/Nexus - 0218 - New Times Magazine/pages/0036/image.png)
Page Content (OCR)
36·NEXUS Ihad read the articles-Dan Carlson deveiJops Sonic Bloom, a product designed to increase plant growth by using art !Oscillating frequency of bird and cricket-like sounds along with an organic foliar spray. I had heard the amazing stories-Dan Carlson grows a purpfe passion plant one-tenth of a mile long using Sonie 8l00m and winas'up in the Guinness Book o/World Records. I even,tried Sonic Bloom in my own garden-my hot pepper plants, for instance, produced twice as much per plant tn thirty days' less ltime than the previous year. Yet, it wasn't until I spoke to oani that 11 understood the realm of possibilities for his sound-enhanced growth system. In shon, he has missions for Sonic Bloom that make landing on the Moon seem frivolous. In his own words, Dan Carlson has a "blueprint to end world hunger". According to Carlson, Sonic Bloom is simply "sound aiding in the absorption of an organic foliar nutrient". The theory behind his product is that planl~ open their surface pores or stomata when stimulated by certain sounds. During and after a serenade of pulsed chirps and whistles (for the plants}, mixed with various classical music selections (for the humans), the spray, consisting of 55 traee minerals, amino acids and seaweed, is sprayed on the plant's surface. However it is clear when talking to this world-renowned inventor that his focus is not on material success nor intemati'onal fame. He is more interested in proving the limil1ess abilities of Nature to support all existing life and heal the wounds of human error. "It's exactly what we need at this time. This planet wants to save itself."J Carlson's 'blueprint' begins with a solid foundation and expands into almost mind-boggling proportions. "We're definitely developing some techniques that can carry this from A to Z," says Carlson. "One is we've been working with a sprout company called Sprouts Extraordinaire out of Longmont, Colorado. The reality is we have found that sprouts, alfalfa in particular, increase in weight by 12000/0 in 72 hours. We lake a seed, soak it in Sonic Bloom, play the sound, and 72 hours Ilater we have an edible sprout. Our sprouts get almost a thirty-day shelf-life instead of thrce or four days." "We believe that within six ,to eight months we will produce a shipping container, 8 1/2 feet wide, 8 feet tall, 40 feet Ilong, totally self-contained. that will make sprouts. We believe that it will produce 5,000 pounds of sprouts per week, 260,OOG pounds of food per year. You can reuse the water, and if you divide 260,000 pounds by 1,200 you wil1 find that you will only need a few hundred pounds of seed to do this. Now think what ten of these containers could do. Ten of these would do 2.6 million tons of food and twenty would do almost six million tons of food. And one container would only cost $10,000." Carlson's plan doesn't end with feeding sprouts to the hungry. He understands that sprouts aren't the most nutritionally valuable crop available. He also acknowledges that sprouts would not be culturally acceptable in all parts of the world. His idea also includes the use of other staple crops sueh as mung beans. Once he is able to bring a reliable source of food 'to people, and show them how Ito produce the food themselves, his plan mushrooms into a bright new future for millions of people. "First, you go into the devastated areas with the sprouts to make people strong enough to then plant the vegetables and grains with open pollinated seeds (amaranth, quininoa, corns) with Sonic Bloom," eontiJlues Carlson. "Then they get to eat the vegetables and grains that are much more highly nutritious and have kept their stress-resistance. (Experiments done with Seeds of Change and Sonic Bloom in the Sudan, Kenya, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe showed survival in 130-l40°F temperatures and 2 1/2 inches of rain.) Then, you put in fruit trees and if you watch my video [see end of article for more infor mation] you see I'm getting fruit on first-year trees. Things like three-year-old Santa Rosa beauty plums are getting 6,000 pounds of fruit on a three-year-old tree. Lastly, the reason I'm living on a nut farm is we want to bring in nut trees. But, if you plant enough trees FEBRUARY· MARCH 1994