours. I strongly suggest you to join forces with them.

All the best
:)
Factual Solutions

Re: MP Letter Template

Jeremy — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:19:20 -0000

Hi folks, Just been re-reading some of the material on your site and something strikes me as missing. What, specifically, are the changes in planning laws that you're after? I mean is it different criteria for Change of Land Use, or removing the licensing requirements for charcoal production, or what? Are you asking for Westminster to issue decrees to local authorities, or for the introduction of a new law? My experience with dealing with government ministers is that they need it spelled out in words of one (max two) syllables.

Re: our exhibition launch

admin — Fri, 28 May 2010 08:08:20 -0000

It's about spreading knowledge about how a change in lifestyle to address the problems facing us (energy and food shortages, unaffordable housing and lifestyle, biodiversity loss,excess co2 in the atmosphere) is not a return to the cave but a way to finally get our lives and freedom back from an unsound system. It's a campaign to change planning law to allow us back on the land, a movement to forward the evolution and stop the self destruction rut we are stuck in!!

Re: Need a job with a future?

Roby — Fri, 28 May 2010 07:02:59 -0000

That would suit me fine. With a surpuls of electricity, food, materials,fuel etc and time on my hands it will be a pleasure to device extra ways of making money to make ends meet.
Plus one would be living within this healthy system in a passively heated house, getting rid of the pressure from monthly bills.

I like it!

Re: Grow the petition

Anonymous — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:36:03 -0000

Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!

Re: Aims & Mission

Darren — Thu, 27 May 2010 13:41:38 -0000

While I think that there are some things that can be gained by trying to effect gov. policy I think that central government is relatively uninterested in what people have to say as compared to the world of business. For this reason I question the amount that can be gained for a given effort - I could of course be a cynical good for nuffin ruffian.

I think much more point putting effort into actually creating these alternatives with our friends and communities.

The coalition government have issues some stuff about planning policy.

They say they are going to do away with Regional Spatial Strategies and give more power to local communities following ideas they set out in the Conservatives Open Source Planning green paper. I had a quick scan of it and it talks alot about allowing sustainable development and leaving it up to local communities to decide what is or is not sustainable development - All this could be good.

People who gain planning are going to have to pay a tariff - not so good for those with on a tight budget.

Some of the planning power that was regional is going to end up in central gov. and central gov. has to rubber stamp all local plans (which kinda takes the power away from local communities?)

We'll have to wait and see what the details are to see if power is really being decentralised.

They are also going to clamp down on retrospective planning. Which has been the traditional way that most really LIDs have been established - not so good...

Re: Who, What & Why

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:04:16 -0000

Another example of swales being dug to stop water runoff and allow a forest garden to be planted:
http://permaculture.org.au/...