Mark Cohen: Bridging Our Fossil Fuel Dependence to a Regenerative Economy | SNC 2018 Pre-conference
Channel: Bionutrient Food Association
Date: 28/01/2019

https://soilandnutrition.org/ Natural systems develop resilience and diversity over time by increasing natural capital. Good stewardship works with these processes and can even accelerate them. Carbon management and decentralization are key elements. 

In this workshop we will explore a list of ideas, practices and tools toward this goal. Holistic problem solving has the capacity to solve for many symptoms simultaneously, with higher quality, longer lasting, safer outcomes than silver bullet quick fixes. By integrating insights from nature observation, indigenous land management, regenerative agriculture, conservation biology, renewable energy and holistic medicine we will be better equipped for adaptation to challenges facing us.

Our familiarity and reliance on the real time delivery of diesel fuel has created a dependence on fossil fuels. Join us to learn how to create a bridge to a more renewable and regenerative economy.

In the landscape, how do we manage our forests, an important source of food and medicine with regular cool burns to reduce competition, and open the canopy to support the understory?

How does the genetic selection of plants and trees that are more productive and nut bearing, support wildlife grazing and medicinals?

How do we restore our biodiversity, below and above ground and in our guts, and orient carbon back into the earth?

With surges of productivity, how to we store the abundance?

Discover new technologies that allow growing seasons to be extended, provide electricity for heat and hot water, create biochar, and store the excess in salt water batteries.

Explore strategies to allow farmers to age in place and provide working lands for the next generation of farmers.

The regenerative design of our open landscapes includes creating a soil sponge, interplanting trees, restoration of riparian zones, alley cropping, resilient wood sources, fodder plants, row planting on contour and water management through the use of swales, ponds, and keyline design.

Climate mitigation, ecological restoration, and carbon sequestration are the pathways to a more resilient future. Bring your ideas and let’s build decentralized habitats and networks from the soil up!

Mark has a background in wildlife biology, ecology, ethnobotany, permaculture, cooperative land use, and renewable energy. Mark has been an organic inspector with OEFFA for 26 years, and lives in Southern Ohio at Far Valley Farm, a 30-year old intentional community he helped co-found. Living off the grid for 37 years and growing a wide range of crops, seeds, honey, mushrooms, and medicinals. He founded the Belize Agroforestry Research Center, a permaculture research and teaching facility based in Southern Belize, and spent 25 winters in Central America practicing and teaching tropical permaculture. Mark is constantly learning, teaching, and consulting (cross-pollinating) in his travels.

Mark is also heavily involved in his local BFA chapter in southeastern OH, hositing in-person workshops and managing a soil mineral depot.

http://bionutrient.org/site/