Sequestering soil carbon (pdf report)

Sequestering Carbon in Soil:  Addressing the Climate Threat. (pdf download)

 

The final report of the May 3-5, 2017 Chantilly, France conference,  Sequestering Carbon in Soil:  Addressing the Climate Threat.  The report attempts to summarize the key discussions and recommendations that emerged from our many breakout and mini-plenary sessions. The report also addresses the technical potential of soil carbon sequestration, integrating findings from our pre-conference webinar and from the Chantilly proceedings. We hope it  contributes to the rapidly growing field of soil carbon sequestration.  

'No Dig Organic Home and Garden' wins prize (book)

Permaculture Publisher’s Gardening Book Wins Award

No Dig Organic Home and Garden by Charles Dowding and Stephanie Hafferty has already sold over ten thousand copies in the UK and North America, promoting the authors' ‘no dig’ gardening expertise to gardeners. Now,  against all the odds, Permanent Publications have just  won the main prize at the 2017 Garden Media Guild Awards (GMG).  No Dig Organic Home and Garden book beat major industry supported celebrity titles to the prestigious Peter Seabrook Practical Book of the Year at the annual event held at The Savoy Hotel, London on Thursday 23rd November 2017. The publisher believes it is evidence that their passion for supporting positive, can-do sustainable living messages are not only needed but are now wanted by a public who are ever more educated about our effects on planet Earth. These methods also help in this age of austerity when many are having to tighten their belts economically.

Organic can feed the world...just (report)

Organic agriculture can help feed world, but only if we eat less meat and stop wasting food

The world's population is expected to hit 9.8 billion by 2050, which means an extra 2 billion or so mouths to feed. This will require increasing agricultural output by an additional 50 percent. However, agriculture could go organic worldwide if we slashed food waste and stopped using so much cropland to feed livestock, a new study finds. The analysis shows that it will take several strategies operating at once to feed the growing human population in a more sustainable way - and some of those strategies may require people to shift their dietary patterns, too. That might be a hrd sell with today's meat filled diets. A more feasible solution might be one where organic crops make up about 50 percent of crops, food waste is cut by half, and the competing feed sources are cut by half (allowing for more acreage to grow human food).

A researcher with no library? Read this (online)

You’re a Researcher Without a Library: What Do You Do?

The world of publishing is evolving frantically, while it remains frustratingly fragmented and prohibitively expensive for many. If you’re a student who just left your academic library behind only to discover you are now locked out of the stacks; a startup researching water usage in Africa and keep hitting paywalls; a local nonprofit that studies social change activism, but all the latest papers cost $30 per read… This article is for you.

Protect small farms to safeguard nutrition (report)

Small farms need protection to safeguard nutrients and diversity

New research shows that a diverse landscape made up of a patchwork of small to medium-sized farms produces the vast majority of the world’s nutrients. As farm size increases this diversity decreases, authors of the study emphasise, in light of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Addressing global food needs is not just about quantity – it’s also about the quality of global food supplies. The study involved more than 400 scientists from 19 different institutions. The researchers found that it is the landscapes with more diversity that produce more nutrients and that the diversity of agricultural and nutrient production diminishes as farm size increases.

Sustainable woodfuel (report)

Sustainable woodfuel for food security A smart choice: green, renewable and affordable

With food insecurity, climate change and deforestation remaining key global issues, this paper highlights the role of sustainable woodfuel in improving food security.

Food insecurity and a high dependence on woodfuel as a primary cooking fuel are characteristics common to vulnerable groups of people in developing regions of the world. With adequate policy and legal frameworks in place, woodfuel production and harvesting can be sustainable and a main source of green energy.

Moreover, the widespread availability of woodfuel, and the enormous market for it, presents opportunities for employment and for sustainable value chains, providing further rationale for promoting this source of energy.

Your Permaculture Research Digest Advent Calendar, 2017

In November there were no posts on the Digest at all! To make up for that, I have decided to follow the old British tradition of the 'Advent Calendar' this month and schedule a post every day between now and 24th December...actually I might go all the way to 31st if time allows. I hope you enjoy them and find them useful. Can I take this chance to thank all those who have been supplying me with content for the Digest, I'll include as many of your suggestions as I can over the next month.