Notes from the Workshop on Carbon Cycle Farming, Sept 11, 2011

{EAV_BLOG_VER:4ea3b82246e360a7}These are notes from the workshop on Carbon Cycle Farming (CCF) (炭素循環農法、TANSO JYUNKAN NOUHOU) held in Komono, Japan, on September 11, 2011. The teacher was Hayashi Sensei. The notes are in the order presented. We started the event at a vegetable garden, moved on to some rice paddies, and then on to a classroom.

Fermentation culture vs. Rot culture

Fungus makes use of oxygen, so the ground needs to be somewhat dry. If the ground is not dry, figure out a way to drain it. (Such as by raising rows, or digging ditches.)

Natural plants dry out. Plants fed on rot rot. ("Natural plants" is a reference to plants like weeds that are not raised on rotting plant or animal matter too rich in nitrogen.)

Bugs eat their food, rot, which is not human food. What humans are eating is bug food. Bugs are not attracted to plants grown in a fermentation culture. Bugs go to bitter leaves and fruit, which is caused by filth in the soil. To allow the soil to rid itself of the filth, grow plants, and let the bugs consume them, reducing the energy in the filth and carrying it away. Bugs will eat the garbage and then leave.

Beans hurt the earth most, and while rotation of other plants is not a necessity, rotating other plants in after beans is essential. Wheat is a good crop to plant after beans, as grasses pull up the excess nitrogen in the soil. The wheat need not be eaten, but at least leave the straw on or in the soil as food for fungus.

Keep the ground the same year round, planted or ready to plant. Raise soil.

Kids know that vegies taste bad, so they don't want them. They aren't good vegies. (One class member tasted a green tomato from the garden. It tasted bitter.) Consumer education is important. Real vegies from CCF gardens are the standard for food.

Once mushrooms come up from the soil, things will start to grow. This will take about three years. In the first year plants will grow from the rot in the ground. In the second year plants start using up the rot, and bugs eat them. In the third year, the soil is in good shape and plants will grow better.

About 3-5 cm of wood chips should be spread over and between the rows as fungus food. 10 cm of rice straw can also be used. Put it in one season before planting. Coniferous wood chips interfere with fungus growth, so put it outside to be exposed to the elements before applying directly to where the rows for plants. Between the rows will work fine as it will also retard the growth of weeds. Green bamboo can be split and laid along the row under a layer of soil.

The energy of animal and human excrement can be reduced by mixing with 50 to 100% the amount of wood chips, mixed, and allowed to ferment. The resulting material can safely be applied to gardens.Do not burn anything.

If it is clean, then wild boars will not come either, because they come in search of worms that eat the filth. Worms are good because they  eat and reduce the energy of rotting filth, and are a mark of poor conditions, not good. If the soil is clean, boars will not come through gardens.

(We moved on to the rice paddies.)

CCF for a rice paddy is somewhat different for a vegetable patch. A rice paddy is clean if the soil is all that can be seen beneath the water, or a layer of algae, not brown scum. The best conditions are deep, clean water. After harvest, mix in rice straw, mix in wood chips, and make sure living grass is not mixed in.

When growing rice, do not let the water dry out, and do not practice, "naka boshi," which is the practice of allowing the paddy to dry out to the point of cracking soil as a way of slowing growth. (Growth needs to be slowed because soil ammendments cause rice stems to grow too much, allowing the plants to fall over in strong winds or rain.) Rot encourages weeds. Again, weeds and bugs make the ground healthy as they consume the rot in the soil. Shirokaki (mixing the very fine soil at the very top of the paddy) should be done very shallow.

Natural  farming does not allow the soil to clean itself.

(We moved to the classroom.)
"I hate growing vegetables. I hate digging in the dirt. I don't have any strength. That's why I like this style of farming." "I care for life. I have no idea how to make vegetables. I know the difference between daikons and carrots. That's all I can tell you."

Okada Mokichi, and Rudolph Steiner basically talked about the same things, but didn't talk enough about this world, so people didn't listen. Don't put yourself as the standard. Avoid preferences. Fertilizers aren't bad, but people can't make food without them. Two rights don't make another right, they cause a conflict. If it's the real deal, it will spread. Up to now the development of civilization has been about destruction.

