The Carbon Economy Series/ Carbon Farming and Regenerative

http://www.carboneconomyseries.com/home-1

The Carbon Economy, Carbon Farming and Regenerative Agriculture Series workshops in Santa Fe

June-Oct 2011

with

Gary Liss ,Nate Downey, Owen Hablutzel, Joel Salatin, Kirk Gadzia, Elaine Ingham

Gary Liss Workshop Schedule June 24-26

Friday June 24, Public Talk 7-9pm
Sustainability and Green Jobs through Zero Waste
Saturday, June 25, All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm
Introduction to Zero Waste and Resource Management
Sunday, June 26, All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm

Communities and Businesses Building a Zero Waste Economy

Gary Liss

Gary initiated Gary Liss & Associates, where he is the President and Managing Director. Serving international municipal and private-sector clients, his success has been built upon a history of bridging problems with solutions and creating environmental programs that have economic benefits.  He is often the "go-to" person for national media on Zero Waste issues and has been included in articles in publications such as Time Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and
USA Today.
He has a Masters in Public Administration from Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey and a Bachelor's in Civil Engineering (Environmental Engineering major) from Tufts University.  In 2005, Mr. Liss went through extensive training in the Zero Emissions Research Initiatives and is now a Certified ZERI System Designer.
Previously he was Executive Director of the California Resource Recovery Association (CRRA).   For CRRA, Mr. Liss organized workshops and their Annual Conference, including the first Zero Waste Conference in the nation in 1997.   Under his leadership, CRRA adopted its Agenda for the New Millennium, which calls for Zero Waste as a new goal for resource
and waste management.
He has designed and caused to be implemented Zero Waste Programs in Several countries, states, and cities, including: Los Angeles, Oakland, Burbank, San Jose in CA, Austin, TX, Central Vermont, Canberra, Australia, Nelson, BC. Mr. Liss has worked on more Zero Waste community plans than any other individual in the

United States.

The subjects covered will include The Four Keys to Zero Waste :

What is Zero Waste? How is different than Recycling?
Garbage is not inevitable. It is the result of bad design. It can be designed out of the system.
Community Organizing & Political Strategies for Zero Waste Zero Waste is systemic change. Change comes from the outside.
Key #1: New Rules & Economic Incentives
Rules make us and we make the rules. We need new rules because the old ones are not working. Economics is not a matter of immutable laws, but human-made rules and institutions.
Key #2: Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) & Local Producer Responsibility (LPR)
Local Government can't control design, manufacture and distribution of products, but it can control what is sold and disposed within the community (LPR), and it can collaborate with other local governments to drive for changes at the state and national level (EPR).
Key #3: Purchasing for Zero Waste & EPR
One of every five purchasing dollars are spent by government. We should use our tax dollars to purchase the future we want. The combined power of government/large contractor purchasing will dictate changes product design and manufacture that we cannot legislate.
Key #4: Financing & Transitioning to a Zero Waste Future
What infrastructure do we need in a world without landfills and garbage? Who will pay for it? What alternatives to landfills and incinerators do we need right now?
Closing: Elements of a Zero Waste Plan & Resources

* Information
* Sponsors

* Forum

* Scholarships

Nate Downey - Water Harvesting in Arid Lands - July 22-23

Nate Downey schedule:
Friday July 22, Public Talk 7-9pm
Water Our Most Precious Resource

Saturday, July 23, All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm

Pattern Applications for Water Harvesting in Arid Lands

In order to increase the efficiency and productivity of our designed landscapes and the built environment, permaculture uses natural patterns. Branches funnel and spread energy. Spirals hold and release the forces of nature. Webs trap nutrients while they let even the most intense winds pass through them. We can mimic these patterns (and many more) to our benefit when we harvest water on and in the land. Join eco-author and permaculture designer, Nate Downey, for an eye-opening, knowledge-based, and fun-filled day that will include various forms of information in a wide variety of settings ranging from lecture and group discussion to hands-on learning and real-life demonstration.

