"Peak Water" - we are there

Durham is in a precarious location in relation to our aquifer (Piedmont). 

Large scale Rain water Harvesting systems must be implemented to meet agricultural and development demand.We get 48" average rainfall which is fairly significant in terms of return to capture.

We know the amount of water we remove from the aquifer in acre feet, we need to replace it. We need to practice urban and rural Aquifer Management (AM). 

In the agricultural sector we need to tie AM into and monitor evapotranspiration rates, chill units, fruit phenology, IPM, weather and soil data. Farms and each of the universities in the NC system feed information on a shared data base system. Data must be constant on a day to day basis so farms know when to water and how much. A Rain Water Harvesting system and Sustainable Orchard or Crop management program is then available that would in turn reduce inputs while advancing greater yields. IN this system there is a sustainable economic factor (jobs) as well as a sustainable agricultural management component. In addition there is an educational piece that also cannot be ignored.

Agriculture and development are the biggest draw and storm water runoff the biggest waste. Pivot irrigation is a waste. North Carolina farms will not have the option to be saved or passed on to the next generation if they don't have water.

Durham is barely on an aquifer to manage geographically

The sedimentary rocks in the Piedmont Province consist of sandstone, siltstone, mudstone, shale, and local conglomerate.We are in a weird spot. The four southernmost basins (Durham) contain water sufficient only for domestic supplies in the upper 300 feet. The rocks are similar in composition but are more compact and cemented, than those in the basins to the north. They do not yield sufficient quantities of water to be considered a principal aquifer.

Durham, Sanford, Wadesboro and Davie are all in this area and in the same circumstance.

If we want water long term for our children we have got to address Peak water" and the answer falls from the sky and harvestable. 

Durham especially needs to consider its real circumstance given our geographic location and supply compared to development and agricultural use. We are not as fortunate as areas in a less precarious position with better access.

• Rain barrels help, make sure you understand the source (roof = petrochemicals, or tin = lead). Answer to that is a flush.
• Roads require an elaborate NASA level filter system that requires maintenance but doable.
• Managing storm water? This is the largest waste of rain water inner city. We have a storm water management answer that is an awesome product using existing infrastructure and almost no containment. The answer to this is simply complex and allusive.

Large scale removal demands a large scale answer.

We need, environmentally sound, ecologically placed capture areas with conveyance to containment and direct recharge capability designed using state of the art engineering software that is tied into a computer system that monitors the water usage rate so recharge can be controlled.

All of these systems exist. No wheel needs to be invented. No elaborate and expensive systems need to be developed. They only need to be elaborate in size to meet demand using existing infrastructure in an environmentally sound way.

Jeff Ensminger

 

Urban Agroecology

In America today we are in our own version of a "Special Period" with the current financial market and crisis in which urban agroecology will have a key role.

The term ‘urban agroecology’ implies a paradox, the contrast of an urban environment devoted to industry and commerce with the tranquility of inner city farms and gardens. The healing powers of green landscape are increasingly recognized and the value of landscape in anchoring people in time and place and in developing a sense of community apparent. Urban agroecology encompasses at least seven inter-related aspects: the convergence of horticulture and applied ecology in the creation of new public landscapes, appreciation of the economic benefits of green space rather than the traditional focus on its costs, environmental education to give children a sound understanding of their place in nature, benefits to human health, the use of inner city farms and ‘gardening’  as a catalyst for economic and social cohesion, a revival in public horticulture from costly bedding schemes to wildflower or productive meadows, awareness of ‘ecosystem services’ aspect of green space for flood control, environmental amelioration and biodiversity. There are six key factors which will shape urban agroecology in this century and which will determine its contribution to civilized urban life: climate change; decreasing oil supplies; population growth; the countervailing attractions of town and country; social order or disorder and global finance.

Perhaps the black cloud of the credit crunch could have a silver lining if the reassessment of our true wealth becomes the butterfly wing redirecting our society into a more sustainable way of life.

