In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living:

“It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.”

MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696-1

From: Erin Rasmussen <erin@...>
Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market
To: carbon-negative@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 4:32 PM

 

Hi John,

 

I think that most folks in biochar would actually agree that adding nutrients to the char is a good idea, in fact there’s a yahoo group dedicated to this very topic: http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ biochar-soils/

You are all welcome to help us figure out the specifics.

 

Erin Rasmussen

erin@trmiles. com

 

From: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:carbon- negative@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Jim Miller
Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:45 PM
To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com
Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market

 

 

Folks, Adding plain charcoal to the soil is like watering your 20 acres of crops with a garden hose.  Sure, it will eventually get wet, but watering with a pivot system is a better solution the same as infusing nutrient into charcoal (Agrichar)  before it is mixed 12 inches into the soil.  Why is this message so hard to get across to the biochar community? Jim Miller In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living: “It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.” MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696- 1   --- On Tue, 8/18/09, Erin Rasmussen <erin@trmiles. com> wrote: From: Erin Rasmussen <erin@trmiles. com> Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 10:13 AM   Hi Jim and David,   That’s a good point.  There are a group of folks working with the Four Corners Nursery in Bellingham Washington that are now in an extended trial with regular dirt, and char from wood. I like that one in particular because it’s done by regular nursery men so with all of the handling that would be normal for folks working out in the fields. It’s not an inoculated char, as far as I know, just a test of the type of proportions of biomass based char that would be beneficial, but the results are interesting.  Here are the third year results: http://terrapreta. bioenergylists. org/node/ 1398   They are by no means the only ones working on this type of extended trial of biochar in a practical application, but Richard has done a nice job of making the pictures of his work publicly available.   Erin Rasmussen erin@trmiles. com   From: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:carbon- negative@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Jim Miller Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 7:02 AM To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Subject: Re: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market     David, With due respect and admiration for your persistence on the subject of biochar, I offer this criticism and suggestion: Raw charcoal, worked into crop land will have about 1/100th of the positive effect as charcoal which is first infused with nutrient (e.g., compost tea or black liquor from a cowflop lagoon).  I have yet to find on the Web, any really good scientific field experiments using raw dirt, plain charcoal and infused biochar (which should be named Agrichar).  If you find any, please let me know.  When we have good scientific evidence from carefully wrought data on the use of infused biochar, then we have something to sell to farmers.  Please read: http://algaloildies el.wetpaint. com/page/ DAIRY+PRODUCTION +OF+SYNGAS+ AND+BIOCHAR Jim Miller In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living: “It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.” MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696- 1   --- On Sun, 8/16/09, David Yarrow <dyarrow@nycap. rr.com> wrote: From: David Yarrow <dyarrow@nycap. rr.com> Subject: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Date: Sunday, August 16, 2009, 10:32 PM   pasted below are my notes for my presentation on the business panel at last week's biochar conference in boulder.  i assembled an assortment of ideas and rhetoric into these notes, then heavily editted these written words to squeeze them into the 6 minutes i was allocated for my opening remarks.  since my words yielded such a strong positive response, i thought it best to dress up my rough written notes and share them with a wider audience.   i also assembled six powerpoint slides to illustrate my talk, but i didn't synchronize the slides to my talk, and in my pre-occupation to edit my spoken words, i forgot to click the last three slides.  i uploaded my powerpoint file to the www.carbon-negative .us website for anyone who wants to view them all.  the final slide is "shaman's sled," a gift from lou gold, my biochar buddy in the amazon: www.carbon-negative .us/faqs/ LIFE.pps   ~david yarrow     Business Panel Discussion Bringing Biochar to Market presentation by David Yarrow www.carbon-negative .us — www.nutrient- dense.info — www.ancientforests. us North American Biochar Conference Aug. 9-12, 2009, Boulder, Colorado   When I was asked to speak on this Business panel, I thought someone made a mistake, since I’m not a businessman, nor have I ever been in business. Rather, I’m a healer, and my first concern is teaching how to use food for healing. Food is the best medicine, because food becomes your blood, which nourishes and cleanses all the rest of your body’s cells and tissues. Thus, my concern is growing high quality, nutrient dense food for people to heal themselves.   This panel’s question is: How do we market biochar? In particular, how do we sell biochar to farmers? How do we get farmers to buy biochar to put in their soils? Because farmers are the first and most important market for biochar.   Whether in business, science research, or a Ouija board, the first key is to ask the right question. We need a wider framework to ask our question properly—we need a whole system view. Our persistent human shortcoming is to focus on little issues, and ignore the broader, deeper context. For example, we study biological life while ignoring the magnetic bubble that encloses the entire planet and contains all life on Earth. Specifically, we need to get beyond 20th century thinking to solve our 21st century problems.   It’s About Food   I believe not much money can be made selling biochar to farmers, and probably never will. Selling biofuels is where the gold is. Maybe money can be made selling special biochar-based soil activation blends, but getting farmers to buy biochar is a steep uphill effort. Neither agriculture economics, nor current financial reality, encourage farmers to buy a new soil amendment.   