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Overview of Humic Acid Manufacturing
Humic acid is produced through a series of steps that involve extracting it from natural sources. The primary sources include peat, lignite, and other organic materials.
Extraction Process
The manufacturing process typically follows these steps:
1 Source Material Preparation
The raw material, such as peat or lignite, is finely ground to increase its surface area.
2 Alkaline Extraction
The ground material is mixed with an alkaline solution, commonly sodium hydroxide (NaOH). This step dissolves the humic substances into the solution.
3 Filtration
The mixture is filtered to remove insoluble residues, leaving behind a solution rich in humic acid.
4 Acidification
The filtered solution is then acidified, usually with hydrochloric acid (HCl), which causes the humic acid to precipitate out of the solution.
5 Separation and Purification
The precipitated humic acid is separated from the liquid through filtration or centrifugation. It can then be further purified and dried into a powder form.
Key Points
Source Material - Peat, lignite, or other organic materials are used.
Grinding - Increases surface area for better extraction.
Alkaline Solution - Sodium hydroxide is commonly used for extraction.
Filtration - Removes insoluble residues from the mixture.
Acidification - Hydrochloric acid is used to precipitate humic acid.
Separation - Humic acid is separated and purified for use.
When breeding polled to polled over time you can expect 50% fertile polled offspring, 25% fertile horned offspring, and 25% non-breeding animals. When breeding polled to horned, you get 50% polled, 50% horned, and 100% healthy fertile offspring.
The Polled Intersex (PIS) locus has been the subject of considerable scientific study. Both the wild type and mutated sequences have been determined, and it is known that the polled trait is due to a large deletion in an area of goat chromosome 1q43. The mutation is homologous to one in a similar region in humans responsible for a condition called blepharophimosis-ptosis-epicanthus inversus syndrome. It is also now known that the mutations disrupt the transcription of at least 3 genes, including the FOXL2 gene, which encodes a transcription factor required for correct ovarian differentiation.
The polled trait in goats is an autosomal dominant trait in both sexes; in other words, one copy of the gene results in the polled phenotype. However, if a goat is homozygous for (having 2 copies of) the polled allele, the result is either a pseudohermaphrodite (in XX, or what would normally be female, goats) and generally a reduction in fertility in XY, or male goats. Homozygous males usually suffer from a condition called sperm granulomas at a young age, which will generally render them infertile. The absence of correct production of the protein encoded by FOXL2 makes it impossible for a female goat to properly develop a functional reproductive system, and results in various degrees of masculinization of the fetus during development. A goat that is homozygous for the PIS allele cannot produce transcripts from the FOXL2 gene, and cannot develop as a normal female.
The gene for a goat to be hornless, or polled, is actually dominant to the gene for having horns. Therefore, if a goat gets a gene for being polled from one parent, but a gene for horns from the other, the goat will be polled. However, that goat can pass on either gene, and if it and its mate both pass on the recessive horned gene, they can have horned kids. While hornless goats would seem ideal, they, unfortunately, come with a downside. Apparently, either directly connected to or very close to the same chromosome is a recessive gene that causes hermaphroditism. It is very interesting that this gene is (fortunately) recessive while the polled gene is dominant. However, if you breed two polled goats together, and they both pass on that polled gene with its tag-along intersex gene, that recessive gene will affect the kid₂. If the kid is male, they will appear unaffected physically. Often, the fertility of that male is affected, but there have been cases of homozygously polled male goats siring many kids. However, if the kid is genetically female, there is a high probability of that female being a hermaphrodite with masculine characteristics and sterile.
A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone - Walden, by Henry D. Thoreau.
Wealth there isn't what gets accumulated, it's what isn't needed. Wealth is the size of the free inner space. The fewer the ties, the fewer the automatic commitments. The fewer the possessions ruling the schedule the more that person has of herself, for herself.
Paul talks about a video he watched of a family harvesting their food, but a comment about only growing what they eat annoyed him as he felt they don't grow all the stuff they eat. He offers the example of a PBJ sandwich - you can't grow bread and jelly. You can grow wheat but getting from wheat to bread is hard work. It has to be threshed, winnowed and ground and even then you don't get bread like store bought flour; plus all the wheat has to be harvested when it's ripe, with a fairly narrow window.
When you grow what you eat, you start from what you get at the grocery store which can be a challenge.
Paul much prefers "eat what you grow" as a philosophy. For example learning how to eat the stuff the grows already with no effort. However he's frustrated by the huge majority of gardeners who are convinced it's all bullshit. As an example, today they spent 5 minutes getting sunchokes and onions to make soup.
Much of what's in the grocery store is selected for its shelf life, or for ease of machine processing, or for high profit so there's a limited choice.