The dioxin crisis, and Bio-accumulation

This dioxin crisis amazes me! Our ancestors knew and followed a simple rule in animal husbandry, and hunting: "don't eat animals who eat other animals"! This is why we shouldn't eat wolves, and vultures, and such. We should always only eat herbivores. Why? Because of something called "bioaccumulation"!

Bioaccumulation is simple to understand by just knowing one fact. When an animal (or human) is exposed to a toxin, especialy a nasty one like a "persistent organic pollutant" also known as POP, a list that encompasses a few extremely toxic chemicals such as DDT and dioxin, the animal will, if unable to detoxifiy it, store this chemical in certain tissues mainly the liver, brain and fat tissue.

Now imagine a small fishy swimming in the sea near a contaminated river, its fat tissue is loaded with toxins. Along comes a bigger fish, and WHAM!... swallows it!
This bigger fish, will eat a few of such small fish a day, even if not living in a contaminated area, this fish receives so many toxins, its body will save itself by storing in it in its tissues, mainly fat.

So this big fish swims along, in clean waters... ladaladalada... until Wham!... it is caught by a big fishing boat, along with many others. These fish are perhaps fillet'ed and the leftovers, such as bones, liver, brain (mostly fat) is put aside. Take thousand or more of these fish leftovers, of which the industry makes... nothing less than... fish meal! Yes, fish meal... now possibly a concentrated slurry of contaminated fish... not only of POP's, no, add to that heavy metals like mercury and lead, and you have a genuine toxin party!!

So what is this fish meal used for you ask? Well... nothing less than... you guessed it... ANIMAL FEED! That's right, a major constituent of animal feed, and a source of cheap animal protein is fish meal! We're talking animal feed for chickens, pigs, sheep, cows,... and in the end... even for farmed fish!!

So now, here's a pig, a few weeks old, savouring his freshly prepared pig feed, scarfing it down with delight. Take this pig now 4 to 6 months later having eaten pounds and pounds of this stuff in his lifetime! All the accumulated toxins in his organs and fats, that began with the tiny little fish in the ocean. The pig is ready to be slaughtered, and so it is. Turned into a nice juicy porkchop and bacon that WE eat numerous times within a month, and countless times within our lifetimes! What was once a spec of toxins, have now acculated into a gigantic dose of toxins stored in YOUR liver and fat, just so you wouldn't die from it on the spot. This is called bio-accumulation folks! And it happens everywhere and with any class of toxin... pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, POP's...etc.

Fish farms, Laying chickens, meat chickens, grazing cows (with herbicides and pesticides), grain-fed cows, pigs, all of these when farmed conventionaly, are at risk of this process, especialy when fed animal or animal-by products, such as fish meal, bone meal, feather meal, blood meal, etc...

Not only do toxins become a huge problem, but also diseases, from viruses, prions, virions, that get recycled into the same species feed supply causing mad cows disease, pig flu, bird flu, and so on.

It amazes me that people are still scratching there heads, as to why we have so many emerging diseases, cancers, and obesity! I thoroughly believe that fat accumulation is a body protection mechanism against an overwhelming amount of toxins. It is not a surprise that the bad fat, which is accumulated around the belly, happens to be close to the liver, which is the organ that is in charge of detoxifying the body.

If any of this shows anything it is... be safe, go organic!

The seed conspiracy

As if organic farming isn't difficult enough, it seems like as in all natural endeavours that don't envolve succumbing to consumerism, major challenges and conspiracies await.

I am not sure that many people are aware but we live in a time where seeds of fruits and vegetables are in danger of extinction. In the race towards making the bigger buck, companies have invented the hybrid seed. I'm not even talking about geneticaly modified seeds.

Hybrid seeds are engineered, albeit not geneticaly, in such a way that the seeds cannot be harvested for the next crop. This means that if you buy corn, as an example, once your corn cobs are ripe and mature to be harvested, you can use the corn for food but cannot save a small amount to re-seed the next growing season. Instead, you need to contact the seed company again and buy a new batch of seeds each year.

Why is this a crime?? For one, it is completely unatural! All plants have always had seeds that could be re-used subsequently (open-pollinated seeds), it is a part of nature and allows the plant to adapt to its environment with every subsequent generation. Only the seeds from the best plants with the desired characteristics are kept in every generation, thus allowing for gradual improvement of varieties, as well as development of new varieties, which are termed as heirloom seeds.

Hybrid seeds on the other hand always remain the same. They are only improved, if so, by the manufacturer, and never adapt to the environment of the farmer. Thus, if new pests emerge, the farmer also becomes dependent on new emerging chemicals that must be used in order for the crop to survive.

Another reason why hybrid seeds are a crime, is because it creates dependency! Farmers need to spend money to get their seeds, which they never had to before. Farmers rely on more chemicals. And in the end the diversity of seeds is lost. While in the past every farmer potentialy had a different type of tomato variety. Now there is only a handful of Comercial varieties.