Yet, the climate crisis requires us to convince farmers to put biochar in soil— —to be leaders in carbon sequestration and soil stewardship. This undoubtedly requires them to buy biochar. so this panel’s question still begs for an answer.   First, it helps to remember this carbon-negative biochar strategy came from terra preta in Amazon rainforest. We’ve become so tangled in technology to make charcoal and energy, and the urgency to sequester carbon, we forgot why terra preta was created.   Terra preta’s ancient indigenous inventors didn’t make biochar to sell to anybody, to produce biofuels, to sequester carbon, to cut fertilizer use, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet they created thousands of hectares of some of Earth’s most fertile, productive soils.   They did this for a simple, universal reason: to grow food to feed their family and community. Every day, everyone must eat. Feeding people is the first service a community must deliver— The first stone in any community’s economic  foundation— The first activity to prime the financial pump. Food is the fundamental driver of any human economy.   Economics 101   Farmers grow food for a market. They buy seed and plant crops because they have a market to sell food. Give them a market, and they will grow food to supply that demand.   Ultimately, it is consumers who buy food. It’s consumers who fire up food markets with demand, whether for fresh produce, wonder bread or whole grains. If consumers demand organic food, farmers will grow food without synthetic chemicals. If processors demand GMO foods, farmers will grow them. If the market says, “give us food grown with biochar,” farmers will buy biochar.   In the 80s, consumers demanded food grown without synthetic chemicals, and we created organic food production and certification to define and deliver that food quality. Now, we must go “beyond organic” to offer 21st century consumers another choice.   The emerging biochar businesses and its supporting movement must form a trade association to establish standards, protocols, trademarks, licensing, and marketplace identity for its products. These are complex, long and difficult tasks, but they begin at this conference.   Carbon-Negative Food   If we want farmers to buy biochar, we must create a label to identify food grown with biochar, and convince consumers to buy that food. My word to designate this food is “carbon-negative”— food whose production removes carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere, rather than today’s food which generates huge greenhouse gas emissions.   Carbon-Negative food is grown by methods and materials that suck CO2 from Earth’s atmosphere and store it in stable, safe physical forms, such as charred carbon in soil.   However, while carbon-negative is mostly about sequestered carbon, it’s not just adding biochar to soil. A legal definition and technical standards must include fossil fuel used to power farm machinery, and for food processing and transport to markets. Grains grown and harvested with fossil fuels are hardly carbon-negative. Lettuce grown in biochar-amended soil in California and shipped to Boston is hardly carbon-negative.   In the next year, the emerging biochar industry must develop a legal definition, technical standards, trademark licenses, and a product identity to clearly, carefully, precisely define carbon-negative foods, and launch a campaign to teach consumers biochar’s planet-healing, soil-restoring purposes. Then, by their choices for every day’s meals, consumers can choose the future they want by the food they buy and eat.   However, consumers can be picky, fickle and short-sighted. All by itself, “carbon-negative” isn’t likely to motivate consumers. Something more than sequestered carbon is needed to earn consistent consumer loyalty.   Nutrient-Dense Food   But terra preta soils in the ancient Amazon didn’t grow any ordinary food. Terra preta grew very high quality food—highly nutritious food— food that assured the community’s long-term health and wealth.   In the 80s, when we created organic certification, we prohibited certified growers from advertising their food had any special nutritional qualities. As much as we wanted to offer such a nutritional food, we knew we didn’t have production methods to reliably produce such food, the science to cheaply verify such food, or the inventory controls to authenticate such food in the marketplace. But now we have the methods, the science and the marketing to do this.   The next higher standard of food quality is already being developed and may be test marketed next year. Nutrient-Dense food has a higher nutritional content than food currently grown and marketed.  In fact, to be precise, Nutrient-Dense will have at least as many minerals, vitamins, enzymes, and anti-oxidants   as when the USDA began to measure and publish the composition of foods early in the 1900s. Nutrient-dense food not only has more minerals, vitamins, enzymes, anti-oxidants and all, It also tastes a lot better, stores longer, dehydrates without rotting.   Last  February, in Barre, Massachusetts, led by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Massachusetts, over 100 farmers sat through a 3-day training with Dr. Arden Andersen, a medical doctor and dairy farmer who has taught biological agriculture for 25 years in Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and Canada—but not much in America.   I sat through the three days, and wondered what these farmers thought about Arden’s ideas and methods. At the end, all the farmers stood up and gave Arden a very long standing ovation. They didn’t just appreciate his instructions to upgrade their soils, farming methods, crop quality, and herd health, they were enthusiastic and pumped up to go home and get started.   If over 100 farmers in New England are excited to grow and sell nutrient-dense food, then the next revolution in farming and food quality has begun. Since the February training, many more growers have signed up to be trained in nutrient-dense methods. The same community spirit that brought us the American Revolution, the same Yankee ingenuity that brought the Industrial Revolution to America, is now leading a Nutrition Revolution in the marketplace. Similar efforts are underway in the Midwest, California and the Northwest.   So, biochar industry doesn’t have to create the nutrient-dense food revolution. Farmers themselves are already leading this movement for a higher standard of food quality. Instead, this new industry can join and support a movement that is already well underway. Because biochar is a key and unique ingredient to create nutrient-dense soil.   