RAIN Journal of Appropriate Technology JANUARY, 1977 VOL. Ill, NO.4 INSIDE: SOLAR GREENHOUSES p. 4 E. F. SCHUMACHER ONE DOLLAR on technology and political change p.8 FOOD DISTRIBUTION AND MARKETING p. 12
Page 2 RAIN January 1977 RAIN access Q\_GRICULTURE) Proposals for Vermont s Agriculture and Food Future, Report of the Governor's Commission on Food, january 1976, $10 (summary soq) from:. Vermont Dept. of Agriculture 116 State Street Montpelier, VT 05607 An excellent complement to the above research studies which helps round out the process for change in one spec!fic region. Commission recommendatwns to the government include setti~g up communitv canneries, commumty compostin.g projects, farm~rs' markets, grain storag~ and cooperatives. (TB) Wild Foods Cookbook and Field Guide, Billy Joe Tatum, 1976, $4.95 from: Workman Publishing Co. 231 East 51st New York, NY 10022 Lots of good ideas here on how to find and how to eat such free goodies as purslane, dandelions, lamb's quarters, fern fronds and sorrel. Its dessert section was a disappointment as I was looking for some alternative sweeteners and virtually all call for sugar (not _even honey). But I think I'll add this to my cookbook shelf. (LdeM) Center for Studies in Food SelfSufficiency Vermont Institute of Community Involvement 90 Main Street Burlington, VT 05401 . These folks have carried out a wellorganized study of Vermont's agriculture and the potentials for change towards more self-reliant patterns for food production and consumption. Land, Bread and Histmy ($2.50). Explores the institutional changes in Vermont's agriculture from a time when it was largely self-sufficient to increasing impacts of outside transportation and land developments that caused a specialization in dairy, maple syrup, fruit and poultry products. It surveys the state's present food consumption and marketing patterns and develops a methodology for aligning agricultural land capability in relation to diet choices. Agricultural land is shown to be avail~ble to feed much more than the present population on present diets and change to a diary/ vegetarian or largely vegetarian diet is shown to reduce agricultural land needs by up to 40%. (TB) Ene1-gy Utilization i11 Vermo11t Agriculture. Summary (50q), Vol. 1Maple and Apple Production ($1.50), Vol. 2-Egg and Dairy Production ($1.50). A~full net energy accounting of various existing options for different sectors of the state's agriculture. Size offers little adYantage in maple or apple production. Commercial egg operations are more efficient than homestead operations, while small dairy farms are more than large ones. Overall state agricultural efficiency is 5.5%-requiring input of 18 calories per calorie of output. Suggestions for improved efficiency are given, as well as social concerns which should be included in determining state farm policy. (TB) Wheels of Fortune, 1976, from: Center for Rural Affairs P.O. Box 504 Walthill, NE 68067 Emergence of new· patterns is always a signal to delve into what lies behind them and what implications th~sc forces have beyond the surface events. Center-pivot irrigation in Nebraska is on the surface a shift to capital and energy-intensive farming. But underneath it represents a shift to investment schemes, tax shelters and lack of selfinterest in the long-term viability of soils, farming practices and rural society. Big circles on the plains spell bad news. This is a good analysis of what's happening and why, although_it doesn't continue its analysis strongly mto the brdad implications of such events. (TB) Agriculture and Economic Growth, U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1963, Economic Research Service, Agricultural Report No. 28 (A93.28:28), 25q from: U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 Economics ofSize in Farming, by j. Patrick Madden, Agricultural Report No. 107 (A93.28:107), 55q from: U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 U.S.D.A.'sown research findings on the relationship between farm size and efficiency of production. In case after case. economies of scale could be achieved equally well on one and two person farms. (TB) 12• ullfOI'IIY wood '::.0 How to Build WCQ)©JD) JD)~WIIOO ~~1f The Food Dryer's Drying Booklet, by John Magee and Connie Dexter, 197 5, $2 and How to Build Food Drying Equipment, by John Magee, 1975, $2 from: California Wood Plans P.O. Box 541 San Luis Obispo, CA 93406 It feels good when someone just lays out the options for you and gives .vou
January 1977 RAIN Page 3 RAIN is a monthly information access journal and reference service for people developing more satisfying patterns that increase local self-reliance and press less heavily on our limited resources. We try to give access to: * Soli.d technical support for evaluating and implementing new ideas. * Ecological and philosophical perceptions that can help create more satisfying options for living, working and playing. * Up-to-date information on people, events and publications. . --------------------------------------------------------------------~ what vou need to do things yourself instea-d of pushing a single answer. This good set of booklets lays out how, what and where to drv-in the sun. in the oven, over a hea-t register, with solar heating or electncity. Pros and cons of each and hmv to prepare foods for drying. Companion book has simple, easy-to-follow directions and drawings for making several kinds of food drying cabinets. (TB) (HEALTH ) Take Care of Yourself: A Consumer's Guide to Medical Care, by Donald M. Vickery·, MD, and james F. Fuies, MD, 269 pp., 1976, $5.95 from: Addison-Wesley Reading, MA 01867 A highly useful home medical guide .which includes flow charts for figuring out what to do about the 68 most common complaints that bring people to a doctor's office-sprains, colds, sqr¢ throats, vaginal discharge, headache, back pain, etc. Asks key questions and · allows you to, following a branching logic tree which tells you whether you need to (1) see a doctor NOW, (2) see a doctor today, (3) make appointment with doctor, (4) apply home remedies. Also tells you which home remedies to use. Lots of people go to doctors when they shouldn't and don't when t.