Page 8 RAIN, February/March 1976 Bio.;.Dynamic French Intensive Agriculture The biodynamic/French intensive method ·is a synthesis of a number of techniques developed by European schools of agriculture over the last century and brought together by Alan Chadwick, an inspired English master horticulturist, no~ located in Covelo, California. Some basic techniques of the biodynamic/French intensiv"e method are: 1. Double-dug, raised beds in which the soil is dug thor~ oughly the first 12 inches and loosened an additional 12 inches by a simple manual metho,d using a shovel. This loose soil enables roots to penetrate easily and allows a steady stream o,f nutrients to flow into stems and leaves. Moisture is retained well, ,erosion is minimized and weeding is simplified because ,of the looseness of the soil. Also, since yields are about 4 times as high, only 1/4 the area need be prepared, dug, watered and weeded for a given yield. 2. Intensive planting. Seeds or seedlings are planted in raised, 3-5 foot wide beds of varying length µsing a hexagonal spacing pattern. Grains are often grown in wider areas. Each seed is placed the same distance from all seeds nearest it so that when the pl'ants mature their leaves barely touch. This provides a mini-climate under the leaves which retains moisture, protects the valuable microbiotic life of the soil, retards weed growth, and helps provide high yields. 3. Companion planting. Many plants grow better when near'other kinds of plants. Green beans and strawberries, for instance, thrive better when grown together. Some plants are useful in repelling harmful insects while others attract beneficial ones. Borage, for example, repels tomato worms while its blue flowers attract bees. Also, many wild plants and weeds have a healthy effect on the soil. Their deep roots loosen the subsoil and bring up previously unavailable trace minerals and nutriments. The use of companion planting aids the gardener and farmer in producing fine quality vegetables and helps create and maintain a healthy, vibrant soil. The placing together of symbiqti·c companion plants itself does·not appear to produce significantly increased yields, but rather promotes the soil life and health necessary to sustain increased yields. 4. Compost. The high yields and lowered water requirements made possible by i~tensive planting would.not be possible without a way of m·aintaining the health and vigor of the soil. Garbage, vegetation, manure and many other forms of readily available organic matter, when properly composted, provide most of the elements necessary to maintain the biological cycles of life that exist in the farm 6r home.garden. The textu're and microbiotic life of the soil is improved by. the compost which creates better aeration and water retention. 5. Promotion of microbioti~ life. All biodynamic/French intensive techniques promote healthy microbiotic plant and animal life in the'soil. These not only fix atmosphere nitrogen in the soil, but also produc~ antibiotics that help enable plants to resist diseases. Standard ~arming techniques tend to destroy these life forms. . It is important to note \hat the biodynamic/French intensive method is a whole system and that the component principles of the method intermesh in actual use to create complex living units. Farmers in Europe experimenting with only the intensive spacing factor in combination with commercial techniques are finding themselves beset with deteriorating soil fertility, nitrate toxicity in plants, soil and water, lower quality produce, diminishing populations of beneficial insects, and , lowered plant resistance to disease and pests. Many people have described the biodynamic/French intensive method as labor intensive. More correctly it should be described as skill intensiv@,•because only about 15 percent·of the time·expended can be considered moderately hard labor. The initial soil preparation, when a person is changing over to the method, can be more diffiqilt, however. Also, performance of the method is not monotonous·since all the varied tasks of •soil preparati~n, compost preparation, fertilization, planting, harvesting, weeding, watering, and marketing are performed by the mini-farmer. Farmers using the method may wapt to form cooperatives to facilitate the marketing process and to share experiences. Marketing would probably be best performed at a ~ooperative level, sine~ often it may be difficult for one pers-on to maintain all the contacts necessary for proper crop planning and marketing. It would be unfortunate, for instance, if all mini-farmers .decided to grow one crop, such ·as ENERGY continued from page 7 The Power of Nuclear Power in Washington State, Sean Casey and Marilyn Vavasour. Check on price and availability frpm: Coalition for a Safe Environment 3123 Eastlake Ave. E. private organizations involved in the·development of nucl~ar power. The purpose of the report is to show citizen activists that a small, elite group of government administrators and energy industry executives determine-the course of nuclear energy in Washington state, to the detriment of'the multiplicity of public interests goals. to ERDA, its contractors and grantees, is now available to the public..ERA abstracts and indexes reports, patents, journal articles, conference papers, theses, books and monographs sponsored by ERDA. "How to Do-Business with ERDA," . conference, Mar. or Apr. '75. For details write: Seattle, WA 98102 Contains a history of nuclear power development in Washington state and of TPPSEC, the Thermal Power Plant Site Evaluation Council; profiles .of governmental agencies, electrical industry and utility companies, nucle~r consultants and associations; and, using the history and profiles, schematically portrays the interconnections between public and ERDA Research Abstracts (ERA), $119 per year, $148.75 overseas (Index only $30.50 per year, $38.15 overseas), from: Ass't. Public' Printer Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 ERDA's monthly abstract journal, published since March '7 5 but available only AASRC 1629 K St., N.W. Washington, DC 20006 Sponsored by the American Association • of Small Research Companies, will include information on a variety of gov- . ernment procurement programs in the energy area.
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