Balanced, Full Spectrum Minerals   Biological agriculture is a more complex, exacting discipline than organic or chemical farming. Nutrient-dense begins by boosting and balancing the elements in soil. Not just three, or five minerals, or 25 trace elements, but all 90 elements nature needs to build biology. Not just enough minerals to get a crop out of the ground and off to market, but an abundance of elements to assure fully healthy plants. And these elements must be in proper proportions, in specific ranges of ratios— seven major minerals at parts per thousand, trace elements at parts per million, but others at parts per billion, and a few at parts per trillion.   Once all the physical elements are present, balanced and available, then the soil can be inoculated with the biological organisms— bacteria, fungi, mycorrhyzae, algae, actinomycetes, protozoa, and all the soil food web. Once the biology is in place, soil has the resources and intelligence to manage itself, such as maintain stable pH, fix nitrogen, accumulate phosphorus, recycle minerals, and spoonfeed plant roots. This is the paradigm shift to a sustainable 21st century agriculture— from a chemical view of soil, to a biological approach and energy insight.   Biochar is a key resource to grow nutrient-dense food. Biochar’s huge capacity to adsorp ions make it a critical ingredient to create nutrient-dense soil. Biochar’s complex internal micropores provide perfect residential housing for micro-organisms. Thus, nutrient-dense growers have a special motivation to buy biochar. Nutrient-dense producers will be among the first, best and biggest buyers of biochar.   Arden Andersen doesn’t teach nutrient-dense farmers to use biochar because they currently can’t buy biochar in large lots at reasonable prices. It’s useless to teach farmers to use a soil amendment they can’t get. The challenge to biochar industry is to make its case to nutrient-dense producers, to supply the vast volume of biochar needed for farmland applications, and work with growers to perfect the use of biochar in nutrient-dense production.   Consumers then get the added sizzle of nutrient-dense with their carbon-negative food. In my talks around the Northeast, I always end with a queston: “If we produce and market food labeled “carbon-negative” and “nutrient-dense” Will people buy this food?” The consistent response is an enthusiastic “YES!”   I urge everyone in this room to buy and consume nutrient-dense food. I recommend everyone here get involved with the emergence of this new, higher standard of food quality. I suggest every business here support this movement to transform our food system— and our society.   Community-Supportiv e   Now, let’s widen the view in our microscope for a larger perspective. How we design and develop this technology must consider not only its environmental and economic effects, but also its social impact. Because every technology either supports or erodes community. In the 20th century, we watched industrial technology disassemble and weaken communities. In the 21st century, the new paradigm of biology and ecology makes community our most important technology.         This invokes another New England tradition represented as the Town Meeting— the citizen-based, community-centered politics of the people and place. I saw this social consciousness in the organic farming movement 20 years ago— New England farms may be small, but they are rich in culture, tradition and community spirit. Today this shows up as an outburst of community-supported agriculture— many small, diversified farms sprouting around cities and towns supported by subscribers.   To modify the terminology, we need to develop biochar as a community-supportive technology. We must move away from large-scale, centralized industrial applications and facilities, and instead develop smaller scale systems—farm- scale, household-size, community-integrate d.   My favorite image for this new view is terra preta itself— the Soil Food Web that char-enriched soil can create— the community of micro-organisms in soil—the “microbial reef.” As we regenerate our soil, we can transform our own community.   In New England, we want farm-scale pyrolysis equipment—and small farm size, at that. We need a mobile pyrolyzer to tow to the forest or field, make biochar to leave on site, and haul biofuels to a central community or cooperative refinery. We want a biochar-burner to heat and power a greenhouse to grow food under cover year round in the impending era of extreme weather and unpredictable climate. We want to factories with jobs to make, sell and maintain one million biochar-making woodstoves to heat our homes and cook our food in our long winter—maybe even generate electric power.   My native American friends learned through hard experience that any new technology must be assessed by a strict criteria: Does this support community? Or does this weaken community? Does this bring us closer? Or further insulate and isolate us? Does this new method create and retain wealth? Or impoverish and disempower our common unity?   LIFE   Now let’s spin our microscope around and look through other end; let’s turn our microscope into a telescope.  Let’s not look at minutiae.  Let’s examine the big picture— the social and economic context for marketing this new soil amendment.   Every day every one must eat. After food, the next major service a community must provide is energy— at least fire to cook food, but also heat for cold weather in winter, and electric power.   Food and energy are the two keystones of any community economy anywhere on earth.  If we produce and distribute food and energy locally, we have the food, the energy and the money. We establish the capacity to create and retain wealth in our community. We put in place the two foundations of any human economy.   We can do more than market biochar, sequester carbon, grow nutrient-dense food, and produce renewable energy. We also have the tools to create economies that are solvent, stable and sound. We have the keys to regenerate our own community economies.   If we harness the ceaseless daily human appetite for food to technological transformation, social change and ecological restoration, it will happen.   If we do this right, this initiative will be self funding. People will happily buy carbon-negative, nutrient-dense food—even pay premium price for it. Farmers will make money, and happily buy biochar to add to their carbon-negative, nutrient-dense soils. We won’t need government subsidies, foundation grants or carbon credits, because this transformation will be driven by the market. But I see nothing wrong with federal icing and carbon credit candles on our biochar cake. But first the cake.   I call this carbon-negative, nutrient-dense strategy “eating our way to a sustainable future.”   Last, I want to mention that this gold silk shirt I am wearing is a gift from a man from India who took me to the airport to fly here Sunday morning. I wear it now to remind us that what we do with biochar in America will lead the way for those less fortunate in the third world.