~ey should. This book should help you use your doctor more effectively. (Tom Ferguson) How to Practice Prospective Medicine, by Lewis Robbins and Jack Hall, 1974, $12 from: Health Hazards Appntisal c/o Methodist Hospital of Indiana 1604 N. Capitol Indianapolis, IN 46202 I've never been much of a bug on statistics, but rhis seems like a very valuable use. Lays out simply and directly your probability of dying from various causes based on your age, sex and habits. Then shows the impact on your expected lifespan from changing various habits-stopping smoking, losing weight, changing diet, drinking less, using seatbelts, etc. Tells you the odds; you choose how you want to live and die. Good approach and fundamental t? the development of self-care responsibility. (Suggested by Mim Orleans) with healing fo~ a long ,~im~ .rather than faddists. It's a good begmnmg. (LdeM) Alternatives to Chemical Medicines, Mildred Jackson N.D. and Terri Teague, 1975, $4.95 from: P.O. Box 656 Oakland, CA 94604 There are a lot of books out now with herbal remedies- many of which are conflicting. I know in my bones that The 'New Handbook ofPrescription Drt,Jgs, by Richard Burack and Fred Fox, $1.95, from: Ballantine Books Random House 201 East 50th New York, NY 10022 this is the way to go, but it's hard to pick up on this almost lost art. This is the most helpful resource·I've found so far- straightforward with amounts given (it's easy to overdo·on sometimes powerful,herbs) and favorites starred. Put together by two who've been working A 1975 version of the original 1967 guidebook for finding out where and how to get the best value for your pre- . scription dollar; what drugs to avoid and hoW'to evaluate different generic and name brand drugs and which to choose. We found this in Self-Help and Health: A Report from Social Policy (we'll review their stuff next issue): ' ... I was in the courtyard of a place called McCord's Zulu Hospital, an institution of about ~00 beds in Durban, South Africa. The wards and balconies opened onto a courtyard · filled with flowering trees and warm subtropical air. Suddenly a single sopran9 voice soared frof!l one of the w~rds,. wa~ered, was joined.and sustained by a chorus of women s.vo1ces and rose again. After a mom.ent, a great deep harmomc sw~lled : the men's wards had joined in. And for the next ten mmutes, the whole hospital sang. Someone translated for me. The Zulu song was about the pain of being ill, the lone!iness. and fear of being·in the hospital, and the goodness of bemg w1th the people-other patients-:-for sharing an? support. Every da~ at twilight, I learned, the whole hosp1tal sang-all ~he pat1e~ts and some of the staff. It was a profoundly movmg expenence. At intervals since, I have tried to imagine patients so sustaining themse1ve·s in a hospital in Boston. I canno~. From "The Causes of Dehumanization in Health Care and Prospects for Huma:nizazation," J. Geiger in Humanizing Health Care by J. Howard and A, Strauss, eds., 1975, from Wiley-lnterscience Press. ' I '
Page 4 RAIN January 1977 "In mastering the science of origins (excuse me, the science of Godward solutions), Ziller carried the quest to its most personal extreme. Cleareyed and confident, he returnedliterally-to energy, dissolving in the pure essence that spawned all life. · Even as I type these words, John Paul Ziller, the baboon with the firebug buttocks antl Jesus the Christ of Nazareth are melting together into sunlight."- Another Roadside Attraction, by Tom Robbins It is not enough to see solar greenhouses as a way of beating the high cost of petroleum. They embody a rediscovered awareness of our wholistic relationship to sun and biosphere. The economic, cultural and energetic factors that indicate the continuing metamorphosis are beginning to be articulated. For instance, John Todd of the New Alchemists writes: "If modern industrial agriculwre were replaced with a diversity of alternatives that included small, i;>iologically-gardened or -farmed regions durin'g the normal growing season and terrestrial capsul'es such as Arks for year-round production of foods, then a good deal beyond agriculture would be affected. "The replacement of fossil fuel agriculture might alleviate some of the impact bf the seemingly inevitable economic crash or famine. It would encourage agriculture to be less corporate and to re-establish it as a local and regional pursuit, involving as it eventually must, a much larger proportion of the society.... Thus decentralization might in turn lead to a repopulation of the countryside and perhaps even to a re-birth of a diversity of cultures and customs which are bio-regional in their content." Yes, bio-regionalism. The humble . ·1*- 1 j l"f SE>LAR solar greenhouse reflects, to a greater degree than even the passive solar home, this rekindled human attention to what Peter Berg, ace watershed analyst of the Pacific Rim, calls "living-in-place" and "reinhabitation." For, to the already myriad climatological parameters of passive design for dwellings (insulation, temperature, humidity, windspeed and direction, soil type, site landscaping and topography), we must now add the long-evolved limits of various living organisms, both plant and animal. And we must design life-provoking niches for them. Green plants are exercise enough for most experimenters. In fact, there is no ,ERDA-USDA fu.nded solar aquaculturegreenhouse now being monitored, Yet. it is the tri-fold combination of sun, plant and animal that pushes us to the limits of our knowledge about such a greenhouse's site bio-region and of our design and construction skills. We have commercial greenhouses, rabbit ranches and aquaculture farms, yet few models of any potential food production systems for an energy-short future which mix them all together: the New Alchemist's Cape Cod and Prince Edward Island Arks (vegetables, fish), Jim DeKorne's Survival Greenhouse (vegetables, rabbits) and the Reichmuth-Barnes passive parabolic reflector solar greenhouse near Seattle, Washington (vegetables, fish). Even on this delicate and scientific frontier of food and energy, individual resourcefulness and private initiative have already established a clear lead over the ivory ~tower specialists in the "more for less" sweepstakes. Wl;lile the USDA's Agricultural Research Service funds no university greenhouse researcher for less than $50,000, they still have all completely missed what the pathfinders mentioned above have not only already intuited, but accomplished as finished,' Working systems. It is doubtful our nation can afford much longer the stupidity of well-funded, certified-bypeer-review, greenhouse ac~demics un- •' aware of integrated bio-solar systems.