Plantbased

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What does a self sustaining plant based ecosystem look like? (hackertalks.com)

submitted 2 months ago by jet@hackertalks.com to c/plantbased@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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Imagine there is a small island, like Malta, and the ecosystem has no external inputs (no fertilizer delivery, etc).

What does a sustainable plant based agriculture system look like? Are there already existing examples?

I'm very interested in how top soil is maintained without external fertilizer inputs?

One area of concern, I have, with modern monocrop farming techniques is the depletion of top soil, with something like 60 crop cycles left before we are current system falls over.

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[–] wolfyvegan@slrpnk.net 2 points 6 days ago

Where does the biomass come from that’s being referenced?

Referenced where exactly? Biomass in humanure comes from... well, your rear end. Biomass in syntropic agriculture is formed through photosynthesis, either in the plants deliberately grown on the farm or in native species used for chop-and-drop.

Is external fertilizer needed after the food for us to set up?

Unless the soil is severely depleted of micronutrients (e.g. calcium, magnesium, trace minerals), no external fertiliser should be required. Carbon comes from photosynthesis, nitrogen comes from microbial fixation, and phosphorus and potassium are usually not the limiting nutrients, but even in areas where they are, the only fertiliser needed to replenish them is ash. All of the people destroying the forest for fuelwood and charcoal are making plenty of fertiliser for you to use! (I'm not familiar with Malta specifically, but there seems to be some of this happening there as well.)

Is it self-sustaining, or does it need external inputs?

Ideally, a syntropic farm should cycle nutrients similarly to natural forest. Is a forest ecosystem self-sustaining, or does it need external inputs?