Open Source Ecology - User contributions [en]

Polylactic acid/Research Development

2013-01-20T16:55:18Z

Peter Mortensen: /* Literature review */ Some copy editing.

''We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than they, and things at a greater distance, not by virtue of any sharpness of sight on our part, or any physical distinction, but because we are carried high and raised up by their giant size.''

=Literature review=
Below is a review of peer reviewed publications and expired patents covering the areas of lactic acid from microorganisms, purification of lactic acid to polymerization grade quality, and methods of a polymerization of polylactic acid. An effort was made to reference sources that are freely available online outside of subscription databases, but in certain areas of recent progress sources requiring subscription are used. The information below informs the rationale of the proposed manufacturing protocol.

==Process Reviews==
http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/4048/PDF

====L (+) lactic acid fermentation and its product polymerization====
[http://www.scielo.cl/pdf/ejb/v7n2/a08.pdf | L (+) lactic acid fermentation and its product polymerization] by
Narayanan et al reviews the production of lactic acid and its use as a plastic monomer. The synthetic route of lactic acid is four steps that involve fixating an activator cyanide group to an acetylaldehyde to form lactonitrile, hydrolysis of lactonitrile with sulfuric acid to yield lactic acid and ammonium salt. For purification via reactive distillation lactic acid is esterified with methanol to methyl lactate and water, methyl lactate is distilled, and hydrolyzed to lactic acid with the addition of water. The production of lactic acid from biological sources is through the fermentation of high energy carbohydrates to lactic acid by Lactic Acid Bacteria. Lactic acid is neutralized and precipitated with calcium hydroxide. Calcium lactate is collected and hydrolyzed with water. For purification lactic acid is esterified with methanol to methyl lactate and removed via distillation, before hydrolysis with water. Has use as hardener for cellophane.

"The choice of an organism primarily depends on the carbohydrate to be fermented. ''Lactobacillus delbreuckii'' subspecies ''delbreuckii'' are able to ferment sucrose. ''Lactobacillus delbreuckii'' subspecies ''bulgaricus'' is able to use lactose. ''Lactobacillus helveticus'' is able to use both lactose and galactose. ''Lactobacillus amylophylus'' and ''Lactobacillus amylovirus'' are able to ferment starch. ''Lactobacillus lactis'' can ferment glucose, sucrose and galactose. ''Lactobacillus pentosus'' have been used to ferment sulfite waste liquor." Lactobacillus also have complex nutrition requirements. Rhizopus oryzae are also stereoselective LAB as well as yeasts such as'' Saccharomyces cerevisiae'' and ''Kluyveromyces lactis'' and have been investigated for their usefulness. Lactase enzymes are stereospecfic and heterolactic species have two isoforms, some species induce their second enzyme only under high concentrations of lactic acid. Genetic engineering on ''lactobacilli'' has shown success in controlling stereospecficity of products, reaction rate and yield; ''Rhizopus oryzae'' is also under study. Favorable feedstocks are high sugar or starch plants. Techniques to increase yield include pretreatments, simultaneous saccharification, and nutrient supplementation (especially nitrogen - yeast extract). Methods to remove lactic acid product from the fermentation batch include ion-exchange resins and electrodialysis.

Different bioreactor configurations have been studied and batch-wise and continuous reactor sketches are provide. Continuous cell recycle reactors have shown high performance and utilize membranes to retain cells while removing media. Cell immobilization by biofilm establishment shows higher performance to free floating culture systems. High cell concentrations make it much more difficult to maintain optimal conditions in all parts of the reactor and can stress the cells(stereoisomerization). "(a) lowering down of the pH of fermented broth (3.0 to 4.2); (b) Use of hydrophilic
membrane and the volatile amine weak base (VAWB) to separate lactic acid from the fermented broth through the hydrophillic membrane to VAWB; (c) Regeneration of lactic acid from salts of weak amine base by selectively vaporizing the volatile amine base. This process can be repeated to ensure the efficient separation of free lactic acid and its salt. "

====Polylactic acid technolgy====
[http://www.jimluntllc.com/pdfs/polylactic_acid_technology.pdf Polylactic acid technolgy] by Henton (2005) reviews production, purification, and polymerization. There is information on Cargill Dow's plant capacities who dominate the market (economic significance), largest produces 400,000,000 lb and produces over half the market. Clostridium
thermoaceticum is the highest yielding fermenter, but it requires pH control. Purification technologies utilize a variety of characteristics of lactic acid to separate it from the broth. Cell and macromolecule filtration followed by electrodialysis that is fed to distillation column, reactive distillation). Tin octoate is the basis catalyst for lactide polymerization which converts LA to stereospecific form. PLA characteristics include crystallinity which affects Tg and Tm.

====Development of Four Unit Processes for Biobased PLA Manufacturing====
http://www.isrn.com/journals/ps/2012/938261/ Development of Four Unit Processes for Biobased PLA Manufacturing by Chae Hwan Hong, Si Hwan Kim, Ji-Yeon Seo, and Do Suck Han (2012) obtain lactic acid from E coli and purify and polymerize polylactic acid on a pilot scale. They divide the process into four steps fermentation, separation, lactide conversion, and polymerization. Fermentation is performed by E coli KCTC 2223 on LB media in shaking flasks or a bioreactor, with fermentation pH maintained at 6.4 by addition of ammonium hydroxide. A maximum yield of approximately 50% of the input glucose at 60 g/L of D-lactic acid was obtained. Separation was performed by stacked electrodialyis to obtain concentrated ammonium lactate, followed by water splitting electrodialysis using bipolar and ion specific membranes to obtain pure lactic acid. To polymerize the lactic acid a two step process of lactide production followed by high molecular weight polymerization. Lactide formation started with removal of free water at 85°C in vacuum followed by addition of catalysts (zinc oxide or Sn(OEt)2) with a mass fraction of 1~5%. The temperature was raised to 150°C and maintained until no more water was produced, and the temperature was raised to 235 C for an hour. Zinc oxide was found to catalyze high molecular weight oligomers 7760 g/mol with a yield of 85% in a short period. A ring opening procedure started with drying the lactide at 60 C followed by catalytic polymerization with ~250 ppm tin(II)bis(2-ethylhexanoate) at 180°C and 1 hr was found produce ~150 g/mol polylactic acid.

==Alternative routes==
Microbial is an established and viable route to lactic acid production that is an alternative to the petroleum based racemic producing process, however there are other routes using further engineered organisms or catalyzed direct reactions.

=====Engineering a Cyanobacterial Cell Factory for Production of Lactic Acid=====
[http://www.researchgate.net/publication/230620095_Engineering_a_cyanobacterial_cell_factory_for_the_production_of_lactic_acid/file/79e41502cd9dab3579.pdf Engineering a Cyanobacterial Cell Factory for Production of Lactic Acid] (2012) by S. Andreas Angermayr, Michal Paszota, and Klaas J. Hellingwerf transforms Synechocystis PCC6803 with Bacillus subtilis L-lactate dehydrogenase and transhydrogenase. Expression of the transhydrogenase is deleterious, but coexpression with dehydrogenase mediates the effect and increases lactic acid production. NADH is used as the hydrogen donor and the transhydrogenase is selected to increase the concentration relative to NADPH.

=====Catalytical conversion of carbohydrates in subcritical water: A new chemical process for lactic acid production=====
[http://144.206.159.178/FT/616/601140/12505447.pdf Catalytical conversion of carbohydrates in subcritical water: A new
chemical process for lactic acid production]

==Feedstocks==
Lactic acid production by microorganisms is based on conversion of sugars to a lower energy product (lactic acid) due to an unavailability of oxygen for respiration. Feedstocks containing sugars can come from a variety of sources, but ideally it should not compete with food crops. Sources of sugar rich material that do not compete with food crops include sorghum, degraded lignocellulose, and alternative sources such as lipid extracted algal cake. Lignocellulose is a rich

===Microalgae===

=====Nannochloropsis salina biomass to lactic acid and lipid=====
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1369703X1200191X# Nannochloropsis salina biomass to lactic acid and lipid] (paywalled) by Talukder and Wu examines the suitability of oleaginous Nannochloropsis algal cake after lipid extraction for lactic acid production by Lactobacillus pentosus.

==Lactic acid bacteria==

Choice of lactic acid producing microorganism must take into account a number of factors including productivity, stereoisomer production, feedstock flexibility, difficulty culturing - including contamination. Lactic acid production for fermentation is not an uncommon capability including human muscle tissue. A number of microorganisms with prodigious lactic acid production have been isolated and characterized and include well-known members of the lactobacillus genus such as acidophilus and delbrueckii, bacillus bacteria such as bacillus coagulans, and some fungi such as Rhizopus oryzae. Choosing an organism and strain that with high lactic acid productivity needs to consider the molecular information available on these strains as many are under intense study. Lactobacillus exist as many well established strains that are well characterized from their use in yogurt making and early adoption to the lactic acid production industry, while bacillus coagulans has recently been identified in a number of environmental isolation efforts and is now under intense study with multiple strain genomes being recently sequenced. Organisms are available with a variety of licenses from biological specimen supplier American Type Culture Collection (ATCC).

====Bacillus coagulans====
Bacillus coagulans has been an organism of recent research focus due to its possible applications in biomass conversion. To further this work genome sequencing has been performed by American and Chinese research groups and draft sequences have been published http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/?term=CP002472 http://genome.jgi-psf.org/bacco/bacco.home.html. There is a D-LA dehydrogenase gene present that functionally expresses in E coli, but there is no detectable endogenous activity most likely due to nonexpression. B. coagulans has been isolated a number of times from the environment based on lactic acid productivity and it is under intense study for application due to its thermotolerant growth and robustness. Bacillus coagulans thermophilic nature not only removes the necessity of a sterilization of feedstock, but it overlaps with fungal lignocellulases optimal temperature and pH giving possibility to using low value lignocellulose agricultural byproducts. Bacillus coagulans is related to a well studied organism Bacillus subtilis and its molecular biology is being characterized. Plasmid transformation using electroporation has been described and vector sequences for a B coagulans/ E coli plasmid.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3165500/pdf/zjb4563.pdf
http://genome.jgi-psf.org/bacco/bacco.home.html

=====Non-Sterilized Fermentative Production of Polymer-Grade L-Lactic Acid by a Newly Isolated Thermophilic Strain Bacillus sp. 2–6=====
[http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0004359 Non-Sterilized Fermentative Production of Polymer-Grade L-Lactic Acid by a Newly Isolated Thermophilic Strain Bacillus sp. 2–6] by Qin et al examines Bacillus coagulans lactic acid fermentation capacity in batch and fed-batch mode with unsterilized feedstock. The strain was newly isolated and high productivity and optical purity was achieved in both cases suggesting it may be a promising organism for lactic acid fermentation. The productivity obtained are higher than other reported strains. The report obtained 730 isolates at 55 C growth from 7 soil samples and the 2-6 strain was selected as the most productive lactic acid producer. Bacillus coagulans identity was assigned based on 16S rRNA gene sequence and an enantiomeric ratio of very high L:D enantiomers. NAD-dependent lactate dehydrogenase activity could was only detectable for the L-lactate dehydrogenase through active stained native PAGE, demonstrating enzymatic activity is entirely L-lactic specific. Initial screens utilized 97 g/L glucose and higher glucose concentrations were examined for higher productivity. Concentrations of glucose above 133 g/L were found to inhibit glucose consumption and lactic acid productivity and 97 g/L and 133 g/L glucose concentrations were used for further optimization. The nutrient requirements of the strain for nitrogen source and vitamins were investigated and the most cost effective media components of glucose 97–133, YE 12.6, soy peptide 1.2, cottonseed protein 3, NaNO3 1, NH4Cl 1, were found to produce 95% of maximum yield. Two phases of lactic acid production were identifiable in batch mode from 0-15 hour during which cell growth and lactic acid productivity were coupled and 15-30 hours when cell density reached stationary phase and lactic acid production continued to complete consumption of the glucose, albeit at a slower rate. Three fed-batch regimes were tested and the effectiveness of continuous feeding and pulse feeding were found to be superior to exponential feeding. Fed-batch experiments were conducted in 5 l and 30 l volumes with no noticeable differences in rates or products. Analysis of organic acid products using organic acid HPLC columns revealed no other detectable products. Overall, Bacillus coagulans strain sp 2-6 is a highly promising strain for the production of enantiomeric pure lactic acid in an industrial process.

=====L(+)-Lactic acid production from non-food carbohydrates by thermotolerant Bacillus coagulans=====
[http://www.springerlink.com/content/a846520t8g026738/fulltext.pdf | L(+)-Lactic acid production from non-food carbohydrates by thermotolerant Bacillus coagulans] by Ou et al examines the ability of Bacillus coagulans 36D1 to utilize carbohydrates from lignocellulosic materials treated with fungal lignocellulases. Lignocellulose materials could be a low cost source of sugars, but there are several limitations to implementation of an efficient industrial process, mainly the cost of treatment to breakdown recalcitrant lignocellulose material, complex product mixture produced by many microorganisms in industrial use, and low yield of desired products by homolactic organisms. Bacillus coagulans displays traits that may allow it to overcome these hurdles to adoption of biocatalytic lignocellulose lactic acid production. As a thermophilic organism with a growth temperature of 50-55 C and favors slightly acidic conditions lignocellases are not inhibited during simultaneous fermentation allowing a decrease in the amount of costly enzymes. Coagulans consumes the released hexoses and pentoses relieving product inhibition and creating a productive pathway. Coagulans possesses the pentose-phosphate pathway for efficient use of pentose sugars unlike other industrially known strains which possess the phosphoketolase pathway resulting in equimolar production of acetic acid and lactic acid (lowers efficiency and complicates purification). Despite its apparent advantages coagulans titer of lactic acid (depending on the strain and conditions) is often lower than is reported for other lactic acid bacteria. This study utilized salting out of the lactic acid product using calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and demonstrated titers of over 100 g/L.

=====Engineering Thermotolerant Biocatalysts for Biomass Conversion to Products=====
[http://www.osti.gov/bridge/servlets/purl/979455-cpKL66/979455.pdf Engineering Thermotolerant Biocatalysts for Biomass Conversion to Products] a technical report by K. T. Shanmugam, L. O. Ingram & J. A. Maupin-Furlow describes progress on characterizing B coagulans metabolism.

====Bacillus genetic transformation====

=====Development of plasmid vector and electroporation condition for gene transfer in sporogenic lactic acid bacterium, Bacillus coagulans=====
[http://download.bioon.com.cn/view/upload/month_0906/20090616_8a78ff4923330e867f1eOFHGOoTkD5Hq.attach.pdf Development of plasmid vector and electroporation condition for gene transfer in sporogenic lactic acid bacterium, Bacillus coagulans] (2007) by Mun Su Rhee, Jin-woo Kim, Yilei Qian, L.O. Ingram, K.T. Shanmugam contructs a plasmid Being of the same genus as the laboratory model organism Bacillus subtilis may allow the utilization of a number of laboratory plasmids to be platforms for coagulan optimization. Comparable G-C content appears to be the major limiting factor in interspecies transformation in the bacillus genus.

