4 ms·

> Cool. And which of those can I generate using excess electrical energy from my solar panels? Perhaps use the excess energy to power an electric wood chipper

> Cool. And which of those can I generate using excess electrical energy from my solar panels? Perhaps use the excess energy to power an electric wood chipper to process your garden's waste? Wood chips made from small branches are quite rich in nitrogen. > Over the last 3 years I've imported almost 5000kg of animal manures into my gardens. What size garden do you have? The recommended dosage of manure is 30-50T per hectare, so 3-5T per 1000m2, but this is for the most exigent vegetables. > Its more important for me to have the independence and control over my food-supply than it is to hold to a particular relgiosity around where my N comes from. When you use a chemical fertilizer you depend on the manufacturer and distributor. How can this be called independence? There are important differences at the soil biology level between the N coming from a chemical fertiliser or assimilated by soil bacteria. The former induces plants to use more water, necessitating more frequent watering. It also infiltrates ground water and pollutes aquifers. Another externality is greenhouse gas emissions in the process of manufacturing it. > When that fails, I'll use a pesticide. I'm not passing judgement but I think it's important to understand the consequences of our choices. At this point it is common knowledge that chemical fertilizers and pesticides are harmful to the environment and to people's health. I think it's important to be aware of the externalities implicated in all those choices. They might be easier, faster, cheaper in the short term, but in the long term they may prove to be introducing problems that are much harder, slower, much more expensive to solve in the long term.

RosanaAnaDana 4y ago
I'm not going to bother responding to most of your points because most of them are poorly thought out and not worth my time, however this one stands out to me and I think captures the thrust of it.. >I'm not passing judgement Oh I think you are. For many people in the world the decision around using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides is a decision between having a crop or not. This choice you want to make is a privilege that can only be made in the context of additional resources not accounted for, like having sufficient area to do crop rotation, additional land for the cultivation of fertilizers, or additional time and resources to dedicate to cultural practices. Have you done the math on what are you would need to grow an acre of corn using only animal fertilizers? What about the carbon cost of moving that fertilizer around? What about the cost to the soil for tilling it in? How much additional land would need to be dedicated to animals to do? What about the methane and water quality issues for raising those animals? What if you live in an urban or sub-urban area? There are real issues around over fertilization, intensified crop rotations, and pesticide use. Rejecting these tools outright, and more specifically, the attitude that we have the privilege to reject them outright is deeply problematic. If what you actually want is for people to grow into being more food self-sufficient, this attitude creates more barriers than it resolves. If we could run the Haber-bosch process on what is effectively waste electricity, this would be a huge deal. Home gardeners could have something not too dissimilar to a battery bank that kicks on when there is surplus electricity, and fix nitrogen for storage into a tank for later use. Farmers could dedicate small sections of their farms to solar panels which can optimize between grid usage or the filling of fertilizer tanks depending on the economics. It would reduce the cost of producing and moving around that fertilizer. It would be a really good thing.
SECProto 4y ago
> What size garden do you have? The recommended dosage of manure is 30-50T per hectare, so 3-5T per 1000m2, but this is for the most exigent vegetables. Reading their other comments, they have about 1000m2 of garden. So using 5t over 3 years is 1/2 to 1/3 of the dosage you listed. They don't appear to be over using.

RosanaAnaDana 4y ago

I'm not going to bother responding to most of your points because most of them are poorly thought out and not worth my time, however this one stands out to me and I think captures the thrust of it.. >I'm not passing judgement Oh I think you are. For many people in the world the decision around using synthetic fertilizers or pesticides is a decision between having a crop or not. This choice you want to make is a privilege that can only be made in the context of additional resources not accounted for, like having sufficient area to do crop rotation, additional land for the cultivation of fertilizers, or additional time and resources to dedicate to cultural practices. Have you done the math on what are you would need to grow an acre of corn using only animal fertilizers? What about the carbon cost of moving that fertilizer around? What about the cost to the soil for tilling it in? How much additional land would need to be dedicated to animals to do? What about the methane and water quality issues for raising those animals? What if you live in an urban or sub-urban area? There are real issues around over fertilization, intensified crop rotations, and pesticide use. Rejecting these tools outright, and more specifically, the attitude that we have the privilege to reject them outright is deeply problematic. If what you actually want is for people to grow into being more food self-sufficient, this attitude creates more barriers than it resolves. If we could run the Haber-bosch process on what is effectively waste electricity, this would be a huge deal. Home gardeners could have something not too dissimilar to a battery bank that kicks on when there is surplus electricity, and fix nitrogen for storage into a tank for later use. Farmers could dedicate small sections of their farms to solar panels which can optimize between grid usage or the filling of fertilizer tanks depending on the economics. It would reduce the cost of producing and moving around that fertilizer. It would be a really good thing.

SECProto 4y ago

> What size garden do you have? The recommended dosage of manure is 30-50T per hectare, so 3-5T per 1000m2, but this is for the most exigent vegetables. Reading their other comments, they have about 1000m2 of garden. So using 5t over 3 years is 1/2 to 1/3 of the dosage you listed. They don't appear to be over using.