· In this field, innovative and informed inter-disciplinary talents are required. You'll find little of it in the government documents listed; rather, as Steve Baer's example reminds us, pay attention to the writings of those who watched "Mr. Wizard" as kids. Unless you have $250,000 in taxpayers' money to waste, of course, like the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture_:_Agricultural Research Service. A bi~ unhappy? Send your queries, suggestions and complaints to the men responsible for the program, for writing the RFPs (request for proposals), etc.: Mr. T. E. Bond Rural Housing Research Unit USDA-ARS P.O. Box 7~2 Clemson, SC 29631 and Bill Cherry ERDA . Div. of Solar Energy 20 Massachusetts Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20545 • TECHNICAL EVALUATION Climatic Data Reference List, compiled for Passive _S·olar Heating·& Cooling Conference & Workshop, May 18-20, 197 ~. Albuquerque, NM. Free with self-addressed, stamped large envelope, from: Technology Applications Center (TAC) University of New Mexico Albuquerque, NM 8713i Basic sources for data and methods in the analysis of any micro-climate for a specific solar greenhouse or passive solar building site. Climate Under Glass, Technical Note No. 131, WMO No. 373, by Dr. J. Seeman, 40 pp., 1974, available from: World Meteorological Organization . (WMO) Geneva, Switzerland Highly recommended·technical treatment of general g~~~house climatology.
covering: radiation and heat balance, heat transformation, temperature conditions, air-soil-plant temp~rature, air humidity, evaporation and consumption of water, carbon dioxide, climate control basics, regulation of light, temperature, shading, ventilation, water-atomizing installations and short-period spraying. Excellent bibliography on each topic, clear drawings .and graphs complete this excellent survey. We need it updated with plant and animal data for integrated bio-solar greenhouses. "The Development and Testing of an Environmentally-Designed Greenhouse for Colder Regions," by Tom A. Lawand, et al., in Solar Energy, Vol. 17, No.5, 1975, or send $1.25 to: Brace Research Institute MacDonald College-McGill Univ. Ste. Anne de Bellevue Quebec, Canada H9X 3MI This is the best starting point for a technical understanding of reflective, interior north wall solar greenhouses. Ask for their extensive and excellent a.t. publications list. Simulation Analysis ofPassive Solar Heated Buildings, by J. Douglas Balcomb and James C.Hedstrom,LA:-UR76-89, available from: Los Alamos Scientific Lab Solar Energy Lab Mail Stop 571 Los Alamos, NM 87 544 This important paper, while not strictly about greenhouses, explains in understandable text and straightforward equations the physical basis for passive design which can be then applied to solar greenhouse design. "Thermally Self-Sufficient Greenhouses" by Robert T. Nash and John W. Williamson, in ISES-'76, Winnipeg Conference Proceedings, Vol. 7 (Agriculture, Biomass, Wind), pp. 64-78 Reports on experimental work with water heat storage overnight in greenhouses and provides values for thermal mass needed to counterbalance heat losses. • MODELS "Description and Analysis of a Novel Passive Solar Heated Aquaculture/ Greenhouse Complex near Seattle, Washington," by Howard Reichmuth in ISES-'76, Winnipeg, Conference Proceedings, Vol. 10 (poster session), pp. 199-205. The inside north wall is a parabolic reflector which collects and stores solar energy in a massive 5000 gallon interior warm water fishtank. Built with a $3,000 grant from Hunger Action, Olympia, Washington. Evaluation ofa Solar Heated, Waterwall Greenhouse, by Patricia Moodie, Ken Smith, Howard Reichmuth, $3.00 from: Ecotope Group 747 16th Ave. East Seattle, WA 98112 Design drawing, structural description and technical analys_is of heat-gain and -loss balances for a passive design with a 4' high wall of clear plastic water-filled bags stacked behind the south vertical windows: Graphs, tables and equations included. The journal of the New Alchemists, Vol. 2, $6 single copy from: Nancy Todd, editor New Alchemy Institute Journal P.O. Box 432 Woods Hole, MA 02543 Explains your basic ARK I a la Cape Cod. A descriptive and artistic poster of Ark II (Prince Edward Island) is available, p.nd future journals will contain updates of their work. ;0 Noti Greenhouse-Univ. of Oregon An Attached Solar Greenhouse, by Bill Yanda, $1.75 from: The Lightning Tree P.O. Box 1837 Santa Fe, NM 87501 Step-by-step illustrated instructions, in English and Spanish, for locating and building low-cost extensions to existing dwellings which grow food and provide supplement home heat. Based on the Solar Sustenance Project construction of many such units at high, isolated, rural New Mexico homesteads. Excellent· example of a.t. instruction which can be applied in hands-on weekend workshops. ' The Survival Greenhouse, by James B. DeKorne, $7.50 from: The Walden Foundation P.O. Box 5 El Rito, NM 87530 Construction and operation details of a pit greenhouse. Tells how keeping four rabbits inside one can increase vegetable 15 to 70% and provide 400 lbs. of protein annually;.how to build a foodproducing aquarium from a 55-gallon drum. 150 pp.; 30 drawings and charts, 20 photos. · January 1977 RAIN Page 5 e ACCESS The Food-and Heat-Producing Solar Greenhouse: Design, Construction, Operation, by Bill Yanda and Rick Fisher, $5.50 from: John Muir Publications . P.O. Box 613 Santa Fe, NM 87501 ' Best survey available on the types of solar greenhouses now being built in various U.S. bio-regions, covering the work of 30 innovators in the field. Energy in U.S. Agricultu~e: Compendium ofEnergy Research Reports, Conservation Paper No.' 37A, by Jim Rathwell and