=====Interspecific Transformation in Bacillus=====
[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC278154/pdf/jbacter00454-0221.pdf Interspecific Transformation in Bacillus]
by Julius Marmur, Edna Seaman, AND James Levine

Plasmid maintenance often requires continuous application of a selection pressure or else the unnecessary plasmid is jettisoned or lost during replication. Further research is needed into methods of genomic integration through homologous recombination/ strand break repair integration or protoplast transfer. Alternatively, genetic mutants with interruptions to necessary nutrient pathways can be obtained and the reintroduction of nutrient genes reintroduced as a marker.
http://www.google.com/patents?hl=en&lr=&vid=USPAT5843720&id=2eYAAAAAEBAJ

====Lactobacillus====
Lactobacillus is the lactic acid fermenator used in the production of fermented foods (from yogurt to sourdough) and has been used in the industrial fermentation of lactic acid. It produces a racemic mixture of D/L-lactic acid, but its growth characteristics are well known and its productivity is high enough to be profitable.

=====Biotechnological Production of Lactic Acid and Its Recent Applications=====
[http://www.aseanbiotechnology.info/abstract/21021670.pdf Biotechnological Production of Lactic Acid and
Its Recent Applications]

=====Optimisation of media and cultivation conditions for L(+)(S)-lactic acid production by Lactobacillus casei NRRL B-441=====
[http://download.bioon.com.cn/upload/month_0811/20081102_df48a9c25ad1c920285eJ4RBX4RJnzRY.attach.pdf Optimisation of media and cultivation conditions for L(+)(S)-lactic acid production by Lactobacillus casei NRRL B-441]

=====Comparison of lactobacillus delbrueckii and bacillus growth and lactic acid productivity=====
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0141022906000329# Comparison of lactobacillus delbrueckii and bacillus growth and lactic acid productivity. (paywalled)]

====Rhizopus oryzae====
=====L(+)-lactic acid production by pellet-form Rhizopus oryzae R1021 in stirred tank fermenter=====
[http://144.206.159.178/FT/158/86077/1455313.pdf L(+)-lactic acid production by pellet-form Rhizopus oryzae R1021 in stirred tank fermenter] by Bai et experimented with growth parameters effects on culture growth in a continuous run fermentor. Parameters under study included NH4NO3 concentration, CaCO3 addition timing, agitation speed and aeration rate, and inoculation concentration and effects on growth morphology and lactic acid were studied. Pellet form exhibits higher lactic acid productivities and inoculation of 10e6 spores/ml and addition of CaCO3 at 8 hours exhibited pelleted forms. Lactic acid yield was ~72.5% and with 300 rpm and aeration of 0.6 vvm yield increased to 74.5%. Biomass is limited by oxygen transfer, high biomass is necessary for high turnover of glucose to lactic acid. Biomass to lactic acid productivity was found to be highest with 2 g/l NH4NO3, 100 g/l glucose, 300-600 rpm, and 0.6-1.2 vvm. Repeated cycles using the R. oryzae culture showed sustained viability through the 7th cycle and an increase in lactic acid yield to 80%.

==Lactic acid production and purification==

Early purification methods involved precipitation of a lactate salt, filtration, and hydrolysis back to lactic acid. This method had high recovery rates, but it produced large amounts salt waste (calcium sulfate) and consumed large amounts of chemical substrates (calcium hydroxide and sulfuric acid). Alternatively other salts could be used that produce a waste that is easier to handle and recover, and under consideration is the universal base sodium hydroxide.

Lactic acid cannot be easily distilled in high purity, but an ester with a small chain organic alcohol can be separated from impurities over a moderate sized distillation column. Reactive distillation of an ester of methanol and lactic acid over a 20 stage distillation column yields high purity ester that can be hydrolyzed back to the acid form. This process is capital and energy intensive, but it gains efficiency in large scale production. The process should be investigated for feasibility and efficiency on a small scale.

Lactic acid must be purified in high quality from the fermentation media in order to be suitable for polymerization. Advances in purification have involved semipermeable membrane sieves and more recently electrophoresis technology. Electrodialysis has been widely adopted for large scale organic acid production. A commercialized route of lactic acid production for polymerization from fermenation uses conventional electrodialysis to separate and concentrate the lactate salt (a basic waste stream can be recycled to the fermentor), followed by watersplitting ED with bipolar membranes to produce a highly concentrated lactic acid. Another method to eliminate the use of a pH balancing base and the production of a waste salt is size selective microfiltration, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration in a crossflow configuration.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960852412014460 Open fermentative production of l-lactic acid by Bacillus sp. strain NL01 using lignocellulosic hydrolyzates as low-cost raw material (paywall)

====Membrane separation====

=====Process intensiﬁcation in lactic acid production by three stage membrane integrated hybrid reactor system=====
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0255270112002516# Process intensiﬁcation in lactic acid production by three stage membrane integrated hybrid reactor system] describes lactic acid fermention without alkali addition by the constant removal broth and separation through microfiltration and two stage nanofiltration. Innovative use of size /salt selective membranes to separate lactic acid from the fermentation broth utilizes pressure and crossflow filtration to with microfiltration and two stage nanofiltration (NF-1 and NF-2 membranes manufactured by Sepro) to produce high quality (96%) grade lacic acid. The author claims significant gains can be made in productivity and utilized a highly available feedstock of sugar cane water. The physical formulas of crossflow filtration and economic impact of widespread implementation are proposed. Membrane filtration shown to be less energy demanding ina addition to not producing significant waste. Avoidig the phase changes present in the current industrial salting out method leads to membranes significant energetic and capital cost reductions. L(+)-homolactic acid lactobacilli dulbreike is used as a biocatalyst and achieved high yields and is available from ATCC. The fermentation broth must be sterilized before fermenation and is maintained at 40 C. Procedural techniques also are presented including: a 15 hour lag phase before fermenation broth is started through filtration, and gradual increase in up to ~16 kg/cm2 pressure driving the polishing NF-1 step over the first 12 hours as a means to reject undissociated lactate while allowing lactic acid passage. The nanofiltration stage with NF-2 membranes is conducted at 13 k/cm2. The authors convincingly argue this process intensification can be conducted on a small scale, possibly even based on solar power.

=====Process intensification in lactic acid production: A review of membrane based processes=====
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0255270109001986 Process intensification in lactic acid production: A review of membrane based processes] (pay-walled) (2009) by Pal et al reviews membrane based separation advances in lactic acid purification. The broth contents that need to be separated are cells, nutrients, unconverted carbon, water, and lactic acid and membrane based approaches include microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis and electrodialysis. Separation based on size from larger to smaller pore size is through microfiltration, ultrafiltration, then nanofiltration. Cells and proteins are the main causes of membrane fouling and system design needs to minimize their adsorption. Microfiltration (pores 0.1-1.2 microns) retains cells and allows other broth components to permeate. Nanofiltration (pores no larger than 0.1 nm) has been shown to be able to retain sugars while allowing lactic acid to permeate. Research has focused on coupling these two membranes to effectively separate lactic acid while allowing cell and sugar recycle in a continuous operation fermentor. Pressure is needed to drive flux, low pressure (1–2 kgf/cm2) for microfiltration, and higher pressure (6–15 kgf/cm2) for nanofiltration. PH and cross flow velocity have been identified as a key parameter for fluxes with an increase in both corresponding to an increase in flux. A variety of membrance configurations have been tested including tubular, frame and plate, and hollow fiber modules. The highest performance ultrafiltration unit reported is by Sikder et al with a laboratory-synthesized polysulfone-cellulose acetate blend microfiltration membrane in a cross flow configuration (see below: Synthesis and characterization of cellulose acetate-polysulfone blend microfiltration membrane for separation of microbial cells from lactic acid fermentation broth).

[[File:EP0393818A1_fig1.png|200px|thumb|right|General process overview]][[File:EP0393818A1_fig2.png|200px|thumb|right|Detailed view of electrodialysis configuration]]
=====Production and purification of lactic acid=====
[http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP0393818.pdf Production and purification of lactic acid] European Patent EP0393818A1 issued to Glassner and Datta of the Michigan Biotechnology Institute on October 24 1990 details a commercialized route of lactic acid production from fermentation bacteria. The process uses Lactobacillus acidophilus (ATCC 53681 which cannot be located in the [http://www.atcc.org/ ATCC catalog] fed with corn steep liquor and corn oil and reports yields of 80% of the theoretical maximum, with low contamination in the order of less than 1% protein and 10 ppm sulfate ions. The process adds a salt to form lactate complexes which is processed with conventional electrodialysis to create a cell free concentrated lactate salt stream and a dilute broth which is returned to the fermentation chamber. The lactate stream is concentrated through evaporation and processed to a relatively concentrated and purified fraction using water splitting electrodialysis. Strong acid followed by weak base ion-exchange columns are used for polishing to create a purified product of polymerization grade. The process was tested on small 1-2 l, pilot 80 l, and large 500 l scales and productivity and efficiency remained constant as correlated to substrate density and cell density (margin between cell growth versus LA production). The process was tested with continuous batch and cell recycle fermentation. The process is reported to have several advantages including high productivities and recovery rates, low energy requirements (~0.5 kwhr/ lb LA), the possible reuse of salt anion and cation after recovery from the electrodialysis unit, and the dual use of electrodialysis to separate cells from whole broth for recycle without compromising the purity or efficiency of the electrodialysis step.
The process details are as follows. A fermentation media containing 1.0-4.0% steep corn liquor and 0.1-1.0% crude corn oil were combined in water, the concentration of carbohydrates is 20-120 g/l and preferably 40-100 g/l. the media is sterilized and inoculated with 5% inoculum. Growth conditions are maintained with agitation at 75 rpm and a temperature between 20-50 C, and preferably 39 C. The media pH is maintained between 4.8 and 5.7 through the addition of carbonates or hydroxides, preferably sodium or ammonium hydroxide. At a cell concentration of 2.5E10-3.0E10 high lactate productivities can be maintained in the order of 2.0-2.5 g/l/hr with a product concentration of approximately 75-90 g/l. Continuous culture fermentation was conducted in seal flasks using a peristaltic pump to remove broth and additions of an equal volume of fresh broth and salts. A cell recycle fermentor consisted of a growth chamber, a 0.2 micron ultra-filtration unit that returned cells to the chamber, and an effluent capturing container. Whole broth was filtered through 200 mesh to remove debris before direct addition to the electrodialysis chamber.
The conventional electrodialysis unit consists of 8 stacks of anion and cation permeable membranes with a total surface area of 102.4 cm2. The electrolyte used was 2.5 M NaOH. A representative configuration is displayed in figure 2, however adaptions may be made by the user. The configuration displayed contains distribution flow gaskets (18), anion permeable membranes (19), cation permeable membranes (20), parallel cells (21) consisting of 18+19+20, and end cells (22 and 23) consisting of 19+20+ end caps (24). End cell 22 is connected to the cathode (25) via the a connector (27), and end cell 23 is connected to the anode (26) through a connector (28), both end cells are connected to a rinse system that circulates a electrolyte solution (such as NaSO4 or lactate salt). Fermentation broth is passed through a screen (13) and passed to the electrodialysis unit via line 14, basic solutes are passed through the parallel cells and returned to the fermentor through a continuation of line 14. Line 15 circulates a lactate salt solution in the parallel cells and lactate from the broth is concentrated through the anion permeable membranes (19) and collected on the effluent side of the system. The collected effluent is further concentrated via evaporation.

=====Process development and optimisation of lactic acid puriﬁcation using electrodialysis=====
[http://144.206.159.178/FT/549/63720/1083859.pdf Process development and optimisation of lactic acid
puriﬁcation using electrodialysi] by Madzingaidzo et al examines purification of lactic acid from fermentation broth using mono and bi-polar electrodialysis. A mono-polar membrane selectively allows cations or anions to traverse the layer, while a bi-polar layer is made of a cation and anion membrane that splits water molecules into H+ and OH- for charge balancing. An electrical current is applied to the dialysis chamber to separate molecules according to their charge and mono and bi-layer membranes create channels concentrated with certain components. In mono-layer electrodialysis a alternating semipermeable membranes starting with a cation membrane next to the anode (+), a dilute stream feeds through center from which lactic acid is concentrated through a anion exchange membrane towards the anode. Charge is balanced from an electrode rinse solution that circulates next to the electrodes. A bi-polar uses bi-polar membranes to separate the electrode rinse solution from the concentrating channels creating sections holding a base, salt and final acid form. A measurement of % current efficiency (current used to transport molecule from input to concentrated stream/ total current) is used to evaluate the process.

*Reverse osmosis

=====Sources still to be summarized=====
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011916409008996 Synthesis and characterization of cellulose acetate-polysulfone blend microfiltration membrane for separation of microbial cells from lactic acid fermentation broth] (paywalled)

[http://144.206.159.178/FT/986/206651/5195502.pdf] An electrokinetic bioreactor: using direct electric current for
enhanced lactic acid fermentation and product recovery

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC203522/pdf/aem00131-0098.pdf Novel Method of Lactic Acid Production by Electrodialysis Fermentation

[http://oatao.univ-toulouse.fr/2918/1/Bouchoux_2918.pdf http://oatao.univ-toulouse.fr/2918/1/Bouchoux_2918.pdf]

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0011916411010290# Separation of lactic acid from fermentation broth by cross flow nanofiltration: Membrane characterization and transport modelling (paywall)

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10098-011-0448-z?LI=true (paywall)

====Reactive Distillation====

[[File:US2350370.png | 200 px | thumb | Right | US patent 2,350,370 ]]
[http://www.google.com/patents/US2350370 Lactic acid purification] issued to Schopmeyer June 6 1944 covers a method to purify lactic acid from fermentation broth by the use of calcium carbonate salts and esterification with methanol for fractional distillation. The fractional distillation set-up includes a boiler containing methanol and lactic acid and a catalyst (H2SO4) that delivers vapors to a fractionation column that allows the separation of a concentrated lactic acid liquor of ~10-50%. The salting out of calcium lactate uses calcium sulfate which is concentrated and converted to acid form through treatment with sulfuric acid, calcium sulfate forms an insoluble fraction. The concentration was usually 40-60% lactic acid and ethanol can also be used as the esterification. The esterification procedure uses a steam jacket with the following substrate mole ratio 1.5:1:0.005 methyl alcohol: lactic acid: sulfuric acid. Start-up of purification uses 80% lactic acid substrate (depending on concentration), 20 methanol, and a small amount of catalyst. Steady-state is maintained by addition of substrates and catalyst, and recycling of methanol.

[http://www.aidic.it/escape20/webpapers/34Edreder.pdf Optimization of Batch Reactive Distillation Process: Production of Lactic Acid] by Edreder (2010) develops a model for esterifying lactic acid with methanol and distills the methyl lactate, the lactic acid is recovered by hydrolysis. The purity analyzed was 80-99% molefraction, it took 4 refluxes to theretically reach the highest purity.