Lack of diversity is a huge problem in the event of natural disasters or environmental change, like climate change. The more diversity in our food supply the more chance we have of one or more of those varieties to survive or adapt to a natural disaster or environmental change.

I have discoverd this Hybrid conspiracy problem first-hand when looking to find open pollinated seeds for my farm and the farmers I work with. The main agricultural stores sell huge beautiful cans of all sorts of seeds in their fridges. When I asked the guy in charge which ones where non-hybrid, he told me that none of them!
I looked at him in surprise: "none of these are open-pollinated seeds??" He said; " nope". I said do you sell any open pollinated seeds? Then he pointed to a wooden stand mostly empty, with small paper seed packets standing in the aisle, with perhaps two different varieties, and not even in the fridge. Those were the non-hybrid seeds!

I was standing there stunned not knowing what to say or think, say or do. I though about the implications of this. I work with poor organic farmers in the cordilleras of Panama. The only thing keeping them from producing expensive crops like tomatoes and peppers is lack of seeds. And if they do find their way down to town to Melo, the most comon seed provider in the country all they come across is hybrid seeds.

I take a can of seeds out of the fridge and carefully inspect it. One whole side is covered in fine print, giving all sorts of restrictions of how these seeds may or may not be used, since they are proprietary. I gasp at the horror. I no longer see beautiful cans full of seeds, I now see something as gruesome as mutilated animal heads all lined up neatly in that fridge. That is what it has come to ladies and gentlemen! Freedom is being striped away from us from all sides. Even with something as important as our right to grow our own food.

The Tierra Preta Project part 5- enjoy

Here are some nice before and after pictures of our vegetable beds that we started a few months ago. They are now growing young lettuce.

Adventures with Bokashi

Recently I discovered that while I was waiting for my compost heaps to be ready, local organic farmers always had a surplus of organic fertilizer. So much so, that they even sold it in bags.

I then discovered that what they were making was bokashi. Honestly I felt quite embarrassed for never having heard of it before. But once I put my pride aside and began to research it I realized why this was such a common fertilizer technique.

Bokashi is a Japanese term that means, fermented organic matter. In essence it is similar to compost with some major differences that sets it apart.

Firstly bokashi is made with very fine starter material such as bran (rice or any other) coffee hulls (the by product after removing the bean), chicken and/or horse manure. This material is very fine, and thus decomposes or ferments quickly.

To this certain mineral additives may be added such as wood ash, bone meal and or rock phosphate, and/or ground limestone.

The most important ingredient however is good soil. Bokashi generally uses a large percentage of soil, typically 25% of the total mass. The best type of soil to use is dark forest soil. This acts as an inocculant of good microbes that aid in the fermentation product.

The ingredients are mixed thoroughly and moistened. The moisture content is very important. when the mixture is squeezed in the hand it should clump together lightly but not drip. If it soggy, heavy, or dripping it is too wet. If it doesn't clump at all it is too dry.

the mixture is kept dry but well aerated. So it must be under a roof or lightly cover with plastic. It can be kept on a bare floor or concrete for easy turning. The temperature of the bokashi will raise rapidly, and so it must be turned and aerated at least twice a day for the first week. Also the bokashi pile should not be higher that 50cm.

In the first week the bokashi heats up tremendously, this is ok as long as it doesn't get too hot. It should not get as hot as the compost pile. So 40 degrees Celsius max.

The life of the bokashi is such:

The first day it heats up tremendously
within the first week it stays hot and begins to smell of fermentation (a very distinct odour)
Next it begins to cool but maintains the odour.
Once the pile begins to cool, it is dried, until the odour disappears.

What you are left with is a rich, lush compost like material full of beneficial organisms ready to aid in the assimilation of nutrients from the soil for the plants.

Off I go to Malambo today! Looking forward to seeing how I can use my knowledge to help the orphanage create an integrated agricultural system to feed its children!

Our pasture rotation project with forage trees for sheep

Well we have just finished our pasture rotation project with forage trees. The project consists of turning an approximately 1ha land that was once bush, then damaged pasture land into a sustainable pasturing system that can withstand more than 50 sheep without additional feed for and indefinite period of time with little maintenance.

We subdivided an approx 1ha plot of land into 21 approx. 650m2 enclosed paddocks. I realize we spent a lot on good quality fencing, but realy and truly this fencing should last for many years with proper care.

The paddocks are arranged in two sections of strips which are parallel to each other. In between the sections is an access road which also serves as a paddock in itself.

The paddocks where planted with improved tropical pastures. We couldn´t afford to buy seeds, so we actually propagated cut grasses from neighbouring farms. With permission of course.

We lined the fences with live fencing of Balo (Glyricidia sepium). Balo is a legume, which not only aids in nitrogen fixation but is a very nutritious supplement to the diet of most pasturing animals.

Under the Balo we planted white mulberry (Morus alba) shoots, which are extremely easy to propagate and don't mind the shade once the Balo grows. The white mulberry is nutritious and fast growing which doesn't mind grazing.

