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Gbiota box story
The Gbiota box story
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Technology should benefit the community
Go to any supermarket and you can buy a lettuce or cabbage for a couple of bucks. It is truly incredible that they can produce, transport and put these on the shelves so cheaply - this is possible because of a whole range of innovative technologies from chemicals, automation and genetics.
I am a great believer in technology, over hundreds of thousand of years it has enabled us humans to survive and become the dominant creature on our planet.
But I believe technology must work for the benefit of the community and not just make a few people very rich.
I was a pioneer in the computer revolution and for my pioneering work on computer aided engineering I was selected by the Institute of Engineers as one of Australia's top one hundred innovators, but when I look at the food industry I see that innovation is focused on profits and not the health of the community.
Food that looks perfect but lacks the essentials
The products may look amazing, clean and perfectly shaped as though they had been made in a factory but what about the nutrient value? Modern food is lacking the mineral which are essential for a complex creature like us humans but which the much simpler plants don’t need, or only in small amounts. (See Technology)
But what is seriously lacking in modern food are the microbiology and fibre needed for a healthy gut.
I see very sophisticated data on how much carbohydrate, sugars, fats, minerals and vitamins we should be eating. I can look up and see how many micro-grams of selenium, zinc and magnesium we should be eating on an average day.
We are very strong on the bio-chemistry but what about our micro-biology?
Our gut brain
But the point is that over hundreds of thousands of years we have evolved a gut brain that automatically looks after us, without us even thinking about it - and it does it much better than weighing micro grams of minerals.
Our gut brain consists of trillions of cells which communicate with each other and send out signals saying we need to eat more of this or that or simply stop eating as we are satisfied.
It automatically monitors our bodies so it knows if we have had a couch day and tells us to reduce the amount of food, if we have been out in the hot sun it knows we need some extra salts and if we have been on a long hike we need to get the sugar levels up. Our gut brain is a very clever organ.
I spend many years of my life writing computer code, I understand how code works but I have absolutely no idea how the code works in our guts - and neither does anybody else. All we can do is marvel how well it works.
Unfortunately our modern food system does not look after our gut brain so we suffer many diseases related to poor diet but instead of fixing our gut brain we spend all this time and energy on creating an artificial process to control our diet.
Principles of Gbiota beds
That is why I developed Gbiota beds - to feed our gut brain. These large in ground beds work well and are well suited to commercial use by competent growers - but they do require some skill and understanding to make them work.
The microbes in the soil enter the plants which we eat so they become natural pre and pro biotics but we need to feed and water the microbes. The beneficial microbes need the soil moist, but not too wet, when they will out breed any harmful microbes. If the soil is too wet these harmful microbes will predominate - a process of ecological balance.
The key to maintaining that Goldilocks moisture level, not to wet not too dry, just right is the leaky dam and the partial flood and drain system. Water is pumped into a compost tube where it absorb the nutrients, flows down to the base of the bed where is spreads and starts wicking upwards to wet the root zone - just like in the wicking beds I pioneered some twenty five years ago.
But in a Wicking bed the water just stays in the base of the bed until it gets used up, this stagnant water can lead to the growth of the harmful microbes - in other words they become pongy. But in the Gbiota bed the water slowly leaks out through the leaky dam so there is never any stagnant water.
In a full sized commercial Gbiota bed water is pumped, for just a few minutes, several times a day, by a pump and timer system.
This is a very effective system well suited for commercial growers who obviously need a market for Gbiota food.
There was a clear need for a simpler system where people, may be just living in a flat, could have fresh Gbiota food growing in their own home.
This led me to develop the Gbiota box
The Gbiota box system
So I have now developed the Gbiota box so anyone can grow their own Gbiota food - even if they live in a flat and have no growing skills.
I am setting up a network of local suppliers who can manufacture and supply these Gbiota boxes so people can buy one or more boxes directly and have fresh Gbiota gut food growing at home.
Manufacturing these Gbiota boxes would be a very nice home business for the handyman who would be providing a service to their local community.
How to make these Gbiota boxes is described elsewhere on this web in the various articles and videos but now I want to describe how the user, may be a young mum who wants her kids to have a healthy gut can manage the Gbiota boxes she buys from the local supplier.
On Arrival
They come with plants already growing ready to be harvested. The most effective way is to use tipping where the tips of the plants are harvested where they can be made into green smoothies, wraps, sandwiches or whatever way suits. (see tipping video).
The micro farm
Anyone looking at a Gbiota box can be forgiven for thinking this is just for growing fruit and vegetables - and of course they are partially right. But the real point is to breed the beneficial micro biology for our gut and this is really like managing a dairy farm except that the animals are a lot smaller than normal.
But like any farm the animals have to be fed and watered - even if they are a bit on the small size.
The supplier of the box will have already loaded the box with these tiny animals and an initial burst of food and water. The new owner has the job of feeding and watering the animals - something a young mum would be very familiar with.
Let us start with water - Goldilocks moisture - not too wet and not too dry.
Moisture
The bed is watered by simply trickling water into the compost tube. A compost tube is simply a tube in the soil made from compost, as the water soaks through the compost it picks up nutrients from the compost to feed the microbes and the plants.
Some people prefer to have a proper pipe to hold the compost, this is a nice clean way of doing it, but I prefer to have a simple hole filled with compost - technically better but a bit messier - not a problem for a young mum used to changing nappies.
The water, or more correctly the compost tea trickles down to the base of the bed where it will spread over the base and start to wick upwards from the base.
This is exactly the way that the millions of Wicking Beds around the world work.
But the Gbiota box has a swivel drain.