Jeff

NEEM

www.neemtree.org

http://neemtree.blogspot.com/

Organoponico NEEM – what is Agroecology and the Cuban model

The industrial model of agriculture is in a global crisis. As resources for the production of food are compromised, the vision of ever increasing yields through industrialization of production is challenged. As a result of this crisis, the new model of agriculture, agroecology in the rural sector and urban inner city are gaining favor. The new paradigm views the farm as an eco system, and blends the technical advances of modern science with the time tested and common sense knowledge of traditional farming practices. In reality agriculture as practiced today, especially, is not really sustainable. We disrupt the fabric of the land and the natural order of things to perform it. Urban agroecological approaches must take into consideration the urban environment. Approaches to agroecology in the urban sector are similar yet somewhat different. NEEM takes a Frank Lloyd Wright approach that integrates the farm into the ecological framework so it is not disruptive, but diverse, complimentary and productive with the least amount of environmental impact. As urban agroecology gains increasing favor through grass roots and policy initiatives, the need for trained professionals and technical staff will be increasingly felt. Addressing that need now will create sustainable economies when they are needed most.

Cuba is no different than the rest of the world. However, the need was more urgently felt in Cuba two decades ago due to the fall of the iron curtain and the existing blockade. These created a crisis induced scarcity of external inputs for agriculture. Cuba returned to sustainable agriculture by default and in the process embraced it. The Agroecological approach takes sustainable AG to the next level, one that is self sustaining and ecologically sound, with infrastructure to support it and in harmony with nature.

The impacts of the industrial model are not sustainable; the increased cost is in chemical inputs and is evidenced by the increase in subsidies ten fold. Subsidies are also not sustainable. Urban Agroecology in practice and theory is sustainable at a fraction of the cost with a positive impact on the socio-economic and environmental dynamic.

The Agroecological model in Cuba is no longer theoretical. The essential area of training for transition is in place and practice.  Cuba has taken the step to become the “first sustainable society of the 21^st century”.

NEEM replicates this model because we realize that Cuba is years ahead of the curve and because their practices are ecologically sound, as the oldest and most successful agroecological model on the planet. The Cuban model is in keeping with NEEMs natural and non invasive mission. It is a model that works and that is why we follow it and give credit where it is due.

“We weave the farm into the landscape, not the land into a farm.”

Jeff Ensminger

NEEM

           

 

 

Natural Environmental Ecological Management (NEEM)

614 Shepherd St., Durham, NC 27701 (Office)

2001 Chapel Hill Rd., Durham, NC 27707 (Retail and Nursery)

Phone: 919-321-6111

Email: neem@mindspring.com

Internet: www.neemtree.org

 Wednesday, January 26, 2011

North Carolina Sustainable Agriculture Delegation in Cuba  

Two peoples with one passion separated only by distance and politics

The North Carolina delegation to Cuba has returned from a most successful research trip. Led by NEEM and hosted by Dr. Fernando Funes, we were exposed over the seven day period to the agroecological system in Cuba from A - Z.

I half jokingly mentioned that there are as many Ministries and affiliated groups in Cuba as there are Oricha (the numerous deities of a prevailing religion, Santeria) which on first appearance seemed daunting in size and scope to imagine being effective. The group learned quickly that it was a collective, each with a specific task constantly updating each other on results like dripping water that fills the pot.  We have much to share in presentations to our community in the same spirit.

What did we learn?

That since sustainable agriculture is possible on a country level in Cuba that it is also possible in North Carolina on a State wide level. That farming is food science, an art, an honorable profession that is available to us in the States as a resource for sustainable economies in the urban sector. The U.S. is not all that different than Cuba, we too are a consumer society with all of our industry gone and Agriculture the largest left that must be preserved. Our community’s notion of local is best is strengthened and that the small local system works, less susceptible to problems, and is nutritionally and ecologically sound with the lowest environmental impact and a positive effect on the carbon footprint.

Some highlights of the trip:

Dr. Fernando Funes and his staff at ACTAF briefed us on the system. This set the tone for the days ahead allowing the delegates to get a basic understanding of the model. We were honored and forever grateful to Fernando, the father of Agroecology in Cuba, for taking the time to be with us daily. Fernando, his late wife and son Fernando II are Agroecolgical giants in Cuba. My first meetings with Cuban officials in the mid nineties were in Washington with Gustavo Machin at the Interest Section. We discussed infrastructure and I expressed a fear of potential change and return to conventional systems once relations between our countries were resolved. The delegation left knowing now that measures are in place that will prevent that. This was most important to know.

