The Bec Hellouin model for growing food, sequestering carbon, creating jobs, and increasing biodiversity without using fossil fuels. When Charles and Perrine Herve-Gruyer set out to create their farm ...in an historic Normandy village, they had no idea just how much their lives would change. Neither one had ever farmed before. Charles had been circumnavigating the globe by sail, operating a floating school that taught students about ecology and indigenous cultures. Perrine had been an international lawyer in Japan. Each had returned to France to start a new life. Eventually, Perrine joined Charles in Normandy, and Le Ferme du Bec Hellouin was born. Since then the farm has become a celebrated model of innovative, ecological agriculture in Europe, connected to national and international organizations addressing food security, and heralded by celebrity chefs as well as the Slow Food movement. The Miraculous Abundance of Bec Hellouin Farm is the eloquent tale of the couple's evolution from creating a farm to sustain their family to delving into an experiment in how to grow the most food possible, in the most ecological way possible, and create a farm model that can carry us into a post-carbon future when oil is no longer moving goods and services, energy is scarcer, and localization is a must. Today, the farm produces a variety of vegetables using a mix of permaculture, bio-intensive, four-season, and natural farming techniques--as well as techniques gleaned from native cultures around the world. It has some animals for eggs and milk, horses for farming, a welcome center, a farm store, a permaculture school, a bread oven for artisan breads, greenhouses, a cidery, and a forge. It has also become the site of research focusing on how small organic farms like theirs might confront Europe's (and the world's) projected food crisis. But in this honest and engaging account of the trials and joys of their uncompromising effort, readers meet two people who are farming the future as much as they are farming their land. They envision farms like theirs someday being the hub for a host of other businesses that can drive rural communities from bread makers and grain millers to animal care givers and other tradespeople. Market farmers and home gardeners alike will find much in these pages, but so will those who've never picked up a hoe. The couple's account of their quest to design an almost Edenlike farm, hone their practices, and find new ways to feed the world is an inspiring tale. It is also a love letter to a future in which people increasingly live in rural communities that rely on traditional skills, locally created and purveyed goods and services, renewable energy, and greater local governance, but are also connected to the larger world.
The relationship between plant traits and species relative abundance along environmental gradients can provide important insights on the determinants of community structure. Here we bring extensive ...data on six key traits (specific leaf area (SLA), seed mass, seed germination rate, height, leaf proline content and photosynthesis rate) to test trait-abundance relationships in a successional chronosequence of subalpine meadow plant communities. Our results show that in late-successional meadows, abundant species had higher values for seed mass, seed germination rate, and SLA, but had lower values for height, photosynthesis rate, and leaf proline content than rarer species. The opposite patterns of trait-abundance relationships were observed for early-successional meadows. Observations of strong trait convergence and divergence in these successional communities lend greater support for niche processes compared to neutral community assembly. We conclude that species' niches that determine plant growth (plant height and photosynthesis rate), carbon balance (SLA, photosynthesis rate), regeneration (seed mass and seed germination rate), and abiotic stress resistance (leaf proline content) under different environmental conditions have strong influence on species relative abundance in these sub-alpine meadow communities during succession.
Maize (Zea mays L) is one of main nutrients sources for humans and animals worldwide. In Africa, storage of maize ensures food resources availability throughout the year. However, it often suffers ...losses exceeding 20% due to insects such as the larger grain borer, Prostephanus truncatus (Horn) (Coleoptera; Bostrichidae), major pest of stored maize in the tropical countries. This study aims to select resistant varieties to reduce maize storage losses and explain the physicochemical parameters role in grains susceptibility. In the first study, maize grains were artificially infested under no-choice method with insects. Susceptibility parameters such as weight loss, grain damage, number of emerged insects, median development time and susceptibility index varied significantly through maize varieties. Dobie susceptibility index (SI) was assessed as a major indicator of resistance. The most resistant varieties were Early-Thaï, DMR-ES and Tzee-Yellow. Conversely, Synth-9243, Obatampa and Synth-C varieties were susceptible. SWAN, Across-Pool and Tzee-White were classified as moderately resistant varieties. The insect reproductive potential was significantly different in the nine maize varieties and Early-Thaï, DMR-ES and Tzee-Yellow varieties were the least favourable host. To assess the relationship between grains physicochemical characteristics and varietal susceptibility, moisture, total phenolics, palmitic acid, proteins, amylose, density and grain hardness were evaluated according to standardized methods. Palmitic acid, SI, insects emerged and grain damage were significantly and positively correlated with each other, and negatively correlated with grains hardness, phenolics and amylose contents. Maize susceptibility index was significantly and negatively correlated to amylose, and phenolics contents and positively correlated to palmitic acid content. This study identified three resistant maize varieties to P. tuncatus and revealed that the major factors involved in this resistance were hardness, phenolic and amylose contents of grains.
Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and intensity of extreme events in northern ecosystems. The outcome of these events across the landscape, might be mediated by species effects, ...such as niche construction, with likely consequences on vegetation resilience. To test this hypothesis, we simulated an extreme event by removing aboveground vegetation in tundra heathlands dominated by the allelopathic dwarf shrub Empetrum nigrum, a strong niche constructor. We tested the hypothesis under different climate regimes along a 200-km long gradient from oceanic to continental climate in Northern Norway. We studied the vegetation recovery process over ten years along the climatic gradient. The recovery of E. nigrum and subordinate species was low and flattened out after five years at all locations along the climatic gradient, causing low vegetation cover at the end of the study in extreme event plots. Natural seed recruitment was low at all sites, however, the addition of seeds from faster growing species did not promote vegetation recovery. A soil bioassay from 8 years after the vegetation was removed, suggested the allelopathic effect of E. nigrum was still present in the soil environment. Our results provide evidence of how a common niche constructor species can dramatically affect ecosystem recovery along a climatic gradient after extreme events in habitats where it is dominant. By its extremely slow regrowth and it preventing establishment of faster growing species, this study increases our knowledge on the possible outcomes when extreme events harm niche constructors in the tundra.
For a harvest of mature onions in early summer to sell at our farm stand, we were interested in growing the fall-planted onion varieties listed in seed catalogs. Because the low temperatures here in ...Maine are too harsh for overwintered onions to survive, we needed to grow them with protection from the weather. Because one can't count on snow cover, quick hoops are an excellent substitute.
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