Re: DIG-L: a note on "philosophical" vs. "technical" discussio

[doelle <doelle@ozemail.com.au>]

Dear Les,

It is amazing that people just cannot see the advantages of AD in regard to soil improvements. It is also amazing that people can not grasp that applying raw manure can 'burn' the soil microflora and soil structure and also that in this case pathogens are able to immobilise on plant and soil particles until harvest time. Thus causing health hazards. I believe there was a relative silent report a year ago, where alfalfa seeds were found full of salmonella, which was clearly6 traced to manure farming.

When do people in AD business really start to study a little bit of microbiology and soil biology to learn what is going on in the soil. They just need to read about the natural cycles of matter, like carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous.

There is absolutely no question about the advantageous of digested manure over raw manure in regard to organic farming. I fully agree with you.
With antibiotics and other drugs our society is trained for 'quickfixes' and 'immediate results', which does not work in nature.
What we have destroyed in the soil over the past 30 years needs at least the same time - maybe we can accelerate it - to be fully regenerated,IF we do it the correct way.
Best wishes
Horst
At 04:13  22/02/00 +0000, you wrote:
>>So, the answer to your discussion is: jump on the organic bandwagon.
>>Persuade the "unwashed" of USA and UK that biogas generates that mystical
>>something extra that will make organic farming even better.
>I wish you could have seen the organic swards of grass at Portglenone 
>Monastry fed off digest er effluent!  The unit has recently closed down 
>after decades of operation due to the shortage of monks.  The few 
>remaining are old and no longer farm.  We demonstrated on this plant that 
>AD was the gateway to large scale organic farming in the UK.  Not that 
>many listened. - We got BSE instead at a cost of 6,000,000,000 UK Pounds 
>- (you can buy a number of good digesters for that!)
>
>
>This organic growth factor is not mystical but actual.   There are very 
>few long term experiments relating plant growth to the plant nutrients 
>and micronutrients in digested vs undigested organic wastes.
>- Have you ever tried to get a grant for a 20 year research project?
>
>However, you should read :
>
>MOAWAD H., ZOHDY L.I., BADR EL-DIN S.M.S, KHALAFALLAH M.A., ABDEL-MAKSOUD 
>H.K., 1984, " Assessment of anaerobically digested slurry as a fertiliser 
>and soil conditioner."  in
>Halwagi ed. Proc.Int. Conf.State of the art on Biogas Technology Transfer 
>and Diffusion, Cairo  Nov.17-24, Elsevier App.Sci. 499-519. 
>
>Also Zohdy L.I. et al " 1984, repeated application of anaerobically 
>digested slurry and its effect on the yield and NPK uptake of 
>wheat,turnips and onion plants. (also in Halwagi ed. above.)
>
>These workers found that whilst the annual difference in crop mass was 
>greater for AD than UnD manures, the difference was not significant 
>statistically - But the positive difference accumulated year on year for 
>many years and so after 15 years you would expect almost 15% more crop 
>mass.  
>
>It seems to me that soils typically take 10,000 years to make and 100 
>years to destroy.  The aim of using AD is that the decomposition of 
>organic matter that would take place slowly in the soil is done quickly 
>in the digester.  The AD effluent is then used to rebuild the soil 
>structure faster and more efficiently than it is being destroyed by the 
>agricultural activity which itself depletes soil organics 100 times 
>faster than nature can repair the losses incurred by agriculture.  
>
>If we put undigested sludge on the soil the soil first has to grow the 
>bacteria for decompostion and typical growth rates of bacteria in soil 
>(in Northern Ireland) are one doubling per year as determined by soil 
>respiration experiments (see the work of prof. A. Mcfadden in the 
>1970's).  There are also other losses from 'slurry spreading', nitrogen 
>is lost, (bound up as microbial protein in AD effluent), clovers and 
>nitrogen fixing plants are severely inhibited and earthworm populations 
>fail reducing recycling.
>
>It is a big subject and one that is severely underfunded academically.
>
>On the other hand the chemical industry can prove that by adding several 
>kg of ammonium nitrate onto the crop the mass will increase significantly 
>in one year - the soil is depleted of humic materials until the polished 
>sand grains and airless clays cannot hold simple chemical fertilser - it 
>is washed into the groundwater, causes salinity but yes you have it - 
>after a few years you need more chemical fertiliser to do the same job.  
>Now that is what I call a profitable business (in the short term at 
>least.).  After a while though the vegetables taste like blotting paper.
>
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>Best Regards
>
>
>
>
>Les. Gornall
>Director
>Practically Green 
>Environmental Services
>Solar House
>Magherafelt
>BT45 6HW
>Northern Ireland
>+44 1648  32615 Tel./Fax
>
>http://www.practicallygreen.com
>
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>
Horst W.Doelle, D.Sc., D.Sc. [h.c.]
Chairman, IOBB
Director, MIRCEN-Biotechnology
FAX: +617-38783230
Email: doelle@ozemail.com.au DIGESTION List Sponsors, Archive and Information http://www.crest.org/renewables/digestion-list-archive http://www.crest.org/renewables/biomass-info/ Beginners Tour of Biogas http://WWW.roseworthy.adelaide.edu.au/~pharris/biogas/beginners