From: Jim Miller <jimmiller5417@...>
Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market
To: carbon-negative@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 9:52 PM

 

Folks, Most likely "Black Liquor" from cow flop lagoon waste water has the 60,000 or so micro-organisms needed to inoculate the charcoal.  The waste water most likely has all of the nutrients and micro-nutrients need by the soil critters.  The charcoal can be ground to corn kernel or sawdust size grit, soaked a week or so in the nutrient, then worked into the top 12 inches of soil. The best way to tell is to run field tests with different kinds of nutrients at different concentrations in different soils.  I have some ag land available to me in Boston, KY, which I hope to use for our field tests.  And I also have a Dairy nearby.  My landlord will probably let me us his tractor.  All I need is a $2500 used rototiller for the three point hitch and PTO shaft.  Money, again the root of all weavels. Jim Miller In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living: “It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.” MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696- 1 --- On Tue, 8/18/09, Erin Rasmussen <erin@trmiles. com> wrote: From: Erin Rasmussen <erin@trmiles. com> Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 4:32 PM   Hi John,   I think that most folks in biochar would actually agree that adding nutrients to the char is a good idea, in fact there’s a yahoo group dedicated to this very topic: http://tech. groups.yahoo. com/group/ biochar-soils/ You are all welcome to help us figure out the specifics.   Erin Rasmussen erin@trmiles. com   From: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:carbon- negative@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Jim Miller Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 3:45 PM To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market     Folks, Adding plain charcoal to the soil is like watering your 20 acres of crops with a garden hose.  Sure, it will eventually get wet, but watering with a pivot system is a better solution the same as infusing nutrient into charcoal (Agrichar)  before it is mixed 12 inches into the soil.  Why is this message so hard to get across to the biochar community? Jim Miller In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living: “It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.” MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696- 1   --- On Tue, 8/18/09, Erin Rasmussen <erin@trmiles. com> wrote: From: Erin Rasmussen <erin@trmiles. com> Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 10:13 AM   Hi Jim and David,   That’s a good point.  There are a group of folks working with the Four Corners Nursery in Bellingham Washington that are now in an extended trial with regular dirt, and char from wood. I like that one in particular because it’s done by regular nursery men so with all of the handling that would be normal for folks working out in the fields. It’s not an inoculated char, as far as I know, just a test of the type of proportions of biomass based char that would be beneficial, but the results are interesting.  Here are the third year results: http://terrapreta. bioenergylists. org/node/ 1398   They are by no means the only ones working on this type of extended trial of biochar in a practical application, but Richard has done a nice job of making the pictures of his work publicly available.   Erin Rasmussen erin@trmiles. com   From: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com [mailto:carbon- negative@ yahoogroups. com] On Behalf Of Jim Miller Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 7:02 AM To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Subject: Re: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market     David, With due respect and admiration for your persistence on the subject of biochar, I offer this criticism and suggestion: Raw charcoal, worked into crop land will have about 1/100th of the positive effect as charcoal which is first infused with nutrient (e.g., compost tea or black liquor from a cowflop lagoon).  I have yet to find on the Web, any really good scientific field experiments using raw dirt, plain charcoal and infused biochar (which should be named Agrichar).  If you find any, please let me know.  When we have good scientific evidence from carefully wrought data on the use of infused biochar, then we have something to sell to farmers.  Please read: http://algaloildies el.wetpaint. com/page/ DAIRY+PRODUCTION +OF+SYNGAS+ AND+BIOCHAR Jim Miller In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living: “It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.” MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696- 1   --- On Sun, 8/16/09, David Yarrow <dyarrow@nycap. rr.com> wrote: From: David Yarrow <dyarrow@nycap. rr.com> Subject: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Date: Sunday, August 16, 2009, 10:32 PM   pasted below are my notes for my presentation on the business panel at last week's biochar conference in boulder.  i assembled an assortment of ideas and rhetoric into these notes, then heavily editted these written words to squeeze them into the 6 minutes i was allocated for my opening remarks.  since my words yielded such a strong positive response, i thought it best to dress up my rough written notes and share them with a wider audience.   i also assembled six powerpoint slides to illustrate my talk, but i didn't synchronize the slides to my talk, and in my pre-occupation to edit my spoken words, i forgot to click the last three slides.  i uploaded my powerpoint file to the www.carbon-negative .us website for anyone who wants to view them all.  the final slide is "shaman's sled," a gift from lou gold, my biochar buddy in the amazon: www.carbon-negative .us/faqs/ LIFE.pps   ~david yarrow     Business Panel Discussion Bringing Biochar to Market presentation by David Yarrow www.carbon-negative .us — www.nutrient- dense.info — www.ancientforests. us North American Biochar Conference Aug. 9-12, 2009, Boulder, Colorado   When I was asked to speak on this Business panel, I thought someone made a mistake, since I’m not a businessman, nor have I ever been in business. Rather, I’m a healer, and my first concern is teaching how to use food for healing. Food is the best medicine, because food becomes your blood, which nourishes and cleanses all the rest of your body’s cells and tissues. Thus, my concern is growing high quality, nutrient dense food for people to heal themselves.   This panel’s question is: How do we market biochar? In particular, how do we sell biochar to farmers? How do we get farmers to buy biochar to put in their soils? Because farmers are the first and most important market for biochar.   Whether in business, science research, or a Ouija board, the first key is to ask the right question. We need a wider framework to ask our question properly—we need a whole system view. Our persistent human shortcoming is to focus on little issues, and ignore the broader, deeper context. For example, we study biological life while ignoring the magnetic bubble that encloses the entire planet and contains all life on Earth. Specifically, we need to get beyond 20th century thinking to solve our 21st century problems.   