Solarpunk Farming

Glyphosate has proved divisive since the World Health Organization’s cancer research agency concluded in 2015 that it was probably carcinogenic to humans. Other agencies around the world, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and EU agencies, have classified it as non-carcinogenic.

The European Commission said on Thursday it would renew glyphosate’s approval based on European Food Agency and European Chemicals Agency safety assessments and subject to new conditions and restrictions, such as maximum application rates.

Unfortunately, this article forgot to mention that some national agencies of countries have opposite conclusions such the french agency "Inserm"...

Glyphosate: Europe divided by the world's most widely used pesticide, Published on 12/10/2023 The risks

Environmental groups have called EFSA's assessment "shocking".

"In our view, EFSA has downplayed the existing evidence from animal and epidemiological studies on the effects of glyphosate, which can cause DNA damage in certain organisms," says Gergely Simon. "This indicates that glyphosate can cause cancer. We therefore believe that, in line with international guidelines from the US EPA, glyphosate should be classified as carcinogenic, which has already been done by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and also by France's National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm). They have all concluded that, based on the available evidence, there is a probable link between exposure to glyphosate and the development of cancer".

EFSA, for its part, responded that "data gaps are mentioned" in their report, "either as questions that could not be completely answered or as open questions."

The three questions that could not be finalised relate to the assessment of one of the impurities present in glyphosate, the dietary risk assessment for consumers and the risk assessment for aquatic plants. "Overall, the information available does not allow definitive conclusions to be drawn regarding this aspect of the risk assessment," EFSA told Euronews.

Gergely Simon stresses that the risks should not be underestimated under any circumstances. "Numerous studies show that exposure to glyphosate can be linked to both autism in children and Parkinson's disease. We therefore believe that the fact that EFSA has stated that there is no standardised protocol for drawing conclusions on the neurotoxicity of glyphosate should be a critical area of concern, which would mean that glyphosate could not be authorised as it currently is," he emphasises

"In addition, there is a large body of alarming evidence about the destructive effects of glyphosate on the microbiome, as glyphosate is both a herbicide and an antibiotic. It is primarily used, for example, to alter the soil microbiome, but also the human gut microbiome. We know that there are many health risks associated with the destruction of the microbiome. Finally, EFSA has confirmed that glyphosate has the potential to cause endocrine disruption at doses considered safe in the European Union", adds the PAN Europe representative.

"There are no internationally recognised guidelines for assessing the risks associated with the microbiome in the field of pesticides. Further research is needed".

Glyphosate EU, the group of companies in favour of renewing the authorisation of glyphosate in Europe, says: "All allegations have been raised on several occasions and have been dealt with by the regulatory authorities, in Europe and throughout the world. This is yet another attempt by non-governmental organisations to discredit the most comprehensive scientific dossier presented in the application for renewal of EU approval for glyphosate, and to undermine confidence in the regulatory authorities in order to prevent the renewal of approval for glyphosate in the EU". Opposing countries

Germany has argued in favour of abandoning glyphosate in the European Union. In September 2023, at the end of a meeting between representatives of the 27 member states to discuss the European Commission's proposal, the German agriculture minister warned of the threats to biodiversity and stressed the need for a coordinated phase-out of glyphosate at European level, while warning of uneven levels of protection within the EU.

In 2021, the German government announced its decision to withdraw glyphosate from the market by the end of 2023. The country is therefore expected to vote against renewing the authorisation of this herbicide within the EU at the vote scheduled for 13 October.

France, for its part, had also tried to adopt restrictive measures with regard to glyphosate. In 2017, French President Emmanuel Macron announced his commitment to completely ban glyphosate in France before 2021.

This time the French's government (kind of the same that the one in 2017) was in favour of glyphosate's use. However since our national agency has published studies that are not in favour of its use, our government chose to not participate in the vote in order to avoid having to justify a decision against our national agency and in the same time avoiding to go against the authorisation's renewal.

