|
|
||
|
|
How Will
Food and Water Be Produced in Philadelphia? Q: How long does it take the surface of a newly-risen
continent to reach a state where it can be farmed or used beneficially? RK: Some parts of it will take longer than
others, but, at least, fifty years until the excess salt has been
leached out by rain. There are some types of crops that we
are looking for now which have a high tolerance for salt. For
instance, marsh grass would be a good thing to “sweeten” soil and to hold it
in place. We would sow it or broadcast it over a square mile to square mile
to square mile. Of course, marsh grass, since there isn’t
any rain will grow up since it lives in water. There are other types of plants which are able to handle that. Meanwhile, the
advice that I was given was that you have to setup hydroponics systems to
maintain regular crops in the interim. That is what we will do. We have
talked about collecting libraries, well we also have to talk about collecting
seed stock to preserve the kinds of—normally we deal with hybrids now. They
are very difficult to make them part of your crop when you plant them because
very frequently nothing comes up or what does come up is so unsatisfactory,
in comparison to the original crop that was hybridized to produce it, that
you could not live off it. It does not produce enough. But,
some of the basic grains are being preserved usually in universities or some
research group. We need a seed stock that will produce generation after
generation without hybridizing it. We also have to take those along or else
there may be whole strains of some things that will just disappear. Q: Will the destruction, in this area, be that bad? RK: The only thing that anybody plants around here is hybridized: corn and soybeans. The original grain stock
from which it was originated has to be sustained someplace
in a laboratory condition, permanently, in order to keep it going. It is a ridiculous
kind of situation, but that is what specialization sometimes gets us into. As a matter of fact, it is
now arranged that a private individual can no longer buy into this things.
There was a seed company that used to sustain our group that was just purchased by one of the big grain companies so it
is impossible to get those any longer. Q: Are they being saved? RK: I am hoping they will not let them die. They used to be
available until last year to anybody who wanted to send to the seed company to
get them. Now they are not available to anybody. Q: Is there a part of the Group that is doing that: organic
gardening. You read articles all the time about people that are creating
open-pollinated grain??? RK: Yes. When ever anything becomes not readily
available, through commercial channels, then newsletters spring up where
people who are interested are able to find such things. Q: These people are just getting ready to do this. They have a
pretty good idea of what is going to happen so—one article I read says this
guy has quite a large following and quite a few people mailing in. He has
setup this bank with all these grains. RK: Do you happen to know who this
offhand? Q: I have it at home. RK: Can you mail us the address and the details? Q: Sure. RK: Just address it to a Mr. Tim Wilhelm and
he would be interested to find out where we can get those things again. Some of those self-fertilizing things are tastier
and more nutritious even though their yield is less. Q: I was thinking that you would have to have a large reservoir
when the cataclysms come. Where will it be? RK: There is another technique of condensing it right out of the
air. It is like a humidifier works mechanically to
condense out of the air. There are also desalinization systems and we hope to
be in an area fairly near to the ocean—the new location of the ocean. Q: You say probably ? system? RK: Right. And there are some new
ones that are coming out that almost are self-sustaining. They do not require
any energy other than just sunlight. Q: And then when they would ? water recycle? RK: Once we have fresh water, it is a lot cheaper just to be sure
that you get any germs out of it. Natural pollution is pretty
easy to remove over a period of time in comparison to desalinization. Q: I was thinking that hydroponics takes quite a bit of water
doesn’t it? RK: The aspiration of the plants always evaporates water through
the leaves. There is a lot of water in those tomatoes. Q: The main thing that concerns me about hydroponics is there
are people who would argue that it is not as nutritious because you need all
the micro-organisms and bacteria and everything in
the soil to give the plants the proper health it needs to give the proper
nutrition to the plant. Is that something that you know? RK: There is a physician by the name of Murray who about twenty years ago
discovered that if you dilute seawater which has the proper mix of the
micro-minerals in it that has been leached out of all the soil before it can
get into the ocean it had to be washed out of someplace else. Those
micro-minerals are in a balanced proportion for land plants to handle just
perfectly. Most plants can take sea water diluted six to one: six parts of
fresh water to one part seawater. Inasmuch as sodium chloride, which is the
principle salt in ocean water, does not enter into the physiology of the
plant—the only problem that it causes is if it is in too high a
concentration, the plant’s root system is not able to take-up the other
minerals that it needs. But, if it is diluted to
that extent—six to one—it does not have any problem with it. Almost no plants
have a problem with it. So, he has used this system
to produce plants which provide superior food that is highly flavorable.
Actually, hydroponic plants are usually grown in
something like pea gravel. They just wet the surface twice
a day and whatever residual in there is what the plant uses. So, that system of providing highly nutritious food is
possible through hydroponics so long as you have all the minerals necessary.
He uses a system where antibacter is used to fix nitrogen out of the air. That is a natural
thing. He does not have to figure out nitrates source to fertilize. There are a few other things that do have to be added
because they use so much potassium in the soil and things, but far less
potassium than most people use. You do not have to put lime on the soil
because you control the acidity with the water that is used
in the hydroponic solution. So, there are people who
have come with really clever systems. If you ever see a tomato in the market place which is usually around Christmastime that says, “Seaponics” on it, it was one of those that was produced
by his company. Q: RK: Yes, Q: Is he still alive? RK: Yes. He is a Q: Are there any books out on that subject? RK: Yes, there is. One of our members here wrote the book, as a matter of fact: Tom Valentine. (02-1982) |
|
|
|
|
|