[http://www.google.com/patents/US5210296 Recovery of lactate esters and lactic acid from fermentation broth]
issued to Cockrem et al details a method for continuous recovery of lactic acid from fermentation broth using reactive distillation with an alcohol.

====Solvent Extraction====

http://www.google.com/patents/US4771001 Production of lactic acid by continuous fermentation using an inexpensive raw material and simplified form of purification issued to Bailey et al on September 13 1988 deals with a method for production of lactic acid from a the raw sugar source whey permeate and purification solvent extraion. The operational advantage of such a system is the high cell densities that can be achieved and maintained however this raises the challenges of preventing fouling particularly for membrane based cell recycling.

==Polylactic acid polymerization==

====Melt–solid polycondensation of lactic acid and its biodegradability====
[http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S007967000800097X Melt–solid polycondensation of lactic acid and its biodegradability] T. Maharanaa, B. Mohantyb, Y.S. Negi examines the developments in polycondensation formation of PLLA with a set of 4 catalysts. With a decade of research into the technique the reaction dynamics and structure of different stereoisomers has been examined by many investigators. The polycondensation polymerization routes is being investigated for its lower cost and capital investment over the ring opening procedure despite initially producing a polymer of less desirable parameters, such as high melt viscocity, discolorization, and difficulty achieving high molecular weight products. Tin oxide formed from tin chloride with a protonic acid (such as p-toluenesulfonic acid - TSA) is a potent catalyst that can be used in such low concentrations that purification isn't necessary. The polymerization mechanism model originally proposed by Moon involve the coordination of terminal carboxyl condensation with the hydroxyl group on the center carbon. TSA may not be catalytically involved in the reaction, but it may occupy a tin catalytic site to increase the favorability of the desired reaction over side reactions. The reaction can achieve high molecular weight PLLA (ca. 105 Da) by the catalysis of tin(II) chloride dihydrate with an equimolar amount of TSA within 35 h under 0.13–2.66 kPa pressure and within a temperature range of 180–200 C with an average yield of 67%. TSA evaporates during the process and a second addition can further assist the reaction. Solid state polymerization uses temperatures above Tg, but below Tm and sometimes plasticizers to increase terminal end mobility (reaction substrate) to form PLA of high MW with desirable properties.

====Syntheis and Properties of High Molecular Weight Poly(Lactic Acid) and its resulting fibers====
[http://www.cjps.org/EN/article/downloadArticleFile.do?attachType=PDF&id=11239 Syntheis and Properties of High Molecular Weight Poly(Lactic Acid) and its resulting fibers] by Zhang and Wang tests the polylactic acid polymerization melt/solid polycondensation process with a number of catalysts. The now commercial route uses a first step of azeotropic dehydration with reflux, in a high boiling point, aprotic solvent like diphenyl ether to produce 50 kDa polymers. The second step joins these fibers with reduced pressure and a tin and protic acid catalyst. This study uses SnCl2·2H2O/p-toulenesulfonic acid monohydrate (TSA) and SnCl2·2H2O/maleic anhydride catalyst for the first step and TSA in the second step. This improves upon Moon et al. with the addition of TSA in the second step because the environmental polarity was found to be shifted in the first step. Polymer MW had leveled off in step 1, but it continued in step 2 with the addition of more catalyst (TSA). SnCl2·2H2O/maleic anhydride was found to be a more effective catalyst due to the less crystalline nature which allowed further polymerization in the amorphous regions. An increase in reaction temperature for the second step was found to be effective up to 180 C and degradative at higher temperatures. The process starts by combining 400 g distilled lactic acid is with the designated catalyst (0.5% wt SnCl2·2H2O and 0.4% wt TSA or maleic or succinic anhydride)and sealed in the reactor. The reaction is heated to 150 C 4 hrs , the reaction is then heated to 160 C and the pressure reduced to 500 Pa for 4 hrs. After an initial low-weight polymerization the reflux condenser is removed and 0.4% wt (of starting lactic acid) TSA is added to the reactor. The temperature is further increased to 180 C and the pressure reduced to 300 Pa for 10 hrs. The polymerization product was dried and processed used standard melt spinning procedures before a final draw between 150-200 C under nitrogen. The final fiber product was characterized with FTIR, DSC, an Ubbelohde viscosimeter, and tensile-testing machine. Final spinning produced a fiber made of high molecular weight polymers and has high tensile strength.

====Melt/solid polycondensation of l-lactic acid: an alternative route to poly(l-lactic acid) with high molecular weight====
[http://144.206.159.178/FT/862/34857/596552.pdf Melt/solid polycondensation of l-lactic acid: an alternative route to
poly(l-lactic acid) with high molecular weight] by Moon et al (2000) describes a method that yields high weight PLA on the order of 500,000 daltons through a condensation reaction using a tin chloride dihydrate/p-toluenesulfonic acid binary system. They report that reaction temperatures below the Tm (melting point) of PLA yields a better product and is referred to as melt/solid polycondensation. oligo(l-lactic acid) (OLLA) is mixed with tin(II) chloride dihydrate (SnCl2) (0.4 wt% relative to OLLA) and p-toluenesulfonic acid (TSA) (an equimolar ratio to SnCl2). The mixture is heated to 180 C and the pressure reduced to 10 torres over the period of an hour followed by maintenance for 5 hrs. The product consisting of 20,000 dalton polymers is ground and heated to 105 C under vacuum for 1-2 hr to crystallize the polymers. Solid-state post-polycondensation was initiated by increasing the temperature to 150 C and reducing the pressure to 0.5 Torr. Treatment was continued over 30 hours, but molecular weight peaked between 2-10 hours and drastically reduced after 20 hours. The results showed a method to obtain high molecular weight PLLA with comparable characteristics to the lactide ROP synthesis. The method used here catalyzes the first step of dehydration to form lactide and the lactide ROP step follows. The high activity of the catalyst and the ability to move through the amorphous PLLA may be driving the reaction by concentrating ester tails and catalyst in the amorphous regions during crystallization.

====Basic properties for film polylactic acid produced direct condensation polymerization of lactic acid====
[http://www.csj.jp/journals/bcsj/J-STAGE/6808/pdf/68_2125.pdf Basic properties for film polylactic acid produced direct condensation polymerization of lactic acid] by Ajioka characterizes the polylactic acid products of different catalysts and solvents under 130-250 C. Polymerization was commercially pursued from an isolated dilactide intermediate, but direct polymerization is possible due to improvements in kinetic control, removal of resulting water, and suppression of depolymerization. Solvents controlled the rate of reaction based upon their boiling point and the ability to remove water and a Dean Stark trap used, diphenyl ether results shown. Tin and protonic acids catalysts were found to have superior performance with tin(II) chloride achieving highest efficiency and high molecular weights. Zinc catalysts produced maximum 150 kDa weight polymers at 160 C. Weights and flow rates comparable to dilactide process and usable for injection molding. D and L enantiomers were polymerized in ratios of 50/50 to 0/100 respectively. Pure L form had the highest strength and molecular weight. 13C NMR of direct condensation PLA showed 5 carbonyl signals, an additional lower signal from adjacent L subunits. <br />
Direct synthesis of PLA general protocol <br />
In a reaction chamber with a Dean Stark trap 40.2 g 90% lactic acid and 0.14 g tin were dissolved in 400 ml organic solvent for 2 hr at 140 C. The trap was replaced with a tube containing 40 g molecular sieve (3 A) for azeotropic separation for 20 to 40 hr at 130 C. At half volume 300 ml chloroform was added and catalyst removed with filtration or extraction. PLA product was by precipitation by 900 ml methanol and washing over suction with methanol. <br />
Cyclic oligomer production <br />
10.0 kg of 90% lactic acid azeotropically dried 81.1 kg diphenyl-ether organic solvent with 6.2 kg tin catalyst at 150 C for 2 hr. This was followed by recycling of solvent using 4.6 kg molecular sieve (3 A) for 40 hr at 140 C. The reaction was concentrated to 70 kg, cooled to 40 C, and PLA crystals collected. The reaction was concentrated to 5.8 kg. A 11.6 kg hexane was added to the filtrate and an oil separated with 5.8 kg acetonitrile and 1 M HCl. An oily substance was collected after 30 min of agitation and washed with 5.8 kg water. The washed product was dissolved in 2.9 kg chloroform and combined with 4 l isopropyl alcohol and a final precipitated product collected over suction and dried with reduced pressure. Final yield 350 g.

====Synthesis of polylactic acid by direct polycondensation under vacuum without catalysts, solvents and initiators====
Synthesis of polylactic acid by direct polycondensation under vacuum without catalysts, solvents and initiators by Achmad et al details a procedure. The authors recommend PLA be pursued using processing plants capable of fermenting feedstock, purifying lactic acid, and condensing the product as is proposed for the OSE product ecology. Streptococcus bovis is a LAB suggested for use, but the species is also linked to pathogenicity. The process used by the researchers used three phases for treating the lactic acid and polymerizing its monomer: distillation, oligomerization, and polymerization. The reaction was carried out in 4 l sealable flasks, on magnetic stirrers and heaters, with temperature and pressure probes, and connected to a pressure regulator. During distillation sample temperature is brought to 150 C over 90 minutes and maintained for 60 minutes and PLA concentration increases from 90% to 100% as measured by acid-base titrations. Oligomerization phase was a reduction in pressure to 10 mmHg and temperature was raised to 200 C. The polymerization step was maintenance of the reduced pressure and temperature for 89 hours. The condensate was also separated with gel filtration chromatography and measured with a RI detector. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy was used to analyze molecules functional groups.

====Stereoselective Polymerization for a racemic monomer with a racemic catalyst Direct Production of the polylactic acid stereocomplex from racemic lactide====
http://www.cem.msu.edu/~smithmr/Publications/ja9930519.pdf Stereoselective Polymerization for a racemic monomer with a racemic catalyst Direct Production of the polylactic acid stereocomplex from racemic lactide by Radano et al uses a stereoselective catalysts to polymerize L(+)- and rac-lactide to comprehensive products tacticity. Tacticity is the stero-relation between adjacent chiral subunit (same side or different side). Tacticity has important effects on the polymers interactions and crystallinity, and Poly L(+)lactic acid has a Tm = 180 and the poly rac-lactic acid Tm is near room temperature. Tsuji et al first noted the Tm of combined stereoregular L and D polymers was raised almost 50 C. The stereoselective catalyst was a Schiff base aluminum alkoxide.

====A Highly Active Zinc Catalyst for the Controlled Polymerization of Lactide====
[http://cbs.ewha.ac.kr/pub/data/2003_04.pdf A Highly Active Zinc Catalyst for the Controlled Polymerization of Lactide] by Williams et al (2003) details a Zinc alkoxide compound paired with a ligand that has high reactivity and high molecular weight products. Zinc is an attractive catalyst due to low cost, but it has complicating aggregation behavior. Ligands help prevent this behavior and modulate desirable characteristics; the ligand (HL) used for this study was made by refluxing N,N,N′-trimethylenediamine, paraformaldehyde, and 2,4-di-tert-butylphenol. The ligand was reacted with Et2Zn to yield LEtZn which was then reacted with EtOH to produce LZnOEt the zinc alkoxide catalysts. The catalysts structure was examined in solid state (X-ray crystallography, mass spectrometry) and catalytically relevant solution state (NMR, PGSE) and was found to be dimeric in solid state and monomeric in solution state. This information allows rate equations to be solved. The PLA MW was measured with SEC-MLS and monitored with 13C NMR. The catalyst was found to be effective in L/LZnOEt ratios up to and at concentrations as low as 0.7 mM, higher than any other zinc catalysts reported. The active site is the ethoxy group and reaction is sensitive to exchange agents.

=====Sources still to be summarized=====
http://www.imm.ac.cn/journal/ccl/1208/120803-663-01061-p2.pdf

http://193.146.160.29/gtb/sod/usu/$UBUG/repositorio/10281082_Lonnberg.pdf

http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/marshall/4I11/Coates2000.pdf

http://www.ch.ic.ac.uk/marshall/4I11/Coates2002.pdf

==Polylactic acid value adding==

=====(Poly)lactic acid: plasticization and properties of biodegrable multiphase systems=====
[http://144.206.159.178/FT/862/34291/586822.pdf (Poly)lactic acid: plasticization and properties of biodegrable multiphase systems] by Averous (2001) experimented with measuring the properties of PLA prepared with different plasticizers. Plasticizers included: glycerol, polyethylene glycol, citrate ester, PEG monolaurate, and oligomeric lactic acid. various mixtures of PLA with thermoactive starch polymers (TSP) were prepared and tested. Plasticizer treated samples show a decrease in Tg (glass transition temp) and therefore Tm (melting temp). Oligomeric lactic acid followed by low molecular weight polyethylene glycol were effective plasticizers while glycerol was ineffective. Finding effective methods to combine PLA and TSP would enhance the product.

=====Processing and Mechanical characterization of plasticized Poly lactide acid films for food packaging=====
[http://www.e-polymers.org/journal/PAT2005ePolymers/page/Oral%20Presentations/Section%20B/Martino_Ver_nica_Patricia.pro.1728860278.pdf Processing and Mechanical characterization of plasticized Poly (lactide acid) films for
food packaging] looks at the use of 4 plasticizers to increase beneficial characteristics for film.

Talk:Team

2013-01-20T16:47:25Z

Peter Mortensen: /* Redirects */ new section

== Redirects ==

Some, but not all, of the links, e.g. for ''Kavitha Swaminathan'' and ''Aidan Williamson'' (in section ''Volunteers''), results in redirects. --[[User:Peter Mortensen|Peter Mortensen]] ([[User talk:Peter Mortensen|talk]]) 17:47, 20 January 2013 (CET)

Open Source Permaculture

2013-01-20T16:41:13Z

Peter Mortensen: /* How Permaculture relates to Open Source? */ Some copy editing.

{{Category=Permaculture}}
=What is Open Source Permaculture?=

This article discusses "what can be Open Source Permaculture", and updates an initial discussion with Lucas Gonzalez in the Canary Islands:

'''What is [[Permaculture]]?'''
The term related to either "Permanent Agriculture" or "Permanent Culture". Permaculture is a systems thinking design model focusing on sustainable and regenerative systems. It considers ecological theory informed by the lifestyles of indigenous cultures as well as modern technological advancements. Permaculture ranges a diverse field of design methods, anything from perennial-based agricultural systems, to the homestead, to individual or community structures.

'''What is Open-Source philosophy and licence?'''
"Open source is a philosophy, or pragmatic methodology, that promotes free redistribution and access to an end product's design and implementation details. A main principle and practice of open-source software development is peer production by bartering and collaboration, with the end-product, source-material, "blueprints", and documentation available at no cost to the public. Sites such as Wikipedia and Wiktionary have embraced the open-content GFDL and Creative Commons content licenses. These licenses were designed to adhere to principles similar to various open-source software development licenses. Many of these licenses ensure that content remains free for re-use, that source documents are made readily available to interested parties, and that changes to content are accepted easily back into the system." (from Wikipedia)

===How does Permaculture relate to Open Source?===
Learning and using permaculture require specific knowledge a on permaculture analysis and design methods as well as more generic, from a variety of fields agronomy, ecology, construction, energy, etc. But mainly, permaculture specific knowledge is still shared through copyrighted books or DVDs, expensive Permaculture Design Courses (PDC), all around the world, and International Permaculture Conference, held annually.

