A copy of the email I just sent Cowboy Charcoal:
I just bought four bags of your Cowboy Charcoal. But not for barbecue. I bought it to make "terra preta".
What is terra preta you ask? Terra preta is Portuguese for dark earth. About ten per cent of the Amazon is very fertile (the terra preta) while the other 90% has some of the worst weathered soil on earth. It has been a scientific mystery. Why is a plot of terra preta some of the most fertile soil on earth, but less than ten feet from a terra preta plot, one finds some of the world's poorest soil? We now know why.
Scientists have recently discovered the secret to terra preta, a secret that was lost before the Spanish conquered the Amazon. The secret is charcoal.
Scientists believe the pre-Columbian aboriginal Amerindians used a slash and char technique rather than a slash and burn technique. Somehow, the slash and char technique was lost, probably due to the eradication of the people who knew the technique, by the spread of European diseases.
Scientists believe that the terra preta soils have been in existence now for a minimum of 500 years and many 2000 years or more. Some may be 6000 years old. The amazing thing is that terra preta can be farmed over and over without fertilizer and without depleting the soil. It is simply amazing what the addition of charcoal does to soil.
You can learn more about terra preta in this article of Nature:
Access to articles : Nature
If you cannot use this link because Nature requires you to have a subscription, (you might get to see it once or twice on a trial basis) you can read this article on terra preta instead:
Saving The Planet While Saving The Farm: How soil carbonization could save the planet while it makes farming profitable again
You can also look up terra preta on Wikipedia.
Whether you realize it or not, once people begin to understand the value of charcoal in their gardens, you will probably have a much bigger market in the gardening section of Lowe's than you will ever have in the barbecue section. And whether you realize it or not, you will have a much bigger impact on the planet.
Briquettes, which are coal based will not work. It takes real charcoal.
Some of the terra preta is six feet deep; on average it is about about a foot and a half , but by volume it is about 30% charcoal. That is a lot of charcoal for even a small garden. That is a huge market. My four bags barely made a dent in my 100 square foot plot. And we can't use slash and char techniques in the cities to make our own.
I have made my own charcoal. I know good charcoal when I see it and when I hear it -- it tinkles like wind chimes. Yours is very good charcoal. And I think it is perfect for terra preta.
Besides making an extremely fertile soil that does not need the continued addition of fertilizers, there is one more huge potential benefit to putting charcoal in the ground. It stores carbon for centuries. About 40% of the carbon in a piece of wood, if it is turned to charcoal, and put in the soil, will stay in the ground for centuries, probably for millenia before it breaks down. What that means, is that turning biomass to charcoal instead of burning it or letting it decompose, could be the first real solution to global warming.
Charcoaling biomass prevents as much as forty percent of the biomass turning into carbon dioxide; this in turn prevents the release of all that carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the cause of global warming. It is a win-win-win solution. Much better soil for crops, at a much lower cost (no cost of fertilizer after the initial start up), and reduces global warming CO2.
So please try your charcoal waste in your own gardens. Actually the waste is perfect, because the more pulverized the charcoal the better.
Maybe you can both educate the public by putting something about terra preta on your bags and at the same time market it for a dual purpose. Or put something about terra preta on your website or a link to terra preta.
I have as a personal goal to put one ton of charcoal in the ground before I die. If enough of us had that goal and achieved it, we might solve global warming and there might be bumper crops everywhere and maybe even the ability to use biomass for all our fuel needs.
While I would love to use your charcoal to barbecue with, it would be a waste to convert it to ash. Mine is in my garden where it will stay there for centuries. There will be many more bags to come. Maybe I will see something about terra preta on them soon.
David G. Mills
Memphis, Tn.
