Show notes with links and key concepts:
The Waste Between Our Ears from Paper Chain and Acres Magazine
Focus on engagement and education.
Queanbeyan, the location for the first City to Soil program.
"We need this stuff really clean because it's going into the soil to grow food to feed your children."
Recycling program success is measured by contamination levels. The initial program in Queanbeyan had a contamination level of less than half a percent. With four councils involved, Goulburn, Canberra, Armidale and Queanbeyan, the levels were at .2%.
City to Soil research lead to the yellow lidded recycling bins.
With a paper survey about the program, the response rate was 55%!
Soft drinks bottles are the same material as bicycle helmets.
Non-hodgkin Lymphoma related to Glyphosate - (unrelated but interesting) Maurice Blackman legal case
$2B increase in Agricultural value over next decade at the same time as $800m of land degradation due to salinity in the Murray Darling Basin alone.
455 million hectares under Agricultural practices in Australia. 70% of this has less than 1% organic matter, which increases water retention and microbial activity.
Minton Farmer growing 5 different grains, that support each other microbially. Uses an expensive seed mill to sort them. No poisons used.
Fleabane can be bailed and composted, with an inoculant, to become biostimulant.
Weed control has to do with time of removal and how it is disposed of.
Scotch Thistle has a high protein content, higher than grains. Often treated as weed but cattle can be trained to eat it.
William Albrecht
Weeds in City to Soil compost have 0 viable seeds due to heat in compost and the time of their removal/collection.
Sir Albert Howard, author of An Agricultural Testament.
Maye Bruce - Quick Return Method of composting, developed during WWII. Student of Rudolf Steiner. Had a dream that the essence of everything was in the flower. 6 week turn around for Compost.
Journey to Forever - Quick Return Method
Compost from City to Soil in Armidale is sold for cost recovery.
Research on Estuarine systems by CSIRO
International Biochar Initiative
Inoculate your charcoal/Biochar before using it in your garden.
Turning cyclone debris into biochar for filtering water and growing vegetables quickly.