It’s About Food   I believe not much money can be made selling biochar to farmers, and probably never will. Selling biofuels is where the gold is. Maybe money can be made selling special biochar-based soil activation blends, but getting farmers to buy biochar is a steep uphill effort. Neither agriculture economics, nor current financial reality, encourage farmers to buy a new soil amendment.   Yet, the climate crisis requires us to convince farmers to put biochar in soil— —to be leaders in carbon sequestration and soil stewardship. This undoubtedly requires them to buy biochar. so this panel’s question still begs for an answer.   First, it helps to remember this carbon-negative biochar strategy came from terra preta in Amazon rainforest. We’ve become so tangled in technology to make charcoal and energy, and the urgency to sequester carbon, we forgot why terra preta was created.   Terra preta’s ancient indigenous inventors didn’t make biochar to sell to anybody, to produce biofuels, to sequester carbon, to cut fertilizer use, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet they created thousands of hectares of some of Earth’s most fertile, productive soils.   They did this for a simple, universal reason: to grow food to feed their family and community. Every day, everyone must eat. Feeding people is the first service a community must deliver— The first stone in any community’s economic  foundation— The first activity to prime the financial pump. Food is the fundamental driver of any human economy.   Economics 101   Farmers grow food for a market. They buy seed and plant crops because they have a market to sell food. Give them a market, and they will grow food to supply that demand.   Ultimately, it is consumers who buy food. It’s consumers who fire up food markets with demand, whether for fresh produce, wonder bread or whole grains. If consumers demand organic food, farmers will grow food without synthetic chemicals. If processors demand GMO foods, farmers will grow them. If the market says, “give us food grown with biochar,” farmers will buy biochar.   In the 80s, consumers demanded food grown without synthetic chemicals, and we created organic food production and certification to define and deliver that food quality. Now, we must go “beyond organic” to offer 21st century consumers another choice.   The emerging biochar businesses and its supporting movement must form a trade association to establish standards, protocols, trademarks, licensing, and marketplace identity for its products. These are complex, long and difficult tasks, but they begin at this conference.   Carbon-Negative Food   If we want farmers to buy biochar, we must create a label to identify food grown with biochar, and convince consumers to buy that food. My word to designate this food is “carbon-negative”— food whose production removes carbon from the Earth’s atmosphere, rather than today’s food which generates huge greenhouse gas emissions.   Carbon-Negative food is grown by methods and materials that suck CO2 from Earth’s atmosphere and store it in stable, safe physical forms, such as charred carbon in soil.   However, while carbon-negative is mostly about sequestered carbon, it’s not just adding biochar to soil. A legal definition and technical standards must include fossil fuel used to power farm machinery, and for food processing and transport to markets. Grains grown and harvested with fossil fuels are hardly carbon-negative. Lettuce grown in biochar-amended soil in California and shipped to Boston is hardly carbon-negative.   In the next year, the emerging biochar industry must develop a legal definition, technical standards, trademark licenses, and a product identity to clearly, carefully, precisely define carbon-negative foods, and launch a campaign to teach consumers biochar’s planet-healing, soil-restoring purposes. Then, by their choices for every day’s meals, consumers can choose the future they want by the food they buy and eat.   However, consumers can be picky, fickle and short-sighted. All by itself, “carbon-negative” isn’t likely to motivate consumers. Something more than sequestered carbon is needed to earn consistent consumer loyalty.   Nutrient-Dense Food   But terra preta soils in the ancient Amazon didn’t grow any ordinary food. Terra preta grew very high quality food—highly nutritious food— food that assured the community’s long-term health and wealth.   In the 80s, when we created organic certification, we prohibited certified growers from advertising their food had any special nutritional qualities. As much as we wanted to offer such a nutritional food, we knew we didn’t have production methods to reliably produce such food, the science to cheaply verify such food, or the inventory controls to authenticate such food in the marketplace. But now we have the methods, the science and the marketing to do this.   The next higher standard of food quality is already being developed and may be test marketed next year. Nutrient-Dense food has a higher nutritional content than food currently grown and marketed.  In fact, to be precise, Nutrient-Dense will have at least as many minerals, vitamins, enzymes, and anti-oxidants   as when the USDA began to measure and publish the composition of foods early in the 1900s. Nutrient-dense food not only has more minerals, vitamins, enzymes, anti-oxidants and all, It also tastes a lot better, stores longer, dehydrates without rotting.   Last  February, in Barre, Massachusetts, led by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of Massachusetts, over 100 farmers sat through a 3-day training with Dr. Arden Andersen, a medical doctor and dairy farmer who has taught biological agriculture for 25 years in Australia, New Zealand, Britain, and Canada—but not much in America.   I sat through the three days, and wondered what these farmers thought about Arden’s ideas and methods. At the end, all the farmers stood up and gave Arden a very long standing ovation. They didn’t just appreciate his instructions to upgrade their soils, farming methods, crop quality, and herd health, they were enthusiastic and pumped up to go home and get started.   If over 100 farmers in New England are excited to grow and sell nutrient-dense food, then the next revolution in farming and food quality has begun. Since the February training, many more growers have signed up to be trained in nutrient-dense methods. The same community spirit that brought us the American Revolution, the same Yankee ingenuity that brought the Industrial Revolution to America, is now leading a Nutrition Revolution in the marketplace. Similar efforts are underway in the Midwest, California and the Northwest.   So, biochar industry doesn’t have to create the nutrient-dense food revolution. Farmers themselves are already leading this movement for a higher standard of food quality. Instead, this new industry can join and support a movement that is already well underway. Because biochar is a key and unique ingredient to create nutrient-dense soil.   