There is a safe way—both for rural workers and consumers—to make plants grow more and be more productive: use silicates. Silicates are a mineral class, considered to be a micronutrient by the Ministry of Agriculture. A technology that is cleaner, sustainable and natural.

According to an article by Oscar Fontão de Lima Filho, a researcher at Embrapa Agropecuária Oeste, in general, silicon works in the plant’s metabolism as a kind of stress reliever. It increases the plant’s resistance to pests and diseases. Consequently, they need less pesticide and are of a better quality.

Researchers are conducting—I hate using the gerund—more studies on this technique before its actual implementation. The complete text—read here—is available on the not-for profit website, Infobibos. It has other articles on themes related to ranching, natural resources and quality management. Here is a tip in Portuguese. Could it be an alternative to transgenic species?

Read this post at the Xis-Xis blog: New technology for sustainable agriculture

Pablo Handl and Terra Boa composters

Yesterday, I visited The Hub-SP, and learned that in addition to being a collaborative entrepreneur, Pablo Handl also has a very nice eco-enterprise called Rio-Sol Eco-opportunities. The company was incubated within the Artemisia Foundation, which promotes the construction of social business models; its first product is a composter that can be used in apartments: the Terra Boa.

The system is free and very easy to use at home. Three resistant and stackable plastic boxes transform all of the organic waste by using select earthworms to digest the waste.

Each Terra Boa composter has 1 box to collect the animal fat (with a faucet, at the bottom) and two digestive boxes. The main digestive box has a thin layer of humus and select earthworms that transform the organic waste deposited in the box into good soil, or terra boa in Portuguese. You can lay some dry leaves or shredded paper on top of the organic residues, and close the lid. In another expanded ceramic box, you can add humus and continue the process when the first one is full. The decomposition of this material generates leachate (a liquid byproduct of the decomposition). The leachate is practically and cleanly stored in the collecting box, and can be used to fertilize your plants.

The small set, shown in the photo above, costs R$ 250. It is ideal for families of up to 4 people. Orders can be placed by e-mail.: ecooportunidades [@] gmail.com

This article belongs to Ladybug Brasil. If you have found it on another blog, please, contact me.

The documentary The World According to Monsanto, by French journalist Marie-Monique Robin has finally been subtitled in Portuguese on YouTube. It is divided into 12 chapters. If you are serious about finding out what is behind the genetic engineering applied to food you need to see this video.

Robin is now working on uncovering the relationship between agricultural industrialization and the rising number of cancer cases in the world, according to an interview she gave to Epoca magazine. We’ve known for a while that industrialized food is equal to packaged garbage. The issue now is the extent to which this is harming our health. For instance, a feature published by Estadão on Tuesday, reports that we are poisoning our kids with too much fat, salt and sugars.

Transgenics are just a part of the problem. The main issue is the carelessness of the industry - and of a good portion of consumers - about something as fundamental as the food we eat every day. We should always know what we are eating, what it can do to our bodies, the side effects, and so forth. But to do this, the food industry needs to be honest with us, which is something that doesn’t happen. They only act when pressured by consumers and/or by the Law - when they do act. But we are here to pester them until they get their act together and change their current business paradigm, aren’t we?

Anyway, on to the film. Click to watch on YouTube.