When the pipe is pointing upwards the box act just like a conventional wicking bed. Water (or compost tea) is stored internally in the box. But it is stagnant and will encourage the growth of harmful micro- biota if left.
When it is pointed downwards it acts like a true Gbiota bed with the partial flood and drain system so the soil is never wet for any length of time so the soil is kept moist which encourages the beneficial micro biota. But it does need topping up with water more often.
The boxes are made with a soil dam so the box can be used with the drain pipe permanently pointed downwards so it is acting as a full blown Gbiota bed. This does mean that the bed may need to be watered every day (depending on weather).
The box must be raised with a container to catch the water. From a technical view point this is the best way of operating a Gbiota box but in the absence of an automatic pump and timer it does mean watering daily.
But, despair not, the box can be used as a hybrid Wicking and Gbiota box.
Before watering simply twist the drain pipe upwards when the box will become a conventional Wicking box. Trickle the water in until there is water in the sight tube (note it may take a bit of time for the water to trickle through - it is a good idea to measure out about half a litre of water and add this shot at a time with a bit of a wait in between, to see if the water has reached the sight tube.
The box can be left in Wicking Bed mode for a few days, then the drain pipe swivelled to point downwards when if becomes a Gbiota box.
While it is possible to go up a week in Wicking Box mode I would recommend draining at least twice a week and allowing a day between rotating the drain tube and refilling.
But the microbes are hungry little beasts and we have to feed them.
Feeding the microbes
The microbes must be fed. Fortunately there favourite food is kitchen waste which can be recycled back into healthy food. They, and particularly us, will need some additional minerals but the micro-grams needed can be added at minimal cost.
When the beds are made the lower layers are filled with compost but this will get consumed and will need replacing on a regular basis.
Soil develops a structure so we do not want to be remaking the bed but we must add the organic waste, preferably to the base of the bed where the conditions are best for composting.
We do this by refilling and remaking the compost tube. We can put a new compost tube in different places in the box to allow the organic waste in the previous tube to fully decompose.
It is best to chop up the compost, typically food waste, but making into a smoothie in a blender means the worms, already in the bed when it was supplied, will be better able to digest the waste.
The material in the compost tube should be soft so you can refresh the tube pushing a bottle with a tapered top to rework the tube.
Then when the tube is opened flip the bottle and push the square base to make a nice hole.
If you have made a compost smoothie you can fill the tube with this compost smoothie then push the bottle back into the tube where it will act like a piston and help distribute the compost below the surface over the rest of the bed.
Compost tube ready to go using the bottle method.
If all that sounds too complicated just dig a new hole and fill with food scraps and just leave it to the worms which are already in the bed when you bought it.
The bottle method is a nice easy way of making compost tubes but if the soil is hard then it is back to the old fashioned way of digging a new hole and spreading the soil around the bed. I don’t want do hurt the worms and am not squeamish so I just dig the new hole by hand or using a trowel, or better still a piece of pipe, so I can make the new hole without hurting the worms.
We also recommend covering the compost tube with some Biomin which contains a broad spectrum of minerals and some fresh biology.
You don’t need very much, your supplier may be able to provide 1 Kg packs which will last one bed about three months. (About a tea spoon per day) If you look at supplement jars in the chemist you will see they only contain micro grams so feeding Biomin to the plants is a very cheap way of getting minerals into your diet
Swap or reseed
Suppliers may offer a change over plan where you simply return the box to them in exchange of a new box with the plants already ready for harvesting or you can reseed yourself.
Before reseeding the bed - the box will need topping up with compost which is fuel for the microbes. This should placed a the bottom of the box which is done by making a new compost tube by filled with chopped compost (or a compost gel from the blender).
Seeding is done in the normal way but I recommend covering the seed with a layer of Biomin and fine soil or Vermicast and gently watering until the plants have put down their roots.
Opportunity
Opportunity
What’s for dinner mum?
What one family has for dinner will not change the world - but what a few billion families have for dinner will.
We all have to eat and the way we are currently growing our food is slowly but inevitably destroying our planet’s ability to grow the food we need. We are destroying our soils and aquifers on which our lives depend and making ourselves sick in the process.
Many of our modern diseases, like diabetes, heart attacks, obesity etc., are directly linked to a poor diet and while no one is saying that a poor diet caused Covid, the fact is that the majority of the people who died from Covid were eating a poor diet. Diet is certainly an enabling factor in many modern health issues.
Profits before the community
It is simply a classic case of putting short term profits for a few ahead of the long-term benefits of the community as a whole.
The food industry is the world’s largest industry and fits this pattern - but how do we create the needed change to a sustainable and healthy food system so our grand kids and their grand kids will be eating healthy, nourishing and tasty food?
Not just technology
For many years I thought this was just a question of developing the right technology, where our food was produced in a fully sustainable way. Developing this technology has been my obsession for many years and that turns out to be the easy bit.
All food is based on carbon, fortunately there is plenty of carbon dioxide in the air and sunlight to convert it into food, but it does need water and some critical minerals for photosynthesis to work.
We need a range of minerals for our health, these were generally available in virgin soils but are becoming depleted with modern agriculture. Fortunately there is a virtually inexhaustible supply in volcanic rocks, we just need the micro biology in the soil to release the minerals and we also need water which is recyclable.
We have the technology we need to create a fully recyclable health food system - that is not the problem - the real problem is: ‘how do we design the needed change to a recyclable system and make them happen?’
There are many people already committed to this change seen through a growing trend to regenerative farming, organics and permaculture but we are still lacking key ingredients.
Aspirations and result
It is fine to have aspirations for a better world but what matters in the end is the final results. To achieve this better world we have to overcome two critical problems.