Balanced, Full Spectrum Minerals   Biological agriculture is a more complex, exacting discipline than organic or chemical farming. Nutrient-dense begins by boosting and balancing the elements in soil. Not just three, or five minerals, or 25 trace elements, but all 90 elements nature needs to build biology. Not just enough minerals to get a crop out of the ground and off to market, but an abundance of elements to assure fully healthy plants. And these elements must be in proper proportions, in specific ranges of ratios— seven major minerals at parts per thousand, trace elements at parts per million, but others at parts per billion, and a few at parts per trillion.   Once all the physical elements are present, balanced and available, then the soil can be inoculated with the biological organisms— bacteria, fungi, mycorrhyzae, algae, actinomycetes, protozoa, and all the soil food web. Once the biology is in place, soil has the resources and intelligence to manage itself, such as maintain stable pH, fix nitrogen, accumulate phosphorus, recycle minerals, and spoonfeed plant roots. This is the paradigm shift to a sustainable 21st century agriculture— from a chemical view of soil, to a biological approach and energy insight.   Biochar is a key resource to grow nutrient-dense food. Biochar’s huge capacity to adsorp ions make it a critical ingredient to create nutrient-dense soil. Biochar’s complex internal micropores provide perfect residential housing for micro-organisms. Thus, nutrient-dense growers have a special motivation to buy biochar. Nutrient-dense producers will be among the first, best and biggest buyers of biochar.   Arden Andersen doesn’t teach nutrient-dense farmers to use biochar because they currently can’t buy biochar in large lots at reasonable prices. It’s useless to teach farmers to use a soil amendment they can’t get. The challenge to biochar industry is to make its case to nutrient-dense producers, to supply the vast volume of biochar needed for farmland applications, and work with growers to perfect the use of biochar in nutrient-dense production.   Consumers then get the added sizzle of nutrient-dense with their carbon-negative food. In my talks around the Northeast, I always end with a queston: “If we produce and market food labeled “carbon-negative” and “nutrient-dense” Will people buy this food?” The consistent response is an enthusiastic “YES!”   I urge everyone in this room to buy and consume nutrient-dense food. I recommend everyone here get involved with the emergence of this new, higher standard of food quality. I suggest every business here support this movement to transform our food system— and our society.   Community-Supportiv e   Now, let’s widen the view in our microscope for a larger perspective. How we design and develop this technology must consider not only its environmental and economic effects, but also its social impact. Because every technology either supports or erodes community. In the 20th century, we watched industrial technology disassemble and weaken communities. In the 21st century, the new paradigm of biology and ecology makes community our most important technology.         This invokes another New England tradition represented as the Town Meeting— the citizen-based, community-centered politics of the people and place. I saw this social consciousness in the organic farming movement 20 years ago— New England farms may be small, but they are rich in culture, tradition and community spirit. Today this shows up as an outburst of community-supported agriculture— many small, diversified farms sprouting around cities and towns supported by subscribers.   To modify the terminology, we need to develop biochar as a community-supportive technology. We must move away from large-scale, centralized industrial applications and facilities, and instead develop smaller scale systems—farm- scale, household-size, community-integrate d.   My favorite image for this new view is terra preta itself— the Soil Food Web that char-enriched soil can create— the community of micro-organisms in soil—the “microbial reef.” As we regenerate our soil, we can transform our own community.   In New England, we want farm-scale pyrolysis equipment—and small farm size, at that. We need a mobile pyrolyzer to tow to the forest or field, make biochar to leave on site, and haul biofuels to a central community or cooperative refinery. We want a biochar-burner to heat and power a greenhouse to grow food under cover year round in the impending era of extreme weather and unpredictable climate. We want to factories with jobs to make, sell and maintain one million biochar-making woodstoves to heat our homes and cook our food in our long winter—maybe even generate electric power.   My native American friends learned through hard experience that any new technology must be assessed by a strict criteria: Does this support community? Or does this weaken community? Does this bring us closer? Or further insulate and isolate us? Does this new method create and retain wealth? Or impoverish and disempower our common unity?   LIFE   Now let’s spin our microscope around and look through other end; let’s turn our microscope into a telescope.  Let’s not look at minutiae.  Let’s examine the big picture— the social and economic context for marketing this new soil amendment.   Every day every one must eat. After food, the next major service a community must provide is energy— at least fire to cook food, but also heat for cold weather in winter, and electric power.   Food and energy are the two keystones of any community economy anywhere on earth.  If we produce and distribute food and energy locally, we have the food, the energy and the money. We establish the capacity to create and retain wealth in our community. We put in place the two foundations of any human economy.   We can do more than market biochar, sequester carbon, grow nutrient-dense food, and produce renewable energy. We also have the tools to create economies that are solvent, stable and sound. We have the keys to regenerate our own community economies.   If we harness the ceaseless daily human appetite for food to technological transformation, social change and ecological restoration, it will happen.   If we do this right, this initiative will be self funding. People will happily buy carbon-negative, nutrient-dense food—even pay premium price for it. Farmers will make money, and happily buy biochar to add to their carbon-negative, nutrient-dense soils. We won’t need government subsidies, foundation grants or carbon credits, because this transformation will be driven by the market. But I see nothing wrong with federal icing and carbon credit candles on our biochar cake. But first the cake.   I call this carbon-negative, nutrient-dense strategy “eating our way to a sustainable future.”   Last, I want to mention that this gold silk shirt I am wearing is a gift from a man from India who took me to the airport to fly here Sunday morning. I wear it now to remind us that what we do with biochar in America will lead the way for those less fortunate in the third world.

