It is argued by some more qualified than
myself that because carbon is locked into the straw during its growth, that
carbon is effectively ?banked? thereby offsetting the carbon in the other
building materials so that a strawbale building can have a zero or even negative carbon rating. This line of reasoning seems to me to be more valid than the "offsets" used to cancel out our extravagancies with token gestures. Another plus for SB: Research is now showing that because farmers are not
allowed to burn off straw, and have to plough
it back into the soil, this is creating a problem with soil fertility inasmuch
as straw needs fungal action for it to decompose and there is now an excess of
fungi building up in the soil, year by year, seriously depleting its? fertility.
Brian www.strawbalehouse.co.uk
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