Even though, free open content is also widely available but in small quantities in myriad of small open permaculture initiatives, from permaculture pages on wikis (including Appropedia and Open Source Ecology) to blogs, websites, maps, and short videos or long documentaries (see permaculture-media-blog for a collection of both free and unfree resources). But all available open-content is unfortunately far from complete, and too much scattered, for example, web free resources require too long research hours, and cannot compete with ten top permaculture books or experience and exchange from five PDC.

Despite of this, the idea of sharing is at the very heart of Permaculture and Open Source, thus knowledge about permaculture should be free and open-source. An Open Source Permaculture center would help these individual initiatives to merge into one large collective open-source corpus of knowledge and resources.
Awareness is already rising for the concept of Open Source Permaculture. For example, a "open source permaculture" project campaign for an open-source book on urban permaculture successfully ended and Appropedia will be partner of that project to make a wiki out of it. Making this corpus of knowledge available and free to use and improve not only benefits permaculture experts and novices, but it will avoid trial-and-error-reinventing-the-wheel on the practical level, and foster permaculture development and adoption all over the world.

==What topics can be treated as Open Source Permaculture knowledge?==
Permaculture require five specific areas : principles, methods, designs and community.

Knowledge of principles helps grasp the central concepts, and include many ideas ranging from holistic living to applied ecology. Knowledge of methods of analysis and design, often overlooked, helps to analyze a situation and produce appropriate new designs, and for instance, use succession analysis, application of a pattern or other methods heavily based on applied ecology.

Permaculture designs are the result of these methods, e.g. raised beds in contour, herb spiral or forest garden, with much in common with traditional organic farming and construction methods. Easy to understand and reproduce, hence permaculture designs tend to be the most visible part of permaculture. Knowledge of the community of active people and existing sites is also very important, and most permaculturists are very "open-source" minded and are always ready to share their experience, exchange, help visit or organize activities. Documentation on existing sites and people should also comprise economic and social aspect, or how to economically run such a project and make people participate.

Permaculture require also generic knowledge that can be found in other areas or disciplines, such as plants, construction, energy generation, machinery or software. For instance, information on plant choice, with data on explicit varieties, locations to get them, where they work (site-specific information, performance data, propagation techniques, etc). Another example is machinery and software, an open source equipment for monitoring, processing; energy production; field equipment, and other supporting equipment for complete startup and maintenance.

==How to use Open Source Permaculture knowledge?==
Open Source Permaculture knowledge should help in all steps: introduce permaculture to new comers, and help them to understand it in their current context; learn methods to analyze an their artificial or natural site, produce new specific and appropriate designs, and avoid finding themselves clueless in terms of producing an integrated operation when they get to the land; learn classic permaculture designs and apply them in their land or backyard; find generic knowledge about plants and climates, construction or energy generation.

==What are the myriad of Open Source Permaculture initiatives?==

=Original Discussion=

This is from a discussion with Lucas Gonzalez in the Canary Islands:

I think we should start raising awareness for the concept of Open Source Permaculture. Let's define what that mean by the term. This would be a crucial upgrade to what Permaculture today is about.

I have ended up an a parcel of land. I read the theory, and found myself basically clueless in terms of producing an integrated permacultural operation when I got onto the land. I believe that proper information access could have allowed us to avoid wasteful, trial-and-error-reinventing-the-wheel on the practical level (living material choices). We are still suffering from huge waste along these lines - either by spending long research hours or planting crop that will not do well here. There are issues that one can't read about - such as layout and geography - but the living material issue should be a non-issue. This way, the focus could be on further adaptation and breeding of region-specific materials - not in not knowing the optimal materials. This point may be difficult to grasp for people without an open source philosophy or without agricultural experience - but better access to information is a true bane of permaculture - as it tries to survive in a playing field of its factory-farm-global-neighbors.

Moreover, one cannot emphasize how many surprises there are in the plant world. You could read all you want - but you will never find out about what plant material is really available - you will always find particular (and extremely useful, unique, more adapted, more disease resistent, etc.) varieties from some next-door neighbor or other unexpected source. It is impossible to keep up with nature's diversity. The only way to address this is to record instances - and make them widely accessible on the internet.

The hypothesis to be tested is simple: Can permaculture become the dominant paradigm - a favored alternative to its factory-farm-global-neighbors?

To me, open source permaculture (OSPC) is:

1. '''Info on plant choice'''. Data on what explicit varieties work where - with a visual, global map (see http://www.permaculturemap.com/) - if we make this a worldwide project. This point - combined with basic theory, such as [http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Mollison.htm Mollison's work] - leads to permacultural designs that anyone can implement where they are. The shortcomings of all global-reaching work on the topic is the lack of site-specific information - requiring the invitation of outside experts (permacultural designers). Theory abounds - but practice boils down to knowing particular varieties of living materials and where to get them. One could live on the theory only and end up with suboptimal systems - but optimization can happen from site-specific performance data.

2. '''Propagation''' - how you would get the living materials accessibly - on the cheap. This includes both industry standard techniques for propagation, and bioregional facilities where this plant material can be obtained. It should be obtained along OS lines - DIY option where you could, for example, do sweat equity at a propagation facility to get low cost or free materials. Or, it could be that you buy the materials outright. The requirement is that the bioregional facilities have EVERYTHING - diversity, quantities, and prices that allow easy access to producing an integrated permaculture implementation.

3. '''Machinery''' - open source equipment for processing; energy production; field equipment. Other supporting equipment for complete permaculture startup and maintenance, from [http://p2pfoundation.net/Neosubsistence neosubsistence] to economically significant market production capacity.

4. '''Economic analyses of productive operations'''. Both on the subsistence and market levels - such that analyses promote replicability.

==Why this, and What's "food swadeshi" anyway?==

Let's say you're interested in ''food swadeshi'': '''growing food for your own self-sustenance, for your community or for a "grow food locally" business'''. You've read several books and many webpages, and maybe you've gone to one or two courses or meetings or whatever.

Now you're standing on your very own piece of land (or in your very urban setting) and you look around.

Questions start to pop up in your head. ''How do I ...? What do I ...? Where do I ...?''

It's now that you realise there's a whole body of information that is ''at a distance'' from where you are. It's in the minds of many food growers all over the world, in databases and webpages, but somehow it's not too easy to get the exact answers to your specific, extremely local and burning questions.

You could go so much faster if you had now the information you'll have in 5 years time!

==Information and human networks==

You could of course tap onto a ''friendship network'' and that's fine if you have plenty of access to that, or even if you gain access to an already existing ''network of knowledgeable friends''.

Such a network will also sustain your values, help you "trade" physical stuff, and a whole lot of "goodies" that come with human networks.

That said, if you want to go a bit faster on the information aspects, human networks often have some limitations:
* Your (old) friends probably have the same information as you do, which means they also share your ignorance.
* Let's say you join a network of "food growers". They may call themselves organic growers, permaculturists, or whatever. You're in need of specific information. But often it will happen that your (new) friends don't know everything you'll ask them, because their conditions are different (maybe they live in another country) and their knowledge is limited by their own experience (huge as it may be when compared to yours).
* You don't know what you can ask them: do you know that they know what you need to know?
* You don't want to treat them as a 24x7 resource. At least if you want to keep them as friends. ;-)
* Finally, don't tell your friends, but maybe you're that type of person who can learn faster if they have lots of information they can look into at their own pace. Just like many people learn to do stuff on their own, be it maths or juggling or whatever, if they have the books and some time on their own.

It's also true that you can access the information resources we're about to daydream about, and use them ''as a group'' (beverages and all), so it's not either/or at all!

Now, let's get on with this idea!

==What we think we need==

This is an evolving idea, and here's what we think we need:

# Ready access to CONCEPTS: anything from permacultural ethics to design criteria. This is easy to find right now, but could be integrated in our "fab info" design.
# Ready access to DESIGNS: [[Keyhole garden|keyhole raised beds]], poultry tractors, etc. These would be text descriptions, videos and the whole thing. If it's in other languages, a link to translation tools would be a nice add-on.
# Ready access to INFORMATION: what are the features of plants? which particular and explicit varieties are well-adapted to particular regions. This requires local and bioregional information.
# A way to do SUBSTITUTIONS: Say a particular design uses a specific plant, which is not available to us. What other plants could we use? This could be extended if we look for FEATURES: imagine "google tree shade tropical edible-by-goats".
# PROPAGATION/SOURCING - where do you get the plant or orther living material? The most direct route is if you propagate the material yourself. Beyond this, you need seed, plant, mushroom, animal, other stock sources - such as businesses, individuals, etc.
#OPEN SOURCE EQUIPMENT
#ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Are there more questions? Phrased differently? With many more details? This will be our first step, but please do read on.

Marcin says: To summarize this, I propose we narrow our mission to:

#INFORMATION (as above) - focusing on mapping ''what works''
#PROPAGATION/SOURCING (as above) - focusing on obtaining the ''what works''
#OPEN SOURCE EQUIPMENT - this does not exist, but is crucial for competing with your factory-farm-global-neighbors
#ECONOMIC ANALYSIS - foundation for replicable, open business models

I think these 4 elements are SUFFICIENT for producing state-of-art operations, competitive with global neighbors.

This is because CONCEPTS and DESIGNS are readily available in literature. SUBSTITUTIONS are covered by INFORMATION. We could do all the topics - but I'd focus on the essential information.

==How to move forward==

* First, look at our needs and phrase them appropriately. Feel free to jump in right now, Marcin and others! What questions do you ask on the field? Feel free to give details, with "stories that help"!
* Second, do the kind of work some software developers do, moving through those "needs" imagining things in slow-motion. What questions we'd ask. What results we'd expect from the system. What we do next. How we contribute (with questions or information). We'll get to this step soon, I hope.
* At some point in time, we'll want to look beyond the imagined tool to the wider ecosystem. Where's some information already (wikipedia, webpages, people's heads)? What can "they" provide and use? What are their interests and motivations? What do they find difficult or easy to do (talk, type, chat)? Are there helpers around (permaculture students who would be interested in cooperatively growing a tool which would help them if they feed it)? Probably lots of other factors. This will have to be iterative with the other steps, in the classic spiral pattern.
* Go wild with ideas. Think about clever hacks, maybe something that sits on top of wikipedia and google maps? A helpful clever software agent that helps us because it knows both more and less than we do? No limits to our thinking, please!
* Create a simple implementation of something that provides value straight away, and which is not too hard to implement. Here's where we need python gurus etc! Feel free to step in and introduce yourself! ;-)

At all times, look at what we can personally do. Even if the only thing we can do is tell our contacts about this.

==Agricultural informatics==
An identifying feature of permaculture is that it is heavy on design, information and intelligent planning. Not much water goes into making a permaculture farm work, not much fertilizer, not much stuff, but a huge amount of information. Information is the main resource.

In the past few decades, there have been teams of permaculture designers going around the world spreading this information. These designers have trained other designers, and the information is starting to make a dent in the world food system, turning patches of it away from monoculture and towards more productive methods. (I'm not talking about permaculture in the narrow sense, but all sustainable, intense farming systems.)

But what if we could spread this information at light-speed? What if it didn't require teams of people travelling around the world, or long training programs? What if, when you wanted to build a permaculture farm, you could consult a piece of software which gathers information on an open-content basis, gathers climate data, that knows what plants work in your climate, has a worldwide map of permaculture systems and what organisms they've used, and suggests [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture#Guild guilds] appropriate to your area? How about a program that lists the inputs and outputs of different organisms, and matches them up to form closed-loop systems? If we make it really easy for people to set up a different kind of farm, then they can produce more food locally and food security is finally secured, which doesn't seem too much to ask. All that is required is a website (or downloadable program), with some solid, clever programming behind it, and an open-content system and we could lower the barrier to entry to being a competent permaculturalist so that anyone could do it. Might this be the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_tab#Trim_tab_as_a_metaphor trimtab] needed to transform the world food supply system?--[[User:Conor|Conor]] 20:28, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

See my proposal for [[open source software for permaculture]]

==Comments?==

Please write here or to imagina dot canarias at gmail dot com. You may also want to join http://www.globalswadeshi.net or look into http://permacultureinstitute.pbwiki.com Finally, you may know about others who have covered lots of ground and whom we badly need to know about!

Thanks!

I think that it might be fruitful to explore what characteristics 'open source seeds' might have. Patrick Wiebe has some interesting thoughts on this: http://bifurcatedcarrots.eu/2012/04/speaker-finalist-tedxwageningen/

[[User:James Clark]]: This is a good start. To really get this firing on all cylinders, so to speak, I think the following needs to happen:
1.We need an agricultural seed ancestry registry (Project Freeseed?; Freeseed.org and/or OSSeed.org are available!); something that gives the features of the parent seeds so that creative hybridization can take place, and it needs to be protected by CC-BY-SA, and made where nothing that comes from it is ever proprietary. This is how we beat Big Ag.
2. Ties with other permacultural organizations, perhaps a mutual training program... I am getting involved with Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms[www.wwoof.org] to increase my permacultural skills, as well as others as they opportunities present themselves.
3. The natural world is incredibly diverse, and so this could be diversified in countless directions. However, at least to start, I think we need to define some key permacultural species for every climactic zone. This will be a huge undertaking, and we will need a multitude of people to accomplish it. Just as an example, I am including a link to a brainstorming document for what I want to do in Alaska in the next couple years, and how to use herbal medications to treat my [Chronic Fatigue Syndrome]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_Fatigue_Syndrome], a personal goal of mine that has ties to this concept.[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1smhOXdo7N_-nnjP0uzjHy8Ij578IX9xlRjznas4L1Fw/edit?hl=en_US]
4.Species Taskforce- a working group for specific needs, plants, or problems that work together towards a common goal, I.E. making a cold weather hybrid of a plant. These working groups will help develop cornerstone species such as bamboo, grains, gluten free grain substitutes, new zone-hardy hybrids, ect.
5. We need more natural scientists involved in this, and it is pursuit of this end that I am going to go volunteer on WWOOFer farms to see if I can socially network all the Mechanical and Electrical Engineer-types we have with some more ecologists, so that we may cross-train and both parties will come out better for it.I will also be blogging about it, and will be contributing more to the ecology and applied-ecology info on this wiki than I have in the past.
6. I will be specifically engaging my ignorance in this area from here on out, and plan on buying land for a permaculture "preserve" in Zone 4 area of Alaska in the next 18 months so that will follow the OSE model, and welcome any involvement in doing this right, as I want this to yield graduate-school quality scientific research, and will need help to reach this end.

