Post by Carjack on Jul 9, 2013 4:07:41 GMT
In this thread you will learn:
1. Every way to grow food and medicinal plants without any pesticides, fertilizer or fancy irrigation systems.
2. Ways to economically detach from the larger society.
3. Information that you will need to know to qualify as being a real person.
This is mostly copied and reordered from a thread I made on another forum. Feel free to copy (and plagiarize) from it for other forums.
Do-Nothing Agriculture
I've been spending a lot of time researching alternative ways to grow food and a friend of mine on Skype turned me on to a Japanese microbiologist, Masanobu Fukuoka (2 February 1913 – 16 August 2008).
Fukuoka figured out through the study of plants in nature that most of modern agriculture is just a waste of labor and resources, so on his own farm he developed equally effective methods based on nature.
As an example, he planted seeds at a time when they would have naturally fallen off their wild counterparts instead of right at the start of the season, and would lay a ground cover mulch instead of obsessively weeding and tilling (both of which destroy soil nutrients and cause erosion).
Quoted from his book, The One Straw Revolution:
Books and videos on Fukuoka's methods:
ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/ID/technical/one_straw_revolution.pdf
www.rivendellvillage.org/Natural-Way-Of-Farming-Masanobu-Fukuoka-Green-Philosophy.pdf
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=masanobu+fukuoka
Permaculture Food Forests
Fukuoka's work is mostly related to growing grain and rice. Permaculture, however, is a design system that seeks to grow a whole salad complete with meat and dairy.
Permaculture as a system was officially invented by Australian eco-activist Bill Mollison, but most of his methods actually date back centuries.
The system has roots in the book Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture, by J. Russell Smith.
soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010175.tree%20crops.pdf
Smith posited that agriculture based communities eventually erode their soils away through tilling and suffer economic collapse and poverty. His solution was to utilize hilly terrain for fruit and nut tree farming, instead of tilling for surface crops. The trees' deep roots would hold the soil in place, and prevent the hills from being leveled by wind and rain.
Bill Mollison's permaculture adds companion planting.
Permaculture style farms can commonly be characterized by:
Symbiotic companion planting - Plants are sown to improve soil nutrients, ward off pests and fill in spaces that would get taken over by unwanted plants or soil erosion.
Layered gardens - Think growing grape vines up a large tree to make better use of space.
No toxic pesticides.
Devices to attract natural predators.
Using animals creatively - One method is to "till" soil by shifting a movable chicken pen (chicken tractor) all over your yard. The chickens eat up all the bugs and plants down to bare dirt, scratch up the soil and manure it so that it's perfect for planting.
Swale landscapes for work-free water distribution.
Advantages of permaculture:
1. Potentially high food density even though the density of any single crop species is low.
2. Durability due to forest-like construction, predators, poisonous plants and variety of heirloom seeds.
3. Low labor input.
4. Soil actually improves instead of becoming Saudi Arabia after 100 years.
5. Concealability - doesn't look like a farm.
6. Can be used to repair ruined farm and grazing lands, which I presume are cheap on the land market.
Sepp Holzer and Hugelkultur
Sepp Holzer is a famous Austrian farmer who sleeps on rocks and gets his best farming tips from forest elves in his dreams.
But what he's most famous for is his system of raised bed gardening, Hugelkultur (hill culture), which is better explained here:
www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
Links and free books
journeytoforever.org/ - Very valuable resource on a variety of permaculture, organic and traditional farming methods.
It also has an online copy of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price, which deals with mineral depletion in soils, vitamin depletion in processed food and research on diets to prevent or cure tooth decay.
soilandhealth.org/ - Online books on agriculture. Including Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture, a proto-permaculture book advocating the use of fruit and nut trees to farm hilly terrain.
nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/ - About using native plants and animals in your garden, since some permaculturists are deranged hippies who will plant invasive species that spread and take over everything, then pretend like that's beneficial somehow.
permaculture-and-sanity.com/
weblife.org/ - Some how-to articles.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxAUJ77UGXs - 6 core permaculture techniques
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9QsUWE-zvM - Sustainable Living through Permaculture Systems (Mostly a pitch but it shows some techniques and gives a good intro to earthen housing.)
www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/PDC_ALL.pdf - Introduction to Permaculture
www.permies.com/
diy.edibleplanet.org/
Stay tuned for a thread on how to build fancy houses cheaper than you can buy a ghetto house, and possibly some expansion on this thread.