Manipulation of the truth
The first is manipulation of the truth. Reading Noami Oreskes seminal book Merchant of Doubt you will appreciate just how insidious the manipulation of data has become from tobacco, acid rain, the ozone layer and global warming where the true facts have been massaged to either prevent or delay action on critical issues.
Nowhere is this more true than in food and supplements. Getting this message out to the wider public is critical in creating a sustainable and healthy food supply.
The power of the wallet
The second problem to overcome is creating an economically viable system. It is no good having the healthiest food in all the world if only the rich can afford to buy it. Healthy food needs to be affordable.
Also growers have utes that need fixing, kids who want money for school outings and husbands and wives that need a beer or a glass of wine. The system must be economic for the growers and not just rely on a passion for the land.
To resolve these critical problem, whether we like it or not, we must look on future food generation food as a business.
Here are the basics of the business plan.
What we do
Gbiota™ (trade mark of Cohort International Pty) develops innovative technology for growing plants to improve health particularly gut biota. (Hence the name Gbiota)
We do not manufacture or sell any physical products. Our business is purely intellectual property.
Our technology centres on improving gut health by breeding beneficial biology in organic waste, which then enter the roots of the plants, to act as pre and pro biotics which then enhance the gut brain.
Benefits of our technology
The benefits of our technology are:
- controls the appetite so people don't over eat and become obese
- produces the chemicals to replace body parts as they wear
- enhances the immune system
- organics and food waste are converting a waste product into food and as a bye product reduce green house gases.
Our users
We provide the technology free of charge to home growers, in the belief that this creates a user base who will help to spread the information about the technology and provide credibility.
We live in an age lacking confidence in the sources of power - big business and even some of our Governments. People now rely much more on real people they know and trust. They may be not the ideal source of complex technical information but at least they are trustworthy, not manipulating the truth for profit.
Running an operation like this costs money, which has come from me and my past success as an early pioneer in computer aided engineering (see My Story) but this project needs to continue and grow long after I am not here so it needs a source of revenue.
So our plan is to license the technology - for a reasonable and equitable fee - making it available to commercial growers as the direct source of our revenue.
Promotional strategy
Our immediate customer base are commercial growers who are often small farmers who do not undertake significant generic market development themselves.
This means an important part of out strategy is to create a market for these growers - which is otherwise known as ‘umbrella marketing’.
The target customers are of this marketing are the section of the community that are sensitive to the ‘eating healthy food’ concept. There are three key groups:
1) Mothers with young children. The baby’s gut biology comes initially from their mother before and particularly during birth. Then from breast feeding and later from the food supplied by their mother. Currently there is no vaccine available for kids who are susceptible to the delta virus.
2) Older people who generally have a weakened immune system.
3) People concerned about the effect of human activity on our planet particularly the destruction of our soils and global warming which has a direct effect on our food production.
While none of these groups are our direct customers we need to promote to them to create a market for our direct customers - the local farmers and suppliers. Our promotional efforts have will be focused on these three groups plus the local farmers.
The Gbiota box
This is a special project initiated by the delta virus. It enables people in lock down to grow their own food, recycling their kitchen waste to grow fresh food with all the associated health benefits, at a minimal cost.
While this project may have been initiated by the spread of the delta virus it is thought that there are many people who would like to grow their own food but are not sure how to go about this. The Gbiota box would be prepared by local suppliers, (may be just people working from home in the lock down) already seeded with plants, ready to harvest.
This is believed to be a significant market in its own right but would help to develop the Gbiota concept amongst the commercial grower market.
Problems in marketing
Our promotional activity is dominated by our web sites and the social media activity of our supporters. Honest influencers really do influence.
The technology of growing plants to enhance gut biota is complex and not particularly appealing (it is all about good and bad bugs and a bit yukky to some).
This means our web sites look complex, which may be an initial deterrence. However, once people understand what we are trying to do they become quite dedicate followers and are happy to read long and detailed technical articles.
The web is now saturated with promotions for health products often with little technical backing but very sophisticated marketing and presentation.
This has led to a great deal of cynicism within the public who are now quite resistant to what they perceive as high pressure and unethical advertising.
Our big opportunity
We live in an age of cynicism. People are fed up with being lied to by mega global corporations with neo-monopoly power, by Governments who pay more attention to these economic collossus than the needs of their people.
They want to live in a society with equity and compassion, not to be dominated by greed.
However, for the Gbiota movement to provide value, it must survive as an economic entity.
Above all Gbiota is a social movement to make the world a better (or at least habitable) place for our grand kids and their grand kids, to enjoy a life that their ancestors (that's us) have struggled to create.
That is a powerful motivator.
Opportunity knocks
This is a great opportunity to built a multi national organisation which is has that magic combination of benefiting humanity while being profitable.
If I were half my age I would be grabbing at this chance but now I have to look for other people to take this to fruition. If that is you please contact me here.
Colin Austin 13 Sep 2021
Introduction to Gbiota
The health and even the future of our species depends on the micro-biota in the soil and in our guts.
Gbiota™ - feed our gut brain
It is just a fact that the Hudza tribes in Tansania, the Yanomami tribe in the Amazon and people eating wild food and people living in the various blue zones have a far healthier gut biome than people eating a modern western diet.
They may be all different but they have two things in common
- their food is based on how plants and soil have evolved over millions of years by the sustainable recycling of organic waste
- their societies are based on prioritising the needs of the community.
The Gbiota project follows these two leads. Our technology is based on studying how biology, soil and plants have evolved together over millions of years.
We cannot all go and live in the Amazon but we can study what they eat and how it is grown. It is simple - they eat a wide variety of plants grown in moist forest litter. This breeds a healthy soil biology which enters the plants that they eat. A spinach leaf grown in soil with an active biology will have over eight hundred separate species of micro biology.