Owen Hablutzel & Nate Downey July 22-24

Owen Hablutzel

Owen Hablutzel is a consultant, educator and a director of the Permaculture Research Institute, USA. His recent focus has been on integration of a broad spectrum of practical, leading-edge solutions capable of addressing, at multiple scales, the accelerating global social-ecological crisis. These regenerative frameworks include Permaculture, Keyline Design®, Holistic Managment®, Resilience Theory and Practice, Soil Food Web, Zero Emissions Research Initiative, Watershed Restoration, Myco-restoration, and an assortment of emerging Social Technologies.
Owen was trained in Keyline Design under the world's leading Keyline practitioner, Darren Doherty. He has lived and worked in Africa, Australia, and much of the western United States.
Owen Hablutzel is a whole farm planning consultant, educator and a director of the non-profit, Permaculture Research Institute, USA. His focus is on collaboration with clients to generate fertile and resilient farms, ranches, and watersheds using a diversity of proven practical, cost-effective, and ecologically sound strategies. Owen was trained in Keyline Design® under the world's leading Keyline practitioner, Darren Doherty (http://www.regenag.com). He has lived and worked in Africa, Australia, and much of the western United States. Owen holds a masters degree in Eastern Philosophy--the original systems theory and science of the whole--from St. John's College in New Mexico.

In July the Carbon Economy Series Friday Lecture and two day Saturday & Sunday
Workshop subject is Keyline Design and Broad acre Permaculture, our featured
presenters are Nate Downey & Owen Hablutzel.

Schedule for Owen Hablutzel & Nate Downey

Friday July 22, Public Talk 7-9pm
Water Our Most Precious Resource - Nate Downey
Saturday, July 23, All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm
Pattern Applications for Water Harvesting in Arid Lands - Nate Downey

Sunday, July 24, All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm
Keyline Design - Owen Hablutzel
register here

About Keyline Design

Keyline Design emerged from Australia in the 1940's and is one of the first farm planning frameworks to take a whole-system approach towards achieving a 'permanent agriculture'. The originator, P.A.Yeoman, developed planning tools and innovations using his knowledge of geology, hydrology, and soils. He was able to drought-proof and diversify the farm while increasing yields and building topsoil at astounding rates, in a cost-effective fashion.

As part of his water harvesting and soil building innovations, Yeoman developed a unique device known as the Yeoman's Plow. This implement is designed to break compaction and aerate soil profiles with minimal undesirable disturbance to soil life by not inverting the existing soil layers. Used in the proper geomorphic pattern of ripping, maximum soil moisture, explosive pulses of soil life, and rapid building of topsoil can result. Good results have been found in brush control situations as well.

The Keyline course will cover:

·       Whole landscape water harvesting to get the most from every drop
·       Discovering secrets of rapid creation of healthy topsoil
·       Connecting and integrating farm infrastructure, layout, and functions for improved
        efficiencies and synergy

· Increasing the yields and resilience of your land and your operation

· Practicing techniques for contour surveying and mapping 'on the cheap' in any environment

· Learning to create and implement a whole farm plan using the insights of Keyline Design
· Watching the Yeoman's Keyline Plow in action

Owen has written several articles on prior Carbon Economy courses.

Here are links where you can check them out:
http://www.permacultureusa.org/2009/12/03/sustainable-land-management-course

http://www.permacultureusa.org/2009/11/07/soil-food-web-course-with-dr-elaine-ingham/

Joel Salatin - Polyface Farms August 26 - 27

Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin, 53, is a full time farmer in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.
A third generation alternative farmer, he returned to the farm full time in 1982 and continued refining and adding to his
parents' ideas.
The farm services more than 3,000 families, 10 retail outlets, and 50 restaurants through on-farm sales and metropolitan buying clubs with salad bar beef, pastured poultry, eggmobile eggs, pigaerator pork, forage-based rabbits, pastured turkey and forestry products using relationship marketing.
He holds a BA degree in English and writes extensively in magazines such as STOCKMAN GRASS FARMER, ACRES USA, and AMERICAN AGRICULTURALIST.

