Journal of the New Alchemists 4 Table of Contents NEW ALCHEMY Recent Activities - Nancy jack Todd 7 Births and Deaths 8 Opening the Arks- Nancy jack Todd 10 New Alchemy- Costa Rica- Bill McLarney 17 Herb Tea Project- Bill McLarney 23 25 Technology Appropriate to Gandoca, Costa Rica - Earle Barnhart Book Reviews -Bill McLarney 29 The Cook Book of the New Alchemists 33 The Trash Fish Cook Book Rides Again 40 ENERGY 44 LAND AND ITS USE Intensive Vegetable Production - Hilde Main gay 47 Experimenting with Growing Beans - Susan Ervin 56 The Effects of Mulching with "Seaweed" and Azolla on Lettuce Productivity- Susan Ervin 58 Fertile Fish Pond Water Irrigation Trials -Susan Ervin 59 AQUACULTURE The Saga of the Solar-Algae Ponds - Ron Zweig 63 Three Experiments with Semi-enclosed Fish Culture Systems- Ron Zweig 1. The Miniature Ark 69 2. The Six-Pack Pond and the Midge Pond 72 3. The Dome Pond 73 Cage Culture- William 0. McLarney 77 BIOSHELTERS Tomorrow is Our Permanent Address- john Todd 85 Bioshelters as Organisms -Ron Zweig 107 Bioshelter Primer - Earle Barnhart 114 The Six-Pack: A Backyard Solar Greenhouse - Laura Engstrom 125 EXPLORATIONS Return to the Feminist Principle -Evelyn Ames 131 Morningsong- Dawnine Martinez 13 7 Political Prospects, Cultural Choices, Anthropological Horizons- Richard Falk 138 For E. F. Schumacher Photo by Hilde Maingay The rule of no realm is mine, but all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task if anything passes through this ni ght that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I too am a steward. Did you not know? Gandalf, The Return of the King - ]. R. R. Tolkien We learned of E. F. Schumacher's death just as this Journal was in its final phase of printing. We share with everyone in our small but beautiful movement a sense of personal and collective Joss. It has sometimes seemed to me that in our struggle we are not unlike Tolkien's ragged and assorted fellowship and, if that is so, then Fritz was our wise and gentle wizard. His leadership and guidance, the directness of his thinking will not easily be replaced. Dedicating our Journal to his memory is part of a larger and renewed dedication to all worthy things that were his care. The interim between the publication of this and the previous Journal has been one of transition for New Alchemy. In the outside world, the severe winter of 1976/77 with resultant fuel shortages gave greater numbers of people a more intimate acquaintance with the reality of their dependence on finite resources than they had been previously inclined to recognize. Those who, like ourselves, had been sounding the knell of dwindling resources began to sound slightly less like voices crying in the wilderness. In public life, the heightened respectability of alternatives was personified by the attendance of Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier Alec Campbell at the official opening of the Prince Edward Island Ark in September, 1976. In the United States as we go to press, President Carter's Energy Policy is still news and still controversial. While absolutely opposed to his advocation of nuclear power, we are encouraged by his strong statements in favor of a drastic change in life style and his urging of serious efforts in conservation. Apart from a less limited or less esoteric public re­ ception, the year has been a turning point within New Alchemy as well. Although we have come to articulate it more succinctly with time, the underlying purpose of New Alchemy has always been the search for an answer to a very basic question - one we now refer to as the biological analogue. What the question asks is, "Are there biologically and ecologically viable alter­ natives to the capital-intensive, highly industrialized methods and technologies by which human popula­ tions currently sustain themselves?" Can we find ways in which, in Gary Snyder's often quoted phrase, we may live lightly on the earth? This was and is, when we put aside all the complications of being and running an Institute, what we wanted to know. We were optimistic, but we were not certain. We hoped, by turning to natural models for guidance, by becoming increasingly attuned to the lessons of biology and natural systems, that we might, like karma yogis, gain in understanding through our work. This year, with the high productivity of the solar algae ponds and the unexpectedly successful weathering of the winter by the bioshelters, our question is slowly beginning to be answered in the affirmative - to be an affirmation. The hard path - the path of ongoing industrial ex­ pansion, of exploitation of landscapes and people and of