= See also =

* [[Permaculture Wiki]]
* [[Open source software for permaculture]]

=Contacts and other initiatives=

* http://permacultureinstitute.pbwiki.com/Andy
* http://permaculturewiki.com
* http://www.permaculture.org.au/topics/
* http://www.wwoof.org
* http://www.indiegogo.com/OpenPermaculture
* [[Appropedia:Permaculture]]
* [[Appropedia:Permaculture wiki]]

Open Source Permaculture

2013-01-20T16:38:27Z

Peter Mortensen: No space before question mark.

{{Category=Permaculture}}
=What is Open Source Permaculture?=

This article discusses "what can be Open Source Permaculture", and updates an initial discussion with Lucas Gonzalez in the Canary Islands:

'''What is [[Permaculture]]?'''
The term related to either "Permanent Agriculture" or "Permanent Culture". Permaculture is a systems thinking design model focusing on sustainable and regenerative systems. It considers ecological theory informed by the lifestyles of indigenous cultures as well as modern technological advancements. Permaculture ranges a diverse field of design methods, anything from perennial-based agricultural systems, to the homestead, to individual or community structures.

'''What is Open-Source philosophy and licence?'''
"Open source is a philosophy, or pragmatic methodology, that promotes free redistribution and access to an end product's design and implementation details. A main principle and practice of open-source software development is peer production by bartering and collaboration, with the end-product, source-material, "blueprints", and documentation available at no cost to the public. Sites such as Wikipedia and Wiktionary have embraced the open-content GFDL and Creative Commons content licenses. These licenses were designed to adhere to principles similar to various open-source software development licenses. Many of these licenses ensure that content remains free for re-use, that source documents are made readily available to interested parties, and that changes to content are accepted easily back into the system." (from Wikipedia)

===How Permaculture relates to Open Source?===
Learning and using permaculture require specific knowledge a on permaculture analysis and design methods as well as more generic, from a variety of fields agronomy, ecology, construction, energy, etc. But main permaculture specific knowledge is still shared is through copyrighted books or DVDs, expensive Permaculture Design Courses (PDC), all around the world, and International Permaculture Conference, held annually.

Even though, free open content is also widely available but in small quantities in myriad of small open permaculture initiatives, from permaculture pages on wikis (including Appropedia and Open Source Ecology) to blogs, websites, maps, and short videos or long documentaries (see permaculture-media-blog for a collection of both free and unfree resources). But all available open-content is unfortunately far from complete, and too much scattered, e.g. web free resources require too long research hours, and cannot compete with ten top permaculture books or experience and exchange from five PDC.

Despite this, the idea of sharing is at the very heart of Permaculture and Open Source, thus knowledge about permaculture should be free and open-source. An Open Source Permaculture center would help these individual initiatives to merge into one large collective open-source corpus of knowledge and resources.
Awareness is already rising for the concept of Open Source Permaculture. For example, a "open source permaculture" project campaign for an open-source book on urban permaculture successfully ended and Appropedia will be partner of that project to make a wiki out of it. Making this corpus of knowledge available and free to use and improve not only benefits permaculture experts and novices, but will avoid trial-and-error-reinventing-the-wheel on the practical level, and foster permaculture development and adoption all over the world.

==What topics can be treated as Open Source Permaculture knowledge?==
Permaculture require five specific areas : principles, methods, designs and community.

Knowledge of principles helps grasp the central concepts, and include many ideas ranging from holistic living to applied ecology. Knowledge of methods of analysis and design, often overlooked, helps to analyze a situation and produce appropriate new designs, and for instance, use succession analysis, application of a pattern or other methods heavily based on applied ecology.

Permaculture designs are the result of these methods, e.g. raised beds in contour, herb spiral or forest garden, with much in common with traditional organic farming and construction methods. Easy to understand and reproduce, hence permaculture designs tend to be the most visible part of permaculture. Knowledge of the community of active people and existing sites is also very important, and most permaculturists are very "open-source" minded and are always ready to share their experience, exchange, help visit or organize activities. Documentation on existing sites and people should also comprise economic and social aspect, or how to economically run such a project and make people participate.

Permaculture require also generic knowledge that can be found in other areas or disciplines, such as plants, construction, energy generation, machinery or software. For instance, information on plant choice, with data on explicit varieties, locations to get them, where they work (site-specific information, performance data, propagation techniques, etc). Another example is machinery and software, an open source equipment for monitoring, processing; energy production; field equipment, and other supporting equipment for complete startup and maintenance.

==How to use Open Source Permaculture knowledge?==
Open Source Permaculture knowledge should help in all steps: introduce permaculture to new comers, and help them to understand it in their current context; learn methods to analyze an their artificial or natural site, produce new specific and appropriate designs, and avoid finding themselves clueless in terms of producing an integrated operation when they get to the land; learn classic permaculture designs and apply them in their land or backyard; find generic knowledge about plants and climates, construction or energy generation.

==What are the myriad of Open Source Permaculture initiatives?==

=Original Discussion=

This is from a discussion with Lucas Gonzalez in the Canary Islands:

I think we should start raising awareness for the concept of Open Source Permaculture. Let's define what that mean by the term. This would be a crucial upgrade to what Permaculture today is about.

I have ended up an a parcel of land. I read the theory, and found myself basically clueless in terms of producing an integrated permacultural operation when I got onto the land. I believe that proper information access could have allowed us to avoid wasteful, trial-and-error-reinventing-the-wheel on the practical level (living material choices). We are still suffering from huge waste along these lines - either by spending long research hours or planting crop that will not do well here. There are issues that one can't read about - such as layout and geography - but the living material issue should be a non-issue. This way, the focus could be on further adaptation and breeding of region-specific materials - not in not knowing the optimal materials. This point may be difficult to grasp for people without an open source philosophy or without agricultural experience - but better access to information is a true bane of permaculture - as it tries to survive in a playing field of its factory-farm-global-neighbors.

Moreover, one cannot emphasize how many surprises there are in the plant world. You could read all you want - but you will never find out about what plant material is really available - you will always find particular (and extremely useful, unique, more adapted, more disease resistent, etc.) varieties from some next-door neighbor or other unexpected source. It is impossible to keep up with nature's diversity. The only way to address this is to record instances - and make them widely accessible on the internet.

The hypothesis to be tested is simple: Can permaculture become the dominant paradigm - a favored alternative to its factory-farm-global-neighbors?

To me, open source permaculture (OSPC) is:

1. '''Info on plant choice'''. Data on what explicit varieties work where - with a visual, global map (see http://www.permaculturemap.com/) - if we make this a worldwide project. This point - combined with basic theory, such as [http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC28/Mollison.htm Mollison's work] - leads to permacultural designs that anyone can implement where they are. The shortcomings of all global-reaching work on the topic is the lack of site-specific information - requiring the invitation of outside experts (permacultural designers). Theory abounds - but practice boils down to knowing particular varieties of living materials and where to get them. One could live on the theory only and end up with suboptimal systems - but optimization can happen from site-specific performance data.

2. '''Propagation''' - how you would get the living materials accessibly - on the cheap. This includes both industry standard techniques for propagation, and bioregional facilities where this plant material can be obtained. It should be obtained along OS lines - DIY option where you could, for example, do sweat equity at a propagation facility to get low cost or free materials. Or, it could be that you buy the materials outright. The requirement is that the bioregional facilities have EVERYTHING - diversity, quantities, and prices that allow easy access to producing an integrated permaculture implementation.

3. '''Machinery''' - open source equipment for processing; energy production; field equipment. Other supporting equipment for complete permaculture startup and maintenance, from [http://p2pfoundation.net/Neosubsistence neosubsistence] to economically significant market production capacity.

4. '''Economic analyses of productive operations'''. Both on the subsistence and market levels - such that analyses promote replicability.

==Why this, and What's "food swadeshi" anyway?==

Let's say you're interested in ''food swadeshi'': '''growing food for your own self-sustenance, for your community or for a "grow food locally" business'''. You've read several books and many webpages, and maybe you've gone to one or two courses or meetings or whatever.

Now you're standing on your very own piece of land (or in your very urban setting) and you look around.

Questions start to pop up in your head. ''How do I ...? What do I ...? Where do I ...?''

It's now that you realise there's a whole body of information that is ''at a distance'' from where you are. It's in the minds of many food growers all over the world, in databases and webpages, but somehow it's not too easy to get the exact answers to your specific, extremely local and burning questions.

You could go so much faster if you had now the information you'll have in 5 years time!

==Information and human networks==

You could of course tap onto a ''friendship network'' and that's fine if you have plenty of access to that, or even if you gain access to an already existing ''network of knowledgeable friends''.

Such a network will also sustain your values, help you "trade" physical stuff, and a whole lot of "goodies" that come with human networks.

That said, if you want to go a bit faster on the information aspects, human networks often have some limitations:
* Your (old) friends probably have the same information as you do, which means they also share your ignorance.
* Let's say you join a network of "food growers". They may call themselves organic growers, permaculturists, or whatever. You're in need of specific information. But often it will happen that your (new) friends don't know everything you'll ask them, because their conditions are different (maybe they live in another country) and their knowledge is limited by their own experience (huge as it may be when compared to yours).
* You don't know what you can ask them: do you know that they know what you need to know?
* You don't want to treat them as a 24x7 resource. At least if you want to keep them as friends. ;-)
* Finally, don't tell your friends, but maybe you're that type of person who can learn faster if they have lots of information they can look into at their own pace. Just like many people learn to do stuff on their own, be it maths or juggling or whatever, if they have the books and some time on their own.

It's also true that you can access the information resources we're about to daydream about, and use them ''as a group'' (beverages and all), so it's not either/or at all!

Now, let's get on with this idea!

==What we think we need==

This is an evolving idea, and here's what we think we need:

# Ready access to CONCEPTS: anything from permacultural ethics to design criteria. This is easy to find right now, but could be integrated in our "fab info" design.
# Ready access to DESIGNS: [[Keyhole garden|keyhole raised beds]], poultry tractors, etc. These would be text descriptions, videos and the whole thing. If it's in other languages, a link to translation tools would be a nice add-on.
# Ready access to INFORMATION: what are the features of plants? which particular and explicit varieties are well-adapted to particular regions. This requires local and bioregional information.
# A way to do SUBSTITUTIONS: Say a particular design uses a specific plant, which is not available to us. What other plants could we use? This could be extended if we look for FEATURES: imagine "google tree shade tropical edible-by-goats".
# PROPAGATION/SOURCING - where do you get the plant or orther living material? The most direct route is if you propagate the material yourself. Beyond this, you need seed, plant, mushroom, animal, other stock sources - such as businesses, individuals, etc.
#OPEN SOURCE EQUIPMENT
#ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Are there more questions? Phrased differently? With many more details? This will be our first step, but please do read on.

Marcin says: To summarize this, I propose we narrow our mission to:

#INFORMATION (as above) - focusing on mapping ''what works''
#PROPAGATION/SOURCING (as above) - focusing on obtaining the ''what works''
#OPEN SOURCE EQUIPMENT - this does not exist, but is crucial for competing with your factory-farm-global-neighbors
#ECONOMIC ANALYSIS - foundation for replicable, open business models

I think these 4 elements are SUFFICIENT for producing state-of-art operations, competitive with global neighbors.

This is because CONCEPTS and DESIGNS are readily available in literature. SUBSTITUTIONS are covered by INFORMATION. We could do all the topics - but I'd focus on the essential information.

==How to move forward==

* First, look at our needs and phrase them appropriately. Feel free to jump in right now, Marcin and others! What questions do you ask on the field? Feel free to give details, with "stories that help"!
* Second, do the kind of work some software developers do, moving through those "needs" imagining things in slow-motion. What questions we'd ask. What results we'd expect from the system. What we do next. How we contribute (with questions or information). We'll get to this step soon, I hope.
* At some point in time, we'll want to look beyond the imagined tool to the wider ecosystem. Where's some information already (wikipedia, webpages, people's heads)? What can "they" provide and use? What are their interests and motivations? What do they find difficult or easy to do (talk, type, chat)? Are there helpers around (permaculture students who would be interested in cooperatively growing a tool which would help them if they feed it)? Probably lots of other factors. This will have to be iterative with the other steps, in the classic spiral pattern.
* Go wild with ideas. Think about clever hacks, maybe something that sits on top of wikipedia and google maps? A helpful clever software agent that helps us because it knows both more and less than we do? No limits to our thinking, please!
* Create a simple implementation of something that provides value straight away, and which is not too hard to implement. Here's where we need python gurus etc! Feel free to step in and introduce yourself! ;-)

At all times, look at what we can personally do. Even if the only thing we can do is tell our contacts about this.

==Agricultural informatics==
An identifying feature of permaculture is that it is heavy on design, information and intelligent planning. Not much water goes into making a permaculture farm work, not much fertilizer, not much stuff, but a huge amount of information. Information is the main resource.

In the past few decades, there have been teams of permaculture designers going around the world spreading this information. These designers have trained other designers, and the information is starting to make a dent in the world food system, turning patches of it away from monoculture and towards more productive methods. (I'm not talking about permaculture in the narrow sense, but all sustainable, intense farming systems.)

But what if we could spread this information at light-speed? What if it didn't require teams of people travelling around the world, or long training programs? What if, when you wanted to build a permaculture farm, you could consult a piece of software which gathers information on an open-content basis, gathers climate data, that knows what plants work in your climate, has a worldwide map of permaculture systems and what organisms they've used, and suggests [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture#Guild guilds] appropriate to your area? How about a program that lists the inputs and outputs of different organisms, and matches them up to form closed-loop systems? If we make it really easy for people to set up a different kind of farm, then they can produce more food locally and food security is finally secured, which doesn't seem too much to ask. All that is required is a website (or downloadable program), with some solid, clever programming behind it, and an open-content system and we could lower the barrier to entry to being a competent permaculturalist so that anyone could do it. Might this be the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_tab#Trim_tab_as_a_metaphor trimtab] needed to transform the world food supply system?--[[User:Conor|Conor]] 20:28, 8 November 2010 (UTC)

See my proposal for [[open source software for permaculture]]

==Comments?==

Please write here or to imagina dot canarias at gmail dot com. You may also want to join http://www.globalswadeshi.net or look into http://permacultureinstitute.pbwiki.com Finally, you may know about others who have covered lots of ground and whom we badly need to know about!

Thanks!