I developed the Gbiota™ growing system based on this natural process using recycled organic waste to breed the beneficial biology. There are plenty of local growers who want to grow using regenerative agriculture. You just need to form a local buying group and I can provide all the technology and advice on how they can set up their Gbiota beds.
This is not a project run by big business for profit - we don’t spend any money on advertising - we just rely on people sharing this information, for real with friends or by social media.
If you share our views please study the key post indicated then contact me here.
The importance of gut biology
Gut Micro-biology is essential for our health. There are trillions of cells made up from thousands of species. But this is much more than trillions of dumb cells - they communicate with each other and our head brain to form an intelligent control system to manage our bodies to do some very important jobs.
Our gut brain does three very important jobs,
- it control our appetite so we have enough food without overeating and getting fat and sick
- it manufactures the complex chemicals we need to replace our body parts as they age
- it hosts much of our immune system so protect us from pandemics
Modern soils in chemical industrial agriculture lack this essential biology and nutrients. Many of the chemicals used are claimed not to harm us but they certainly harm the soil biology on which our lives and future generations depend.
Gbiota food provide this essential biology and nutrients missing in our modern food.
Gbiota beds
 Gbiota beds were developed specifically to grow plants to feed our gut brain (Gbiota™). Beneficial biology is breed in a blend of soil, organic waste, manure, mineral and inoculants.
The biology enters the plants via the root system so they act as pre and pro biotics feeding our guts.
Moisture levels are controlled by a partial flood and drain system to ensure the beneficial biology dominates.
It is a totally sustainable growing system.
Licensed growers
Growers are licensed to use this technology and sell through the normal channels, on line, farmers markets or conventional retail. Growers are expected to follow protocols so the customer can buy with confidence in the way the plants have been grown. This is indicated by the Gbiota symbol.
And we want to see the technology used for the benefit of the community, rather than make a few mega corporation and individuals excessively rich.
This is a social movement driven by dedicated individuals. We put the needs of today’s community, our grand kids and their grand kids first. If you share our views join us.
It is just not possible to explain a complex topic like food, health and gut biology in a three word slogan so I have now organised this web like a book with a preface (home page), overview, introduction (index) and a series of posts which follow on from each others like chapters in a book.
If you are not familiar with my background it is worth reading ‘My Story’ first.
Next Read overview
Or skip to index which leads to more detailed posts
Food and health is a complex business, dont believe the ubiquitous manipulatives adds trying to sell you pills or magic potions, they just want your money. Just eat good food, it works better and is much cheaper.
If you share our views please study the key posts as indicated then contact me here. This is a community project which requires cooperation from people who see the need for change for our health and future generations.
I would appreciate any comments or suggestions on how to make the message clearer and more readable.
Letter to Minister
Forward Opportunity
Backward gbiota-boxes
Gbiota boxes
Our Gut Biota
The battle of the bugs
Growing plants as natural pre and pro biotics to strengthening our gut and immune system is smart in the middle of a pandemic.
Why Gbiota beds
The purpose of GBiota beds is to breed beneficial biology in the soil. This biology enters the plants growing in the soil so when we eat the plants they act as natural pre and pro biotics as well us providing valuable nutrients but the key point of Gbiota beds is to provide us with the beneficial biology.
Gbiota boxes
Gbiota boxes work on exactly the same principles as commercial Gbiota beds but enable anyone, even if living in an apartment, to grow their own Gbiota food themselves.
They are typically purchased from a local supplier with plants already growing ready for harvesting. The local supplier may offer a service to reseed and replant the box so no skills are needed so everyone has access to healthy fresh plants.
Ecological balance
The world is full of microscopic organisms, many want to breed in and on us - some some good some bad. The beneficial biology - given the right conditions - will out breed and control harmful biology in a system of ecological balance.
We have evolved with this micro-biology which now forms an essential part of our gut - trillion of cells made up from thousands of species. But this is much more than trillions of dumb cells - they communicate with each other to form our gut brain forming an intelligent control system which
- controls our appetite so we have enough energy but don’t overeat
- manufactures the complex chemicals needed to replace our body parts as they age
- hosts much of our immune system so protect us from pandemics
We were smart and won
Our ancient ancestors survived and flourished with just the protection of their inbuilt immune system and we became the dominant creature on earth. We know by studying modern hunter gatherers that they had a much healthier gut biota which supports our immune system.
They ate plants grown in forest litter, full of minerals, organic material and soil creatures.
This microscopic biology would enter the plant roots, and our ancestors would eat the plants which were natural pre and pro-biotics.
Not so smart
Protected by real advances in medical science we forgot the lessons of the past and changed our diet and started to eat 'plastic' food, very clean and hygienic, but lacking this essential beneficial biology and minerals so we become more susceptible to diseases - not so smart.
We remembered
This led to the modern day development of Gbiota™ beds (Gut Biota) which work on exactly the same principles that allowed our ancestors to flourish in hazardous conditions - but using modern technology.
We replace forest litter with the organic waste, particularly food waste which often ends up in landfill creating green house gases. We add the essential minerals, biological inoculants and worms to grow plants which are natural pre and pro biotics to ensure we have the beneficial gut biology and trace minerals essential for health.
Professional Gbiota growers can supply ready to eat plants but can also supply Gbiota boxes, with plants already growing so people can easily grow their own GBiota food using their own organic waste at minimal cost.
The hardware for the box is simple, just make a hole add the fittings and connect a length of Ag pipe. See video How to grow food for a strong immune system
Forward introduction-to-gbiota
Backward immune
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Immune
Delta
updateAug21
Anthropocene
Food the challenge of our time
 What should I eat so I am fit and healthy - what can eight billion people eat so they are fit and healthy - what will my great grand kids be able to eat so they are fit and healthy?
