To
The World Governments and Scientists
Feb 25, 2007
A
simple answer to World Wide air pollution, soil erosion and water
shortages
Scientists
tell us, with ninety percent certainty, that the excess CO2 entering
the atmosphere is causing global warming. Science is making progress
in reducing CO2 emission in the auto, transportation and energy industry
but only agricultural, forestry and horticultural can capture and
reduce the CO2 now in the atmosphere.
Let's
examine some facts;
Fact
# 1 If you weigh the carbon lost, from our farm and ranch
land from the time we started testing soil until today, and weigh
the excess carbon now in the atmosphere the weight of the missing
soil carbon would equal the excess carbon in the atmosphere.
Fact
# 2 Research in South Texas by Dr. Joe Bradford of the USDA
discovered that No-Till methods of agriculture allowed the organic
content of the soil to increase at the rate of one tenth of one percent
each year.
Plowing
organic matter under with a big disc or moldboard plow, when the soil
is moist, can waste as much carbon to the air as you intended to return
to the soil.
Fact
#3 There are roughly 325 million acres of cropland in the
US that the organic content could be increased this 1 tenth of 1 percent
annually with the adoption of No-Till farming practices. This simple
action alone would take 1.8 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere and
put it back into each acre of cropland as organic matter. This would
translate to taking out 540 millions tons of CO2 from the atmosphere
each year and return it to the soil as organic matter where it is
critically needed. Organic litter and matter on and in the soil allows
more rain to soak into the soil, less rain run off, significantly
reduces soil erosion and can re-fill the drying aquifers while producing
healthier more abundant crops.
Fact
#4 Holistic Ranch Management, researched and taught by Allen
Savory of Zimbabwe has shown to sequester carbon from the atmosphere
to the soil in even greater amounts and more efficient than the no-till
farming methods. There are 578 million acres of pasture in the US
that could be grazed using Savory's methods. This is a possible 1.04
billion more tons of CO2 taken from the atmosphere and returned to
soil each year. Poor range management has the same negative effect
as over tillage in row crop farming.
Fact
#5 The continued use of carbonless NPK fertilizers that don't
contain energy the soil life needs for processing it into a form the
plants can use forces the soil life to take energy from the soil to
do the processing. This action releases CO2 to the atmosphere while
depleting the soil of the organic matter that is necessary for good
water percolation which decreases erosion and keeps the aquifers full.
Fact
#6 Many home gardeners, urban dwellers, golf course and park
maintenance people are also guilty of poor soil management causing
erosion, CO2 pollution and water shortage.
Teaching
the whole of Nature, world wide, is the only way of solving and correcting
these huge problems. We need to take the C out of the atmospheric
CO2 and put it back into the soil from where it came.
The
Carbon Cycle
An
article published in Discovery Magazine reports that humans churn
out 8 billion tons of Carbon Dioxide every year world wide. These
8 billion tons could be captured and returned to the soil if we operated
our farms, ranches, ball fields, lawns and gardens with a practice
that increases and maintains the organic content of our soils.
One
acre of land 6 inches deep weighs about 2 million pounds. Each 1 percent
of organic matter in that acre represents approximately 5,400 pounds
of Carbon. When soil organic testing was first done in this country
the organic content was between 3 and 8 percent. Since then our ignorance
has allowed more than half of the soil organic content to escape to
the atmosphere as Carbon Dioxide.
In
1957 I started using organic mulches around my fruit trees and making
compost to use in the gardens. After a few years I had top production
with no insect or disease problems. The Ag authorities said my methods
weren't practical on large acreage. I promptly sold the small farm
and purchased a one hundred acre farm and after a few years of building
the soil organic content I duplicated the insect and disease free
vegetable production. From the experience on two farms with limited
irrigation and totally different soil conditions, I learned the many
benefits of organic matter on and in the soil.
