tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7377497904882186501.post5931252405874443425..comments2024-03-22T11:58:02.835-07:00Comments on Garden Earth - Beyond sustainability: Beware of the N-bombGunnar Rundgrenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11869055229248959119noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7377497904882186501.post-16301555938518007472019-07-06T09:13:23.655-07:002019-07-06T09:13:23.655-07:00It wont be easy Joe, agreed. As you correctly poin...It wont be easy Joe, agreed. As you correctly points out, it would both lead to and require substantial changes in the agro-ecosystem, well to the whole metabolism of society. But people have also abandonned a lot of good practices just because it is easier, simpler and cheaper with synthetic N. Take pasturing for instance, it is abandonned as practice just because it can't compete with grain fed CAFO production. Chicken consumption is another result of synthetic N. The abandonment of crop rotations is also a result of N fertilizers and pesticides. I think it is more or less on par with fossil fuels - humans can survive without them, but it will be another society, another metabolism. Gunnar Rundgrenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11869055229248959119noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7377497904882186501.post-61068276462415219372019-07-05T12:38:35.883-07:002019-07-05T12:38:35.883-07:00I think you are too confident that we could move t...I think you are too confident that we could move to organic agriculture and still feed the world's population. Right now, 37% of the total calories consumed by people come from wheat and rice. Those crops are mostly grown continuously on land that is rarely fallowed or fertilized with organic inputs. A great deal of work would have to be done to change to organic inputs and get the same number of crops per year as with synthetic fertilizer. If it were easy, the Green Revolution would never have been needed. <br /><br />In theory, if all crop wastes, food wastes and wastes from human and other animals that eat agricultural products were returned to the land from whence the food came, the nutrient cycle would be complete. The only additional inputs needed would be those to make up for metabolic energy radiated away, which would be much easier to do. But much about industrial civilization would need to be completely reorganized to cycle "waste" nutrients effectively. Water borne sewage systems would need to be completely replaced with vacuum or other systems that could capture human feces and urine for use as fertilizer on farm fields. CAFO wastes would also need to be recycled, something that should be much easier to do, but is rarely even attempted.<br /><br />And now, in areas where small farmers feed themselves and cycle nutrients effectively, population pressures are resulting in farms too small to engage in the fallowing and cover crops needed to provide the last measure of nutrition for their fields. Synthetic fertilizer is making more and more inroads into subsistence farming, the last place it should ever be used. <br />Joe Clarksonnoreply@blogger.com