"EATING RIGHT" IS FOR PETS & FARM ANIMALS TOO!

WHY YOU SHOULD FEED YOUR PETS & FARM ANIMALS

LIKE YOU (SHOULD) FEED YOURSELF!
[PGa-000 -100]

Animals are complex biological systems exactly like we, human beings, are.

Consequently, the same guiding principles apply, particularly the garbage in-garbage out principle, which explains so many of our "modern" diseases, particularly obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer, plus almost all degenerative conditions such as arthritis, Alzheimer's, etc...

More, when animals are actually raised for human consumption, there the "food chain multiplication effect" to consider: Animals become what *they* eat, accumulate toxins in their fat, organs and muscle mass, and we, in turn, become what they eat through them.

Junk foods generate junk lives, and animals raised in the way of the agro-industrial complex generate sickly and obese humans, after having become sickly and obese animals. As well as sickly and obese pets as well, when our pets eat animal-based foods in their diets, such as dogs and cats do.

Look around you, if you are not yet convinced. Even children are getting obese nowadays, and the 30 pounds housecat is no more an odd rarity.

Industrial agriculture, with its bottom-line-oriented practices that totally disregard quality in favor of quantity ultimately produces what we have become at large: Obese, chronically ill, sick and pathetic imitations of a what a human being could be. And the same goes with our pets: That housecat is not really a natural occurrence. It wouldn't survive three days in the wild, maybe not even three hours, when cats are in fact perhaps the most superbly adapted small predators of all, the very model of survivors.

Considering that the chickens or turkey offals they eat in their processed foods come from the very chickens and turkeys WE eat, birds which are fed each other's carcasses as well as chicken feces plus ground diseased animals and "euthanised" pets (yes, Rex and Rover get recycled!), that supermarket beef eats ground-up diseased sheep, roadkill and "euthanised" pets as well, even if the practice is now supposedly banned, and that the same goes for pigs, plus that all this happy crowd, when they don't feast on each other, is filled to the brim with GMOs, herbicides, pesticides, synthetic hormones and antibiotics, and who knows what else, how can we wonder if most of us wallow in diabetes, obesity, chronic illnesses, cancer, heart disease, etc?

And the same is of course true for our pets. At least, *we* are not fed food seasoned with processed animal feces in pellet form. Well... at least not yet!


Could this all change? Could farm animals and pets alike be fed organic and healthy foods? Definitely, and "Wonderplants" and "Miracle Trees" such as the Moringa tree are poised to play a major part in such a necessary change.

For example, the agricultural experimental station run by Foidl & Foidl conducted extensive trials using Moringa leaves as cattle feed for both beef and milk cows, swine feed, and poultry feed. The results were as expected, except that, as almost always with the Moringa and many other "wonderplants", expectations where not only met, but passed.

Wonderplants such as the Moringa do not only offer concentrated nutrition, but in the raw form, often also seem to reduce the activity of pathogenic bacteria and molds, and improve the digestibility of other foods, thus helping not only human beings, but also farm animals and pets express their natural genetic potential.

In other words, plants such as the Moringa, herbs such as certain Artemisias, and mushrooms such as Agaricus Blazeii, to name just a few, are both nutrition and adaptogens with coming with strong pro-genetic factors. They perfectly answer the old Hippocratic injunction: "Let thy food be thy medicine!"


It is most important for our own health to feed farm animals healthy foods that are minimally processed and not denaturated with herbicides, pesticides, GMOs, synthetic hormones and antibiotics: These all end on our own tables, often in a form concentrated as they are passed up along the food chain, and wreak havoc on our already weak and compromised immune systems and hormonal (im)balances.

What is said here of farm animal feeds is as valid for pet food. Sure, from a human health point of view, what pets eat might appear of less importance, since after all, we are not supposed to eat our pets, and usually don't. But there is no doubt that the overall health and appearance (coat, in particular) of pets reacts very well to the addition of organic wholesome functional foods to their diet. And that happiness and well-being in pets usually translates in increased well-being in the pet's owner.

Actually, a whole new industry of wonderplants-based pet food and pet care product might someday arise, once pet owners realize the benefits of adding them to the diet of their animal companions. But even before that happens, since we made these animals our pets, we should also think about *their* health!


Interested in manufacturing or distributing Organic and Sustainable pet foods? Please contact us! All our blogs are tied to an email address which is "blog name @ gmail.com" (without any spaces and quotation marks).

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[PGa-000 -100] Permalink - The permanent link for the present post is: http://personalgardens.blogspot.com/2008/12/eating-right-is-for-pets-farm-animals.html

A NEW PROJECT OF INTEREST in EAST L.A.

A NEW PROJECT OF INTEREST in EAST L.A.

"A Green Beacon shines on the Est side of Los Angeles"

In March 2008 Julie Solomon was able to save a 94-year-old historically sustainable home from demolition and chose to remodel and showcase it with all ecologically-sound products and processes. Her eco-renovation was filmed for Discovery's new channel, Planet Green and is airing on their flagship show called "Greenovate".

As one of LA's oldest neighborhoods, Elysian Heights has been home to many artists, writers, architects filmmakers, counter-culture and radical political activists from the early 1900s to present day. Nestled in the verdant hills of this historic area, her "garden home" was originally a real estate office on the Miracle Mile of Wilshire Boulevard and moved to its current location in 1914 on a horse-drawn flat bed.

Julie has recently established a non-profit organization called The Green Beacon Foundation (GBF) to serve as a community resource for the public to have tactile experiences of "going green," such as on-going workshops, lectures, tours, etc. on the property. The GBF will host public tours of the home and garden on the 1st Saturday of every month starting December 6th at 3:00 pm.

On November 13th there was a kick off garden workshop facilitated by the gals at Heart Beet Gardening whose mission is to promote food security, sustainable gardening practices, and urban agriculture by enabling households to have their own vegetable gardens. These hands-on workshops appeal to the urban gardener with a sustainable tie-in such as the use of drip irrigation and native plants. The lecture entitled "Go Green, $ave Green" will be facilitated by Nancy Astrid Lindo, whose specialties include sustainable interior design, green building and permaculture.

The natural body care and aromatherapy workshops will be facilitated by Lauren Johanson, creator of Chivas Skin Care which specializes in soaps made with organic ingredients, fair trade shea butter that supports a women's co-op in Togo, Africa, and fresh French Alpine goat's milk where the goats are raised humanely by a local family in Ventura County, CA.

For more information about the Green Beacon Foundation or to make a reservation, please call 323.717.9636, or email Julie: contactgbf@gmail.com [OK, this is a little bit on the commercial side, and their workshop are definitely not for free, while groups such as the Westside Permaculture group offer similar information just for volunteering at their events, but this is still worth a look, we feel...]

TOURS:

The Green Beacon will be conducting tours on the first Saturday of each month starting December 6th at 3:00 PM. This hands-on tour will show you how easy it is to "greenovate" your own home/living space with practical tips while giving access to products, services and processes that will help save money while lessening your carbon footprint.

ECO-CHIC WORKSHOPS:

The best organic gardeners and eco-consultants in Los Angeles will facilitate the workshops using organic and repurposed materials. The price of the workshops and lectures are all-inclusive. We will serve wine compliments of Bossa Premium Wine Imports and tasty treats from different local restaurants at each of the Thursday evening workshops.

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Now, we know for a fact that the absolute "best organic gardeners and eco-consultants" in Los Angeles are not (yet? ;) involved with this project, since we are in no way affiliated with them! :) However, when people try to do something that goes in the right direction, even if it's perhaps a bit too commercial for our taste, we think we should support their efforts with a little post. So have a look at their web site here: http://www.greenbeacon.org/Home

The permanent link for the present post is: http://personalgardens.blogspot.com/2008/11/new-project-of-interest-in-east-la.html

BIOMASS EXPERIMENTS - JEAN PAIN IN HIS OWN WORDS

BIOMASS EXPERIMENTS - JEAN PAIN IN HIS OWN WORDS

The Genius of Jean Pain

Interview of Jean Pain published by Mother Earth

The warm, dry, and rocky Provence region of France is better known for its resorts than for its suitability to gardening. Yet—among that area's craggy hills—a self-taught organic gardener, forester, and biotechnologist named Jean Pain is working wonders with a new technique of composting. By removing underbrush from his woodlands and pulverizing it in a shredder of his own design, M. Pain fertilizes his incredibly prolific gardens, heats his house with the warmth created during the decomposition of the woodwaste, and even runs his car on the biogas produced in a methane digester which also accepts the shredded brush.

A few months ago one of MOTHER's staffers visited Jean and Ida Pain at their home in France, and discussed the techniques which the inventive agronomist has developed to overcome the hardships of the impoverished native soil and become self-sufficient . . . while restoring the ravaged forests of their area to a lushness that the region hasn't known for centuries. Since Jean's research is so extensive and varied, we've decided to relate just one portion of it in this article . . .

The manual labor involved in composting—if one is working exclusively to produce fertilizer for crops—tends to become prohibitive on any large scale. Therefore, the techniques for the construction of heat-producing piles with weights of up to 200 tons—like those the Pains are experimenting with—are somewhat different and more mechanized than the methods used for a simple garden compost heap. (However, Jean stresses that—despite all the necessary mechanization—the effects of applying the following information hold great potential for individual reforestation and localized energy production anywhere in the world.)

As M. Pain explained it, there are three basic steps in the preparation of the material needed for energy-producing compost piles.

[1] Thicket-trimming: While removing brush from forested areas (the Pains gather their "raw material" in such a manner), it's important always to consider the balance of ecological systems. Proper brush trimming encourages the growth of healthy trees, and at the same time maintains ample wildlife habitat and protects the woodland from the threat of fire. Depending upon the climate and soil in any given area, it's often possible—Jean has found—to remove about 15 tons of undergrowth from each acre of land every year . . . and the process will provide the remaining saplings with sufficient sunlight to grow straight and tall.

[2] Shredding: Since the underbrush that's collected may reach diameters of up to four inches, relatively heavy-duty machinery is necessary to shred the wood. Jean prefers a cutter that produces slivers rather than chips . . . since water penetrates the surface of along thin fragment more easily than it does blocky chunks. Though the shavings may be as much as an inch long, the ideal thickness is about 1/16 of an inch.

[3] Saturation: M. Pain claims that a cubic yard of brush can—under ideal conditions—absorb and retain about 140 gallons of water . . . if the pile is progressively stacked and soaked over the course of three days. Water must be added to the layers at least once every 4 inches, but watering at 2-1/2-inch intervals will give the best results. In addition, since a certain amount of liquid will filter through the stack, a trough must be built to collect all the excess moisture so that it can be sprayed back onto the heap.

OPERATION

Any thermal compost pile—Jean explained—can be sized according to the demand for heat that is anticipated. We'll discuss, then, a heap built from about 16 tons of clippings. This happens to be equivalent to the amount of brush that can be removed from an average acre of timber during a year of normal stewardship . . . and such a pile also produces the right amount of humus to add to an acre of land that's to be used for growing cereal grains.

