Jack,

Here is the original company for the food stock barley machine (Fodder Solutions). It is an Australian company and now distributing in the U.S. The specs for the devices are on the website below:

http://www.foddersolutions.org/

Tim

Here’s some info on fodder growing. Many are starting to do this for their AGH American Guinea Hogs. So info is just flying around.

http://quartzridgeranch.wordpress.com/ Blog about his Barley fodder room he has quite the set up.

http://www.farmtek.com/ some have bought and use this and been very happy with it. Others are saying they will try to do it cheaper.

http://www.extension.org/pages/65651/barley-fodder-feeding-for-organic-dairies-webinar Washington state university extension “barley fodder feeding for organic dairies webinar

http://www.foddertech.com/nutrition/swine “feeding sprouts to pigs” they have / sell commercial mini set ups

http://www.caes.uga.edu/publications/pubDetail.cfm?pk_id=7838 The university of Georgia College of Agricultural & environmental sciences feeding sprouted wheat to cattle -C979 there is a PDF too.

I have not gone through all the info from the links. This was all just sent to me this very AM!

I have done sprouts in 5 gal buckets and worked fine. Of course they were not grown like a lot of these people are doing. I just waited till they were sprouted like and bean sprouts. Man am I going to be busy. Hope all the links worked fine. Doing all of this in a hurry. Enjoy

Hi! We run a heritage breed ranch in Northern California. We are 100% off-grid with a large solar array and a propane generator for back up during the winter months. We raise Oberhasli and Nigerian Dwarf Dairy goats, American Guinea Hogs, Pilgrim Geese, Jersey Giant and Delaware Chickens and Muscovy Ducks. We will be adding New Zealand Rabbits in a couple months for a more steady source of meat. This year we started growing our own fodder hydroponically. We grow enough to feed all our animals and only have to buy dog food for our LGDs, hay for goats and some chicken scratch. We were able to cut our feed bill to 1/3 of what we were spending. Now we are looking into expanding our ranch to include Finn Sheep for fiber and Dexters for milk and meat. I would love to help out getting people set up with their own hydroponic fodder system. Or if you would like to discuss the benefits of heritage breed animals I am always up for a chat! If you have any questions please feel free to contact me through my website. We also have a that shows our DIY setup.

Jack, after hearing your comment about the cattle feed ad on Craig’s List, I took a look, and burst out laughing when I saw that photo of the cow tucking into a couple of square feet of grass. I move 20 cows (plus 8 milk vealers) every day, and they significantly clear 1500-2000 square feet of pasture in that time. This grass is at least 3-4 feet tall, thick stemmed, and in some cases seeding (so a high protein source).

I think I would file this in the same category as you placed those “solar generators” a few episodes back. Do they produce energy? Yes. Is that energy in any way of the same scale as your requirements? No!

Hi,
Just wanted to make a quick comment about your segment on 40% of our food going to waste either through throwing it out or allowing it to rot on the vine. This reminded me of a business luncheon I attended years ago and the topic was sustainablity and building more energy efficient buildings. While there I obeserved the eating habits of the people around me and I was horribly shocked at how many plates were left half eaten. This was not your typical hamburger and fries meal either. This was filet mignon, baby aspargus etc. All I could think about was how all of that food was just going to end up in the garbage on the otherside – what a shame.

What was ironic is here we are at a seminar on sustainablity and I had never encountered a more wasteful group of people in my life. They pretend to care about energy efficiency then allow themselves to discard a meal that required an enourmous amount of energy input from the raising of cattle, feed, transportation cost, energy to cook, serve, clean and throw out. I hate to be judgemental, but I was wowed that these enlightened people couldn’t be bothered to finish a meal of filet mignon while listening to a seminar on why we need more sustainable systems.

This makes me think the world can never be saved. There are to many people (educated people) that just do the stupidest things.

Thanks for listening to me rant. BTW – I ate every last bit of food on my plate.

Hi,

Has anyone else read the Dr. Oz article in time magazine? Unless I’m mistaken but I think he just said you are a food snob if you care about the food you are putting in your body by purchasing organic rather than conventional. Dr. Oz never once mentioned GMO’s the impact of factory farms on our environment, farmers and animals. HE never talked about pesticedes, chemical fertilizers, subsidization of corn etc. The dangers of mercury in canned tuna. WTF. Has Dr Oz. gone mad or was he paid to write that drivel?

