[EBOOK] How To Grow More Vegetables (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops), by John Jeavons, Ecology Action of the Midpeninsula

What are the dimensions of this challenge? Current agricultural practices reportedly destroy approximately G pounds of soil for each pound of food produced.1 United States croplands are losing topsoil about 18 times faster than the soil formation rate. This is not sustainable. In fact, worldwide only about 42 to 84 years’ worth of topsoil remains.2

Why is this happening? Conventional agricultural practices often deplete the soil 18 to 80 times more rapidly than nature builds soil. This happens when the humus (cured organic matter) in the soil is used up and not replaced, when cropping patterns are used that tend to deplete the soil’s structure, and when minerals are removed from the soil more rapidly than they are replaced. Even organic farming probably depletes the soil 17 to 70 times faster than nature builds it by importing organic matter and minerals from other soils, which thereby become increasingly depleted. The planetary result is a net reduction in overall soil quality.

Ecology Action is in its 31st year of rediscovering the original principles behind the highly effective, resource-conserving, and sustainable 4,000-year-old Chinese Biointensive way of farming. One to two millennia ago, cultures in Latin America, Europe, and other parts of Asia developed similar approaches. Ecology Action developed the GROW BIO INTENSIVE growing method, which is patterned after nature’s own intensive biological plantings. Based on over 10,000 years of field trials, the features of GROW BIOINTENSIVE include:

•    Deep soil preparation, which develops good soil structure. Once this structure is established, it may be maintained for several years with 2-inch-deep surface cultivation (until compaction once again necessitates deep soil preparation).

•    The use of compost (humus) for soil fertility and nutrients.

•    Close plant spacing, as in nature. (How surprised we would be to find natural meadows, forests, and fields growing in rows, with the area between the rows resembling long strips of desert.)

•    Synergistic planting of crop combinations so plants that are grown together enhance each other.

•    Carbon-efficient crops—planting approximately 60% of the growing area in dual-purpose seed and grain crops for the production of large amounts of carbonaceous material for compost and significant amounts of dietary calorics.

•    Calorie-efficient crops—planting approximately 30% of the growing area in special root crops, such as potatoes, burdock, garlic, and parsnips, which produce a large amount of calories for the diet per unit of area.

1.    Developed from US. Department of Agriculture statistics.

2.    Developed from R Buringl), “Availability of Agricultural land for Crop and livestock Production." in D. Pimentel and c. w. Hall (eds.), Food and Natural Resources (San Diego: Academic Press. 1989). pp. 69-83. as noted in “Natural Resources and an Optimum Human Population." David Pimentel, et al.. Population and Environment: A Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies. VoL 15, No. 5l May 1994; and with statistics from die United Nations.

[EBOOK] How To Grow More Vegetables (and fruits, nuts, berries, grains, and other crops), by John Jeavons, Ecology Action of the Midpeninsula

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