Organoponicos (large and small inner city farms) – referred to as “Basic Unit of Cooperative Production” (UBPC) litter inner city Havana. They provide sustainable economies and an enormous percentage of dietary requirements of the Cuban people are met through production and distribution. We saw several but the largest (and one of the most productive and successful) was Organoponico Alamar, run by Director Salcines in Vivero neighborhood. Alamar is a completely self sufficient operation with no chemical inputs with acres of raised beds, greenhouses, composting and vermi-composting, micorrhizes, livestock, biological controls, vegetable and ornamentals etc. Alamar’s success is a reflection on a large scale of the other smaller but similar operations hiring roughly 130 people with classes, restaurant, gift shop and vegetable stand on site.

Indio Hatuey Research Station - founded in the sixties, this is the most historic but one of many places established for research in a rural setting. Hatuey is in the province of Matanzas. All work here is based on diversified agroecological systems. Research covers every aspect and investigates various crops, silvopastoral concepts (mixed crop and livestock), organoponic, microorganisms, silk worm (sericulture), forage grasses, lawn grasses, bioenergy, complimentary and companion growing, most efficient complimentary crop rotations, nitrogenification through legumes, Integrated Pest Management etc. with tests sites and field tests throughout the property. All information developed here is shared with other stations and passed down country wide to the smallest operation in the rural and urban agroceological sectors. We could have spent days here.

Foods Conservation Community Project - “Vilde and Pepe’, old friends I had not seen for 8 years who are devoted to food preservation, solar drying, canning/bottling, condiments, preserves and an undying gift to the community by this devoted couple to fostering Traditional Cuban Cuisine and maximum utilization of products produced. They spread a spirit of sharing in educational projects throughout Cuba and the global community.

Villa Hortensia – farmer and Agroecological artist par excellence Idalio Mederos. Words cannot truly relay what we witnessed here. Idalio has taken Villa Hortensia to a level that can only be described accurately in a slide or power point presentation. His farm is a visual and artistic Garden of Eden producing ornamentals. No natural stone was left unturned here, every step a visual pleasure right up to the most artistic compost pile I have ever seen. Idalio is what we would all like to be, off the grid, no computer, making his own charcoal, completely self sufficient, humble with an enormous heart. Hortensia lies outside Havana in the Artemisa municipality.

 “El Grupo Magnifico”

The delegation was diverse and comprised of North Carolina farmers, academics representing 4 major universities, NC Department of Agriculture, fund resources, Non Profit Groups, Agricultural and sustainable community consultants. Fernando Funes, our driver and Joe (our interpreter). Most were members or affiliated with CFSA and CEFS. A few were out of State invitees and either current or future collaborators with NC. We were professional, family and will work together in future collaborations; here and in Cuba. All had determined early on to share our mutual information, pictures and presentations gathered with our communities here in the States. I think I can speak for the group in that our desire is the same spirit of cooperation and sharing for the greater good that left an indelible mark on all of us.

We thank in addition: CATEC, UBPC’s, Indio Hatuey, CTA’s, INIFAT, ICAP, MINAGRI, Idalmis Nazco, Alina Martin, Ivis Cárdenas, Roberto Caballero, Egidio Perez, Director Salcines, Osvaldo Franchialfaro, Giraldo Martin, Dr. Odalys, Dr. Iglesias, Idalio Maderos, Luis Ortega, America and Carlo, Eng. Diaz, Eng. Rodriguez, Vilda and Peppe, Dr. Perez, Dr. Vazquez, Dr. Febles, Dr. Orellana, Dr. Funes Monzote II, Dr. Rodriguez-Nodals, Dr. Companoni, Dr. Cruz and Roberto Sanchez; the Hotel Nacional and its staff and the people of Cuba.

Jeffrey A. Ensminger

            Executive Director

NEEM 

 http://www.kickstarter.com/e/FxD1y/projects/neem/cuba-seed-to-plate-a-wandering-feast

  http://www.livablefutureblog.com/2011/01/shovel-ready-cuban-urban-agriculture-as-job-creator/

     http://www.cubaheadlines.com/2010/09/29/26833/north_carolina_sustainable_agriculture_delegation_in_cuba.html