“THE AGRICULTURAL SOLUTION TO THE GREENHOUSE EFFECT”
by Allan J Yeomans
Esalen Congress Presentation Paper
Presented to the Esalen Congress on Sustainable Agriculture. Big Sur, California. 1990
The attendees at that Esalen Institute conference are all in this photo.-
Front row: from left to right
Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute Snowmass, Colorado.
Terry Gips, Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Richard Nilsen, Whole Earth Review, Sausalito, CA.,
Bob Rodale, Rodale Institute, Emmaus, Pennsylvania.
Kaye Thornley, Molino creek farm, Davenport, CA.,
2nd row – from left to right
Chris Yeomans, Allan Yeomans, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Eliot Coleman, Working Land Fund, Vershire, Vermont.
Steve Gliessman, UCSC Agroecology Program, Santa Cruz, CA.,
Kevin Martin, Nat.Org.Grown Week, San Francisco, CA.
3rd Row – From left to right
Steve Beck, Esalen Institute, Big Sur, California.
Jane Mulder, Organic Food Matters, Colfax, CA.
Molly Penberth, CSA Board President, Sacramento, CA.,
Diane Goodman, Farallones Institute Occidental, San Francisco, California.
Wes Jackson, The Land Institute, Salina, Kansas.
Back Row:- from left to right
John Reganold, Wash State University, Dept of Argon, Pullman WA.,
James S. Turner, Healthy Harvest, Washington DC.,
Bill Leibhart, UCD Sustainable Agriculture and Research Program , Davis, Ca.
Steve Pavich, Pavich Family Farms, Delano, California
Conn Nugent, Nathan Cummings Foundation, New York
Ron Kroese, Land Stewardship Project, Marine, Minnesota.
It now seems that almost without exception, every organization represented at that Esalen Congress subsequently supported Allan Yeomans’ concept of combating global warming by the enhancement of the fertility of the worlds agricultural soils.
This is a copy of the first page of the presentation. Click on the link below this page to see the full presentation.
Left click on the link below to see the publication
Esalen Congress Presentation Paper
As at 23/1/23 and as requested I’m assembling for you a “what to hammer list” of the basic ideas and concepts in my assembled solution to our biosphere’s rapid overheating.
Nutshell reminder list of what we need people to know and understand – especially people who construct the laws we have to live by.
1 Per unit of power produced, coal, oil and natural gas kill over 500 times more people than die from either wind or nuclear or solar. And that’s with the two nuclear bombs that ended WW2 included.
2 Cease all government subsidies to the fossil fuels and agrochemical industries.
3 Convert the air’s carbon overload (existing as carbon dioxide) into soil humus and doing so by any means selected or invented by the farmer. And pay them at least US$10 per ton – carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq) for that removal. It’s the cheapest way to remove it. The quantity removed, however has to be easily and accurately measured. Or nothing happens. The Yeomans Methodology solves that problem. Read it. One farmer’s comment was – “It’s simply unfettered common sense“.
The existing carbon dioxide overload is enough to keep the biosphere heating for decades. Its therefore imperative that we in Australia demand that our federal government use the existing “Carbon Farming Initiative Act 2011” to approve the Yeomans Methodology to create Australian Carbon Credits. Businesses, organisations and governments around the world could use the Methodology to create their own carbon credits and so demonstrate to all, the methodology’s enate practicality.
4 To be clear we are defining “humus” as those molecules that are created from the final breakdown of soil life in the presence of air and water. Humus molecules are also huge – they can have molecular weights in the millions. They have long life-spans – up to thousands of years. In soil they are almost chemically inert. We also include as “humus” soil organic matter that will pass through a 2 mm sieve without any prior grinding. That means the material must have decomposed to the point where it is no longer a fibrous material.
5 In the air, methane gas is 225 to 350 time worse a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
6 Fracking is the process of forcing high-pressure liquids deep into the earth to fracture the rock structures and so release trapped oil and gas. That is oil and gas that’s been safely trapped, usually for millions of years.
7 Apply continuous and enormous monitory penalties to “Fugitive Gas” (methane) discharges that mining companies are constantly releasing into the atmosphere.
8 Ammonia liquid will be, and must be the primary fuel for all our portable energy requirements. It’s the only sane choice we have that we don’t have to grow on farm land, such as ethanol.
9 Ammonia is easy and cheap to produce from air and water and electricity. And now possibly from air and water and strong blue light. Also, ammonia is safer to handle than either gas, or oil, or coal.
( My mother always had a bottle of ammonia in the kitchen to clean the bench top. It’s safe stuff)