Our desire to preserve is strongly linked to a narrative of loss, both for biodiversity writ large and for rare heirloom seeds. But we recognize the need for biodiversity and destroy it in the same breath. What if we protected the Amazon instead of just the genetics within it? What if we supported small-scale diversified agriculture instead of industrialized monoculture?

Seed preservation has a place, but it’s not the thing that will save us. Heirloom seed keepers attempt to preserve the past, while plant breeders control genetic resources to commodify the seed. Neither camp is particularly focused on how to expand biodiversity into the future, as if biodiversity and seed varieties are fixed and finite things.

Compounding this problem is the climate crisis, which is dramatically affecting our ability to grow food. Diversity is a core component of resilience, so we need rapid, ongoing and diverse adaptation of our regional food systems – everywhere, all the time. If we’ve been preserving all these seeds for some imagined future need, then the need is now. Arguably, it’s already too late.

archived (Wayback Machine)

Ancient practices hold important lessons for farmers facing drying lands, but they were often more complex than modern societies realize. Glacier loss adds to the challenge today.

Ancient beliefs, behaviors and norms – what archaeologists call culture – were fundamentally integrated into technological solutions in this part of Peru in ancient times. Isolating and removing the tools from that knowledge made them less effective.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20514746

photos by Lumicon

This plant should not be thriving in this environment. It is growing on compacted oxisol in an area that gets over 4 metres of rain. Yet here it is, growing completely out of control. Nothing makes sense. Climate change?

At the foot of Pakistan's impossibly high mountains whitened by frost all year round, farmers grappling with a lack of water have created their own ice towers.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20461336

Source

It's aimed mostly at commercial growers, but it gives a useful overview for anyone new to growing fruit. Topics covered include growth rhythms, propagation, pruning, pollination, and harvesting.

Best read in conjunction with:

• Propagating and planting trees
• Agroforestry
• Abundance Agroforestry
• An Illustrated Guide to Agroforestry
• Natural succession of species in agroforestry and in soil recovery

Archived (Wayback Machine)

So there's a lot of info on growing food and whatnot in solarpunk settings. But is there info on medicine? Like, is there anything that's both scientific but DIY on making your own medicine past just basic herbs? But with ingredients you can grow or process yourself?

I'm not very knowledgeable about medicine at all, so I might be missing obvious things.

Traditional methods benefit hundreds of species but as new agricultural techniques take over, the distinctive haystacks mark a vanishing way of life

Hi there. It was requested that I post an update of my chicken after advice was sought for her lesion.

She was in quarantine for a week and literally on the first day began to immediately look better.

Sorry for such a late update. Enjoy the picture of my Daughter's hand raised hen that follows us around the garden.

The Great Green Wall in the Sahel, a mosaic of forests, farmlands and grasslands dotting the arid fringes of Sahara, was launched by the African Union in 2007 to fight desertification and land degradation. Stretching from Dakar in the west to Djibouti in the east, the 8,000-kilometer (5,000-mile) “wall” aims to restore 100 million hectares (247 million acres) of degraded land, create 10 million jobs, and sequester 250 million metric tons of carbon to combat climate change by 2030.

A new study published in Ecological Processes by researchers at the Institute of Applied Ecology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences reveals that no-tillage (NT) farming could play a pivotal role in combating soil degradation and enhancing carbon sequestration in arid and semi-arid regions.

I know very little about agriculture and even tho this Farming practices Evidence Library is to my understanding only about monocultures, I wanted some input about it regardless.

Sustainability is sexy.

You've already seen duckweed, I know that.
It's ubiquitous and literally a pest in some areas.
Also known as "water lentils", they can cover ponds in just a matter of days. They are also one of the fastest growing and replicating plants ever.

Why is that relevant you may ask?

Well, Wolffia sp. could be the most nutrient packed superfood you'll ever eat.