1. Every way to grow food and medicinal plants without any pesticides, fertilizer or fancy irrigation systems.
2. Ways to economically detach from the larger society.
3. Information that you will need to know to qualify as being a real person.
This is mostly copied and reordered from a thread I made on another forum. Feel free to copy (and plagiarize) from it for other forums.
Do-Nothing Agriculture
I've been spending a lot of time researching alternative ways to grow food and a friend of mine on Skype turned me on to a Japanese microbiologist, Masanobu Fukuoka (2 February 1913 – 16 August 2008).
Fukuoka figured out through the study of plants in nature that most of modern agriculture is just a waste of labor and resources, so on his own farm he developed equally effective methods based on nature.
As an example, he planted seeds at a time when they would have naturally fallen off their wild counterparts instead of right at the start of the season, and would lay a ground cover mulch instead of obsessively weeding and tilling (both of which destroy soil nutrients and cause erosion).
Quoted from his book, The One Straw Revolution:
Look at these fields of rye and barley. This ripening grain will yield about 22 bushels (1,300 pounds) per quarter acre. I believe this matches the top yields in Ehime Prefecture. If this equals the best yield in Ehime Prefecture, it could easily equal the top harvest in the whole country since this is one of the prime agricultural areas in Japan...and yet these fields have not been ploughed for twenty-five years.
To plant, I simply broadcast rye and barley seed on separate fields in the fall, while the rice is still standing. A few weeks later, I harvest the rice and spread the rice straw back over the fields. It is the same for the rice seeding. This winter grain will be cut around the 20th of May. About two weeks before the crop has fully matured, I broadcast rice seed over the rye and barley. After the winter, grain has been harvested and the grains threshed, I spread the rye and barley straw over the field.
I suppose that using the same method to plant rice and winter grain is unique to this kind of farming. However, there is an easier way. As we walk over to the next field, let me point out that the rice there was sown last fall at the same time as the w inter grain. The whole year's planting was finished in that field by New Year's Day.
You might also notice that white clover and weeds are growing in these fields. Clover seed was sown among the rice plants in early October, shortly before the rye and barley. I do not worry about sowing the weeds-they reseed themselves quite easily.
So the order of planting in this field is like this: in early October, clover is broadcast among the rice; winter grain then follows in the middle of the month.
In early November, the rice is harvested, and then the next year's rice seed is sown and straw laid across the field. The rye and barley you see in front of you were grown this way. In caring for a quarter-acre field, one or two people can do all the work of growing rice and winter grain in a matter of a few days. It seems unlikely that there could be a simpler way of raising grain.
This method completely contradicts modern agricultural techniques. It throws scientific knowledge and traditional farming craft right out the window. With this kind of farming, which uses no machines, no prepared fertilizer, and no chemicals; it is possible to attain a harvest equal to or greater than that of the average Japanese farm. The proof is ripening right before your eyes.
To plant, I simply broadcast rye and barley seed on separate fields in the fall, while the rice is still standing. A few weeks later, I harvest the rice and spread the rice straw back over the fields. It is the same for the rice seeding. This winter grain will be cut around the 20th of May. About two weeks before the crop has fully matured, I broadcast rice seed over the rye and barley. After the winter, grain has been harvested and the grains threshed, I spread the rye and barley straw over the field.
I suppose that using the same method to plant rice and winter grain is unique to this kind of farming. However, there is an easier way. As we walk over to the next field, let me point out that the rice there was sown last fall at the same time as the w inter grain. The whole year's planting was finished in that field by New Year's Day.
You might also notice that white clover and weeds are growing in these fields. Clover seed was sown among the rice plants in early October, shortly before the rye and barley. I do not worry about sowing the weeds-they reseed themselves quite easily.
So the order of planting in this field is like this: in early October, clover is broadcast among the rice; winter grain then follows in the middle of the month.
