Monday, July 11, 2016
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Agriculture
From PAGE 1
developed a method of
growing crops called
“Pasture Cropping.”
The method has annual
crops zero-till sown into
a perennial grassland or
pasture after it has started
its natural dormancy.
“We can plant crops into
a grassland,” Seis said. “We
use that technique to restore a grassland and soil.”
Seis said one of the
main points of his discussion centered on the importance of farming closer
to the natural design.
“(Natural design) is
very diverse,” he said. “In
species — plant species —
moving it back toward a
grasslands.
“The question that usually gets asked is: ‘How do
we produce enough food?’
and I would like to suggest
we can grow more food because we can plant crops
into that grassland. We just
need to change the mix a
lot more away from the annual monocropping system
we have now.”
According to Seis, caring about the soil will do
more than help with the
growth of crops. It will al-
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Didi Perhouse’s soil health principles
• Keep living roots in the ground for as long as possible.
• Keep it covered, don’t leave the soil bare.
• Minimize disturbances to the soil.
• Keep good species diversity.
• Integrate animals into the farming practice.
• Get to know the context of the land.
so help keep a sustainable
environment.
“What we’re doing now
— with agriculture — all
around the planet is destroying the planet,” he
said. “There aren’t any
other planets out there —
that they’ve found — we
have to protect the one
we’ve got.”
Didi Perhouse is the
author of “The Ecology
of Care: Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the
Quiet Power of Human
and Microbial Communities,” member of the Soil
Carbon Coalition and the
founder of the Center for
Sustainable Medicine.
Perhouse spoke on shifting both medicine and agriculture to a “fertile model
of care.”
“Where we work in collaboration with complex
systems,” Perhouse said.
“Like the soil is and landscapes are. What we’ve
been working under is
what I call a sterile model
of care where we kill off
whatever we feel doesn’t
fit in the system rather
than learn to figure out
where — and how — it fits
in the system and what it
wants to do.”
According to Perhouse,
soil is vital for continuing
the cycle of carbon.
“We think of carbon as
a bad thing because of climate change, but carbon
is life,” she said. “We have
big cycles and we have
smaller cycles. So there’s
little cycles in the soil
which cycle carbon around
and there’s big cycles
where oceans will take it
up and as we draw carbon
down by restoring soil,
the oceans will be able to
give up some of that and
we can help de-acidify the
oceans.
“Soil is the center; and
people think it’s just dirt.”
Courtesy photo
The 5th Annual Fuller Field School focused on “Building Healthy Communities.” The
school focused on building and maintaining healthy ecosystems above and below ground
as well as healthy soil leading to better food, water and sustainability in farming.
Mary Ann Redeker/Gazette
Bill Ballard, candidate for 60th District House, directs a voter to her table at the
Lyon County Democrats annual fundraiser and silent auction Sunday evening at the
Emporia Senior Center.
Democrats
From PAGE 1
because Democrats were in
a rebuilding stage.
“To put it bluntly, the
people of this state have
looked at Tea Party politics
for six years and have decided they don’t want this
anymore,” he said. “We are
rebuilding, trying to regain
seats in the house and in the
senate. It’s going to take a
coalition of Democrats and
moderate Republicans to
turn this state around.”
Many items were up for
bids during a silent auction
to also help raise money.
“The top item in the silent auction, and my favorite, is Terry Maxwell’s original waterco