After the twigs from such an area have been shredded, they'll form a mound about 10 feet wide, 10 feet high, and 15 feet long . . . with an average density of about 20 pounds per cubic foot. However, the process of saturation may bring the poundage up to nearly 60, and the final density will still be in the range of 40 pounds per cubic foot. (Jean has found that the piles usually finish decomposing by the eighteenth month . . . but he tests the materialby crushing a chip between his fingers-to be sure the compost is ready for field and garden use at that time.)

While composting goes on, the bacterial activity within a pile produces a considerable amount of heat . . . averaging about 140°F in most instances. Thus it is possible to tap a significant source of thermal energy by intertwining heat-exchanging pipes throughout the interior of the stack.

Jean's early research consisted of laying 1" black polyethylene semirigid pipe in a serpentine pattern within the rectangular heaps . . . in either a vertical or horizontal array. While the horizontal arrangement proved to be easier to assemble, the vertical approach was considerably easier to take apart once decomposition was complete. Of course, in either case the connections in the plastic pipe must be secure . . . since a leak will be hard to notice within the heap, and even more difficult to repair . . . without completely disassembling the pile.

A COMPOST WATER HEATER

Once the Pains' theories about the heat production capacity of compost piles had been borne out by actual experience—and they were getting enough hot water to keep a 1,000square-foot home warm—they then concentrated on improving the overall efficiency of their heat capture system. One obvious way to minimize heat loss to the atmosphere was to build the piles in a circular fashion . . . which offered less surface area for a given volume. Furthermore, such an approach promised to simplify both the assembly and the tearing down of the heaps.

The basis of Jean's cylindrical compost pile is some sort of tower—built from chicken wire, for example—which will hold the inner brush in place. One example incorporates a retainer five feet in diameter and ten feet tall. Once the tower has been filled with brush clippings, 1" black polyethylene semirigid pipe is wrapped around th e structure . . . starting two feet from the bottom, with spirals spaced every six inches, and ending about two feet from the top. The pipe is tied to the tower at its points of entry and exit, and wound tightly enough in between to stay firmly in position.

A two-foot-thick layer of composting material is then packed around and atop the tower and pipe . . . with the ends of the tubing protruding, of course. The intake and exhaust ends of the pipes should be connected to form a closed loop running to and from the building being heated.

A QUICK AND EASY HOT AIR SYSTEM

Jean also pointed out that one way to get around the complexity and expense of using water pipes and radiators is to heat air in a thermal pile. The technique works quite well if the heap can be located close enough to the point of use to eliminate any need for extensive lengths of ductwork and the associated expense and heat loss.

Jean constructed an experimental air heaterto serve a 70-square-foot drying shed-from a pile of about 425 cubic feet. Three levels of sixinch heat duct were set into the compost, with the entry and exit pipes going directly into the building. Circulation is handled by convection, and Jean's records show that the temperature inside the dryer has remained at 125°F for over eight months.

BRUSH GAS

It has been known for some time, and documented by experts such as Ram Bux Singh , that methane gas can be produced from cellulose in the absence of air. Methanogenic bacteria thrive on the carbon and nitrogen in pulverized wood, and leave carbon dioxide and methane (CH.) as waste products. However, the microbes work best at about 98°F . . . and therefore require heat augmentation (in most climates).

The compost-pile heating method is ideally suited to meet this need, since a biogas digester can easily be enclosed in a heatproducing heap. Jean Pain has ex perimented with a digester employing a tightly sealed four-cubic-meter vat wrapped with 1" polyethylene pipe. Water is circulated through the pipe to cool the vat when the warmth developed by the compost becomes excessive. Thus, heated water is also a by-product of the process.

In addition, a thermometer is placed in the top of the vat for monitoring the interior temperature, and a length of copper tubing runs from the vat to a series of rubber inner tubes which serve as gas storage space. [EDITOR'S NOTE: In working with methane, it's imperative that proper precautions against leakage be taken . . . since the confined fuel can be very explosive when mixed with a small amount of air.]

After 71 days of digestion, Jean's biogas plant produced nearly 3,750 cubic feet of gas with a heating value of almost 450 BTU per cubic foot. The 50 cubic feet of fuel available each day was used to feed appliances in the house, and to power the Pains' little Citroen 2CV truck.

FUTURE POSSIBILITIES FOR BRUSH COMPOST HEAT

Jean and Ida Pain hope that future work with brush composting will result in localized technologies that will return more land to small farming . . . and enable more people to make a living from the soil. In an era in which the survival of the small farmer is threatened by the continual escalation of petroleum-basedfuel costs, alternative energy schemes like M. Pain's do, indeed, offer a potential salvation for independent agriculturists . . . who have been the basis of our species' existence here on earth since our beginnings.

MOTHER'S EXPERIMENTS WITH COMPOST HEAT

When MOTHER's research staffers heard about the Jean Pain compost waterheating technique, they immediately decided to build an experimental bioheater out on the Eco-Village property. However-since our shredder isn't set up to produce the thin wood slivers described by Jean-we had to change the heap design slightly to suit our own situation.

MOTHER's resource manager, Larry Hollar, built the pile by erecting a sixfoothigh, five-foot-diameter tower from chicken wire and bamboo, and alternating four-inch layers of wood chips with oneinch layers of manure (to "trigger" the decomposition). Each stage of stacking was followed by thorough saturation with water . . . to achieve a humidification of 40-50%.

After filling the interior of the cylinder with composting material, Larry wrapped 1" semirigid hot water pipe around the column ... starting at ground level and spacing 10 coils seven inches apart. Then the entire assembly was packed with two and a half feet of the four-parts-cellulose, one-part-manure mixture—on top and around the sides of the column—and wrapped in black plastic to capture solar heat.

While our test mound really hasn't had time to demonstrate its full potential, the interior temperature has already worked its way up to 116°F. Water retained inside the pile reaches 112°F, while a two-gallon-per-minute flow yields 85°F liquid . . . and we're using ground water that enters the heap at a chilly 48°F.

Once the oversized wood chips that we were forced to use get into fullswing decomposition, we're confident that the temperature of the water heater will rise significantly . . . perhaps to the 140°F Jean gets from his heaps.

But in the meantime, our tiny five-ton pile is showing tremendous potential, and we've got some more ideas to get to work on. A shredder that will produce slivers to M. Pain's specifications is in the planning stages . . . and our research team wants to try incorporating an actual hot water tank in the middle of a heap. We'll keep you posted on progress with this revolutionary waste heat management technique ... because, as Jean says, "Now is our last c hance."

The permanent link for the present post is:

http://personalgardens.blogspot.com/2008/11/biomass-experiments-jean-pain-in-his.html

Jean Pain: France's King of Green Gold

Jean Pain: France's King of Green Gold

by Nicolas Poulain
(From: Reader's Digest -- November 1981 -- pages 76-81)

[ Here is the first of two articles about Jean Pain's endeavors. Jean Pain was a remarkable example of successful "Market Gardening" and Organic and Sustainable Farming, which we can all emulate if we have access to some land with brush on it, or to agricultural refuse such as corn husks, etc. This 1981 article is reproduced here under "Fair Use" regulations for your information.

With the enormous amounts of garden refuse, tree branches, old food, and other biomass garbage produced daily by cities like Los Angeles or New-York, clogging landfills and producing greenhouse gases that go straight into the atmosphere, one truly wonders why so simple and efficient an approach as the one described in the following two articles (see next post as well) is not universaly implemented yet...

As to the question what are we waiting for -- your guess is as good as ours!]

Using a new, exciting and amazingly simple technique, this self-taught scientist may be helping to solve the world's energy crisis

IT IS DUSK as I arrive at the Domaine des Ternpliers, a 241-hectare timber tract backed on to the Alpes dc Provence. Driving over a bumpy mud road that snakes across a barren moor near Villecrore (Var), I come upon a big white house, home of Jean Pain, a 51-year-old Frenchman.

Until recently, Pain was an unknown. Today, he's hailed as "the king of.green gold," and energy experts from all over the globe have come to Domaine des Tenipliers to study the miracle Pain has wrought: an amazingly simple, and incredibly inexpensive system that extracts both energy and fertilizer (gold) from plant life (green). These scientists are hopeful that Pain's new process will go a long way in helping overcome the worldwide shortage of fuel.

Says Andre Birre, author of "Humus: Wealth and Health of the Earth" [the book that launched the European "ecological" -that is "environmental" movement, as well as Organic and Sustainable Agriculture, in Europe in 1959] concerning the Pain method : "We are so hypnotized by the black gold we call oil, of which the supply is limited, that we fail to see that everyone can exploit that other gold-humus-not only without exhausting the supply, but constantly increasing it."

I knock on the door and am greeted warmly by Jean Pain and his wife, Ida. Jean, I notice, has a wrestler's build and a hermit's calm. He accompanies me to about 50 metres from the front door and shows me the object of the world's attention -- a home-made power plant that supplies 100 per cent of the Pains' energy needs. What I see is a mound, three metres high and six across, made of tiny pieces of brushwood.

This vegetable cocktail, Pain explains, made of tree limbs and pulverized underbrush, is a compost, much like the pile of decaying organic matter that people build in their gardens, using food scraps and leaves. Buried inside the 50-ton compost, he says, is a steel tank with a capacity of four cubic metres. It is three-fourths full of the same compost, which has first been steeped in water for two months. The tank is hermetically sealed, but is connected by tubing to 24-truck-tyre inner tubes, banked nearby in piles. The tubes serve as a reservoir for the methane gas produced as the compost ferments.

"Once the gas is distilled, washed through small stones in water -- and compressed," Pain explains, "we use it to cook our food, produce our electricity and fuel our truck." He says that it takes about 90 days to produce 500 cubic metres of gas -- enough to keep Ida's two ovens and a three-burner stove going for a year. Leading to a room behind the house, he shows me the methane-fuelled internal combustion engine that turns a generator, producing 100 watts every hour. This charges an accumulator battery, which stores the current, providing all the Pains need to light their five-room house.

As Ida drives off in their truck, I see on the roof two gas bottles shaped like long cannon shells. These have a capacity of five cubic metres of compressed gas, allowing her to drive 100 kilometres. Jean says that ten kilos of brush-wood supply the gas equivalent of a litre of high-test petrol. All that is needed to use it as motor fuel is a slight carburettor adjustment.

We walk back to the compost. Jean points to a- 40-millimetre-thick plastic tube that runs from a well, through the heap and on to a tap inside the house. He explains that compost heats as it ferments, raising the temperature so that cold water, arriving from the well after passing through 200 metres of tubing wound round the tank, emerges at 60 degrees C. I personally confirm that the water arrives cold at the "cake" and comes out scalding. Once inside the house, the hot water circulates through radiators and heats the house. The compost heap continues fermenting for nearly 18 months, supplying hot water at a rate of four litres a minute, enough to satisfy the central heating, bathroom and kitchen requirements. Then the installation is dismantled and a new compost system is set up at once to assure a continuous supply of hot water.

