As recent home owners in Harrisonburg, we the owners of On the Turtle’s Back are so excited about this city’s commitment to better preparing for a more sustainable future. Our store was founded on ideas of carbon neutrality and supporting the local economy, and we are so pleased of how well those ideas have been received! As mother’s of young children, our futures take a back-burner to the more important topic of our children’s futures… one’s in which we will have certainly reached peak oil and the age of cheap energy will be ending. With that in mind, our store employees local artist to make a large majority of our new products. Now you not only don’t have to go to one of the corporate giants for your mama and baby needs, but it is quite possible your neighbor might be making just what you are looking for!

On the subject of sustainable Harrisonburg, we the owners of On the Turtle’s Back strongly support the measure before City Council presently to legalize backyard laying hens in Harrisonburg with the stipulations put forth by HBCP. As we work toward making Harrisonburg an effective Transition town, we have to look towards putting mechanisms in place to produce practical food sources in the city. Chickens not only create a constant source of protein with little necessary space or resources, but also provide fabulous fertilizer for backyard gardens, can eat large portions of organic food waste, and can be amazing pets and educational additions to any child’s learning process. Many legitimate concerns have arisen in this process, but many can be addressed with some dialogue and a well-written ordinance. I encourage anyone with opinions on this matter to visit the website http://www.thecitychicken.com and also to email hburgchickenproject@gmail.com with ideas or concerns. By increasing dialogue from all sides on the matter, we can help set Harrisonburg up for a more sustainable future while doing so within limitations that most residents can feel happy with.

Thank you for reading my ideas and for making this city such a wonderful place to raise my family!

Rian Dovis

This is a Valley story; A Black Revolution for Valley Agriculture & Energy
We have involved at JMU; Wayne Teel (Environment/ISAT, my field study) & Rob Prins (Engineering, building reactor at JMU’s Farm) ,
A planed permaculture / composting / biochar , Fruit & produce Farm at the new campus of RMH (10 Acres),
6 Professors of Agriculture at VT,
Oren Heatwole’s Pyrolysis of poultry litter to char with VT
and
My Biochar Field trials in McGaheysville with the Rodale Institude, JMU & Houff Feed & Fertilizer Co. and local farmers.

Carbon to the Soil, the only ubiquitous and economic place to put it.

Modern Pyrolysis of biomass is a process for Carbon Negative Bio fuels, massive Carbon sequestration,10X Lower Methane & N2O soil emissions, and 3X Fertility Too.
Every 1 ton of Biomass yields 1/3 ton Charcoal for soil Sequestration, Bio-Gas & Bio-oil fuels, so is a totally virtuous, carbon negative energy cycle.

Biochar viewed as soil Infrastructure; The old saw;
“Feed the Soil Not the Plants” becomes;
“Feed, Cloth and House the Soil, utilities included !”.
Free Carbon Condominiums with carboxyl group fats in the pantry and hydroxyl alcohol in the mini bar.
Build it and the Wee-Beasties will come.
As one microbiologist said on the Biochar list; “Microbes like to sit down when they eat”.
By setting this table we expand husbandry to whole new orders of life.

This is what I try to get across to Farmers, as to how I feel about the act of returning carbon to the soil. An act of pertinence and thankfulness for the civilization we have created. Farmers are the Soil Sink Bankers, once carbon has a price, they will be laughing all the way to it.

I will be sharing the lectern with Keynote speaker Secretary Tom Vilsack & Dr. Susan Solomon (NOAA’s head atmospheric scientist) at the first North American Biochar Conference.
I will be speaking at the University of Colorado at Boulder on my lobbying & networking efforts thanks to the folks at EcoTechnologies Group .
( http://www.ecotechnologies.com/index.html , they have also fully funded my field trials with JMU)
http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=684390

I hope to share this vision with you all tomorrow

Cheers,
Erich

Erich J. Knight
Eco Technologies Group Technical Adviser
University of California Riverside advisory board member
Shenandoah Gardens (Owner)
1047 Dave Barry Rd.
McGaheysville, VA. 22840
540 289 9750

Futher Info on Biochar Technologies:

NASA’s Dr. James Hansen Global warming solutions paper and letter to the G-8 conference, placing Biochar / Land management the central technology for carbon negative energy systems.
arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/pa…

The Soil Carbon Sequestration Standards Committee.
Hosted by Monsanto, this group of diverse interests has been hammering out issues of definition, validation and protocol. The past week, this group have been pressing soil sequestration’s roll for climate legislation to congress.
http://www.novecta.com/docume...

Along these lines internationally, the work of the IBI fostering the application by 13 countries for UN recognition of soil carbon as a sink with biochar as a clean development mechanism will open the door for programs across the globe.
http://www.biochar-internatio….

Reports:
This new Congressional Research Service report (by analyst Kelsi Bracmort) is the best short summary I have seen so far – both technical and policy oriented.
assets.opencrs.com/rpt… .

This is the single most comprehensive report to date, covering more of the Asian and Australian work;
http://www.csiro.au/files/fil...

Given the current “Crisis” atmosphere concerning energy, soil sustainability, food vs. Biofuels, and Climate Change what other subject addresses them all?

Biochar data base; TP-REPP

Tip Parker