I found a study where scientists analyzed the nutritional value of it, and holy fuck!
Not only is it a extremely good source of protein (up to 40% dry weight), but also contains omega 3 fatty acids in a very favourable ratio. And a lot of minerals, like iron and calcium. Especially for vegans too this might be perfect.

This sounds very similar to algae, right? Right!

But there are a few benefits compared to Spirulina and those like:

• It can grow literally EVERYWHERE. It's a weed, just like the name implies. You don't need any fancy glass tubes, pumps and whatever shit you need for algae farming, no. Just a puddle and optional trace elements. It's also not a "fancy algae strain" you have to order somewhere, you can just go to a local pond, scoop a hand full out of it, and then place it on your balcony or whatever and it will spread by itself.
• It doesn't need (even tolerate) lots of light. Algae are known for their high light requirements, sometimes even needing artificial lights, but this one grows in ponds on the forest floor and will not be happy if you leave it unshaded.
• It will come back after each winter
• AND: It's a viable plant source of vitamin B12!

It's almost impossible to find natural vegan B12 sources, because neither plants, nor animals or fungi, but bacteria, produce it.

Those duckweeds are known to live in symbiosis with those bacteria, and the B12 is then stored inside the plants, not the bacteria! So if you wash it, it still has the same nutritional content.

Also, similar to legumes, they can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, which is why you can find them everywhere.

I still have to back the claims up by real sources, because right now, most of that stuff is just "I read it somewhere on the internet", but here on Medium is another article about that.

This post is mainly there to spread the information that it exists in the first place, so maybe some facts are not entirely true, idk.

What will I do now?

I will try to find it outside and then try to grow it on my balcony to see how well it performs and tastes.

I can feed it with my depleted hydroponic nutrient solution that would land in the drain anyway, but still contains a lot of trace minerals and stuff.

And hey, even if it tastes like shit, which I doubt, because it's claimed to be taste neutral, I can turn it into an organic fertilizer :)

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/18068633

I had a really bad slug infestation on my balcony garden last year.

Because they were eating on everything, and were in the thousands almost, I had to resort to "poison" bait.
Not one of the toxic ones, because I have cats, but ones based on Iron phosphate.

Still, it resulted in another pest: all those slimy slugs crawled under the floor cover and died there. Disgusting. Everything was full of flies and stank. But mainly, it was mentally horrifying.

This year, I want to do it differently. Instead of killing them, I want prevention.

I already looked up online, but all "natural predators" are bigger ones, like ducks and toads, but of course that isn't viable on my small balcony.

So, I thought about already killing them in the egg stage.

What natural killers, like nematodes or bugs, do they have in this life stage?
What can I do to attract them?
How is that regulared by natural balance?

Anyway, I got outside and dug up some soil samples from different locations and spreaded them in the pots, hoping that there are some eggs or critters in there that are currently hibernating and then improve the natural balance in the summer.

It was only one hand full of dirt per big pot, but that should be enough I believe. It's only the catalyst/ starter culture after all.

Btw, I'm currently building up the soil for the following season.
Last year has been absolutely great with organic living soil, and I want to improve on that.

The new soil, consisting of spent mushroom blocks, some soil, leaf matter, and more:

And the old one from a few months ago, when I harvested my hemp tree:

I plan to reuse it of course! No-till, a shit ton of organic matter, very well aerated with deep roots from the decaying plant that was previously in there. Extremely healthy dirt 🤌👌

Crosspost

Our farmers are are going to come into greater need of help in the future. I signed up end of winter got and interview and I start planting onions February 17th I'm super excited to help people eat. I've climbed the Albuquerque food network from JBBC to Mogro to Vida Verde Farm and even to Three Sisters Kitchen and met nothing but beautiful kind people. In my solarpunk revolution everyone eats and they eat well. FTP 🐇👨‍🌾🧅🥔🌄

We started a discussion in a Signal group, but wanted to move it here for more involvement. The proposal on the table is to use own source hardware and software to hack together an autonomous weeding machine, maybe using AI to recognize weeds versus crop plants.