Gwendolyn Gales, 176 pp., 1976, $7.50 from: Superintendent of Documents U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, DC 20402 ' 21 out of the 1291 entries in this document list ongoing or recently-completed research projects and ar~icles related to greenhouses. Projects include direct and indirect (i.e. solar panels- storage) solar heating, waste heat utilization, offpeak power for heating and lighting, ·and conservation of water, heat and fertilizer. Lists the grant awa~d of each university greenhou,se research team which presented papers at the "Fuel & Food" Conference. Find a local library which is a U.S. government document depository. Solar Energy-Fuel and Food Workshop Proceedings, April 5-6, 1976, Tucson, Arizona, edited by Merle Jensen, 258 pp., $5 per copy (checks payable to Univ. of Arizona) from: Environmental Research Lab Tucson International Airport Tucson, AZ 85706 · Includes 17 reports from U.S. Dept. of Agriculture- Agricultural Research Service, corporate and university researchers with emphasis on retro-fitting large commercial greenhouses for energy conservation and solar heating via a variety of methods. Only one of thereports, starting on page 129, considers the possibility, for new greenhouses, of a direct (i.e. passive) solar design in which the greenhouse is the collectorstorage system a l<I; Brace Research Institute, New Alchemy Institute; Reichmuth-Barnes and others listed in the "Models" section. However, forewarned of this shortcoming, home and commercial greenhouse builders will still glean some useful hints. Best of all, the name and address list of participants at the back will aid you in contacting nearby resource people for answers to specific questions. (Courtesy Bill Rice, ERDA) -Lee Johnson
Page 6 RAIN January 1977 Endan·gered Sk.i-lls There are very few people in this country today who know the steps and calls of all of the square dances, or who have · been to a barn-raising, or who can card and spin wool, or cure venison, or who remember the words and tunes of our traditional music. If decentralization is our goal and a.t. our doctrine, then the return to the use of simple skills and the appreciation of the arts of the past seems most appropriate. There is an entire constellation of sue~ "endangered skills," gifts of inestimable social value from our great-grandparents which are now being lost to posterity. The Seattle Folklore Society is trying, along with lots of other folks, to save _America's endangered skills and has established a Traditional Arts Booking Service (TABS). TABS doesn't yet generate enough income to pay staff salaries (that sounds familiar!) but does provide some very worthwhile services. They let colleges, civic organizations and club-owners know when traditional music-ians are available, publicize the concerts and plan tours for nationally famous performers. They also act as a consultant for bluegrass and folk festivals, fiddle contests and more. Perhaps best of all, TABS actively seeks out local, young and ethnic musicians; sometimes they are featured in big-name concerts, and a few have college and coffeehouse tours arranged for them. TABS' efforts are extremely valuable and could serve as an example for more, badly-needed organizations around the country, but·they only touch on one aspect of the overall problem. In order to see to it that America's endangered skills are preserved, they must first be well-defined. The people who are practicing them should be identified, as should the level of expertise and the regional, ethnic and cultural contexts in which the skills are being practiced. Then their social, economic, historic_al and aesthetic values can be assessed, and work can be focused where it is most badly needed. Ideally, by the time our children are grown, there will qe a substantial number of people who are absolute experts in each of the traditional skills and who will be able to train the next generation. And many more.Americans will have accepted, or a.t least been exposed to them. The greatest and most basic concern is that there should always be a sufficient supply of performers. Young musicians must be encouraged to adhere faithfully to tradition an.d to learn as much as possible from the "old masters." Perhaps incentives such as grants from the National Endowment for the Arts are necessary. We should also take full advantage of those "old masters" while they are still here. The Japanese recognize the importance of their traditional artists by des,ignating the best of them "living national treasures," a policy which enables the masters to live comfortably on a steaay income whil~ they perform regularly for the public and teach others. Thorough film and taped doc~mentation of performances would see to it that nothing is missed. It would certainly be a tragedy if the songs and knowledge died with their possessors. While having people who know and can teach the skills is important, we would still be in trouble if there was no way for them to share them with the rest of us. Here again the inevitable question of finances is forced on the issue. TABS does an excellent job, but four to six additional full-time booking services in ot;her areas could increase the number of traditional music performances Fen times. For the next few years at least, they would have to be subsidized directly or indirectly, perhaps by making them the official administrators of private and government grants for tours and festivals. Federal or foundation support could also help other organizations such as local folklore societies, coffeehouses, ethnic societies, folklife centers and festivals to broaden their programs and audiences. Finally, improvements like the legaliza-. tion of street singing, availability of training in the traditional arts in public schools and increased radio and television exposure of the master perfo,rmers would all contribute to the movement and would strengthen America's consciousness of its unique cultural heritage. Adapted by Lau'ri deMoll from a proposal, "Toward a Long Range Plan to Perpetuate Endangered Skills" by johnS. Ullman. Copies of the complete proposal are available from him at: 2518 S.£. 17th Ave., Portland, OR 97202.