Gigantic Growth

The inert, brushwood compost now provides Pain with still another. use. Once fermentation ends, the big, magic cake produces no more energy, but it will still render 50 tons of natural fertilizer. By spreading a layer of this humus on the poor, stony soil around the house, Jean Pain has created a luxurious farm garden where even tropical vegetables grow. I admire tomato plants two-and-a-half metres high, lift a six-kilo watermelon and inspect a chayote (a kind of sweet Zucchini -- hitherto found only in the West Indies and in Africa), What surprises me most is that these giant vegetables need no watering; all the water they require, Pain tells me, is synthesized in the compost.

The ingenious power-plant Pain has developed and built with his own hands took 15 years of tireless effort. lt all started while Pain was gathering brushwood and noticed that wherever it was found the vegetation underneath seemed to grow more abundantly. The reason, he learnt, is that as branches, leaves and shrubs decompose they form the nutritious humus that enriches the earth. To imitate nature and produce humus, he thought, we could trim excess undergrowth from the forests. Then perhaps we could capture the energy produced by the fermentation that transforms this brushwood into humus.

A Discovery

How the Jean Pain process works

Jean Pain has no diploma; but he is intelligent, highly adaptable and keenly observant. And starting in 1965, be devoured dozens of books on science while carrying out his first experiments. He began by fermenting the brushwood cuttings as he brought them in, but soon realized that fermentation would be more efficient if the bigger boughs were chopped up as finely as possible. No machine for this existed, so he invented one, building it in his garage with salvaged material. The potential significance of Pain's discovery is enormous. What it means, to Pain, is that forests can become twenty-first-century man's "guardian angels."

The stakes for France are obviously high. While the French import 126 million tons of oil annually, throwing their balance of payments seriously off the mark, French forests constitute an energy back-up with a potential that biologist Robert du Pontavice estimates as equivalent to 20 million tons of oil (TEP). Nor are these merely "theoretical" and unexploitable resources.

Pain has taken the costs of his method into account. He has gone over and over his calculations and the figures are there: 1,000 hectares of forest can supply 6,000 tons of fertilizer a year, 960,000 cubic metres of biogas (or 480,000 litres oil equivalent) and millions of litres of hot water. And exploiting the forest costs only 12 per cent of the energy extracted from it.

What's more, the cycle can be repeated indefinitely as brushwood is renewed every seven years. Thus, not only would the forest remain clean and free from the danger of fire, but would provide an inexhaustible supply of fertilizer and thermal energy.

Multiple Usages

Already in France and throughout the world, many uses are being made of the techniques Pain developed at the Dornaine des Templiers. In France, eight municipalities have chosen to adopt his techniques for recycling vegetation and supplying heat and hot water to public buildings, hot-houses and sports facilities.

"In Sainpuits (Yonne), a village of 500 inhabitants, we heat several buildings with the object of proving the value of the system," I was told by Etienne Bonvallet, project foreman of the pilot operation. In the Savoie, Chambery began to use Jean Pain's method in January 1980. A 200-cubic-metre compost bed, made of broken wood from plane trees and lime trees, will supply 23,400 kilocalories an hour and heat a 200 square-metre hot-house. Within two years, it will be possible to salvage 80 cubic metres of humus for the community gardens.

Says Henri Stehle, internationally respected agriculture expert and botanist and Institute of France prize-winner, "At the end of the path Pain has opened, stands tomorrow's self-sufficient agribusiness producing its own fertilizer and the power to run its equipment." Pain's methods are beginning to spread to the rest of Europe. In Brussels, Belgium, stands a compost plant and a flourishing garden. This is the experimental station of the International Jean Pain Committee, formed in 1978 by Frederik Vanden Brande, former Belgian secretary-general of the Council of European Townships, to publicize Pain's techniques.

Verdant Future

This station is the showcase of the Jean Pain committee, and its pride. But the committee has many other activities. It puts out brochures, gives lectures, and organizes twice yearly, two-week training programmes where 100-odd farmers, students, and environmental specialists from various parts of the world study grinding, composting, . and methane production procedures.

Both in France and abroad, Jean Pain's methods are destined to be applied over a wider field. Pain has devoted followers in Australia, the United States, Tunis, Latin America and Japan, The book he wrote with his wife, already translated into five languages, has sold 70,000 copies.

International energy expert Robert Giry, author of Is Nuclear Energy Useless?, predicts: "In our times of crisis, with European agriculture in danger of one day suddenly finding itself deprived of energy, the path opened by Jean Pain for the production of fertilizer, fuel and electricity could lead to a brimming future."

The simplest principles often underlie the most useful discoveries. Now, when soil exhaustion and the search for new energy sources are the leading brain-twisters in the developed societies, Jean Pain, the self-taught scientist with calloused hands, offers a commonsense solution: the green gold that's to be found almost everywhere in the world. It is here, under our feet; we have only to stoop down to gather it.


Jean Pain's business site (in French): "Les broyeurs déchiqueteurs JEAN PAIN - Valorisation Compost Bois Energie" http://www.jean-pain.com/


"The methods of Jean Pain: Or another kind of garden", by Ida and Jean Pain, in English, self-published 1980, 88 pages, photos, out of print -- try second-hand bookstores online. French and German editions are still in printand available on the French site.

Again, with the enormous amounts of garden refuse, tree branches, and other biomass garbage produced daily by cities like Los Angeles or New-York, clogging landfills and producing greenhouse gases that go straight into the atmosphere, one truly wonders why so simple and efficient an approach is not universaly implemented yet...

As to the question what are we waiting for -- your guess is as good as ours!

The permanent link for the present post is:

http://personalgardens.blogspot.com/2008/11/jean-pain-frances-king-of-green-gold.html

PERMACULTURE IN LOS ANGELES

PERMACULTURE IN LOS ANGELES

If you live in Los Angeles and particularly on the Westside of the county, we highly recommend you to attend the "Westside Permaculture Gatherings". To join their mailing list:
http://visitor.constantcontact.com/email.jsp?m=1102241208022

Here are people who truly understand the lawn problem... as you can see from this excerpt from their last newsletter:

"One lawn down, a couple million more to go...

With the help of some hard working neighbors and friends, a lawn was removed the other day from a home in the Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica. May we have a moment of silence for the grass that lost its life on that day.

Now let's celebrate and boogie!!! One resource consuming lawn gone, one beautiful and productive garden to take its place. There are many more to go, how about we start with yours, go ahead, go outside and tear your lawn out and plant a fruit tree or some tasty veggies. Its easy."

Indeed! What a great example to follow!

Now read on to find out what's happening this week in the LA Permaculture world.

"Hands on Rainwater Harvesting Fun"

This Saturday, Oct 25, we'll discover several different ways to "harvest" our winter rainwater bounty. Learn what we'll be doing at the Community Garden. See various models of tanks. And, for the main part of the day, participate in an installation of an experimental rainwater harvesting system at the Garden.

We'll be digging rainwater infiltration pits to irrigate our new citrus trees. Please come dressed to work in the garden. Tools will be provided. A limited supply of gloves is available, so if you have favorites, you might bring them along.

Event begins at 9am with discussion, followed shortly by installation. Leaders for the day will be John Tikotsky, ASLA, and Joanne Poyourow, Environmental Change-Makers.

Event is free and open to all. It's a great event for teen energy, too! 9am till completion (perhaps 2.5-3 hours?), The Community Garden at Holy Nativity, 6700 W. 83rd, Westchester (Los Angeles 90045). (310) 670-4777 www.EnviroChangeMakers.org


Learning about "Permaculture Around the World"

Sustainable Habitats hosts the second in the series "Permaculture Around the World" on Monday, October 27 with Michal Vital, Israeli Architect and Eco-builder, speaking about her involvement with the non-profit BUSTAN, in the Negev Desert of Israel.

The word "bustan" refers to a fruit-yielding orchard in both Hebrew and Arabic and symbolizes the work of Bustan ( www.bustan.org ). It is a partnership of Jewish and Arab eco-builders, architects, academics, and farmers promoting social and environmental justice in Israel/Palestine with a focus on the Bedouin villages of the Negev Desert. BUSTAN utilizes the principles of permaculture and non-violent direct action across ethnic divides.

The event takes place at the Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd, Santa Monica , on Monday, October 27, 7-9pm, 2008. No reservations are required, fundraiser donation for BUSTAN $10. For more information please email David Kahn at info [{at}] sustainablehabitats.org


If you don't live in or around L.A., and can't find a similarly-oriented group in your area, why not just start one?

BESIDES ORGANIC & SUSTAINABLE FOOD GARDENS, ANOTHER POTENTIAL USE FOR SOME OF THE SPACE WASTED ON LAWNS...

BESIDES ORGANIC & SUSTAINABLE FOOD GARDENS, ANOTHER POTENTIAL USE FOR SOME OF THE SPACE WASTED ON LAWNS...

If we believe the "fossil fuels" theory, every drop of oil on earth comes from millions of years of buildup from algae and other natural residue... buried, compressed, liquefied and eventually drilled up -- supplying our energy since the late 1800s. Now sure, this is just a theory, and anyone in the know is well aware most oil is of abiotic origin. But for all practical purposes, it's a useful theory.

So now consider this: In about 250 years, of which less than a 100 remain, we will deplete what took hundreds of millions of years to form... With this inevitable global depletion of oil, we obviously have no other choices than using alternative forms of energy.

In fact, we live amidst a boundless sea of energy, even if we do not really know how to retrieve it for practical uses. Or perhaps are simply not permitted to tap it. But to do so efficiently would often require technological advances which, for one reason or another, are not yet there.

However, solar, wind, HHO gas, and using plant-based energy are all choices we can make right now, as they do not need any radical new technologies.

When it comes to plant-derived energy (that is, indirect solar energy), research at leading universities suggests that algae could supply enough fuel to meet all of America's transportation needs in the form of biodiesel... using a scant 0.2% of the nation's land.

In fact, enough algae can be grown to replace all transportation fuels in the U.S. on only 15,000 square miles, or 4.5 million acres of land.

That's a mere 1/8th or less of the areas currently planted with a totally useless and often poisonous crop -- lawns.

How is this all possible?

Technology exists right now to cultivate algae that can be used as fuel, using all sorts of human and animal waste as fertilizer. A good part of what goes to landfills could be turned into algae food. This can be scaled from one person production plants to plants capable of treating all the biodegradable waste of NYC or Los Angeles. And needless to say, there will be lots of money to make with offering practical implementations that can produce biodiesel easily and steadily using our waste, turning it into fuel for our cars and to generate energy.

So, besides the obvious choice of "food, not lawns", what are we waiting for to start taking back some of the space, time, energy and money currently wasted on lawns, and start producing energy out of it?

Another of these interesting questions...