 Today I want to talk about the who, how and why of answering these questions. We may think that the digital revolution is the epicentre of technical innovations but the food industry has seen a similar level of innovation.
 Innovation has brought great benefits to our society but just because something is new does not automatically mean that it is good. Is the atomic bomb and land mines which blow peoples legs of years after the conflict has finished good? Is food that makes us feel hungry so we end up fat and sick good?
We must learn to manage innovations so it works for the benefit of the community. If you read ‘My Story’ you will see my life has been one of innovations so I will give a few basic rules for successful innovation and how these can lead to innovations which will provide the billions of people that will inhabit the earth with food that will make them healthy.
The Anthropocene
We entered the Anthropocene on the 6th August 1945 the date of the first atomic bomb. It was then clear we had the means to destroy all human life on earth. That was almost eighty years ago - how come we are still here? The answer is information and understanding that information. The man behind the red button clearly understood that pressing the button would be the end humanity - so we are still here.
Now we face much slower and more insidious threats. Is global warming a threat? If coal and oil had never be discovered we would still have an advanced civilisation but running on the enormous power from the sun - in one hour there is enough energy falling on the earth to meet all our power requirements for the next year. We would simply have developed the technology to harness that power.
The why haven’t we? Because of the manipulation of information which is the real threat we face. And the biggest threat we face is from manipulation of information about food. We are destroying our soils, we are making ourselves fat and sick from a poor diet.
Deaths from Covid
Let me just give one simple but dramatic example. There are numerous studies by qualified researchers that show that the people who die from Covid are either on a poor diet or subject to stress (which releases Cortisol which shuts down the immune system).
Virtually all the people that die from Covid have a weakened immune system from poor diet or stress.
Just think how different the world would be if people did not die from Covid.
We know that diet affects the immune system so it would seem reasonable that Governments around the world would be having programs to improve the populations immune strength. Yet they are not and why? Because of the flow of information.
The biggest threat that humanity faces is from poor food - yet we are fully capable of growing all the food we need to feed the global population - food that will keep them healthy.
We have the technology - the danger comes from the manipulation and control of information. That is what I want to talk about here.
Let me tell you the story of food.
Once upon a time
 Let me tell you a story, sorry no magic fairies just goodies and baddies and Pre humans.
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, a couple of millions years, there were creatures that lived in the forests that were to evolve into the most successful and dominant creature on earth. We can call them pre-humans. They were forest dwellers.
For some two million years pre-humans were tree dwellers eating plants grown in highly biologically active soil so we evolved our gut brain.
Forest floor
 The forest flood was covered with dead and dying things that were once growing, plants and animals and their poop and dead bodies - probably the most biologically active area on earth. And the forest floor was just nicely moist not too wet and not to dry so living in abundance on this forest floor litter were minute creatures we now call micro biology - millions of species.
Some were simply bad and would infect these pre-humans and they would die - others turned out to be particularly good for these pre-humans - in fact without them there would be no modern humans.
Forest litter rich in biology
Plants would grow in this forest litter and these plants would be full of micro-biology which the pre humans would digest when they ate the plants.
These micro-organisms began to breed inside these pre-humans - it was nice and warm with a plentiful supply of food. Now a very remarkable thing happened. Very lucky because had it not happened you would not be here to read this post.
Every one of these micro-organism or cells began to communicate with its neighbours and although each cell was not particularly smart there were trillions of them so together they formed a brain with true intelligence, and then they began to communicate with the pre-humans brain by a combination of electric (nervous) and chemical signals. We now call this the gut brain connection and is just totally essential for these creatures (and us) to survive.
Our gut brain -benefits
 
This was extremely fortunate as this gut brain did some extremely important jobs, it told the pre humans when they needed food, it made them hungry and needed to eat and when they had eaten enough it told them they were full and should stop eating.
This was particularly important as they lived in the branches of the trees and were safe from the ferocious creatures below. The pre-humans that did not have this intelligent gut would overeat and get fat and fall out of the trees and be eaten by the ferocious creatures below.
The nasty side of evolution
 It is a bit difficult to breed inside a ferocious monster and evolution is all about breeding so the pre-humans without a smart gut brain simply became extinct.
But the gut brain did yet more - as their body parts wore out the gut brain would send signals and often produce the chemicals needed to replace these parts.
This relationship between the micro biology and the pre humans was very beneficial for both and went on for some two million years and became the norm. The pre-humans could not exist with the micro biology and the micro biology in our gut needed the pre-humans.
Good bugs and bad bugs
 This was all good but as we all know in life good things often have a bad side and the bad side was the harmful micro biology - often this was in the food that the pre-humans were eating, there were no bottles of hand disinfectant swinging in the branches of the trees, but the beneficial micro biology worked together to defeat the harmful micro biology.
For a start the beneficial biology would simply out compete the harmful biology so they had no food and simply died out.
But the good biology and the pre humans developed a very effective system to fight off the harmful micro biology - our immune system - the beneficial biology in our gut housed, fed and trained the immune system. Still a tough battle but enough of the pre-humans survived the attacks by the harmful microbes to survive and prosper for some couple of million years.
Micro organisms
 Good mircro-organisms would end up in the gut of these pre-humans where in the nice warm surrounding they would breed forming a colony. Some of these micro-organisms would be good and others bad.
Both the good and bad organisms would breed inside the gut competing for food and space. If the bad organism won the pre-humans would end up sick or dead. If the good organisms won the pre-humans would survive and breed and lead to us - modern humans.