We're in the wrong position. We petition got for what we want. What we should be doing is making god's hopes for us come true. Among the all the other things god hopes for us if for us to live in peace.

A family garden must make better food faster than the pros or you might as well leave it to them.

If bugs eat fermented material, they die. If humans eat rotten material, they die. Our food is not the same.

Tanso Jyunkan Nouhou: Carbon Circulation Farming

On May 5th, I participated in a workshop by Shiro Yuuji in Komono, Japan. The topic was tanso jyunkan nouhou , or carbon circulation farming (My translation. From here on CCF). This is a summation of that workshop.

I had heard of CCF, but had never had the opportunity to hear about it from someone who uses it. I would characterize the principles as follows.

CCF Principles

• no fertilizers
• use of wood chips or other woody medium as,
• a culture for fungus growth
• little watering
• emphasis on fermentation rather than rot
• plant and animal (human) morphology similar
• reinterpretation of popular explanations

The workshop started in a vegetable garden, where we looked at a CCF crop in action. The rows and the area between them were covered in wood chips. Mr. Shiro showed us the fungal growth happening in the wood chips, and told us that the basic premise of CCF was the forest.

Forests grow without supplements and without more than normal rainfall. They are continuously planted in the same crops, and never becomes deficient in nutrients. The forest floor is fecund and does not require human attention.

Currently science offers an explanation of this interchage as being one of quantifiable and qualifiable nutrients that are available to the plants from the ground to the the roots and from there to the rest of the plant. But why is this interchange not available in agricultural settings? Why does the ground lose its fecundity over time and require suppliments?

Shiro's explanation is that the explanation itself is flawed. The "kasetsu" or popular wisdom is just one possible explanation of how something works. Similar to the firefighter observation, where it is assumed that firefighters start fires, because they appear at the time of a fire.

In the end, says Shiro, nature is the final teacher. Forest floors, covered in leaves and decaying plant matter, is the home to growth and health is the lowest common denominator.

We have to look to the future, not the past, and deal with the root of the problem. Our fields will change quickly. Changing our minds is the hard part, he says.

He says our bodies are very similar to plants, only inside out. Our roots are our digestive organs, and the soil is the matter that surrounds our roots, or fills our intestines in our cases.

Shiro asked what the explanation is for how we receive nutrition. We explained that the popular theory is that we grind up and mix the food we take in through our mouths in our digestive tracts and absorb the nutrients and calories through the linings of our guts.

Carefree: A state of being

The etymology of care starts with Old English, caru, cearu "sorrow, anxiety, grief," also "serious mental attention." Carefree would mean a state of being without sorrow, or serious mental attention.

Yesterday I cycled into work, and on the way home, as the rain began to fall, I had a feeling that I don't  think I had had for a very long time, which I can only describe as carefree. It is a state that I would like to foster as an constant way of being.

Carefree is not a state of laziness or irresponsibility. I have a family to provide for, students to teach, and a farm to attend to. I responsibly fulfill my roles every day.

Carefree is a state of mental freedom. It is a condition of fearlessness. Carefree is a choice one with a free mind can make.

McKenna Quote

"I'm not motivated, as you see. I need a place to keep some books dry. Having achieved that my motivation falls to pieces. "

From "The Last Interview" part 1, 1:00:20

 

The Power of Community ( Spanish Subtitles )

Making a break with refined sugar

On the way to work everyday, I would stop by the local convenience store and buy a cup of coffee and two pieces of bread. You can see what those treats look like of you do this search on Google Japan. Each one of those items has something like 350 calories in them, and most of it comes from refined sugar. Then maybe white flour. 

On the way home I would often buy another one for eating in the car.

I don't really want this post to be fear mongering about the ill effects of white sugar, so I'll just say that I have eaten more than my share of the white powder in my life, and don't need any more.

I'm on day six of a white sugar fast, which means that I am cutting out anything that contains refined sugar. That is pretty easy for me, as my family eats a predominantly whole grain, vegetable, bean, and fish diet. We don't even have sugar in the house, so if I eat what is here, thanks to my wife, I'm fine.

This idea came to me when I found one day that I craved something sweet at certain times of the day. Normally I would have given in to the temptation, but six days ago, I decided that it was a bigger problem than just a craving. The sugary treat would satisfy me, but why did I have that strong desire to eat it anyway? The only conclusion I could come to was that I am addicted to sugar.

