Outreach 2011

This page is to record outreach efforts during the year 2011.

April 25, 2011 Bob Waldrop (user jpeaceokc) sent email about starting the microcombine research and development process to the following online discussion groups that I moderate: announce@justpeace.org (252 members), runningonempty2@yahoogroups.com (7500 members), cathworker@yahoogroups.com (184 members), localfoodcoops@yahoogroups.com, okfoodret@yahoogroups.com (350), okproducers@yahoogroups.com (44). peakoilinterfaith@yahoogroups.com (125). I also posted information at the following groups that I participate in but do not moderate: COMFOOD (Community food security, around 5K members), SANET (Sustainable Ag discussion group, about 900 subscribers), permaculture at ibiblio, 900 subscribers iirc, austin-permaculture at yahoogroups.

While the email was slightly customized depending on the group, here is the basic template:

Here is a short video about an intriguing project that is developing do-it-yourself local scale versions of 50 essential machines, many of which are food and agriculture-oriented. http://blog.opensourceecology.org/2011/04/explosion-after-the-online-ted-talk/

And a short written intro: http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Crash_Course

Here is a diagram of the 50 machines organized by primary purpose. They call this the Global Village Construction Set. http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Global_Village_Construction_Set

As y’all know, I was instrumental in getting the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, America’s first coop to only sell locally produced food and non-food items, organized. From the beginning of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, one of the critical problems has been harvesting machinery. Conventional combines cost more than a hundred thousand dollars, and that is an expense that isn’t feasible for small producers. Small acreages are also not attractive to custom combiners, who do work for other farmers, especially if it is a crop that may require adjustments to the machine (like dried beans). I have wished for a long time for a small scale combine that would be affordable. The Open Farm Tech people think that once developed, a micro-combine could be built by a farmer with reasonable farm skills for less than a thousand US dollars. So I have agreed to jump start the research and devlopment program for a microcombine, and I invite all y’all to help.

Please take a look at the microcombine project page at http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Agricultural_Microcombine and contribute your ideas and expertise. And don’t be shy, if you have something to say on the subject, say it, whether it be large or small. To contribute you need to register as a user of the wiki, which is reasonably simple to do. All ideas are welcome.

Here is the “Get involved” page. http://openfarmtech.org/wiki/Get_Involved

And please make a financial donation, there is a link on the microcombine page to the donate page.

Please pass this news on to others.

Bob Waldrop, Romero Catholic Worker House, Oklahoma City www.justpeace.org www.bobwaldrop.net (there is a post here about this project)