[Lawn02 - V100-081016] Permalink for this post: http://personalgardens.blogspot.com/2008/10/besides-organic-sustainable-food.html


Copyright 1964-2008 OSL All rights reserved, worldwide. LICENSE IS HEREBY GRANTED to all to freely link to or to reproduce this page by any means of one's choice, virtual or physical, and to republish it, including in a compilation, etc, as long as the entirety of the page is NOT MODIFIED in any manner (except of course your location if you are publishing a community ad of your own). This includes not modifying the present copyright notice and license, and the permanent link (permalink URL) or “web address” of the page, and license is granted as long as reproduction is not part of a commercial venture, that is, as long as you do not charge for it in any way, be it directly, or indirectly, for example in commercial publications. Commercial licenses available from the copyright holder.

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PROOF IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET "CITY HALL" TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING USEFUL

PROOF IT IS POSSIBLE TO GET "CITY HALL" TO ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING USEFUL

Yes, at first thought, most people in most communities will agree it seems almost impossible to get "City Hall" to actually do something constructive and useful, particularly when it comes to issues as fundamental as Health Thru Gardening. Yet, here is a proof that this is not an absolute truth graven in tablets of stone for all eternity.

The City of Santa Monica is currently considering creating a "Garden Registry". Sure, it hasn't happened yet, but Santa Monica is actually currently exploring the possibility of developing a program to do exactly what we are working on here: Allow private home owners to partner with interested gardeners to use a portion of their property to grow vegetables. Contact rich.rollins@smgov.net if you live in the area. And if you live in LA or surrounding communities, you can contact gabriela@cscommunites.org .

More, the same city of Santa Monica actually has a "Rain Harvest Rebate Program":

The City of Santa Monica is now offering rebates on rainwater harvesting equipment and supplies. "Harvesting rainwater from your rooftop protects the Santa Monica Bay, safeguards drinking water supplies, and adds a little excitement into to your life and landscape - and can put money in your pocket".

Eligibility: Any property owner (resident, institution or business) in the City of Santa Monica and any tenant of said property with the permission of the owner.
● Downspouts: Only downspouts that drain DIRECTLY to the alley or street are available for this program. Downspouts that drain to the landscape are NOT available for the redirect rebate program. (So you will have to install a downspout emptying into the alley or street before installing your two barrels and get your $200, but not bad anyway!)
● Rain Barrels: Up to 2 barrels per downspout. (If you multiply your downspouts, you can get $200 per spout, but your two barrels must be under 125 gallons each. If over that, you are out of luck! Cheapest is to use surplus 55 gallons drums anyway.)
● Cisterns: Up to 2 cisterns per property. (However, if they are under 500 gallons, they are not a "cistern", and you are out of luck -- in other word, forget about installing anything between 125 and 500 gallons, since that would be neither a "barrel" nor a "cistern", and would bring you nothing. Ah, the unsung beauties of the administrative mind!)

Three "rebates" are available: ("rebates" on what is unclear... property "taxes"? What if you don't pay any?)

1. Rain Gutter Downspout Redirect Rebate (rainwater percolation): Up to $40 per qualified rain gutter downspout (up to and including all downspouts on one’s property), includes labor and materials. Rebates are available for the cost of redirecting rain gutter downspouts to permeable surfaces, such as landscaped areas.

2. Rain Barrel Rebate (rainwater storage): Rebates up to $100 per barrel (limited to 125 gallon maximum capacity), includes design, labor and materials.
3. Cistern Rebate (rainwater storage): Up to $500 per cistern (limited to cisterns over 500 gallons each), includes design, labor and materials.

Proof of what we are saying can be found here:

http://www.smgov.net/epd/residents/Urban_Runoff/rain_harvest_rebates.htm

What to do: Multiply the street or alley-oriented "downspouts" and then install two 55 gallons drums per downspout. Redirect the overflow of these drums to two "cisterns". One of 500 gallons, and one of as many gallons as you wish, as long as over 500. You might manage to get between $1,400 and, say, $1,800 or so from the city, and that is to collect enough water to feed you for quite a while, assuming you have an "Optimal Garden", that will use the water sparingly and intelligently.

A little suggestion to orgsanizing bureaucrats: How about a dollar per gallon of installed capacity, regardless of size? With perhaps a limit on maximum capacity, just in case some residents would come up with 50,000 or 100,000 gallons cisterns? (Human ingenuity is great, and even if one can't imagine where the enterprising resident would put such wonder cisterns, we will agree that prudent administrators should always play safe... ;) On the other hand, isn't the idea to precisely store as much rainwater as possible? And even better, how about cutting the subsidy by half if the water is not used in a food-producing organic garden (Santa Monica does not need any additional chemical pollution), and DOUBLE it if it is?

So, perhaps not a perfect program, but definitely a step in the right direction, and a practical proof that when citizens awareness rises, as it sure did in Santa Monica in the past few years,"City Hall" somehow has to respond.

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THE SPIRITUAL SIDES OF GARDENING: LUTHER BURBANK,GIANT OF GARDENING & "SAINT"

THE SPIRITUAL SIDES OF GARDENING : LUTHER BURBANK,

A GIANT OF GARDENING WHO WAS HAILED AS

AN "AMERICAN SAINT"

Luther Burbank (March 7, 1849 – April 11, 1926) was an American gardener, botanist, horticulturist and a pioneer in agricultural science.

He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants over his 55-year career. Burbank's varied creations included fruits, flowers, grains, grasses, and vegetables. For example, he developed a spineless cactus (useful for cattle-feed) and the plumcot.

Burbank's most successful strains and varieties include the Shasta daisy, the Fire poppy, the July Elberta peach, the Santa Rosa plum, the Flaming Gold nectarine, the Wickson plum, the Freestone peach, and the Burbank potato. Burbank also bred the white blackberry. A natural sport (genetic variant) of the Burbank potato with russet (reddish-brown) skin later became known as the Russet Burbank potato: this large, brown-skinned, white-fleshed potato has become the world's predominant processing potato.

Life and work : Born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Burbank grew up on a farm and received only an elementary education. The thirteenth of 15 children, he enjoyed the plants in his mother's large garden. His father died when he was 21 years old, and Burbank used his small inheritance to buy a 17 acre (6.8 hectares) plot of land near Lunenburg.

Burbank developed the Burbank potato, 1872 to 1874. Burbank sold the rights to the Burbank potato for $150 and used the money to travel to Santa Rosa, California in 1875. Later, a natural sport of Burbank potato with russetted skin was selected and named Russet Burbank potato. Today, the Russet Burbank potato is the most widely cultivated potato in the United States, prized for processing. McDonald's french fries are made exclusively from this cultivar.

In Santa Rosa, Burbank purchased a 4-acre (1.6 hectares) plot of land, and established a greenhouse, nursery, and experimental fields that he used to conduct crossbreeding experiments on plants, inspired by Charles Darwin's The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. (This site is now open to the public as a city park, Luther Burbank Home and Gardens.) Later he purchased an 18 acre plot of land in the nearby town of Sebastopol for more experimental growing called Gold Ridge Farm.

Burbank's creations included:
The "Shasta Daisy" and a total of 91 types of ornamentals.
The (Russet) Burbank potato.
113 plums and prunes
35 fruiting cacti, including the spineless cactus, a great animal feed.
26 types of vegetables.
16 blackberries (including a white blackberry).
13 raspberries.
11 quinces.
11 plumcots.
10 cherries.
10 strawberries.
10 apples.
9 types of grains, grasses, forage.
8 peaches.
6 chestnuts.
5 nectarines.
4 grapes.
4 pears.
3 walnuts.
2 figs.
1 almond.

Burbank was often criticized by scientists of his day because he did not keep the kind of careful records that are the norm in scientific research and because he was mainly interested in getting results rather than in basic research. Jules Janick, Ph.D., Professor of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Purdue University, writing in the World Book Encyclopedia, 2004 edition, went as far as saying: "Burbank cannot be considered a scientist in the academic sense." However, one can wonder who is more useful to society: The scientist in his ivory tower, or the man who selects and develop over 700 varieties of new food plants?

In 1893 Burbank published a descriptive catalog of some of his best varieties, entitled called New Creations in Fruits and Flowers.

In 1907, Burbank published an "essay on childrearing", called "The Training of the Human Plant". In it, he advocated improved treatment of children and eugenic practices such as keeping the unfit and first cousins from marrying. He himself married twice, to Helen Coleman in 1890, which ended in divorce in 1896; and to Elizabeth Waters in 1916. But he had no children. In mid-March 1926, Burbank suffered a heart attack and became ill with gastrointestinal complications. He died on April 11, 1926, aged 77, and is buried near the greenhouse at the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens.

During his career, Burbank wrote, or co-wrote, several books on his methods and results, including his eight-volume How Plants Are Trained to Work for Man (1921), Harvest of the Years (with Wilbur Hall, 1927), Partner of Nature (1939), and the 12-volume Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Application. New Creations in Fruits and Flowers cover.

Legacy: Burbank's work spurred the passing of the 1930 Plant Patent Act four years after his death. The legislation made it possible to patent new varieties of plants (excluding tuber-propagated plants). In supporting the legislation, Thomas Edison testified before Congress in support of the legislation and said that "This [bill] will, I feel sure, give us many Burbanks." Unfortunately, Hell is often paved with good intentions, and this legislation also gave rise to Monsanto, GMOs and "terminator seeds". Something so revulsive to the unperverted human mind that the mere idea of it would have been enough to make Burbank sick.

At any rate, the Patent Office issued Plant Patents #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #18, #41, #65, #66, #235, #266, #267, #269, #290, #291, and #1041 to Burbank posthumously. And in 1986, Burbank was inducted into the "National Inventors Hall of Fame". Invent Now Hall of Fame Search Inventor Profile

The Luther Burbank Home and Gardens, in downtown Santa Rosa, are now designated as a National Historic Landmark. Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Experiment Farm is listed in the National Register of Historic Places a few miles west of Santa Rosa in the town of Sebastopol, California. Gold Ridge Luther Burbank's Experiment Farm


By all accounts, Burbank was a kindly man whose first and foremost goal in life was to help the many. He saw gardens and gardening as the conduit through which people could attain and maintain optimal health. He was very interested in education and often gave both time and money to the local schools.

In fact and as unbelievable as this might seem at first, Paramahansa Yogananda, who introduced "yoga" to the West and is widely recognized as one of the greatest Indian saints of recent history, knew both Burbank and Gandhi well. Yet, it is not to the Mahatma, but to Luther Burbank that he dedicated his great bestseller "Autobiography of a Yogi", hailing him as "An American Saint". Think of it!

Burbank's mystical and spiritual side was completely immersed in Nature and expressed itself through one endeavor: Understanding Nature and working with her through gardens and gardening, so to bring increasingly better plants to fellow human beings, and share with them the tools to emulate his work. If Burbank was a saint, and we have that from quite reliable authority, he was a Gardener saint, and a model for us all to emulate.