He wrote “Organic food is great, it’s just not very democratic.” HUH? When I shop for groceries it’s nearly impossible to find something that isn’t laced with high fructose corn syrup or soy. Healthy food choices are limited, how is the conventional food system democratic? It’s like asking “Would you like high fructose corn syrup in your tuna or in your honey?” How is that democratic? He actually thought supermarket high fructose honey was a better choice over organic honey. Basically no difference but for the price – really? Wow Dr OZ.

I could go on and on with rants over this article. If you haven’t read it, it takes 5 minutes. Gauranteed to make you pee your pants.

OK, I’m prepared to have some of that “wasted” food thrown my way :D, but regarding food and waste . . .

I recall hearing something once about food waste in this country. Some really astounding percentage of food is thrown away simply because it’s past the expiration date. And sadly, I’m not even talking about food waste on the commercial level. I’m talking about folks going through their fridge and cupboards and throwing away food that’s still perfectly fine because they’re uneducated about the safety of foods that are past their expiration date. I’ve run across this many times in my own life (with others), and it’s frustrating to see folks throwing away hundreds of dollars worth of food in a year because they didn’t use it before it magically turned toxic on its “expiration date”.

And regarding the fat people on scooters who’re getting food stamps, Jack hit VERY briefly on the most important issue there — education. I’ve seen this so many times in my own life. Poor people tend to pick foods that’ll make their money go the farthest — mainly grains and starchy veg — and there’s no way that people can stay healthy eating like that.

Back when my husband and I were as poor as it comes, we spent some months living on pizzas from Dominos that they couldn’t deliver for whatever reason. Because I got SSI (I’m blind) and he was making $5.50/hr delivering pizzas 20 hours a week, we didn’t meet criteria for food stamps, but by the time we paid the rent, car payment, and utilities, there was NOTHING left over. (For some real quick background, we lost tech jobs during the .com crash, and we’d been really irresponsible with the money that we had, so there was no cushion when our jobs disappeared, and nobody wanted to hire my husband because he was “over qualified” to run a cash register or shovel dog crap!)

Anyway, the food that was available at food pantries and the like was nothing but starch and sugar. And even last year, when my kids were getting weekend food from school, you just wouldn’t believe the sugar/starch content. It was unreal. Problem is, the government thinks that’s a healthy way to eat, that’s what gets provided to poor folks, and because of subsidies, it’s hard to convince people that they can get by on a completely different menu plan.

I believe that we all have to take responsibility for our circumstances, and as a fat person, I can honestly say that there are definitely barriers that can complicate things. I do think Jack’s spot on though about making “the system” more efficient. Problem is, it has to start by changing the way the government educates people about “healthy” food choices. They formulate all their programs to be “healthy”, and that just keeps people fat, sick, and dependent. Undoing 40+ years of bad policy when it comes to the foods we eat is no small task, but I think it’s at the root of it all.

It also wouldn’t hurt if folks would be grateful rather than choosy when it comes to food. I get so exhausted by the folks who throw away LOTS of food because “they don’t eat leftovers”. Makes me nuts!

The truth about Cobra. By law the most an employer can charge you is 102% of there cost. The reason it is so large of an increase is most company pay at least 50% of the cost maybe as high as 80%. So lets do an example. Lets say your insurance cost the company $1000 a month. You would likely be paying between $200 to $500 a month well working for the company. Then you loss your job then under Cobra your cost would be $1020.

PS that $20 is so the company can recoup the cost of handing your paper work.

Thanks
Robert

Re: IBC Aquaponics
This free interactive pdf is an excellent resource for all the basic aquaponics information you might need, and it includes dozens of examples of IBC systems with images, some with 3D sketchup drawings.

http://archive.org/details/TheIbcOfAquaponics

I lived in Brazil for a couple years. The water there isn’t “unreliable” in the sense you were thinking. The pressure in most areas is based on electric pumps. In order to save on utility costs, the water pressure is on rotation where any given neighborhood will only have pressure for a couple days per week. The tank both normalizes the pressure in your house and spreads the supply across the week.