Who won depended on the conditions inside the gut - if these pre-humans ate the sort of food that favoured the good organisms the goodies would win if they ate the sort of food that favoured the bad organism then the baddies would win and those pre-human would die and not breed so they would become extinct.
The good organisms and these pre-humans formed a relationship in which both flourished - what we now call synergy. The pre-humans would provide the micro-organisms with food and a nice warm place to breed while the organisms would provide the pre-humans with services they could not live without.
The importance of gut biology
Gut Micro-biology is essential for our health. There are trillions of cells made up from thousands of species. But this is much more than trillions of dumb cells - they communicate with each other and our head brain to form an intelligent control system to manage our bodies to do some very important jobs.
Our gut brain does three very important jobs,
- it control our appetite so we have enough food without overeating and getting fat and sick
- it manufactures the complex chemicals we need to replace our body parts as they age
- it hosts much of our immune system so protect us from pandemics
Modern soils in chemical industrial agriculture lack this essential biology and nutrients. Many of the chemicals used are claimed not to harm us but they certainly harm the soil biology on which our lives and future generations depend.
Our friendly gut bugs - what they do
They would digest the food that these pre-humans could not digest themselves - they would make chemicals - we now call hormones which would tell these pre-humans they were hungry or full so they did not starve or overeat and get fat and sick - they would make complex chemicals which was need to replace the pre-humans bits as they wore out and they would support the pre-humans immune system so they could fight off any bad micro-organisms that happen to come by.
Climate change (this time natural)
Hunter gathers
 But then something truly bad happened. The climate changed, this time due to natural causes, but the results were disastrous for the pre-humans as the trees which had provided protection simply died out and they were left in open land - easy prey for the ferocious beasts.
When the trees disappeared and we became hunter gathers, we learned the benefits of technology and cooperation. We developed technology for hunting and started to eat meat and cook.
But much of our diet was still based on plants so we maintained a healthy gut to fight off local infections and we lived in small groups so large scale infections simply could not happen - they were disabled.
Bad as it may have seemed this led to the creation of modern humans some two hundred thousand years ago who made two very important discoveries.
Forming cooperative groups and developing technology (sort of)
The first is now absolutely built into human nature, as they say it is in our DNA and that is forming groups and cooperating together. One human is an easy meal for a ferocious beast. A group would have been a feast except for one reason - we developed a technology.
This technology may seem totally insignificant with modern technology but had these humans not developed this laughably simple technology then none of us would be here today.
The key to our success - technology and cooperation
 And that technology is that we learned to throw stones at the ferocious beasts - and the barrage of stones hurt so the ferocious beasts decided it was better to chase a few antelopes which could run much faster but had not developed the technology of throwing stones.
Humans continued to develop technologies typically with beneficial result but sometimes disastrous.
Agriculture
 Then we developed agriculture which enabled the population to significantly increase. But there were side effects. We created the city which made us much more prone to infectious epidemics which killed large numbers of people.
We also had no understanding of soil biology so we destroyed our agricultural soils. This led to a pattern throughout the world of civilisation developing in an area and thriving for several hundred years then when the soil was no longer productive the civilisation either collapsed and was overtaken by fresh civilisations or they simply moved on to a new area with fresh soil.
But despite these problems we were still eating food grown in biologically active soil so although we were under attack from infections with many deaths overall the population expanded and at an ever increasing rate.
Cause and enabling black death
One of particular relevance to today epidemic is the black death. This teaches us a very valuable lessen for today, the difference between cause and enabling and the power of dis-enabling.
Scientist estimate that the black death had been around for some two thousand years without killing that many people then in 1,300ad it spread like wild fire and in some areas killed half the population.
There is no way the black death was caused by some new technology developed by humans - but its spread was enabled by a human technology.
The new technology was a quantum jump in the improvement of boats. These boats were now sailing around the known world unknowingly carrying rats and their fleas which were the real carriers.
At first humans had no idea what caused or how to fight the black death but they did develop quarantine which slowed the spread and allowed time for the development of better weapons. Quarantine is a dis-enabling technology we still try and use today.
Another very simple dis-enabling technology was the adoption of the bed raised above the floor, so people no longer slept on the floor which created a barrier to infection. Hygiene was also improved. All these use the process of dis-enabling - they don’t cure the disease but they are effective.
The next great plague was cholera some five hundred years later in the 1800’s. Like the black death there was no immediate medical solution and is was initially solved by the process of dis-enabling. This time initially by a very smart guy called John Swan who at first simple removed the handle from a contaminated pump.
But it did lead to the major engineering works of the London sewage system, still one of the engineering masterpieces in history.
In both of these cases the immediate solution was dis-enabling and later more sophisticated solution were developed.
The modern age
Then we entered the age with modern agriculture particularly the development of synthetic fertilisers and improve genetics.
Food production increased at a staggering rate and population with it. In a period of eighty years the population increase by a factor of 3.4.
Such an increase in population is completely unprecedented and we really have no idea of the implications - other than we are right bang in the middle of the Anthropocene with multiple threats from nuclear war, climate change, epidemics which has enabled our modern life style and the one that may be even the most important - how we feed ourselves.
The plastic age
The happy relationship between micro-biology and modern humans lasted up until about fifty years ago. Then modern humans entered what I call the plastics age - not because we started to eat plastics but because plastics are clean and inert and we started to eat food that was clean and inert, devoid of life and often wrapped in plastic.
It was cheap, convenient and tasted good but we never really felt satisfied, or more accurately our gut biology was not satisfied, so it sent out signals for us to eat more
And that was not good for us humans, we became fat and sick and prone to infections but it was a disaster for these beneficial organisms which had been our friends and looked after us for millions of years.
But humans have survived through many catastrophes by our ability to innovate.