In
1968 I went into the compost and mulch business. Study and research
proved that just ½ inch of compost spread across a lawn in
the fall of the year cut irrigation needs from 30 to 80 percent. On
deep soils the water savings were the greatest. Placing a 4 inch thick
organic mulch over the root zone of a shrub or tree could lessen or
even eliminate irrigation in many situations. My farms and compost
operation were all in south central Texas with average annual rainfall
of 29 inches. Dr. Joe Bradford of the USDA duplicated some of my research
and got the same water savings results. He cut his annual lawn irrigation
cost from $100 to $15.
After
much thought and study I finally began to understand why and how mulching,
composting, no-till farming and proper animal grazing work.
The
Savory grazing methods, mimicking the American buffalo, of concentrating
animals in a small pasture for short periods explains it the best.
When the cattle are bunched up they eat in a hurry and bite from all
the grasses and other palatable plants not just their favorite. The
animals are moved to the next cell before the forage is eaten too
low. While crowded in the cell they drop a lot of urine and manure
into the old plant litter on the soil. The plants left standing shade
the sun and slow the wind. This allows for a more constant moisture
and temperature. This is ideal for earthworms, dung beetles and many
other macro and micro species of life that feed in this environment.
This activity is releasing CO2 however, the CO2 is slightly heavier
than air so it tends to stay trapped in canopy where green leaves
(that were left uneaten by the grazing animals) can capture the CO2 and use it before it escapes to the atmosphere. The many species
of life that feed on the plant litter, animal manure and urine burrow
into the soil which creates conditions for quicker rain in soak. This
life also reproduces lives and dies in the soil where the carbon from
their bodies is trapped instead of diffusing to the atmosphere as
CO2 . This process is at work anywhere organic mulch, compost or
any organic waste is used around living plants in the garden, on the
lawn, on millions of farm acres and ranch pastures. This is so easy,
so economical; it works so well because Nature designed it.
Is
this too Simple?
Research,
Study, References and Resources
My
curiosity as a child while growing up on a farm inspired me to spend
most of my 70 years studying Nature. I consult with successful farmers,
ranchers and gardeners. Read and study many agricultural and soil
science publications to improve the soil fertility on my farm. I pioneered
the static pile composting methods that expels less CO2 to the air.
I attend many conferences and visit with old-timers and modern scientist.
Most Important- I learned to think.
Malcolm
Beck
7561
East Evans Rd.
San
Antonio , Texas 78266
BeckMalcolm@msn.com
MalcolmBeck.com
210-483-1930
More
study by Malcolm Beck
I
studied how healthy soil affects the health of plants and how healthy
food affects animal and human health and it's relation to behavior.
With this study I was able to grow disease and insect free plants,
healthy and contented animals and five bright, healthy children with
my wife and I still in excellent health. From this life-long study
I have concluded that improving the structure, biology and chemistry
of the soil world wide, urban and agriculture is the only answer to
the air pollution, water shortages and soil erosion.
Because
of these past experiences I have been giving talks and color slide
presentations all over the US, three in Mexico , five in South Africa
, one in Costa Rica . These presentations are at conventions and to
colleges, universities, farm and ranch organizations, fruit, vegetable
and grape growers and many, landscapers, plant nursery and turf growers
and many garden clubs. I average seven presentations per month. This
is from where most of my education has advanced. Someone in the audience
will always have an experience, success or failure that I haven't
heard before or a similar experience that discovered a solution. Then
I go home and further the research in my garden, orchard or greenhouse.
Besides
the above experiences many companies that discovered microbes, solutions,
plant stimulators, fertilizers etc. want me to study, use and research
or just know their products. I charge nothing for doing a study. I
am indebted to no one. I gain by the many experiences and meeting
people that know things that I haven't experiences. From all of the
above I have learned how little I really know and the quest for more
knowledge continues.
Malcolm
Beck
7561
East Evans Rd.
San
Antonio , Texas 78266
BeckMalcolm@msn.com
MalcolmBeck.com
210-483-1930