The family's farm, Polyface Inc. ("The Farm of Many Faces") has been featured in SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, GOURMET and countless other radio,television and print media. Profiled on the Lives of the 21st Century series with Peter Jennings on ABC World News, his after-broadcast chat room fielded more hits than any other segment to date. It achieved iconic status as the grass farm featured in the NEW YORK TIMES bestseller OMNIVORE'S DILEMMA by food writer guru Michael Pollan.

Joel Salatin schedule:

Friday August 26,   Public Talk 7-9pm
Building Local Food Systems
Saturday, August 27, All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm
Ballet in the Pasture
register here

Ballet in the Pasture (1 day workshop August 27)

Polyface Farm's choreographed plant-animal symbiosis heals the landscape, the community, and the eater. A theatrical performance mixing humor and bomb-shell food system analysis, Salatin's stemwinder educates, entertains, and encourages. First rate pictures let the audience take a virtual tour around this grass-based multi-species livestock farm. Salatin's passionate explanations offer up a veritable epiphany on food and farming. Life-changing and ultimately memorable, Ballet in the Pasture is Salatin's signature performance.

Joel Salatin is a masterful speaker whose humor and positive energy guarantees a rewarding course. Over two information packed days Joel takes us through his entire family farm operation from the production of pastured poultry (eggs, broilers, turkeys), salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, forage-based rabbits & forestry products through to the relationship marketing approach his family business has developed that has made Polyface Farm the internationally recognized, and strictly local farm it is today.
If you are a farmer, understand your potential to renew and inspire your local community through clean food. If you live in town, discover the power you have to patronize your local farms and decouple them from wholly unfair corporate forces. Help your local farmers transform their farms into profitable and wholesome operations producing food you can trust. Become instrumental in the conscientious transformation of the dangerously toxic and destructive food production status quo towards the wholesome regenerative model the Polyface Farms have proven wildly successful. With Joel you'll reveal the astonishingly obvious steps we all must take towards a future that is beyond sustainable.
Act to regenerate your land, water & community.
Topics Include
     *       Grass-fed beef ('Salad Bar Beef')
       *       Pastured Poultry (Eggs, broilers & turkeys)
     *       Pig Keeping ('Pigaerator Pork')
*       Forage-Based Rabbits
    *       Value-added Forestry
    *       Relationship marketing
*       Navigating legalities
   *       Whole farm planning
     *       Simple irrigation methods

* Wildlife habitat benefits the farm
* Developing local food networks

        *       Multi-generational family farms
*       Principles of profitable farming
        *       On-farm nutrient cycling

* Buyer advice for the local food movement
* So much moreŠ

Local Food to the Rescue (August 26, Friday evening talk)

Biosecurity, food borne pathogens, energy, integrity, humane husbandry: local food can correct it all. But to really be a credible percentage of the global food system, it must develop six integrated components: production, processing, marketing, accounting, distribution, and patrons. Building a local food system that works requires aromatic and aesthetic production models that reintroduce the butcher, baker, and candlestick maker into the community. Economies of scale in collaborative food shed distribution compete with corporate volume. And patrons must rediscover their kitchens, eating seasonally and relearning domestic culinary arts.

Kirk Gadzia - Holistic Land Management September 17-18

Kirk Gadzia

Gadzia, is a Certified Educator with the Holistic Management International Center. He has over 20 years experience teaching the concepts of Holistic Management® worldwide.
Kirk is co-author of the important National Academy of Sciences book: Rangeland Health. He holds a BS degree in Wildlife Biology and an MS in Range Science.
Kirk works directly with producers to achieve profitability in their operations. He also provides customized training and consulting to a wide variety of conservation organizations.