The technology explosion
Modern humans have been developing new technologies at an exponentially increasing rate, the development of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence and DNA sequencing would have been unthinkable just a few decades ago.
In just a few hundred years we have progressed from a hand made cottage industry to modern manufacturing with mass production, the steam engine, the car and aeroplane.
Then on the 16th July 1945 there was the demonstration of a new technology which meant humans had entered the Anthropocene, the era where our technology had reached the level were we could destroy all human life on the planet. I am of course talking about the Atomic bomb which should make every living person stop and think about how we manage this mastery of technology we have acquired.
When we look back over the history of innovation and technology we see a distinct pattern.
Motive for innovation, power, money and sometimes humanitarian
Some technology is developed purely for humanitarian reasons - to make the earth a better place to live in - but sad to say much of the technology is developed either for power or money.
 Genkis Kahn must be the one of the great examples of technology giving power. His technologies of the stirrup and the reversed bow gave him a technological superiority in battle which made him virtually invincible. He could easily have conquered the entire region from the shores of the Atlantic to the shores of the Pacific.
But for some unknown reason he turned his troops around as he was riding into Europe defeating all his enemies and went back home. Who knows why? May be he just missed his girl friend.
But many technologies are now developed for money, and there is a distinct pattern. The technologies benefits a significant number of users who are willing to pay more for the perceived benefits of the new technology and so generates large amounts of money.
That’s good
But typically new technology creates a neo-monopoly. It may not be a legal monopoly but more like a mateopoly where are few individuals or corporation together control the technology and create simply amazing wealth (for themselves).
That’s good for them - but no one else.
And on the other side are people who are severely disadvantaged by the new technology, often loosing their job and livelihood and having the value of their assets destroyed.
That is not good.
This is nothing new - this has been the pattern of innovation throughout history - what makes it all so different is that we are now in the Anthropocene, we now have the technological capacity to destroy life on our planet.
It could be the atom bomb, it could be global warming with its floods and droughts but it could be and is most likely to be something as simple as food.
The process of successful innovation
Understand the problem
We must really understand the problem - or else we will end up on the wrong road with a clever but useless gizmo. With food people say we have a problem in feeding the eight billion people on earth. That is not true - we are already producing enough food to feed thirteen billion people - it it just the wrong sort of food.
Paradigm busting
We must be prepared for a bit of paradigm bashing. The old paradigm to loose weight - eat less exercise more - simply does not work.
Silo hopping
Dump the silo - experts live in their silos with a high degree of expertise in a narrow discipline - this is breeding ground for paradigms. We need to go Silo hopping, throw in a bit of ecology, evolution, psychology.
Manage ignorance
Science may not be the driver of innovation - there is a saying that science is the art of truth - engineering is the art of ignorance. Many of the great advances have been made by making something that is useful and works by managing to overcome ignorance. Then once that advance is shown to be important science has developed the basic understanding which leads to substantial improvements in the technology.
The steam engines was developed and proved to be usefull - then science, particularly Carnot, developed the thoery of thermodynamics. The steam engines was not developed because Carnot developed the theory of thermodynamics.
Simplest solution that works
Aim for the simplest solution that works, we live in an era of unrivalled complexity which means good ideas often fail from fragility and poor ergonomics.
Distributing the benefits
Innovations should lead to benefits for the community at large. People who innovate or manage innovation must consider how those benefits are distributed - do they benefit society as a whole, or do they just make a few people very rich and harm other people, even if it is just a loss of jobs and income. These are factors which must be considered and planned for.
Innovation - the plan
We live in an era with unprecedented levels of sophistication. There are major investments in very sophisticated food technology like creating artificial meat using genetic engineering. But where do the basic raw materials come from, are they sustainable, will they just be available for the rich people leaving the poor people starving and can they really feed the expected ten billion people?
Would it be cynical to think that such ultra sophisticated technologies are being developed by the ultra rich so in the event of some food crisis they would have access to food but this would be of little benefit to the bulk of the population.
Rethinking technology
We are already supporting some eight billion people from food that comes from the sun and the soil, actually we are producing enough food to feed the anticipated growth in population for many years to come - we simply waste an enormous quantity of food which is not good for our health.
Can we do that better?
The basic of the Gbiota system
The simple fact is that for a couple millions years our pre-humans ancestors were happily and successfully living on plants grown in highly biologically active nutrient rich soil and had an immune system strong enough to defend them from the harmful biology.
Then fifty years ago we switched to a very different agricultural system which destroyed the soil biology.
How smart was that and can we re-trace our steps to a growing system based on an active soil biology which stood us humans in good stead for all those years?
That is the basis of the Gbiota system.
It is so simple that it hardly seems reasonable to call this an innovation.
But let’s go through the logic. For two million years we survived and created a beneficial gut biology by eating plants grown in the moist, biologically active, nutrient rich forest litter.
We simply cannot repeat that process because we have chopped down most of the trees and there are simply too many of us.
Mimicking the forest floor
But we can mimic the conditions of the forest floor. We produce an incredible amount of organic waste which often ends up in land fill creating green house gasses.
We keep animals which produce an awful lot of poop and we ourselves are animals making yet more. This may be full of pathogens which have the potential to kill us but we have the technology to manage the eco-system so the good bugs can out compete the bad bugs.
We also need minerals but these are readily available in volcanic rocks dust. Not everyone has their own private volcano but they typically will live near a quarry where the rock dust is a by product.
We also need beneficial biology ranging from the micro-biology to worms but they are very happy to breed up from an initial inoculant.
All the needed raw materials are readily available as waste, at low cost, just needing minimal re-processing to turn them into a valuable resource.
