There is an excellent interview in the April issue of Acres USA re the
BioDynamic approach. Also, a hands on bio-intensive farming workshop in
Chattanooga in June. AND, for those interested in really learnig about
composting, a Compost Facility training session at LSU in May. The
following might give some input in why I am attending everything
possible!...
Re the class...My frustration to date in approaching this topic is that
there seem to be many claims, opinions, systems, products and approaches
without what I would call an engineering or scientific methodology...and
that without even including the morass of vermiculture - a virtual
quagmire of pseudoscience.
Looking through Acres USA and the systems of proponents of Kyusae Nature
farming, Biodynamics, Organic farming and the many other tangents of
integrated soil science and composting only leads to more confusion.
Then the approaches of the Pfeiffers, Albrechts, Lubkes, and
others of this world only make matters more confusing.
Bottom line: I cannot help but believe that somewhere there is an
approach or "procedural methodology" that cuts accross the lines of
static pile advocates, the religion of the windrow cultists who advocate
an incredibly complex and labor intensive minute by minute monitoring
and management, versus the manufacturers of multi-million dollar
in-vessel turners that take in everything straight from the
truck.
My interest is in a system or approach that is manageable, predictable,
controllable, scalable etc that can handle large scale
municipal/industrial/commercial/agricultural applications while safely
and economically delivering an end product that is in itself totally
safe, of a consistently high quality, and in such amonunts that it would
be a value add to sustainable agriculture or horticulture.
My guess is that this would be more of an approach than a single
manufacturer's composting "machine" since there would seem to need to be
a synergistic perpective that would include all of the processes from
gathering, through processing, to packaging, marketing and distribution.
Marketing, systems analysis, and project management being my forte, I am
hopeful of learning what is practical, what works, the systems involved,
and how best to approach designing, implementing, and operating such a
system...realizing I won't "learn it all" in one class. Unfortunately, I
know of no others. Perhaps you will have a 102 version later?
Ultimately, I would love to be able to both consult and market. First, I
want to have a firm grasp of a model of how to get a quality product
through the system to the farm!
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