In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living:

“It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.”

MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696-1

From: David Yarrow <dyarrow@...>
Subject: Re: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market
To: carbon-negative@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 7:02 PM

 



not so simple.  microbes are more diverse and complex than you suspect.

 

first, microbial populations in manure are not the same as for soil.  different digestive organisms, enzymes and feedstocks.

 

second, microbial digestion in a lagoon is highly anaerobic, whereas soil requires mostly aerobic microbes and digestive pathways.  if you use manure lagoon liquor, you better bubble air through it at least one full day to oxygenate the solution and shift the microbes over to aerobic operations.

 

and other issues sprout up on the way to assembling a properly diverse microbial inoculant.  basicly, however, it's a matter of making really good compost, which few farms or waste operations today do.

 

for a green & peaceful planet,
David Yarrow
Turtle EyeLand Sanctuary
44 Gilligan Rd, East Greenbush, NY 12061
skype: david.yarrow5
www.carbon-negative .us
www.dyarrow. org
www.ancientforests. us
www.nutrient- dense.info
www.farmandfood. org
www.SeaAgri. com
www.OnondagaLakePea ceFestival. org
www.OnondagaVesica. info
www.TurtleEyeland. org

----- Original Message -----

From: Jim Miller

To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com

Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 9:52 PM

Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market

 

Folks, Most likely "Black Liquor" from cow flop lagoon waste water has the 60,000 or so micro-organisms needed to inoculate the charcoal.  The waste water most likely has all of the nutrients and micro-nutrients need by the soil critters.  The charcoal can be ground to corn kernel or sawdust size grit, soaked a week or so in the nutrient, then worked into the top 12 inches of soil. The best way to tell is to run field tests with different kinds of nutrients at different concentrations in different soils.  I have some ag land available to me in Boston, KY, which I hope to use for our field tests.  And I also have a Dairy nearby.  My landlord will probably let me us his tractor.  All I need is a $2500 used rototiller for the three point hitch and PTO shaft.  Money, again the root of all weavels. Jim Miller In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living: “It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.” MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696- 1 --- On Tue, 8/18/09, Erin Rasmussen <erin@trmiles. com> wrote: Folks, Adding plain charcoal to the soil is like watering your 20 acres of crops with a garden hose.  Sure, it will eventually get wet, but watering with a pivot system is a better solution the same as infusing nutrient into charcoal (Agrichar)  before it is mixed 12 inches into the soil.  Why is this message so hard to get across to the biochar community? Jim Miller In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living: “It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.” MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696- 1

.

In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living:

“It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.”

MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696-1

From: David Yarrow <dyarrow@...>
Subject: Re: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market
To: carbon-negative@yahoogroups.com
Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 6:51 PM

 



in part because the focus tight now is equipment and processes to make biochar.  unti we have reliable burner technology tailored to the sources and scale of feedstocks, there isn't enough biochar around for much field research in soil.

 

however, in autralia, best energies is leading the way with extensive field trials in farming situations.  and they know how to say "microbe."  in japan, makato ogawa led research into biochar, microbes and soil.

 

i devote lots of time talking to burner engineers and designers about the steps to prepare fresh hot biochar for application in soil.  this preparation should begin as soon as hot char comes out of a burner.  the engineers are very interested, and listen well, but that is outside their special focus.  but soon we will have lots to char to play with.

 

in the meantime, this year, we are getting lots of uncharacterized, unmonitored applications of backyard biochar all around the continent.  lots of folks are just doing it and learning.

 

for a green & peaceful planet,
David Yarrow
Turtle EyeLand Sanctuary
44 Gilligan Rd, East Greenbush, NY 12061
skype: david.yarrow5
www.carbon-negative .us
www.dyarrow. org
www.ancientforests. us
www.nutrient- dense.info
www.farmandfood. org
www.SeaAgri. com
www.OnondagaLakePea ceFestival. org
www.OnondagaVesica. info
www.TurtleEyeland. org

 

----- Original Message -----

From: Jim Miller

To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com

Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 6:44 PM

Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market

 

.

In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living:

“It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.”

MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696-1

From: birgit johanson <j_birgit@...>
Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market
To: "carbon negative" <carbon-negative@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 6:11 AM

 

Hi Jim -

Your research paper on soil microbes is really fantastic.  I have printed it out for closer reading.

Do you have sketches or photos of your Drum Roll System? I have thought too that we should use solar parabolic cookers, fresnel lenses, and other forms of solar energy and supplement with biomass wherever possible.

Any working models?

Thanks

Birgit Johanson

---

To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com
From: jimmiller5417@ yahoo.com
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 20:15:47 -0700
Subject: Re: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market [1 Attachment]

 

[Attachment(s) from Jim Miller included below]

David, OK by me if raw charcoal is mixed in with the soil.  I have applied for Federal and KY grants to "roast" biomass to produce syngas and biochar in connection with a low pressure, low heat, steam driven electrical generator called the Drum Roll Steamer CHP System.  Attached is the summary. Keep up the good work, Cheers. Jim Miller In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living: “It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.” MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696- 1 --- On Wed, 8/19/09, David Yarrow <dyarrow@nycap. rr.com> wrote: From: David Yarrow <dyarrow@nycap. rr.com> Subject: Re: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Date: Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 6:51 PM    in part because the focus tight now is equipment and processes to make biochar.  unti we have reliable burner technology tailored to the sources and scale of feedstocks, there isn't enough biochar around for much field research in soil.   however, in autralia, best energies is leading the way with extensive field trials in farming situations.  and they know how to say "microbe."  in japan, makato ogawa led research into biochar, microbes and soil.   i devote lots of time talking to burner engineers and designers about the steps to prepare fresh hot biochar for application in soil.  this preparation should begin as soon as hot char comes out of a burner.  the engineers are very interested, and listen well, but that is outside their special focus.  but soon we will have lots to char to play with.   in the meantime, this year, we are getting lots of uncharacterized, unmonitored applications of backyard biochar all around the continent.  lots of folks are just doing it and learning.   for a green & peaceful planet, David Yarrow Turtle EyeLand Sanctuary 44 Gilligan Rd, East Greenbush, NY 12061 skype: david.yarrow5 www.carbon-negative .us www.dyarrow. org www.ancientforests. us www.nutrient- dense.info www.farmandfood. org www.SeaAgri. com www.OnondagaLakePea ceFestival. org www.OnondagaVesica. info www.TurtleEyeland. org   ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Miller To: carbon-negative@ yahoogroups. com Sent: Tuesday, August 18, 2009 6:44 PM Subject: RE: [carbon-negative] LIFE: Bringing Biochar to Market   .

---

Get back to school stuff for them and cashback for you. Try Bing™ now.

In transition to justice,harmony, productivity, and right living:

“It's understandable, isn't it, that workers who come of age in an autocratic, authoritarian, paternalistic environment, become reflections of it. It took some time for Camarãoto adjust to the innovating, democratic, participative atmosphere at Semco.”

