|
OVI Pillar: Ecology
Project Cost: 40,000 is the estimated
cost for deploying a Integrated Farming & Waste
Management System
Project Status:
Plan under development
Subproject under the Unity Center Project and the EcoLiving
Solutions Program.
Related Stories:
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Alice
Farm: Symbol of Hope for Silicon Valley Transformation
|
|
The
Next Green Revolution: The Story of "Terra
Preta" and the potential of "Biochar"
|
Downloads:
Unity Center (Agriculture) Resources:
Needs: Partners, volunteers, funding
for construction, travel and operational budget to sustain
the project for 1 year.
Support
Project |
| Inspirational
EcoLiving Stories (Agriculture) |
Longju
Community (China) - The Longju
Sustainable village which was proposed for
rural China, is an example of this new development
strategy creating localized self-sustaining economic
models. |
Water
hyacinth fights AIDS - Researchers at
Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe, teach
AIDS orphans to grow mushroom on water hyacinth
substrates, thus enabling them to secure sustainable
livelihoods. |
Maggots
Secure Hygiene - A Zero Emissions Research
Initiative (ZERI) affiliated project called Songhai
Farm is located in Benin creates ecotourism
environment while creating products from a variety
of wastes. |
Soil
Charcoal Amendments maintain Soil Fertility and
establish a Carbon Sink - Charcoal formation
and deposition in soils seems to be a promising
option to transfer an easily decomposable biomass
into refractory soil organic matter (SOM) pools.
More Here. |
|
Sustainable Unity Center Agriculture
R&D Focus |
|
SolaRoof |
Integrated
Farming & Waste Management Systems (IF&WMS) |
|
Hancock
Permaculture |
| Unity
Center EcoLiving Solutions Modules |
Holistic
ICT for EcoLiving |
| Sustainable
Agriculture |
| Renewable
Energy |
|
EcoBuilding |
Healing
and Human Potential |
OverView: Sustainable and organic
agriculture will be a high priority in the formation
of any Unity Center. A major of the agricultural program
is to provides most of the food for residents from local
sources using practices that promote health among people
and planet.
Challenge: Over the last 50 years
we have become increasingly dependant on large and complex
transportation networks to deliver us food grown distant
from where we live, that rely heavily on fossil fuels.
The result is an unnecessarily high footprint on the
ecology of the planet that is not sustainable. The alternative
is to develop sustainable agricultural systems that
produce food within close proximity to where it is needed.
Current Status: While many farms are
now growing organic food and much of
this is finding its way into mainstream store shelves,
the reality of a sustainable farm is
another story entirely. The goal of a Unity Center is
to function as an innovative space promoting technologies
and practices that are in tune with the synergistic/holistic
aspect of the core oneVillage Initiative Knowledge
Wheel concepts.
Criteria For Sustainable Farming:
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How the goods
are transported to market. |
|
What is involved
in constructing the infrastructure
|
|
What powers the
infrastructure that sustains the farm operations |
|
Types of inputs
in growing food such as pesticides and fertilizers
|
While all organic farm must conform to the first, few
commercially viable farms presently qualify in all four
categories.
OVF Sustainable Agriculture Strategy:
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Promote integration
of agriculture with renewable energy, ecological
design and natural resource management strategies
to ensure comprehensive sustainable development
plan for Unity Center project and surrounding
regions. |
|
Introduce information
and communication technologies as appropriate
towards increasing performance of sustainable
agriculture to make it more competitive economically
with existing practices.
|
|
Consider local
issues and needs as part of a community building
process called oneVillage Initiative.
|
|
Encourage Synergistic
results to maximize benefits between systems and
minimize wasted resources and energy.
|
The Social Sustainability Component: The
idea of sustainability extends beyond the farm field.
Farms provide residents of surrounding communities with
an opportunity to engage the land that sustains them
and retain an awareness of how their food is produced.
Festivals and other events demonstrate to us that an
important factor in long term community well being is
its connection to the farms that sustain it.
Criteria for Evaluating Successful and Effective
Sustainable Agriculture Projects: To evaluate
the sustainability of any system involves a rigorous
process to thoroughly understand how it works and the
various advantages and disadvantages of such a system.
The design of a evaluation of a sustainable agriculture
system should demonstrate how its design as well as
practical operation:
|
Cultivates an
environmental ethic and respect for the land through
its design so that students and workers begin
to see sustainability as a second nature that
becomes integrated into their lifestyle. |
|
Promotes the
development of local sustainable agriculture farms
and cooperatives that reduce the need for reliance
of resource intensive conventional agriculture
systems.
|
|
Minimizes land
based pollutants such as pesticides and fertilizers
that have a tendency to leak out of the more conventional
agricultural systems into the surrounding environment. |
|
Reduces carbon
and methane emissions to address global warming. |
Target Groups: People all over the
world like ourselves seeking out EcoLiving Solutions. |