Our photographer .in his darkroom 85 line screen 100 line screen unscreened, regular contrast high contrast, unscreene.d PREPARIN.G PHOTOS FOR THE PRINTER Ancil Nance If you have the money, the best way to have a photo reproduced for printing is to let your printer'do it. They have skill and experience and save you the time. Just give them a black and white print. Or, you can have a photo-mechanicaltransfer (PMT) made which will give you a screened print you can paste down with the rest of your text copy ready for the printer to shoot. PMTs can be made from b/w prints or color prints. For doiturselfers, however, there is an alternative. The equipment necessary to home-screen a print is a darkroom with an enlarger and the usual array of chemicals and trays. In addition, you will need a sheet of plate glass larger than the intended print, a thin sponge pad and a Kodak elliptical dot grey screen or any other of the numerous pattern screens available.· Starting with a negative is necessary. If all you have is a print or a slide, then you must recopy to get a b/w negative (more on recopying later). I prefer to make screened prints on Agfa TP-6 paper because it is very contrasty. To screen a print requires that you place a negative in the enlarger, put a sheet of TP-6 on the sponge pad, lay the screen over the paper, compress this sandwich with the plate glass and ptoceed as in normal b/w printmaking. Only ·touch the screen and the glass on the edges. The screen spots and stains easily and cannot be cleaned without putting more markson it. Screens cost about.$22 for the 8-1/2 x 11 size. Save spotted screens for doing small prints, using the unspotted sections. Using a screen over the paper reduces contrast and ordinary paper loses its snap. Resin-coated papers don't seem to .reproduce the dots as well either (that's just a guess). If, however, contrast is too great, it may be reduced by flashing a burst of light (variable, experimental, usually a split second) on the TP-6 paper'. Keep the screen in place, pull the negative out qf the enlarger and flash after the normal exposure. Flashing is often necessary to put dots into those brilliant white areas. Printers usually specify glossy prints because sharper reproductions can be made from a print that isn't sending light off in all directions, which happens on rough, non-glossy surfaces. PMTs look ,kinda gray but seem to produce just as good results as a home-made print screened on TP-6 (which is usually very snappy looking). , I I Sometimes a print or a negative has too much contrast to be able to see detail in both the dark and light areas. A cure'1 for this is to screen the print to look good in the dark area and use a flashing technique to produce dots in the white areas. Place the TP-6 into the developer and as soon as most of the image appears (15 seconds) and while the print is still in the developer, give it a short burst of even light from an ordinary 40-watt bulb. The time duration of the burst varies, bu·t usually I find it is only as long as it takes me to turn the light on and off as quickly as possible. This takes some experimenting to keep the print from solarizing or turning grey. If done correctly, more details will appear in previously all-white areas. Sometimes for special effects a photo with strong graphic appeal can be printed on TP-6 without screening and the printer can shoot it directly with the copy. Grays drop out, leaving high-contrast blacks and whites. Heavy patterns such as tree limbs, or silhouettes, work well. Earlier I mentioned making copies of slides and prints ... here is what I do. I use a j\1acro lens on a 35mm SLR camera, or I reverse the lens on my 2~1/4 camera. I then,recopy a slide placed on a Maxwell slide duplicating box, using a small strobe as a light source. Other slide copiers will also work, of course. My setting for recopying a normal slide onto Panatomic X film is f16 at 1/60tli of a second. This will vary with slide density" or light sourfe. Usually, b/w photos printed from slides tend to block up and lose detail. One way to avoid · much of this problem is to shoot fine grain film at a slight over-exposure and then under-develop by a minute or so. Special effects can be obtained by recopying with Tri-X (grainy) or Kodalith (stark b/w) film or paper. Recopy photographs with the .same films as for slides for the same effects. Be careful to avoid glare and reflections on the print. If you don't have use of a copy stand with lights at a 45-degree angle to the copy ·surface, a cloudy day outdoors will work well. A tripod or copy stand is necessary for work done at less than 1/125 second shutter speed. Macro Lenses aren't necessary to recopy photos larger than 8xl0, but a single-lens-reflex camera with a buiJt-in meter is really a worthwhile expense. .