MAVERICK, The Success Story Behind the Worlds Most Unusual Workplace,Richardo Semler, Warner Books,1993, p. 180; ISBN 0-446-51696-1

From: Ron Larson <rongretlarson@...>
Subject: Re: [carbon-negative] FW: CBD News Headlines - 20 August 2009
To: carbon-negative@yahoogroups.com, biochar-policy@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thursday, August 20, 2009, 4:11 PM

Birgit (and two lists, one new, one old):

Thanks for alerting us to this newsletter.

1. I found six entries as I googled for "biochar" at this CBD site The
first entry was from BFW (much like what we are now debating at
"Biochar-policy"),

2. a) the second was a 100 page "AHTEG" (2009) report at
http://www.cbd.int/climate/meetings/ahteg-bdcc-02-02/ahteg-bdcc-02-02-findings-review-en.pdf
, which had only this single entry on Biochar

/"The long-term stability of “*biochar”* in soils is, as yet, unknown
and large-scale development could result in additional land-use
pressures. The effectiveness and long term stability of biochar in soils
has *not yet been established1*71. Large-scale deployment of biochar may
require significant amounts of biomass, creating the need for*
additional lands to grow biomass and thus creating additional land-use
pressures.", */*
*
and the reference being: 171 McHenry, M.P. 2009. Agricultural bio-char
production, renewable energy generation and farm carbon sequestration in
Western Australia: Certainty, uncertainty and risk. Agriculture,
Ecosystems & Environment 129: 1-7.Lehmann, J. 2007. Bio-energy in the
black. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 5: 381-387.
Wardle, D.A., Nilsson, M.-C. & Zackrisson, O. 2008. Fire-Derived
Charcoal Causes Loss of Forest Humus. Science, 320: 629

2b. Just above this section was one on bioenergy reading:

/While bioenergy may contribute to energy security, rural development
and avoiding climate change, *_there are concerns_* that, depending on
the feedstock used and production schemes, many first generation
biofuels (i.e., use of food crops for liquid fuels, i.e., bio-ethanol or
bio-diesel) are contributing to rising food prices, *_accelerating
deforestation_* with adverse effects on biodiversity, and may not be
reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Biofuel production can have
_*considerable adverse consequences*_ on biodiversity (genetic, species
and landscape levels) and ecosystem services when it results in direct
conversion of natural ecosystems or the indirect displacement of
agricultural land into natural ecosystems166. However, biofuels can
contribute to greenhouse gas savings and avoid adverse impacts on
biodiversity, soils and water resources by avoiding land-use changes, in
particular on land designated as of high conservation and sustainable
use value. Advanced generation technologies will only have significant
potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without adversely affecting
biodiversity if feedstock production avoids, directly and indirectly,
loss of natural ecosystems, or uses native grasses and trees on degraded
lands. Evaluation of the environmental and social sustainability of
different sources of biofuels could be achieved through the
d_*evelopment and implementation of robust, comprehensive and
certifiable standards*_. 17/

where the footnote said: / /17/ The expert from Brazil disassociated
himself from this section./
/
/3. The third entry was in a long list of submissions on bioenergy -
with Econexus submitting the first item above by BFW's Ernsting and.
Smolker.EcoNexus had four in this list - only the first by BFW on Biochar./

/ *[RWL: *Presumably some of these many submissions supported biofuels
would be worth reviewing. I spent quite a while on a long one from USAID
(no mention of Biochar). It looked like thee were many that could be
pertinent to setting Biochar standards and protocols.
/
4. /The fourth one was 6 pgs entitled:/ NO IDLE THREAT TO THE
MARGINALISED: THE FOCUS ON “MARGINAL AND
IDLE” LAND FOR BIOFUELS (AGROFUELS)
Helena Paul, EcoNexus, published in The Ecologist, February 2009
h.paul@...
/Biochar (note she uses Bio-char): appeared this way:/ Thermal methods
involve controlled combustion (pyrolysis) including Fischer
Tropsch synthesis to break the biomass into down bio-oil, bio-char and
synthesis gas
consisting of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and hydrogen. *Even though
unproven, bio-char is currently touted as a “soil improver”*. Bio-oil
and syngas can be
used for heat and power or as pre-cursors to transport fuel.
Additionally, bio-oil can
be used as shipping fuel.
*Both methods involve energy inputs that could render their energy and
emissions
balance unfavourable.

*/*[RWL: We need more in our rebuttal on this last sentence -] *
/*
6. */*Fifth (and sixth) - Norway (p5) in comments on the second entry
said: */* *Biochar: should be addressed.
/

*[RWL: I conclude we need to counter the negative tone at this UNCBD
companion group to UNCCD. BFW and EcoNexus are being too effective here
- as there is no counter-evidence. It appears that CBD and CCD work
together some, but Biochar is being clobbered on this site, I fear. We
need to prove that Biochar can help on the biodiversity side of
bioenergy - perhaps mainly by assuring folk what Nando has been saying -
that trees don't grow fast enough. And we have a special biodiversity
niche with degraded lands. And Peter has emphasized that intercropping
helps with biodiversity. Anything else come to mind? Thanks to Birgit
for bringing this site to our attention.]

Ron ]*



birgit johanson wrote:

This is the current issue of a regular newsletter from the UN Convention
on Biological Diversity http://www.cbd.int/ <http://www.cbd.int/> based
in Montreal.

The section on Forest Biodiversity is very interesting this issue.

Birgit
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subject: CBD News Headlines - 20 August 2009
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 10:02:19 -0400
From: cbd-headlines@
cbd.int
To: list-cbd-news@...



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