I did some searching and found that there is indeed addiction to the stuff, so I decided to get the monkey off my back.

I did a similar thing with alcohol some years ago. At that time I thought that I had an addiction to alcohol, so I gave it up. I had cravings, but none of the feelings, physical or emotional, that came with that experience were as bad as the feelings that I had after drinking.

Just like alcohol, I've had more than my share of the world's refined sugar.

Japan nuclear woes could mean more China exports | Reuters

Japan nuclear woes could mean more China exports | Reuters

"The radiation in the east in Japan actually decreases the amount of land that they could use" for farming.

With the amount of farm land that goes fallow every year, this will not affect farming on a national level. It will certainly reduce the amount of land farmed in the impacted prefectures, but will not necessarily reduce the amount of agricultural products nationally. On the contrary, it could help farming in other prefectures by making their products more valuable.

Irradiated food: by leaking power plant or on purpose for sterilization

I live in Japan, many miles from the devistation caused by the recent earthquake and tital wave, and from the reactors at the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Recently the Japanese government has taken steps to keep food that may have been contaminated by nuclear waste coming from the power plants. This includes a variety of vegies and milk from the area. This made me wonder, though, how, if this is bad, purposefully irradiated food is any less dangerous.

My conclusion is that it is different because purposefully irradiated food is exposed to radiation, but the radioactive material does not remain on the food. With nuclear matter that settles on the food or is consumed by a food producing animal, the radioactive material remains on or in the food, later to be eaten by the consumer. 

But I was wondering, then, if there are other effects on the food. It looks like there are. Even though radioactive material doesn't remain on the irradiated food, the food itself is changed in the process. Here are some materials that may be of interest. 

This is an article on health risks and the misleading of consumers. 

This is an article by the CDC on how irradiated food is safe. 

How to Espalier a Tree

I want to do this with the persimmon tree we transplanted yesterday.
How to Espalier a Tree

Taro potato

Harvested some taro potatoes yesterday. Great crop for this area, and grow with little attention.

Speaking Truth to Power

Great site on "navigating what current events are manifesting."
Speaking Truth to Power:

Heard about her on KMO's excellent podcast, C-Realm Podcast number 246, "Navigating the Coming Chaos."

The principles of a rocket stove and how to build one.

DRTV: Rocket Stoves

rocet stove, YouTube - forest21c's Channel

This is a video on a rather large scale rocket stove project. Looks great

YouTube - forest21c's Channel: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Rocket Stove: ＢＬＵＥＴＡＩＬ ＨＡＰＰＩＮＥＳＳ:５分で分かる ロケットストーブの原理 - livedoor Blog（ブログ）

Another link with good graphics on a rocket stove.

ＢＬＵＥＴＡＩＬ　ＨＡＰＰＩＮＥＳＳ:５分で分かる ロケットストーブの原理 - livedoor Blog（ブログ）:

Rocket Stove,ロケットストーブ作る | 神流アトリエ日記（３）

This is a post on the 神流アトリエ日記 blog about a "rocket stove." I saw one of these in a 現代農業magazine today, and came home to research it a little. Very cool idea for several reasons.
1.) It's cheap to make. A drum can or two, some stove pipe, bricks, mud, gutter tiles, and some concrete, and it looks like anyone could make it.
2.) You can burn any size wood in it.
3.) It is useful for heating as well as cooking.
4.) It doesn't burn fossil fuels.
ロケットストーブ作る | 神流アトリエ日記（３）

The Metaphysics of Freedom

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose" Janis Joplin from "Me and Bobby McGee"

The other day I was listening to The School Sucks Podcast: 078 - Nonviolent Communication Round-Table (w/ Wes Bertrand and Stefan Molyneux). It was a discussion about ways of communicating with people non-violently, and the intro was Marshall Rosenberg saying this:

"We deny responsibility for our actions when we attribute their cause to vague impersonal forces such as 'I cleaned my room because I have to.'"

I won't go into a long description of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), but it was incorporated by the creators of this podcast, because they think it would be useful in helping people communicate better. For the most part, I think that is true, too, but that in itself is not the objective of this post. It is also important to know the general aims of the podcast. Brett Veinotte claims that the objective of the project in general is the end of public education.

