Australian Story....Dr Maarten Stapper

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duane
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Australian Story....Dr Maarten Stapper

Post by duane » Fri May 29, 2009 8:41 pm

Finally after 18 months, here is my story! Please let people in your network know. If you miss Monday's edition you can watch a repeat on ABC or watch the full program on the ABC Australian Story page. On that internet page there will also be a gallery of interviews & photo's after the show I'm told. After the show you can enter comments in the Guestbook and react to statements by others. What is the future of Biological Farming? How do we get healthy food production systems? How do we get carbon in the soil? Do we need GM?

ABC Australian Story "Back to Earth" on Monday 1 June 2009 at 8.00 pm (EST) and repeated on Saturday 6 June at 12.30 pm; also on ABC2: Tuesday 2 June at 8.00pm.
watch a preview: http://www.abc.net.au/austory/default.htm
Dr Maarten Stapper is a man with some fascinating ideas on how to manage our land better. He is also a member of the Upper Murrumbidgee Natural Sequence Association Inc.

He is unconventional, stubborn and difficult. Not even a near-fatal car accident could slow him down in his mission to feed the world using less chemicals.

As an advocate for biological farming, Dr Stapper has paid a high price for promoting a greener, cleaner way to grow food. Originally a CSIRO scientist, he left when it became clear his views on biological farming were incompatible with his employer.

Today, he travels the country to educate farmers on how to use less chemicals in their soil and on their crops.

Shirley Henderson
Posts: 356
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 4:03 pm
Location: Thirlmere

Inspiring show

Post by Shirley Henderson » Tue Jun 02, 2009 7:27 pm

I watched the show. It was very inspiring and I am working as fast as I can to get my organic enterprise. I will be following Maartins methods as well as NSF.
Shirley

duane
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Joined: Fri Apr 20, 2007 1:44 pm
Location: Central Coast, NSW
Contact:

Post by duane » Wed Jun 03, 2009 10:06 am

A complete understanding of how this landscape functions provides many of the things Maarten spoke of......automatically.

Shirley Henderson
Posts: 356
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 4:03 pm
Location: Thirlmere

organics

Post by Shirley Henderson » Wed Jun 03, 2009 6:12 pm

I was particularly interested in what was being sprayed on the depleted farms. Was this worm juice? I looked up something on the internet and found a product called effective microbes or 4/20. My worm juice works great in my garden and I am wondering if anyone you know of is using these solutions in bush regeneration projects. As I am interested in keeping out herbicides I would love to be able to try and show some alternative methods and solutions to the land degradation.
Shirley

ColinJEly
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Location: melbourne

Post by ColinJEly » Sat Jun 06, 2009 12:29 pm

I missed the first part of the program on Monday night(although I am just about to watche the replay this morning), but i thoroughly enjoyed what I saw. Sad to see the CSIRO's viewpoint although the trouble at the moment is that a lot of research is funded from outside sources.
When I was employed by the Public Service our department was amalgamated into the Department of Agriculture and where I worked(in Administration) was aligned with the Institute for Horticultural Development at Knoxfield. One of the programs was 'Why does milk taste like milk?' This was funded by industry and was designed to find a way to add something to plain water so that you would get that real 'glass and a half taste!' If all research is industry funded applied research, you wont get any of the longer term pure research that our government should be funding. One point made in Maarten's program was that his program is designed to do on a large scale what home gardener's do in their garden with composts etc. What is the effect of using things like prepared packaged manures(dried chook and sheep poo!) as some of us are city slickers and don't have ready access to the real thing?

Shirley Henderson
Posts: 356
Joined: Sun May 06, 2007 4:03 pm
Location: Thirlmere

soil improvement

Post by Shirley Henderson » Sat Jun 06, 2009 3:39 pm

Colin,
the best thing I put on my garden is the worm castings, worm wee and compost from my bin. I put in scraps, cardboard and prunings to both. I have chickens (for eggs) and rabbits as pets for the kids, (desexed, vaccinated and fenced in with a run which also has mesh underneath the soil). All this goes into my compost with the straw we use for their housing. We have a continuous supply of compost ad the worm wee. I dilute this and spread it around the garden and our vegie plots, I believe it grows it's own little culture from where ever I put it. OUr garden and vege patches are full of worms but when we moved in there was nothing but ants and nothing else! The compost bin I use has an open bottom so I dig out what I need from underneath and the supply is continous. The worm castings are harder to get as I have to seperate the worms from them. That is, I tip them out on tarp and slowly remove from the outside the castings and the worms head for the centre. It is a slow process and I would like to find a better way. Never the less this is a home garden system and it works good for me. I use blood and bone in the spring for all my garden and autumn. We apply muilch to everything. I would love to have a sustainable property in the future and hope that will eventuate. My intention is to put into practise, NSF, biological and organic farming techniques. I know I have a lot to learn for any farmers reading this.
Shirley

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