Same thing is true of forests and trees used to make paper. Since
paper-making only extracts cellulose fibers, the other nutrients can be
salvaged and re-applied. Organic matter can be grown as a ground cover, e.g.
nitrogen-fixing legumes, preferably deep rooted to minimize water competition
where this is limiting.
In Hawaii, I've seen bananas mulched with corn cobs, one of those brilliant
inadvertant choices that folks like to take credit for. Corn cob ash is 50
percent potash, plus it has phenomenal moisture holding properties. As you
know, bananas feed heavily on potash. Poultry ran freely through this mess,
again not by design, as there are so many wild chickens in Hawaii that it
would take heroic measures to keep them out. Thus they added manures and
freshly ground mineral (from gizard activity) and kept sprouts, etc., down.
In such a permacutlure, the banana fiber could be put to its "highest" use,
which is paper, clothing, etc., and less useful organic materials served the
mulch and nutrient recycling function.
There are always going to be designs that accomplish this and they are
generaly going to be site specific or at least bioregion specific.
The real issue is that if we are chipping primary rain forests for paper and
then planting banana on some of them, then we need to at least harvest to
amount of banana fiber available to relieve pressure to some extent for
further rainforest clearing. Frankly, once the rain forest is removed, the
land is screwed whatever we do, however kindly. And yes, I'd rather it be
screwed with love by kindly folk, such as yourself or myself, than
corporations.
Anything that can substitute for forests in the manufacture of paper must be
considered and used. And No, I do not mean that every banana plant in the
world has to go to paper. Most bananas, believe it or not, are raised on
large scale monocrop plantations with chemical fertilizer and pesticides.
(Goes to show that you can make any crop have pests if you grow enough of
it.) If you are using your banana leaves and spathe (the pith which is the
bulk of the organic matter is useless for paper) in another way that is
better, maybe your farm is one that ought not to provide feedstock to paper
mills. However if I had to choose between forests and that treasured part of
my diet that bananas occupy, I'd have to go with the forests. Fortunately,
we are allowed to be complex and things work out better when we are.
For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and The Forest Ecosystem
Food Network. P.O. Box 2052, Ocala FL 34478.
"We don't have time to rush."