Page 8 RAIN January 1977 This is the conclusion of an article started in the December issue. Let us follow through a few of the structural effects of modern technology. Its effect on the nature of work has already been referred to. It is, I believe, the greatest destructive force in modern society. What could be rhore destructive than the destruction of people's understanding? Matters·have not improved since Adam Smith's time; on the contrary, the relentless elimination of creative work for the great majority of the population has proceeded apace_. Urban life What has been the effect of modern technology upon the pattern of human settlement? This is a very interesting subject which has received hardly any attention. Professor Kingsley Davis, world-famous authority on urbanisation, says: "The world as a whole is not fully urbanised, but it soon will be." He, like the .UN and the World Bank, produces indices of urbanisation, showing the percentage of the population of different countries living in urban areas (above a certain size). , The interesting point is ,that these indices entirely miss the interesting point. Not the degree but the pattern of urbanisation is the crux of the matter. Human·life, to be fully human, needs the city; but it also needs food and other raw materials gained·from the country. Everybody needs ready access to both countryside and city. It follows that the aim must be a pattern of urbanisation so that every rural area has a nearby city, near enough so that people can visit it and be back the same day. No other pattern makes human sense. Actual developments during the last 100 years or so, however, have been in the exactly opposite direction: the rural areas have been increasingly deprived of access to worthwhile cities. There has been a monstrous and highly pathological polarisation of the pattern of settlements. The French planners fight against France becoming 'Paris surrounded by a desert;' in the United States they have coined the term 'megalopolis' to describe the vast conurbations which have arisen while the life has been seeping out of small- and ,medium-sized country towns. There is 'Boswash' extending from Boston to Washington, DC; there is 'Chicpitts,' a conur-· bation stretching from Chicago t'o Pittsburgh; and there is 'Sansan,' from San Francisco to San Diego. Even in the United Kingdom, often referred to as a tightly-packed little island, the pattern of settlement is extraordinarily lopsided, with (Courtesy E..F. Schumacher and Satish Kumar, editor, Resurgence. U.S. subscriptions are $10 surface mail, $15 airmail, from Resurgence, Pentre Ifan. Felindre, Crymych, Dyfed, Wales, U.K.) .E. F. Schumacher Part.Two: more than half the area grossly under-populated and large parts of the other h'alf madly congested.. ·. · Do you remember this socialist demand, formulated more than 100 years ago? Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries;' gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over t}:le country. (Communist Manifesto, 1848) And what has happened during those more than 100 years? Of course, the exact opposite. And what is expected to happen·during the next twenty-five years, to the end of the century? Again the exact opposite, with a vengeance. Not urbanisation but, to use a word as dreadful as the phenomenon it denotes, megalopolitanisation, a movement that produces, as we know only too well, utterly insoluble political, social, moral, psychological and economic problems. A paper issued by ,the World Bank speaks of: the despondency surrounding the task of ameliorating urban conditions in the developing countries (which) arises primarily from the speed of urban growth and shortage of resources, human as well as financial . . . . Urban administration is woefully lacking in capacity to deal with the problems.... Yet within less than twenty years the present populations and areas of urban centres w'ill account for less than a third of the total. The paper asks whether there is a possibility "of accelerating the development of small a:nd medium-size towns or creating new urban growth centres." But it loses little time in dismissing this possibility: ' Most small urban centres ... lack the basic infrastructure of transport and services.... Management and professional staff are unwilling'to mov.e from the. major cities. This tells the whole story: "Management and staff are unwilling to move from the major city!" The proposition, evidently, is to transplant into a small place the technology which has been developed in such a way that it fits only a very large place. The people in the small place cannot cope with it; management and staff have to be imported from the 'major cities;' no one wants to come because the proposition does not make economic sense. The technology is inappropriate and that means the whole project is uneconomic. ' With a name like mine, I find it easy to understand that to be a good shoemaker it is not enough to know a lot about making shoes;.you also have to know about feet. The shoe made for the big fellow does not fit the foot of the little
January 1977 · RAIN Page 9 TECH OLOGY.AND POLITICAL CHANGE fellow. The small foot needs a different shoe, not an inferior · one but one of the right size. Modern technology, generally speaking, makes good shoes only for big fellows. It is geared to mass production; it is highly sophisticated and enormously capital-costly. Of course it does not fit anywhere but in or near the biggest: cities or megalopolit'an areas. A technology·that does fit . The simple answer to this problem does not seem to have occurred to many people. It is: let us mobilise at least a small part of our intell.ectual and other resources to create a technology that does fit the smaller places. Incredible amounts of money are being spent in trying to cope with the relentless growth of megalopolitan areas and in trying to infuse new life into 'development areas.' But if you say: "spend a little bit of money on the creation of technologies that[# the given conditions, of development areas," people accuse you of wanting to take tliem back into the Middle Ages. One thing, however, can be asserted with confidence: unless suitable, appropriate technologies for efficient production outside the main conurbations are created, the destructive tendencies of ,'megalopolitanisation' will continue to operate with all that this implies socially, politically, morally, environmentally and resource~wise. Having traced the effect of modern technology upon the nature of work and the pattern of human settlement, let us ·now consider a third example, a highly political one, its effect on human freedom. This is undoubtedly a tricky. subject: What is freedom? Instead of going into long philosophical disquisitions, let us ask the more o~ less rebellious young wh.at they 'are looking for. Their negations are such as these: I don't want to join the rat race. Not be enslaved by machines, bureaucracies, boredom, ugliness. . . I don't want to become a moron, robot, commuter. I don't want to become a fragment of a person. Their affirmations? · I want to do my own thing. I want to live (relatively) simp~y. ., .. I want to deal with people, not masks. i People matter. N,ap;re matters. Beauty matters. Wholeness matters. I want to be able .to ~are. All this I call a longing for freedom. Why has so much freedom been lost? Some people say: "Nothing has been lost; but people are asking for more than before." Whichever way it is: there is a gap between supply and demand of this most precious thing- freedom. Has technology anything to do with this? The size and complexity of organisations certainly has a great deal to do with it. Why is the trend of the last 100 years towards bigger and bigger units? Nobody, except a few monomanic tycoons, likes them. · Why do we have to have them? The invariable answer is: because of technological progress. And why don't our engineers produce technological progress in another direction- - towards smallness -towards simplicity -towards capital-cheapness -towards technological non-violence? If we ask the engineers, the answer it: "Because nobody has ever asked us for it." And if you ask: "Can it be done? " the answer is: "Of course it can be done if there is a demand for it." . Time to stop Not very long ago I visited a famous institution·developing textile machinery. The impression is overwhelming. The latest and best machines, it seemed to me, can do everything I could possibly imagine; in fact, more th~n I could imagine before I saw them. "You can now do everything," I.said to the professor who was taking me around, "why don't you stop, call it a day?" My friendly guide did indeed stop in his tracks: "My goodness!" he said, "what do you mean? Y GU can't stop progress. I have all these clever people around me who can still think of improvements. You don't expect .me to suppress good ideas? What's wrong with progress?" "Only that the price per machine, whic;h is already around the £100,000 mark, will rise to £150,000." "But what's wrong with ·that? "he demanded. "The machine will be SO% dearer but at least 60% better." "Maybe," I replied, "but also that much more exclusive to the rich and powerful. Have you ever reflected on the pol_itical effect of what you are doing?" · Of course, he had never given it a thought. But he was much disturbed; he saw the point at once. "I can't stop," he pleaded. "Of course, you can't stop. But you can do something all
Page 10 RAIN January 1977 the same: you can strive to create a counterweight, a counterforce, namely, efficient small-scale technology for the little people. What are you in fact doing for the little people?" "Nothing." I talked to him about what I call the 'Law of the Disappearing Middle.' In technological development, wh~n it is drifting along, outside conscious control, all ambition and creative talent goes to the frontier, the only place considered prestigious and exciting. Development proceeds from Stage 1 to Stage 2, and when it moves on to Stage 3, Stage 2 drops out; when it moves on to Stage 4, Stage' 3 drops out, and so on. Better becomes enemy of good It is not difficult to observe the process. The 'better' is the enemy of the good and makes the good disappear even if most people cannot afford the better, for reasons of Money, Market, Management, or whatever it might be. Those who cannot afford to keep pace drop out and are left with nothing but Stage 1 technology. If, as a farmer, you cannot afford a tractor and a combine harvester, where can you get efficient animal-drawn equipment for these jobs-the kind of equipment I myself used thirty-five years ago? Hardly anywhere. So you cannot stay in farming. The hoe and the sickle remain readily available; the latest and the best-for those who can afford it- is also readily available. But the middle, the inter-' mediate technology, disappears. Where it does not disappear altogether it suffers from total neglect-no improvements, no benefits from any new knowledge, antiquated, unattractive, etc. The result of all this is a loss of freedom. The power of the rich and powerful becomes ever more all-embracing and systematic. The free and independent 'middle class,' capable of challenging the monopolistic power of the rich, disappears in step with the 'disappearing middle' of technology. (There remains a middle class of managerial and .professional servants of the rich organisations; they cannot challenge anything.) Production and incomes become concentrated in fewer and 1 fewer hands, or organisa~ions, or bureaucracies-;~. tendency which redistributive taxation plus ever-increasing welfare payments frantically try to counteract-and the rest of mankind have to hawk th~mselves around to find a 'slot' provided by the rich, into which_they might fit. The First Commandment is: Thou shalt adapt thyself. To what? To the available 'slots'. And if there are not enough of them available, you are left unemployed. Never previously having done your own thing, it is unlikely that you will have the ability to do it now, and in any case the technology that c0uld help you to do your own thing efficientlY. cannot be found. I Intermediate technology What is the answer? The 'Law of the Disappearing Middle' in technology has to be counteracted by conscious work, namely, by the development of 'intermediate technologies' striving for -smallness -simplicity -capital-cheapness -non-violence. The fourth criterion, being somewhat different in kind from the first three, may require some further elucidation. To cite an extreme example, consider the political implications of the most violent technology ever developed, nuclear energy- 'peaceful' nuclear energy. Consider .the security measures required when plutonium and other radioactive material becomes ubiquitous, as it will if present plans for nuclear expansion are implemented. These terrible substances must never leak into the environment; must never get out of control in any way; and must never fall into the wrong hands-of blackmailers, terrorists, political desperados, or suicidal maniacs. There will be a continuous fl'ow of traffic criss-crossing the country, taking these materials through.their various stages of processing and use-and nothing must ever go seriously wrong. The connection between technology and freedom is obvious, and it is not difficult to see that the price of freedom, or at least an important part of it~ is the avoidance of violent technologies. WATERLESS TOILET PERFORMANCE Dry toilets have now been installed and 1 used in enough far-flung places that the bugs in different processes are showing up and attempts ma.de to correct them. We've ·seen two recent reports on testing in cold climate conditions: ·Clivus almost floated away ... use your toilet for a lifeboat!). The small, electrically-assisted Mull-Toa was found to be of little·practical value in the extreme Manitoba conditions-being particularly sensitive to overloading from beer parties. The Clivus was felt to have a great deal of promise in such northern areas into the bathrooms-all the nightmares you could dream of. ,In sum, it looks like things will shake down okay with the whole composting toilet picture.(TB) Experiences with the Clivus-Multrum and Mull-Toa Toilets in Northern Manitoba, by J. M. J cKernan and D. S. Morgan, 1976; inquire for price and availability from: Sym/bios 16-74 Carlton Street Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 1N9 · Canada An interim report on testing in extremely cold conditions where normal sewage systems have been found prohibitively expensive or impossible. Installation and operating problems and costs are described (including one case where the ba.sement flooded and the in spite of the lack of kitchen vegetable wastes inhibiting rapid composting . action. (TB) "Waterless Toilets," Maine Times, Nov. 19, 1976, 30¢/issue, $12/year from: 41 Main Street ' Topsham, ME.04086 This fine paper keeps coming up with excellent reports ... it's really worth -subscribing to. This six-page report on problems with waterless toilets gives a good, detailed review of operating problems found with various designs, efforts to correct them, and a comparative evaluation of different products. Flies, brick-like solidification of wastes, ventilation, heating problems, energy costs of house air evacuated through the units, and the effects of bathroom exhaust fans sucking air from the units 'Pedestal Lion' Closet