In early November, the rice is harvested, and then the next year's rice seed is sown and straw laid across the field. The rye and barley you see in front of you were grown this way. In caring for a quarter-acre field, one or two people can do all the work of growing rice and winter grain in a matter of a few days. It seems unlikely that there could be a simpler way of raising grain.
This method completely contradicts modern agricultural techniques. It throws scientific knowledge and traditional farming craft right out the window. With this kind of farming, which uses no machines, no prepared fertilizer, and no chemicals; it is possible to attain a harvest equal to or greater than that of the average Japanese farm. The proof is ripening right before your eyes.
Books and videos on Fukuoka's methods:
ftp-fc.sc.egov.usda.gov/ID/technical/one_straw_revolution.pdf
www.rivendellvillage.org/Natural-Way-Of-Farming-Masanobu-Fukuoka-Green-Philosophy.pdf
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=masanobu+fukuoka
Permaculture Food Forests
Fukuoka's work is mostly related to growing grain and rice. Permaculture, however, is a design system that seeks to grow a whole salad complete with meat and dairy.
Permaculture as a system was officially invented by Australian eco-activist Bill Mollison, but most of his methods actually date back centuries.
The system has roots in the book Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture, by J. Russell Smith.
soilandhealth.org/01aglibrary/010175.tree%20crops.pdf
Smith posited that agriculture based communities eventually erode their soils away through tilling and suffer economic collapse and poverty. His solution was to utilize hilly terrain for fruit and nut tree farming, instead of tilling for surface crops. The trees' deep roots would hold the soil in place, and prevent the hills from being leveled by wind and rain.
Bill Mollison's permaculture adds companion planting.
Permaculture style farms can commonly be characterized by:
Symbiotic companion planting - Plants are sown to improve soil nutrients, ward off pests and fill in spaces that would get taken over by unwanted plants or soil erosion.
Layered gardens - Think growing grape vines up a large tree to make better use of space.
No toxic pesticides.
Devices to attract natural predators.
Using animals creatively - One method is to "till" soil by shifting a movable chicken pen (chicken tractor) all over your yard. The chickens eat up all the bugs and plants down to bare dirt, scratch up the soil and manure it so that it's perfect for planting.
Swale landscapes for work-free water distribution.
Advantages of permaculture:
1. Potentially high food density even though the density of any single crop species is low.
2. Durability due to forest-like construction, predators, poisonous plants and variety of heirloom seeds.
3. Low labor input.
4. Soil actually improves instead of becoming Saudi Arabia after 100 years.
5. Concealability - doesn't look like a farm.
6. Can be used to repair ruined farm and grazing lands, which I presume are cheap on the land market.
Sepp Holzer and Hugelkultur
Sepp Holzer is a famous Austrian farmer who sleeps on rocks and gets his best farming tips from forest elves in his dreams.
But what he's most famous for is his system of raised bed gardening, Hugelkultur (hill culture), which is better explained here:
www.richsoil.com/hugelkultur/
Links and free books
journeytoforever.org/ - Very valuable resource on a variety of permaculture, organic and traditional farming methods.
It also has an online copy of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston A. Price, which deals with mineral depletion in soils, vitamin depletion in processed food and research on diets to prevent or cure tooth decay.
soilandhealth.org/ - Online books on agriculture. Including Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture, a proto-permaculture book advocating the use of fruit and nut trees to farm hilly terrain.
nativeplantwildlifegarden.com/ - About using native plants and animals in your garden, since some permaculturists are deranged hippies who will plant invasive species that spread and take over everything, then pretend like that's beneficial somehow.
permaculture-and-sanity.com/
weblife.org/ - Some how-to articles.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxAUJ77UGXs - 6 core permaculture techniques
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9QsUWE-zvM - Sustainable Living through Permaculture Systems (Mostly a pitch but it shows some techniques and gives a good intro to earthen housing.)
www.barkingfrogspermaculture.org/PDC_ALL.pdf - Introduction to Permaculture
www.permies.com/
diy.edibleplanet.org/
Stay tuned for a thread on how to build fancy houses cheaper than you can buy a ghetto house, and possibly some expansion on this thread.
