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Mark

@MrRussell1

Trying not to let perfect get in the way of the good

Liverpool Katılım Eylül 2011
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Sam Knowlton
Sam Knowlton@samdknowlton·
Syntropic farming systems (SFS) achieve the same total productivity and income as conventional farming on only 10% of the land area. SFS have a land-equivalent ratios of 2.8-4.1, meaning that 1 hectare of SFS produces the same yield as 2.8-4.1 hectares of monoculture. 🧵
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Eco Instant - Solver of Problems
Coffee has been migrating to higher elevations here in Colombia for this reason as well. Generally, need soils to be healthier (break monoculture) and windbreaks also help. I've been using on-contour biomass bunds, they grow into biodiverse windbreaks over time. If you have Bocconia Frutescens locally, let it grow. The leaves and seed sacks can be boiled and strained into an anti-fungal applicant while ecosystem becomes more resilient.
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Sam Knowlton
Sam Knowlton@samdknowlton·
Coffee leaf rust is the most debilitating and widespread disease affecting coffee growers. It causes an estimated $1 billion in damage to coffee crops each year. Despite the significance and urgency, solutions are not well-known, and the ones that are well-known are not accessible to most farmers and tend to be ineffective in the long run. In response to the first rampant outbreak of rust in Latin America, rust-resistant coffee varieties were developed, promising farmers a future free of rust. Honduras aggressively adopted a rust-resistant variety called Lempira, replanting 42% of the country’s coffee lands with the lauded hybrid. Shortly thereafter, the supposed rust-resistant coffee trees were hit with an outbreak of rust. It turns out coffee leaf rust mutates rapidly and can evade genetic resistance and chemical controls. There are now 40 strains of rust and counting. Still, to this day, the majority of research, development, funding, attention, and credence goes towards the development of hybrids that will “ensure the future of coffee.” Coffee breeding is slow and expensive. It takes up to 15 years to produce a stable variety. Meanwhile, soil health, crop nutrition, and integrated management have all been overlooked, and often completely ignored. I’ve worked with several coffee farms to reduce coffee rust well below the threshold of economic damage by providing the trees with complete and timely nutrition, bringing the soil back to life, and using biological controls. In one case, rust incidence decreased from 20-40% down to 5% in a single season without the use of chemical fungicides. This isn’t to say that breeding is not important or needed – it is. However, it's not always going to be the most sustainable intervention, and a plant’s full genetic potential depends on adequate nutrition and healthy soil.
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Mark
Mark@MrRussell1·
@EcoInstant @samdknowlton You’re based in Colombia right? I ask because I work with coffee producers all across Peru and this year the leaf rust hit some places really hard, mainly farms around Moyobamba at lower altitude. Any help / resources I can pass on to those I work with is what I’m looking for rn.
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Mark@MrRussell1·
@samdknowlton What would you suggest for those who already have agroforestry systems and use predominately organic fertiliser that now is starting to see the rust crop up?
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Mark@MrRussell1·
Going through this with carbon credits as I have a belief that it can work and be net positive but in real terms it doesn’t mean anything and all a bit bullshit. It seems there are gains and positives that are made but at the cost of making the problem bigger.
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Mark@MrRussell1·
@tx_marcelo If anyone will I’m sure you’ll know!
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Marcelo Teixeira
Marcelo Teixeira@tx_marcelo·
@MrRussell1 Incentive to sell was much higher in July 22 as futures were above $2/lb and BZL currency was above 5 per dollar (today it is 4.79). But some people are questioning crop size projections, saying 23 is not that larger. Who knows
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Marcelo Teixeira
Marcelo Teixeira@tx_marcelo·
#Brazil #Coffee Another month, and another fall in Brazilian coffee exports. Trade ministry data shows 2.34 mln bags shipped in July vs 2.45 mln bags a year ago.
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Tim Spector MD (Prof)
Tim Spector MD (Prof)@timspector·
Trying to improve my plant diversity - who knows what these five are?
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Mark@MrRussell1·
I don’t watch that many movies but I did go the cinema for this and it’s my favourite of 2022
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Mark@MrRussell1·
an example - I learned about cropster yesterday, this is what coffee roasters use to get a consistent roast, I know I need to know this if I want to have a good chat with roasters about coffee. So I can use ChatGPT to learn about cropster and then publish content on it.
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Mark@MrRussell1·
so many ways to cut corners and just feed AI straight away without thinking, copy and paste results and publish. If AI takes your job then you're not good enough at it in the first place. It's just a tool, give it real context and it's helpful, rely on it and it's destructive.
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Mark@MrRussell1·
Seeing more and more of the AI for marketing and I think it's great. Inputs and what to feed it are the part that requires the thinking/skill (as this part requires the subject expertise) then let AI do it's thing, then review + edit what comes out. Going to test in 2023
Ben Tossell@bentossell

Everyone

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Mark@MrRussell1·
@roaringmeows Things that are opposites and compliment I.e dollar goes up and commodities go down. Why do they inverse/when did this start/ history of it and how it all links etc. Basically the relationships between certain assets / currencies etc and how it came to be.
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