Years of assisting people on the land helps Kirk approach the course in an interactive, hands-on style. His courses are known for a relaxed atmosphere, open dialogue and practical real-life examples.
In September the Carbon Economy Series Friday Lecture and Saturday/Sunday
Workshop general subject is Holistic Land Management,
our featured presenter is Kirk Gadzia.

Kirk Gadzia schedule:

Friday September 16, Public Talk 7-9pm
Healthy Land, Healthy Families, Hefty Profits
Saturday, September 17, All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm
Holistic Land Management
Sunday, September 18, All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm

Holistic Range land Management

Holistic Land Management

Resource Management Services, LLC (RMS) is a New Mexico based consulting, training and monitoring organization committed to assisting private and professional resource managers achieve sustainable results. RMS was founded by Kirk Gadzia of Bernalillo, New Mexico. Resource Management Services, LLC is a New Mexico based consulting, training and monitoring organization committed to assisting private and professional resource managers achieve sustainable results. Applying a systems-thinking approach to managing land resources to improve production, generate financial strength, regenerate ecosystems, and improve the quality of life for those who use it.
An intensive 2-day introduction to Holisitic Management (HM). A comprehensive system of land management that provides farmers, land managers, land consultants, landcare volunteers and professionals, permaculture practitioners and others with a proven set of practical methods for boasting fertility, increasing land carrying capacity, farm productivity and profits without sacrificing land health. Holisitic Management techniques are genuinely regenerative.
Holistic Resource Management was pioneered by Allan Savory more than 40 years ago to offer land stewards a way to make grazing, land management and financial decisions that positively impact land health and productivity. More than 30 million acres of land worldwide currently benefit from Holistic Management practices.

When land is under Holistic Management, land managers manage the relationships between land, grazing animals, and water in ways that mimic nature. This approach yields incredible results.
Topics Include

*       Improving grazing productivity
*       Increasing annual profits
       *       Enhancing livelihoods
   *       Optimal use of water resources
*       Growing healthier crops
*       Obtaining higher yields
*       Improving soil health
   *       Increasing diversity
    *       Reversing desertification
       *       Increasing food and water security

* Enhancing family relationships

* Soil Carbon Sequestration

Dr. Elaine Ingham - The Soil Food Web & Composting Technology October 14-16

Dr. Elaine Ingham
President and Director
of Research at Soil Foodweb Inc., is one of the world's leading soil microbiologists with 30 years of experience researching and teaching about the world and creatures under the soil. Her energetic and easy-to-understand teaching style brings the soil foodweb to life.
Elaine received her doctorate degree in Microbiology with an emphasis on soil from Colorado State University. She was offered Post-doctoral Fellowship, at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab at Colorado State University and accepted a Research Associate Fellowship at the University of Georgia.
She moved to Oregon State University, and joined the faculty in both Forest Science and Botany and Plant Pathology.
At OSU she created a service offering researchers and commercial clients the ability to have soil samples analyzed for soil foodweb organisms. When the number of samples coming into the Soil Microbial Biomass Service was close to 8,000 samples a year, and the amount of lab space required to process this number of samples was greater than originally planned. The head of Elaine's department asked that the commercial portion of the Biomass Service be taken off-campus. Thus Soil Foodweb Inc. became a commercial enterprise. Soil Foodweb Inc. now has labs in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Eastern and Western Canada.
With the move into a private lab, Elaine's focus turned more to grower-related issues, focusing on the expense of intensive chemical use as well as the damage these chemicals inflict on beneficial organisms in the soil and on foliage.

Working on compost tea with many people around the world has brought a greater understanding of how to properly manage thermally produced compost, vermicompost, and compost tea to guarantee disease-suppressive, soil-building, nutrient-retaining composts and compost teas.
Rodale Institute Names Dr. Elaine Ingham as New Chief Scientist

World-renowned soil biology expert to join Rodale Institute

KUTZTOWN, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Rodale Institute, a non-profit dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach, today announced the appointment of Dr. Elaine Ingham as Chief Scientist. Dr. Ingham has lead Soil Foodweb, Inc. as president and director of research since 1996, helping farmers all over the world to grow more resilient crops by understanding and improving their soil. She is also an affiliate professor at Maharishi University of Management in Iowa and has served in academia for two decades.