I think that it might be fruitful to explore what characteristics 'open source seeds' might have. Patrick Wiebe has some interesting thoughts on this: http://bifurcatedcarrots.eu/2012/04/speaker-finalist-tedxwageningen/

[[User:James Clark]]: This is a good start. To really get this firing on all cylinders, so to speak, I think the following needs to happen:
1.We need an agricultural seed ancestry registry (Project Freeseed?; Freeseed.org and/or OSSeed.org are available!); something that gives the features of the parent seeds so that creative hybridization can take place, and it needs to be protected by CC-BY-SA, and made where nothing that comes from it is ever proprietary. This is how we beat Big Ag.
2. Ties with other permacultural organizations, perhaps a mutual training program... I am getting involved with Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms[www.wwoof.org] to increase my permacultural skills, as well as others as they opportunities present themselves.
3. The natural world is incredibly diverse, and so this could be diversified in countless directions. However, at least to start, I think we need to define some key permacultural species for every climactic zone. This will be a huge undertaking, and we will need a multitude of people to accomplish it. Just as an example, I am including a link to a brainstorming document for what I want to do in Alaska in the next couple years, and how to use herbal medications to treat my [Chronic Fatigue Syndrome]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_Fatigue_Syndrome], a personal goal of mine that has ties to this concept.[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1smhOXdo7N_-nnjP0uzjHy8Ij578IX9xlRjznas4L1Fw/edit?hl=en_US]
4.Species Taskforce- a working group for specific needs, plants, or problems that work together towards a common goal, I.E. making a cold weather hybrid of a plant. These working groups will help develop cornerstone species such as bamboo, grains, gluten free grain substitutes, new zone-hardy hybrids, ect.
5. We need more natural scientists involved in this, and it is pursuit of this end that I am going to go volunteer on WWOOFer farms to see if I can socially network all the Mechanical and Electrical Engineer-types we have with some more ecologists, so that we may cross-train and both parties will come out better for it.I will also be blogging about it, and will be contributing more to the ecology and applied-ecology info on this wiki than I have in the past.
6. I will be specifically engaging my ignorance in this area from here on out, and plan on buying land for a permaculture "preserve" in Zone 4 area of Alaska in the next 18 months so that will follow the OSE model, and welcome any involvement in doing this right, as I want this to yield graduate-school quality scientific research, and will need help to reach this end.

= See also =

* [[Permaculture Wiki]]
* [[Open source software for permaculture]]

=Contacts and other initiatives=

* http://permacultureinstitute.pbwiki.com/Andy
* http://permaculturewiki.com
* http://www.permaculture.org.au/topics/
* http://www.wwoof.org
* http://www.indiegogo.com/OpenPermaculture
* [[Appropedia:Permaculture]]
* [[Appropedia:Permaculture wiki]]

User:Peter Mortensen

2013-01-20T16:31:07Z

Peter Mortensen:

==Profile==

Profile: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mortense my Wikipedia user page].

Credentials: more than 5000 edits on the English Wikipedia.

==Trace==

I discovered Open Source Ecology through Marcin Jakubowski's TED talk, [http://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski.html Open-sourced blueprints for civilization] ([http://download.ted.com/talks/MarcinJakubowski_2011U.mp4 Direct download URL], 14.1 MB).

==Templates==

* [[Template:Staff and contractors]]
* [[Template:About]]
* [[Template:AboutMenu]]
* [[Template:department]]
* [[Template:staff member]]

Elifarley Cruz

2013-01-20T15:37:52Z

Peter Mortensen: /* WHAT */ Some copy editing.

{{Breadcrumb|IT Infrastructure|IT team}}[[Image:Ecruz.jpg|thumb|Elifarley Cruz]]

==Team Culturing Information==

==='''WHO''' are you?===
*Name/Nationality/Ethnicity - [[User:Elifarley|Elifarley]] Cruz, Brazilian
*Location – what is your city and country? - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil
*Contact Information – ''my first name''@opensourceecology.org, Skype: ''my first name''
*Introductory Video-
*Resume/CV – See [http://linkd.in/elifarley LinkedIn page], [http://openhatch.org/people/elifarley/ open source contributions]
*Hobbies and Pastimes- Running, programming in Python and Java, traveling...

==='''WHY''' are you motivated to support/develop this work?===
*''Do you endorse open source culture?''
Certainly! I've contributed to some open source software projects, and I always champion the use of FLOSS wherever I go. I think the FLOSS culture is spreading to other areas of our society, and I hope there's no going back, since everyone will benefit from it.

*''Why are you interested in this work?''
I found out about Open Source Ecology after watching the Zeitgeist Addendum movie. That movie sparkled my curiosity and I started a quest to understand the problems and possible solutions to our society's needs.

In this quest, I found out some very exciting ideas, groups and people, like the Transition Towns movement (concerned with peak oil), The Venus Project and RBE Foundation (moneyless, cybernated society), Common Good Bank (alternative currency system), RepRap (self-replicating, open source 3D printer), the P2P Foundation, and the OSE site, to name a few.

You may have noticed that all these projects and movements seem to have a common goal, they all seem to propose that we forget all artificial limitations (and scarcity) and we all seek union to improve our lives and sustainability. Without artificial limitations, we all can have much much better lives. That's the message I can hear all these people and movements resounding.

I'd say that The Venus Project champions ideas, whereas OSE materializes them, performing concrete actions that will move our world forward.

I'm confident that our small contributions to this cause will add up and have a tremendous positive result for everybody.

*''Are you interested in teaching about the GVCS?''*
Yes.

*Are you interested in economic relocalization possibilities arising from the GVCS?
Yes, I think the GVCS can bring economic stability and autonomy.

*''Do you want to use the GVCS technologies yourself? Do you want to build them yourself?''
Yes, I'd like to help these technologies get deployed in my country (Brazil).

*''Are you interested in starting up enterprise using the GVCS technologies? Are you interested in having the GVCS technologies fabricated by your local custom fabricator?''
I'm interested in helping that happen in Brazil.

*''Are you interested in applying the GVCS to third world development? To redevelopment of crisis areas? To development of derelict areas in the developed world?''
Yes, in Latin America and specially in Brazil.

*''Are you interested in starting up Industry 2.0 flexible fabrication enterprises for your local community, by drawing from a global repository of freely down-loadable designs and fabricating using open source fabrication equipment?''
Not directly, but I'd like to act as a facilitator for this.

*''Are you interested in the potential of the GVCS for developing local food systems?''
Yes! This is extremely important.

*''Are you interested in doing academic studies/papers, publishing books, or doing other analysis of our efforts?''
Nope.

*''Are you interested in financial investment opportunities arising from our work?''
Not particularly.

*''Are you interested in the distributive economic aspects of our work, and if so, how do you see this playing out?''
Yes. I see the GVCS technologies as a real game-changer in the near future.

*''Are you interested in building renewable energy production facilities based on open hardware (solar concentrator electric, wind, biomass power)? Are you interested in building resilient communities based on access to the GVCS?''
Again, I'd like to act as a facilitator, helping local communities achieve that.

*Are you interested in creating a bug-out hut using GVCS technologies?
What is it?

*''How do you think that the GVCS can help alleviate the instabilities of global monetary systems?
How do you think that the GVCS can address issues related to resource conflicts?
How do you think that the GVCS can address issues of overpopulatoin?
How do you think that the GVCS can address issues of resource depletion and environmental degradation?''

I think all these issues will be more easily dealt with once we localize production.

==='''WHAT'''===
*''What have you already contributed to the OSE project? (technical contributions, blogging about us, financial support, organizing events, translations, interviews, video editing, publications, publicity work, behind-the-scenes work, CAD work, wiki contributions, computer support, etc)''

I'm overseeing the web site infrastructure, like [http://code.orgecc.com/mbackup automated backups] and software installation, configuration and updates ([http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/ WikiMedia], [http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/ WordPress], [http://openfarmtech.org/forum/ Vanilla Forums], [http://openfarmtech.org/survey survey], [http://community.opensourceecology.org/ Drupal], [http://community.opensourceecology.org/civicrm/ CiviCRM]). I also [[Special:Contributions/Elifarley|contribute to the wiki]] by creating and inter-linking articles, removing spammers and spam pages. Sometimes I post OSE-related items on my [http://twitter.com/elifarley twitter], [http://bit.ly/elifarley-buzz Google Buzz] and Facebook accounts.

'''Communications'''
*I can assist in forum management, wiki editing, CRM management...

'''Organizational'''
*I am involved in networking, and other support roles

'''Computer Support'''
*I'm an experienced software developer (Java, Python, JavaScript, shell scripting, SQL ...) and long-time Linux user. I feel right at home with tools like grep, find, tar, rsync, ssh, screen, Mercurial, SVN, MySQL, and so on.

'''Design'''
*I am familiar with Photoshop and GIMP.

'''HOW''' can you help?''

*''How are you interested in contributing to the work of GVCS development?''
By overseeing the IT architecture and operations, doing some translations, contacting people in Brazil, Latin America and other countries, and perhaps performing presentations, giving workshops, courses...

*''Can you volunteer to work with us, and if so, how many hours per week?''
I've been contributing for some time, about 10 hours per week.

*''Are you interested in working with us for pay? If so, what services can you offer, and what is your hourly or per-project rate?''
*''Are you interested in purchasing equipment from us to help bootstrap development?''
*''Are you interested in bidding for consulting/design/prototyping work?''
Not right now.

*''Are you a True Fan? If not, why not?''
Yep.

*''Would you like to see yourself working with us on a full-time basis?''
Yes.

*''Are you interested in using the technologies that we are developing directly?''
Yes.

*''Are you interested in being part of the world's first, open source, resilient community? The GVCS is the preparatory step for the OSE Village Experiment – a 2 year, immersion experiment (2013-2014) for testing whether a real, thriving, modern-day prototype community of 200 people can be built on 200 acres using local resources and open access to information? We are looking for approximately 200 people to fill a diverse array of roles, according to the Social Contract that is being developed. This may be the boldest social experiment on earth - a pioneering community whose goal is to extend the index of possibilities regarding harmonious existence of humans, ecology, and technology – as a beacon of light to benefit of all people on Earth.
''
I'd like to make it happen in my country, after the first community in the USA.

===Other===

*

[[Category:Team Culturing]]
[[Category:Brazil]]
[[Category:People]]

Template:About

2013-01-20T15:31:08Z

Peter Mortensen: Removed another redirect (I check all of them and now there are no redirects.)

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* [[Board of Directors|Board of Directors]]
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* [[Financial Statements|Financial Statements]]
* [[Budget|Budget]]
* [[Bylaws|Bylaws]]
* [[Articles of Incorporation|Articles of Incorporation]]
* [[Policies|Policies]]
* [[Resolutions|Resolutions]]
* [[Logic Model|Logic Model]]
* [[Theory of Change|Theory of Change]]
|}<includeonly>[[Category:About]]</includeonly><noinclude>
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[[Category:About]]

Template:Department

2013-01-20T15:27:23Z

Peter Mortensen: Reverted - this does not seem to fix the problem.

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|<div style="width:140px; border:1px solid #BBBDBF; padding: 3px 8px; margin-bottom:4px;">
{{#if:{{{image2|}}}|[[File:{{{image2|}}}|140px|link=User:{{{username2}}}]]|[[File:Wikimedia Foundation office camera shy.png|140px]]}}
</div>
<div style="width:190px;">
<b>{{#if:{{{username2|}}}|[[User:{{{username2}}}|{{{head2}}}]]|{{{head2}}} }}</b><div>{{{title2}}}</div>
</div>
| }}
</div>
</div>
</div>

<div style="margin-left: 200px; padding-top: 14px; color:#5E5E5E;">
{{#if:{{{description|}}}|{{{description|}}}|{{cupcake ipsum}}}}

<div class="expand">See the team</div>
<div class="collapse"><ul class="gallery">{{{team}}}</ul></div>
</div>
{{clear}}

Template:Department

2013-01-20T15:14:51Z

Peter Mortensen: Having "User:" in a link causes a redirect.

<div style="float:left; padding-top: 21px; color:#5E5E5E; font-size:13px; line-height:16px; margin-bottom:40px;">
<div style="width:140px; border:1px solid #BBBDBF; padding: 3px 8px; margin-bottom:4px;">
{{#if:{{{image|}}}|[[File:{{{image|}}}|140px|link={{{username}}}]]|[[File:Wikimedia Foundation office camera shy.png|140px]]}}
</div>
<div style="width:190px;">
<b>{{#if:{{{username|}}}|[[User:{{{username}}}|{{{head}}}]]|{{{head}}} }}</b><div>{{{title}}}

{{#if:{{{image2|}}}
|<div style="width:140px; border:1px solid #BBBDBF; padding: 3px 8px; margin-bottom:4px;">
{{#if:{{{image2|}}}|[[File:{{{image2|}}}|140px|link={{{username2}}}]]|[[File:Wikimedia Foundation office camera shy.png|140px]]}}
</div>
<div style="width:190px;">
<b>{{#if:{{{username2|}}}|[[User:{{{username2}}}|{{{head2}}}]]|{{{head2}}} }}</b><div>{{{title2}}}</div>
</div>
| }}
</div>
</div>
</div>

<div style="margin-left: 200px; padding-top: 14px; color:#5E5E5E;">
{{#if:{{{description|}}}|{{{description|}}}|{{cupcake ipsum}}}}

<div class="expand">See the team</div>
<div class="collapse"><ul class="gallery">{{{team}}}</ul></div>
</div>
{{clear}}

Template:About

2013-01-20T15:01:54Z

Peter Mortensen: Eliminated a redirect.

<div>
{| class="wikitable" style="{{{float|float:right;}}} width:15em; margin-left:1em; margin-right:0; margin-top:0;"
|-
! [[About|About Open Source Ecology]]
|-
|
* [[Mission Vision Values|Mission, Vision, Values]]
* [[Board of Directors|Board of Directors]]
* [[Development Team|Team]]
* [[Strategic Plan|Strategic Plan]]
* [[Financial Statements|Financial Statements]]
* [[Budget|Budget]]
* [[Bylaws|Bylaws]]
* [[Articles of Incorporation|Articles of Incorporation]]
* [[Policies|Policies]]
* [[Resolutions|Resolutions]]
* [[Logic Model|Logic Model]]
* [[Theory of Change|Theory of Change]]
|}<includeonly>[[Category:About]]</includeonly><noinclude>
{{clear}}
</div>

[[Category:About]]

Factor e Farm

2013-01-20T14:55:39Z

Peter Mortensen: /* Infrastructure */ Line-break protection.

{{OrigLang}}
=Introduction=

The [[Factor e Farm]] '''(FeF)''' experiment aims to take everything that civilization has learned to date, to create a working blueprint for communities that work.

==Name==
We are not a [http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/factoryfarming/ factory farm]. At Factor e Farm, we are growing ideas. We are creating technology for ecology.

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e] => The transcendental number.
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm Farm] => Where we begin.

Those coming for [[Dedicated Project Visits]] are advised of the [[Factor e Farm General Guidelines]].

==Infrastructure==
[[Image:Hl1.jpg|thumb|HabLab]]
[[Image:Hl2.jpg|thumb|HabLab]]
[[Image:Cordwood_Structure.jpg|thumb|Cordwood structure]]
[[image:Outside_Hexayurt.JPG|thumb|Hexayurt]]
[[image:Hexacube1.jpg|thumb|Hexacube]]

*Shelter
**[[HabLab]]
***Kitchen
***Bathroom
***Bedrooms
**SolarCubes
**[[Hexayurt]]s
**[[Earthbag hut]]
**[[Cordwood hut]]
**Tents
*Workshops
**Main Workshop
*[[Greenhouse]]

*Utilities

**Water
***Well Pump and Rainwater catchment
***1000 Gallon tank reservoir
***2nd water pump brings water from the reservoir tanks to habLab kitchen and bath.