His friend and admirer Yogananda wrote in his Autobiography of a Yogi:
"His heart was fathomlessly deep, long acquainted with humility, patience, sacrifice. His little home amid the roses was austerely simple; he knew the worthlessness of luxury, the joy of few possessions. The modesty with which he wore his scientific fame repeatedly reminded me of the trees that bend low with the burden of ripening fruits; it is the barren tree that lifts its head high in an empty boast." (Yogananda, 1946, p. 352)

In a speech given to the First Congregational Church of San Francisco in 1926 a short time before his death, and which can be considered his testament, Burbank said:

"I love humanity, which has been a constant delight to me during all my seventy-seven years of life; and I love flowers, trees, animals, and all the works of Nature as they pass before us in time and space. What a joy life is when you have made a close working partnership with Nature, helping her to produce for the benefit of mankind new forms, colors, and perfumes in flowers which were never known before; fruits in form, size, and flavor never before seen on this globe; and grains of enormously increased productiveness, whose fat kernels are filled with more and better nourishment, a veritable storehouse of perfect food -- new food for all the world's untold millions for all time to come."

Luther Burbank understood we are what we eat, and that the ultimate conduit to maintain or gain back our health is optimal foods from our own gardens. This is the cause he dedicated his entire life to, and his gentle and selfless dedication as well as the way he pursued it was why he was recognized and hailed as "an American Saint" by one of the greatest spiritual authorities of our time.

His life was an unequaled example for us all to study and follow.

BOOKS TO READ:

Harvest of the Years, Luther Burbank, with Wilbur Hall - This is Luther Burbank's autobiography published posthumously after his death in 1926.

Kraft, K. Luther Burbank, the Wizard and the Man. New York : Meredith Press, 1967 ASIN: B0006BQE6C

Yogananda, Paramahansa. Autobiography of a Yogi. Los Angeles : Self-Realization Fellowship, 1946 ISBN 0-87612-083-4

Peter Dreyer: A Gardener Touched With Genius The Life of Luther Burbank, # L. Burbank Home & Gardens; New & expanded edition (January 1993), ISBN 0-9637883-0-2

Burbank, Luther. “The Training of the Human Plant.” Century Magazine, May 1907. http://hearth.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?sid=ee2702066663ae4e729bbb6c9e6f63d9&idno=4765397 ]

Pandora, Katherine. "Luther Burbank". American National Biography. Retrieved on 2006-11-16.

Burbank, Luther. The Canna and the Calla: and some interesting work with striking results. Paperback ISBN 978-1414702001

Burt, Olive W. Luther Burbank, Boy Wizard. Biography published by Bobbs-Merrill in 1948 aimed at intermediate level students.

FIND MORE ABOUT LUTHER BURBANK :

Luther Burbank Home and Gardens official website

National Inventors Hall of Fame profile

Wells Fargo Center for the Arts (formerly the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts)

UN report on spineless cactus cultivation in Tunisia

Luther Burbank Virtual Museum

Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramhansa Yogananda, Chapter 38: Luther Burbank -- A Saint Amidst the Roses at www.ananda.org

The Wisdom of Life

A Rare Crossing: Frida Kahlo and Luther Burbank

Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Application, a 12-volume monographic series, is available online through the University of Wisconsin Digital Collections Center.

Official website of the Western Sonoma County Historical Society and Luther Burbank's Gold Ridge Experiment Farm

[Spir01 - V100-081006] Permalink: http://personalgardens.blogspot.com/2008/10/spiritual-sides-of-gardening-luther.html

Copyright 1964-2008 OSL All rights reserved, worldwide. LICENSE IS HEREBY GRANTED to all to freely link to or to reproduce this page by any means of one's choice, virtual or physical, and to republish it, including in a compilation, etc, as long as the entirety of the page is NOT MODIFIED in any manner (except of course your location if you are publishing a community ad of your own). This includes not modifying the present copyright notice and license, and the permanent link (permalink URL) or “web address” of the page, and license is granted as long as reproduction is not part of a commercial venture, that is, as long as you do not charge for it in any way, be it directly, or indirectly, for example in commercial publications. Commercial licenses available from the copyright holder.

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"BEYOND ORGANIC" -- AN ISSUE WHOSE TIME HAS COME

"BEYOND ORGANIC" -- AN ISSUE WHOSE TIME HAS COME

To introduce the concept and the issues at hand, we will reproduce here an article that first appeared in "Mother Earth News". which we will use a base for further discussion of the necessity to look "Beyond Organic".

Now, this is a farmer who also raises animals for meat talking. Some people will have some issues with that, for moral reasons, or simply because it is quite clear nowadays that hard data from very, very hard science clearly demonstrates that meat is not that good for us (See "The China Study").

However that does not make what he says about farms, farming and what we eat and how any less true...

Everything He Wants to Do is Illegal
By Megan Phelps

Joel Salatin is a farmer at the forefront of the trend toward local food and grass-fed meat. Many people first became familiar with Salatin’s complex and eco-minded approach to farming when he was featured in Michael Pollan’s bestselling book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. But Salatin also is well known within pasture-based farming and libertarian circles. He’s especially vocal about government regulations that make life difficult for the small farmer — his most recent book is titled Everything I Want to Do is Illegal. He’s also the author of You Can Farm and Holy Cows and Hog Heaven (excerpted here in Mother Earth News). Salatin kindly agreed to answer some questions for us about Polyface Farms. Hold onto your hat! Here are Salatin’s candid thoughts on government regulations, high grain prices, vegetarians and making money at farming.

Grass Fed and Beyond Organic

Tell us a little bit about Polyface Farm.
We’re located eight miles southwest of Staunton, Va., in the Shenandoah Valley on 550 acres (100 open and 450 forest). We also lease four farms, totaling an additional 900 acres of pasture. We sell “salad bar” (grass-fed) beef; “pigaerator” pork; pastured poultry, both broilers and turkeys; pastured eggs and forage-based rabbits.

Your livestock and poultry are grass-fed, and your farm is “beyond organic.” Do you find people are familiar with those terms?
More and more people are aware of the compromise and adulteration within the government-sanctioned organic certified community. Weary of 6,000-hen confinement laying houses with 3 feet dirt strip being labeled “certified organic,” patrons latch onto the “beyond organic” idea. It resonates with their disappointment over the government program. When Horizon battles Cornucopia, for instance, to keep its organic-certified industrial-scale dairies, consumer confidence falls.

Intuitively, people understand that the historical use of the word “organic” identified an idea and a paradigm rather than a visceral list of dos and don’ts. And now that the high prices have attracted unscrupulous growers who enter the movement for the money, people realize that no system can regulate integrity. That is why we have a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week, 365 day a year open-door policy. Anyone is welcome to visit at anytime to see anything, anywhere. Integrity can only be assured with this level of transparency.

When someone asks if we’re certified organic, we respond playfully: “Why would we want to stop there? We go beyond organic.” That response generally leads to an info-dense discussion and people come away with renewed awareness, rather than just another case of hardening of the categories.

How has the public’s attitude toward your products changed in the last few years? Do you find it easier to sell grass-fed meat now?
Public awareness is definitely up. In the 1970s when I was selling grass-finished beef and pastured poultry, nobody had even heard of the word “organic,” much less “grass finished.” Now, thanks to New York Times bestselling authors like Jo Robinson and Michael Pollan, the awareness is huge.

The market limitations are primarily twofold. One is the supply. The artistry and choreography required to move animals around on palatable pasture year-round in any given bio-region takes years to learn. This is not cookie-cutter rations formulated from annuals stored in a big grain bin. The producer deals with on-farm variables such as seasonality, wet, dry, hot, cold, genetic physiology, minerals and a host of others. Beyond that, the Food Safety and Inspection Service has successfully annihilated most community-based, appropriately sized abattoirs (slaughterhouses) and criminalized on-farm processing. This is by far the major impediment to the local integrity of food.

That’s all on the production/processing end. The second market limitation has to do with entry-level requirements for major marketing channels. From liability insurance to net-90-day payment to slotting fees, large buyers share a Wall-Street business mentality. That mentality aggressively shuns competition, especially from little innovators. But every time industrial food hiccups with recalls and more diseases, another wave of opt-outers hits the local, integrity food scene. Exciting times.

On Being a Farmer

When did you decide you wanted to be a farmer?
As early as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a farmer. I love growing things. I appreciate the emotional steadiness of animals. Every day when I go to move the cow herd, they are glad to see me. The pigs always come over to talk. None of these critters ever asks you to fill out licenses or threatens litigation. They never talk behind your back or conspire to overthrow you. And to watch the land heal, with ever-growing mounds of earthworm castings, is better than any video. Indeed, walking through a dew-speckled pasture in the early morning after a blessed nighttime thunderstorm, the ground literally covered with copulating earthworms — what could be more magical than that?

I had my own laying hen flock at 10 years old, pedaling eggs on my bicycle to neighbors, selling them to families in church. The fast-paced, frenzied urban life disconnected from the ponds, the trees and the pasture never held much allure for me. Go away? Why? Where? I think I was planted here. I think God tends my soul here. It’s not for everyone, but it satiates my soul with wonder and gratitude.

What’s changed about your philosophy of farming over the years?
Like all geezers, I’ve learned a lot just through experience. Because I’m a third generation-Christian-libertarian-environmentalist-capitalist lunatic I don’t have a conversion epiphany to share. I’ve just always been weird.

Initially, I thought I would need to work off-farm to stay here, and I learned that wasn’t true. I encourage young people to follow their passion and go ahead and jump. If you wait until all the stars line up, you’ll never do it. In recent years, I’d say my biggest change has been regarding economies of scale and marketing realities. Twenty years ago my vision for the food system in Virginia was thousands of little mom and pop farms like ours serving their neighbors. I no longer think that is viable for two reasons. First, urban centers would be hard pressed to grow all their own food within their communities. Second, most farmers are marketing Neanderthals. Either they really don’t want to be around people, or they don’t know how to interact with them. A successful marketer needs to be a bit theatrical; a storyteller, schmoozer, gregarious type. And that’s not typical, especially among John Deere jockeys.

What’s the answer? I don’t know, but what I’ve come up with is what I call food clusters. These require production, processing, marketing, accounting, distribution and customers — these six components make a whole. The cluster can be farmer-driven, customer-driven, even distribution-driven initially. But once these six components are in place, it can micro-duplicate the industrial on a bio-regional or foodshed scale, which includes urban centers. I think a local integrity food system could supplant the opaque industrial one in Virginia, but realistically it would comprise several hundred or a thousand $5-$10 million food clusters rather than several thousand mom and pop $100,000 fully-integrated enterprises. I certainly never thought our farm would top $1 million in annual sales, but it happened. We still have no business plan or marketing targets. But we’ve been blessed with a family of enough variety to put together these six foundations for a whole, and that has made all the difference. And I’m a schmoozer.