I'd read you could transplant them in the fall, after they've died back a bit but before the ground freezes. I finally dug a few out of two local groves and it turns out they're different varieties! My neighbor gave me the okay to plant them (I've been helping him replace his lawn with local plants, and we're emphasizing local food plants in the back). I know they can take over a space a bit, but he seems excited at the idea. He has just about the only bees I've seen in our neighborhood, so he's happy to give them more flowers. And if the sunchokes go too crazy I have a friend who knows how to cook them.

Tucked one in to a sunny spot where someone clearcut along a bike path too. Maybe it'll take off. I've been thinking about trying a little guerilla forest gardening along the path, perhaps starting with edible mushrooms next. I guess they make plugs - you drill holes in dead logs, tuck the mushroom plug in, and you get mushrooms. We'll see.

I'm mostly asking because I posted a photobash of an airship yard I did to the solarpunk subreddit and someone brought up combining airship mooring masts and screw conveyors like grain silos use (though we might be closer to concrete-industry-scale once you lift stuff to mooring-mast-height). A combined mooring mast and silo might be practical in a place with a lot of flavors of agroforestry, where they might not want to clear a patch of empty land just for landing airships.

It got me thinking about grain silos and how they'd fit. I know folks on this instance generally don't like industrial scale farming and monocrops, which is what I generally associate with grain, but I know so little about it. So I guess my questions are pretty broad and open to correction - could the mooring mast/silo idea work in a society with a lot of airborne shipping, what's a solarpunk way to grow those crops? Anything you'd like to see in art of farming? (I'm still working on the scene of the village, which includes all the suggestions from last time)

Lots to unpack in this somewhat ranty article, but also some food for thought.

I use Fish Emulsion Fertilizer a lot in my own garden. It's organic, and most importantly WORKS. You typically use it for plants bearing fruit (such as tomatoes, watermelon, squash) and not leafy vegetables (spinach, Swiss Chard, etc). It makes the fruits a lot tastier from my experience. I typically buy it from my local farmer's CO-OP, but it's not an uncommon find elsewhere.

Here's a helpful guide on using it: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/using-fish-emulsion.htm

I love seeing this sort of thing in Farming. Are there any other places where dungbeetles are used as an input to a farm?

What other insects are being introduced to farms? I know of bees (pollination) and ladybirds (pest control)

Hi, recently I've been making these pictures/photobashes of different places in a solarpunk world, trying to demonstrate technologies or other possibilities, or values like reuse that I consider to be solarpunk. I'm working on some cityscapes but I've been thinking a lot about rural places since that's where I'm from, and how they might change with some of the societal crumbles and contractions I feel like are impending. In my grandparents' time, the region where I grew up was lots of small villages, usually bunched up around water and local industry, with farms spread out beyond that. With cars, people have spread out in these sprawling bedroom communities that are becoming ever more dense with people. Gas and groceries were 40 minutes away by car, and I feel like most people I knew drove an hour each way for work.

I wanted to do a scene sort of showing how things might change in rural areas if cars became impractical (due to shortages etc) and how things could be rebuilt better. I have a sense of what I want to include:

• Dense village surrounded by farms and forest, an abandoned mcmansion or large house far enough out to be impractical
• High speed rail access to the village
• Solar panels
• Waterwheels
• Farms
• Algae farming

For the farms, I could drop in bits and pieces of photos of farmland and make it work, I worked on a farm for a few years and feel comfortable enough for that. But I suspect folks who know more about farming, and especially folks who are into solarpunk visions of the future, might have stronger opinions on how it should be done, so I figure now is a good time to ask. What would you like to see? What should be done differently than we do now? Anything from layouts to the size of fields, to specific crops would be useful.

Edit: this'll be in North America, by the way. (Probably northern US States though I haven't picked one) The surrounding trees, general style of mountain, and the buildings will be based on that assumption anyways.

edit 2: here's the current rough draft to give you an iea of the space I'm planning around

Thanks!

I had never actually heard of this plant before 🤯

The Wikipedia page has some more interesting details.

“Why can we only get lamb in the US, as opposed to mutton?” That’s what Bobbie Kramer, a veterinarian near Portland, Oregon, was wondering when she