In her new role as Chief Scientist, Dr. Ingham will take the lead on all Rodale Institute research projects; act as the scientific voice for the Institute as she travels worldwide; and help create a vision for the future of food and farming.

"Dr. Ingham is a true, card-carrying Soil Biologist-a rare entity. As one of the foremost authorities on practical soil biology management, she is uniquely qualified to pioneer new frontiers of organic research with the Rodale Institute," says Executive Director Mark Smallwood. "We are very excited to have her join our team."

Since it's founding in 1947 by J.I. Rodale, the Rodale Institute has been committed to groundbreaking research in organic agriculture, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating people about how organic is the safest, healthiest option for people and the planet. The Institute is home to the Farming Systems TrialTM (FST), America's longest-running side-by-side comparison of chemical and organic agriculture. Consistent results from the study have shown that organic yields match or surpass those of conventional farming. In years of drought, organic corn yields are about 30% higher. This year, 2011 marks the 30th year of the trial. New areas of study at the Rodale Institute include rates of carbon sequestration in chemical versus organic plots and new techniques for weed suppression.

ABOUT RODALE INSTITUTE

Rodale Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to pioneering organic farming through research and outreach. For over sixty-years, we've been researching the best practices of organic agriculture and sharing our findings with farmers and scientists throughout the world, advocating for policies that support farmers, and educating consumers about how going organic is the healthiest options for people and the planet.

Contacts

Rodale Institute
Maya Rodale, 610-683-1483

maya.rodale@rodaleinst.org

In October, the Carbon Economy Series Friday Lecture and two day Saturday & Sunday Workshop subject is the The Soil Food Web,
our featured presenter is Dr. Elaine Ingham.

Elaine Ingham schedule:

Friday, October 14, 2011    Public Talk 7-9pm
Living Soil is Where It's At
Saturday, October 15, 2011    All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm
Introduction to Soil Foodweb
Sunday,October 15, 201    All Day Workshop 9:30-4:30 pm
Soil Foodweb and Compost Tea Technology

The Friday Lecture will be: Living Soil is Where It's At.
Soil guru Dr. Elaine Ingham explains why conventional agriculture is ruining our soil and how to fix it.
Saturday & Sunday Intensives will be: Intro to Soil Foodweb
Soil Foodweb Sustainable Studies Institute Workshops
Dr. Elaine Ingham has developed three in-depth workshops at her Soil Foodweb, Inc.
Laboratory. Now taught through the Sustainable Studies Institute in Corvallis, Oregon,
the courses include classroom instruction, hands-on lab work, and field demonstrations.
Introduction to the Soil Foodweb - 2 days