What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced as a farmer?
Anyone familiar with me would have to smile at this question, knowing that my answer would be and continues to be the food police. The on-farm hurdles we’ve faced, from drought to predators to flood to cash flow, are nothing compared to the emotional, economic and energy drain caused by government bureaucrats. Even in the early 1970s when, as a young teen, I operated a farm stand at the curb market, precursor of today’s farmers markets, the government said I couldn’t sell milk. The first business plan I came up with to become a full-time farmer centered around milking 10 cows and selling the milk to neighbors at regular retail supermarket prices. It would have been a nice living. But it’s illegal. In fact, in 2007 I finally wrote Everything I Want to Do is Illegal, documenting my run-ins with government officials.

I think it’s amazing that in a country which promotes the freedom to own firearms, freedom to worship and freedom of speech, we don’t have the freedom to choose our own food. If I can’t choose the proper fuel to feed my body, I won’t have energy to go shoot, preach and pray anyway. Half the alleged food in the supermarket is really dangerous to your health. In fact, if we removed all the food items in the supermarket that would not have been available before 1900, the shelves would be bare. Gone would be all the unpronounceable gobbledy-syllabic industrial additives, irradiated, GMO, cloned pseudo-food.

The reason this issue is hard to articulate is because most people don’t realize what’s not on the shelves, or in their diet. We’re fast losing the memory of heritage food, as in made from scratch, in the home kitchen, with culture-wide generic culinary wisdom. I remember when every mom knew how to cut up a chicken. Now, most people don’t know a chicken has bones. As the food police have demonized and criminalized neighbor-to-neighbor food commerce, the food system has become enslaved by the industrial food fraternity. And just around the corner is the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) coming on strong, under the guise of food safety and biosecurity, which will annihilate thousands of non-industrial farms. We don’t need programs; we need freedom. If we really had freedom, farmers like me would run circles around the corporate-welfare, food adulterated, land-abusing industrial farms.

Thinking About Meat

What are some of the things you want people to know about the meat they buy from you? What should we all know about the meat we eat?
The main idea we promote is that our animals enjoy a habitat that allows them to fully express their physiological distinctiveness. I like to say we want our pigs to express their pigness and the chickens their chickenness. The industrial food system views plants and animals as inanimate protoplasmic structure to be manipulated, however cleverly the human mind can conceive to manipulate it.

I would suggest that a society that views its life from that egocentric, disrespectful, manipulative standpoint will view its citizenry the same way . . . and other cultures. How we respect and honor the least of these creates the ethical, moral framework on which we honor and respect the greatest of these. The freedom for you to express your Tomness or Maryness is directly proportional to the value society places on the pig expressing its pigness. And to think that our tax dollars are being spent right now to isolate the porcine stress gene in order to extract it from pig DNA so that we can further abuse and dishonor pigs, but at least they won’t care. Is that the kind of moral framework on which a civilized society rests? I suggest not.

This fundamental understanding drives our production models. Herbivores in nature do not eat dead cows, chicken manure, dead chickens, grain or silage: They eat fresh or dried forage. Of course, what’s neat is that empirical data is discovering the nutritional and ecological benefits of this paradigm. We’re reading about Omega 3 and Omega 6 balance, conjugated linoleic acid, polyunsaturated fats and riboflavin. Whenever a new laboratory confirmation of our philosophy hits the news, we make sure our patrons know about it. In a word, this is all about healing: healing our bodies, healing our economies, healing our communities, healing our families, healing the landscape, healing the earthworms. If it’s not healing, it’s not appropriate.

Perhaps because it’s such a hot topic, let me address the cow-global warming argument. Every bit of the alleged science linking methane and cows to global warming is predicated on annual cropping, feedlots and herbivore abuse. It all crumbles if the production model becomes like our mob-stocking-herbivorous-solar-conversion-lignified-carbon-sequestration fertilization. America has traded 73 million bison requiring no petroleum, machinery or fertilizer for 45 million beef cattle, and we think we’re efficient. Here at Polyface, we practice biomimicry and have returned to those lush, high organic matter production models of the native herbivores.

If every cow producer in the country would use this model, in less than 10 years we would sequester all the carbon that’s been emitted since the beginning of the industrial age. It’s really that simple. Without question, grass-finished, mob-stocked beef is the most efficacious way to heal the planet. We should drastically drop our chicken and pork consumption and return to our indigenous, climate-appropriate protein source: perennial forages turned into red meat and milk.

Do vegetarians ever challenge you about raising meat? If so, what do you say in response?
I will answer this in two parts. The first has to do with the people who think a fly is a chicken is a child is a cat — what I call the cult of animal worship. This would include the people who think we’ve evolved beyond the barbaric practice of killing animals to some cosmic nirvana state where killing is a thing of the past.

Rather than indicating a new state of evolutionary connectedness, it actually shows a devolutionary state of disconnectedness. A Bambi-ized culture in which the only human-animal connection is a pet soon devolves into jaundiced foolishness. This philosophical and nutritional foray into a supposed brave new world is really a duplicitous experiment into the anti-indigenous. This is why we enjoy having our patrons come out and see the animals slaughtered. Actually, the 7- to 12-year old children have no problem slitting throats while their parents cower inside their Prius listening to “All Things Considered.” Who is really facing life here? The chickens don’t talk or sign petitions. We honor them in life, which is the only way we earn the right to ask them to feed us — like the mutual respect that occurs between the cape buffalo and the lion. To these people, I don’t argue. This is a religion and I pretty much leave it alone.

The second part of this answer deals with folks who don’t eat meat in order to vote against animal abuse, concentrated animal feeding operations, or pathogenicity. And to be sure, many of these folks have bought into the environmental degradation inherent in livestock farming. To these people, Polyface is a ray of hope. I could write a book about the patrons who have come to us at death’s doorstep because they needed meat, and we’ve watched them heal. To be sure, not everyone needs meat, and those who do have varying levels of need. And when people find out that grass-based livestock offer the most efficacious approach to planetary health, their guilt gives way to compensatory indulgence. After all, they have to make up for lost time, and routinely become our best customers. Their emaciated vegetarian faces fill out, their strength improves and they are happier. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to just give them a Weston A. Price Foundation brochure. We keep them in our sales building like religious tracts. Oops.

All About the Farm

How have you been affected (or not affected) by the recent increase in grain prices?
This depends on which species we’re talking about. Let’s start with the poultry. Broilers will pick up only 15 percent of their diet off the pasture; layers 20 percent; turkeys 30 percent or more. Since birds are omnivores, they can’t survive on grass alone. Waterfowl jump on up to more than 50 percent. We’ve watched our local genetically modified-free grains double in price over the last 24 months. In response, we’ve raised our chicken and egg prices about 25 percent. Grain is only a portion of the cost, so all we have to do is raise the price enough to compensate for the grain. The amount required to cover these exceptionally high grain prices only amounts to less than $2 per bird. A family buying 50 chickens a year would only pay an additional $100 to cover all the additional feed costs. Of course, the industrial food poultry giants say they can’t pass along these costs to their customers. I don’t know why, but I think it has to do with the idea that people will only pay so much for junk.

Typically, hogs are similar to chickens, but here at Polyface we’re making an end run by finishing pigs on acorns. Just in the nick of time, we discovered an efficient, cheap way to fence out sections of forest with electric fence. Using quarter-inch nylon rope as poor-boy insulators, we zig-zag a single 12.5 gauge Tipper Tie aluminum wire from tree to tree and erect three- to five-acre finishing glens. In our native Appalachian oak forests, each acre displaces $500 worth of grain. That translates to about $50 per hog in expense, which is enormous. It has allowed us to keep our hog prices fairly stable even with the huge increase in grain prices. We put the pigs in for one month and remove them for 11 to rest and to let the next acorn crop fall. It actually helps the trees, because the pigs root out competing brush and brambles for their starchy roots, in effect weeding the woodlot. All parties win. Very exciting. And if you think about the millions of acres of forests and realize that they could displace tilled, petroleum-based, subsidized, annual grain cropland, you begin to see the potential of this model.

Finally, salad bar beef. This is the most exciting, because it is completely immune to grain prices. It requires no tillage, no fertilizer, no feed transportation or drying costs. It runs on real time solar energy, self-harvesting with four-wheel drive self-propelled sauerkraut tanks. At Polyface, we believe we’ve become the least-cost producer in an artisanal market, which pushes the gross margin both ways. That’s pretty cool. As a result, we have not raised our beef prices at all, and are watching with great satisfaction the squirming and postulating within the feedlot industry. They don’t need any bailouts. Let them die. To place all of this in historical context, we should all realize that until cheap energy, beef was always the cheapest meat while pork and poultry were the luxuries — especially poultry. When President Roosevelt said his vision for America included “a chicken in every pot,” he was talking about today’s filet mignon. With cheap fuel, cheap grain, cheap labor and cheap pharmaceuticals came cheap poultry. In the continuum of human history, poultry-cheaper-than-beef is a veritable blip. For nutritional, environmental and social reasons, I think it would be fine for the historical beef-poultry relationship to be restored. And most things do eventually find a way of coming home.

Describe some of the ways you sell your products. You’ve made it a general principle not to ship anything, but there are several ways you sell products locally.
We have three marketing venues: farmgate, restaurant/retail and metropolitan buying clubs. For the farmgate sales, we send out a newsletter once a year, in the spring, and patrons order for the season from that schedule. We used to sell everything that way, but with frenzied schedules and gas prices, resistance to driving out to the farm started becoming an issue. We live way out in the boonies on a dirt road where the only time you have to lock your car is in August to keep the neighbors from putting runaway zucchini squash in it. This still accounts for 30 percent of our sales. We have public hours, 9 to 4 every Saturday, and that allows us to serve the non-ordering people without sales interruptions throughout the week. Our simple sales building contains scales, freezers and counters to handle these customers.

Restaurant/retail we lump together because we deliver to them on Thursdays and Fridays every week and they pay about the same prices — a bit of a volume discount. A delivery fee per pound and scaled to volume pays for a vehicle and driver. Several nearby cheese, produce, mushroom and honey growers add their wares to our delivery bus and that helps the distribution economies of scale. We service about 25 upscale restaurants and about 10 retail venues, primarily specialty foodie-type businesses. My daughter-in-law, Sheri, calls these patrons on Tuesday for that week’s orders. Several restaurants in Washington, D.C., use an independent courier to come to the farm and deliver their orders. Among these restaurants is one fast-food establishment: the Charlottesville branch of the national Chipotle chain. This has been a huge undertaking for both of us, but heralds a new awareness of local and ecologically sound food. These venues account for 30 percent of our sales.

The metropolitan buying clubs grew serendipitously out of quarterly farmgate sales from three Maryland patrons who asked us to deliver to their area for all their friends who would not make the trek to the farm. This has grown to 20 drop points and we deliver to them eight times per year. The same delivery driver and infrastructure that services the restaurants services these patrons. They order via electronic shopping cart (www.polyfaceyum.com). Each drop point must average an annual sales quota and patrons are rewarded with free product for bringing in new customers. This venue provides neighborhood service, low overhead and complete inventory shopping options. We don’t deal with farmers market commissions, rules, product speculation or politics. It’s the ultimate marketing below the radar and keeps us out of the supermarket, with its slotting fees, red tape and tardy invoice payments. This venue now accounts for 40 percent of our annual sales.