The END...of Public Education?
1. END: It's over, irrelevant, useless, needs to be done away with. Does far more harm than good (it does no good).
2. END: (As in means to an end) We'll also explore the true intentions behind the system, which have very little to do with real education. There is substantial evidence that its failure to educate is no accident.
School Sucks Podcast is a show about what one might do about these problems...

 The end of public education as a violent organ of a violent institution, government in its present form, and the beginning of freedom, which would also necessitate the acceptance of responsibility for our actions in word and deed.

So what's this post about? 
I am happy when things work out, when ideas work together and are formed elegantly. I am satisfied to accept the process itself as a positive experience, but I am especially pleased when I can look back on the beginning and see some of the original theme where I now stand, like a beautiful piece of music, poetry, physics.

I had that experience with this broadcast, and I would like to share it with you, Oh Patient Reader. My conclusion is that in freedom, a metaphysical construct is important and available. It has nothing to do with religion, but appears at first to be something like Buddhism. In the podcast, Stefan Molyneux voices some skepticism about Rosenberg's ideas because he talks about Christ consciousness, spirit, and eternal principals.

My guess is that Rosenberg experiences this metaphysical feature of personal responsibility in a religious way, and that is the language he uses to express it. It need not be expressed in that way, but it may be useful for some people.

Why I think this
During the Bush years after 9/11, I was depressed. I didn't feel good about people or myself the way I had before, and I was tired of feeling that way. I needed some perspective.

My first stop was a podcast called "Morning Coach." I'm not sure that the podcast is still there, but it was very helpful for me then. In it J. B. Glossinger spoke about positive mental attitude and finding prosperity. Also at that time the book, "The Secret" came out. I became interested in manifesting prosperity, and the works of other writers, such as Napoleon Hill, and James Allen. 

In a nutshell all of these people were saying that you/I/the individual is capable of and responsible for creating his or her own happiness, worldview, wealth, security, comfort, and freedom. Some have interpreted this to mean that if we do the right stuff we can get all the material wealth we want. That is shallow and unproductive thought in the long run, but probably can't be avoided.

However, extrapolated out, this responsibility for creation has immense metaphysical implications. If this ability is real, and I according to others it is, then we are responsible for so much else. We can not only bring freedom to ourselves, but to others. The enormity of this idea started after I listened to Joe Vitale speak about ho 'oponopono.

total responsibility for your life means that everything in your life - simply because it is in your life--is your responsibility. In a literal sense the entire world is your creation.

Terrence
One day as I was reading my tweets, I came across one from a teacher (I searched for the link, but I can't find who wrote it now.) who had added a link to a podcast about shamanism. As I had experienced a sweat lodge experience with a Native American shaman just before I read that, I followed the link and downloaded the mp3 file. Terrence McKenna. (Follow this link, and choose any of McKenna's talks that sound interesting. You'll never be the same.)  I had never heard of the man before or what he was talking about, but I was blown completely away. The strange sounding man spoke eloquently about topics that I had never dreamed of, and his words filled me with hope.

The Liberty Movement

His words also helped me know that culture, including government and organized religion, are not our friend. Something about that was ringing true. Why weren't humanity's most sacred medicines available? Why are so many people in prison over a plant? 

I had voted in the presidential election, and Mr. Obama became president. So much was going to change. So much stayed the same. I was sad, and didn't have an answer for how there was any way to make our world better if the election of a man in whom I had so much hope wasn't going to work. 

Then I listened to an episode of The School Sucks Podcast, and there it was, like the missing piece of the puzzle. The why and the what , at least, of freedom.

Conclusion

Rosenberg's expression of how Christ consciousness is understandable, because liberty posesses a metaphysical aspect as well. If we want freedom, we must take responsibility. That is where our power lies. By giving it away, by saying that some external force made us do it, we empower that thing.   


I was happy when I heard this podcast, because it reassured me that my journey is progressing with little bits of closure here and there, like a fractal, that contains the whole of the universe in each of its parts.

Michael Moore on The Rachel Maddow Show -- January 17, 2011 | MichaelMoore.com

Michael Moore on The Rachel Maddow Show -- January 17, 2011 | MichaelMoore.com: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Well done, Michael. And remember, this is a member of the NRA.