Terra Preta: How the World’s Most Fertile Soil Can Help Reverse Climate Change and Reduce World Hunger

233 Pages·2016·1.264 MB·English

by  Ute Scheub, Haiko Pieplow, Hans-Peter Schmidt, Kathleen Draper

TERRA PRETA

UTE SCHEUB
HAIKO PIEPLOW, HANS-PETER SCHMIDT
& KATHLEEN DRAPER
Foreword by Tim Flannery
T E R R A
P R E TA
How the World’s Most Fertile
Soil Can Help Reverse Climate Change
and Reduce World Hunger
With instructions on
hoW to Make this soil at hoMe
Vancouver/Berkeley
Copyright © 2016 by oekom, Munich
Translation copyright © 2016 by Jamie McIntosh
Foreword copyright © 2016 Tim Flannery
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a
license from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access
Copyright). For a copyright license, visit www.accesscopyright.ca
or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.
Greystone Books Ltd.
www.greystonebooks.com
David Suzuki Institute
219–2211 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver bc Canada v6k 4s2
Cataloguing data available from Library and Archives Canada
isbn 978-1-77164-110-4 (pbk.)
isbn 978-1-77164-111-1 (epub)
Editing by Shirarose Wilensky
Proofreading by Stefania Alexandru
Cover and text design by Nayeli Jimenez
Cover photograph by iStockphoto.com
Illustrations by Brian Tong
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Canada
Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the
Province of British Columbia through the Book Publishing Tax
Credit, and the Government of Canada through the Canada
Book Fund for our publishing activities.
CONTENTS
Foreword by Tim Flannery ix
Preface: Create Your Own Paradise xiii
Part I: the Groundwork
Chapter 1: The Mistakes of Fossil Agriculture 5
The agro-industrial complex, often referred to as “Big Ag,”
is literally skinning the planet. Pesticides contaminate the
ground; large-scale technology and modern chemical agri-
cultural practices are causing the loss of the fertile humus
layers at an alarming rate. This is one of the greatest envi-
ronmental problems of our time.
Chapter 2: Cultures Need Fertile Ground—
The Secret of Black Gold 33
Advanced cultures need a surplus of food that can only be
harvested from fertile soils. This was the case 2,000 years
ago in the Amazon region, where huge garden cities flour-
ished on man-made terra preta soils.
Part II: the handbook
Chapter 3: Climate Gardening—The Basic Principles
and Materials 61
Through the use of climate gardening, huge amounts of
carbon can be permanently stored in the fertile humus
layer. Biochar and the stimulation of an active soil life are
indispensable.
Chapter 4: Ways of Producing Terra Preta 109
Whether in compost heaps, kitchen bokashis, or slatted
wooden crates—there are many ways of producing black
earth. This chapter addresses many frequently asked ques-
tions and offers practical tips about the production of terra
preta.
Chapter 5: Biological and Horticultural Diversity 147
Whether in urban or rural settings, private or communal
gardens, window boxes or square-foot gardens, homemade
terra preta is teeming with life.
Chapter 6: Old and New Sanitary Systems 179
Terra preta enables you to upcycle your own excrement,
thereby reconnecting nutrient cycles. Homo, humus, and
humanitas—it is no accident that the three words share the
same origin.
Summary and Prospects: A Handful of Black Earth as
Symbol 199
Acknowledgments 203
The Mistakes of Fossil Agriculture
FOREWORD
by Tim Flannery
vii

O
ver the Past decade, human emissions of greenhouse
gases have reflected the worst-case scenario. In 2014,
they reached 40 gigatons of co2. That is a very large
amount. If you wanted to take just 4 gigatons of co2 per year
(over a 50-year period) out of the atmosphere by planting for-
ests, you’d need to cover an area the size of Australia.
Sadly, there is already enough co2 in the atmosphere to
push temperatures, in the next few decades, to 1.5 degrees
Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the preindustrial
average. The lost decade of runaway emissions means that
we will then be living in a different world. Australia’s Great
Barrier Reef, for example, cannot survive such warming.
And, of course, we will not stop emitting greenhouse gases
for some decades yet. It seems inevitable that we will emit
enough to drive temperatures through the 2 degrees Celsius
(35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) “safety rail” that scientists warn of.
ix