We hope to add an additional venue in the next few months: Sysco via abattoir. In the summer of 2008, we (my wife Teresa and I) along with a partner purchased our local federal-inspected abattoir, T&E Meats, in Harrisonburg, Va. Institutional demand for local, humane and ecological products is growing, but vending contracts preclude purchasing outside large distributor channels. For example, University of Virginia contracts its dining services to Aramark, which contracts its food vending to Sysco. But Sysco requires $3 million liability insurance, hold harmless agreements and other forms before purchasing from anyone. This is a serious impediment to local producers. Having acquired this abattoir, however, we hope to use its high product liability policy as a backdoor entry into the institutional market. Stay tuned.

You’ve done a lot of work encouraging other people to learn to farm through your books and your apprenticeship program. What are some of the challenges you think that new farmers will have to face?
The first and greatest challenge is experience — how to do more with less and how to solve problems creatively rather than with something purchased. Land is more available now than it has been in decades. With half of America’s farmland due to change hands in the next 15 years due to the aging farmer, a lot of this land will be available for management at extremely modest cost, owned by family members who aren’t ready to sell, or by new e-boom buyers able to afford to buy. In any case, the weak link will be a track record and experience to take a piece of raw land and make it profitable.

I think the opportunities are practically unprecedented. We had an apprentice leave two years ago and within three months had offers for 1,000 acres to manage in New York — at virtually no cost except to use it and keep it aesthetically and aromatically romantic. That’s what healing farming is all about, and why it has so much possibility. What landlord wants a Tyson chicken house built on their farm? But all of them love a pastoral setting, especially being able to entertain their city business partners with grass-finished steaks on the porch overlooking your herd of cows. The problem is that our culture tells bright, bushy-tailed young people that farming is for backward, D-student, tobacco-chewing, trip-over-the-transmission-in-the-front-yard, redneck Bubbas.

When was the last time you heard a group of parents bragging? Ever hear one say, “Well, you can have your doctors, lawyers, accountants and engineers. My kid is going to grow up and be a farmer.” Ever hear that? Not on your life. The biggest obstacle is emotional — overcoming the cultural prejudice against splinters and blisters. That is why I talk about economics and marketing, along with the mystical, artistic elements of the farm. Yes, it’s a lot of work. But what a great office. What a noble life. What a sacred calling.

Farming... Indeed. What a noble life! What a sacred calling!

Remember: Personal Organic Gardens can completely change your life. Eating from your own, you'd most probably be healthy and feel happy instead of being ill to some degree, quite probably overweight if not obese, and most likely feeling ill at ease and dissatisfied. Which is all 95+% function of the way you eat. A good reason to start your own Garden, isn't it? We try here to show you how to create and maintain Gardens optimally, both from a functional point of view, as well as for their production.

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HORROR STORY - More Lawn-Related Statistics

HORROR STORY - More Lawn-Related Statistics

Statistics (The numbers at the end of each paragraph refer to the source references, given after each page).

I. Pesticides, Herbicides, and Fertilizer

Pesticides kill between 60 and 90% of earthworms (which are important for soil health) where they are used.1

Each year in the US, over 70 million tons of fertilizers and pesticides are used on residential lawns and gardens.2

The average homeowner uses approximately 10 times the amount of chemical pesticides per acre as farmers.3

Lawn-care pesticides kill approximately 7 million birds in the US each year.4

Pesticides can be tracked into homes, where they can build up in carpets, clothing and other material, putting families, especially children, at risk of chronic exposure.5-6

“Pesticides have been linked to solid tumors (including brain cancer, prostate cancer, kidney cancer and pancreatic cancer, among others), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, leukemia, effects on the nervous system, birth defects, fetal death and intrauterine growth retardation.”7

A study of the United States major streams and rivers revealed that 96% of fish contained detectable levels of at least one pesticide.8

When fertilizers runoff into water systems, the nutrients lead to algae buildup, depleting the dissolved oxygen content, which in turn reduces the amount of fish a system can sustain.9

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1 National Wildlife Federation. Available online at
2 Ibid.
3 Templeton, S.R., Zilberman, D., Yoo, S.J. (1998). “An Economic Perspective on Outdoor Residential Pesticide Use”, Environmental Science and Technology 32, 421A.
4 Pimentel, D. (2004). Quoted in Steinberg’s (2006) American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn.
5 Wargo, J. (1996). Our Children’s Toxic Legacy: How Science and Law Fail to Protect Us from Pesticides. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
6 Nishioka, M.G. et al. (2001). Distribution of 2,4-D in Air and on Surfaces Inside Residences after Lawn Applications: Comparing Exposure Estimates from Various Media for Young Children”, Environmental Health Perspectives, 109.
7 Ontario College of Family Physicians. (2004). Pesticides Literature Review. Available online at
8 Gilliom, R. (U.S. Geological Survey). (1999). (1999). Pesticides in the Nation’s Water Resources. Water Environment Federation Briefing Series Presentation.
9 Bormann, F.H., Balmori, D., Geballe, G.T. (2001). Redesigning the American Lawn: A Search for Environmental Harmony. (2nd ed.). Connecticut: Yale University Press.

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Fertilizers can also contaminate groundwater, increasing the levels of nitrate in drinking water to unhealthy levels. “High levels of nitrate in drinking water can cause nervous system impairments, birth defects, cancer, and "blue baby syndrome," in which the oxygen content in an infant's blood falls to dangerous levels.”10

II. Water

“A standard 19L/minute lawn sprinkler uses more water in an hour than a combination of 10 toilet flushes, two dishwasher loads, two 5-minute showers and a full load of clothes.”11

The energy used to transport water to lawns can be even higher than the energy used to mow lawns. 12

In the US, lawn-watering accounts for approximately 30% of residential water consumption along the east coast and up to 60% of consumption along the west coast.13

III. Land and Conservation

Approximately 25 to 40 million acres of land have been converted to lawn in the US alone. 14

Each year, over 382,850 acres of land are converted to lawns in North America. 15

Approximately 80% of US households have a lawn. 16

Turf grass covers over 27.5 million acres in the US, of which 21 million is private lawns. 17

Lawns generally consist of 1 to 3 species of grass, whereas a single garden can contain over 1000 species of plants.18

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10 Weyer, P. (2001) Nitrate in Drinking Water and Human Health. Avilable Online at and Bowman, D.C., Cherney, C.T., Rufth, T.W.Jr. (2002). “Fate and Transport of Nitrogen Applied to Six Warm-Season Turfgrasses”, Crop Science, 42:833.
11 Environment Canada. (2006). Freshwater Website: Quick Facts. Available online at
12 City of Irvine, Community Development Department. (1991). Sustainable Landscaping Guideline Manual, 1991 Draft.
13 National Wildlife Federation. “Cut Your Lawn-In Half.” Available online at
14 Robbins, P., Birkenholtz, T. (2003).“Turfgrass Revolution: Measuring the Expansion of the American Lawn”, Land Use Policy 20:182.
15 Ibid.
16 Borman, F.H., Bamori, D., & Geballe, G.T. (2001). Redesigning the American lawn: A search for environmental harmony. (2nd ed.). Connecticut: Yale University Press.
17 Ibid.
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Lawns not only contribute to loss of habitat, but the pesticides used strictly limit the species that can grow on the applied space and surrounding areas where the pesticides spread.

The conversion of native grasslands to lawns has been a major reason why grassland birds are among the most threatened types of birds in North America.19

IV. Money, Time and Safety

North Americans spend a combined 40 billion dollars annually on their lawns-more than the entire continent gave in foreign aid in 2005.2021

The average homeowner spends approximately $220 annually on their lawn.22

The average homeowner spends more per acre on their lawn than it costs per acre to grow corn, rice, or sugarcane. 23

Over 5 billion dollars is spent annually on fossil fuel-derived fertilizers for North American lawns.24

The average homeowner works over 150 hours annually on their lawn.25

Each year, approximately 75,000 Americans are seriously injured in lawn mower accidents and 10,000 of those accidents involve children. 26

More than 30% these injuries result in an amputation of some sort, meaning more than 22,000 limbs and digits are lost to lawn care each year solely considering mowing accidents. 27

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18 Smith, R.M., Thompson, K., Hodgson, J.G., Warren, P.H., Gaston, K.J. (2006). “Urban Domestic Gardens (IX): Composition and Richness of the Vascular Plant Flora, and Implications for Native Biodiversity.” Biological Conservation 129, 312-322.
19 Sauer, J.R., J.E. Hines, I. Thomas, J. Fallon, and G. Gough. (2000). “The North American breeding bird survey, results and analysis 1966 – 1999. Version 98.1, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Laurel, MD.” Available online at
20 Morris, K. (2005), as cited in Steinberg, T’s (2006) American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn.
21 Shah, A. (2006). The US and Foreign Aid Assistance.
22 National Gardening Association. (2000). National Gardening Survey. National Gardening Association, Burlington (VM).
23 Ibid.
24 Bormann, F.H., Balmori, D., Geballe, G.T. (2001). (1993). Redesigning the American Lawn: A search for environmental harmony (First Edition) Connecticut: Yale University Press.
25 Wood, D. (2006). “Green Green Grass”, En Route, June, 2006.
26 University of Michigan Health System, “U-M experts warn about the dangers of lawn mowers, especially with kids” (June 2, 2003). Available online at
27 Costilla, V., Bishal, D.M. (2006) “Lawnmower Injuries in the United States: 1996 to 2004”, Annals of Emergency Medicine, 47(6).
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According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2004, you are more likely to be fatally injured on the job mowing lawns than as a police officer.28

V. Consumption, Emissions and Pollution [See Table 1]

Each year, over 800 million gallons of gasoline are consumed by lawn mowers in the United States, which can produce the equivalent of 10 billion kWh.29

Lawnmowers are responsible for approximately 5% of the US’s air pollution, and an even higher percent of the air pollution in metropolitan areas. 30

“A conventional lawn mower pollutes as much in an hour as 40 late model cars (or as much air pollution as driving a car for 100 miles).”31

Over 17 million gallons of fuel, mostly gasoline, are spilled in North America every summer while lawn equipment is being refueled, which can lead to contamination of groundwater.32 (This is more than all the oil spilled by the Exxon Valdez, in the Gulf of Alaska.)

Gas lawn mowers emit 10 to 12 times more hydrocarbons than a typical automobile per hour of operation. Weed-eaters emit 21 times more and leaf blowers emit 34 times more.