nuclear power is not the exclusive or even most desirable one. We are beginning to accumulate knowl­ edge that broadens our options for the future and offers the opportunity of a choice. If our early, modest successes are regarded as prototypes, as the the model Ts and biplanes of the possible, then the options open to us widen markedly. This is all the more so in view of the emerging information of tran­ sitional technologies advocated by Amory Lovins in his article entitled "The Road Not Taken "in the Fall, 1976, issue of "Foreign Affairs. " Such strategies could ease the changeover to a culture based on the use of renewable resources, appropriate technologies, and on an attitude of stewardship toward the natural world. It is unlikely that it is too late for us to opt for such a course, should we elect to do so. Should we be wise enough - or lucky enough - to choose this path, we should find ourselves, to quote Amory Lovins quoting Pogo, "confronted with insurmountable opportunities. " ew emy by Hilde Maingay Photo by Hilde Maingay Also in this section is the realization of at least tf \ beginnings of a project that has been percolating among us for a long time. As a rather earthy, basic I of people, we spend quite a bit of time working wit. and thinking about food. We are, as Eeyore was of I tail, "f ond of it"- not that in itself that is particuh ly worthy of note. But on the occasional crowded Farm Saturday, as we set out our usual rice and bea kale soups, garden salads and homemade yogurt, tht is the odd remark or snigger about the peculiar fooc Mutters of weird! - and so on. Peculiar or otherwis. we have fairly strong ideas on the subject of food. V favor using things that are seasonal or readily availm in one's local area and avoid as much as possible expensive or prepared foods. The general drift of OL common modus operandi can be found in the Cook Book of the New Alchemists in this section. With the publication of this issue, the New Alchemy section of the Journal has had to extend itself to cover events, not only at the center on Cape Cod, but on Prince Edward Island and in Costa Rica as well. Be­ cause the opening of the Arks, both on the Cape and on the Island, were landmark occasions of the past year, the stories of each are related. From Costa Rica, Bill McLarney gives the first detailed account of the establishment of NAISA and of the work in progress there. His article on the Herb Tea Project is concerned with New Alchemy's first attempt to integrate some of our ideas with the needs of an indigenous com­ munity. Earle Barnhart spent some time in Costa Rica with Bill and Susan Ervin in 1976 and, in his capacity as New Alchemy's briccoleur at large, devised some much needed strategies and tools to further the work there. His sketches and descriptions are in the article, 'Technology Appropriate to the Gandoca Region of Costa Rica." Photo by Joan Pearlm an Photo by Hilde Maingay In this section, in preceding Journals, there have or to be led through the other structures without been descriptions of some of the day-to-day and sacrificing the plants. In our deliberations before the seasonal aspects of the activities that revolve around opening of the '76 season, we hit upon the tactic of the center on Cape Cod. Over the past year, our work giving workshops. has continued much as before, centering on food­ To date we are pleased with this solution and plan growing and fish-raising, windmills and bioshelters, to continue with it. We feel it gives people a general and on the administration, correspondence, data col­ background and then frees them to pursue particular lecting and recording that the work with living systems, interests in greater depth and to have more questions which is really the primary focus, engenders. The most answered than would be possible in a single extended recent developments in these areas are reported through­ talk. We do ask those planning to come to arrive by out this issue. In many ways, our work has remained noon. At this time, there is a general introduction on basically unchanged, with active outside summers, the background, paradigm and ideas underlying New only now we have far more visitors. With Alchemy's work. After this, everyone revives with gradual transitions through spring and fall, the lunch. We ask our visitors to bring food with them­ winters are more withdrawn. The physical work is largely a bit more than they are likely to eat themselves confined to the bioshelters and we spend much of our and, preferably, something like bread or fruit or time writing, reporting, assessing data, questioning and cheese that is easily shared.