Friday 7.6.12

This morning I helped Allison bake bread for the kids who come every Friday and Saturday afternoon. Larry locked his keys in the car this morning while he was in La Ceiba and was unable to make it back until lunch. So Yui explained some of the concepts she has been able to learn while being here. When Larry returned, we all went to work on some agricultural projects including transplanting God’s way and the SALT method. We spent some time accross the street in one of Larry’s gardens where he taught me the SALT (Slopping Agricultural Land Technology) method. The poorest of the poor farmers are many times marginalized to the mountains where slopping lands are hard to farm on and this technology brings them sustainable methods that will help them. It is used for erosion control and maintaining the nutrient of the soil. By using various barriers, many times trees or tall grasses, erosion builds up and soil is better maintained. When the trees or grasses are big enough, they will be pruned of their forage and placed at the foot of the tree to build up the soil. Farming God's way is a method by which nature is able to do what it was created to do. Larry uses these methods on his plants by giving them forage and compost to maintain the life of the soil. Soil contains layers of micro and macro organisms, each of these give nutrients to the soil and help in the break down process of leaves and forage. When we take a tractor and break up the top level of the home of these organism, we are disrupting the natural progression of the soil and making the organism want to leave. By farming God’s way, we aim to preserve the life in the soil and continue feeding it through forage for mulch and nitrogen fixing cover crops. The life of the soil in many developing countries is suffering. In order to help farmers in these countries have a more sustainable living, we must give back to the soil and rebuilt what has been lost. Many farmers in Honduras use the slash and burn methods and through these methods they are crisping the top layer of this organic matter creating issues for the plant life later. As Larry is working with these local farmers, one can only hope that they would see the vision of better land through these methods and how it could benefit them in their situation.