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my 25:1 grass clippings, 80:1 brown leaves, 15:1 chicken manure, and 200:1 wood chips would I combine to make a proper pile? The missing piece of the puzzle I needed was a unit of measurement! The ever-so-handy 5-gallon bucket was the key. I learned this trick from the Queen of Compost herself, Dr. Elaine Ingham, during a week long workshop. Using 5-gallon buckets, it is easy to average all of the ingredients to create an effective recipe. The ingredients are combined in multiple “rounds” of 10 buckets each until the pile is complete. (Fourth grade math reminder; add all units together, then divide by the number of units involved to find the average). It takes around 11 rounds, or 110 x 5-gallon buckets full of materials to create an appropriately sized pile for composting at a professional scale. • Measure your temperature. A compost thermometer allows you to peek inside your pile and monitor the microbial activity, which lets you perfect or correct your recipe. If the pile isn't heating up fast enough or staying hot long enough (minimum 131F for 15 days), the ratio of carbon to nitrogen is too high, or the pile is too dry. Maintaining these temperatures is key for eliminating human and plant pathogens, and sterilizing seeds and rhizomes. If it gets too hot, 52  |  pmNA 07 over 155F, you begin to kill beneficial microbes and blow off nutrients; your ratio of carbon to nitrogen is too low. • Turn your pile, a lot. USDA organic standards dictate turning a pile a minimum of 5 times in 15 days, all while staying above that 131F minimum. Do it, and get "farmfit" at the same time. While turning, make sure the materials on the outside of pile become the new "inside" of the pile each time. Each time you turn you add oxygen, which fuels the microbial action, much like blowing into a fire. Once your pile cools to ambient temperatures, you can turn much less often, every week or two, to allow fungi and worms to work their magic with minimum disturbance. James Loomis is a full time urban farmer, educator, small farm consultant, and evangelist of sustainability and permaculture for the last 20 years. He operates the 1.5 acre Green Team Farm in Downtown Salt Lake City, UT. He stacks writing, teaching, parenting, and dj’ing under the name “illoom.” His bloody mary's are legendary and have been known to change the entire course of a weekend. WasatchGardens.org/green-team-farm www.permaculturemag.org
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People Have The Power! Artivist Micah Nelson on sustainable agriculture, activism, his dad Willie, hemp, and being part of the solution. The passion for returning to sustainable agriculture and exploring renewable energy alternatives is in my blood. " " An interview by Hannah Apricot Eckberg B r u n e r B r i a n © Willie, Lucas, and Micah Nelson join Sheryl Crow during 2017’s Farm Aid concert. Since 1985, Farm Aid’s raised over $50 million to help family farmers. Hannah Apricot Eckberg (HAE): How and where did your passion for sustainable ag practices develop? Micah Nelson (MN): From my parents mostly, and growing up on Maui, where I learned the importance of respecting the "aina" (Hawaiian for " the land"). When I was but a teenager, my mom, along with Bob and Kelly King of Pacific Biodiesel, started The Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance and my dad started his biodiesel company, Bio-Willie. One Thanksgiving we used the grease from the turkey to make Biodiesel in the backyard and Bob and Kelly King drove home on it. My dad founded Farm Aid, the annual benefit concert for American family farmers. The passion for returning to sustainable agriculture and exploring renewable energy alternatives is in my blood. I was raised with the understanding that caring for the environment is basic logic. Farm Aid is always like a big family reunion, but especially this year. I hadn't played a show with Insects vs Robots in a very long time. There was no time to rehearse, no soundcheck or anything... barely any time to even tune our guitars before we were on. It was totally bonkers! Super fun though… It wasn't much different with Neil Young actually. We (Uncle Neil, myself, and Promise of the Real) hadn't played live together since Desert Trip/Old Chella about a year ago... the whole set was pretty much like driving a locomotive down the side of a mountain with no track. It was fantastic. A very cathartic set. I had the feeling Neil had been charging up all year for that. It was a spontaneously raging explosion of a song list that will go down in my memory as one of the greatest Farm Aid sets ever. HAE: What is the main project you are currently involved with? MN: I was recently elected as a board member of the National Hemp Association. The main goal we are working on is ending prohibition of American grown industrial hemp for commercial use so we can reestablish a sustainable agriculture economy in America. Hemp can be used to sustainably make every product fossil fuels claim to have precedent over. It's baffling how miraculous the plant is when it comes to growing and manufacturing everything from bioplastics and textiles, to renewable fuels, medicinal oils, and non-toxic breathable hempcrete. www.permaculturemag.org pmNA 07  |  53

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People Have The Power!

Artivist Micah Nelson on sustainable agriculture, activism, his dad Willie, hemp,

and being part of the solution.

The passion for returning to sustainable agriculture and exploring renewable energy alternatives is in my blood.

" "

An interview by Hannah Apricot Eckberg

B r u n e r

B r i a n

©

Willie, Lucas, and Micah Nelson join Sheryl Crow during 2017’s Farm Aid concert. Since 1985, Farm Aid’s raised over $50 million to help family farmers.

Hannah Apricot Eckberg (HAE): How and where did your passion for sustainable ag practices develop?

Micah Nelson (MN): From my parents mostly, and growing up on Maui, where I learned the importance of respecting the "aina" (Hawaiian for " the land"). When I was but a teenager, my mom, along with Bob and Kelly King of Pacific Biodiesel, started The Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance and my dad started his biodiesel company, Bio-Willie. One Thanksgiving we used the grease from the turkey to make Biodiesel in the backyard and Bob and Kelly King drove home on it.

My dad founded Farm Aid, the annual benefit concert for American family farmers. The passion for returning to sustainable agriculture and exploring renewable energy alternatives is in my blood. I was raised with the understanding that caring for the environment is basic logic.

Farm Aid is always like a big family reunion, but especially this year. I hadn't played a show with Insects vs Robots in a very long time. There was no time to rehearse, no soundcheck or anything... barely any time to even tune our guitars before we were on. It was totally bonkers! Super fun though…

It wasn't much different with Neil Young actually. We (Uncle Neil, myself, and Promise of the Real) hadn't played live together since Desert Trip/Old Chella about a year ago... the whole set was pretty much like driving a locomotive down the side of a mountain with no track. It was fantastic. A very cathartic set. I had the feeling Neil had been charging up all year for that. It was a spontaneously raging explosion of a song list that will go down in my memory as one of the greatest Farm Aid sets ever.

HAE: What is the main project you are currently involved with?

MN: I was recently elected as a board member of the National Hemp Association. The main goal we are working on is ending prohibition of American grown industrial hemp for commercial use so we can reestablish a sustainable agriculture economy in America. Hemp can be used to sustainably make every product fossil fuels claim to have precedent over. It's baffling how miraculous the plant is when it comes to growing and manufacturing everything from bioplastics and textiles, to renewable fuels, medicinal oils, and non-toxic breathable hempcrete.

www.permaculturemag.org pmNA 07  |  53

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