**Sanitation
***HabLab has a septic system (please limit/don't use antibacterial soaps!)
***flush toilets and [[Composting Toilet|composting toilets]]
***3 compost bins for cooking scraps
***Recycling system has outdoor segregated storage for plastics, metals, and paper products, which are brought to local recycling center.

**Heating/Cooling
***Wood stoves
***Thermal mass earth roofs.
***cross-ventilation

**Kitchen
***Stove
***Sink

**Electricity (there are two electrical "grids" at the farm)
***[[Solar Panels at Factor e Farm|Solar Panels]] system - 1.4 kW peak
****charger
****battery bank
****120 V inverter

***Gas Generator system (needed for MIG Welders)
****72 V Forklift Battery Bank
****72 V Chargers
****120 V and 240 V Inverters (10 kW, 15 kW)

**Communications
***Very low cellphone reception
***Wireless Internet (DSL)

**Food
***400 tree fruit, nut, and berry orchard (still growing)
***Free-range chickens - [[Incubator | eggs]];
***We buy food that we don't grow on the farm
***We try to eat together

==Learning==
*We are a learning community, and we are all expected to help each other grow in practical, mental, emotional, and spiritual techniques.
*Highly value [[Education]]

==Tools==
See [[Factor e Farm Tools]]

==Location==

<span style="color:red"> NOTE: It is NOT ok to visit Factor e Farm without an invitation. Please see [[Visit Factor e Farm]].
</span>

[[File:site.jpeg]]

OpenStreetMap View

<span style="color:red"> NOTE: It is NOT ok to visit Factor e Farm without an invitation. Please see [[Visit Factor e Farm]].
</span>

<html>
<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://www.openstreetmap.org/export/embed.html?bbox=-94.37982,39.85737,-94.36568,39.86661&layer=mapnik&marker=39.86251,-94.37624" style="border: 1px solid black"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=39.86199&lon=-94.37275&zoom=16&layers=M&mlat=39.86251&mlon=-94.37624">View Larger Map</a></small>
</html>

==Climate==
[http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMOMAYSV2 Nearby weather station]

See also [[Temperature]]

==What to Bring==
Think "Camping with Power Tools". The HabLab has a kitchen, bathroom, common area, bedrooms and storage space. The '''kitchen''' has a full oven, a top loading refrigerator, and a sink with filtered drinking water. The '''bathroom''' has 3 dividers between 2 flush toilets and 2 stand up showers, the bathroom also has 2 sinks. The common area has couches seats and tables, there are also standard electrical outlets. The '''bedrooms''' vary in size, there are 4 couple rooms and 2 single rooms, there are about 4 desks and 6 beds too.
There is parking are for about 10 cars. Of the 30 acres about 8 acres is forested. The forested area is nearby hablab and the workshop, and there is space for tents and hammocks.

The village of Maysville, Mo is a 50 minute walk, 20 minute bike-ride, or a 5 minute car-ride away.
The town of Cameron, MO is 90 minute bike-ride, or 20 minute car-ride.

*Workshop Safety Gear
**Safety Glasses
**Steel toe boots
**Workshop clothing (jeans, long sleeves, steel-toed boots)
**Shared gear includes: work gloves, welding gloves, welding helmets

*Clothing
**Pack appropriately for the season
***Consider [[Recommended Fabrics]]
***Temperatures [http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMOMAYSV2 can vary wildly],
***Summers are hot and humid. (about 80-95 Fahrenheit, with rain about twice a month)
***Winters are freezing.

*Electronics
**Camera
**Laptop (low-power if possible) (screen-size is a large part of laptop power consumption)
**MP3 player
**cell phone (poor cellphone reception, Skype phone number strongly recommended)

*Tools
**large and small notebooks
**pens/pencils
**Multi tool
**Flashlight

*Food
**Try to limit food that must be refrigerated.
**Ask about current farm status (if anything will be ready for harvest soon, and how much.)
**There is potential to produce all food on-site.
**It is a 5 minute drive to
**water bottle

Embed
*http://www.youtube.com/p/FF0B396794CE6CDE&hl=en
*http://www.youtube.com/p/8222E33C29B683CE&hl=en

==See also==
*[[Factor E Farm Site Plan]]
*[[Distillations]]
*[[History]]

[http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=2012recent Blog Presentation]:

See the [http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/ weblog] for the latest updates.

You can view videos from Factor e Farm on our [http://www.youtube.com/user/marcinose Youtube Channel.]

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/11113094@N03/ Pictures] from Factor e Farm.

[[Category:Factor e Farm]]
[[Category: Resilient Communities]]
[[Category:Places]]

Factor e Farm

2013-01-20T14:55:04Z

Peter Mortensen: /* Infrastructure */ Spelling of unit. Space between quantity and unit - " " is a non-breaking space (see e.g. <http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/15953>). Line-break protection.

{{OrigLang}}
=Introduction=

The [[Factor e Farm]] '''(FeF)''' experiment aims to take everything that civilization has learned to date, to create a working blueprint for communities that work.

==Name==
We are not a [http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/factoryfarming/ factory farm]. At Factor e Farm, we are growing ideas. We are creating technology for ecology.

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e] => The transcendental number.
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm Farm] => Where we begin.

Those coming for [[Dedicated Project Visits]] are advised of the [[Factor e Farm General Guidelines]].

==Infrastructure==
[[Image:Hl1.jpg|thumb|HabLab]]
[[Image:Hl2.jpg|thumb|HabLab]]
[[Image:Cordwood_Structure.jpg|thumb|Cordwood structure]]
[[image:Outside_Hexayurt.JPG|thumb|Hexayurt]]
[[image:Hexacube1.jpg|thumb|Hexacube]]

*Shelter
**[[HabLab]]
***Kitchen
***Bathroom
***Bedrooms
**SolarCubes
**[[Hexayurt]]s
**[[Earthbag hut]]
**[[Cordwood hut]]
**Tents
*Workshops
**Main Workshop
*[[Greenhouse]]

*Utilities

**Water
***Well Pump and Rainwater catchment
***1000 Gallon tank reservoir
***2nd water pump brings water from the reservoir tanks to habLab kitchen and bath.

**Sanitation
***HabLab has a septic system (please limit/don't use antibacterial soaps!)
***flush toilets and [[Composting Toilet|composting toilets]]
***3 compost bins for cooking scraps
***Recycling system has outdoor segregated storage for plastics, metals, and paper products, which are brought to local recycling center.

**Heating/Cooling
***Wood stoves
***Thermal mass earth roofs.
***cross-ventilation

**Kitchen
***Stove
***Sink

**Electricity (there are two electrical "grids" at the farm)
***[[Solar Panels at Factor e Farm|Solar Panels]] system - 1.4 kW peak
****charger
****battery bank
****120 V inverter

***Gas Generator system (needed for MIG Welders)
****72 V Forklift Battery Bank
****72 V Chargers
****120 V and 240 V Inverters (10 kW, 15 kW)

**Communications
***Very low cellphone reception
***Wireless Internet (DSL)

**Food
***400 tree fruit, nut, and berry orchard (still growing)
***Free-range chickens - [[Incubator | eggs]];
***We buy food that we don't grow on the farm
***We try to eat together

==Learning==
*We are a learning community, and we are all expected to help each other grow in practical, mental, emotional, and spiritual techniques.
*Highly value [[Education]]

==Tools==
See [[Factor e Farm Tools]]

==Location==

<span style="color:red"> NOTE: It is NOT ok to visit Factor e Farm without an invitation. Please see [[Visit Factor e Farm]].
</span>

[[File:site.jpeg]]

OpenStreetMap View

<span style="color:red"> NOTE: It is NOT ok to visit Factor e Farm without an invitation. Please see [[Visit Factor e Farm]].
</span>

<html>
<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://www.openstreetmap.org/export/embed.html?bbox=-94.37982,39.85737,-94.36568,39.86661&layer=mapnik&marker=39.86251,-94.37624" style="border: 1px solid black"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=39.86199&lon=-94.37275&zoom=16&layers=M&mlat=39.86251&mlon=-94.37624">View Larger Map</a></small>
</html>

==Climate==
[http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMOMAYSV2 Nearby weather station]

See also [[Temperature]]

==What to Bring==
Think "Camping with Power Tools". The HabLab has a kitchen, bathroom, common area, bedrooms and storage space. The '''kitchen''' has a full oven, a top loading refrigerator, and a sink with filtered drinking water. The '''bathroom''' has 3 dividers between 2 flush toilets and 2 stand up showers, the bathroom also has 2 sinks. The common area has couches seats and tables, there are also standard electrical outlets. The '''bedrooms''' vary in size, there are 4 couple rooms and 2 single rooms, there are about 4 desks and 6 beds too.
There is parking are for about 10 cars. Of the 30 acres about 8 acres is forested. The forested area is nearby hablab and the workshop, and there is space for tents and hammocks.

The village of Maysville, Mo is a 50 minute walk, 20 minute bike-ride, or a 5 minute car-ride away.
The town of Cameron, MO is 90 minute bike-ride, or 20 minute car-ride.

*Workshop Safety Gear
**Safety Glasses
**Steel toe boots
**Workshop clothing (jeans, long sleeves, steel-toed boots)
**Shared gear includes: work gloves, welding gloves, welding helmets

*Clothing
**Pack appropriately for the season
***Consider [[Recommended Fabrics]]
***Temperatures [http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMOMAYSV2 can vary wildly],
***Summers are hot and humid. (about 80-95 Fahrenheit, with rain about twice a month)
***Winters are freezing.

*Electronics
**Camera
**Laptop (low-power if possible) (screen-size is a large part of laptop power consumption)
**MP3 player
**cell phone (poor cellphone reception, Skype phone number strongly recommended)

*Tools
**large and small notebooks
**pens/pencils
**Multi tool
**Flashlight

*Food
**Try to limit food that must be refrigerated.
**Ask about current farm status (if anything will be ready for harvest soon, and how much.)
**There is potential to produce all food on-site.
**It is a 5 minute drive to
**water bottle

Embed
*http://www.youtube.com/p/FF0B396794CE6CDE&hl=en
*http://www.youtube.com/p/8222E33C29B683CE&hl=en

==See also==
*[[Factor E Farm Site Plan]]
*[[Distillations]]
*[[History]]

[http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=2012recent Blog Presentation]:

See the [http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/ weblog] for the latest updates.

You can view videos from Factor e Farm on our [http://www.youtube.com/user/marcinose Youtube Channel.]

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/11113094@N03/ Pictures] from Factor e Farm.

[[Category:Factor e Farm]]
[[Category: Resilient Communities]]
[[Category:Places]]

Factor e Farm

2013-01-20T14:38:31Z

Peter Mortensen: /* What to Bring */ Spelling/case (ref. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portable_media_player>).

{{OrigLang}}
=Introduction=

The [[Factor e Farm]] '''(FeF)''' experiment aims to take everything that civilization has learned to date, to create a working blueprint for communities that work.

==Name==
We are not a [http://www.sustainabletable.org/issues/factoryfarming/ factory farm]. At Factor e Farm, we are growing ideas. We are creating technology for ecology.

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E_(mathematical_constant) e] => The transcendental number.
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farm Farm] => Where we begin.

Those coming for [[Dedicated Project Visits]] are advised of the [[Factor e Farm General Guidelines]].

==Infrastructure==
[[Image:Hl1.jpg|thumb|HabLab]]
[[Image:Hl2.jpg|thumb|HabLab]]
[[Image:Cordwood_Structure.jpg|thumb|Cordwood structure]]
[[image:Outside_Hexayurt.JPG|thumb|Hexayurt]]
[[image:Hexacube1.jpg|thumb|Hexacube]]

*Shelter
**[[HabLab]]
***Kitchen
***Bathroom
***Bedrooms
**SolarCubes
**[[Hexayurt]]s
**[[Earthbag hut]]
**[[Cordwood hut]]
**Tents
*Workshops
**Main Workshop
*[[Greenhouse]]

*Utilities

**Water
***Well Pump and Rainwater catchment
***1000 Gallon tank reservoir
***2nd water pump brings water from the reservoir tanks to habLab kitchen and bath.

**Sanitation
***HabLab has a septic system (please limit/don't use antibacterial soaps!)
***flush toilets and [[Composting Toilet|composting toilets]]
***3 compost bins for cooking scraps
***Recycling system has outdoor segregated storage for plastics, metals, and paper products, which are brought to local recycling center.

**Heating/Cooling
***Wood stoves
***Thermal mass earth roofs.
***cross-ventilation

**Kitchen
***Stove
***Sink

**Electricity (there are two electrical "grids" at the farm)
***[[Solar Panels at Factor e Farm|Solar Panels]] system - 1.4 kW peak
****charger
****battery bank
****120v inverter

***Gas Generator system (needed for MIG Welders)
****72v Forklift Battery Bank
****72v Chargers
****120v and 240v Inverters (10 kW, 15 kW)

**Communications
***Very low cellphone reception
***Wireless Internet (DSL)

**Food
***400 tree fruit, nut, and berry orchard (still growing)
***Free-range chickens - [[Incubator | eggs]];
***We buy food that we don't grow on the farm
***We try to eat together

==Learning==
*We are a learning community, and we are all expected to help each other grow in practical, mental, emotional, and spiritual techniques.
*Highly value [[Education]]

==Tools==
See [[Factor e Farm Tools]]

==Location==

<span style="color:red"> NOTE: It is NOT ok to visit Factor e Farm without an invitation. Please see [[Visit Factor e Farm]].
</span>

[[File:site.jpeg]]

OpenStreetMap View

<span style="color:red"> NOTE: It is NOT ok to visit Factor e Farm without an invitation. Please see [[Visit Factor e Farm]].
</span>

<html>
<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://www.openstreetmap.org/export/embed.html?bbox=-94.37982,39.85737,-94.36568,39.86661&layer=mapnik&marker=39.86251,-94.37624" style="border: 1px solid black"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=39.86199&lon=-94.37275&zoom=16&layers=M&mlat=39.86251&mlon=-94.37624">View Larger Map</a></small>
</html>

==Climate==
[http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMOMAYSV2 Nearby weather station]

See also [[Temperature]]

==What to Bring==
Think "Camping with Power Tools". The HabLab has a kitchen, bathroom, common area, bedrooms and storage space. The '''kitchen''' has a full oven, a top loading refrigerator, and a sink with filtered drinking water. The '''bathroom''' has 3 dividers between 2 flush toilets and 2 stand up showers, the bathroom also has 2 sinks. The common area has couches seats and tables, there are also standard electrical outlets. The '''bedrooms''' vary in size, there are 4 couple rooms and 2 single rooms, there are about 4 desks and 6 beds too.
There is parking are for about 10 cars. Of the 30 acres about 8 acres is forested. The forested area is nearby hablab and the workshop, and there is space for tents and hammocks.

The village of Maysville, Mo is a 50 minute walk, 20 minute bike-ride, or a 5 minute car-ride away.
The town of Cameron, MO is 90 minute bike-ride, or 20 minute car-ride.