Next outside of the fence, as a funcional ornamental we planted hibiscus shrubs (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis). We plan to feed the animals the cuttings. Sheep and goats are crazy about hibiscus!

Next inside the pastures we planted some Guachapalí trees (Samanea saman) . Guachapalí is a slow growing tree, but grows huge and gives a nice shade wich doesn't seem to discourage the growth of grasses. It maintains moisture in the earth and provides substantial biodiversity in its canopy. The leaves and fruits are edible.

We also planted lots of Moringa (Moringa oleifera) trees. These can be grazed or cut. We kept some for cutting and shade and some for grazing. The Moringa tree is truly miraculous! It is highly nutritious full of Calcium vitamin A and protein. It also acts as a soil improver since it is a legume and is extremely fast growing. The trees we planted about six months ago are already more than 8 feet tall! The great thing about Moringa is that all parts of the tree are edible, including the beans that it produces, and it remains green even in the worst part of the dry season! And best of all it is very tolerant of grazing. The only thing I have noticed, is that sheep need to get used to it. They touch it more in the dry season when they have little of other greens.

We are still expanding on our forage trees planted in the pastures. Soon we will be planting Leucaena which is not very easy to come by for some reason. Leucaena is another legume that can withstand foraging. We plan to plant it in rows among the grass.

Guacimo is another native tree that is nutrious and loved by sheep. We have it growing wild and is apparently also easy to propagate. We are planing to introduce it along the fence, perpendicular to the Balo.

All these forage plants can be accomodated in the paddocks easily with some imagination. We have already mentioned a great variety and yet there are still twice as much out there which grow either native in this area or can be found relatively easily. Variety is the spice of life they say, and in nutrition I do believe it is essential!

For the summer we have an irrigated protein bank next to the pastures of about 650m2in which we grow Guandú (pigeon pea), black eyed peas (cow pea), amaranth. Guarúmo and Acacia mangium we have all over the farm which is cut and given to the sheep.

Now if could irrigate the pastures, then we would be set, however, the purpose of these investigations is to make it accesible to most farmers, plus we don't have electricity nor city water.

The maintenance of the system is such that, whenever the sheep leave a paddock, we remove manualy all weeds, and reseed any bare patches if necesary. This work actualy becomes less and less with time, because the grass does not get damaged in the short period of time that the sheep are there and has ample time to recover. The weeds soon have little space to seed since the ground is densely planted with grass.

We also fertilize with Super 4 broth every two weeks during the rainy season. Super 4 broth is a liquid fertilizer whith an array of micronutrients, that we make at the farm. It is very easy to make. More on that at a later post.

Our system should work for 50 sheep or more (I will let you know how it goes when I get there). At the moment we have 20, and we rotate them about every 7 days, or when the grass has all been eaten. This gives us almost 5 months between grazing for each pasture. This is actualy too much, idealy we graze every 2 months in the rainy season and every 3 months in the dry season. This means that we can double the amount of sheep in the area so they rotate about every 3 days. For this reason we actualy sometimes have to hurry them along and cut the remaining grass.

So 50 sheep within 1 ha is quite a good amount as compared to the information I have seen on 10 sheep per acre in other posts. This would be the equivalent to 25 sheep per hectare.

This system essentialy should provide all the necesary nutrients for the sheep to thrive. It also allows farmers to have a high density of sheep without the need to feed them artificialy. The system also includes ample amout of trees which provide shade, retain moisture, produces microclimates, increases biodiversity, enhances soil stability, improves soil with leguminous trees, controls erosion and provides space efficient "vertical grazing". All in all the most eficient animal management system I have found to date.

soil analysis results

Well, our soil analysis came in. Although the micro nutrients where not done. They said the machine broke! You got to love Panama!
Although there was no big surprise in what the soil is lacking it was quite a surprise to see the difference between the amended soil and the virgin soil.

Here are the results:

Soil sample %sand/loam/clay pH P K Al OM%
Virgin 48-16-36 5.2 - 39 2.7 1.6
Amended 42-22-36 5.3 10 160 1 2.89

To no big surprise, we have little or no phosphorus in the soil, but are doing well with potassium. That is why our peppers and tomatoes suffer, while our bananas our growing spectacularly! Our organic matter has increased significantly and the aluminum has decrease significantly. Those are the most important!

So I have since begun to amend with bone-meal. Bone meal is quite inexpensive and easy to find. There is some limited availability of phosphorus rock in this country but it is quite expensive.

I am also working hard to bring the pH up a little by adding limestone and the charcoal which is mixed with ash also helps.

I have also since, realized that some plants like corn and tomatoes actually prefer raw manure than compost. So I have tried that with good results.

The new plots of land prepared for planting now get:
Lots of charcoal, limestone, bone meal and compost and/or raw manure. I never use raw manure on plants that are low to the ground like lettuce and other greens. And our manure is recovered from rotating pasture.

I will post pictures soon of our new veggie gardens.