Introduction to the Soil Foodweb Elaine Ingham, PhD
Two Days (8:00 am to 5:00 pm)
What is Biological Farming? Examples
Soil Foodweb Principles
. Productivity versus Foodweb Complexity
. Methods
. How-to-do-it Example
. Biology, Chemistry, Compost, Compost Tea
The Soil Foodweb: Myths, Roots, Compaction, Calcium
Energy
Disease Suppression
Nutrient Retention including C:N
Foodweb Picture
Nutrient Cycling
. N Cycle
. What form of nutrient do plants need?
. How much N, P, K, Mg, S, B do plants need?
Soil Structure - Who builds which parts?
Complexity revisited
Succession
Disturbance
Microscope Demonstrations
System-by-System Approaches
. Grasslands
. Crops
. Vines
. Orchards
Sampling
Data Needed to fix things biologically
Compost Technology
Prerequisite: Introduction to Soil Foodweb Workshop or Equivalent
One Day (8:00 am to 5:00 pm)
Review of Important Soil Foodweb Concepts
. The right organisms for the plant desired
. The right food for the plant desired
Making Thermal Compost: Important Parameters
. Starting materials, temperature, aeration, turning and particle size
. Commercial recipes approach
. Small scale approach
Soil Foodweb Sustainable Studies Institute Workshops
. Home owner approach
The Important Parameters in Making:
. Worm Compost
. In-Vessel Composting
. Static Composting
Definition of Good Compost
. Immature versus mature compost
. Stability
. Compost standards
How to Determine Whether Soil Needs Compost
. Rates of decomposition, smell, color
. When to do organism assays and which assays to run
. Does your soil have the right organisms in the right numbers?
Field Approach: Vegetables, Lawns, Orchards, Vineyards
Field Approach: Thermal and Worm Compost Farms
Compost Tea Technology
Prerequisites: Introduction to Soil Foodweb Workshop; Compost Technology Workshop
One Day (8:00 am to 5:00 pm)
Definition of Good Tea
. Maturity, stability, E. Coli, Standards
. Aerated Compost Tea versus Not-Aerated Tea
. Plant Tea, etc.
Making Compost Tea: Essential Components
. The brewing cycle, the right compost, extraction, aeration, water source, recipes, growing fungi, E. coli
issues
. Recipes
The Important Parameters in Testing Compost Tea
Determining Whether Plants Need Compost Tea
. Rates of decomposition, smell, color
. When to do organism assays, which assays to run
. Does your foliage have enough of the right organisms?
Altering the Foodweb in Soil & on Plant Surfaces
. The right organisms for the plant desired
. Bacterial or fungal dominated tea?
. The right foods for the plant desired
. Commercial products
How to Use Compost Tea in a Successful Program
. Turf
. Landscape
. Orchard
. Row Crops/Vegetables
Microscope Demonstration of Different Teas

Why we are here

Genesis

The Carbon Economy, Carbon Farming and Regenerative Agriculture Series workshops in Santa Fe a re born out of the inspiration of a few and the efforts of many. First, I applaud with gratitude the genius, impetus and energy of Australian permaculturist Darren Doherty (http://www.regenag.com) who came up with the concept for this series.

I was fortunate to be hosted by the wonderful multigenerational Tautrim family on Orella Ranch (http://www.orellaranch.com) next to the glimmering Pacific Ocean in Santa Barbara, CA for my first Carbon Series experience in 2009. The world renowned teachers and eager participants discussed topics which were highly enlightening and edifying to all. We were lovingly taken care of by the kind people of Quail Springs (http://www.quailsprings.org) who produced the event. That pivotal experience inspired me to offer the Carbon Economy Series in Santa Fe, NM in 2011.

As Pablo Lugari, the celebrated pioneer of sustainable practices from Colombia explained to a group of us who visited Gaviotas (http://www.friendsofgaviotas.org) last November; all life depends on the delicate balance of the gasses in our atmosphere. This balance has coevolved with the vegetative skin of the planet. This vegetative envelope is the succession of species flowing from a one cell organism like cyanobacteria, to algae, to grasses, and vegetables.

This flow continues to bushes, deciduous trees and finally to the mighty conifers. This membrane uses sunlight, carbon, soil, and water to produce oxygen and food.

The soil-food-web supports all the life we see and experience in our daily life. It is more complex than all the species we know on the surface of the land and under water. We have only identified 2% of the organisms in soil. Three groups have been identified: bacteria, fungi and micro organisms like nematodes. Their varying proportion sets up the conditions to nurture the different families of plants. These biological organisms use tremendous amounts of carbon to break down mother rock and her substrates into a less complex mineral structure which plants can utilize to thrive. These organisms, along with the grass family, sequester more carbon and release more oxygen than tropical rain forests.

We can all sequester more carbon and replenish the biology of the earth's soil membrane with the natural practices to be discussed in theory and practice in the Carbon Economy Series. Join us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBITCJU3DqA&feature=player_embedded