*Workshop Safety Gear
**Safety Glasses
**Steel toe boots
**Workshop clothing (jeans, long sleeves, steel-toed boots)
**Shared gear includes: work gloves, welding gloves, welding helmets

*Clothing
**Pack appropriately for the season
***Consider [[Recommended Fabrics]]
***Temperatures [http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KMOMAYSV2 can vary wildly],
***Summers are hot and humid. (about 80-95 Fahrenheit, with rain about twice a month)
***Winters are freezing.

*Electronics
**Camera
**Laptop (low-power if possible) (screen-size is a large part of laptop power consumption)
**MP3 player
**cell phone (poor cellphone reception, Skype phone number strongly recommended)

*Tools
**large and small notebooks
**pens/pencils
**Multi tool
**Flashlight

*Food
**Try to limit food that must be refrigerated.
**Ask about current farm status (if anything will be ready for harvest soon, and how much.)
**There is potential to produce all food on-site.
**It is a 5 minute drive to
**water bottle

Embed
*http://www.youtube.com/p/FF0B396794CE6CDE&hl=en
*http://www.youtube.com/p/8222E33C29B683CE&hl=en

==See also==
*[[Factor E Farm Site Plan]]
*[[Distillations]]
*[[History]]

[http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=2012recent Blog Presentation]:

See the [http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/ weblog] for the latest updates.

You can view videos from Factor e Farm on our [http://www.youtube.com/user/marcinose Youtube Channel.]

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/11113094@N03/ Pictures] from Factor e Farm.

[[Category:Factor e Farm]]
[[Category: Resilient Communities]]
[[Category:Places]]

User:Gabrielle LeBlanc

2013-01-20T13:22:00Z

Peter Mortensen: /* Team Culturing Information */ Made it more readable.

[[Image:Gabi.JPG|thumb| Gabi]]

==Team Culturing Information==

==='''Who''' are you?===
*''Resume/CV'' - [[File: Gabrielle LeBlanc Resume.doc]]

Contact:
*Email: feathersandmoss (at) gmail (dot) com
*Skype: gcleblanc

'''[http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Gabi_LeBlanc_Log What's doing?]
'''

[http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Work_Plan My Work Plan]

[http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/Development_Team#Farm_Manager_-_Gabrielle_LeBlanc Yet Another Bio]

==='''Why''' are you motivated to support/develop this work?===
*''Do you endorse open source culture?''

Yes, of course. Information should not be owned, but shared.

*''Why are you interested in collaborating with us?''

Because I have not yet seen an organization with so many ideals aligned with my own.

*''How do you think that the GVCS can address pressing world issues?''

By realistically assessing the world situation and adapting OSE's strategy to work with the world, not against or around it.

*''What should happen so that you become more involved with the project?''

Continue and subsist at Factor e. Feed everybody, sustain myself, and live my life the way I want to.

*''What is missing in the project?''

We have everything we need to succeed.

*''What are your suggestions for improvement of the project?''

Keep on keepin' on. No, really, improvements are planned in the strategic analysis of where we are going, and the current organization has improvement and adaptation built into its structure, so with continuation of the project improvement is inevitable.

==='''What''' are your skills?===

*Community development and troubleshooting
*Natural Building - cob buildings, ovens, benches, domes
*Agriculture - land stewardship and subsistence, ecosystem development

===How can you help?===

*''How have you already contributed to the project?''

Plant and animal care, planning for expanding agricultural operations, getting FeF a dairy cow.

*''How are you interested in contributing to the work of GVCS development?''

Learning the ins and outs of design and fabrication of the agricultural machines, and building things that I need to improve neosubsistence on this land.

*''Can you volunteer to work with us, and if so, how many hours per week?''

Yes, I am committing my lifestyle to this project holistically.

*''Are you interested in working with us for pay? If so, what services can you offer, and what is your hourly or per-project rate?''

I expect to find ways to pay myself back by producing things that I need.

*''Are you interested in being part of the world's first, open source, resilient community? The GVCS is the preparatory step for the OSE Village Experiment – a 2 year, immersion experiment (2013-2014) for testing whether a real, thriving, modern-day prototype community of 200 people can be built on 200 acres using local resources and open access to information? We are looking for approximately 200 people to fill a diverse array of roles, according to the Social Contract that is being developed. This may be the boldest social experiment on earth - a pioneering community whose goal is to extend the index of possibilities regarding harmonious existence of humans, ecology, and technology.''

Yep, sounds good.

[[Category:Team Culturing]]
[[Category:Gabi]]
[[Category:People]]

Template:Staff and contractors

2013-01-20T13:18:37Z

Peter Mortensen: /* Office of the Executive Director */ Expansion/introduction of the abbreviation.

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<div style="width:90%; text-align:left; margin:auto;">
<div id="expand-wrapper">
<span id="expand-all"></span>
{{clear}}
{{About}}
== Office of the Executive Director ==
{{department
| image = marcinted.jpg
| head = Marcin Jakubowski, PhD
| title = {{{ED|Executive Director}}}
| username = Marcin
| description = {{{OED-desc|A Polish-American who is starting a new civilization -- from scratch -- in the Midwestern US. Marcin came to the U.S. from Poland as a child. He graduated with honors from Princeton and earned his PhD in fusion physics from the University of Wisconsin. Frustrated with the lack of relevance to pressing world issues in his education, he founded Open Source Ecology in 2003 in order to make closed-loop manufacturing a reality. He began development on the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) (see his 2011 TED Talk), an open source do-it-yourself (DIY) tool set of 50 different industrial machines necessary to create a small civilization with modern comforts.

His work has recently been recognized in his acceptance as a [[2012 TED Senior Fellow]], a [[2012 Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow]], and his TED Talk was named the top 6th in the [[Huffington Post Best of TED 2011]]. His goal is to create the open source economy - an economy that optimizes both production and distribution - while providing environmental regeneration and social justice. To this end, Marcin is currently building a team of global collaborators and on-site builders for his land-based facility - to take this from concept to reality. He believes that the open source economy is a prerequisite to autonomy that allows people to pursue mastery - consistent with a higher purpose.}}}
| team =
{{staff member
| name = Parker Bonnell
| username = Parker Bonnell
| position = {{{EA|Executive Assistant to the Executive Director}}}
| image = Parker_Headshot.jpg
}}
}}

== Global Village Construction Set - Machine Development ==
{{department
| image = 079.JPG
| head = Yoonseo Kang
| title = Machine Developer
| username = Yoonseo Kang
| description = The [[Global Village Construction Set|Global Village Construction Set]] is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that enables fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts. See [[Global_Village_Construction_Set#Key_Features|Key Features]]
| team =

{{staff member
| name = Tom Griffing
| username = Tom Griffing
| position = Machine Developer <br/>[[Power Cube|Power Cubes V, VI, VII]]
| image = Tom-Griffing---02.jpg
}}
}}

== Fundraising ==
{{department
| image = Aaron_Makaruk_-_cropped.jpg
| head = Aaron Makaruk
| title = Director of Development
| username = Aaron Makaruk
| description = The fundraising team develops revenue opportunities to further the mission of Open Source Ecology.
| team =
<span></span>

}}

== Agriculture ==
{{department
| image = OSE_Team_-_Gabrielle_Leblanc.JPG
| head = Gabrielle LeBlanc
| title = Farm Manager
| username = Gabrielle_LeBlanc
| description = The agriculture team manages agricultural operations at Factor e Farm.
| team =
}}

== Global Village Construction Set - Documentation ==
{{department
| image = OSE_Team_-_Tristan_Copley_Smith_-_2.JPG
| head = Tristan Copley Smith
| title = Video Communications Director
| username = Tristan
| description = The documentation team creates replication materials to assist independent builders of the Global Village Construction Set.
| team =

{{staff member
| name = Jacob Dalton
|username = Jacob Dalton
|position = Documentation Team Member
|image = Jacob_Screenshot.jpg
}}

{{staff member
| name = Ian Midgley
| username = Ian Midgley
| position = Video Communications Collaborator
| image = 10558759_l_e63be68383907914e60ea725df3df9a4.jpg
}}

}}

== Information Technology ==
{{department
| image = Ecruz.jpg
| head = Elifarley Cruz
| title = IT Manager
| username = Elifarley
| description = The IT team manages our web sites and supports online operations.
| team =

}}

== Volunteers ==
{{department
| image = Kavitha.jpg
| head = Kavitha Swaminathan
| title = Volunteer
| username = Kavitha
| description = Open Source Ecology is fortunate to attract volunteers from all over the world.
| team =
{{staff member
| name = Aidan Williamson
| username = Aidan Williamson
| position = Volunteer<br/>June - August, 2012
| image = OSE_Team_-_Aidan_Williamson.JPG
}}
{{staff member
| name = Graham Robertson
| username = Graham_Robertson
| position = Volunteer<br/>June - November, 2012
| image = OSE_-_Graham_Robertson_-_3.JPG
}}

}}

== Past Participants ==
{{department
| image = OSE_Team_-_Marshall_Hilton.JPG
| head = Marshall Hilton P.E.
| title = Production Director<br/>July - September, 2012
| username = Marshall Hilton
| description = These are previous contributors who lived and worked at Factor e Farm.
| team =
{{staff member
| name = Will Cleaver
| username = William
| position = {{{TGV|Transcendent Global Villager}}}
| image = William.jpg
}}
{{staff member
| name = Will Bratton
| username =
| position = Hardware Developer
| image = Will_Bratton.JPG
}}
{{staff member
| name = Jershonda Baker
| username = Shonda
| position = Volunteer
|image = Shonda_2.jpg
}}
}}

</div>
</div>
__NOTOC__

Template:Staff and contractors

2013-01-20T13:16:53Z

Peter Mortensen: /* Office of the Executive Director */ Grammar.

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</html>

<div style="width:90%; text-align:left; margin:auto;">
<div id="expand-wrapper">
<span id="expand-all"></span>
{{clear}}
{{About}}
== Office of the Executive Director ==
{{department
| image = marcinted.jpg
| head = Marcin Jakubowski, PhD
| title = {{{ED|Executive Director}}}
| username = Marcin
| description = {{{OED-desc|A Polish-American who is starting a new civilization -- from scratch -- in the Midwestern US. Marcin came to the U.S. from Poland as a child. He graduated with honors from Princeton and earned his PhD in fusion physics from the University of Wisconsin. Frustrated with the lack of relevance to pressing world issues in his education, he founded Open Source Ecology in 2003 in order to make closed-loop manufacturing a reality. He began development on the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) (see his 2011 TED Talk), an open source DIY tool set of 50 different industrial machines necessary to create a small civilization with modern comforts.

His work has recently been recognized in his acceptance as a [[2012 TED Senior Fellow]], a [[2012 Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow]], and his TED Talk was named the top 6th in the [[Huffington Post Best of TED 2011]]. His goal is to create the open source economy - an economy that optimizes both production and distribution - while providing environmental regeneration and social justice. To this end, Marcin is currently building a team of global collaborators and on-site builders for his land-based facility - to take this from concept to reality. He believes that the open source economy is a prerequisite to autonomy that allows people to pursue mastery - consistent with a higher purpose.}}}
| team =
{{staff member
| name = Parker Bonnell
| username = Parker Bonnell
| position = {{{EA|Executive Assistant to the Executive Director}}}
| image = Parker_Headshot.jpg
}}
}}

== Global Village Construction Set - Machine Development ==
{{department
| image = 079.JPG
| head = Yoonseo Kang
| title = Machine Developer
| username = Yoonseo Kang
| description = The [[Global Village Construction Set|Global Village Construction Set]] is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that enables fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts. See [[Global_Village_Construction_Set#Key_Features|Key Features]]
| team =

{{staff member
| name = Tom Griffing
| username = Tom Griffing
| position = Machine Developer <br/>[[Power Cube|Power Cubes V, VI, VII]]
| image = Tom-Griffing---02.jpg
}}
}}

== Fundraising ==
{{department
| image = Aaron_Makaruk_-_cropped.jpg
| head = Aaron Makaruk
| title = Director of Development
| username = Aaron Makaruk
| description = The fundraising team develops revenue opportunities to further the mission of Open Source Ecology.
| team =
<span></span>

}}

== Agriculture ==
{{department
| image = OSE_Team_-_Gabrielle_Leblanc.JPG
| head = Gabrielle LeBlanc
| title = Farm Manager
| username = Gabrielle_LeBlanc
| description = The agriculture team manages agricultural operations at Factor e Farm.
| team =
}}

== Global Village Construction Set - Documentation ==
{{department
| image = OSE_Team_-_Tristan_Copley_Smith_-_2.JPG
| head = Tristan Copley Smith
| title = Video Communications Director
| username = Tristan
| description = The documentation team creates replication materials to assist independent builders of the Global Village Construction Set.
| team =

{{staff member
| name = Jacob Dalton
|username = Jacob Dalton
|position = Documentation Team Member
|image = Jacob_Screenshot.jpg
}}

{{staff member
| name = Ian Midgley
| username = Ian Midgley
| position = Video Communications Collaborator
| image = 10558759_l_e63be68383907914e60ea725df3df9a4.jpg
}}

}}

== Information Technology ==
{{department
| image = Ecruz.jpg
| head = Elifarley Cruz
| title = IT Manager
| username = Elifarley
| description = The IT team manages our web sites and supports online operations.
| team =

}}

== Volunteers ==
{{department
| image = Kavitha.jpg
| head = Kavitha Swaminathan
| title = Volunteer
| username = Kavitha
| description = Open Source Ecology is fortunate to attract volunteers from all over the world.
| team =
{{staff member
| name = Aidan Williamson
| username = Aidan Williamson
| position = Volunteer<br/>June - August, 2012
| image = OSE_Team_-_Aidan_Williamson.JPG
}}
{{staff member
| name = Graham Robertson
| username = Graham_Robertson
| position = Volunteer<br/>June - November, 2012
| image = OSE_-_Graham_Robertson_-_3.JPG
}}

}}

== Past Participants ==
{{department
| image = OSE_Team_-_Marshall_Hilton.JPG
| head = Marshall Hilton P.E.
| title = Production Director<br/>July - September, 2012
| username = Marshall Hilton
| description = These are previous contributors who lived and worked at Factor e Farm.
| team =
{{staff member
| name = Will Cleaver
| username = William
| position = {{{TGV|Transcendent Global Villager}}}
| image = William.jpg
}}
{{staff member
| name = Will Bratton
| username =
| position = Hardware Developer
| image = Will_Bratton.JPG
}}
{{staff member
| name = Jershonda Baker
| username = Shonda
| position = Volunteer
|image = Shonda_2.jpg
}}
}}

</div>
</div>
__NOTOC__

User:Peter Mortensen

2013-01-20T13:13:29Z

Peter Mortensen: Expanded.

User:Peter Mortensen

2013-01-20T13:07:24Z

Peter Mortensen: Initial.

==Profile==

Profile: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mortense my Wikipedia user page].

Credentials: more than 5000 edits on the English Wikipedia.