APPROPRIATE ~ECHNOLOGY $10.50/yr. airmail, $7/yr. surface, quarterly, from: . Intermediate Technology Publications, Ltd. 9 King Street Covent Garden, London WC2E 8HN ENGLAND The London-based Intermediate Technology Development Group continues to put out a fine series of new publications (write for their publications list). Their quarterly journal, Appropriate Technology, is focussed primarily on the needs of developing countries. It provides a useful balanced perspective on our situation in relation to the rest of the world. Their May 1976 issue, for instance, contained articles on the following: • A Nigerian project making medical aids such as arm splints, spinal jackets and cervical collars from broken plastic drainpipes. The products are made by marking the pipe with a paper template, cutting out with a hacksaw and handstretching the plastic softened over a flame. The resulting equipment works better than previous products, as they can be easily adjusted by a nurse or doctor for a perfect fit for every individual and are waterproof, strong, cheap and reusable. C~ILDS 5PI~L JACKtr __.,RM ~~~ THt:RtlOPLAS TIC. f'ROI>UC.."F;. • A rice storage bin of non-reinforced cement mortar, costing less than $10 U.S. to build. • An oscillating water-pumping wind mill. • A process for hand-forming chain-link fences, by the same Nigerian group. A simple manual procedure was worked out that avoids the need for capital-intensive machines, resulting in a very competitive and profitable operaton. Four men make six rolls of fencing six feet wide and 25 yards long each week. Each roll sells for £60, paying workers £75 per month and still giving a gross profi ~ of £10-£15 per roll. FIG:l January 1977 RAIN Page 11 • A candle-making merry-go-round that produces 600 candles per hour with a single operator (could be solar heated?). • Nethouse horticulture in Botswana, where it is noted that a high percentage of a plant's water requirement is not for growth but to cool it during respiration. Nethouses shade and cool, reducing water use by 2/3, and keep birds, insects and hail out. • A simple, low maintenance water filter for villages that is buried in the bed of a stream and uses the sand and gravel already there to filter the water. Total capital costs per person served is figured to run 1 to 5% of any other clean supply. ~INTED TEMPLATE ~ ' \ \ . . El£1 • 8CIH• DIIA\JN TO 6 r£[T 1) Chain link fence forming 2) QJI/ betng drawn to 6ft 3) Links are corkscre'Wf!d together
Page 12 RAIN January 1977 FARMERS' MARKETS The farmers' market remains one of the central institutions of cities and villages throughout the world. In Africa, Asia, Latin America and much of Europe, public markets are a beehive of activity. The market serves as the place where small farmers and gardeners can sell their surpluses of fresh vegetables, meat, milk and eggs, providing them with enough income to keep on the land. And it is also where consumers can get to know the farmers and find the best prices on wholesome, locally-produced foods. Farmers' markets serve as important cultural centers as well, providing consumers with an intimate connection to the foods they eat and farmers with the opportunity to meet and share knowledge and skills. Such trading centers were a common part of our experience too, until a generation ago. Farmers' markets reached their peak in this country during the Great Depression when in towns and cities across the land hundreds of farmers would queue up at daybreak in preparation for another marketing day. No sooner than the crates were unloaded, early morning shoppers would begin crowding around to haggle over prices, seek out the best buys and purchase the day's groceries. Then business would slack off until late afternoon when the crowds would return for last-minute bargains as farmers would begin packing up for the return home. With the end of the Depression and the return of "good times" once again, FOOD DISTRIBt the number of farmers' markets dwindled rapidly in this country; a trend which paralleled the rise of giant supermarket chains such as Safeway and A&P. This shift didn't occur in isolation, of course, but rather was promoted by such factors as cheap energy, longdistance transportation and new technological developments such as improved refrigeration. However, a reverse trend may now be emerging, with one of the key indicators being the tremendous revival of farmers' markets around the country. There are many reasons for this new interest in farmers' markets. In purely economic terms they offer the promise of providing the consumer with lower grocery prices by purchasing directly from the producer, thus eliminating the "middle man." The growers, in turn, can get better than wholesale prices for the crops they bring in, helping to make it possible for them to stay in business. But economics is only one of many reasons why farmers' markets are sprouring up all over. The new markets are serving to make small farmers visible once again. People are once again able to get to know the people who grew the food they are buying and learn about where and how it was grown. In the process, urban people are discovering that an abundance of food can be produced in their own local areas and they are becoming a part of a growing constituency concerned with the preservation of small-scale agriculture close to urban areas. Thus AN farmers' markets have cultural and political as well as economic functions, and they have a key role to play in the new agrarian movement. Organizing Farmers' Markets, Natural Organic Farmers' Association, 1975, $2.00 from: NOFA RFD 1, Box 247 Plainfield, VT 05667 There are many areas of the country that have been by-passed by the rush toward bigness and agri-business, and it is here that farmers' markets find their most natural home. One such area is Vermont, and this pamphlet, while written from the experience of forming markets in New England, can be a helpful guide for any region of the country. Farmers' Market Organizer's Handbook, Deborah Bowler, 1976, $1.00 from: Hunger Action Center Evergreen College Olympia, WA 98505 The Northwest corner of the country is also experiencing a re-birth of farmers' markets, and this handbook grew out of a day-long workshop which brought representatives of many of these markets together for the first time. The handbook recognizes that, nowadays, a city person is very likely to be the organizer of a new market, representing the needs and interests of both consumers and producers. Several organizational models are presented as well as details on market management (equipment, location, rules and regulations and food stamps), plus sample budgets, a listing
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