dorn cox - soil + silicon: open source tools for cover cropping, grazing and organic no-till

Agriculture

Population

Arts Commerce

AgriculturePopulation

Arts

The Mechanistic Metaphor

CommerceFixed External Extractable Inputs

AgriculturePopulation

ArtsGrowth without growth in regenerative capacity = extraction

Commerce Fixed External inputs + Sunlight & Water

http://www.fao.org/docrep/u8480e/U8480E3z.jpg

Extractive Spiral

(Magdoff, 2000)

Positive feed back

The positive feedback from management forms the basis of agrarian optimism. The alternative is a model of mining and extraction.

time

Winter annual (hairy vetch/winter rye)

Warm season perennial(eg. switchgrass)

Cool seasonperennial (orchard grass/clovers)

Spring annual(annual rye grass)

Fall annual (frost kill)(eg.Tillage radish/oats)

Warm season annual(Sorghum sudan grass)

Growth& nutrient uptake

winter spring summer fall winter spring summer fall winter

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Here is a calendar of your year’s labour.In January: pick the large vegetables. Turn over the fallow land. Prepare the hemp and flax. Clean and repair your carts and tipcart, and prepare some stakes and osiers. Fell the willows and poplars. Rebuild the ditches and shape the hedges. Turn over the vineyards. Manure the fruit trees which are languid and prune the rest. Clear the meadows. Thresh the grain. Turn over the manure. Plough the light, sandy soil which was not ploughed at the Feast of Saint Martin. When it is mild, resume planting in the valleys. Graft the early trees and bushes. Plant the corms, kernels, nuts, etc. Have the hemp scutched and begin to spin. Make bundles of firewood and sticks. Let those hens which are ready start brooding. Brand the lambs you wish to keep. Salt the pork. If you are in a hot country, break up the fallow land, prepare it for the March sowing, etc

Open Source

Open Source social systems fit within the physiocratic social framework for adaptive management - and a method for providing feedback across disciplines and as a method for coding the social technical tools required to support the movement of feedback and problem statements.

Creating

MixingSharingMakingGrowin

gEating Drinkin

g

InformationAND

INSPIRATION

Prototype and Share

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August Plant Date

September Plant Date

Agricultural Research and Development

These ratings are a social indicator: they rank a grower to other similar growers in the database.

The actual value is less important than the ranking for making management decisions

Indicator valueIndicator value

Indicator value

Indicator value

Whole Systems Health

Rating/ranking

Indicator value

Biological

Social

EconomicTechnological

Biogeochemical

Better Ecosystem Management

Better Systems Understanding

Better Systems Monitoring Tools

Better Data

Better Ecosystem Services Biological

Social

Economic

Technological

Biogeochemical

Physiocratic Framework for Whole Systems Adaptive Management

High Complexity Validation

of environmental indicators

Cultural communication and assimilation of indicators

Low feedback

High feedbackLow Complexity

Behavior over Time

Release-Date Price Per Sensor Pixel (left axis) and Per 12 megapixels (right axis) Vs. Time (exponential fit):

Convergence and Compounding of Technical Achievements

Accessible

Accuracy

Cost

LOW

HIGH

HIGH

HIGH

Participation over time

20031960 2014

RGB imagingKites, BalloonsImage processingtools

Multispectral Imaging,Infragram cameraGround truthing andrefinement

UAV platformDevelopment, ground based sensor integrationNew platforms and devicecalibration

Imaging For Agricultural Research and Management(iFARM)

Technical Maturity & number of departments and organizations and tools

2012 2013 2014

FARM HACK©

Behavior over time

Soil health indicators-water capacity(i)carbon levels(i)Root health(i)Nodulation(i)Pore structure-compaction(i)?-respiration

Atmospheric measures-temperature-humidity-precipitation-Carbon and Oxygen levels

Water

Soil

TemperatureConductivityChemistry (i)(i)Turbidity(i)Algal growthQuantity

temperatureMoisture (i)ConductivityChemistry (i)

Biology – Respiration(i)Photosynthesis(i)Nutrient uptake(i)Water stress(i)Disease identification(i)root health (i)Growth rate(i)Diversity(i)Structure type

Physical Expressions of the Interaction of the Social/Technical System Output

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9/20/13

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9/20/13

Cost: $60,000 Cost: $1300

Closed SystemCorporate sales and supported

Open Source Community Developed and Supported

GIS and shared

environmental database

Web Services (REST API, Auth access control)

Technical Biological Interaction

7/25/14

Raster file image layer

Visual data layers

3D crop model layer

Clickable Plot data

Scalability of approach from watershed to individual plant soil interactions

Customizable dashboard display layer for students/educators

Customizable dashboard display layer for Scientist/consultant

Customizable dashboard display layer for farmer, record keeping etc.

Analysis software VIIFarm Smart LCA

Analysis software VIDNDC

Analysis software IIISoil Health Management

GIS and sharedenvironmental

database

Web Services (REST API, Auth access control)

raster image layers Image processing

management layer with auto data entry used to layout fields, crops, practices, etc. tied to GIS shape filesAnalysis

software IIAdapt N

remote sensing environmental data network (automatic data entry)

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Social Technical Systems Interaction Expressed in Software

From one seed springs a thousand and let our ideas spread…

“like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density at any point, and, like the air in which we breathe, move and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.” Thomas Jefferson

“At the Moment of Sputnik the Planet Became a Global Theater in Which There Are No Spectators but Only Actors”

McLuhan, Marshall. 1974.