Quotation from another interesting Australian

[Brian Cartwright]

to soil-age,

   Allan Yeomans, for those who might not have heard of him, is a multi-talented industrialist who has promoted the Keyline plow and system invented by his father P.A. Yeomans,  and wrote the book "Priority One" about ending global warming.  The book is available as PDF chapters online for free and I've been reading Chapter Five on soil, a good chem lesson for a novice like me.  He is apparently an influence behind the Oppostion Coalition's climate policy thinking.  This paragraph is from website yeomansconcepts.com.au :

"Technically ending global warming and halting climate change is actually easy, it's also practical, it's cost effective and it's safe. No esoteric, hypothetical Star wars inventions are required. We can do it. In a nut shell we switch our civilization over to nuclear energy for power and we switch to biofuels for transport. And concurrently, to remove the excess carbon dioxide that has already accumulated in the air over the last half century, the carbon dioxide that is now causing our immediate problems, we switch, large scale, to a chemical free soil fertility enhancing type of agriculture ; worldwide. Enhancing soil fertility automatically sucks carbon dioxide out of the air. Fundamentally that's what rich soil humus is made of. Fixing soil is totally feasible and so terribly necessary."

He is unequivocal about chemical inputs in agriculture:

"When powerful agrochemicals are part of the farming system it is virtually impossible to increase the humus content of soil. The chemicals kill the bacteria and soil life that digest the dead plant material. The marketers of these generally oil derived agrochemicals know that and it's a major worry to them. They therefore claim organic type produce doesn't taste better, isn't healthier and cannot be produced economically. And that's not true. The Rodale Institute in the US is just one organization that disputes those agrochemical platitudes."

-- Brian

[Erich Knight]

Keyline cowboy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyuBHpbmEqo

Carbon Farming via Keyline Plowing in the Mad River Valley
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MizOnG18y0g

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[Brian Cartwright]

   After more reading of Yeomans:

   Like some other original thinkers who develop grand schemes, his work is a mixed bag.  But I would say I'm learning and benefiting from about 90% of his teaching in the book "Priority One: Together We Can Beat Global Warming".  It is well written and organized, and what I'm finding in abundance there is rhetorical ammunition -- pointed ideas we can all use in the cause of balancing the climate change discussion by putting soil carbon center stage.

   The book is free for download at:

http://www.yeomansplow.com.au/priority-one-contents.htm

   You can download one chapter at a time as I've been doing.  What I want to do with it is to collect some of Yeomans' most provocative statements to offer for group discussion.

   More soon - Brian