Gbiota beds are simple - breeding beneficial biology in organic waste, this beneficial biology will enter the roots of the plants and when we eat the plants the biology, neatly wrapped inside the plants enter our gut biota.
This is really a very simple technology, people living in apartments can have their own Gbiota Bioxes and recycle all their food waste themselves.
There are many local farmers who can provide these Bioboxes and plants at economic prices to their local community.
The details of how to set up and manage Gbiota beds are on my web site under the Creative Commons system.
The information age
So what could possibly go wrong? We live in the information age, the internet is one of the top innovations of our era so surely who would expect there to be any issue in educating people about eating plants to enhance their gut biota and improving their health. Particularly as we are in the middle of a pandemic where a healthy gut biology and immune system could be the difference between living and dying.
Yet this abundance of information is the very source of the problem.
There is simply so much information out there - some of it perfectly valid and other just bogus information - it is simply impossible to review it all and work out what is genuine and what is fake.
Of course we do have mega corporation who are anxious to help us find the right information that they think we may like - for free. Unfortunately not the information that is necessarily correct but what we want to hear. This is not done by humans with real intelligence but by machines operating according to how they are programmed with no real intelligence.
Data manipulation
 How do I know? My interest is in gut biology and where does that come from initially? - from our mothers at birth and later from her milk. So I research this then get bombarded with advertisement and information appropriate for a pregnant lady.
How do I know it is a machine - any human with a scrap of real thinking capacity would think that an 82 year old male is unlikely to be pregnant.
The companies that provide these so called free service are making billions of dollars from providing this information to their advertisers and the food industry is one of the largest advertising budgets running into multi billions of dollars.
We live in a world of highly filtered information. The system promotes food which will earn money while information saying that gut health can be improved by eating plants grown in organic waste is filtered out as there is no money in such a simple idea.
The real world test
How do we resolve this issue? It is so simple - just get a few people to do a real world test. Anyone can set up a Gbiota bed, or find a grower who is willing to set one up. Eat Gbiota food for about three weeks and see how your food cravings change. It is not simply that you will eat less - you will want to eat less.
If you want to be more specific you can have your gut biota tested. As everyone's gut biota is unique this need to be done before and after changing your diet.
You can do this locally or you may be able to cooperate as part of the human gut project.
Human gut project
 You can contact Rob Knight, Professor professor at the University of California, San Diego and the co-founder of the American Gut Project.
Then they can tell your friends and get them to run the test and tell their friends. No need for expensive advertising which no one believe any way - just the good old fashioned way of people talking to each other and sharing real life experiences.
Just make sure you are well stocked with toilet paper before running these trials.
Regenerative growers
There are plenty of far sighted growers who see the importance of soil and are already involved in regenerative practices. They would be perfectly willing to set up Gbiota beds but they have Utes to mend, money for their kids school excursions and the general costs of living.
They may be willing to invest the time and money in setting up GBiota beds and supplying Bioboxes but first they need to see there is a demand and it is economically viable.
So before approaching these growers we need to establish local gut food communities.
Local gut food communities
It just takes one person to start a local food community - but what sort of person?
Sadly we live in a world which is dominated on one side of the political spectrum by a belief that the profit motive and the power of the market will solve all the worlds problems and on the other autocratic regimes whose primary interest is their power.
They are both living in cloud cuckoo land, neither a lust for money or power are going to solve the problems of the Anthropocene. These problems will only be solved by people who believe in a third system which was pioneered years by Abraham Lincoln with his immortal phrase 'bad thing happen when good men stand by and do nothing'.
Valid years ago, still valid with the addition of 'good women'.
Of course they need to receive adequate financial rewards but the prime motivation must be to solve the problem of the Anthropocene for themselves, their grand kids and their grand kids.
That is the approach that will ensure that humanity not just survives but thrives and prospers into the future.
Information - bogus and clutter
We live in the information age so it may seem axiomatic that the internet would provide the perfect medium for getting the message out.
That simply is not true - there is so much information that our brains are cluttered with information, typically for profit, often bogus and sometimes malicious.
Simply creating posts on the internet is not a solution - the internet has a critical role to play but as a mechanics for transferring information - not as the primary motivator.
There was a time when people actually spoke to each other and although it has gone out of fashion it worked remarkably well. I remember it with nostagia. It worked as a motivator and a source of credibility. It is no wonder we have the rise of the influencers - people want contact with real people.
But nothing beats the internet as a means for the bulk transfer of information.
Just one person can start the process - they contact their friends and guide them to the mass of information on the web. Armed with this information a new tier of people can keep the boulder rolling by contacting their friends and contacts (real of virtual) and soon we have a social movement.
But just having a group of motivated people is still not enough.
The group needs coordinating so it operates as a group and that is where the community section of the web comes into play. People can join or form a local group and communicate with each other to implement a plan.
Part of that plan if for one of more group members to make contact with regenerative local growers in their area who are prepared to set up Gbiota beds and supply either fresh plants or Gbiota Bioboxes with growing plants.
This is not - and for survival - should be a charity, even though the motives may be to benefit the community. For long term survival this must be economically viable with all people, not just the growers but the group organisers receiving a fair financial return for their efforts.
Generation of revenue is easily be achieved by the system of membership fees for growers and admin fees on the multi vendor web site, and transport and distribution fees - which are already in place.
How these funds are distributed should be left to the local groups to decide.
The immediate action is for people to join the community section of the web and then either join an existing group or from their own group.
Each local group takes the decision on how their group is run. This is why I call this the third force - not dominated by the desire for profits or power but a group motivated by Lincoln's saying "bad things happen when good men and women stand buy and do nothing". That is the how society will thrive and prosper into the Anthropocene age.