“One hour of lawn mowing will produce approximately 2 kg of carbon dioxide, 1.8 kg of carbon monoxide, 178 g of VOCs, 6 g particulate matter and 1.8 g of nitrogen oxides.”34

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28 U.S. Department of Labor. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (Sept. 9, 2004). “Fatal Occupational Injuries.” Available online at
29 US Environmental Protection Agency. “Lawn and Garden(Small Engine) Equipment.” Available online at and People-Powered Machines. “Gas Mower Facts.” Available online at
30 Ibid.
31 Ibid.
32 U.S. EPA. (2003). A Source Book on Natural Landscaping for Public Officials. Available online at
33 National Wildlife Federation. Available online at
34 City of Louisville, Kentucky. (2006). Lawn Care for Cleaner Air Program. Available online at

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“Leaf blowers (voted as 'one of the worst inventions ever' in 2002) emit roughly 26 times the carbon monoxide and 49 times the particulate matter per hour than a new light-duty vehicle.”35

Seven gallons of gasoline must be used just to manufacture enough fertilizer to cover one average-sized family yard.36

The breakdown of nitrogen fertilizers releases nitrous oxide -a greenhouse gas and contributor to acid rain, the ozone hole, and smog.37

Yard waste accounts for approximately 18% of municipal waste.38

"The World Health Organization and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) both recommend that people limit their total exposure to noises as loud as a lawn mower to 45 minutes per day for the quieter gas mowers, 15 minutes for the average mowers, and five minutes for the loudest ones."39

VI. American Green

In the US, April is National Lawn Care Month-“It’s the perfect time to honor the environment both through Earth Day and National Lawn Care Month.”-Representative from Professional Lawn Care Association of America.

Amount of turf-25 to 40 million acres-size of Kentucky to Florida, twice the acreage of planted cotton in the US.

Between 1994 and 2004 estimated average of 75,884 Americans/year were injured with lawn mowers, roughly the amount injured by firearms.

Using a gas-powered leaf blower for a half hour emits as many hydrocarbons as driving a car 7700 miles at 30mph.

In the process of refueling their lawn equipment, Americans spill about 17 million gallons of gasoline every summer~ 50% more than marred the Alaskan coast during the notorious Exxon Valdez disaster.

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35 Glassman, S., Vanitzian, D. (2002). “Fed Up With Noisy Leaf Blowers”, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 17, 2002 and California Environmental Protection Agency. (2000). Report -Exhaust Emissions: Report to the California Legislature, 40, 50.
36 Perry, L. (2006). Fuel-Efficient Lawns and Landscapes. Available online at
37 Environment Canada. (2006). Nitrogen Oxides -NOx. Available online at
38 Perry, L. (2006). Fuel-Efficient Lawns and Landscapes. Available online at
39 The Noise Pollution Clearing House. (2004). The Quiet Zone, Summer, 2004.
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In Tampa, FL, a single golf course uses 178,800 gallons of water per day ~ more than the daily water needs for over 2200 Americans.

Lawns are founded on two resources the US is running short on-oil and water. Keeping a lawn green takes an average of 1-2 inches/week, easily over 10,000 gallons each summer for a typical 1000ft2 lawn. Natural gas is used to produce fertilizer, petroleum powers our mowers, oil is used in leaf blowers, weed whackers, and edgers, not to mention the gas used in landscape crews pick ups.

“You plant Arnold Schwarzenegger and five years from now you have Danny DeVito. Turfgrass is not native to North America and this fact combined with the continent’s highly diverse climatic conditions, makes the perfect lawn an elusive goal.”

2,4-D most extensively used herbicide in the history of the world.

A man weighing 180 pounds burns nearly 500 calories/hr pushing a nonmotorized reel mower.

Noise pollution-freeway traffic at a distance of 50ft = 68-76 decibels leaf blowers = 98-106 decibels. Every increase in 10 decibels equals a doubling in loudness, and anything over 85 decibels is considered harmful to hearing.

Leaf blowers-26 times the amount of CO/hr as new vehicle and 49 times more particulate matter-“among dirtiest engines on the face of the earth”-California Air Resources Board A morning mowing ban was part of Texas SIP for Houston area, but was revised and removed before implementation. In LA, leaf blowers have been banned for over a decade and continue to be illegal although cops generally turn their head.

The Southwest, once highly recommended to the allergic, Bermuda-grass lawns have been steadily increasing pollen counts. According to Dr. Slavin, a St. Louis allergist, “Now when a patient says that maybe he should move to Tucson, I pull out my physician’s directory and show them the 28 allergists in Tucson—all, presumably making a good living.”

Change in Tide Could Be on the Horizon

Severe droughts and diminishing water supplies have caused several localities to put bans on lawn watering, planting, etc. In Las Vegas, new homes are limited to 50% turf in their front yards, and the Southern Nevada Water Authority now offers rebates to homeowners who rip their lawns. In Aurora, Colorado, sprinklers were banned in 2002, along with the planting of any new lawns the following year.

Several cities across the Midwest have recently restricted the fertilizer and pesticide use on lawns

VII. TruGreen ChemLawn - A true horror story

“TruGreen ChemLawn is the largest lawn care provider in the United States serving more than 3.4 million households and annually generating more than $1.3 billion in income. Think of it! Just ONE company is making $1.3 Billion a year "caring" for "lawns"...

TruGreen ChemLawn contributes to the yearly application of more than 70 million pounds of pesticides on some of America’s 30 million acres of lawns. The amount of pesticides applied is significant; the rate of pesticides used on lawns is on average ten times more per acre than what is used on agricultural land.

TruGreen ChemLawn’s standard customer receipt lists 32 pesticides available for use through its residential lawn care program. An analysis of these pesticides by Toxics Action Center based on information from the pesticide manufacturer’s Material Safety

Data Sheets reveal:

17 of 32 (53%) of TruGreen ChemLawn’s pesticide products include ingredients that are possible carcinogens, as defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC).

All 32 of TruGreen ChemLawn’s pesticide products include ingredients that pose threats to the environment including water supplies, aquatic organisms, and non-targeted insects.

9 of 32 (28%) of TruGreen ChemLawn’s pesticide products include ingredients that are known or suspected reproductive toxins (7/32 known, 22%).

11 of 32 (34%) of TruGreen ChemLawn’s pesticide products include ingredients that are known or suspected endocrine disruptors (4/32 known, 12.5%).

13 of 32 (41%) of TruGreen ChemLawn’s pesticide products include ingredients that are banned or restricted in other countries.

Despite these dangers, TruGreen ChemLawn continues to grow and recruit new residential and commercial customers.” 40

VIII. Suggestions : 41

I. To the very least, reduce lawn size : Leave as much land as possible in its natural state. Or, much better, transform all that wasted land into a productive Organic & Sustainable food-producing Garden!

II. Choose native and drought tolerant species : Native species require little if any watering, fertilizer, and maintenance since they are adapted to the climate and soil. 42

Planting native species protects natural biodiversity and ecosystems while also attracting wildlife. 43

III. Watering : Water your lawn in the evening or early morning to minimize evaporation. Water slowly and at least one inch at each watering. Collect rainwater for landscaping needs. Water on sloped areas with care

IV. Mowing : Leave clippings on the lawn to provide nutrients equivalent to one application of fertilizer.

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40 Refuse to Use ChemLawn. (2005). “Be Truly Green.”
41 Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture. “Water Use and Conservation Facts.” Available online
42 Go for Green. (2006). Fact Sheet #6: Gardening with Native Plants. Available online at
43 Ibid.
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“Clippings do not cause thatch. Mulching mowers are also available which help the clippings hide in the grass. If you mow the lawn before it gets too tall, the clippings left on the lawn will quickly disappear from view. Of course this technique also saves hauling yard waste to the landfill -some states have banned yard waste from landfills.”44

Use Alternative Mowers : “Push mowers (reel mowers) used to be heavy, clunky contraptions which required great effort in cutting the lawn. A new generation of reel mowers has been designed, however, which operate much more effectively with a fraction of the effort. The added benefits include a good light exercise and pollution-free lawn care.”

The Bully Push Mower : “This 15" Easy Push Mower has a five-blade reel for a perfect cut, hardened steel blades, ball bearing wheels, and easy spin gearing. At 18 lbs., it's much lighter weight than other reel mowers on the market.”45 Price? $99.95

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44 Earth Easy. (2007). “Natural Lawn Care.” Available online at
http://www.eartheasy.com/grow_lawn_care.htm
45 Ibid.
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But more than anything else, the self-evident conclusion to all this should be quite self-evident: Get rid of that lawn, and replace it by Edible Landscaping and a food-producing Organic and Sustainable Garden!

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Table 1 - Fuel Consumption from Lawn and Garden Equipment, 2005 Equipment Classification Gasoline Diesel Total fuel consumption (in million gallons)

Mowing Equipment
Front mowers Commercial 19.24 90.77 110.01
Lawn & garden tractors Commercial 214.86 18.74 233.59
Lawn & garden tractors Residential 523.91 0 523.91
Lawn mowers Commercial 144.52 0 144.52
Lawn mowers Residential 194.27 0 194.27
Rear engine riding mowers Commercial 15.74 0 15.74
Rear engine riding mowers Residential 38.69 0 38.69
Total 1,151.22 109.5 1,260.72

Commercial turf equipment
Commercial 686.16 14.56 700.73
Rotary tillers over 6 HP Commercial 80.73 0 80.73
Rotary tillers under 6 HP Residential 18 0 18
Total 784.89 14.56 799.46

Wood Cutting Equipment
Chain saws over 6 HP Commercial 80.52 0 80.52
Chain saws under 6 HP Residential 19.5 0 19.5
Chippers/stump grinders Commercial 37.44 123.52 160.96
Shredders over 6 HP Commercial 8.55 0 8.55
Total 146.02 123.52 269.54

Blowers and Vacuums
Leafblowers/vacuums Commercial 200.68 0.01 200.69
Leafblowers/vacuums Residential 19.49 0 19.49
Snowblowers Commercial 30.08 1.61 31.69
Snowblowers Residential 15.92 0 15.92
Total 266.17 1.62 267.79

Trimming Equipment
Trimmers/edgers/brush cutter Commercial 64.1 0 64.1
Trimmers/edgers/brush cutter Residential 28.11 0 28.11
Other lawn & garden equipmentb Commercial 22.39 0.34 22.73
Other lawn & garden equipmentb Residential 18.76 0 18.76
Total 133.36 0.34 133.71
Total All Equipment 2,481.66 249.56 2,731.22

Source:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, NONROAD2005 Model, www.epa.gov/otaq/nonrdmdl.htm .
a Includes equipment such as aerators, dethatchers, sod cutters, hydro-seeders, turf utility vehicles, golf course greens mowers, and sand trap groomers.
b Includes equipment not otherwise classified such as augers, sickle-bar mowers, and wood splitters. Available online at http://www-cta.ornl.gov/data/tedb26/Spreadsheets/Table2_10.xls

* Note: There are slight variations in EPA estimants and National Wildlife Federation estimants of annual fuel consumption most likely due to differences in data year collection and classification of lawn care equipment.


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